| Abstract: |
NAA carried out an Archaeological Evaluation, including Geophysical Survey and Trial Trenching at Flower Field in Seaham, on behalf of Durham County Council. It is part of the Council's Limestone Landscapes Partnership Project. The site has a known Medieval cemetery. Eight skeletons were excavated in a trench. Volunteers were trained in excavation and recording. The present work has produced significant new information on the important
early centre of Seaham. Excavation and survey, commissioned by Durham
County Council as part of the Limestone Landscapes Partnership, has
confirmed the eastern extent of the Anglo-Saxon cemetery. More significantly,
it has produced the first evidence for domestic occupation of the same date
between the cemetery and the parish church, which is also believed to be of
Anglo-Saxon date. The work could not have been carried out successfully
without the numerous volunteers who made up the majority of the excavation
team, many of who used their work holidays to dig.
Excavation in the cemetery uncovered the skeletons of eight adults, three men,
four women and one whose gender could not be identified. All died as adults,
which matches results from previous excavations within the cemetery. None suffered from severe disability or disease, although the excavated individuals
seem to have been a little shorter than is found on similar sites of this date. The
overall size of the graveyard is still unclear, but is likely to contain several
hundred bodies. Its location, c.200m from the apparently contemporary
church, is unusual, but can be paralleled at a number of sites in northern
England.
The latest geophysical results agree broadly with the earlier survey. The present
work showed more detail in the eastern half of the field, but disturbance in the
western half of the field resulted in fewer of the possible enclosures being
identified here, in comparison to the 1999 survey. The combination of the two
geophysical surveys and the evidence from the excavation both suggest an area
of settlement between the church and the cemetery, some of which is probably
Anglo-Saxon in date. Further, undated land divisions have been identified to
the east of this occupation area.
With the excavation revealing the first evidence of probable Anglo-Saxon
occupation north of the church, it is possible that much of the intervening
ground was already in use by the time the cemetery was established. As the
evidence is limited to one dated ditch, several other undated features and the
geophysical survey, this must remain speculation until a larger area can be
examined through excavation. It is possible that the comb fragment is postconquest
in date, and therefore linked with the known medieval settlement. If
this was indeed the case it would still represent only the second excavated
evidence of settlement of this date. |
