Rationale
In my study, I wish to form conclusions on Anglo-Saxon society and on the lives of people at that time from the artefactual finds and remains acquired in 1985 by Brighton Museum & Art Gallery. My study will focus on the Stafford Road site in Brighton, where a number of Anglo-Saxon inhumations were discovered between 1883 and 1893 during the construction of new roads and buildings in the present Seven Dials area of Brighton. The site itself falls under CRM and rescue archaeology as it was discovered by construction workers and excavated under time and boundary limits due to commercial, monetary constraints. I chose this site as it is not only extremely local to me, but the majority of finds are well preserved and easily accessible, stored in Brighton Museum at present. Brighton Museum is willing to accommodate my research, with a large amount of evidence available to me, and every location that is necessary for me to visit is also local and easily accessible.
My interest in Anglo-Saxon society arose from studying the Anglo-Norman kingdom and Anglo-Saxon England last year, but also from a long-standing appreciation for, and fascination of Viking and Anglo-Saxon relations, being from East-Anglia myself, a county filled with rich medieval history such as Sutton Hoo. I therefore, have a sound knowledge on which to build upon and believe that my study is not only feasible, but both approachable and manageable.
My study’s main archaeological focus relates to society and will be executed through perusing artefacts, skeletal remains and the sites stratigraphic evidence. As my topic is widespread, I will investigate gender, status, wealth and lifestyle/health. I hope to answer questions such as ‘’What standard of life did they lead?’’, ‘’What were their likely gender-roles’’, ‘’How would health have affected their livelihood?’’, ‘’How would their possessions have reflected their overall status or wealth?’’. I expect the remains and artefacts as primary resources to partially answer my questions on lifestyle, health and gender roles following interpretation of trauma, stress and gender indicators on the remains themselves. The artefacts will require further inference due to being only bi-products of society. However, much of my questions surrounding wealth and status will be answered through secondary sources as I am only able to comparatively infer this through artefacts frond within the graves which will need background information in order to be properly explained. I will be unable to determine wealth and status through only skeletal remains, though may be able to do so through stratigraphic evidence, looking at where the graves were placed in relation to the area. I will also need to consider the ethics of my study as I will be reviewing human skeletal remains which have cultural significance.
Visual analysis of the archaeological remains from this site should be able to help me conclude the genders of Graves two and three through the brow bone and mastoid process as opposed to Grave one where there are limited and fragmented remains. Calculations based on the femur should allow me to approximate the heights of both Graves one and two, as Grave three was badly damaged through construction, missing either femur. Interpretation of the conditions of the remains should also allow me to conclude the likely condition of stratigraphy that the remains were found in, including its possible chemical make-up. This analysis, analogised with the interpretation of artefacts, should deduce the gender roles within society during Anglo-Saxon reign.
Another focus of the study will be the typological sequencing of artefacts as well as graphs and a site matrix, some of the methods to be included within my study. With these methods, I hope to relatively date the finds which should enable me to answer questions detailing the society and lifestyles of the inhabitants of these graves, correlating to what is expected to be found in a common grave of Anglo-Saxon England. Other methods shall include mapping, sketching/drawing, photographs and plans. These methods will help with interpretation and a large aspect of my study will involve evaluation of the methods I have chosen to use.
Context
My primary research will be on the Anglo-Saxon Stafford Road site in Brighton, with focus on Graves one, two and three, discovered in the garden of 14 Stafford Road, Brighton during construction. This should include human remains and artefacts acquired by Brighton Museum & Art Gallery in 1985 as well as plans (Figures 2, ), maps (Figures 1 and 7-10) and other various desktop research from the Sussex HER (Figures 3-6). There have been reports conducted on the excavation of this site which will allow me to reach a more in depth and detailed conclusion. As Stafford Road is a developed site I will not be able to investigate the site itself, though this does not impact my study as there are sufficient resources available through the establishments mentioned above.
Traces of three Anglo-Saxon inhumation burials were found during a rescue/salvage excavation in 1985 at the site (Fig. 1). Only Grave 2 remained in-situ (Fig. 2), containing a knife and buckle dated to the 7th-century, while Grave 1, the second male grave, heavily disturbed by builders, seems instead of the 6th-century according to the excavation report. Skeletal evidence from the site report showed that the man had died from a severe head wound, likely inflicted by a sword blow, but had survived a previous head wound which had only partially healed. Artefacts indicated that the Grave 3 belonged to a woman of the 6th-century. The graves themselves were cut into each other (figure ) in the stratigraphy, a longitudinal profile showing that Grave two had been cut into Grave one.
Figure 1 – Image of the Stafford Road site belonging to Sussex HER.
Figure 2 – Image of Grave 2 in correlation to its in-situ finds, belonging to Sussex HER.
‘The Grave goods from Grave three were initially taken into Brighton Museum on 22 August 1985 by Mr R. Farmer and Mr I. Maker, who were carrying out construction work at a private house in Stafford Road, Brighton.’ They had discovered the finds around 1 meter below the surface during trench digging in the back garden of 14 Stafford Road. ‘These items were recognised as early Anglo-Saxon by the acting Keeper of Archaeology, Ms J.E. Bellam.’
Figure 3 – A topographical map of the site, belonging to Sussex HER.
Figure 4 – An aerial photograph of the site showing the positions of areas focused on, belonging to Sussex HER.
Figure 5 – An 1840 Tithe Award, belonging to Sussex HER.
Figure 6 – Showing an Ordinance Survey map of the area of the site, belonging to Sussex HER.
Figure 7 – A map of the Stafford Road area, belonging to Sussex HER.
Figure 8 – A second area map of the Stafford Road site, with points showing relevant events, belonging to Sussex HER.
Figure 9 – A third area map of the Stafford Road site, Brighton, showing a) distribution of Early Anglo-Saxon cemeteries; b) probable areas of earlier Saxon finds or burials from Stafford Road cemetery. Belonging to Sussex HER.
Figure 10 – An aerial screenshot of the 14 Stafford Road site, the origin of the finds and remains, of where construction took place. Belonging to Google Images.
Figure – A map of 5th-11th century Britain showing population origins, belonging to Indo-European Chronology (V period). 'The tribe of Angles lived on the Jutland peninsula; Jutes, which give the name to Jutland, inhabited the same lands, a bit to the north; Saxon homeland was Lower Saxony: many European nations still call Germany "Saxony", like Finns.’
During the 5TH-11TH centuries, Britain was flooded by Germanic conquerors, the main elements being Angles, who had settled in the northeast, and Saxons who had kept hold of the middle of the island, as well as Jutes who had settled in what is now Kent. The last Roman soldiers left Britain in AD 410, with the Anglo-Saxons arriving shortly after. The new settlers were a mixture of people from north Germany, Denmark and northern Holland. Most were Saxons, Angles and Jutes, of which the Saxons, were German-Dutch, the Angles southern Danish, and Jutes northern Danish. Through close analysis of figure ^ it seems as though Brighton – non-existent during this time – was split between Saxons and Jutes. Of the two, Jutes were most powerful, so it is possible that there was a distinct division between rich and poor, and possibly among different hierarchical statuses.
Figure – Shows a diagram of tooth typology, belonging to TheseBonesofMine.
I plan to interpret the types of teeth (Figure ^) and therefore what may show me about diet and dental care in Anglo-Saxon society. The Anglo-Saxon period lasted for around six centuries, from the arrival of the Germanic invaders from the continent during the early 5th century AD to the Norman Conquest of 1066. This was a time of immense political and social cataclysm which saw changes in almost all aspects of everyday life.
I intend to use secondary sources that deal with Anglo-Saxon settlements, burial customs and society. A selection of useful books include: ‘The Anglo-Saxon Way of Death’ by Sam Lucy and ‘Anglo-Saxon Deviant Burial Customs’ by Andrew Reynolds. Both gave me information regarding burial types during the time period, such as mass graves, and on anatomy. ‘The Archaeology of Death and Burial’ by Mike Parker Pearson provided information on stratigraphic and cross-dating methods as well as grave goods.
Through carrying out reconnaissance and analysis methods studied in ARCH 2 in the form of survey methods such as drawing and photography as well as desktop study, I was able to view the site while considering a wider site context and study Stafford Road’s position in the landscape along with the site’s layout and its related features. I shall make use of the tertiary sources ‘The Archaeology Coursebook’ and ‘Archaeology; Theory, Methods and Practise’ to aid my understanding of typological sequencing (Figure 4), artefact recording (ARCH 2) as well as economics and status – aspects of ARCH 3 – inhumation and grave goods – studied in ARCH 1. I will also borrow knowledge from ARCH 2 concerning salvage/commercial archaeological excavation, recording methods, site interpretation and relative dating methods such as stratigraphy and typology, a focus of my study.