Archaeology
Study reveals West Sussex’s lost kingdom
A new study, led by archaeologists from UCL Archaeology South-East, has revealed evidence of a lost medieval kingdom in West Sussex, England.
Following the collapse of Roman Britain, the British Isles fragmented into small warring indigenous kingdoms.
Germanic groups such as the Saxons, Angles, Jutes and Frisians, led campaigns of conquest against the indigenous people and established the kingdoms of Sussex, Kent and Essex in the South east.
In the Midlands they founded the kingdoms of Mercia and East Anglia, while further north the kingdom of Northumbria.
Eventually, the kingdoms were dominated by Northumbria and Mercia in the 7th century, by Mercia in the 8th century, and then by Wessex in the 9th century.
According to archaeologist, Dr Michael Shapland, the people of West Sussex successfully resisted Saxon rule for centuries and he questions the narrative about Sussex’s formative history.
The foundation legend of Sussex is provided by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which states that Ælle and three of his sons landed at Cymensora somewhere in Sussex and defeated a defending force of Britons. There he founded the Kingdom of the South Saxons, today referred to as the Kingdom of Sussex.
Dr Shapland argues that Sussex was not one kingdom, but at least three kingdoms with distinct origins, roughly equivalent to modern-day East Sussex, West Sussex, and Hastings. This is supported by a gap in the archaeological record for Saxon occupation in the West Sussex area, in contrast to east of the River Arun which has centuries of Saxon settlement.
“It is not just a lack of Saxon archaeology that is interesting, but also the presence of very rare and significant “British” archaeology. A 5th century AD great stone hall discovered at a Roman villa in Marden, north of Chichester, is one of a handful known anywhere in Britain,” said Dr Shapland.
Sussex is generally held to be the last of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom’s to convert to Christianity. Wilfrid, an English bishop and saint is attributed with Christianising the pagan population of Sussex in AD 681 and built a cathedral at Selsey, the site of the king’s residence.
According to Dr Shapland, there were likely several British churches in the area that predate the possibly biased historical accounts of Wilfred’s ‘successful’ Christianisation of Sussex.
Additionally, the choice of Selsey over the Roman city of Chichester seems illogical. Instead, Dr. Shapland suggests that Wilfred chose an existing church in Selsey and claimed it as his Cathedral as part of a political maneuver, using the Saxon form of Christianity to dominate rival kings.
“Wilfrid’s influence in Sussex would eventually destabilise the kingdom. Æthelwealh was killed in battle by a West Saxon prince named Cædwalla in 685 – partially upon the influence of Wilfrid,” said Dr Shapland.
It is also worth noting that Æthelwealh, whose name means “noble Briton” is a contradiction to the narrative. “Why was this supposed Saxon king using such a British name? Perhaps it is because he wasn’t a Saxon king at all.”
Header Image Credit : Shutterstock
Sources : UCL Archaeology South-East
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
Archaeologists from the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences have been excavating a burial ground associated with the Finnic Muromians.
The Finnic Muromians were groups of settlers that lived within the vicinity of the Volga and Oka rivers. They spoke Muromian, an Uralic language that became extinct following their assimilation by the Slavs.
The burial ground, which dates from the early 10th century AD, was discovered on the eastern bank of the Oka river, located in the Nizhny Novgorod Region of Russia.
A total of seventeen burial pits have been identified, nine of which have been severely damaged through looting.
The surviving 8 burials contain the remains of four children, two women, and two men.
The men were accompanied with an ornate collection of grave goods, including arrowheads, knives, bronze bracelets, iron plates, a bronze buckle, and a whetstone.
At the bottom of one of the pits is a heavily corroded axe, along with a flint that has traces of iron-coated embossed leather and textile threads.
The burials containing women were also accompanied with high status funerary goods, such as a necklace of red-brown prismatic and dark blue berry-shaped beads of Byzantine origin, signet ring-shaped pendants, plate bracelets, a bronze spiral, and a silver ring.
Traces of wood within the pit fillings suggest that they originally contained a wooden structure, similar to a log house made of thin beams and covered with birch bark.
According to the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences: “The culmination of the discoveries at the site were two clay vessels, testifying to direct and close contacts between the right-bank Muromians and the Old Russian population.”
Header Image Credit : Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Sources : Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
Archaeologists from the State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology of Saxony-Anhalt are currently excavating the site of a former gallows in Quedlinburg, Germany.
Gallows are usually wooden structures made of two vertical posts, a horizontal crossbeam, and a hanging noose. They have been used for executing criminals by hanging, a prevalent form of capital punishment in Europe since the Middle Ages.
Archaeologists are currently excavating a gallows site on Galgenberg, or ‘Gallows Hill,’ which was used for public executions by the courts in Quedlinburg from 1662 to 1809.
Excavations have revealed complete and partial burials in the area, along with bone pits containing multiple bundled burials, likely the result of mass executions carried out in a short period.
Image Credit : LDA
According to the State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology of Saxony-Anhalt, “these discoveries provide unique insights into penal practices from the Middle Ages and early modern times.”
A burial unrelated to the gallows has also been unearthed, featuring a wooden coffin containing the skeletal remains of an individual buried with a rosary chain.
Archaeologists propose that the burial’s characteristics suggest that the individual was likely a suicide victim, denied burial in consecrated ground so was placed in the cemetery near the gallows.
Also discovered is a so-called ‘revenant grave’, where the skeletal remains of a man was found placed on his back with several large stones placed across his chest.
According to the researchers, the stones were likely placed to prevent the individual from rising as a revenant, which are described as animated corpses in the verbal traditions and lore of many European ethnic groups.
In medieval times, those inflicted with the revenant condition were generally suicide victims, witches, corpses possessed by a malevolent spirit, or the victim of a vampiric attack.
Header Image Credit : LDA
Sources : State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology of Saxony-Anhalt
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
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