Lordship and Landscape in East Anglia AD 400–800 : The Royal Centre at Rendlesham, Suffolk, and its contexts

Abstract

Lordship and Landscape examines the origins and development of the East Anglian kingdom in the fifth to eighth centuries through the lens of the elite settlement complex at Rendlesham, Suffolk. It also explores more widely pathways to territorial lordship in post-Roman England. The first part presents a comprehensive analysis of the results of field survey (including systematic metal-detecting) and trial excavation at Rendlesham between 2008 and 2017, establishing the socio-economic character of the site, its place in the local social and political landscapes, and the long-term development of the immediate settlement landscape. The second part examines the wider regional context through comparative analysis of unpublished ‘productive’ sites, and concludes with a new narrative of kingdom formation. The approach is inter-disciplinary, integrating archaeology, landscape history, place-name studies, textual history, numismatics and materials science. It offers innovative approaches to the analysis of metal-detected assemblages, and to modelling the development of regional rulership and its associated social and administrative landscapes.