94 Archaeology 



THE ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD" 



The Anglo-Saxon Age in eastern England can be divided into three 

 periods : 



(i) The period of the Pagan Cemeteries which may be thought to 

 include the fifth, sixth and part of the seventh centuries. This was the age 

 of early settlement, and may perhaps be compared with the seventeenth 

 and eighteenth centuries in North America. 



(2) The Early Christian Period, which of course overlaps the Pagan 

 Period to some extent. It included part of the seventh, the eighth and 

 part of the ninth centuries. 



(3) The Viking Age, which closed with the final extinction of Anglo- 

 Danish culture towards the end of the eleventh century. 



These periods are by no means watertight compartments, and, com- 

 pared with the Early Iron Age, the Anglo-Saxon period is very imperfectly 

 understood. It is seldom reahsed that the Anglo-Saxon period lasted for 

 nearly seven hundred years, and that, except for the Pagan Cemeteries, it 

 is extremely difficult to locate sites whose excavation would throw any 

 light on conditions of those times. 



In the Cambridge area, recent years have seen a great advance in the 



study of the period. There have been excavations spread over several years 



upon the big linear earthworks that are so outstandingly a feature of the 



County. The following earthworks are shown in Fig. 21, starting with the 



most north-easterly: Devil's Dyke, Fleam Dyke (in two parts). Brent or 



Pampisford Ditch, Bran or Heydon Ditch, and the Mile Ditches. Two 



cemeteries have been discovered which belonged to the period of overlap 



between the pagan and Christian periods. Small villages of bodi pagan 



and Christian periods have been found and investigated either within or 



not far beyond the boundaries of the County. Finally, several small 



excavations have provided a very hopeful start v\dth the study of the 



pottery belonging to the last three centuries of the period. But, with the 



exception of linear earthworks, the student of Anglo-Saxon England is 



very much handicapped by having to wait till a chance find may give him 



a clue upon which to work. There are no villages surrounded by great 



earth-ramparts tliat are so helpful in the study of the Early Iron Age 



in some parts of Britain. The great majority of Saxon villages are 



beneath those of the present day, and are therefore irretrievably lost to 



Archaeology. Manor-sites may perhaps offer a shghdy better field for 



study, but there again the chance of finding one not occupied by later 



buildings is remote. 



• By T. C. Lethbridge, M.A. 



