Early Medieval Wales

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EARLY MEDIEVAL WALES


The archaeology of early medieval Wales has been studied largely within a historical framework primarily derived from sources created late in the period under consideration, about a.d. 400 to 1000, with many of the written sources even later than this and their relevance to earlier periods inferred. Two major themes have emerged from research, that of elite settlements and ecclesiastical archaeology. Elite settlements were first defined at Dinas Powys, Glamorganshire, with the presence of imported vessels and craft production debris. Subsequent excavations have widened the range of such site types, but they have done little to reveal later high-status sites or much of the lower-level settlements of any part of the period. Ecclesiastical archaeology has relied heavily on sculpture and inscriptions but has been augmented by important excavated evidence of burial. Research has also increased the evidence for Viking settlement, and there is lively debate regarding the interpretation of the inscribed stones and sculpture.


post-roman continuity

Some late Roman military activity is known at sites such as Cardiff, various locations on Anglesey, and at Caernarfon. These are thought to have been a reaction to Irish raids that led to Irish settlement in several parts of Wales. Even after the Roman military presence ceased around a.d. 410, aspects of Roman life continued into the fifth and sixth centuries, though settlement evidence for this is inconclusive and relies more on later inscriptions discussed below.

Several high-status Romanized sites in southeastern Wales show reuse. At villas such as Llantwit Major there may have been continuity of estates that later came within a monastic context. Other religious foundations were created at Roman sites such as Caer Gybi, Anglesey, in northwestern Wales and Caerwent, Gwent, in southeastern Wales, though in these cases there may have been a considerable hiatus between Roman abandonment and early medieval use. In some cases such as Cold Knap, Glamorganshire, the occupation seems secular, and was set in the ruins of the Roman structures. Here, again, a gap in occupation is suggested. Some continuity of settlement is demonstrated at a few burial locations discussed below, suggesting that estates and communities may have continued, even if the location and nature of settlement sites on those estates altered following the end of the Roman period.

Hillforts in Wales have produced evidence of late Roman occupation, and a few have activity from the early medieval period also, although continuity of settlement or repeated episodes of reuse are both possible. Several native settlements such as Graeanog, Gwynedd, and some of the enclosed farmsteads around Llawhaden, Pembrokeshire, suggest that such sites continued to attract habitation into the fifth and sixth centuries.

The most obvious archaeological evidence for continuity of Roman traditions and elements of culture comes from some of the inscribed stones. Though difficult to date, some from the fifth and others from the sixth century show clear affiliations with the Roman world. For some, the tradition of inscribed stones in Latin was introduced into Wales from southern Gaul in the fifth century. For others, they demonstrate a more complex pattern with continuity of Christianity and Romanitas within Wales, although with influence from the Continent. The use of Latin titles such as magistratus on memorials with crude but clearly Roman-style lettering might be taken to indicate an administrative structure, heavily adapted to more uncertain and less centralized times but which had aspirations to continue the traditions or at least the aura of Roman rule. Charles Thomas has argued that some inscriptions contain complex messages hidden within them, though this has been challenged.



irish migrations

Inscribed memorial stones form the main archaeological source of evidence for the movement of Irish population, possibly only an elite, from southern Ireland to northwestern and particularly southwestern Wales. Documentary sources also support this interpretation, as do place-name studies. The tribe that moved to southwestern Wales was the Déisi, and Thomas has suggested that the Iron Age hillfort of Moel Trigarn, Pembrokeshire, which was also used in the Roman period, was perhaps their early base. Excavation at the nearby settlement of Castell Henllys has identified a late Roman or immediately post-Roman refortification of an inland promontory fort. Settlement and control was initially over the northern part of Pembrokeshire, but subsequently spread east and south. The date of initial settlement is uncertain, but it perhaps first began around a.d. 400.

The earliest inscribed stones are probably those only in ogham, a style of writing that was first developed in Ireland, and with Irish words and names. Later inscriptions, from the later fifth and the sixth centuries, occur bilingually in ogham and Latin, and it is during this phase that obvious Christian features also occur. Irish and British names can now be noted, and relationships between individuals (usually X son of Y) were often recorded.

Less substantial evidence for Irish settlement has also been found in the Lleyn Peninsula of northwestern Wales, and in Brecknockshire (present-day Breconshire) in central southern Wales. In Brecknockshire, a kingdom of Brycheiniog was carved out of territory along the river Usk, and the presence of a number of bilingual inscriptions containing ogham suggests that this was also linked to Irish settlement. This may have been a secondary movement from southwestern Wales. Another piece of evidence that suggests an elite link with Ireland, and one that was continued over generations, is the presence at Brecknockshire of the only known crannog, an early medieval lake settlement of characteristically Irish type, in Llangorse Lake. Excavations there have shown that little survives of the settlement itself, though dendrochronological dates from planking suggest dates of a.d. 890 and 893 for at least one phase of development. Some of the early medieval artifacts recovered from the silts around the crannog are probably earlier in date and suggest a long period of occupation. The finds include items with a clear Irish origin, such as a pseudo-penannular brooch fragment and a fragment of a portable reliquary shrine of the eighth century.



secular settlement

A number of sites have been located in Wales that are considered to be elite secular settlements. The first of these to be investigated, and the one that has conditioned interpretations and expectations since, was that of Dinas Powys. Extensive excavation within the interior of the small inland promontory fort located slight traces of two rectangular structures that have been tentatively interpreted as a hall and barn. Little survived within these buildings, but in contrast some middens were excavated that provided rich finds of many kinds.

The early medieval pottery from the site was all imported; it was identified as belonging to four major classes, namely A, B, D, and E, and classified on their form and fabric as defined at the site of Tintagel, Cornwall, where they were first recognized. Class A pottery at Dinas Powys seems to be of early-sixth-century Phocaean Red Slip Ware, originally from the eastern Mediterranean. These fine tablewares comprised bowls and dishes, one of which had stamped designs on the interior base. The B ware sherds were from amphorae vessels, and these have been further subdivided by subsequent scholars into categories such as Bi and Bii as more research on the forms and fabrics in the Mediterranean has allowed distinctive types with particular origins to be identified in Britain and Ireland. Dinas Powys has produced Bi material from the Aegean, Bii sherds date to the middle or later sixth century having come from the eastern Mediterranean, and B Misc, which has not been closely provenanced. In contrast to these Mediterranean products, there were also forty-six sherds of D ware in tableware bowls and in mortaria, mixing bowls of a Roman tradition. These were probably made in France, perhaps the Bordeaux region, and were a rare import to Britain. Dinas Powys also produced Roman-style bowls, storage jars, and pitchers in E ware of the late sixth and seventh centuries. E ware may also have been produced in France.

International contacts are also attested through the presence of glass, which in the 1980s was the subject of reassessment. It can now be seen as material of Continental origin, but not all from the same sources that supplied Anglo-Saxon England, suggesting that some came along the same routes as the imported ceramics.

Leslie Alcock defined Dinas Powys as a llys site, the residence of a king or prince, based on evidence from the Welsh Laws, though these only survive in a later form. The llys formed the central point within the maerdref, land which supported the llys. These lands were set within the larger unit, the commote, and above that was the cantref. This administrative structure was in use by the end of the period under consideration here, though its applicability several centuries earlier is less certain.

The interpretation of Dinas Powys as a high-status site was based on the presence of exotic imported goods and from the way in which the elites in less complex stratified societies controlled production and distribution of craft products such as jewelry. The attribution to a llys was additionally based on the faunal assemblage that was thought to match what would be expected if the site had been supplied by food renders as described in the Welsh Laws. Discoveries in the 1990s found B ware ceramics at the nearby monastery of Llandough, which might indicate a high-status ecclesiastical site under the patronage of the Dinas Powys elite. This pairing of major secular and ecclesiastical sites has been suggested as a typical pattern, though this has yet to be firmly demonstrated.

Following the identification of Dinas Powys as a defended elite site, many other forts were proposed as examples of this type. Few, however, have produced conclusive evidence, although some such evidence was recovered below late medieval activity at the hilltop site of Degannwy, Gwynedd. Excavations at Hen Gastell, Glamorganshire, in the early 1990s have located another such site, heavily damaged by quarrying but displaying a range of sixth- and seventh-century finds—Bi, and possibly Bii, amphorae; D and E ware, as well as Continental glass vessels—on a small hilltop location. Craft activity there was demonstrated by the presence of lumps of fused glass. Documentary evidence hints that the major political center in the area may have been at Margam, where a possible secular site and a definite major monastic site with inscribed monuments have been identified.

Another probable high-status settlement has been excavated at Longbury Bank, Pembrokeshire. Again dated to the sixth and seventh centuries by imported ceramics (Ai, Bi, Bii, Biv, D, and E wares) and glass, this was an undefended settlement on a low promontory. This suggests a wider range of types of high-status sites than previously had been considered. Structural evidence was limited: one small building was found, set in a rock-cut platform, but all other settlement evidence had been destroyed by later agriculture. Craft activity was demonstrated by scrap copper alloy and silver, and also crucibles, heating trays, and metal droplets. The early monastic site of Penally lay only 1 kilometer away, and the secular defended site of Castle Hill, Tenby, was only 2 kilometers distant. This suggests that there may have been quite a high density of these higher-status sites in a region, though they may have formed networks of functionally distinct sites used by the same elite group.

Other defended sites such as Carew, Pembrokeshire, indicate that more of the early elite sites may often lie beneath later castles, and other site types undoubtedly await discovery. For example, sand dunes around the coast contain early medieval artifacts in some numbers, suggesting activity there, and these finds probably represent a category of settlement yet to be revealed through excavation.

Attempts to find later elite residences have not been successful, with documented high-status sites at both Mathrafal, Powys, and Aberffraw, Anglesey, remaining elusive, despite considerable investment in survey and excavation. Within the boundaries of the present Principality of Wales lies the Anglo-Saxon burh at Rhuddlan, with Late Saxon material culture and structures within an urban context of the ninth and tenth centuries, although there is no indication that the native population imitated this settlement form. Anglo-Saxon occupation spread across parts of northeastern Wales, and physical boundaries between the Welsh and the Anglo-Saxon were defined by the construction of linear earthworks. Known as Offa's and Wat's Dykes, they have been subject to much detailed survey and limited excavation beginning in the late 1960s. Although they are extremely difficult to date closely enough to link with specific historical events, they probably belong to the later ninth century.



burials

Evidence for burial in Wales comes from a range of sources. Although the Irish inscribed stones were memorials, not all may have been set up at the burial sites themselves, and the overwhelming majority are now no longer in their original positions. Evidence has therefore mainly come through casual discoveries and archaeological excavations.

Open cemeteries, discovered because of their adjacency to prehistoric remains including barrows and standing stones, have been found at several sites scattered across Wales. The most notable are Capel Eithen on Anglesey, Llandegai in Gwynedd, Tandderwen in Clwyd, and Plas Gogerddan in Cardiganshire. Orientation was roughly east-west, though with a tendency toward a more northeast-southwest alignment. Bone survival was slight, and so sexing of the burials was not possible, but the size of the grave cuts shows that both adults and children were buried at some sites, though others were just for adults. Some of the interments had surviving wooden coffin stains. A few of the graves were surrounded by square structures, but these vary in form within and between sites. Some, such as those at Tandderwen, were clearly ditches that silted up naturally, and the central area may have been covered with a mound. In other cases, there were foundations for a building. At Plas Gogerddan a plank-built structure 4.5 by 3.2 meters could be identified, with a doorway to the east. At Capel Eithen, flooring survived within the wooden structure; this floor sealed the central grave. Graves with rectangular ditches or structures are also known from southern England, and some Anglo-Saxon graves have been noted as parallels. Some burial sites in Scotland also have square barrows, but these seem to be of a different tradition.

The dating of the cemeteries with the square enclosures has primarily been through radiocarbon dating. Coffin stains have been dated approximately to a.d. 430–690 and a.d. 770–1050 at Tandderwen, a.d. 265–640 at Plas Gogerddan, and a more problematic Roman or eighth- or ninth-century date from Capel Eithen. Clearly, most if not all such burials date to the early medieval period in Wales, but more precise chronology for these cemeteries is still uncertain and so their relationship with church burial sites cannot be interpreted.

Some other sites have produced evidence of simple earth-dug inhumation cemeteries, including ones such as that at the Atlantic Trading Estate, Barry. This continued from the second century up to perhaps the tenth century a.d., and may be the cemetery for an estate established in the Roman period with the same family members using it for generations.

A particular form of burial that has been identified for this period in Wales, and which has parallels in southwestern England, Scotland, and Ireland, is the long-cist burial, where stone slabs set on edge have been placed around the edge of the grave and, in some cases, across the top of the inhumation. Long-cist burials occur in cemeteries, with the graves aligned east-west. Many such sites have been recorded, particularly in southwestern Wales, but few have been scientifically examined. One at Bayvil, Pembrokeshire, was set within an Iron Age enclosure, and contained numerous long-cist graves, one dated by radiocarbon to a.d. 640–883. Later examples of long-cist graves have been found at church sites, dated up to the twelfth century, so this method of burial had a long life and was used in cemeteries with and without churches.

Relatively few early burials have been found at church sites, and only at Capel Maelog, Powys, have extensive excavations allowed a full sequence of site development to be appreciated. Radiocarbon dates suggest that burial began there after the seventh century when a ditch silted up, but unfortunately only one interment was dated. A coffin stain provided a sample from the ninth or tenth century a.d., confirming the early medieval date for the burials. The cemetery was still in use when a church was built on the site in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century. The only other excavated site with a significant number of early medieval burials is that of Berlland Bach, Bangor, Gwynedd. A total of seventy-eight burials have been found; they varied slightly in orientation, and this may relate to their date.



the church

Many churches that became part of the parochial system in the Norman period may have been built during the early medieval period. The only early standing fabric from Wales is at Presteigne, Powys, but as the surviving fragments of nave and chancel arch are in the Anglo-Saxon style, they provide no indication of native Welsh ecclesiastical architecture. Wooden churches were probably the normal construction, but only a tiny example at Burry Holmes, Glamorgan, has been excavated. This building was only about 3.4 meters by 3.1 meters and so would be very comparable with timber oratory churches excavated in Ireland and southwestern Scotland.

Inscribed stones from the sixth century onward indicate Christian features not only in the use of the Latin phrase hic iacet, "here lies," which occurs elsewhere in Gaul in Christian contexts, but also by definite Christian symbolism. Notable examples include simple crosses with various terminals for the arms, ringed crosses, Chi-Rho symbols (Christograms), and some ringed crosses that resemble a fla-bellum or liturgical fan. Many of these designs can be paralleled in Ireland but that may reflect designs inspired from a common, shared Christian material culture and documentation in Britain, Ireland, and Gaul than on direct copying from one primary source. Historical sources indicate considerable movement of religious personnel within and between these regions, and indeed to other parts of Europe. V. E. Nash-Williams attempted a classification and termed the simple designs associated with ogham and Latin as class 1. Later inscriptions were decorated with various forms of a cross, and some had inscriptions carved with half-uncial style lettering, derived from seventh-century and later manuscript writing; these are termed class 2. The inscriptions are in Latin, with the one exception at Towyn, Merionethshire, which is the earliest surviving example of the written Welsh language.

The latest group of stone sculpture, the class 3 memorials, was carved beginning in the ninth century and continuing until the eleventh century. These are mainly found in southern Wales, where a range of styles is found, with few examples in northern Wales. The class 3 monuments have more elaborate carving than the earlier stones and can be broadly divided into pillar crosses, slab crosses, and cross slabs. Figure representation is rare on the Welsh monuments, and occurs almost completely in the southeast. The main design features were interlace, fret, and key patterns. Though never matching the quality of design and execution of the fine high crosses of Ireland and Scotland, some were substantial monuments.

Many of the early inscribed stones discussed above are now found at ecclesiastical sites, and some may have been erected there. Others, however, have been moved into churches and churchyards in relatively recent times, and so the presence of stones alone does not necessarily indicate an early church site. The likely sites of early churches are suggested by several other features occurring together, such as the use of early saints' names, the presence of a holy spring or well, and a circular or oval churchyard. Some of the major sites can also be linked with documentary references. Aerial photography, particularly in southwestern Wales, has highlighted the presence of outer concentric enclosures around many subcircular churchyards, suggesting possible continuity of late prehistoric and Roman period secular settlements, perhaps given to the church in the early medieval period. These arrangements are also highly reminiscent of some of the concentric enclosures found on Irish monastic sites. As yet there has been insufficient excavation on Welsh sites of this type to determine more regarding their detailed chronology and functions.

Unlike contemporary Ireland, Wales possessed no large monasteries endowed with impressive stone structures. Although there was some sculpture, even this was limited in quantity and quality. Welsh monasteries did contain some small stone buildings, and such institutions owned some relics and libraries, but little survives. A small fragment of a reliquary casket from Gwytherin, Denbighshire, is similar to those surviving in some numbers from Ireland. Fragments of another shrine have been excavated from Llangorse crannog, Brecknockshire, even though that is a secular site.

Welsh monasteries appear relatively impoverished compared with the equivalent contemporary establishments in Ireland and Scotland. This may relate to the relative wealth of such regions, but other factors may have played their part. Welsh cultural expectations were probably that surpluses should be devoted to feasting and almsgiving rather than used for heavy investment in material culture that could be displayed as part of social competition and so survive for archaeological study today. Of particular interest are sculptured crosses of class 3, which, although not numerous and of inferior quality compared with Irish and Scottish high crosses, nevertheless provide evidence for ecclesiastical workshops and patronage.

Written sources late in the early medieval period in Wales survive in some numbers for southeastern Wales, and have been the subject of much scholarship since the 1970s, particularly concerning the charters associated with Llandaff. These demonstrate how Llandaff, and by analogy other successful ecclesiatical sites, became substantial landowners with estates that provided manpower and agricultural produce. Llandaff gained most of its land in the eighth century, and Wendy Davies suggests that this may have been when estates, which had continued intact from the late Roman period, were finally broken up and royalty lost their control of donations to religious houses. At this writing, however, no evidence has come to light that would demonstrate a material shift in ecclesiastical investment in buildings or sculpture at that time.

Scholarship in archaeology and history since the 1990s has highlighted the fact that a Celtic church, distinct from Continental and Anglo-Saxon traditions, never existed. Many administrative powers were held by bishops, though monasteries could be powerful entities. In Wales there could even be some federations of monasteries and dependent churches, as with those linked to Llancarfan, Glamorganshire, but such features also occurred elsewhere in the Christian west. The idea of a Celtic church or a distinctive Celtic Christianity is therefore a modern invention.


viking incursions

Viking raids around the coast of Wales took place in the late tenth and the eleventh centuries and affected monastic establishments in the north, west, and south. A small number of Viking burials have been found, all close to the coast. There were, however, a few Viking settlements, and one was excavated at Llanbedrgoch, Anglesey, in the 1990s. Building 1 of the tenth century was a house 11 meters long and 5 meters wide, with a clear domestic area in the northern part of the structure, with a central hearth and bench or bed areas around the sides. A wide range of artifacts have been recovered from the site, including Hiberno-Norse style artifacts, probably from Viking Dublin, such as ringed pins and an arm-ring trial piece. The Vikings in Wales formed part of a complex network of trading and political links that were built around the two powerful centers of Dublin and York.


conclusions

The pattern of adaptation following the collapse of Roman administration, and the movement of warrior elites to take advantage of any instability seen in Wales, can be paralleled elsewhere in post-Roman Britain. The development of a series of small kingdoms ruled from relatively small but sometimes defended settlements, and linked with ecclesiastical sites established out of patronage, can also be paralleled in Ireland and western Britain. There were, however, distinctive features of the Welsh experience in this period, even if these tended toward small-scale solutions that seem unimpressive in archaeological terms. Monasteries never became large centers, and the secular political structure did not become centralized. Expression through material culture never became a cultural strategy, giving the impression that Wales was poorer than it probably was. Only with the coming of the Anglo-Normans did monumental construction—in castles, churches, monasteries, and planned towns—become an active strategy in Wales, with dramatic remains that now dominate the landscape.

See alsoHillforts (vol. 2, part 6); Viking York (vol. 2, part 7); Raths, Crannogs, and Cashels (vol. 2, part 7); Viking Dublin (vol. 2, part 7).

bibliography

Alcock, Leslie. Economy, Society and Warfare among theBritons and Saxons. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1987. (Updated and expanded version of Alcock 1963.)

——. Dinas Powys. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1963.

Brassil, K. D., W. G. Owen, and W. J. Britnell. "Prehistoric and Early Medieval Cemeteries at Tandderwen, near Denbigh, Clwyd." Archaeological Journal 148 (1991): 46–97.

Britnell, W. "Capel Maelog, Llandrindod Wells, Powys: Excavations 1984–1987." Medieval Archaeology 34 (1990): 27–96.

Campbell, Ewan, and Alan Lane. "Excavations at Longbury Bank, Dyfed, and Early Medieval Settlement in South Wales." Medieval Archaeology 37 (1993): 15–77.

Davies, Wendy. Wales in the Early Middle Ages. Leicester, U.K.: Leicester University Press, 1982. (A comprehensive review by a historian who integrates archaeological evidence effectively.)

Edwards, Nancy, and Alan Lane, eds. The Early Church inWales and the West. Oxbow Monograph 16. Oxford: Oxbow, 1992. (A collection of papers by specialists on various aspects of history and archaeology.)

Murphy, Ken. "Plas Gogerddan, Dyfed: A Multi-Period Burial and Ritual Site." Archaeological Journal 149 (1992): 1–38.

Mytum, Harold. The Origins of Early Christian Ireland. London: Routledge, 1992. (One section of the book considers the migration of Irish to Wales and the impact of this contact on stimulating change in Ireland.)

Nash-Williams, V. E. The Early Christian Monuments ofWales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1950. (The classic work on the stone inscriptions and sculpture, with a detailed catalog and many line drawings; it is due to be replaced by a completely reworked study by Nancy Edwards.)

Quinnell, H., M. Blockley, and P. Berridge. Excavations atRhuddlan, Clwyd: 1969–1973: Mesolithic to Medieval. CBA Research Report, no. 95. London: Council for British Archaeology, 1994.

Redknap, Mark. Vikings in Wales. An Archaeological Quest. Cardiff: National Museums and Galleries of Wales, 2000. (A popular account covering many aspects of Viking Age Wales with abundant color illustrations.)

Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments in Wales. An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments of Glamorgan. Vol. 1, part 3, The Early Christian Period. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1976.

Thomas, Charles. Christian Celts: Messages and Images. Stroud, U.K.: Tempus, 1998. (A controversial account of the inscriptions and their possible hidden meanings. For a substantial critique, see H. McKee and J. McKee, "Counter Arguments and Numerical Patterns in Early Celtic Inscriptions: A Re-examination of Christian Celts: Messages and Images," Medieval Archaeology 46 [2002]: 29–40.)

——. And Shall These Stones Speak? Post-Roman Inscriptions in Western Britain. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1994. (A detailed analysis of the inscriptions and their archaeological and historical implications.)

——. Celtic Britain. London: Thames and Hudson, 1986. (A popular, well-illustrated account covering Cornwall, southwestern England, and Scotland as well as Wales, and so sets Wales in context.)

Wilkinson, P. F. "Excavations at Hen Gastell, Briton Ferry, West Glamorgan, 1991–1992." Medieval Archaeology 39 (1995): 1–50.

Williams, George, and Harold Mytum. Llawhaden, Dyfed:Excavations on a Group of Small Defended Enclosures, 1980–1984. BAR British Series, no. 275. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 1998.

Harold Mytum

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