The growth and development of towns and urbanism in the pre-modern world has been of interest to archaeologists since the nineteenth century. Much of the early archaeological research on urban origins focused on regions such as Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Mesoamerica. Intensive archaeological research that has been conducted since the 1960s, much of it as a result of urban redevelopment, has shed new light on the development of towns in Anglo-Saxon England. In this book, Pamela Crabtree uses up-to-date archaeological data to explore urban origins in early medieval Britain. She argues that many Roman towns remained important places on the landscape, despite losing most of their urban character by the fifth century. Beginning with the decline of towns in the fourth and fifth centuries, Crabtree then details the origins and development of towns in Britain from the 7th century through the Norman Conquest in the mid-eleventh century CE. She also sets the development of early medieval urbanism in Britain within a broader, comparative framework.
Author(s): Pam J. Crabtree
Series: Case Studies in Early Societies
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2018
Language: English
Pages: XVIII+228
List of Figures ix
List of Tables xii
Preface xiii
Introduction 1
Who Were the Anglo-Saxons? 1
An Outsider's View of Anglo-Saxon Urban Origins 3
Archaeology and Urban Origins 5
Theoretical Perspectives 6
A Processual Plus Perspective 9
Models of Medieval Urbanism 12
The Organization of This Volume 15
1. The End of Urbanism in Roman Britain 18
Introduction 18
The Archaeological Evidence 27
Winchester 27
London 30
Wroxeter 32
Other Roman Towns 36
Recent Approaches to Late Roman Urbanism in Britain 43
Box: Oppida 44
Conclusions 46
2. Early Anglo-Saxon England: Settlement, Society, and Culture 50
Historical Background 50
Chronological Issues 55
The Archaeology of Early Anglo-Saxon Settlement 57
Settlement Changes in the Late 6th and 7th Centuries 71
Western Britain in the 5th–7th Centuries 83
3. Middle Saxon Settlement and the Rise of the Emporia: The Archaeology of the Wics and Contemporary Sites 86
Introduction 86
Background 88
Middle Saxon Changes in Settlement Patterns 89
The "7th-Century Shuffle" and the Establishment of New Estate Centers 90
Archaeology of the Wic Sites or Emporia 97
Ipswich 98
Hamwic (Middle Saxon Southampton) 106
History of the Excavations 106
The Archaeological Evidence 108
Eorforwic (Anglian York) 114
History of the Excavations 114
Archaeology at Anglian York 116
Lundenwic 121
History of the Excavations 121
Anglo-Saxon Lundenwic 123
Other Possible Emporia 128
Conclusions Regarding the Wic Sites 128
The End of the Emporia 134
Other Possible Middle Anglo-Saxon Towns: 8th-Century Mercian Burhs 136
4. Towns in Late Anglo-Saxon England 138
Background and Introduction 138
Late Anglo-Saxon Winchester and a Model for Planned Towns in Wessex 141
Box: Geophysical Survey in Archaeology 150
London: From Wic to Burh 157
Yorvik: Anglo-Scandinavian York 160
Viking Dublin 166
Late Saxon Ipswich 168
Norwich 169
Thetford 171
The Pattern of Urban Development in Late Saxon England 171
Conclusions 178
The Rebirth of Towns in Anglo-Saxon England 178
Examining the Urban Revolution in Early Medieval Britain 182
Urbanism in Later Prehistoric Europe 185
Comparisons to the Hawaiian Case: State Formation without Urbanism 188
Final Thoughts 191
Bibliography 193
Index 217
