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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<strong>The</strong> S<strong>ca</strong>ndinavian presence<br />
• 201 •<br />
shrines. <strong>The</strong>ir distribution is<br />
concentrated in northern England<br />
but with outliers in Scotland, Wales<br />
and Cornwall. <strong>The</strong> best collection is<br />
in the church at Brompton, North<br />
Yorkshire, but the largest group is at<br />
Lythe, North Yorkshire (Lang 1978).<br />
Settlement<br />
<strong>The</strong> stone monuments provide the<br />
best evidence for an influential<br />
S<strong>ca</strong>ndinavian presence in the British<br />
Isles. In the Danelaw, it is difficult<br />
to determine <strong>from</strong> ex<strong>ca</strong>vated rural<br />
sites if they were occupied by<br />
S<strong>ca</strong>ndinavians. <strong>The</strong> upland<br />
farmstead at Ribblehead is<br />
frequently advanced as a Viking site<br />
(Figure 11.4). It comprises the stone<br />
footings <strong>of</strong> a longhouse, bakery and<br />
smithy set in an enclosed farmyard<br />
with an associated field system. <strong>The</strong><br />
few artefacts recovered suggest a<br />
mixture <strong>of</strong> agricultural and simple<br />
craft activities. <strong>The</strong>y included an<br />
iron cow bell, a horse bit, a<br />
spearhead, two iron knives and a<br />
stone spindlewhorl. Lo<strong>ca</strong>l materials<br />
were used for most needs and the<br />
site was largely self-sufficient,<br />
although four Northumbrian<br />
Figure 11.4 Ribblehead, North Yorkshire: an artist’s reconstruction <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Viking Age farmstead.<br />
Source: Yorkshire Museum<br />
copper coins, or sty<strong>ca</strong>s, attest to links with the urban markets to the east (King 1978).<br />
At Doarlish Cashen, on the Isle <strong>of</strong> Man, a longhouse with wall benches was also discovered<br />
on marginal land at about 210 m above sea-level. Such settlements would undoubtedly have been<br />
familiar to Norse settlers but they are also standard upland building forms. In lowland England,<br />
it is becoming apparent that a number <strong>of</strong> villages were first established in the tenth century. At<br />
Furnells Manor, Raunds, Northamptonshire, a Middle Saxon settlement in a ditched enclosure<br />
was replaced by a large timber hall and an adjacent church in the early tenth century. At about the<br />
same time, the first regular tenements <strong>of</strong> peasant farmers were being laid out at Furnells and<br />
West Cotton in Northamptonshire and marked by ditched enclosures. At Goltho, an early ninthcentury<br />
village was superseded by a fortified earthwork enclosing a bow-sided hall, a kitchen and<br />
weaving sheds. <strong>The</strong> manorial complex may have been founded by a member <strong>of</strong> the Saxon<br />
aristocracy, although the discovery <strong>of</strong> a S<strong>ca</strong>ndinavian style bridle bit could be used to suggest<br />
that it was a late ninth-century Viking foundation. Bow-sided halls are associated particularly<br />
with Viking Age Denmark, and are also found in most <strong>of</strong> the areas settled by S<strong>ca</strong>ndinavians. At<br />
Goltho, there was evidence that the hall, 24 m long by 6 m wide at the centre, was divided into<br />
three rooms, with a raised dais at one end and a cobbled hearth in the centre. During the late<br />
tenth and early eleventh centuries, the site underwent considerable expansion. <strong>The</strong> hall was replaced