The Later Anglo-Saxon Settlement at Bishopstone

Well known for the Early Anglo-Saxon settlement previously excavated on Rookery Hill and its impressive pre-Conquest church, Bishopstone has entered archaeological orthodoxy as a classic example of a 'Middle Saxon Shift'. This volume reports on the excavations from 2002 to 2005 designed to investigate this transition, with the focus on the origins of Bishopstone village. Excavations adjacent to St Andrews churchyard revealed a dense swathe of later Anglo-Saxon (8th- to late 10th-/early 11th-century) habitation, including a planned complex of timber halls, and a unique cellared tower. The occupation encroached upon a pre-Conquest cemetery of 43 inhumations.

Gabor Thomas is a lecturer in Early Medieval Archaeology at the University of Reading. His research spans the archaeology of Early Medieval settlements and later Anglo-Saxon and Viking-age metalwork, for which he gained his doctorate at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. This report brings to conclusion his first large-scale research excavation and he is currently engaged in directing a successor project on the site of an Anglo-Saxon monastic settlement at Lyminge, Kent. He is a Fellow of the Society of the Antiquaries and currently sits on the committee of the Medieval Settlements Research Group.

Short description: Well known for the Early Anglo-Saxon settlement previously excavated on Rookery Hill and its impressive pre-Conquest church, Bishopstone has entered archaeological orthodoxy as a classic example of a 'Middle Saxon Shift'. This volume reports on the excavations from 2002 to 2005 designed to investigate the dynamics which brought Bishopstone village into being as a permanent fixture in the landscape. Long description: This excavation at the heart of the East Sussex village of Bishopstone provides a rare microcosm of the birth and consolidation of a later Anglo-Saxon settlement and its community during a formative period in the development of the English countryside. This report seeks to examine and appraise the site remains in detail alongside historical, topographical, and other comparative evidence to offer an interdisciplinary perspective on the 'making' of Bishopstone as a high-status 'manorial' complex within its coastal dowland setting. Placed under the analytical spotlight, the extensive datasets recovered from the excavations have created a clear visualisation of a later Anglo-Saxon manorial complex including glimpses of daily life that reflect directly on Bishopstone's role as an estate centre engaged in the exploitation of a rich array of natural resources. That role finds clear embodiment in a planned complex of timber structures, as well as a formal division of space reflected in the use of prescribed refuse zones characterised by dense concentrations of pits. The material culture assemblages allow this picture to be taken further with evidence for a multiplicity of crafts, procurement strategies, and agrarian regimes geared towards the conversion of estate surplus and a lifestyle of conspicuous consumption. Adding a human dimension to this picture is the analysis of an excavated portion of a contemporary burial ground whose encroachment shows how spaces of the living and the dead were redefined within the evolving confines of a settlement anchored to the landscape through its church. Radiocarbon dating not only helps to place these and other developments within a secure chronological framework, but also calls into question traditional typological dating provided by floating pottery sequences. In common with many surviving vestiges of the early medieval past, the way in which later Anglo-Saxon estate centres like Bishopstone are conceptualised depends heavily upon disciplinary approaches and the handling of different sources of evidence. Rather than attempt to smooth over such tensions, this report includes a fully developed historical synthesis which argues that the archaeological sequence brought to bear at Bishopstone can be read as a narrative charting the emergence, secularisation, and ultimate decline of an Anglo-Saxon minster. The resulting dialogue ensures that the interpretation of the excavated remains is situated within wider notions of socio-economic change between the 7th to the 11th centuries, so placing Bishopstone centre-stage in current debates on characterising later Anglo-Saxon settlements. The detailed case study of Anglo-Saxon development at Bishopstone will be valuable reading for archaeologists and historians of early medieval England, as well as anyone interested in the regional archaeology of the southern chalklands.

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