Knives, pits, bells and stones: The Yorkshire Dales discoveries telling Anglo-Saxon stories

This article originally appeared on Culture24.

Surprising array of objects discovered on edge of Dales point to ancient settlements, craftspeople and cattle

To the north of the village of Austwick, on the south-west edge of the Yorkshire Dales, the clear remains of three possible farmstead complexes were thought to have been early medieval, based upon their similarities with previously excavated nearby sites and radiocarbon dating evidence.

Six of the ten rectangular structures were excavated as the Ingleborough Archaeology Group looked to expand its knowledge of settlements from the period within the area. They proved aceramic but artefact rich, with radiocarbon dating offering a period within the Anglo-Saxon or Anglo-Scandinavian eras: six were from 700-990, with another between 880-1014.

A circular pit on the edge of one of the complexes was proven to be a clamp lime kiln of the sow kiln type, radiocarbon dated from two charcoal samples to between 1026-1225.

A “quite exceptional” array of metal objects were logged during the excavation from two buildings.

Two proven Anglo-Saxon-period farmsteads at Brows Pasture, in Chapel-le-Dale, revealed only one small angle-backed knife blade and the tang of another knife, while an early Anglo-Saxon-period shieling hut excavated at Upper Pasture produced no coeval artefacts. So the scale of the Crummack Dale sites’ assemblage was unexpected.

Arguably the most aesthetically pleasing item in the assemblage was an iron bell, found intact and in a remarkably well-preserved state, despite a missing clapper.

After cleaning and conservation, it proved to have been plated with copper alloy, visible in several patches, and to have possibly had a small loop attached to the top of the bell below the handle.

At the base of each side there may also have been a stud of unknown purpose. The original function of small early medieval bells is uncertain: they may have been cow, sheep or goat bells, but are also thought to have had more ceremonial purposes.

The bell could be a further indicator of an extensive stock management regime. Though there is no agreement among archaeologists and historians as to what such bells were used for, perhaps the most common assumption is that they were cowbells, although they are sometimes associated with craftsmen citing examples in England and at the well-known Swedish site at Mästermyr.

Itinerant craftsmen could have carried hand bells to announce their imminent arrival at isolated sites, either like the modern ice cream van chimes or for their own protection: those arriving surreptitiously without warning may have been perceived to be up to no good. It has also been suggested that bells were associated with itinerant missionaries.

The copper alloy-plated iron bell recovered from Ribblehead – an important nearby site - was considered to be ‘rather fine’ to have been a cow bell, and instead may have had some religious significance.

The Crummack Dale bell is more than twice its size but, even so, may still be too small for a cow, although it would have been appropriate for a sheep.

If stock were allowed to more or less wander at will through the upper part of the valley, among the trees and rocky parts, with a shepherd in loose attendance, a bell would have kept them in contact with the flock leader’s whereabouts.

Four large nodules of haematite iron ore varied in size but had identical compositions. It was clear that they had been deliberately laid within the doorway, conceivably on abandonment of the site.

A whetstone is a pyritic and rhythmically laminated unmetamorphosed silty mudstone comprising quartz with muscovite and chlorite along the laminae. The mudstone carries rare graphite, carbonaceous matter, chromite and titanium dioxide grains with abundant framboidal pyrite and accompanied by small pentagonal dodecahedral pyrite crystals; locally both have oxidised to limonite.

They are local to Crummack Dale and of Lower Palaeozoic age. These artefacts are finer grained than typical prehistoric whetstones but similar in grain size to post-Roman ones. Most comparative evidence is from southern England.

The nodules were found in a raw, unprocessed state, so offer no possibilities for ascribing them to a particular culture. The three whetstones and the grinding or polishing stone have no specific characteristics that enable them to be differentiated between Anglo-Saxon or Anglo-Scandinavian cultural artefacts.

They indicate that some kind of craft activity was engaged in. A single one could have been used for honing knife blades, or other cutting tools, that were in daily use by the occupants.

Finding four in one building could suggest more than this: the occupants may indeed have been engaged in smithing work or, alternatively, whatever they were doing in the valley required a range of cutting tools to be kept in constant good order.

Given that knives were used in eating and are the most common item found on Anglo-Saxon sites, the number of honing tools may simply be a reflection of the number of people living and working here.

Two objects defied conclusive identification. Both are clearly iron bars, heavily rust encrusted and tapered at both ends.

Neither item would have been used as a cutting blade. But beyond that, their use is uncertain. The thicker strip may have been a billet – a semi-finished iron object from which a blade was to have been hammered and shaped.

The thinner artefact could have been a weaving sword or blade used to beat the weft upwards to consolidate a piece of cloth being woven.

Iron weaving swords are known to have ranged in length from 240mm to nearly 600mm. Neither strip can be ascribed with certainty to any specific historical period.

At a depth below the turf line of nearly half a metre, the tip of this iron object was seen lying at a 40-degree angle horizontally, immediately adjacent to one of the facing slabs.

It appeared to be an angle-backed knife blade of about 0.15 metres in length.

Two single-edged draw knife blades were also logged – both were x-rayed, cleaned and conserved.

One of them, of the type that is slightly convex along its full upper edge with a slightly concave cutting edge, was in better condition, although it was also well worn.

One end has a hole but the opposite end had been broken off. The other is of the Anglo-Saxon type with an upward-sloping upper edge that comes to an angle before sloping down to the tip.

It has a hole at each end with one still containing part of its fixing rivet. At 146mm in length, it is at the longer end of knife blades from this period.

It was found slightly bent along its length. Neither blade has the fuller groove on the upper part of each surface characteristic of later Anglo-Saxon knives.

The two blades could also be of Anglo-Saxon origin, given their detailed profiles. But neither has the fuller blade which is a normal characteristic of later knife blades of that culture.

Several very similar examples have been logged from Anglo-Scandinavian contexts in York, so the knives cannot be relied on as far as the wider story of Crummack Dale is concerned.

• Visit ingleborougharchaeologygroup.org.uk for more.

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Source: http://www.culture24.org.uk/history-and-heritage/archaeology/art529879-knives-pits-bells-and-stones-the-yorkshire-dales-discoveries-telling-anglo-saxon-stories