Early Medieval Wales (Archaeology)

This undergraduate dissertation looked at the development of Bangor, Gwynedd from its foundation by St Deiniol in the sixth century through to the 'Age of Conquest'. The paper looks at both documentary and archaeological evidence for the development of Bangor, and its impact in the region.

Footprints, handprints and game boards, incised on flat slate gravestones, are to be found in a large number of churchyards in north Wales. These graffiti seem to be the remnants of a folk tradition of the late 18th and 19th centuries, of which little record survives. The largest and most interesting collection is in the churchyard at Dolgellau, where 27 slabs have some 57 graffiti, including an unusually large number of handprints. Traditions relating to footprints are discussed and the 12th century stone at Llanetyd Church, with a deeply incised footprint, is described.

This essay highlights the main characteristics of the architecture of the Welsh house and provides an analysis of the influences on its design over the centuries. The various terms involved in the field are clearly explained before the discussion is expanded, and pertinent examples are used of different forms of architecture in Wales and their locations, demonstrating effectively the factors that influenced design and its development over the years.

This is a study of the seasonal activity cycles of a pre-urban society, examined through the lens of an early medieval Welsh case study. It considers the patterns of power and habitual activity that defined spaces and structured lives. Key areas of early medieval life - agriculture, tribute-payment, legal processes and hunting - are shown to share a longstanding seasonal patterning that is preserved in medieval Welsh law, church and well dedications, and fair dates. Focussing on a cantref (‘hundred’) land unit in south-west Wales, it uses an innovative GIS-based multidisciplinary, comparative analysis to circumnavigate a restricted archaeological record and limited written sources. The study presents the first systematic survey of assembly site evidence in Wales, and reassesses widely-used interpretative models of the early medieval landscape. Digital resources include databases of geolocated pre-1700 place-names and of sixteenth-century demesne and Welsh-law landholdings.

With marked differences in Scandinavian legacy; Ireland, England, Scotland and Isle of Man attest a surviving body of historical, archaeological and linguistic evidence. Despite its own legacy, Scandinavian contact with Wales has not been investigated as comprehensively as its neighbouring regions.  The exact character of Scandinavian engagement with Wales remains little understood, this makes Wales an anomaly and the objective of this dissertation is to examine why this is so.

Paul Belford examines the historical and archaeological trajectory of Offa’s Dyke, and considers motivations behind its construction and formation, including political, ideological and defensive requirements. In the context of a book about fortification, Dr Belford re-examines the defensive aspects of the Dyke, considering its relationship to the surrounding landscape – how it overlooked the land, how it was viewed by local society, how it contributed to methods of control, and how it may have functioned as a frontier. In terms of the latter point, the chapter discusses the relationships between Offa’s Dyke and Iron Age hillforts and identifies three locations where pre-existing hillforts could have played a role in the operation of the Dyke: Beacon Ring, the Breidden, and Llanymynech. Although the Dyke was designed to establish a visual domination of the landscape, even the large and formidable sections would not have presented a serious military defence against invasion. Dr Belford reminds us that Offa’s Dyke is a complex and sophisticated earthwork for which more research is required to unravel the social and cultural significance of the monument. This chapter is a valuable contribution to the ongoing discussions, investigations and projects on the earthworks of the Anglo-Welsh border.

The superficial similarity in form of prehistoric standing stones and early medieval western British inscribed stones has sometimes led to the suggestion that the medieval stones were reusing the earlier monuments. In this paper this suggestion is critically assessed. It shows that the medieval stones are different in size from the prehistoric stones, and placed in different contexts. This lack of reuse of prehistoric standing stones is considered in the context of other examples of monument reuse known from western Britain.

Twenty-three contributions by leading archaeologists from across Europe explore the varied forms, functions and significances of fortified settlements in the 8th to 10th centuries AD. These could be sites of strongly martial nature, upland retreats, monastic enclosures, rural seats, island bases, or urban nuclei. But they were all expressions of control - of states, frontiers, lands, materials, communities - and ones defined by walls, ramparts or enclosing banks. Papers run from Irish cashels to Welsh and Pictish strongholds, Saxon burhs, Viking fortresses, Byzantine castra, Carolingian creations, Venetian barricades, Slavic strongholds, and Bulgarian central places, and coverage extends fully from north-west Europe, to central Europe, the northern Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Strongly informed by recent fieldwork and excavations, but drawing also where available on the documentary record, this important collection provides fully up-to-date reviews and analyses of the archaeologies of the distinctive settlement forms that characterised Europe in the Early Middle Ages.

This bibliography has been organised on a broadly thematic basis, by topic or by site, though there is inevitably a degree of overlap. It includes a number of conference presentations, in PPT format, which give additional illustrations to support the published versions. It also includes papers by other authors, which relate to our sites and projects, especially environmental studies, by Tim Mighall and his colleagues, and studies of the experimental and archaeological slags, by Mike Charlton.
Where possible links are given which lead directly to the relevant pages on the academia.edu site. Copies of papers which do not have links can be supplied on request (crew.peter.susan@gmail.com). This bibliography will be updated periodically.

Along the valley … of the Dee and their mountain tributaries, where they begin to open towards the English plain, mottes and ringworks succeed one another like beads on a string. There was no overall plan of defence …. They served only for local protection against an enemy who came by stealth and at night to forage and to loot … (Pounds 1990, 70)

This article examines the medieval castles of Cheshire, in North-West England, and argues that there was far more continuity in conceptions of power, place, and land tenure across the eleventh and twelfth centuries than has been previously recognized. New interpretations of existing evidence are presented, indicating that the medieval castles in the western areas of the county were strategically sited and maintained throughout the Anglo-Norman period. Probably because the River Dee largely formed the western boundary of the entire frontier county from the end of the thirteenth century (Harris 1984, 1), Anglo-Norman castles located to the west of the River Dee in medieval west Cheshire have tended to be researched separately from their counterparts to the east of the River Dee. This has had the overall effect of both diminishing the value of this important northern section of the Anglo-Welsh border —  what is here termed the Irish Sea Cultural Zone — and ignoring the significant research and interpretation potential of the castles and their landscapes, in terms of their individual and group significance within medieval Cheshire. As such, the concept of the Irish Sea Cultural Zone, and its nature and extent, is proposed in this article for the first time. The evidence relating to the siting and form of the zone’s castles is analysed through a landscape history and archaeological study, which spans many disciplinary boundaries. Discussion will highlight that continuity of form from prehistoric, Roman, or Anglo-Saxon monuments to Anglo-Norman castles reflected the continuity of purpose in control over communications, as well as reflecting the continuing significance of military and social influences on the siting of the castles in west Cheshire.

The early Flavian military complex at Llanfor is well-known from the 1976 aerial photographs taken by J. K St Joseph. Prior to the 1997 Eisteddfod some 7ha of the site was surveyed by fluxgate gradiometer, revealing a remarkable multi-period landscape. Prehistoric remains include a parallel line of pits with a possible astronomical alignment, several barrows, a double ring ditch and a cremation cemetery. Additional details of the Roman complex include several buildings inside the heavily-defended polygonal stores compound, part of the timber-built vicus and a second temporary camp. There is also an unusual early farmstead, with a building defined by postholes, possibly for grain processing. This could be of Roman or early medieval date. There is a wide range of prehistoric, medieval and later field boundaries, with traces of ploughing of several periods.

More than 25 years of development-driven archaeology in historic settlements in mid- and north-east Wales has revealed new insights into the origins and development of medieval settlements. This paper reviews the evidence, providing an analysis of the effectiveness of planning-led interventions as well as discussing the results. Improvements in understanding defences, town planing, urban life and industry are highlighted, and challenges for the future identified.

Large amounts of charcoal were recovered from the excavations at the medieval bloomery at Llwyn Du, allowing a detailed analysis of the types of wood used. Species identification of over 5000 pieces shows that mainly oak and birch were used, with only a small proportion of other species. Detailed measurement of over 1000 pieces show that the oak is primarily from wood greater than 10cm diameter, with a mean diameter of 11.74cm. Comparison with the extensive data from Germany shows that this does not derive from coppiced woodland. The birch has a mean diameter of 7.4cm, which could be from coppicing but is more likely to be wood from small trees. Further calculations show both the voumes and the proportions of the different diameters of wood used.
Comparison of the charcoal ring widths and annual area increments with those from contemporary trunk and branch wood from :Llwyn Du suggests that most of the oak charcoal derives from slow-grown large diameter branches, rather than from main stems. The data from high resolution pollen analysis, from a nearby bog, shows short-term fluctuations in the oak and birch pollen. It was argued that the oak at Llwyn Du derived from systematic pollarding or shredding of mature trees.

The Roman fort at Forden Gaer, possibly the Lavobrinta of the Ravenna Cosmology, occupies a strategic position on the bank of the River Severn, close to the historic ford of Rhydwhiman. This detailed study of the evidence from aerial photographs and from the 1920's excavations, revealed the complex structural development of the fort. The original fort was Flavian, the second century re-build had an unusual eccentric layout, the final phase was in the 4th century. Surrounding the fort is a remarkable series of features, including Iron Age farmsteads and enclosures, a possible gyrus, a double-ditched tenemos and a double line of pits which may be an aisled-hall comparable to the Saxon Royal palace sites of the 9th/11th centuries.

Ethnogenesis is a widely-used noun drawn from Anthropology. In the historical field, it is utilized to label the long-term process of formation and consolidation of ethnic groups, mostly (but not only) in reference to the Volkerwanderungszeit. Albeit tracing straight lines bounding post-Roman gentes to given ethnic perceptions has been shown to be a modern myth, Romano-Germanic interaction led to a re-consideration of late antique ethnic boundaries with long-lasting consequences. In the former diocese of Britannia, the impact of the Anglo-Saxon migrations was huge and apparently laid the ground for a medieval iron curtain, known as the “Anglo-Celtic divide”. While is increasingly well-understood how the ethnogenesis of the Germanic groups in Eastern Britain took place, the evolution of ethnic self-perception among the Britons that had successfully resisted in the West is a bit more shadowy. Alex Woolf saw the British ethnogenesis as a descent into Barbarism, while on the other hand Bryan Ward-Perkins famously stated that Wales had been the last part of Roman Empire to fall to the barbarians, namely the English led by Edward I in 1282.
The aim of this paper is to reassert the issue of British (and particularly Welsh) ethnogenesis through the use of epigraphic data and the cursory reference to Gildas’ De excidio et conquestu Britanniae, the nearest and most-studied voice of the insular Dark Ages. It will be shown how several components played pivotal roles in shaping the porous borders of Britons’ ethnic self-perception and how the transition from Roman to post-Roman Britain is to be read through the lens of continuity, rather than rupture. Nevertheless, old borders were decisively crossed and new actors as Byzantium and the Irish affected the formation of ethnic identities among the Britons, breaking “the last Roman frontier” with Celtic Ireland. The long way that led the Britons from labeling themselves “cives” to “cymry” is dotted with milestones whose meaning is fundamental to understand how ethnic boundaries were perceived in the delicate aftermath of Roman Britain.

Geophysical survey and small-scale trial excavations were carried out on a small parchmark enclosure at Glanfred, near Llandre, Ceredigion in 2013. Geophysical survey revealed sections of the enclosure ditch that had not been previously visible from aerial photography, a number of possible entrances and two concentrations of internal anomalies. Excavation targeted a section of the inner of two ditches on the eastern side of the enclosure and an anomaly within the enclosure. An in situ iron slag deposit was discovered with an associated context dated between the late seventh and ninth century AD, whilst charred oats discovered in one of the lower deposits within the ditch was dated between the mid-fifth to sixth centuries AD. The results provide a rare insight into early medieval use of enclosures during the post-Roman and early medieval period, not only in northwest Ceredigion but more generally in Wales.

THE LANDSCAPE CONTEXT of the early 9th-century monument known as the Pillar of Eliseg is interrogated here for the first time with GIS-based analysis and innovative spatial methodologies. Our interpretation aims to move beyond regarding the Pillar as a prominent example of early medieval monument reuse and a probable early medieval assembly site. We demonstrate that the location and topographical context of the cross and mound facilitated the monument's significance as an early medieval locus of power, faith and commemoration in a contested frontier zone. The specific choice of location is shown to relate to patterns of movement and visibility that may have facilitated and enhanced the ceremonial and commemorative roles of the monument. By shedding new light on the interpretation of the Pillar of Eliseg as a node of social and religious aggregation and ideological power, our study has theoretical and methodological implications for studying the landscape contexts of early medieval stone monuments.

The rich archaeological and historic landscapes of Snowdonia are illustrated in this 56 page booklet, with some 95 photographs, many in colour. Each section (Patterns of Prehistory, The Roman Occupation, Historic Landscapes, The Impact of Industry) has an introductory essay and extended captions for each photograph.

Si les historiens sont peu nombreux aujourd’hui a douter de l’historicite du comte breton Conomor et de son protege, le bien moins connu Meliau, et cela en depit du fait que ces deux chefs bretons apparaissent principalement dans la litterature hagiographique, source qui repond d’ordinaire assez peu aux criteres d’exigence scientifique, c’est que leur participation a la vie politique bretonne du VIe siecle semble attestee par une mention dans l’Historia Francorum « Histoire des Francs » de Gregoire de Tours. Une analyse plus approfondie du texte de l’eveque de Tours, notamment a la lumiere des recits historico-mythologiques de la Grande-Bretagne, conduit cependant a s’interroger sur le serieux de ce passage de l’Histoire des Francs et a envisager, pour Conomor et Meliau, une origine plus legendaire qu’historique.

A lire ici : https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4LPwVK-EZ85cjV1UmlVQ2dUN1U
Si les historiens sont peu nombreux aujourd’hui à douter de l’historicité du comte breton Conomor et de son protégé, le bien moins connu Méliau, et cela en dépit du fait que ces deux chefs bretons apparaissent principalement dans la littérature hagiographique, source qui répond d’ordinaire assez peu aux critères d’exigence scientifique, c’est que leur participation à la vie politique bretonne du VIe siècle semble attestée par une mention dans l’Historia Francorum « Histoire des Francs » de Grégoire de Tours. Une analyse plus approfondie du texte de l’évêque de Tours, notamment à la lumière des récits historico-mythologiques de la Grande-Bretagne, conduit cependant à s’interroger sur le sérieux de ce passage de l’Histoire des Francs et à envisager, pour Conomor et Méliau, une origine plus légendaire qu’historique.

Llanfor, near Bala, is well known from aerial photographs for its important early Roman military remains. A geophysical survey of some 7ha revealed a remarkable multi-period landscape, more fully described in Crew and Crew 1997. The pamphlet has aerial photographs, details of the survey and a coloured plan of the remains. Part of the 6th-9th century song Canu Llywarch Hen, about his journey to Llanfawr, and a specially commissioned poem for the 1997 Eisteddfod are included.

Research frameworks for archaeology in the UK have a long history. Since the 1990s research frameworks have been developed in formal programmes initially driven by state heritage bodies. These were intended to facilitate better decision-making in development-driven archaeological projects, and to provide an interface between archaeologists. However the effectiveness of such frameworks is limited by a number of constraints. These include 'internal' boundaries created by historic environment professionals: chronological borders; professional borders; disciplinary borders; and borders limiting access and regulating control. There are also boundaries created by others, which include institutional and resourcing constraints as well as the geographical limits of modern administrative boundaries. This paper discusses these issues through the prism of the border region between England and Wales, a borderland zone with long histories of conflict and cooperation. Some suggestions are offered for future changes.

Co-author:
Nikki Vousden
A piece of early medieval sculpture was rediscovered in May 2013 by NV and Roderick Bale lying in the Nant Tawelan stream (SN 5712  5101) approximately 40m south-west of the churchyard of St Sulien’s Church, Silian, near Lampeter. It is now located in the church. Its rediscovery allows a reassessment of the monument itself and the potential significance of other archaeological remains associated with the site.
Archaeology in Wales 53 (2014), 125–30

This paper re-examines Kenneth Jackson's 1959 argument that the Annals of Ulster entry for 638, 'Obsesio Etin', records the 'siege of Edinburgh' and the 'Fall of Gododdin'. Through comparison with other siege entries recorded in the Annals, and discussion of warfare and politics in early medieval Britain, the paper concludes that although Jackson's hypothesis remains possible, there is significant room to doubt the weighty interpretation placed upon these two small words.