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Little Carlton

3 March 2016
Archaeology

At www.theguardian.com/science/2016/mar/01/anglo-saxon-island-remains-disco… … what was an island in post-Roman period Lincolnshire, remaining so until medieval and modern drainage projects, has turned up a bounty of Anglo Saxon artefacts from the 8th century AD. Little Carlton, near Louth, was just another farming area, out in the sticks so to speak. Along came metal detectorist Graham Vickers, who initially discovered a silver stylus – a writing tool. Spurred on he returned again and again to the same field and found all sorts of other metal objects, including A/S Sceatta (coins), dress pins, and more styli. He reported the finds and eventually a team of archaeologists from Sheffield University arrived and opened up nine trenches (to date). These came up with a remarkable amount of pottery and other finds. They are not sure what kind of settlement existed there as it could have been monastic (the writing tools appear to suggest an involvement with the church) or a trading emporium (with links to distant parts of the UK, such as Northumbria). The archaeologists included as part of their research computer simulation of the site. A digital 3D model was constructed to reproduce the A/S landscape – raising the water levels to its early nartual height.

Shades of Steve Mitchell and his articles published in SIS journals. He actually mentions Lincolnshire and what was then Lindsey (an island itself, but a much large landscape than Little Carlton).

The same story appeared in the Daily Mail of March 2nd (2016) and readers were provided with a picture of Graham Vickers, the hero of the piece. The site is dated around 750AD and was abandoned (possibly destroyed) during the Viking raids of the 9th century AD. The island was located in the river Lud, some 5 miles from the coast, and the area was drained in subsequent periods of history.

The same story is also at http://phys.org/print376138619.html … only traces of the site have been established to date – and further excavations hope to reveal the nature and extent of the settlement, or monastery.

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