Books by Christopher Scull
This fully illustrated account of the princely burial at Prittlewell, Southend-on-Sea, Essex, sum... more This fully illustrated account of the princely burial at Prittlewell, Southend-on-Sea, Essex, summarises the results of intensive research, studying the excavated evidence from the intact and lavishly furnished burial chamber. The man who was buried there at the end of the 6th century AD was evidently a Christian but accompanied by an astonishing array of grave goods. Using a range of techniques and a team of over 40 experts, this internationally important discovery has revealed much about the man and the East Saxon kingdom where he lived, and its contacts with Kent, Francia and the Christian Mediterranean. This publication was funded by Southend-on-Sea Borough Council.
https://www.mola.org.uk/anglo-saxon-princely-burial-prittlewell-southend-sea
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MOLA Monograph Series 73, 2019
This internationally important, late 6th-century AD princely burial was discovered in 2003 at Pri... more This internationally important, late 6th-century AD princely burial was discovered in 2003 at Prittlewell, Southend-on-Sea, Essex, within an existing early Anglo-Saxon cemetery. Detailed research, scientific analyses and investigative conservation since have produced exciting new information, enabling the reconstruction of the large wooden chamber grave and the coffin of a man buried with small gold crosses, suggesting that he was a Christian. The lavishly furnished chamber included an astonishing array of grave goods – some still hanging on the chamber walls – indicating that he was of the highest status and that the East Saxon kingdom where he lived had contacts with Kent, Merovingian Francia and the Christian Mediterranean world. This research was funded by Southend-on-Sea Borough Council and Historic England.
https://www.mola.org.uk/prittlewell-princely-burial-excavations-priory-crescent-southend-sea-essex-2003
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The Early Anglo-Saxon Period is characterized archaeologically by the regular deposition of artef... more The Early Anglo-Saxon Period is characterized archaeologically by the regular deposition of artefacts in human graves in England. The scope for dating these objects and graves has long been studied, but it has typically proved easier to identify and enumerate the chronological problems of the material than to solve them. Prior to the work of the project reported on here, therefore, there was no comprehensive chronological framework for Early Anglo-Saxon Archaeology, and the level of detail and precision in dates that could be suggested was low.
The evidence has now been studied afresh using a co-ordinated suite of dating techniques, both traditional and new: a review and revision of artefact-typology; seriation of grave-assemblages using correspondence analysis; high-precision radiocarbon dating of selected bone samples; and Bayesian modelling using the results of all of these. These were focussed primarily on the later part of the Early Anglo-Saxon Period, starting in the 6th century. This research has produced a new chronological framework, consisting of sequences of phases that are separate for male and female burials but nevertheless mutually consistent and coordinated. These will allow archaeologists to assign grave-assemblages and a wide range of individual artefact-types to defined phases that are associated with calendrical date-ranges whose limits are expressed to a specific degree of probability.
Important unresolved issues include a precise adjustment for dietary effects on radiocarbon dates from human skeletal material. Nonetheless the results of this project suggest the cessation of regular burial with grave goods in Anglo-Saxon England two decades or even more before the end of the seventh century. That creates a limited but important discrepancy with the current numismatic chronology of early English sceattas. The wider implications of the results for key topics in Anglo-Saxon archaeology and social, economic and religious history are discussed to conclude the report.
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This report deals with two burial-sites in use during the period from the 5th to the 8th centurie... more This report deals with two burial-sites in use during the period from the 5th to the 8th centuries AD excavated by Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service within the modern administrative boundaries of the town of Ipswich at Boss Hall Industrial Estate, and at St Stephen’s Lane and Buttermarket. Further burials found at Elm Street and Foundation Street are published in an appendix.
The cemetery at Boss Hall Industrial Estate was excavated over a short time in May 1990 in response to unexpected discoveries during construction-work, the main excavation being completed in three days. Two further inhumations and a fragmentary cremation were recorded in 2001 during a watching-brief. The cemetery at St Stephen’s Lane and Buttermarket was recorded as part of a major set-piece excavation in 1987-88 in advance of redevelopment.
The report is in three main parts. The first two are conventionally-structured reports on each of the burial-sites (Boss Hall; St Stephen’s Lane/Buttermarket), each with a summary of the excavation and site-sequence, full grave-catalogues, scientific and technical analyses, and discussions of chronology, material culture, cultural practice, demography and immediate context as appropriate. The discussion on the dating of the St Stephen’s Lane/Buttermarket graves takes advantage of the latest developments in high-precision radiocarbon dating. The final section of the report is a synthetic discussion and overview which takes a comparative view and seeks to establish the local, regional and wider context of the sites.
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Papers by Christopher Scull
In A Richardson et al (eds). Transitions and Relationships over Land and Sea in the Early Middle Ages of Northern Europe, 131-40. Sandgate: Isle Heritage CIC, 2023
The term “transition” is a commonplace in archaeological approaches to change over the medium to ... more The term “transition” is a commonplace in archaeological approaches to change over the medium to longer term. The use of the concept can, however, be problematic, and if it is to be useful it is necessary to apply it critically, considering the context, the theoretical attitudes and approaches that the term embodies, and some of the preconceptions or implications that it can carry. Transition, redolent of processual social archaeology, implies episodes of accelerated change between periods of relative stasis. When, as with approaches to the 4th–5th centuries AD, it is combined with the overlapping constructs of archaeological periodisation and cultural terminology (Roman and Anglo-Saxon) it can mask complexity, diversity and longer-term dynamics, and privilege explanations based on anachronistic views of cultural identity. This paper considers these issues and their implications, and those of alternative perspectives, in three areas of current debate: the curation or re-use of old material culture items in the 5th and 6th centuries; 2) how early medieval communities perceived the inherited landscape; and 3) the construction and reproduction of lordship and hegemony in the early post-Roman centuries. It argues that while critically-robust concepts of transition can be useful, both analysis and narrative need to be more attuned to the human agency and human timescales of change.
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In G Waxenburger, K Kazzazi and J Hines (eds). Old English Runes: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Approaches and Methodologies, 179-98. Ergänzungsbände zum Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde 134, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2023
This paper reviews the historiography and archaeological evidence for cultural change in fifth-... more This paper reviews the historiography and archaeological evidence for cultural change in fifth-century Britain, and the impacts of otherwise of migration from the northern European Continent. The version available here is the submitted pre-publication text.
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Medieval Archaeology, 66:2, 2022
The 5th- to 8th-century metal-detected assemblage from Rendlesham includes material representing ... more The 5th- to 8th-century metal-detected assemblage from Rendlesham includes material representing the manufacture of copper-alloy and precious metal objects in the later 6th and 7th centuries. This study of the copper alloys focuses on the evidence for manufacturing technology, sets it against the evidence for alloy compositions and metal supply from the wider assemblage, and considers the scale and organisation of production at the site. Examination by optical microscopy of key traits on metalworking waste and unfinished objects has made it possible to identify the types of mould being used and to reconstruct a sequence of manufacture for objects made at Rendlesham. Compositional analysis by XRF and SEM-EDS shows the expected range of alloys for 5th- to 8th-century England and confirms recycling as the main source of metal. Lead isotope analysis, applied here for the first time to early medieval copper alloys from England, also indicates recycling over the long term. There is no evidence for a supply of fresh metal, or for working in brass, before the 7th century. The results contribute to a wider understanding of copper-alloy metalworking practice and metal supply in early medieval England, and establish the potential of metal-detected material as evidence for the study of non-ferrous metalworking.
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Norwegian Archaeological Review 54 (1), 2021
This paper develops enriched understandings of rulership over the fifth to the ninth centuries AD... more This paper develops enriched understandings of rulership over the fifth to the ninth centuries AD, drawing upon the archaeology of great hall complexes, a southern British expression of the rich repertoire of rulers’ residences in post-Roman northern Europe. Guided by a practice-based conceptual framework, we connect great hall complexes with aspects of the embodied regimens, rituals, habits, and activities through which rulership was constituted in the early medieval world. Harnessing recently expanded datasets, we conduct a thematic interrogation of these sites to generate new insights in three key areas. First, by documenting the significant and sustained antecedent occupation attested at great hall sites, we unlock new temporal perspectives on how and why these places were constituted as centres of rulership. Second, we reframe understanding of hall construction as an iconic strategy of elite legitimation by focusing attention on the agency of the skilled practitioners who created these technically innovative architectural statements and, in doing so, recognise these hitherto neglected specialists as ‘crafters’ of rulership equal in significance to contemporary goldsmiths. Third, we use archaeological and biological data from recently investigated great hall complexes to examine the networks of dependency and interaction which enmeshed these centres. A concluding comparative discussion of southern Britain and Scandinavia contributes to a wider understanding of the central significance of rulers’ residences in these early medieval worlds.
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Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History 22, 2020
This paper offers a critical reconsideration of the social, spatial and temporal dynamics of sixt... more This paper offers a critical reconsideration of the social, spatial and temporal dynamics of sixth- to eighth-century great hall complexes in England. The major interpretative issues and constraints imposed by the data are considered, and the sites are then subject to comparative analysis across long-term and short-term temporal scales. The former highlights persistence of antecedent activity and centrality, the latter the ways in which the built environment was perceived in the past, structured social action, and was a medium for the construction and consolidation of elite identity and authority. Within the broad similarity that defines the site-type there is evidence for considerable diversity and complexity of site history and afterlife.
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In R Annaert (ed), Early Medieval Waterscapes Risks and Opportunities for (Im)Material Cultural Exchange, 127 -137, Neue Studien zur Sachsenforschung 8 , 2019
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In A Reynolds, J Carroll and B Yorke (eds), Power and Place in Europe in the First Millennium AD, 392-413, Proceedings of the British Academy 224, 2019
This is the provisional pre-publication text of a paper given to the conference "Power and Place ... more This is the provisional pre-publication text of a paper given to the conference "Power and Place in Later Roman and Early Medieval Europe: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Governance and Civil Organization" held at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 10-12 November 2011, and now published in Proceedings of the British Academy 224 (2019).
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The Historian, 2018
New research at the royal palace site close to Sutton Hoo poses fresh questions about the nature ... more New research at the royal palace site close to Sutton Hoo poses fresh questions about the nature of Early Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. This paper outlines how landscape studies can contribute to our understanding of early English royal rule.
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Medieval Archaeology 60/2, 2016
Early silver pennies (sceattas) are rare as gravegoods, but their provision was a regular element... more Early silver pennies (sceattas) are rare as gravegoods, but their provision was a regular element of burial practice in a small minority of later 7th-century-furnished inhumations and later burials. Although the number both of coins and burials is very small, they show patterns of deposition and treatment that have both a cultural and a broader chronological significance. This sample provides a window on social and symbolic attitudes to the coinages as elements of the broader material culture of contemporary society, and constitutes important corroborating evidence that the Primary Phase issues embodied a new degree of monetisation in 7th-century England.
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Antiquity, 2016
Fieldwork at Rendlesham in Suffolk has identified a major central place complex of the early–midd... more Fieldwork at Rendlesham in Suffolk has identified a major central place complex of the early–middle Anglo-Saxon periods. This has particular significance in the light of Bede's eighth-century reference to a ‘royal settlement’ at Rendlesham and the princely burial site at nearby Sutton Hoo. This interim report summarises the archaeology, and considers the wider interpretative issues relating to economic complexity and social diversity.
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This paper discusses how recent advances in archaeological chronology affect understandings of th... more This paper discusses how recent advances in archaeological chronology affect understandings of the processes of Christianisation in 7th-century England and assesses critically whether the concept of a "Conversion Period" has any archaeological integrity or utility.
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East Anglian kings of the early seventh century AD were buried with splendour at the famous Sutto... more East Anglian kings of the early seventh century AD were buried with splendour at the famous Sutton Hoo cemetery. But where did they, and their families and supporters, live? Faye Minter, Jude Plouviez and Chris Scull think they have found the answer to this old question.
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In D. Bates and R. Liddiard (eds), East Anglia and its North Sea world in the Middle Ages, 218-229. Woodbridge: Boydell, 2013
Ipswich is one of the major trading and manufacturing settlements – the so-called wics or emporia... more Ipswich is one of the major trading and manufacturing settlements – the so-called wics or emporia – of 7th-9th century England. It is seen as the main port-of-entry for the East Anglian kingdom through which exchange with the continent was controlled. The major emporia have assumed a central place in debates over the nature of trade, urbanism and urban origins in post-Roman Britain and are accorded an important role in the developing socio-economic complexity that governed the rise of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom structure. Debate has focused on their economic function but less attention has been paid to their social character. This paper summarises the burial evidence from 7th-century Ipswich and examines what it can tell us about social and community identities among the population of the settlement. To what extent were the people who lived and were buried here socially integrated with, or influenced by, a wider cross-channel and North Sea cultural world?
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In C. Stiegmann, M. Kroker and W. Walter (eds), CREDO. Christianisierung Europas im Mittelalter Band I, 192-201. Petersberg: Michael Imhof, 2013
This paper gives an overview of the archaeology of the Anglo-Saxon conversion in the 7th century.
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In H. Hamerow, D. Hinton and S. Crawford (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology, 848-864. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011
This paper examines some social and economic dynamics that may have contributed to the developmen... more This paper examines some social and economic dynamics that may have contributed to the development of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom structure of the seventh century. It proposes that the social drivers and constraints that governed the behaviour of paramount dynasties in regional or inter-regional political arenas of the late sixth and seventh centuries were founded in structures and relationships that also operated at the level of the household, kin and clan, and that these had promoted the development of social and political inequalities through the fifth and sixth centuries. It argues for the integration of generalising models with archaeological approaches that are sensitive to scale and diversity, and which recognise human action and agency.
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In S. Brookes, S. Harrington and A. Reynolds (eds), Studies in early Anglo-Saxon art and archaeology: papers in honour of Martin G. Welch, 82-87. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports 527, 2011
A small number of 7th-century graves at Ipswich, London and Southampton may be convincingly inter... more A small number of 7th-century graves at Ipswich, London and Southampton may be convincingly interpreted, on the basis of accompanying material culture assemblages, as the burials of individuals from the continent. Other graves display elements which demonstrate overseas contacts or express identities which look towards the continent. Taken together, they confirm the importance of overseas contacts to these communities and suggest that these were places where long-distance exchange acted to promote cultural interaction.
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Books by Christopher Scull
https://www.mola.org.uk/anglo-saxon-princely-burial-prittlewell-southend-sea
https://www.mola.org.uk/prittlewell-princely-burial-excavations-priory-crescent-southend-sea-essex-2003
The evidence has now been studied afresh using a co-ordinated suite of dating techniques, both traditional and new: a review and revision of artefact-typology; seriation of grave-assemblages using correspondence analysis; high-precision radiocarbon dating of selected bone samples; and Bayesian modelling using the results of all of these. These were focussed primarily on the later part of the Early Anglo-Saxon Period, starting in the 6th century. This research has produced a new chronological framework, consisting of sequences of phases that are separate for male and female burials but nevertheless mutually consistent and coordinated. These will allow archaeologists to assign grave-assemblages and a wide range of individual artefact-types to defined phases that are associated with calendrical date-ranges whose limits are expressed to a specific degree of probability.
Important unresolved issues include a precise adjustment for dietary effects on radiocarbon dates from human skeletal material. Nonetheless the results of this project suggest the cessation of regular burial with grave goods in Anglo-Saxon England two decades or even more before the end of the seventh century. That creates a limited but important discrepancy with the current numismatic chronology of early English sceattas. The wider implications of the results for key topics in Anglo-Saxon archaeology and social, economic and religious history are discussed to conclude the report.
The cemetery at Boss Hall Industrial Estate was excavated over a short time in May 1990 in response to unexpected discoveries during construction-work, the main excavation being completed in three days. Two further inhumations and a fragmentary cremation were recorded in 2001 during a watching-brief. The cemetery at St Stephen’s Lane and Buttermarket was recorded as part of a major set-piece excavation in 1987-88 in advance of redevelopment.
The report is in three main parts. The first two are conventionally-structured reports on each of the burial-sites (Boss Hall; St Stephen’s Lane/Buttermarket), each with a summary of the excavation and site-sequence, full grave-catalogues, scientific and technical analyses, and discussions of chronology, material culture, cultural practice, demography and immediate context as appropriate. The discussion on the dating of the St Stephen’s Lane/Buttermarket graves takes advantage of the latest developments in high-precision radiocarbon dating. The final section of the report is a synthetic discussion and overview which takes a comparative view and seeks to establish the local, regional and wider context of the sites.
Papers by Christopher Scull
https://www.mola.org.uk/anglo-saxon-princely-burial-prittlewell-southend-sea
https://www.mola.org.uk/prittlewell-princely-burial-excavations-priory-crescent-southend-sea-essex-2003
The evidence has now been studied afresh using a co-ordinated suite of dating techniques, both traditional and new: a review and revision of artefact-typology; seriation of grave-assemblages using correspondence analysis; high-precision radiocarbon dating of selected bone samples; and Bayesian modelling using the results of all of these. These were focussed primarily on the later part of the Early Anglo-Saxon Period, starting in the 6th century. This research has produced a new chronological framework, consisting of sequences of phases that are separate for male and female burials but nevertheless mutually consistent and coordinated. These will allow archaeologists to assign grave-assemblages and a wide range of individual artefact-types to defined phases that are associated with calendrical date-ranges whose limits are expressed to a specific degree of probability.
Important unresolved issues include a precise adjustment for dietary effects on radiocarbon dates from human skeletal material. Nonetheless the results of this project suggest the cessation of regular burial with grave goods in Anglo-Saxon England two decades or even more before the end of the seventh century. That creates a limited but important discrepancy with the current numismatic chronology of early English sceattas. The wider implications of the results for key topics in Anglo-Saxon archaeology and social, economic and religious history are discussed to conclude the report.
The cemetery at Boss Hall Industrial Estate was excavated over a short time in May 1990 in response to unexpected discoveries during construction-work, the main excavation being completed in three days. Two further inhumations and a fragmentary cremation were recorded in 2001 during a watching-brief. The cemetery at St Stephen’s Lane and Buttermarket was recorded as part of a major set-piece excavation in 1987-88 in advance of redevelopment.
The report is in three main parts. The first two are conventionally-structured reports on each of the burial-sites (Boss Hall; St Stephen’s Lane/Buttermarket), each with a summary of the excavation and site-sequence, full grave-catalogues, scientific and technical analyses, and discussions of chronology, material culture, cultural practice, demography and immediate context as appropriate. The discussion on the dating of the St Stephen’s Lane/Buttermarket graves takes advantage of the latest developments in high-precision radiocarbon dating. The final section of the report is a synthetic discussion and overview which takes a comparative view and seeks to establish the local, regional and wider context of the sites.