Rendlesham – An Anglo-Saxon
Royal Palace Near Sutton Hoo
Rendelsham is located five km north-east
of Sutton Hoo and known as an early
Anglo-Saxon emporium. Recently a royal
mead-hall was discovered there
Swithelm, the son of Seaxbald, was successor to Sigeberht. He was baptised by Cedd in East Anglia, in the royal village
called Rendelsham, that is, the residence of Rendil. King Ætelwold of East Anglia, the brother of King Anna, a previous king
of the East Angles, was his sponsor.
From: Bede: The Ecclesiastical History, III: 22. Ed. by Judith McLure and Roger Collins. Oxford University Press. 1969
In AD 731 Bede identified six sites as specifically royal in his Historia Ecclesiastica. Among these were
Rendlesham, which archaeologists are now sure they have identified as a royal entre – a vicus regius. For
a long time, historians and archaeologist knew of the later village in Rendlesham; however, the exact
location of the royal settlement was unknown until a local landowner in 2008 reported a number of illegal
Night-Ravens metal-detecting in his fields.
Credit: Suffolk Archaeological Service
This brought a concerted effort about to investigate the site more orderly. For several years a survey area
covering 400 acres of land along the east bank of the River Deben was field-walked. All in all, nearly 4000
pieces were discovered of which a fourth belong to the Anglo-Saxon age. A number of these artefacts
were particularly splendid allowing the archaeologists and historians to concluded that, yes, they had
found the royal vicus, which Bede mentions in his history.
According to later publications the place must be characterised as a site with a marked chronological
continuity, covering the period from app. AD 550 – 750 (and probably reaching back to AD 450). Finds
included gold jewellery, harness fittings, fragments of a cast bronze bowl from the east Mediterranean
etc. as well as numerous coins and Byzantine weights, fragments of continental brooches, Byzantine
copper coins and Merovingian gold coins.
The coins are especially interesting. With 19 Merovinigan Gold tremisses, 6 Anglo-Saxon gold shillings
and 168 silver pennies found across the whole settlement area, the evidence is clear. These coins
represent losses from transactions and not hoards.
This indicates the place might be characterised as an important trading place – emporium – through
which some of the more spectacular items found at Sutton Hoo might have been channelled. However,
finds also included scraps of gold, silver and copper alloy, globules and other fragments, and lead models
indicating the site was what is generally called a “productive place”, a location where craftsmen worked
creating the more spectacular jewels and weapons found in furnished graves from that period.
Royal Mead-Hall?
Metalwork forun at Rendlesham. Credit: Suffolk
Archaeological Service
Finally, this summer, the archaeologists carried out a LIDAR survey. From this a map has been produced
uniting the information from the scattered finds and traces of buildings inside the royal compound. The
outline of one of these buildings has made the archaeologists very excited: a structure, believed to be a
hall, measuring 23 x 9 m – perhaps the royal mead-hall of the kings at Rendlesham?
This might mean that the site should not only be characterised as a trading place filled with workshops,
but also a royal tributary centre, from where the king gradually began to organise the extraction of
surplus rent from his dependants through the wielding of justice and the levying of fines.
Judging from the published map, the hall will have been located with its gable turned towards the
tributary stream and with the cult centre nearby (now the St. Gregory’s Church). Across the stream was
located the burial grounds. Further along the River Deben small settlements were located 1.5 – 3.km
apart. The Deben estuary was navigable as far as Rendlesham in the 7th century.
The site has been likened to places like Uppåkra in Southern Sweden and Gudme in Denmark. However,
a much more obvious comparison would be the royal seat at Lejre in Denmark (famous for its mythical
connection with Beowulf).
Further details are expected to be revealed at a conference at Bury St Edmunds this week (September
2016).
SOURCES:
Anglo-Saxon ‘palace’ found at Rendlesham near Sutton Hoo site
Where Kings lived: Rendlesham rediscovered
British Archaeology vol 137 (2014) pp 50 – 55
Rendlesham Project
Rendlesham Rediscovered
Rendlesham Revealed
By Christopher Scull
In: Saxon (2014) Vol 59
READ MORE:
Archaeology and Geographies of Jurisdiction: Evidence from South-East Suffolk in the 7th century.
By Christopher Scull
Provisional paper published at academia.edu 15.04.2016
THE RENDLESHAM SURVEY: Investigating a Royal Anglo-Saxon Landscape.
by Judith Plouviez Senior Archaeological Officer, Suffolk Archaeological Service)
Joint Meeting with NAHRG at the Town close Auditorium, Castle Museum. 6th of Dec.2014
Social and economic complexity in early medieval England: a central place complex of the East Anglian
kingdom at Rendlesham, Suffolk
By Christopher Scull, Faye Minter, and Judith Plouviez
In: Antiquity, December 2016, Volume 90, Issue 354, pp. 1594-1612
KNOW MORE:
Royal residences AD 500 – 800 – New Academic Network
The Royal Residences Project is an AHRC-funded network which brings together scholars from different
countries and disciplinary backgrounds to reflect upon and interpret a major influx of new evidence for
sites of royal residence in early medieval Britain. The main object of the network has been to organise
three international workshops in 2016-09-23
University of Reading – site dynamics and social trajectories
Durham University – ritual action, performance and the built environment
University of Aberdeen – residential sites in wider spheres of social,
political and economic interaction.
FEATURED PHOTO:
River Deben near Sutton Hoo © River Deben Association