The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca

• 206 • Julian D.Richards
available. Although there is little change in the staple meat species, there is a marked increase in
those species identified as suitable for raising in backyards, such as pigs, geese and fowl. The fish
bones show intensive exploitation of the river; plant remains, including moss, elder, blackberry,
raspberry and sloe, reflect exploitation of local woodland resources. By the late tenth century, the
exploitation pattern now has more in common with that seen in medieval York. Whereas the
food supply of the Anglo-Saxon wic had been dependent upon a food rent system run by the
elite, the Viking Age traders and craftsmen had greater freedom of operation than their controlled
predecessors. Here we may see the emergence, therefore, of an independent mercantile urban
class whose livelihood was based upon trade and exchange rather than redistribution (O’Connor
1994).
Commercial trade would have been dependent upon the development of a monetary
economy. By the late tenth century, there were some 50–60 mints operating from burhs and
major towns throughout England. The Isle of Man too began producing its own distinctive
Hiberno-Manx coinage, although this may not have functioned as a full currency. The process
was much slower in Scotland, and Scottish hoards indicate that a monetary economy was not
operating in the fringes of the British Isles until much later. Scottish hoards, such as that from
Skaill, Orkney, contain not only imported silver coins but also hack-silver (i.e. fragments of
silver objects that have been chopped up to use simply as bullion) and ring-money (i.e. plain
silver arm rings, which were a convenient way of carrying measurable wealth). In England,
imported silver was converted into the official coinage. At each mint, a number of private
individuals, or moneyers, took responsibility for the coinage on behalf of royal authority. Whilst
coins carried the name of the ruler on their obverse, on the reverse the name of the moneyer
appeared. Chester, being the entry point from Dublin, became an important centre for coin
production, and 24 moneyers worked there from 924–39. Although not all those with
Scandinavian names may have been settlers, it is still significant that by the reign of Ethelred,
75 per cent of York’s moneyers, and 50 per cent of Lincoln’s, bore Scandinavian names (see
papers in Blackburn 1986).
The church
In the countryside, it seems that Scandinavian settlers presided over the fragmentation of
great estates, establishing manorial centres and accelerating the market in the buying and selling
of land. Alongside this we see a boom in the creation of rural parishes and parish churches,
notably in the tenth and early eleventh centuries. By the time of the Domesday Book, there
were demonstrably over 2,600 local churches (Morris 1989). This explosion in church
construction was a by-product of the quest for status of new landowners. The possession of a
church was an important status symbol, as well as a source of income. Most of the manorial
churches were new buildings, although some were adapted from existing minster or monastic
sites. Many probably began as wooden buildings, but most were soon transformed into impressive
stone buildings. The new churches generally started as simple, small, rectangular boxes to
provide a nave, although chancels were often added later. At Wharram Percy, North Yorkshire,
a small timber church was established in the tenth century, perhaps as a private chapel of an
Anglo-Scandinavian lord. This was enlarged in the eleventh century by a small, two-celled
church consisting of a nave and chancel. The church became a focus for burials of the early
lords of the Percy manor, and later of the parish (Beresford and Hurst 1990). At Raunds, a
small, rectangular, late ninth- or tenth-century church was erected on a stone foundation adjacent
to the manorial enclosure. In the eleventh century, this building was replaced by a larger church,
15m long, which by this time must have been serving the residents of the surrounding settlements
who were buried in the graveyard.