With contributions by G. and F. Bettess, D. J. Craig, J. Hunter, P. C. Lowther, S. McNeil, C. D. Morris, A. Piper, and principal illustrations by Y. Beadnell and N. Emery.
Ebook (PDF) published 2013.
Founded by Benedict Biscop in the late 7th century, the twin monastery of Wearmouth and Jarrow achieved an international reputation through the writings of Bede. Destroyed in the mid-9th century the house was refounded in the 11th and survives to this day as a seat of religious scholarship. This report describes the excavations undertaken at the two sites by Rosemary Cramp between 1959 and 1988. They showed that the founder did indeed build in stone 'in the Roman manner' as the early texts describe, and they provide important evidence into the evolution of monastic plans at this early period. The finds indicate the economic and the international contacts maintained by the monastery, including exotic pottery, and the greatest quantity of 7th and 8th-century coloured window glass from any comparable site. From the later monasteries the evidence demonstrates the changing local and regional economies, and the cemeteries provide long-term demographic evidence. This first volume provides an authoritative study of the fabric and strctures of these two establishments; a second volume will describe the finds and their contexts.
Author(s): Rosemary Cramp
Publisher: English Heritage
Year: 2005
Language: English
Pages: XXII+460
City: Swindon
Figures viii
Tables xiv
Contributors xv
Preface xvi
Acknowledgements xvii
Summary xx
Résumé xxii
Zusammenfassung xxii
Volume 1
Part I
1. Introduction 1
2. The excavations
3. The pre-monastic background 23
4. The documentary history 31
Part II: Wearmouth
5. Interventions and discoveries pre-1959 43
6. St. Peter’s Church 56
7. The excavations south of St. Peter’s Church 73
8. The Wearmouth burial ground 76
9. The excavated Anglo-Saxon structures 91
10. The excavated Late Saxon and Norman structures 115
11. The medieval and post-medieval occupation 123
Part III: Jarrow
12. Introduction: the Anglo-Saxon period 145
13. St. Paul’s Church 147
14. Excavations around the church 169
15. The Jarrow pre-Norman burial ground 173
16. The excavated monastic buildings 187
17. The Late Anglo-Saxon/Early Medieval occupation 242
18. The medieval occupation 251
19. The monastic buildings and the Norman and medieval phase 1 occupation 263
20. The Later Medieval phase 2 occupation 296
21. The boundaries of the medieval cell on the south: Jarrow Slake excavations 1973–1976 317
22. The post-Dissolution occupation of the site 338
Part IV: Discussion section
23. The changing economy of the sites 341
24. The Anglo-Saxon monastic sites of Wearmouth/Jarrow within the context of their time 348
25. Conclusions and prospects 362
Part V. Reference section
Appendix A: A selection of the documentary sources 365
Appendix B: The graphic record 381
Notes 401
Abbreviations and Bibliography 402
Index 428
