5.5 Pottery

Pottery was a very important method of producing cheap cooking pots, bowls, cups, lamps, bottles, jugs, etc. It was also used for loom-weights, crucibles and moulds. In early pagan Anglo-Saxon times pottery urns were used to hold ashes of people who had died and been cremated. These were then often buried in small 'barrows'. Many of these cremation urns were highly decorated. The vast majority of the early pottery though was simply made, probably within the village or on the farm, using methods such as coiling or making thumb-pots. Later on, as shown by excavated examples, there were specialist potters who made wheel thrown pottery in towns. This was then sold by the potter, or possibly by travelling merchants in the markets, although some pottery would still be home produced.

5.6 Food

Considerable skill was displayed by the cooks who would have made breads enriched with added milk and/or eggs. The pastry crusts were not only as part of the dish, pies and flans would be moulded and decorated with flower heads in season. There would have been simpler editions for those guests of lower rank. Fish too was often made into what the modern diner would know as pates and terrines each carefully shaped and embellished to show the status of the feast-giver as well as the guest.

Drinks were sometimes brewed specially for a feast as the drinks were regarded as almost as important as the food. Ale, some probably fermented fruit based, beer made from such plants as Bog-Myrtle, meads and wines are recorded. Butter-milk, skimmed milk and whey were also drunk but probably not in such great quantity at a feast.

5.7 Appearance and Clothes

The many combs found in Anglo-Saxon contexts (mainly settlements, not burials) suggest that care of the hair was important, and the many tweezers, shears, etc. found in burials show that personal grooming was also valued. Luxuriant moustaches are suggested on some faces, occasionally with a beard, but most were clean shaven. Hair was occasionally shoulder length, but usually collar length or shorter (hardly the hairy barbarians many Victorian scholars would have us believe)

Women's hair was worn long (but not necessarily uncut and unstyled), sometimes loose but often plaited. Some representations show the hair drawn back from the face, presumably into a plait or pony-tail. It is uncertain whether a pony tail would be tied back with some kind of fastening, or whether it would be knotted as was done in Scandinavia. Some continental sculptures show quite elegant coiffures and ringlets on Germanic women, and a pair of pony-tails fastened behind each ear are also often represented.

We have very little direct evidence of the clothing of the early Anglo-Saxons. Continental evidence indicates that a short cloak or cape, made of skin or fur (usually sheepskin), was an important feature of Germanic men's costume. They seem to have been worn fur side inwards, skin side outwards and were secured by lacing, sewing, tying, or by securing wooden or leather toggles through loops of leather (i.e. they did not require pins or brooches). Cloth cloaks, short or knee length, were also common. These cloaks were not tailored, but consisted of a square or rectangle of cloth which was clasped at one shoulder, usually the right. A different type of cloak in use by the Germanic peoples was a poncho type garment with a central hole for the head. Another type of outer garment possibly worn by the early Germanic settlers is the hooded robe, known to modern scholars as the 'Gallic coat'. It seems likely that cloaks could be made from skin or textile and could vary in size from small capes to large voluminous cloaks.

We can be fairly certain the Germanic settlers wore trousers. It seems that whether the trousers were tight or loose was largely a matter of personal choice or tribal tradition. In most cases – ankle length, with the shorter trousers remaining as undergarments. Some high quality trousers seem to have had feet and belt loops in them, others did not. Trousers were bound to the legs by leggings or garters, several of which have been found in continental excavations. Most men also wore a tunic, girdled at the waist and usually with long sleeves. These tunics are usually mid-thigh to knee length. Most belts were of leather and were fastened by buckles, although woven girdles could also be worn. Most belts were utilitarian items and were often used to hang items of equipment from, although some belt ornaments are known.

Shoes would generally be round-toed, flat soled and reach to the ankle or just below. Probably sandals of the Iron Age and late Roman type were still being used, although enclosed shoes of one piece construction seem to have made their first appearance in this period. Shoes were stitched or laced together with leather thongs, not nailed as with some Roman examples. Shoes would be of leather or rawhide.

Women's costume in this period is a lot easier to reconstruct than men's, since it seems to have involved much jewelry which helps determine the whole costume's appearance. There are consistent features of all early Anglo-Saxon women's costume, although there are also several regional variations. These are usually referred to as the Anglian, Saxon and Kentish or Jutish styles. The basic item of clothing was a peplos dress. This is usually a tubular garment (although it can be just a rectangle of cloth) clasped at the shoulders by a pair of brooches, leaving the arms uncovered. This type of garment has been worn by women in countless cultures from the earliest times and was clearly a feature of Germanic costume for many centuries. A lot of embroidery was applied.

The folds of the gown usually concealed the belt, but a few sources show a second visible belt. This garment was usually worn ankle length, although, if worn over an underdress, it may sometimes have been worn calf length. These garments were often edged with tablet weave, at least at the top edge, and probably sometimes also at the bottom. The style of brooches worn seem to form a regional pattern: quoit brooches were worn only south of the Thames and, like the equal armed brooch, were known only in the earliest period. Radiate headed brooches, bird-shaped brooches and inlaid brooches were largely characteristic of Kent. Cruciform brooches were particularly popular in Anglian areas; annular brooches were especially favoured by the Northumbrian Angles. Saucer brooches were most popular in Saxon areas, as were disc brooches. Long brooches, in all their forms seem to have been fairly universal. Some poorer female graves have lacked the pairs of shoulder brooches, and it is probable that in these cases the two edges were sewn together, rather than pinned with brooches. Peplos gowns were usually made of wool, although a few were made of linen.

As well as the underdress and peplos, many women also wore cloaks, capes or shawls. Cloaks would have been of the square or rectangular type worn by the men, although some representations show the cloak fastened centrally on women, rather than just at the shoulder.

Pictorial and archaeological evidence also suggest the use of veils, often of linen, draped loosely over unbound hair.

Lecture 6 Viking Age (1 h.)