Place-Name and Archaeological Evidence for Anglo-Saxon and Viking Settlement in the East Midlands - page 5
Keywords: Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, East Midlands, Anglo-Saxon Settlement, History, Anglo-Saxons, Anglo Saxons, Vikings, Place-Names, Archaeology, Place Names, Nomenclature, Onomastics
By elliot5200 on 18/02/2007
Level: Bachelor Honours Degree (BA, BEng, BSc etc)
Page Number: 5 of 6 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6
seem to resemble those of peasants, rather than aristocratic overlords. Thus, Viking settlement is often over-emphasised in some areas.
The little burial evidence from the Vikings also seems to indicate that Viking settlement was over-emphasised. Excavations from a male burial at St Wystan’s Church in Repton, Derbyshire found alongside the body, a Thor’s hammer, the tusk of a wild boar and the bone of a jackdaw, which are types of material culture also associated with the pagan Anglo-Saxons. Thus, there is little evidence of a replacement of one material culture by another, but instead, of a form of material culture, which blends old and new traditions. This cultural continuation is also apparent with the Anglo-Saxons, who, even after the Conversion, named some of their English settlements after gods from their pagan past. For example, the towns Thorne and Thornhill, which are named after Thor. This enabled them to translate their Germanic ancestral heritage onto their new English landscapes.
The burial at Repton belongs to Iguuar, who was one of the Great Army’s leaders, as suggested by Æthelweard. Igguar is believed to have died in 873, which would correspond with the date of the Vikings’ occupation of Repton. The discontinuation of pagan cremations and the burials in a church are evidence of the Vikings adopting English habits of burial. This highlights the strength of Christianity in England in the East Midlands in the ninth century, which was powerful enough to convert pagan incomers. It is somewhat surprising that such a large and powerful army, as portrayed by the Anglo-Saxons, succumbed to this pressure so quickly and that they left such little evidence.
Unwin accounts for the lack of archaeological evidence for the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons by suggesting that many of their settlements would have been made from wood, which has a ‘very low survival rate.’ Important evidence may have also been removed by subsequent building and by the primitive archaeological practices of the nineteenth century, compared to those of today, which may have disturbed the surface layers of excavated sites.
Using place-names as evidence for settlements can sometimes be misleading. The Vikings would sometimes coin settlements after the Anglo-Saxons, as well as themselves. For example, the place-name Ingleby implies that a village owned by the English was in the area. Moreover, field names are often recorded a long time after the actual Viking settlements and therefore, merely indicate that Scandinavian loan words
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