Settlement and Monasticism at Ripon, North Yorkshire, From the 7th to 11th Centuries A.D.

Hall, Richard; Whyman, M. R.; Fellows-Jensen, Gillian; Langston, Joy; MacGregor, Arthur; Mortimer, Catherine; Ottaway, Patrick; Paterson, Erica; Price, Jennifer; Rogers, Nicola; Tweddle, Dominic; Watson, Jacqui

doi:10.1080/00766097.1996.11735599

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…In the latest phase of use, dating perhaps to the ninth or tenth century, there were a series of distinctive burials, including a multiple burial of three adult males, three other male burials on diverse alignments and the burial of a young adult male with a pronounced distortion of the lower vertebral column, buried with his head to the east, in contrast to the west–east alignments normal in this period. The excavators suggest that by the tenth century the cemetery was the burial place of the socially excluded (Hall and Whyman 1996, 124), and these burials certainly betray some of the characteristics of execution cemeteries, even if we cannot certainly identify execution. Yet, even if this was an execution cemetery, this provision at Ripon was unlike the pattern found further south as the individuals were seemingly buried outside the confines of the churchyard, but were, nonetheless, still buried within the general vicinity of the rest of the Christian populace, and were not banished to the boundaries of the parish.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Anglo‐saxon Execution Cemetery at Walkington Wold, Yorkshire

Buckberry

Hadley

2007

Oxford J Archaeology

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This paper offers a new perspective on a previously insecurely dated Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Walkington Wold in east Yorkshire (Fig. 1). The results of excavations at the site were published in 1973, but more recent examination of the skeletal material, including the acquisition of radiocarbon dates, casts new light on the cemetery and its significance. Rather than being of late Roman or early post-Roman date, as has been previously suggested, it can now be demonstrated that the cemetery includes a series of burials of mid-and later Anglo-Saxon date. The cemetery consists of a number of decapitated individuals but, contrary to earlier speculation, it is unlikely to represent a massacre, and is more plausibly interpreted as an Anglo-Saxon execution cemetery, used periodically over perhaps as much as a couple of hundred years. the excavationsBetween 1967 and 1969 two Bronze Age barrows at Walkington Wold were excavated by J.E. Bartlett and R.W. Mackey on behalf of the East Riding Archaeological Society (Bartlett and Mackey 1973). During these excavations 12 burials were discovered cut into the southern part of Barrow 1 (Fig. 2), which was located 36 m to the south-west of Barrow 2. The orientation of the burials was apparently random, and the methods of disposal varied. There were eight extended supine burials and four flexed burials, at least two individuals were interred in shallow graves while three were buried together in the same grave (Bartlett and Mackey 1973, 25). Among these burials, there were two complete inhumations, and a further ten inhumations containing individuals without crania, interpreted as decapitations. Eleven disarticulated crania, OXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY 26(3) 309-329 2007

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Anglo‐saxon Execution Cemetery at Walkington Wold, Yorkshire

Buckberry

Hadley

2007

Oxford J Archaeology

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“…Cases of burials in domestic chests with iron fittings occurred in Anglo‐Saxon England but were exclusively for adults (Craig‐Atkins, 2014, p. 107; Hadley, 2001, pp. 99–100; Hall & Whyman, 1996). In comparison, ‘woven basket’ burials containing infants are rare but contemporary with the Poulton example.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Blood is thicker than baptismal water: A late medieval perinatal burial in a small household chest

Cootes

Thomas²,

Jordan

et al. 2021

Intl J of Osteoarchaeology

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The interment of stillborn infants in later medieval burial grounds stands at odds with Catholic Church Law, which forbade the inclusion of unbaptised children within consecrated ground. When perinatal remains occur within graveyards, their interpretation can be problematic. Did they live to be baptised, or do such examples represent clandestine burials? Historical documents indicate that some parents disobeyed the Church and secretly buried their offspring within consecrated ground. Proving such actions in the archaeological record, however, is another matter. This paper therefore investigates the discovery of a perinatal burial (Sk953) within a rural graveyard at Poulton in Cheshire, England, placed in a small household box. A multifaceted approach was used to interpret the varying strands of evidence. These comprised church law, the birth, container, orientation of the corpse, local topography, date of burial, and status of the graveyard when the infant was interred. The authors interpret the evidence as characteristic of a clandestine burial, and a rare expression of grief and love visible in the archaeological record.

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“…No chests from funerary contexts survive in a complete state of preservation; however, assessment of small quantities of mineralized wood and the metric analysis of the metal fittings have revealed their dimensions and illuminated the process by which they were built. Evidence from Ailcy Hill, Ripon (North Yorkshire), York Minster, Wearmouth (Tyne and Wear) and Whithorn (Dumfries and Galloway) (Kjølbye‐Biddle 1995; Hall and Whyman 1996, 84–93; Nicholson 1997, 413; Clogg 2005, 293–5) suggests that the main body of chests comprised oak planks of c .15–30 mm in thickness and that they were of peg and dowel construction, with sporadically placed nails used only for reinforcement. Nails were also rare at The Castle, Newcastle‐upon‐Tyne (Tyne and Wear), where skeleton 644 was interred in a chest with only two nails, which was ‘clearly not nailed together’ (Ottaway 2010, 274).…”

Section: Chest Burials: Character and Formmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In contrast, evidence for repairs made to chests provides more conclusive evidence that they were not initially constructed for use in funerary practices. At Ailcy Hill one chest had an unusual concentration of nails at the western end, which may indicate an extensive repair (Hall and Whyman 1996, 93). At Thwing a similar concentration of nails suggests repair at the eastern end of the chest in grave 6.…”

Section: Interpretation Of the Chest Burial Ritementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Among the case‐study sites, the evidence from Ailcy Hill, Ripon has certainly contributed to the association between chests and ecclesiastical contexts. Bede records the presence of two successive religious foundations in Ripon, the first following Celtic doctrine and the second under St Wilfred, established c .AD 670 (HE iii, 25; v, 19, Colgrave and Mynors 1969), and the burials from phase 2 on Ailcy Hill, of which nine out of ten are male, have been identified as the monks of the mid‐seventh‐century institution (Hall and Whyman 1996, 120). However, amongst the sample considered in this study, high proportions of chests were also found at Thwing and Spofforth, and neither can be associated with any monastic context.…”

Section: Chest Burials and Monasticismmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Chest Burial: A Middle Anglo‐saxon Funerary Rite From Northern England

Craig-Atkins¹

2012

Oxford J Archaeology

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Summary Chest burials, in which the body is interred in a wooden chest with a hinged lid, are one of the most characteristic funerary practices of the middle Anglo‐Saxon period in northern England. The majority are dated to between the seventh and ninth centuries, and are found at 19 different sites located within the contemporary early medieval kingdom of Northumbria. The collation of a corpus of chest burials, and examination of their form, context and the identities of the individuals they were afforded to, have revealed that these interments seem to have been made in reused pieces of domestic furniture and provided to both sexes, but rarely afforded to infants or young children. The individuals buried in chests also shared an extremely physically active lifestyle and in some cases met a violent death, further distinguishing them from their contemporaries.

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Settlement and Monasticism at Ripon, North Yorkshire, From the 7th to 11th Centuries A.D.

Cited by 10 publications

References 14 publications

An Anglo‐saxon Execution Cemetery at Walkington Wold, Yorkshire

An Anglo‐saxon Execution Cemetery at Walkington Wold, Yorkshire

Blood is thicker than baptismal water: A late medieval perinatal burial in a small household chest

Chest Burial: A Middle Anglo‐saxon Funerary Rite From Northern England

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