Markets in Early Medieval Europe Read online

  MARKETS IN EARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPE

  Markets in Early Medieval Europe

  Trading and ‘Productive’ Sites, 650–850

  Edited by Tim Pestell and Katharina Ulmschneider

  Windgather Press

  is an imprint of Oxbow Books

  First published in the United Kingdom in 2003. as a paperback in 2019 by

  OXBOW BOOKS

  The Old Music Hall, 106-108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JE

  and in the United States by

  OXBOW BOOKS

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  © Windgather Press 2003

  Paperback edition: ISBN 978-1-911188-47-6

  Paperback edition: eISBN 978-1-911188-48-3

  Paperback edition: Mobi ISBN 978-1-911188-49-0

  A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

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  Cover Illustrations

  Front: the gold bow brooch found at Tjitsma in the 1950s.

  Collection Fries Museum, Leeuwarden.

  Back: the excavated Early Medieval manor and market

  at Tissø, Denmark. Lars Jørgensen.

  Contents

  List of Illustrations

  Contributors

  Abbreviations

  Preface

  1Introduction: Early Medieval Markets and ‘Productive’ Sites

  Katharina Ulmschneider and Tim Pestell

  I History, Numismatics and the Early Medieval Economy

  2Production and Distribution in Early and Middle Anglo-Saxon England

  James Campbell

  3‘Productive’ Sites and the Pattern of Coin Loss in England, 600–1180

  Mark Blackburn

  4Variations in the Composition of the Currency at Different Places in England

  Michael Metcalf

  5The Hinterlands of Three Southern English Emporia: Some Common Themes

  Ben Palmer

  II Trading and ‘Productive’ Sites in the British Isles

  6Markets and ‘Productive’ Sites: A View from Western Britain

  David Griffiths

  7Markets Around the Solent: Unravelling a ‘Productive’ Site on the Isle of Wight

  Katharina Ulmschneider

  8The Early Anglo-Saxon Framework for Middle Anglo-Saxon Economics: The Case of East Kent

  Stuart Brookes

  9Exceptional Finds, Exceptional Sites? Barham and Coddenham, Suffolk

  John Newman

  10Six Middle Anglo-Saxon Sites in West Norfolk

  Andrew Rogerson

  11The Afterlife of ‘Productive’ Sites in East Anglia

  Tim Pestell

  12Middle Anglo-Saxon Lincolnshire: An Emerging Picture

  Kevin Leahy

  13The Anglian and Anglo-Scandinavian Sites at Cottam, East Yorkshire

  Julian D. Richards

  III Markets and Settlements on the Early Medieval Continent

  14Markets and Fairs in Norway and Sweden Between the Eighth and Sixteenth Centuries

  Peter Sawyer

  15Manor and Market at Lake Tissø in the Sixth to Eleventh Centuries: The Danish ‘Productive’ Sites

  Lars Jørgensen

  16Groß Strömkendorf: A Market Site of the Eighth Century on the Baltic Sea Coast

  Astrid Tummuscheit

  17Tjitsma, Wijnaldum: An Early Medieval Production Site in the Netherlands

  Caroline Tulp

  18The Fate of the Ports of the Lower Seine Valley at the End of the Ninth Century

  Jacques Le Maho

  19San Vincenzo in the Making: The Discovery of an Early Medieval Production Site on the East Bank of the Volturno

  Matthew Moran

  Bibliography

  List of Illustrations

  Figures

  Front cover. The gold bow brooch found at Tjitsma in the 1950s. Total length 163.5mm. Collection Fries Museum, Leeuwarden.

  3.1 The principal ‘productive’ sites in Britain, as detailed in the Appendix

  3.2 Histogram comparing hoards and single-finds from England, 780-900

  3.3a-c Finds from Hamwic, Tilbury and ‘near Royston’

  3.4a-c Finds from Bawsey, ‘South Lincolnshire’ and Hollingbourne

  3.5a-c Finds from ‘near Malton’ 1, South Newbald and Whithorn

  3.6 Isolated finds from England south of the Humber

  3.7a-b Finds from London and Lincoln

  4.1 Regression analysis showing the frequency of Hamwic coinage within Wessex, mapped in contours

  4.2 Regression analysis showing the proportion of primary porcupine sceattas compared to all primary sceatta finds, mapped in contours

  4.3 Regression analysis of Type 15 secondary sceattas of ‘Hwiccian’ style, mapped in contours

  4.4 Regression analysis of Series L sceattas, mapped in contours

  5.1 Distribution map of sites in receipt of traded goods, based on Palmer (i998)

  5.2 Navigable rivers in England before the era of canals (after Sherratt 1996)

  5.3 Coin-productive sites (excluding hoards) and Roman roads in Hampshire (after Ulmschneider 2000a, Map 21)

  6.1 Some eighth-to eleventh-century finds from Meols (drawn by Mark Faulkner)

  6.2 Llanbedrgoch site plan (drawn by Tony Daly © National Museums and Galleries of Wales)

  7.1 The location and geography of the Isle of Wight

  7.2 A simplified map of the geology of the Isle of Wight

  7.3 Coin-productive sites and markets around the Solent

  8.1 Map of East Kent, showing the reconstructed coastline c. 800 and its relation to some of the sites and roads mentioned in the text

  8.2 Thiessen polygon interpolation, showing the environmental pays of Kent and their relation to early estate-centres, as defined by Everitt (1986)

  8.3 Trend surfaces produced from the average number of imported artefacts interred with each individual in Early Anglo-Saxon cemeteries of East Kent

  8.4 Trend surface of Early Medieval coin finds in East Kent

  9.1 South-east Suffolk, showing the position of Barham and Coddenham in relation to Ipswich, other Middle Anglo-Saxon sites and the local system of Roman roads (sources: Margary 1973; Moore 1988)

  9.2 Barham, Suffolk, showing the distributions of artefact-types

  9.3 Finds from Coddenham

  9.4 Sceatta finds from Suffolk showing the number of coins known from each site (source: Suffolk SMR)

  10.1 Location map of sites discussed in Chapter 10

  10.2 Bawsey: an aerial view of the site from the north-west. (Photograph: D. A. Edwards, Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service)

  10.3 Selected finds from Rudham

  11.1 Locations mentioned in Chapter 11

  11.2 (a) Bawsey and its surrounding parishes; (b) East and West Rudham and surrounding parishes; (c) Hindr
ingham and its surrounding parishes

  11.3 The parish church of Burnham Overy St Clement’s from the south

  12.1 Finds of Early Anglo-Saxon metalwork from Lincolnshire

  12.2 Middle Anglo-Saxon finds from Lincolnshire and imported material of similar date. Roman roads and early trackways are shown as broken lines

  12.3 Tenth-century and Viking metalwork shown against the pattern of Middle Anglo-Saxon finds

  12.4 Selected finds from Melton Ross

  12.5 The site at Melton Ross

  12.6 The combined parishes of Melton Ross, Barnetby le Wold and the surrounding sites

  12.7 The Yarborough Camp earthworks. Plan based on a survey carried out by K. A. Leahy and J. C. Dyson in May 1984

  13.1 The location of the sites at Cottam

  13.2 The distribution of metal-detector finds (marked by crosses) superimposed on crop-mark features of the Cottam B enclosures

  13.3 The Anglo-Scandinavian farmstead at Cottam B, seen as a magnetometer plot

  13.4 The distribution of lead weights, Norse bells, and other objects attributed to the tenth century, superimposed on the crop-mark enclosure and the suggested northward settlement shift

  13.5 The distribution of strap-ends

  14.1 Markets and fairs in Norway and Sweden mentioned in Chapter 14

  15.1 The distribution of major ‘productive’ sites in Denmark and southern Sweden. Sites mentioned in the text are numbered

  15.2 Plan of the specialized production site at N®s on Zealand. (after M0ller-Hansen and H0ier 2000, redrawn)

  15.3 Plan of the Toftegård complex near K0ge. (after Tornbjerg 1998, redrawn)

  15.4 The manor complex from the seventh to tenth centuries at Lejre with the residential area and workshop area to the east

  15.5 Plan of one of the great halls in Lejre. (after Christensen 1997, redrawn)

  15.6 Map showing the archaeological status of the Tissø area in the Viking period

  15.7 The distribution of the c. 10,000 finds made at Tissø in the metal-detector surveys and archaeological excavations

  15.8 Distribution map showing the equal-armed brooches from the middle of the sixth century (cross) and beaked brooches (circle) from c. 600

  15.9 Tissø: the excavated area with the manor dating from the seventh to eleventh centuries and the adjacent market

  15.10 A selection of the fine pendants, brooches and strap-mounts of gilded silver and tin-plated bronze from the later manor at Tissø. (Photographs: Pia Brejnholt)

  15.11 A selection of arrowheads from the later manor at Tissø. (Photograph: Danish National Museum)

  15.12 Distribution map showing the weapons and weapon parts at the Tissø complex

  15.13 Coins from Tissø. (Photographs: Pia Brejnholt)

  15.14 Distribution map of the coins at Tissø

  15.15 The layout of the later manor at Tissø in Phase One, preliminarily dated to the seventh to eighth centuries

  15.16 Tissø: the layout of the manor in Phase Two, preliminarily dated to the eighth to ninth centuries

  15.17 The layout of the manor at Tissø in Phase Three, preliminarily dated to the ninth to tenth centuries

  15.18 A selection of the Thor’s hammers and a miniature strike-a-light from the later manor area at Tissø

  15.19 Pendants depicting the valkyries of Norse mythology, in gilded silver with niello inlays. (Photographs: Pia Brejnholt)

  15.20 The layout of the manor at Tissø in Phase Four, preliminarily dated to the late tenth to early eleventh centuries. The exact size of the manor at this date cannot be determined

  15.21 Plan of the hall area with the three main buildings in Phase Four

  15.22 Distribution map of the molten bronze and lead from workshop activities at Tissø

  15.23 (i)—(4) Three bronze and one lead model for the manufacture of moulds for plate brooches and a cross-shaped brooch. (Photographs: Pia Brejnholt)

  15.24 Distribution map showing the weights at Tissø

  15.25 A lead seal of the high-ranking Byzantine official Theodosios, mid-ninth century. (Photograph: Danish National Museum)

  15.26 Plan of the central representative area of Charlemagne’s Pfalz in Aix, Germany. (after Hugot 1965, with additions by the author)

  16.1 Location of Groß Strömkendorf and other sites mentioned in the text in relation to local topography

  16.2 Overall plan of excavated areas with reconstruction of the landscape to the west of the site. (Archäologisches Landesmuseum Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Schloß Wiligrad, 19069 Lübstorf)

  16.3 One part of the central area of the trading site showing the careful alignment of pit-houses

  16.4 Plan of the excavated area in the southern and central parts of the site showing the dense occupation and selected dendrochronological dates

  16.5 Plan of the settlement structures within the area of the cemetery and dendrochronological dates

  16.6 Map showing the distribution of finds and archaeological sites in the hinterland of Groß Strömkendorf. (after Schmitz 1999, Abb. 27)

  17.1 The location of Tjitsma terp, Wijnaldum. (after Besteman, Bos and Heidinga i993)

  17.2 Finds associated with precious metalworking. (J. de Koning)

  17.3 Copper-alloy die stamp with cross-hatched decoration. (Colin Slack, English Heritage)

  17.4 Iron bars from Tjitsma. (after J. de Koning)

  17.5 Assorted finds from Tjitsma. (all J. de Koning)

  18.1 The ports of the Lower Seine in the ninth and tenth centuries

  19.1 The location of San Vincenzo (a) and a plan of the site (b)

  19.2 Site plan, showing the surveyed and excavated areas, and prominent archaeological features, on the east bank of the Volturno

  19.3 Plan of the 1996—7 excavations

  19.4 Early Medieval red-painted pottery from the excavations

  19.5 Early Medieval glass-working crucibles from the excavations

  19.6 Plan of Early Medieval clay-bonded structures, showing their relation to the temporary workshops, prior to construction of the atrium of San Vincenzo Maggiore

  19.7 Plans of (a) the Early Medieval clay-bonded structures and adjoining yards and (b) the so-called ‘collective workshop’

  Table

  12.1 The breakdown of Early Medieval metalwork recorded in Lincolnshire to December 2000

  12.2 The breakdown of metalwork from Melton Ross, by date

  12.3 The breakdown of Anglo-Saxon and Viking metalwork from Melton Ross, by type

  15.1 Features appearing at both Tissø and a contemporary Carolingian Pfalz

  Contributors

  Mark Blackburn Department of Coins and Medals, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

  Stuart Brookes Institute of Archaeology, University College, London

  James Campbell Worcester College, University of Oxford

  David Griffiths Kellogg College, University of Oxford

  Lars Jørgensen Department of Danish Prehistory, National Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark

  Kevin Leahy North Lincolnshire Museum, Scunthorpe

  Jacques Le Maho CNRS, Rouen, France

  Michael Metcalf Department of Coins, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

  Matthew Moran School of World Art Studies and Museology, University of East Anglia

  John Newman Field Team, Archaeological Service, Suffolk County Council

  Ben Palmer Exeter College, University of Oxford

  Tim Pestell Department of Archaeology, Norwich Castle Museum

  Julian D. Richards Department of Archaeology, University of York

  Andrew Rogerson Finds Identification and Recording Service, Field Archaeology Division, Norfolk County Council

  Peter Sawyer Trondheim, Norway

  Caroline Tulp Institute of Archaeology, University of Groningen, The Netherlands

  Astrid Tummuscheit Department for Prehistoric Archaeology, University of Kiel, Germany

  Katharina Ulmschneider Worcester College, University of Oxford

  Abbreviations

&nbs
p; BM British Museum

  EMC Early Medieval Coins

  SMR Sites and Monuments Record

  Preface

  In 1989, a gathering of distinguished archaeologists and numismatists met in Oxford to discuss the growing number of Middle Anglo-Saxon sites, dubbed ‘productive’, then being revealed by metal-detection. Ten years on, and thousands of metal-detected artefacts later, the two editors of this volume organised another conference on a similar, though somewhat broader, theme, as an update. Fittingly it was again in Oxford that, in December 2000, Worcester College played host to a meeting, this time international, of historians, archaeologists and numismatists, to reconsider the knotty problems of trade and economics in Early Medieval Europe.

  The success of this event has owed much to the award of a conference grant by the British Academy and in particular to the generosity of Mr David Newkirk of London. Without their kind support, neither the conference nor this subsequent book would have been possible. We are also very grateful to the Danish National Museum for a generous grant for the publication of the extensive illustrations to accompany Lars Jørgensen’s contribution on Lake Tissø.

  The essays contained in this volume are essentially those papers as delivered to the Worcester College conference, modified to a greater or lesser extent. Indeed, such has been the enthusiasm for the publication of the conference’s proceedings that only one paper delivered is not included. By way of compensation we are very grateful to Stuart Brookes for contributing an article on the economic framework of Middle Anglo-Saxon Kent. It will also be apparent that there is no survey of the continental sources for markets and fairs in the period covered by this volume. Such a contribution was intended, but unfortunately circumstances prevented Prof. Johanek from submitting his paper. In its place the editors would like to draw attention to his two important and still highly relevant surveys on the topic in 1985 and 1987.