Anglo‐Saxon Timber Buildings and their Social Context

Bibliographic Data

ID23246291
AuthorsHelena Hamerow (0000-0001-5643-5888, University of Oxford, corresponding author)
Year2012
Pages128-155
Publication date2012-09-18
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenueThe Oxford handbook of Anglo-Saxon archaeology (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199212149.013.0009
OpenAlexW2622721134
ISBN9780199212149
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited17

Despite the great progress made in the fifty years since Radford described the study of timber buildings as ‘one of the most intractable problems in the whole range of early medieval studies’, key issues remain unresolved regarding their origins, construction, and function, and consideration of the relationship between buildings and the social life of Anglo-Saxon communities has scarcely begun. Apart from churches and a handful of high-status late Saxon buildings, timber construction — mostly using oak — continued to dominate during the mid and late Saxon periods. Convincing examples of halls, kitchens, bakehouses, barns, granaries and latrines have all been identified in Anglo-Saxon buildings. If most Grubenhäuser possessed suspended floors and could have been as substantial as earthfast buildings, then this has enormous implications for the interpretations of Anglo-Saxon settlements. The distinction between earthfast timber buildings and Grubenhäuser may yet prove to have been less rigid than archaeologists have tended to assume.

Ancient history · Anglo saxon · Archaeology · Architectural engineering · Context (archaeology) · Geography · Human settlement · Engineering · Historical and Archaeological Studies · History · Medieval Architecture and Archaeology · Medieval Literature and History