Defining the OE hearg: A preliminary archaeological and topographic examination of hearg place names and their hinterlands

Early Medieval Europe

Volumn 15, Issue 4, 2007, Pages 364-385

  Semple, Sarah ^a  

^a DURHAM UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARCHAEOLOGY; PLACE NAME; TOPOGRAPHY; TOPONYMY;

EURASIA; EUROPE; NORTHERN EUROPE; SCANDINAVIA;

EID: 35348815519     PISSN: 09639462     EISSN: 14680254     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0254.2007.00212.x     Document Type: Article

References (137)

1. Tacitus, Germania IX, ed. and trans. T. Mattingly, rev. S.A. Handford, Tacitus the Agricola and the Germania (London, 1970), pp. 108-9.
2. E.O.G. Turville-Petre, Myth and Religion of the North: The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia (London, 1964), pp. 236-62, pp. 236-8
3. A. Meaney, 'Pagan English Sanctuaries, Place-Names and Hundred Meeting Places', Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History 8 (1995), pp. 29-42, at p. 31
4. J. Hines, 'Religion the Limits of Knowledge', in J. Hines (ed.), The Anglo- Saxons from the Migration Period to the Eighth Century (Woodbridge, 1997), pp. 375-401, at pp. 386-8.
5. For example Wodnesfeld (Essex) and Tuesley (Surrey)
6. see Hines, 'eligion the Limits of Knowledge', p. 385, Table 12.1.
7. Hines, 'Religion the Limits of Knowledge', pp. 375-96.
8. For the meaning of these OE terms see Meaney, 'Pagan English Sanctuaries', p. 29.
9. D. Wilson, 'A Note on OE hearg and weoh as Place-Name Elements Representing Different Types of Pagan Worship Sites', Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History 4 (1985), pp. 179-83
10. Meaney, 'Pagan English Sanctuaries, Place-names and Hundred Meeting Places', p. 29.
11. Wilson, 'A Note on OE hearg and weoh', p. 181
12. see also Meaney, 'Pagan English Sanctuaries', p. 37. Although the relationship between pagan sanctuaries and hundred meeting places is examined, Meaney does not consider such sites could be concomitant with cemeteries, but envisages they might become allied with royal estates at the end of the pagan period.
13. See S. Schama, Landscape and Memory (London, 1995), pp. 92-5, 97-8.
14. J. Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, 4 vols, trans. J.S. Stallybrass (London, 1900), I, p. 69.
15. Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, I, p. 87
16. Turville-Petre, Myth and Religion of the North, pp. 236-7.
17. Turville-Petre, Myth and Religion of the North, p. 237.
18. S. Lucy, The Early Anglo-Saxon Cemeteries of East Yorkshire, British Archaeological Reports British Ser. 272 (Oxford, 1998), pp. 9-10.
19. Lucy, Early Anglo-Saxon Cemeteries, pp. 9-11
20. see also H. Williams, 'Heathen Graves and Victorian Anglo-Saxonism: Assessing the Archaeology of John Mitchell Kemble', Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History 13 (2005), pp. 1-18.
21. Usually taken to be the tenth to twelfth centuries AD.
22. Eyrbyggja Saga, Ch. IV, xxvi, eds G.M. Helgason and V. Ólason, Íslendinga sögur (Reykjavik, 1969), pp. 1-142.
23. Adam of Bremen, no. 139: 'this nation has a most splendid temple called Ubsola ⋯ A golden chain surrounds the temple, hanging over the gables of the building ⋯', ed. F.J. Tschan, History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen (New York, 2002), p. 207.
24. F.M. Stenton, 'The Historical Bearing of Place-Name Studies: Anglo-Saxon Heathenism', The Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 4th ser. 23 (1941), pp. 10-11.
25. B. Branston, The Lost Gods of England (London, 1957), pp. 54-5.
26. M. Gelling, 'Place-Names and Anglo-Saxon Paganism', University of Birmingham Historical Journal 8 (1961), pp. 7-25, pp. 9-10.
27. G.R. Owen, Rites and Religions of the Anglo-Saxons (London, 1981), pp. 40-1.
28. D. Wilson, Anglo-Saxon Paganism (London: 1991), pp. 44-66, pp. 48-9.
29. Bede, Historia ecclesiastica (hereafter HE), I.30, ed. and trans. L. Sherley-Price, Bede: A History of the English Church and People (London, 1968), pp. 86-7.
30. See discussion following: I. Wood, 'Pagan Religions and Superstitions East of the Rhine from the Fifth to Ninth Centuries', in G. Ausenda (ed.), After Empire (Woodbridge, 1995), pp. 253-78, esp. pp. 271-2.
31. B. Hope Taylor, Yeavering An Anglo-British Centre of Early Northumbria, Department of the Environment Archaeological Reports 7 (London, 1977)
32. C. Scull, 'Post-Roman Phase 1 at Yeavering: A Re-Consideration', Medieval Archaeology 35 (1991), pp. 51-63. Some of the major ritual spatial arrangements and changes could be suggested to reflect Anglo-Saxon practice as much as British traditions, particularly burial in relation to prehistoric monuments and the presence of standing posts and a square, shrine type
33. see. J. Blair, 'Anglo-Saxon Pagan Shrines and their Prototypes', Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History 8 (1995), pp. 1-28.
34. Blair, 'Anglo-Saxon Pagan Shrines and their Prototypes', pp. 1-28.
35. Blair, 'Anglo-Saxon Pagan Shrines and their Prototypes', Fig. 11.
36. This is commented upon by John Hines in a recent review of pre-Christian religious practices: Hines, 'Religion the Limits of Knowledge', pp. 387-8.
37. Stenton, 'The Historical Bearing Place-Name Studies', pp. 10-11
38. Wilson, 'A Note on OE hearg and weoh', pp. 179-83
39. see also Meaney, 'Pagan English Sanctuaries', p. 37.
40. Stenton, 'The Historical Bearing Place-Name Studies', pp. 10-11
41. Gelling 'Place-Names and Anglo-Saxon Paganism', pp. 7-25, pp. 9-10
42. D. Wilson, 'A Note on OE hearg and weoh', pp. 179-83
43. D. Wilson, Anglo-Saxon Paganism (London, 1991), pp. 44-66
44. Hines, 'Religion the Limits of Knowledge', pp. 384-91.
45. S. Brink, 'Mythologizing Landscape: Place and Space of Cult and Myth', in M. Stausberg (ed.), Kontinuitäten und Brüche in der Religionsgechichte. Festschrift für Anders Hultgård zu seinem 65. Geburtstag am 23. 12. 2001 (Berlin, 2001), pp. 76-112.
46. Brink, 'Mythologizing Landscape', pp. 104-7.
47. S. Brink, 'Political and Social Structures in Early Scandinavia II. Aspects of Space and Territoriality - The Settlement District', Tor 29 (1997), pp. 389-437.
48. K. Sognnes, 'Det hellige landskapet: Religiøse og rituelle landskapselementer i et langtidsperspektiv', Viking. Norsk arkeologisk årbok 58 (Oslo, 2000).
49. J. Kousgård Sørensen, 'Gudhem', Frühmittelalterliche Studien 19 (1987), pp. 131-8
50. P. Østergaard Sørensen, 'Gudmehallen. Kongelight byggeri fra jernalderen', Nationalmuseets Arbejdsmark (1994), pp. 25-39
51. L. Hedeager, 'Scandinavian "Central Places" in a Cosmological Setting', in B. Hårdh and L. Larsson (eds), Central Places in the Migration and Merovingian Periods: Papers from the 52nd Sachsensymposium, Lund, August 2001 (Stockholm, 2002), pp. 3-18.
52. B. Hårdh, 'Uppåkra - A Centre in South Sweden in the 1st Millennium AD', Antiquity 74 (2000), pp. 640-8
53. L. Larsson, 'Uppåkra - Research on a Central Place. Recent Excavations and Results', in Hårdh and Larsson (eds), Central Places in the Migration and Merovingian Periods, pp. 19-30
54. B. Helgesson, 'Uppåkra in the 5th to 7th Centuries: The Transformation of a Central Place and its Hinterland', in Hårdh and Larsson (eds), Central Places in the Migration and Merovingian Periods, pp. 31-40
55. B. Hårdh, 'Uppåkra in the Migration and Merovingian Periods', in Hårdh and Larsson (eds), Central Places in the Migration and Merovingian Periods, pp. 41-54.
56. Brink, 'Mythologizing Landscape', pp. 106-7.
57. Meaney, 'Pagan English Sanctuaries', p. 31.
58. Meaney, 'Pagan English Sanctuaries', p. 31.
59. Wilson, 'A Note on OE hearg and weoh', p. 80
60. Wilson Anglo-Saxon Paganism, pp. 44-66.
61. See above for the published works of Stenton and Gelling; L.J. Bronnenkant, 'Place-Names and Anglo-Saxon Paganism', D.Phil. thesis, University of Cambridge (1983).
62. Meaney, 'Pagan English Sanctuaries'; Blair, 'Anglo-Saxon Pagan Shrines'.
63. See nn. 28 and 29 above.
64. Meaney, 'Pagan English Sanctuaries', p. 32.
65. Meaney, 'Pagan English Sanctuaries', p. 32
66. Bronnenkant 'Place-Names and Anglo-Saxon Paganism'.
67. Ordnance Survey Grid Reference SU 935 445.
68. G.J. Copeley, An Archaeology of South East England (London, 1958), p. 188
69. Bronnenkant 'Place-Names and Anglo-Saxon Paganism'; Gelling, 'Place-Names and Anglo-Saxon Paganism', p. 10
70. Wilson, 'A Note on OE hearg and weoh', p. 179.
71. Meaney, 'Pagan English Sanctuaries', pp. 29-42.
72. F. Vipond, 'Harrow Fields', English Place-Name Society Journal 25 (1993), pp. 9-10
73. M. Gelling, 'Paganism and Christianity in Wirral?', English Place-Name Society Journal 25 (1993), p. 11.
74. P. Liddle, Leicestershire Archaeology - The Present State of Knowledge, 2, Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Periods (Leicester, 1982), p. 6.
75. P. Warner, 'Documentary Survey', in M.O.H. Carver (ed.), Bulletin of the Sutton Hoo Research Committee 3 (Woodbridge, 1985), p. 18, Fig. 10.
76. Wilson, 'A Note on OE hearg and weoh', p. 181
77. Wilson, Anglo-Saxon Paganism, pp. 6-8
78. Meaney, 'Pagan English Sanctuaries', p. 32.
79. Gelling, 'Place-Names and Anglo-Saxon Paganism', pp. 9-10.
80. See M. Gelling, 'Place-Names and Landscape', in S. Taylor (ed.), The Uses of Place-Names (Edinburgh, 1998), pp. 75-100
81. and M. Gelling and A. Cole, The Landscape of Place-Names (Stamford, 2000), pp. 143-219, for examples of the use of visual observation of individual topographic place-name elements in the field to establish the meaning of specific topographic terms.
82. A. Cole, 'The Origin, Distribution and Usage of the OE Place-Name Element ora and its Relationship to the Element ofer', English Place-Name Society Journal 32 (1990), pp. 27-39.
83. The site is located somewhere on the Clapham/Findon border. See A. Mawer and F.M. Stenton, The Place-Names of Sussex, Parts I and II, English Place-Name Society 6 (Cambridge, 1929-30), p. 165.
84. Meaney, 'Pagan English Sanctuaries', p. 31
85. Wilson 'A Note on OE hearg and weoh', Fig. 1.
86. E. Curwen and E. Curwen, 'Harrow Hill Flint Mine Excavation 1924-5', Sussex Archaeological Collections 67 (1928), pp. 102-38
87. M. Russell, Flint Mines in Neolithic Britain (Stroud, 2000), p. 54.
88. G. Holleyman, 'Harrow Hill Excavations, 1936', Sussex Archaeological Collections 78 (1937), pp. 230-5.
89. Curwen and Curwen, 'Harrow Hill Flint Mine', p. 126
90. S. Piggott, 'Heads and Hoofs', Antiquity 36 (1962), pp. 110-18.
91. 'Immediately to the north of the east door, the trench filling had been removed or withheld ⋯ to form a pit ⋯ This was entirely filled with animal bones, the great bulk of which represented oxen.' Hope-Taylor, Yeavering, pp. 97-102.
92. For general commentary see J.D. Hill, Ritual and Rubbish in the Iron Age of Wessex, British Archaeological Report 242 (Oxford, 1995).
93. The recent discovery and excavation of a fourth-century BC chariot burial at Ferrybridge has provided significant evidence for secondary activity involving the deposition of considerable amounts of cattle bone within the fill of the encompassing ditch. This seems to have been the result of feasting on the site in the second century AD. See Anon., A1(M) Chariot News, Issue 3 (Highways Agency, 2004).
94. For Grimes Graves see Russell, Flint Mines in Neolithic Britain, pp. 42-4.
95. Curwen and Curwen, 'Harrow Hill Flint Mine Excavation 1924-5', pp. 102-38
96. Holleyman, 'Harrow Hill Excavations, 1936', pp. 230-5.
97. TQ0840 0910. A grouping of eight round barrows recognized in immediate proximity to settlement remains of Neolithic and Bronze Age date (O.S. 1:25000). All are now ploughed flat. Although confusing and limited, evidence indicates an extensive group of primary Anglo-Saxon barrow burials, clustered around the upstanding remains of a Neolithic and or Bronze Age settlement and the surrounding field systems. At least one barrow burial was of seventh-century date. See M. Welch, Early Anglo-Saxon Sussex, 2 vols, British Archaeological Report British Series 112i, 112ii (Oxford, 1983), II, p. 484, no. 96 and p. 488, no. 101.
98. TQ0940 0880. The excavation of a barrow group on Blackpatch Hill resulted in the identification of an Anglo-Saxon inhumation cemetery reusing a series of Neolithic spoil heaps: Products of flint mining on the hill. These had also been reused for burial in the Bronze Age. See M. Welch, Early Anglo-Saxon Sussex, pp. 459-60, no. 94.
99. Vipond, 'Harrow Fields'; Gelling, 'Paganism and Christianity in Wirral?'.
100. R.A. Philpot and R.W. Cowell, An Archaeological Assessment of Land East of Telegraph Road, Irby, For Golf Course Development, Field Archaeology Section Report No. 23 (Liverpool, Unpublished).
101. Philpot and Cowell, An Archaeological Assessment of Land East of Telegraph Road, p. 17, no. 50.
102. Philpot and Cowell, An Archaeological Assessment of Land East of Telegraph Road, pp. 4-5.
103. Philpot and Cowell, An Archaeological Assessment of Land East of Telegraph Road, p. 5.
104. Philpot and Cowell, An Archaeological Assessment of Land East of Telegraph Road, pp. 5-6.
105. Intermittent metal detecting has taken place over the last decade, Philpot and Cowell, An Archaeological Assessment of Land East of Telegraph Road, p. 5.
106. Philpot and Cowell, An Archaeological Assessment of Land East of Telegraph Road, p. 5
107. Philpot and Cowell, An Archaeological Assessment of Land East of Telegraph Road, p. 5.
108. Philpot and Cowell, An Archaeological Assessment of Land East of Telegraph Road, p. 6.
109. Philpot and Cowell, An Archaeological Assessment of Land East of Telegraph Road, p. 6, Fig. 2.
110. Philpot and Cowell, An Archaeological Assessment of Land East of Telegraph Road, p. 6, no. 30; Merseyside Sites and Monuments Record, nos. 2584-94; R. Philpot, 'Merseyside in the Roman Period', Journal of the Merseyside Archaeology Society 7 (1991), pp. 61-74.
111. Philpot and Cowell, An Archaeological Assessment of Land East of Telegraph Road, p. 9. The area contains a series of important features relating to the medieval landscape and settlement of Irby, including a probable medieval well, a moated site rebuilt as a manor house, field boundaries and relict field systems (ibid., p. 7).
112. Christine Finn has shown how natural locations and places with ancient remains can draw continued low-level ritual activity even in a modern environment. Such sites may have different meanings in the present than they had in the past, and as Finn's work demonstrates may be interpreted differently by each individual visiting the site as well. This exemplifies how distinctive natural locations may be renegotiated over time by communities and individuals as 'special places', and how specific activities may take place such as deposition or carving: C. Finn, 'Modern Votive Offerings at Chaco Canyon', Antiquity 71, no. 271 (March 1997), pp. 169-78.
113. M. Gelling, The Place-Names of Oxfordshire, Part I, English Place-Name Society 23 (Cambridge, 1953), p. 195.
114. Gelling, The Place-Names of Oxfordshire, p. 195.
115. M.V. Taylor, 'Woodeaton', Journal of Roman Studies 7 (1917), pp. 98-119, at p. 98; Anon., 'Notes', Antiquaries Journal 1 (1921), p. 339.
116. Taylor, 'Woodeaton', pp. 98-119.
117. J.G. Milne, 'Woodeaton Coins', Journal of Roman Studies 21 (1931), pp. 101-9
118. J.R. Kirk, 'Bronzes From Woodeaton', Oxoniensia 13 (1948), pp. 1-45.
119. E.T. Leeds, 'Anglo-Saxon Remains', in L.F. Salzman (ed.), Victoria County History of Oxfordshire (London, 1927), pp. 346-72, at p. 299.
120. Anon., 'Notes', p. 339.
121. R. Goodchild and J.R. Kirk, 'The Romano-Celtic Temple at Woodeaton', Oxoniensia 19 (1954), pp. 15-37, Fig. 12.
122. J. Bagnall Smith, 'Interim Report on the Votive Material from Romano-Celtic Temple Sites in Oxfordshire', Oxoniensia 60 (1995), pp. 177-204.
123. Bagnall Smith, 'Interim Report on the Votive Material from Romano-Celtic Temple Sites', p. 192.
124. Taylor, 'Woodeaton', p. 102.
125. Milne, 'Woodeaton Coins', pp. 102-6.
126. Oxfordshire Sites and Monuments Record, nos. 2379 - MOX59.
127. Bagnall Smith, 'Interim Report on the Votive Material from Romano-Celtic Temple Sites', p. 202.
128. Bagnall Smith, 'Interim Report on the Votive Material from Romano-Celtic Temple Sites', p. 192.
129. Goodchild and Kirk, 'The Romano-Celtic Temple at Woodeaton', pp. 19-20.
130. J. Bagnall Smith, 'More Votive Finds from Woodeaton, Oxfordshire', Oxoniensia 63 (1998), pp. 147-86, pp. 182-4, p. 182.
131. Bagnall Smith, 'More Votive Finds from Woodeaton', pp. 182-4.
132. Bagnall Smith, 'More Votive Finds from Woodeaton', pp. 182-4.
133. Brink, 'Mythologizing Landscape', pp. 76-112.
134. Brink, 'Mythologizing Landscape', pp. 76-112.
135. Finn, 'Modern Votive Offerings at Chaco Canyon', pp. 169-78.
136. R. Bradley, An Archaeology of Natural Places (London, 2000).
137. In Bede, HE II.13, the destruction of the heathen temples at Godmundingham is described in a dramatic account in which the Chief Priest profanes and destroys the temple and its enclosures. Bede is relating events a hundred years before and it is significant perhaps that he verifies his tale by associating it with visible remains that could still be seen not far east of York, beyond the River Derwent.