Here are some major sites, 1600 years ago!
- Brixworth, Northamptonshire
- The church at Brixworth is the largest surviving Anglo-Saxon building in England. It was most likely built in the 8th century, on the site of an earlier church. It has an unusual round staircase on the outside of the tower. Some of the stone and brick used to build it was taken from a nearby Roman villa. There is a holy relic of part of saint’s throat! This may be from St Boniface, an Anglo-Saxon who converted large parts of Germany to Christianity in the 8th century.
- Dinas Powys, Glamorgan
- Many wealthy landowners no longer lived in villas but moved into hill top defended sites. Dinas Powys is a good example of one that has been excavated, with a bank and ditch defending the hill top, and a long wooden hall, barn and possibly other buildings within the defended area. Pottery from the eastern Mediterranean and North Africa was also found at the site, dating form the 5th to the 7th centuries.
- Dunadd, Argyll
- A high rocky hill in Argyll, has flat terraces with walls around them, and on the rock at the top are hollow impressions of human feet. This is reputed to be the capital of the Irish kings of Dalriada, and the feet may have been where the kings stood during their coronation ritual.
- Jarrow, Durham (Tyne and Wear)
- The later medieval monastery of Jarrow was built on top of a much earlier monastery. This has been excavated, and was one of the most important monasteries in Britain. The original church of the 7th century monastery still survives, with an inscription recording its building in 682. It was here that the great historian Bede lived and wrote his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, one of the most important works of history from the whole medieval period.
- Offa’s Dyke
- Marking the western border of Mercia against the Welsh is a 64 mile-long bank and ditch, built by King Offa. Other, earlier banks and ditches to the north and south extend the line of the border most of the way from north to south for about 80 miles (longer than Hadrian’s Wall). We know little about the dyke and how it was operated, even whether it had soldiers on it. It is still one of the most impressive defended borders of the Middle Ages.
- Ruthwell Cross, Dumfries and Galloway
- This is a large stone cross, with carved figures and decoration. It dates from the early 8th century. As well as being one of the most impressive stone crosses, it is most important for the runic inscription it has on it. The runes are lines of Christian poetry in Old English selected from a longer poem that has been preserved in a much later manuscript, called the Dream of the Rood (rood is an old word for cross).
- Sutton Hoo, Suffolk
- One of the wealthiest ancient burials ever found in Britain was the royal burial in a large mound at Sutton Hoo. A large ship had been used for the burial. The wood had long since decayed but the lines of iron rivets and stains in the soil allowed the whole ship to be measured and drawn. Inside the ship were many grave good, including a decorated helmet and rich gold jewellery. There are other mounds with burials nearby, and smaller graves. The sandy soils destroy bone, and the shape of the bodies is preserved as dark stains in the sand, which need very careful excavation. It is possible the main burial was of King Raedwald of East Anglia who died about 625, although not everyone agrees with this.
- Tintagel, Cornwall
- A near-island off the coast of Cornwall, has underneath its later medieval castle, the remains of buildings from the late Roman period up to about 650 AD. Thousands of fragments of pottery have been found from the period after 450 AD. Most of this pottery comes from abroad, brought there by trade in ships. Some of it is fine ware for the dining table. Most is of storage jars for oil and wine from the east Mediterranean and north Africa. It shows that Britain was still in contact with what remained of the Roman Empire in Europe.
- Wroxeter, Shropshire
- Some of the most important Roman excavations ever carried out were at the town of Wroxeter. It was a standard Roman town with a forum, public baths and a grid of streets. Its important for archaeology is in the very fine excavations by Graham Webster who found large wooden buildings above the stone Roman buildings, dating to the 6th century. This was one of the first pieces of evidence in Britain that people continued living in Roman towns during this period.
