Hello Solomon, HH, and Guests,
Merry Christemasse.
The Benedictional of St. �thelwold, 970
(Backhouse, pl. vi)
I have always suffered silent bouts of jealousy whenever I read of instances where all one has to do to practice archaeology, aside from long periods of study, is simply walk out one�s own back door and into the yard. Europe is far more fortunate in this respect than the United State; however, some opportunities do exist here as well.
As I mentioned in another post, I am plowing, through some elements of the historiography and early archaeology of the so-called Barbarian Invasions. This little project is progressing rather inefficiently at the moment since I must also undertake the equally serious role of providing a balance of Sacred and Secular Christmas mystery for my new daughter�s Yuletide (Palestrina, Presents, and Doting Grandparents). At any rate, here is my written Christmas Contribution to HH.
Harlow: A Christmas Carol
Artifacts have their own, sometimes strange history and peregrinations, particularly if that artifact happens to be a book. There is no way to predict where the book and its message will by cast into the world by the mechanisms of market and motive. Oftentimes, this will lead to odd and unpredictable brushes with the past. This is a brief story of a thrift-store book, an accidental purchase, and a major story of cultural preservation.
Two years ago, while searching for a kayak paddle, I purchased a book at a local thrift store for one U.S. dollar (plus tax) entitled: History of Harlow (ed. Linley H. Bateman. Harlow Development Corporation, London: Shenval Press, 1969). I was surprised to find only three pages comprising the chapter on Harlow during the Saxon period (Chapter 3, pp. 27-30). Of course the monograph is approaching the end of its fourth decade, so some allowance should be made on that account. Nevertheless, I did expect a little more on the archaeology of Saxon Harlow, after all, it was during this period that the heavy plow and the prevalence water mills began to leave a permanent mark on the British landscape, according to this work, five Saxon era watermills were positioned along the Stort River at Harlow, Latton, Gilston, Netteswell, and Parndon (p. 28).
Watermills and heavy plows, with their requirement for draft animals, represented large capital investments. The History of Harlow monograph contains an early and very marvelous attempt to integrate all the archaeological and modern features of the Harlow area on scaled velum topographic maps, it appeared from these data that Saxon era Harlow, with its five watermills, was grinding grain at a rate much higher than prevailed during the late Roman period, perhaps a result of the successful use of the heavy plow. The unwritten inference would be that Saxon era Harlow was populous, perhaps prosperous enough to trade surplus grain.
Tubal-Cain, holding an axe, drives a plow. This is an Anglo-Saxon rendering of an Old Testament Text, Genesis 4:22, wherein the passage reads:
And Zillah, she also bare Tubalcain, an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron: and the sister of Tubalcain was Naamah...(King James Version); however, the technology represented in this manuscript is the contemporary Anglo-Saxon. Note the center panel - Oxen team and heavy plow.
Junius Manuscript, late 10th to early 11th cent., p 54
Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Junius 11, Canterbury, Christ Church?
This 1960s era work does not quite go so far and state that Britain was abandoned after the Roman period, but the impression is given that this early Saxon period in Essex is one of slow deterioration brought about by pressure from the Danes. We now know that the situation was strikingly different, and scholars and scientists continue to work toward refining our knowledge of this poorly documented (in a contemporary sense) period.
In any case, I am veering off my point: the work History of Harlow, when I picked it up in the thrift shop, struck my American eye as a suspicious document; however, I felt I could not go wrong for a dollar and the vellum site maps were worth far more in intellectual value. I purchased the book even though it was published by the Harlow Development Corporation. I was leery about the relationship between a development corporation (I assumed housing), and an archaeological endeavor. I was on my guard at once for a redaction justifying development at the expense of cultural heritage. Of course I was locked in a particularly western North American prism: developers outside of major urban centers rarely work hand-in-hand with archaeologists and cultural resource managers unless compelled to do so. When I began to thumb through the History of Harlow (1969) volume, the really interesting story was the context of the book at the time it was published. Harlow and its history were part of a struggle in post Second World War Britain between the forces of development and proponents of cultural preservation.
The forward of this forgotten and thrift-store consigned work records the following:
This book is not the first record of the history of Harlow. Canon John L. Fisher, in his concern to chronicle many features of a past manner of life, which would tend to be obliterated by the construction of the new town, wrote in his book Harlow New Town � A Short History of the Area, which it will embrace, published in January 1951 and now long out of print. In his book he paid tribute to earlier historians � Morant and Newcourt, [more on these gentlemen in a latter post], to the rich records preserved by the great monasteries of Bury St. Edmunds and Waltham Holy Cross, and to the information available from parochial record, Quarter Sessions rolls, estate surveys and tithe maps.
Since the publication of Canon Fisher�s book, the face of Harlow has changed dramatically. The centuries-old village and manorial pattern, while not lost, is now obscured. At the same time more information about the past has come to light, and it seems appropriate that 1968 � the twenty first anniversary of the new town of Harlow � should be commemorated by the preparation of a new History of Harlow.
Fortunately, the changes in Harlow during the past twenty-one years does not mean that all physical vestiges of the past have been lost. Many of the buildings constructed by our predecessors still exist and can be seen. Much of the road pattern � some of it very ancient in origin � still exists, often in the form of cycle tracks. Most of the old villages, the old inns and churches, remain in our town. It is hoped that this book will help in their rediscovery by many who were perhaps hardly aware of their existence.
John Newsom, Chairman, Harlow Development Corporation (1968)
I have since been made aware that these UK Development Corporations, while originally created by the government, are operationally quasi-governmental in nature and utilize a variety of private entities and organizations as development proposals are undertaken, planned, and implemented. This appears to have led to a very strong and productive relationship with private sector firms providing archaeological services.
I will refrain from touting the private firm that provides the historic landscape sensitivity models utilized by Harlow Development Corporation and other municipalities in Britain during their planning process for further urban development (unless Administration deems it acceptable). However, I will provide a taste of some of services they perform.
In the case of Essex, it would appear that the region is among the driest in the UK and this circumstance allows for the fruitful use of cropmark surveys (as in the Caistor example) as well as other methodologies to construct multi-layer maps of the cultural landscape upon which a new development may be placed.
Historic Landscape Sensitivity Model
Using the latest in Geographic Information System (GIS) technology, a sensitivity model was created integrating the various aspects of historic landscape characterization. Data was collected from two cropmark surveys, the local HER, previous historic landscape characterizations, and historic maps. Aerial photographs and high-resolution LIDAR data was used to ensure the inclusion of detailed topographic features.
Examining the above data in a series of overlapping layers, the combined sensitivity of the landscape to various types of development was determined. The historic landscape sensitivity model serves as an important tool for the Harlow Urban Expansion Project to link future planning with environmental and cultural features thus ensuring a sustainable pattern of development in the region.
This is also good business planning; cultural heritage preserved for future generations, generates considerable revenues through tourism and education.
Here is the latest on-line statement summarizing the official view of Harlow�s history. This history appears to follow the footprint of the 1969 book, even to the extent of stating that the evidence so far recovered relating to the Saxon period is light:
The Harlow area has been occupied since the Late Palaeolithic period (c. 12,000 - 10,000 BC). However, the evidence from the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic (10,000 - 3,500 BC) and Neolithic (3,500 - 2,000 BC) periods consists only of scattered flint flakes and tools. The Bronze Age (2,000 - 600 BC) is better represented, by a line of burial sites along the southern bank of the River Stort, including a group of eight burial urns at the temple site. In the Iron Age (600 BC - AD 43), Harlow lay on the tribal boundary between the Catuvellauni in Hertfordshire and the Trinovantes in Essex. At the temple hill there were two roundhouses of mid to late Iron Age date and numerous Iron Age coins, small finds and animal bones. The quantity and pattern of distribution of the coins, coupled with what appears to have been deliberate damage to the small finds suggests that the site had a religious rather than domestic function. The discovery of coins of a late Iron Age date in the Holbrooks area suggests that the Roman town occupied a pre-existing Late Iron Age site.
Roman Harlow consisted of a temple, which developed from the Iron Age temple, and a widespread area of occupation, interpreted as urban in nature, to the north and east of it. Within this area of occupation there is evidence for both masonry and timber buildings, an internal road-pattern and manufacturing areas, as well as a masonry building which has been variously interpreted as a second temple and a public building. The town seems to have grown in response to the presence of the temple.
The evidence for the Saxon period is lighter, although there is sufficient to indicate settlement within the area. There is a Saxon structure at Harlow Temple, interpreted as a pagan shrine by R. Bartlett (pers. comm.). Saxon pottery and metalwork have also been recovered from the Harlow area. In addition the place names evidence does suggest a Saxon presence in the area. The area was certainly settled by the end of the Saxon period, indeed it was the centre of the Saxon administrative division known as the Harlow Hundred, which stretched from Roydon to Hallingbury.
Medieval Harlow was a polyfocal settlement and the dominant landowner was the Abbey of St Edmunds in Bury, Suffolk. The oldest part is Harlowbury, which was the manorial centre and there may also have been an early medieval village on this site. The medieval town of Harlow (Old Harlow) is sited to the south-west of Harlowbury on the east-west Hertford to Dunmow road. It grew as a result of the granting of a fair and a market on the site in 1218, although there is some evidence that there had previously been a small settlement and market there in Stephen�s reign (1135-54). Abbot Hugh gave the tenants a charter allowing them to hold their tenements �as freely as our burgesses of St Edmund and our other burgesses�. However an inquisition held in 1290 concluded that the market tenants were of villein status, even if they paid rent rather than carrying out customary services. To the south-east of Old Harlow and physically distinct from the main urban focus is Churchgate Street where the Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin is sited. The medieval economy appears to have been based on the market and the collection and preparation of wool. There is also documentary evidence of potters in Harlow (in the Potter Street area to the south of the medieval town) since the 13th century (Newton and Bibbings 1960), and two kilns dating to c.1500 have been found on Harlow Common.
source:
http://unlockingessex.essexcc.gov.uk/content_page.asp?content_page_id=120&content_parents=48,94
As I mentioned, this information follows the 1969 History of Harlow work closely; I wonder just how much the picture of early medieval Harlow or Essex is changing? Traces of Saxon activity can be very easy to overlook. One of the firms involved in work with the Harlow Development Corporation, working in Derbyshire, was able to recover some very easy to overlook evidence, albeit not a glamorous or sensational find (it is to me though), attesting to the Saxon period:
Archaeology firm X encountered a pair of curvilinear wooden features from a palaeo-channel, during a watching brief on Shardlow quarry. The structures consisted of a series of worked roundwood and timber stakes set vertically in the stream channel [note the importance of mapping paleo water channels].
Archaeology Firm X�s wood specialist was able to record the 36 wooden stakes in a single visit to the unit�s finds store. An analysis of the woodworking technology showed it to be late Saxon in date, which agreed with the radiocarbon date of the structures. We were able to find close parallels for the structures, suggesting they were originally used as fish weirs. These weirs are for directing fish into fish traps.
The HH Dover site, though comprised of farmers, should continue to provide extremely valuable data on the period. As the above example demonstrates, the evidence can be anywhere and difficult to notice. I continue to watch the Dover site's progress with interest.
So Canon Fisher and the History of Harlow (1969), complete with vellum maps, ends up in a thrift store in a foggy and often windswept town on the Pacific coast of North America. A book about the past that foretells the possible future of a cause whose banner has already been taken up by much of Western Europe, China, the United Kingdom, and the Commonwealth.
For all of our children and our children�s children, let us review our efforts each Christmas as we strive to preserve the world�s inheritance by giving the gift of history understood, preserved, and revered.
Keep the past � It�s good for the present, good for the future.
Very Best Regards,
&
Merry Christmas,
Lubby
