Sutton Courtenay/Drayton, Oxon

English Heritage summaries. 2007/2008

It was at Sutton Courtenay, in the first half of the 20thcentury,  that the first Anglo-Saxon settlement in England recognised as such was excavated by E. T. Leeds. Since those excavations evidence has accumulated which suggests that the site was both more extensive and of higher status than the squalid group of sunken huts Leeds had imagined. Aerial photographs have revealed the presence of a group of large timber halls. Fine metalwork, including 6th- and 7th-century dress ornaments and a group of fourteen sceattas discovered by metal-detectorists suggest that a cemetery and a market may have existed nearby.
 Because of the potential significance of these discoveries for our understanding of the development of Anglo-Saxon society, and because the site was suffering from the effects of deep-ploughing, English Heritage agreed to fund a programme of field investigation to assess the extent, character and state of preservation of the remaining archaeological remains. The project involved collaboration between Oxford Archaeology, Helena Hamerow of the Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford, and English Heritage’s Centre for Archaeology.
 The work was centred on a large field extending eastwards from the edge of the group of Anglo-Saxon timber halls, adjacent to the parish boundary between Sutton Courtenay and Drayton. It involved fieldwalking, geophysical survey, limited excavation, and analysis of finds recovered by metal-detectorists. Alongside the Anglo-Saxon evidence, features from earlier periods, including a small group of earlier Neolithic pits, an Iron Age settlement, and a Roman field system were also revealed.
 The results of these investigations now show that the Anglo-Saxon settlement at Sutton Courtenay is the first such complex in which large timber halls have been identified in association with Grubenhäuser and, very probably, a cemetery and market. Although, because of the limited extent of excavation, the relationships between these elements have not been completely clarified, it is now possible to suggest a sequence of Anglo-Saxon occupation.
 The earliest Anglo-Saxon features were the Grubenhäuser excavated by Leeds which contained finds spanning the fifth to at least the seventh centuries. A structure identified as a result of the geophysical survey as likely to have been Grubenhaus turned out, upon excavation, to be a waterhole cut by later pits. Nonetheless, the survey and aerial photographs suggest that the Grubenhäuser extend over an area stretching 750 m north-south and was of comparable dimensions to the two largest Anglo-Saxon settlements at Mucking and West Heslerton. As at these other sites, the apparent extent of the settlement is likely to reflect shifts in the focus of settlement over time.
 The cemetery is so far evidenced only by metalwork. Although an isolated jaw bone was found, excavation in the field from which the metalwork was recovered has not identified any graves. Some of the metalwork, such as a pair of saucer brooches, suggests that the cemetery was established in the first half of the 6th century. The finest pieces, however, which include a gold disc brooch, copper alloy mounts and a Style II disc-shaped escutcheon, suggest that the site acquired a special status at the end of the 6th or early in the 7th century, and indicate that at least one, and possibly several high status individuals were interred here.
 Although details of the plank-construction of one of the timber halls was revealed, the limited excavation provided no direct evidence for the hall’s date. By analogy with comparable sites, however, they probably belong to the 7th-century, and may, therefore, have been contemporary with some of the Grubenhäuser. They are comparable in size to the similar buildings at Yeavering and Cowdery’s Down. As has been noted at other Anglo-Saxon sites, the halls seem to have been deliberately sited close to a group of prehistoric (Late Neolithic-early Bronze Age) barrows.
 The late 7th- to 8th-century sceattas are amongst the latest finds. Fourteen were found, as isolated discoveries rather than as a group. They suggest that the area had become an meeting place and an important location for trade.
 The significance of the sequence at Sutton Courtenay in relation to other nearby high-status sites, such as the burials at Milton and further timber halls at Long Wittenham, is discussed further in the published report, forthcoming in the Archaeological Journal.
 Of the earlier finds, the most notable was an unusual late Bronze Age of a woman, 35 to 45 years old, found tightly crouched, probably originally bound, head down, in a shallow pit. A small group of early Neolithic pits were excavated, possibly contemporary with the nearby cursus monument. They contained assemblages of snails suggesting a partly-open environment, possibly grassland, with perhaps some woodland close by. The geophysical survey also revealed some details of an oval barrow, already known from aerial photographs.
 A number of features - postholes, pits, and ditches - belonging to the Iron Age settlement and Roman field system were also excavated. Both seem to have been typical of such sites in the region. The field system may have been related to the nearby Drop Short Roman villa. An Anglo-Saxon sherd found in the top of a ditch which defined one side of a Roman droveway suggests that the Roman division of the landsdcape may have survived at least as visible features, if not as a working system, into the Anglo-Saxon period.

This page was published on 08/04/2008