The Symbolic Lives of Late Anglo-Saxon Settlements: A Cellared Structure and Iron Hoard from Bishopstone, East Sussex

Abstract

This paper examines the character and significance of a cellared structure discovered during recent excava tions on the site of a later Anglo-Saxon settlement at Bishopstone, East Sussex. The structure in question formed a focal element within an estate centre complex administered by the Bishops of Selsey from c. AD 800, otherwise surviving in the celebrated pre-Conquest fabric of St Andrew's parish church. The excavated footprint of this cellared structure is examined in detail and conjectural reconstructions are advanced on the basis of comparative evidence garnered from historical and archaeological sources. The collective weight of evidence points towards a tower, pos sibly free-standing, with integrated storage/cellarage accommodated within a substantial, 2 mdeep subterranean chamber. This could represent a timber counterpart to excavated and extant masonry towers with thegnly/episcopal associations. The afterlife of this structure is also considered in detail on the grounds that it provides one of the most compelling cases yet identified of an act of ritual closure on a Late Anglo-Saxon settlement. Alongside being dismantled and infil led in a single, short-lived episode, the abandonment of the tower was marked by the careful and deliberate placement of a closure deposit in the form of a smith's hoard containing iron tools, agri cultural equipment and lock furniture. One of the few such caches to be excavated under controlled scientific conditions, it is argued that the contents were deliberately selected to make a symbolic statement, perhaps evoking the functions of a well-run estate centre.

Technology, ritual and Anglo-Saxon agriculture: the biography of a plough coulter from Lyminge, Kent

“…For this reason, such collections have frequently been interpreted as concealed caches of smith's tools or scrap metal (Leahy 2003: 169–71). More recently, interpretation of these hoards has taken an increasingly nuanced turn, taking into account the fact that many have been recovered either from watery environments characterising much earlier traditions of ritual deposition, or from settlement contexts associated with the closure of significant buildings (Thomas 2008; Lund 2010; Leahy 2013). These contextual associations support the theory that the collections concerned were invested with symbolic meanings linked to the widespread mythologisation of the smith in early medieval societies (e.g.…”

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“…In comparable fashion to the contemporary deposit at Borg, the Bishopstone objects were carefully placed within a posthole at the base of the building, which was in all likelihood a cellared, freestanding tower. 92 Bishopstone is not an isolated example; a late-Saxon iron hoard is perhaps related to structures at the poorly-understood site at Crayke, North Yorkshire, and at the contemporary settlement of Springfield Lyons, Essex, iron objects were found within a wooden tower. 93 Although not securely associated with contemporary buildings, similar assemblages have also been identified at Asby Winderwath in Cumbria and at Flixborough, Lincolnshire, where a deposit of twelve carpenters' tools was found together with a bell and two cultivation objects.…”

What's So Special? A Reinterpretation of Anglo-Saxon 'Special Deposits'

“…Similarly, at 46 Abbots Worthy (Hampshire) and Yarnton (Oxfordshire), pits also contained little 'waste'. As with grubenhäuser, there is a mixture of depositional processes behind 47 the filling of pits (Tab 3). While some contain secondary deposits, others contain mixtures of secondary and tertiary materials in varying proportions.…”