The Anglo-Saxon Agricultural Revolution in Norfolk

This article is from Current Archaeology issue 428

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REVIEW BY KK

Encapsulated within this volume are the published proceedings of the conference held in 2020 to mark the 25th anniversary of the Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project (SHARP) – but it is so much more than a collection of academic papers. Eloquently and engagingly written, the introduction by Richard Hoggett not only tells the history of SHARP, along with laying the foundations for the subsequent papers, but also serves as a poignant memorial to Neil – the founder of the project (and a former editor of CA) who sadly died before this volume was published – highlighting the impact he, and SHARP, had on so many budding archaeologists.

The SHARP project began in 1996, following Neil’s fortuitous meeting with Bernard and Susan Campbell, the then-landowners of the Sedgeford Hall estate, where many of SHARP’s future excavations were to take place. Neil was looking for the ideal location to start an excavation, and Sedgeford proved to be it. Since then, the initiative has developed into a ‘long-term, multi-period, multi-disciplinary research project’ that has revealed the evolution of Sedgeford throughout time. The main focus of the project up until this point, however, has revolved around the early medieval period, with the excavation of a middle Anglo-Saxon cemetery (the Boneyard) and the nearby Anglo-Saxon settlement (see CA 299), as well as a malting complex of the same date (CA 379).

In light of the excavation of the malting complex, which is one of the largest of this period known in England, it was decided that, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the project, the annual conference would focus on the agricultural revolution that occurred in England between the late 7th and early 9th centuries AD. While not all the talks at the conference were able to be published in this volume, the ones that were provide excellent insight into the topic.

Following the introduction, there is a tribute to Neil, with contributions from his family, colleagues, and mentees. In these pages, the long-lasting impact that Neil had, and continues to have, on not only Norfolk archaeology but on the discipline as a whole becomes apparent. This is followed by the first grouping of papers, which focus on evidence for the intensification of early medieval farming at Sedgeford: the first paper outlines the evidence from the malting complex, and the second examines the evolution of the surrounding landscape during this period. The second series of papers expands into greater East Anglia, with one examining evidence for settlement in West Norfolk between AD 650 and AD 850 and another featuring a recent project that has revolutionised understanding of the production and trade of Ipswich Ware.

The final part looks at the Anglo-Saxon economy as a whole. The first paper in this section stems from the recently concluded FeedSax project, which examined the zooarchaeological record to determine how agriculture and animal husbandry evolved in the early Anglo-Saxon period, finding that there was a shift from self-sufficient farms to a more interlinked food-production system. The volume ends with a paper from Neil himself, synthesising all the evidence to provide a coherent argument against just focusing on the output of this agricultural revolution, and instead homing in on what this change meant in terms of the communities behind it. He convincingly argues that we should not call it an ‘agricultural revolution’, as the crops and animals did not bring about the changes themselves, but instead an ‘agro-social revolution’ whereby the decisions and actions of the middle Anglo-Saxon people are placed at the forefront.

This volume is not a niche conference publication but one that anyone interested not only in early medieval archaeology but in the direction of the discipline as a whole will enjoy and appreciate. As testament to Neil’s commitment to open, ‘Democratic Archaeology’ for everyone, this volume has been made freely available online at http://www.archaeopress.com/Archaeopress/Products/9781805830726.

The Anglo-Saxon Agricultural Revolution in Norfolk
Richard Hoggett and Neil Faulkner (eds)
Archaeopress, £40
ISBN 978-1805830726