by Tim Pestell
At this point, it is as well to remember that such sites were known before the widespread use of metal-detectors began in the mid 1970s. Known ‘productive’ sites include those which can be linked to historical explanations for the seventh-to ninth-century period, such as the early monastic sites at Whitby and on the Kentish coast, in addition to the early trading port of Hamwic, Anglo-Saxon Southampton. If these ‘productive’ sites cause few worries in interpretation, might the same also be true of the recently discovered ones when they are set against systematic survey results giving the full range of the seventh-to ninth-century settlement hierarchy? Similarly, useful information can be gained from what are, admittedly, later historical sources that may give clues relating to the status and function of particular sites in the seventh-to ninth-century period. This information can help in the interpretation of known ‘productive’ sites and may be able to suggest where other ones await discovery and why they appear to be at the upper end of the settlement hierarchy. Finally, such comparative studies may help to justify the apparently arbitrary terminology that sees some sites as ‘productive’ and, by definition, others as ‘non-productive’.
FIGURE 9.1. South-east Suffolk, showing the position of Barham and Coddenham in relation to Ipswich, other Middle Anglo-Saxon sites and the local system of Roman roads (sources: Margary 1973; Moore 1988).
As noted above, numerous metal-detector finds have been reported and recorded in Suffolk since the late 1970s. The Ipswich area in south-east Suffolk has been particularly well covered by various detector users. By happy coincidence, this concentration of casual detecting coincides, in part, with the area in the Deben valley covered by the South-East Suffolk Survey as part of the Sutton Hoo Research Project which ran between 1983 and 1991 (Fig. 9.1). The survey was initiated as a clear and explicit project to systematically fieldwalk all the available arable land in a 200 square kilometre block centred on Sutton Hoo and Woodbridge (Wade and West 1983). The primary aim of the survey was to locate and then to characterise Anglo-Saxon sites through extensive and intensive field survey (Newman 1989 and 1992). The creation of a settlement hierarchy based on the size and density of pottery scatters then became possible, and it is fortunate that some of these sites have seen subsequent metal-detector searches. It is therefore now possible to present comparative data, against which any ‘productive’ site can be checked, to see if it is exceptional in terms of the size or character of the finds assemblage recovered.
In south-east Suffolk for the seventh-to ninth-century period the exceptional or ‘productive’ sites are at Barham and Coddenham. While they are not in the survey area shown in Fig. 9.1, they do form part of a settlement pattern which includes the Deben and Gipping valleys. Of the two, Barham is perhaps the better known and more directly comparable with similar sites in eastern England. The site is located on a ridge forty-six metres above sea level, overlooking the River Gipping eight kilometres north-west of Ipswich. It has commanding views over the wide valley to the south and south-west, while to the north the land rises gently onto the nearby boulder clay plateau. The soils at Barham are relatively light and the underlying drift geology is a mix of sand and gravel. Adjacent to the site is the parish church of St Mary’s (Fig. 9.2), which at Domesday owned sixteen acres (DB Suffolk, fo. 383b).
The Gipping valley is rich in archaeological finds of all periods as it contains large areas of light and easily worked soils which have attracted settlement from the earliest times. However, the valley also forms a natural routeway from the coast around the natural harbour of the Orwell estuary over a relatively low watershed to the Lark valley, providing access to west Suffolk and the Fen-edge as shown in Fig. 9.4. The Gipping/Lark corridor presents a convenient cross-country route to the densely settled Fen margins and a viable means of avoiding the longer and probably more perilous sea route around the north Norfolk coast. For the Roman period, the importance of the lower Gipping part of the corridor across Suffolk can be seen by the presence of the small town of Combretovium in Coddenham parish, three kilometres north-west of Barham. Here, a major Roman route, the Pye Road (Margary 1973), enters East Anglia from the south and crosses the River Gipping before heading north for Caistor-by-Norwich (Fig. 9.1). Continued use of the Pye Road into the post-Roman period is confirmed by the presence of the modern A140 on this same alignment, a continuity which could not have been achieved without its use by the Anglo-Saxons. Both Barham and Coddenham sit at a natural crossroads, where various Roman roads converge to ford the River Gipping and link into the valley route which crosses Suffolk (Fig. 9.1).
FIGURE 9.2. Barham, Suffolk, showing the distributions of artefact-types.
Barham is a multi-period site initially noted when Roman material was reported in 1949. Subsequent minor excavation by Ipswich Museum confirmed the Roman settlement evidence but it was not until the advent of metal-detectors in the late 1970s that an AngloSaxon presence came to light. As the initial post-Roman finds included a Merovingian tremissis and a gold stud set with garnets it rapidly became apparent that an important Anglo-Saxon site had been discovered. To date, some 1,000 finds of all periods have been recorded from the site by the Archaeological Service at Suffolk County Council and many of the Anglo-Saxon artefacts have subsequently been published (West 1998, 6–8). Most of the Anglo-Saxon coins and artefacts have subsequently been acquired by the British Museum. Finally, it has been possible to fieldwalk most of the site systematically and to carry out small-scale trial excavation (Fig. 9.2).
By combining the evidence from the metal-detector finds, small-scale excavation and fieldwalking it is possible to get some idea of the nature of the site at Barham. There is some prehistoric material and Iron Age sites are known nearby. The Roman material covers an area of some five hectares with a coin series running up until c. 380. Other finds include brooches and pins as well as an extensive pottery scatter and a moderate amount of tile. Taken together, this probably represents a relatively prosperous rural settlement situated close to a known small town: the small-scale excavation indicates the division of the site into numerous small plots of a probable agricultural origin and there is no indication of high status in the Roman period.
The site at Barham has not produced any evidence of fifth-century activity although there are a few copper-alloy artefacts of probable sixth-century date. In addition, the excavation of nine six-by-six metre trial trenches in 1983 did reveal a scatter of handmade pottery sherds in association with some post-holes that could indicate sixth-century settlement activity. A slightly larger excavation area, of some 500 square metres, was examined in 1981 prior to the construction of a car park for the parish church and this revealed evidence for two timber-built structures of Roman or post-Roman date and two ditches containing Late Anglo-Saxon pottery sherds.
The scatter of seventh-to ninth-century material at Barham covers a similar area to the Roman finds, of around five hectares (Fig. 9.2). The Middle Anglo-Saxon assemblage includes some 50 coins and nearly 150 non-ferrous artefacts. This is clearly an impressive group with the bulk of the coinage dating from between the mid seventh and the mid eighth century and the artefacts indicating an intense level of activity extending into the early ninth century. Later eighth-century coinage is generally rare in East Anglia and Barham has produced relatively few later ninth-or tenth-century coins or artefacts although the presence of Thetford-type ware pottery sherds does indicate a Late Anglo-Saxon domestic presence at least.
In brief, the mid seventh-to mid eighth-century coins from Barham includes the tremissis noted above, which is from the Quentovic mint, two ‘Pada’-type thrymsas, a range of sceattas that covers many of the series including a number of Frisian types, and a high proportion of local Series R coins plus two Beonna pennies. The non-ferrous artefacts have been published in detail (West 1998) and include numerous dress items of probable local origin. In addition, a few Continental items such as a ‘Saint’ brooch (Heiligenfibel), a Merovingian buckle-plate, and some hanging-bowl escutcheons of Celtic
origin have been recovered.
Barham, therefore, has a wealth of seventh-to ninth-century metalwork indicating contacts outside East Anglia to the other kingdoms in the south-east of England as well as across the North Sea and to the west into the Celtic, or British, areas. The pottery collection from the site, on the other hand, is typical for the area in most respects. Gridded fieldwalking recovered some forty sherds of Middle AngloSaxon Ipswich ware, produced c. 700–850, which is directly comparable with other, less ‘productive’ sites nearby and it is likely that a continuous, domestic, rural settlement presence underlies the apparent wealth of Middle Anglo-Saxon Barham. This presence continued once the site had lost its apparently pre-eminent role by the later ninth century. The fieldwalking did recover one imported, Continental, pottery sherd of Middle Anglo-Saxon date which is unusual for a rural site, but which reflects the foreign contacts indicated by the metalwork finds.
For the Middle Anglo-Saxon period at least, therefore, Barham appears to have fulfilled a more complex and central role within the local settlement hierarchy which involved extensive and far-reaching contacts outside of East Anglia at the time Ipswich was growing as a wic, or trading port (Wade 1993), a little lower down the Gipping valley. It appears likely that their functions were at least non-competitive if not complimentary. However, before going into Barham’s possible role in more depth another ‘productive’ site at Coddenham should also be considered.
The first finds from the ‘productive’ site at Coddenham were reported in 1987 as previous metal-detector searches in the parish had concentrated on the area around the small Roman town of Combreto-vium some two kilometres to the south. The Anglo-Saxon site, where the artefact scatter covers an area of nearly six hectares, lies in a small tributary valley just to the north of the main Gipping valley (Fig. 9.1). The line of the Pye Road runs across the valley mouth as it climbs northwards away from the river towards the nearby boulder clay plateau of central Suffolk. Coddenham village with its parish church lies one kilometre to the east of the site. The drift geology in this area is made up of sands and gravels over chalk, giving rise to light, easily worked, soils and a cluster of Early Anglo-Saxon sites around the main Middle Anglo-Saxon finds scatter indicates that this was a preferred area for settlement. While the site is tucked away into a relatively secluded valley it had easy access to the Gipping valley ‘corridor’ and to the Pye Road.
From its initial discovery, the ‘productive’ site at Coddenham has produced a great wealth of coin and non-ferrous artefacts with the bulk of the high quality material being of seventh-or very early eighth-century date. The great majority of the finds from Coddenham were recovered between 1988 and 1996 as the site was intensively searched and re-cultivated several times each winter in order to deter illicit detecting. Most of the artefacts remain with the finders and landowner and have recently been published (West 1998, 20), while the bulk of the coin finds went to auction and are now in various private collections following recording by the British Museum and Suffolk County Council.
For the purposes of this study it is only possible to give a brief summary of the material recovered in order to try and characterise the site. Coddenham has produced some evidence for prehistoric activity including four Iron Age coins which are, curiously enough, slightly unusual examples for Suffolk. Roman finds have been found scattered across the field with enough material to indicate the presence of a small to medium farm site with coinage going through to the mid-fourth century. As with Barham, material from the fifth century is absent although a sixth-century presence is indicated by standard East Anglian brooch and wrist-clasp finds, in addition to a few imported items. This site is one of a small group within a one square kilometre block with potential domestic or cemetery use in the sixth century.
By the early to mid seventh century, activity within the valley became more concentrated on the one, main, site with a wealth of material indicating undoubted high status and far-reaching contacts. The coin group for Coddenham runs from the early seventh century, with a worn late sixth-century tremissis, through to the very early eighth century before coming to an abrupt end. Later Anglo-Saxon coinage on the site is rare, comprising a penny of Eadwald and a tenth-century penny. With over sixty early coins, Coddenham must be seen as ‘productive’ and the composition of the group is exceptional with three tremisses, twelve English thrymsas and some fifty early sceattas. Of particular note is a cut quarter of a tremissis, which indicates real coin use rather than the simple transfer of bullion, as do two contemporary forgeries of Merovingian coins. In addition, an adjacent findspot some 150 metres from the main group has produced a Visigothic tremissis, three early sceattas and a folding balance.
Just as the coin finds are exceptional, so too are the seventh-and early eighth-century artefacts from the site (Fig. 9.3). To date, over 200 items of early Middle Anglo-Saxon date have been recovered, comprising a wide range of copper-alloy dress accessories, fittings, mounts, pins and two fragments of styli. In addition, a number of gold items of the highest quality have been recovered, including a cosmetic scoop (Fig. 9.3a and b), two finger rings and various items of scrap jewellery. The latter items are of particular interest as microscopic examination of one piece (Fig. 9.3c) has shown that the inlaid cloisonné garnets it originally had were prised from their cells, suggesting a possible workshop presence. Similarly some of the copper-alloy material is scrap or off-cut while other artefacts are unfinished, again indicating a workshop on the site.
The case for ‘productive’ sites having extensive external contacts is made elsewhere in this volume, and Barham and Coddenham exhibit an even more varied pattern with Merovingian and Visigothic coinage in addition to North Sea links shown by the sceatta finds (within this latter group Frisian examples are in a high proportion as are ones from south-east England). Finally, contacts with the West should not be overlooked as Coddenham also has a few items of ‘Celtic’ origin.
Coddenham is undoubtedly the most impressive early Middle AngloSaxon assemblage from Suffolk but, at first glance, its interpretation appears problematic. Systematic fieldwalking has produced no Ipswich ware making a domestic origin look unlikely. However, it now appears that Ipswich ware was not produced in large quantities until the early eighth century and the coin evidence indicates that activity at Codden-ham decreased dramatically soon after c. 700. Therefore, any domestic pottery on the site is likely to have been of a more fragile, handmade, type prone to agricultural erosion. A funerary interpretation for the Coddenham assemblage also appears unlikely as it includes workshop waste and too high a number of coins. In addition, archaeological excavation work on a quarry site some 600 metres south, and overlooking the main Coddenham site, has revealed a wealthy cemetery of seventh-to early eighth-century date, with furnished barrows and a bed burial. Grave-goods from the cemetery include copper-alloy bowls of Merovingian type, a Merovingian pot, a tremissis of Dagobert reused as a pendant and an imported fauchard or iron axe. Early eighth-century coins from here mirror the status and contacts of the main site in the valley below.
FIGURE 9.3. Finds from Coddenham. (a) and (b) Side and front views of a unique seventh-century gold cosmetic spatula. (c) Early seventh-century gold ?cross fragment, robbed of its cloisonné-inlaid stones. (d) Sixth-or seventh-century cast copper-alloy mount, possibly from a box or casket. (e) Sixth-century copper-alloy bird brooch with traces of an iron spring on the tail reverse.
With a cemetery of at least fifty graves, and evidence for high status among the burials, a contemporary settlement of similar status should be located nearby. The settlement in question is probably represented by the large artefact scatter, or ‘productive’ site, at Coddenham with its evidence for metalworking, extensive external contacts and literacy. With this high-status seventh-and early eighth-century settlement evidence in mind, it is interesting to note that Coddenham parish has been suggested as a possible early minster site from its complex Domesday Book entry which mentions the ownership of parts of four churches
(Scarfe 1999, 52; see also Pestell, this volume). Any link between a possible minster status and the ‘productive’ seventh-century site is difficult to prove or substantiate but the historical sources do indicate that Coddenham parish had a central role in the Anglo-Saxon period.
A good case can therefore be made for Coddenham being a high status settlement with a range of social and economic contacts, and functions as reflected in the finds assemblage. What then of Barham? Here, direct comparison with nearby Ipswich ware pottery scatters in the Deben valley is instructive. At Sutton for example (Fig. 9.1) a similar, gridded, fieldwalking search recovered a comparable quantity of Ipswich ware from a four-hectare area close to the parish church. However, intensive metal-detector searches over some years have yielded only four sceattas, an Offa penny and ten Middle Anglo-Saxon artefacts. Similarly at Ramsholt in the Deben valley (Fig. 9.1), a gridded search recovered fifteen sherds of Ipswich ware from some two hectares while intensive detector searches located three sceattas, an Eadwald penny and six Middle Anglo-Saxon artefacts. Excavation work on Middle Anglo-Saxon sites in the Deben valley also indicates that the metalwork assemblage from Barham is exceptional and indicative of more than simple, domestic, activities on the site. At Grundisburgh, an area of some 800 square metres was examined close to the parish church revealing a post-built structure associated with Ipswich ware. However, no Middle Anglo-Saxon coins or metal artefacts were found during detector searches on the site. Similarly at Foxhall, open area excavation revealed evidence for two structures, Ipswich ware, but only two copper-alloy artefacts. Here, the metal-detector searches covered the excavation area and a large part of the adjacent field just to the east of the site of the now-demolished parish church. Finally, on the Whitehouse Industrial Estate overlooking the River Gipping to the west of Ipswich, excavation revealed an enclosed Middle Anglo-Saxon settlement. Evidence for three hall-type structures, and a small burial ground without a church was recorded, but the site yielded just one sceatta, a Beonna penny, and no copper-alloy artefacts of any note.
