by Angus Young
A detailed picture of life in Anglo-Saxon Holderness is being revealed for the first time by archaeologists after a series of excavations along the route of underground offshore wind farm cables.
It has long been clear the area was inhabited by the Anglo-Saxons some 1,500 years ago because of the origins of the names of many local villages.
Archaeological discoveries in recent years have confirmed this, but now new finds recorded at 22 sites along the 20-mile cable route between Ulrome and Beverley have uncovered a raft of fresh information about the period, including several previously unknown settlements.
A new online exhibition featuring details of the finds and the wider excavations that form part of the Dogger Bank Wind Farm project was launched earlier this week.
While a perfectly preserved 6,000-year-old flint arrowhead found at one of the sites is perhaps the most exciting single item unearthed during the work, experts from AOC Archaeology Group say they are probably more thrilled about finding the remains of an Anglo-Saxon long hall structure between Beeford and Skipsea and evidence of settlements of round houses near Ulrome, Beeford and Leven.
Long halls were typically homes to someone of a high status and were also used for formal functions. Made from wattle and daub, round houses were usually more basic homes that provided shelter for both humans and some animals as well as dry storage space for food, wood and crops.
At the largest settlement near Leven, it is thought a cluster of eight round houses existed at one point. Both the footings of the long hall and the round houses were revealed by a series of tell-tale holes where large wooden poles would have been sunk to create a frame for the buildings.
AOC Archaeology Group project manager Rebecca Jarosz-Blackburn said: “The amount of Anglo-Saxon features at some of the sites was quite extraordinary and locating long halls was a particular highlight. They would have been quite large buildings, around 16 metres by five metres, with enormous wooden beams.
“One very interesting feature that we confirmed was that they were constructed at the high point of the local landscape, almost certainly for drainage purposes because it would have been drier being a couple of metres higher than the surrounding land and it would also have provided a good view.”
Similarly, the round houses were mainly built on beds of gravel to give them better drainage in what would have been predominantly flood-prone wetland.
Rebecca said unearthed evidence suggested some of the round house sites could date back to Roman times, while a glass bead found near Ulrome was probably made in the Iron Age.
“It could have been worn by a man or woman, possibly strung as part of a necklace or bracelet, tied into hair or attached to clothing,” she added.
A fragment of a long-handled bone comb was another Iron Age discovery. Such combs were commonly used for textile production and weaving.
Industry of a different kind in the form of Iron Age or Roman metalworking was also found in numerous man-made pits and gullies where waste slag was dumped.
While the archaeological work on the ground is over, the study of excavated material is ongoing. This includes the use of radiocarbon dating to accurately determine the age of organic remains by analysing the decay of radioactive isotopes.
Beyond that, there will also be ongoing research into the nature and function of some of the main sites, their chronology and longevity and what they can tell us about the environmental conditions of the time.
The team at AOC also plans to compare the sites to others in the region, such as Skipsea Castle, as well as further afield.
Meanwhile, as well as the permanent online exhibition, a number of 3D replicas of some of the most outstanding finds have been created to form part of a hands-on education programme involving local schools.
AOC and officials from the Dogger Bank Wind Farm are also considering options for permanently displaying the original artefacts once they have fully been analysed, with a preference to find a home close to where they were unearthed.
The online exhibition can be visited at doggerbank.com/archaeology.
