Life before the Minster: the Social Dynamics of Monastic Foundation at Anglo-Saxon Lyminge, Kent

Abstract

Anglo-Saxon monastic archaeology has been constrained by the limited scale of past investigations and their overriding emphasis on core buildings. This paper draws upon the results of an ongoing campaign of archaeological research that is redressing the balance through an ambitious programme of open-area excavation at Lyminge, Kent, the site of a royal double monastery founded in the seventh century ad. The results of five completed fieldwork seasons are assessed and contextualised in a narrative sequence emphasising the dynamic character of Lyminge as an Anglo-Saxon monastic settlement. In so doing, the study brings into sharp focus how early medieval monasteries were emplaced in the landscape, with specific reference to Anglo-Saxon Kent, a regional context offering key insights into how the process of monastic foundation redefined antecedent central places of long-standing politico-religious significance and social action.

Lineage, genealogy and landscape: a high-resolution archaeological model for the emergence of supra-local society from early medieval England

“…With a few exceptions, the archaeology of early medieval settlement in Kent is very poorly understood, but the indications from place-names and excavations are that royal estate centres and monastic sites established in the 6 th and 7 th centuries have remained since that time as fixed points in the Kentish landscape. The welldocumented and exceptionally well-excavated example of the royal centre and nunnery at Lyminge, only 4 km to the north of Saltwood provides the best known example of such a site (Thomas 2013). The chronology of lesser settlements remains to be established.…”

Anglo-Saxon Economy and Ecology by a Downland Stream: A Waterlogged Sequence from the Anglo-Saxon Royal Settlement at Lyminge, Kent

“…This developed into a 'great hall complex', identifiable as a vill, or royal estate centre, during the early to middle 7th century, which was superseded by a monastic foundation during the late 7th/early 8th century (Blair 2005, 186, 277;Thomas 2013Thomas and Knox 2012a). The material culture and archaeology of these settlement phases demonstrates the role of the settlement as an important early Anglo-Saxon ironworking site, with extensive assemblages of high status metalwork and glass (Thomas 2013;Thomas and Knox 2015). Such 'great hall complexes' represent the earliest recognisable stratum of royal residence in Anglo-Saxon England, expressed most famously at sites such as Yeavering (Hamerow 2012).…”

“…This work intends to reconstruct the environment of the stream area and interpret evidence for activities relating to the Anglo-Saxon occupation or use following abandonment of the great hall complex and monastery (Thomas 2013. The identification of processes of land use and economy essentially invisible to conventional excavation methodologies will provide new interpretations of the role and environmental character of both the stream margin and, to some extent, the wider settlement area during the archaeological phases (Bell and Dark 1998, 187).…”

Social and economic complexity in early medieval England: a central place complex of the East Anglian kingdom at Rendlesham, Suffolk

“…Campbell (1986: 108–11) argued that Bede used vicus and villa synonymously to denote the central place of an extensive estate or region, and archaeology has identified arrays of large timber halls that can be identified as such places (Hamerow 2012: 102–109). Survey at Rendlesham and recent excavations at Lyminge (Thomas 2013) suggest, however, greater complexity. Kings and magnates may have owned and had interests in a range of places with different social, economic and administrative characteristics that changed over time.…”