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Rendlesham rediscovered: Exploring landscapes of power in early medieval East Anglia
Over the last two decades, evidence of a high-status early medieval settlement has been emerging just four miles from Sutton Hoo. What can Rendlesham tell us about the evolution and exercise of royal power in early medieval England? Carly Hilts spoke to Christopher Scull, Faye Minter, Stuart Brookes, and Tom Williamson to learn more.
Today, Rendlesham is a rural village near Woodbridge in south-east Suffolk, but for a long time it was an intriguing footnote in the story of early medieval East Anglia. The site appears briefly in Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, where it is described as a vicus regius or ‘royal settlement’. Like the Northumbrian power centre at Yeavering, some 250 miles (400km) to the north, Bede depicts Rendlesham as a place of royally sanctioned baptism during the 7th century, and interest in its early medieval importance grew exponentially following the discovery of Sutton Hoo’s princely burials just four miles away in 1939. However, unlike Yeavering (whose palatial complex was first excavated by
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