Anglo-Saxon Lyminge in Kent yields critical new knowledge abut the mouldboard and its early adoption
Lyminge in Kent is a well-documented place in the early Anglo-Saxon History of the end of the 7th century. It was a double monastery traditionally thought to have been founded for Æthelburh (or Ethelburga, Ædilburh and Æthelburga) (? – 647), daughter of king Æthelberht of Kent and widow of King Edwin of Northumbria.
However, a somewhat later date is now preferred, corroborated by the fact that it earlier on functioned as a royal centre as witnessed by a charter of 689, which grants 1 sulung (app. 120 or 240 acres) of iron-bearing land (an iron mine), formerly belonging to the royal vill at Lyminge in Kent.
In this context, “sulung” is an interesting word. In Danish, the word “sul” (or “plovsule”) has been in continuous use up until early modern times. Here it signifies the vertically placed wooden cross-piece to which the ploughshare was fastened. Whether it had the same specific meaning in Anglo-Saxon cannot be determined, but it seems likely.
However, excavations at Lyminge in 2011 yielded an exciting find, an iron coulter, thus proving beyond doubt the existence of heavy ploughs as early as the 7th century AD. A coulter is a bar mounted like a knife to cut through the soil ahead of the share and mouldboard. The coulter was lying on the base of an Anglo-Saxon sunken-floored building. In the deposit above, an extensive collection of artefacts was uncovered, including many “type fossils” – jewellery, glass, pins, beads and pottery, which have been dated from grave assemblages elsewhere in Kent to the first half of the 7th century; the coulter was thus found in what is generally known as a sealed deposit.
According to the excavation director Gabor Thomas, “The coulter’s significance lies in its date and its function. The simple ard is efficient at breaking light ground. By contrast, the “heavy plough” breaks and turns the earth, and pulled by a team of up to eight oxen can cope with conditions beyond an ard’s capacity”.
Such heavy ploughs were known in Roman Britain but were formerly thought to have fallen out of use after the Anglo-Saxon immigration from Northern Germany, and Scandinavia AD 410 changed the agrarian landscape. A linguistic relic of that time – the use of the word “sulung” as a description of a substantial piece of tilled land – has hitherto not been considered enough evidence for the early use of the heavy plough. However, with the find of the coulter, which weighed 6 kg – this part of British agrarian history has to be rewritten.
The Lyminge Archaeological Project
However, the coulter is not the only remarkable find at Lyminge. Other findings of glass, slags from ironworking, and other deposits have yielded a remarkable amount of material, which is currently being analysed using state-of-the-art scientific methods. One of the reasons is that the excavation not only focuses on getting a general overview of the whole settlement and its historical development but also examines the site in the context of its surrounding landscape. While the most recent campaign in 2010 revealed the older settlement from the 6th-7th century, where the coulter was found, the next phase will focus on the archaeological traces of the Anglo-Saxon Monastery. The archaeologists hope it will be possible to document the changes wrought through the period of Christianisation and compare them with the results from Yeavering, where the excavation of pre-Christian halls has been complemented by excavations of what is deemed a very early church. With the proviso, of course, that at Lyminge, parts of this church still stand.
On the other hand, a slightly different character of the artefacts found at Lyminge (and Bishopstone) witness to a different material culture in the South when compared to those found at the Northumbrian sites. According to the archaeologists, “a clear distinction” can be observed in the ornamented dress accessories, which seem to have been more austere and limited. Maybe funding was poured into other forms of conspicuous consumption, such as elaborate stone edifices. Hopefully, this is one of the questions on which further excavations will shed light.
Recently the Lyminge Archaeological project was highly commended in the British Archaeological Awards 2012 under the category “Best Archaeological Project”, and further funding in 2012 -14 has been secured
The Lyminge Archaeological project
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