Anglo-Saxon Stud Archaeol Hist 8

The article considers the evidence for structural shrines associated with English pagan cults. It is argued that the structures at Yeavering reflect a long tradition of square ritual enclosures, stemming from Romano-Celtic shrines and enclosed burials and perhaps reinforced by the survival of Roman stone temples of square-in-square plan. The form is traced through a sequence of square-ditched enclosures from Iron Age to possibly early Anglo-Saxon date, the more important of which were built over Bronze Age barrows. The author argues that these were prototypes for the square enclosures with timber-laced earthen walls at Slonk Hill, Sussex, and at Yeavering, which in turn suggest a cultural context for the large timber shrine at Blacklow Hill, Warwickshire, and for smaller, possibly ritual structures on some domestic sites. Within the enclosures, focal standing posts appear to have been used for aligning graves. The tradition is discussed in terms of the influences from British to English ritual practice and the social and cultural transformations in progress c. AD 600. Includes

Following an introductory discussion of the documentary and archaeological evidence relating to pagan Anglo-Saxon sanctuaries, the author considers the evidence of English place-names which might either directly or indirectly indicate the presence of a sanctuary. She discusses those referring to (possibly sacrificial) animals' heads or to one of the Teutonic deities, or which include words for sanctuaries such as hearg or wig/weoh. The reasons for irregularities in the distribution of this type of place-name evidence are also discussed. Finally, the article looks at the association of the documentary and place-name evidence for shrines with the late Anglo-Saxon administrative network of Hundreds, including the names and meeting-places of some Hundreds.

The article looks at the evidence for literacy contained in some two hundred inscribed artefacts from Anglo-Saxon England. The inscriptions are discussed as examples of the practical application of literacy in Anglo-Saxon society; as information about some of the cultural conditions of the society that produced them; and as indicators of some of the ways in which literacy was regarded in Anglo-Saxon England.

Account of several projects in the south-east Suffolk area in which fieldwalking as part of the Sutton Hoo area context survey was carried out in combination with metal detecting by local metal detector users, focusing on surface collection and the recovery of finds from ploughsoil. Projects at sites in Shottisham and Playford are discussed in particular. The locations of finds were recorded, and the implications of the resultant patterning for knowledge of Anglo-Saxon settlement and cemetery activity are discussed. The author presents arguments in favour of future collaborations of this type.

The author discusses the current shortage of evidence concerning the entrances to sunken-floored huts dating from the Anglo-Saxon period, and considers possible methods of construction which would account for this. In particular he looks at theories put forward in relation to the site of Wijster in the Netherlands, and at the excavation techniques needed to recover evidence relating to such features.

The author discusses the use of correspondence analysis, based on computerized seriation, in the development of chronological sequences in relation to archaeological data, as cited in Chronological studies of Anglo-Saxon England, Lombard Italy and Vendel Period Sweden ed L Jørgensen (Copenhagen, 1992). She considers the technique and various methodological problems associated with it, such as those associated with seriation, the selection of case studies, the application of statistical improvements, and problems relating to the archaeological content, typology and geography. The author reviews the application of correspondence analysis to archaeological data from migration period England, Italy and Sweden, as presented by Jørgensen et al.