The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca
The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca
The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca
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• 190 • Catherine Hills<br />
grave appears to have become the<br />
focus <strong>of</strong> a shrine, later incorporated<br />
into a small building and<br />
subsequently, when the<br />
Northumbrians took over this<br />
region in the early eighth century,<br />
into a church. Other small,<br />
rectangular buildings were arranged<br />
in parallel rows. Similar buildings<br />
were found at Hartlepool and<br />
thought to be associated with<br />
Abbess Hild. <strong>The</strong> best known <strong>of</strong><br />
early <strong>An</strong>glo-Saxon monasteries is<br />
Bede’s Jarrow (Cramp 1981), where<br />
ex<strong>ca</strong>vations showed long, narrow,<br />
rectangular buildings arranged in<br />
something that approximates to a<br />
cloister. Similar features were seen<br />
at the sister monastery at nearby<br />
Monkwearmouth.<br />
Other sites are less securely<br />
identified. Features that might be<br />
thought to rule out monasticism<br />
Figure 10.7 Model <strong>of</strong> the <strong>An</strong>glo-Saxon monastery <strong>of</strong> St Paul, Jarrow, in the need not necessarily have done so.<br />
early eighth century. <strong>The</strong> appearance <strong>of</strong> the monastery is based on the results Cemeteries with men, women and<br />
<strong>of</strong> ex<strong>ca</strong>vation.<br />
children could be explained as<br />
Source: South Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council<br />
belonging to double houses, with<br />
both monks and nuns, and very young oblates or schoolchildren, and the graves <strong>of</strong> the sick, <strong>ca</strong>red<br />
for in the monastery. <strong>An</strong>imal bones, evidence <strong>of</strong> meat eating, might reflect a less than complete<br />
observance <strong>of</strong> dietary rules. At Brandon in Suffolk, a settlement <strong>of</strong> Middle Saxon date consisted<br />
<strong>of</strong> rectangular buildings, one associated with burials and interpreted as a church. Finds included<br />
imported pottery, ornamented pins, precious metal, and glass, both <strong>from</strong> vessels and windows.<br />
Flixborough in Lincolnshire also produced rectangular buildings, possibly including a church,<br />
burials, and a range <strong>of</strong> similar artefacts as well as a great quantity <strong>of</strong> animal bones. This is all<br />
consistent with secular high status. Both these sites have also produced evidence for literacy,<br />
which is normally associated with the church, in the form <strong>of</strong> writing implements, styli, and also<br />
an inscribed lead plaque and ring at Flixborough and a gold plaque, probably <strong>from</strong> a book cover,<br />
with the symbol <strong>of</strong> St John at Brandon.<br />
It is in manuscript art that we <strong>ca</strong>n see most clearly the great achievement <strong>of</strong> the early Church<br />
in <strong>Britain</strong> in the fusion <strong>of</strong> three traditions: Mediterranean, Germanic and Celtic. <strong>The</strong> illuminated<br />
pages <strong>of</strong> the Lindisfarne Gospels or the Book <strong>of</strong> Durrow show a dynamic combination <strong>of</strong><br />
Classi<strong>ca</strong>l figures, Germanic interlaced animals and Celtic patterns. <strong>The</strong> skills that had previously<br />
been devoted to the creation <strong>of</strong> jewellery were now deployed in the service <strong>of</strong> the Church (Wilson<br />
1984). This art <strong>ca</strong>nnot be attributed to any one <strong>of</strong> the peoples <strong>of</strong> <strong>Britain</strong>: it is neither <strong>An</strong>glo-<br />
Saxon nor Celtic, and is <strong>of</strong>ten <strong>ca</strong>lled ‘Hiberno-Saxon’, although that name does not allow for a<br />
Pictish contribution. <strong>The</strong> mobility <strong>of</strong> missionaries and craftsmen allowed the transmission <strong>of</strong><br />
ideas <strong>from</strong> one secular or religious centre to another, so that it is <strong>of</strong>ten difficult to decide exactly<br />
where any one manuscript or artefact was created. <strong>The</strong> Lindisfarne Gospels are lo<strong>ca</strong>ted by a