Pecsaetna: People of the Anglo-Saxon Peak District

by Phil Sidebottom

Overview

This book is intended to pull together our current knowledge of the ‘lost’ group of people called the Pecsaetna (literally, meaning the ‘Peak Sitters’) by synthesizing more recent historical and archaeological research towards a better understanding of their activities, territory and identity. This group of people is shrouded in the mists of the so-called ‘Dark Ages’ and are only known to us by the chance survival of less than a handful of documents.

Since the mid-20th century, valuable work has been done to identify former Anglo-Saxon estates in the Peak from the analysis of charters and from the Domesday survey, together with recent wider historical analysis. In addition, some have also attempted reconstructions of geographical territories from the Tribal Hidage, the document, which first mentions the Pecsaetna. To this historical analysis can be added further archaeological evidence which ranges from Anglo-Saxon barrow investigation in the limestone Peak District, to studies into the geographical distributions of free-standing stone monuments of the Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Scandinavian periods. It is this latter study that has prompted the writer to attempt this study.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781911188681
Publisher:	Oxbow Books
Publication date:	10/06/2020
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	7.40(w) x 9.70(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Dr Phil Sidebottom is a graduate in Archaeology and Prehistory from the University of Sheffield, subsequently obtaining a Ph D from the same institution, researching Anglo-Saxon stone monuments. Dr. Sidebottom has since specialised in landscape archaeology and heritage management, including ten years lecturing in these subjects at the University of Sheffield. He is also a Corporate Member of The Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (No. 1430), a Vice-President of the Hunter Archaeological Society and Editor of the Transactions of the same society. Along with co-author Prof. Jane Hawkes, Dr. Sidebottom has recently completed the British Academy’s Derbyshire and Staffordshire volume XIII of the Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture (Hawkes and Sidebottom 2018).

Table of Contents

Introduction
The Topography of the Peak
Early Anglo-Saxon Settlement In A Post-Roman Context
Historical Sources for the Pecsaetna
Settlement and Control in the Wider Region
The Pecsaetna in the Late Saxon Period
Place-names in the Peak and the Hiberno-Norse
The Archaeology of the Pecsaetna
The Barrow Burials
Earthworks and Communications
The Pecsaetna And Stone Monuments
King Edward's Burgh
The Significance of Dore
Changes in the countryside:
The demise of the great peak estates and later-saxon settlement
The Pecsaetna, Religion, and the Church
The Pecsaetna and Lead
The Pecsaetna of the Peak District: piecing it together
Bibliography
Places to Visit

Scientific Dating in Archaeology
Chapter 1 Introduction – Dr Seren Griffiths
Chapter 2 Dendrochronology –Dr Martin Bridge (UCL) and Dr Seren Griffiths
Chapter 3 Radiocarbon – Dr Seren Griffiths
Chapter 4 Luminescence – optically simulated and thermoluminescence – Dr Abi Stone (Manchester University), Dr Seren Griffiths, with ‘critical friend’ Prof Ian Bailiff (Durham University)
Chapter 5 Archaeomagnetic Dating –Dr Cathy Batt and Dr Seren Griffiths
Chapter 6 Uranium Series Dating –Prof Alistair Pike and Dr Seren Griffiths
Chapter 7 Palynological and other macrofossil reconstruction –Dr Suzi Richer and Dr Seren Griffiths
Chapter 8 On Site – project design and sampling strategy for scientific dating – Dr Seren Griffiths
Chapter 9 Analysing Datasets – Bayesian statistical modelling – Dr Seren Griffiths and TBC Prof Tom Higham
Chapter 10 Writing Histories – combining statigraphic analysis, finds, and multi-technique scientific datasets in narratives – Dr Seren Griffiths
Bibliography

Continuity and Rupture
Chapter 1: Introduction: Structure, Agency, and Power in Roman Mediterranean Gaul
Chapter 2: “They Make a Desolation and Call it Peace”: Roman Rule in Mediterranean Gaul
Chapter 3: Living Together, Living Apart: The Creation of New Domestic Relations
Chapter 4: From the Home to the Villa: A New Mode of Production
Chapter 5: Turning People into Things: The Rise of Coinage and a Money Economy at Lattara
Chapter 6: Community and Cosmology at Lattara: Continuity and Entanglement in Religious Practices
Chapter 7: Feasting, Power, and Money: Transformations in Political Life at Lattara
Epilogue: After Lattara

Animating the Dead
PART 1 Background and Context
Introduction
1.1 The Orkney Barrows Project
1.2 Cist burials
1.3 Layout of the book
1.4 Bronze Age burial practices
1.5 Bronze Age Orkney
1.6 Bronze Age Burial in Orkney
PART 2 Excavation Findings
Barrow cemeteries
2.1 Linga Fiold
2.2 Gitterpitten, Varme Dale, Vestra Fiold
Cists
2.3 Riff, Quarrel Geo, Blomuir 1, Blomuir 2, Howe, Moan, Redland, Upper Bigging
PART 3 Mortuary Rites
3.1 Dying and death; Preparation for the funeral
3.2 The funeral: Cremation rites and technology
3.3 Cremation burial rites
3.4 Inhumation & cremation rites compared and contrasted
PART 4 Burial, Cemetery and Landscape Architecture
4.1 Burial, cist, and burial mound architecture
4.2 Cemetery sequence and development
4.3 Bronze Age environment and landscapes
4.4 Cist burial and cemetery sitings in landscape
PART 5 Bronze Age burial rites
5.1 A chronology for Orkney Bronze Age burials
5.2 Burial and Cemetery typology
5.3 Comparing and contrasting rites – cremation and inhumation
5.4 Discussion of findings in context of Orkney, Scotland, Britain and wider N European

APPENDICES
Appendix 1 Vessels
1.1 Pottery: Linga Fiold – A Macsween, Campbell et al., M Taylor
1.2 Pottery: Gitterpitten, Riff, Blomuir 2, Redland, Upper Bigging – A Macsween
1.2 Steatite: Linga Fiold – P Sharman
Appendix 2 Stone artefacts
2.1 Coarse Stone Tools: Linga Fiold, Gitterpitten - A Clark
2.2 Flint: Linga Fiold, Varme Dale - C Wickham-Jones
Appendix 3 Human Bone
3.1 Linga Fiold – J Mc Kinley
3.2 Gitterpitten – J Roberts
3.3 Varme Dale – J Roberts
3.4 Quarrel Geo – S King, D Lorimer
3.5 Blomuir – J Mc Kinley
3.6 Howe – D Lorimer
3.7 Moan – D Lorimer
Appendix 4 Soils and Slag
4.1 Soils: Linga Fiold, Gitterpitten, Varme Dale - S Carter
4.2 Vitreous Fuel Ash Slag (Cramp): Linga Fiold – S Carter
Appendix 5 Charred plant remains and pollen
5.1 Charred plant remains: Linga Fiold – D Alldritt; Varme Dale, Vestrafiold – P Wagner
5.1 Pollen: Linga Fiold – J Bunting; Gitterpitten, Varmedale, Vestrafiold – P Wagner