Offa’s Dyke: a historiographical appraisal
2011; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 37; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1016/j.jmedhist.2011.02.003
ISSN1873-1279
Autores Tópico(s)Historical and Archaeological Studies
ResumoAbstract Offa’s Dyke is one of the largest and best known, if rather less well understood, field monuments in Britain. Despite this, there have been very few primary studies of it. This article makes a critical examination of the principal bodies of work dealing with the dyke. It argues that in many respects our knowledge is less certain than is usually believed. In particular it discusses the time and labour necessary for the construction of the earthwork and it is suggested that it could have been constructed much more quickly, and with a much smaller workforce, than is generally supposed. More fundamentally, the purpose and function of Offa’s Dyke are considered, and it is argued that, in addition to any practical utility it may have had, the earthwork had important ideological significances that until recently have been largely neglected. Specifically, it is argued that the dyke was a manifestation of eighth-century Mercian royal ideology, intended to consolidate the power of the Mercian kingship, in the west midlands in particular and southern England more generally. Keywords: OffaEarthworksOffa’s DykeMerciaThe WelshThe Anglo-SaxonsIdeology Acknowledgements In researching Offa’s and Wat’s Dykes I relied heavily on the assistance of David Hill and Margaret Worthington, who answered numerous questions, were generous of their time in busy periods, and provided access to unpublished material and forthcoming publications. I should like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to them. I should also like to thank Dr Ellie Windle, Dr Paul Oldfield and Dr Joanne Smith for their kindness in reading and commenting on earlier versions of this article. This article is based on my doctoral research, undertaken at the University of Manchester in 1998–2001; D.J. Tyler, ‘Kingship and conversiondconstructing pre-Viking Mercia’ (unpublished PhD thesis, University of Manchester, 2002). Finally, I should like to thank my daughter, Rachel Tyler, for her invaluable help with the maps. Notes 1 See for example F.M. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, 3rd edn (Oxford, 1971), 212–15; P.H. Blair, Roman Britain and early England (London, 1963), 70 and 216; H.P.R. Finberg, The formation of England 550–1042 (London, 1974), 99–100; R. Hodges, The Anglo-Saxon achievement (London, 1989), 88 and 144; B.A.E. Yorke, Kings and kingdoms (London, 1990), 117; D. Kirby, The earliest English kings (London, 1990), 164–5; A. Williams, Kingship and government in pre-Conquest England c.500–1066 (Basingstoke, 1999), 68; I.W. Walker, Mercia and the making of England (Stroud, 2000), 8–10; A. Burghart, ‘The Mercian polity, 716–918’ (unpublished PhD thesis, King's College London, 2007), 176–8. 2 C. Fox, Offa's Dyke (London, 1955), 279–81. 3 Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, 212–15. 4 F.M. Stenton, ‘Foreword’, in: Fox, Offa's Dyke, xvii–xxi. 5 Or, given the extensive gaps in, and the intermittent nature of, the earthworks, one should perhaps say of the frontier between Mercia and Wales as posited by Fox, of which the dyke was the principal feature. 6 F. Noble, ‘Offa's Dyke reviewed’ (unpublished Open University MPhil thesis, 1977). 7 F. Noble, Offa's Dyke reviewed (British Archaeological Reports [hereafter BAR], British series, 114, Oxford, 1983). 8 The ODP is a voluntary organisation, its membership largely ex-students of the former Extramural department of the University of Manchester. 9 Many of these sites are on Wat's Dyke or sections of earthwork Hill and Worthington argue are not parts of Offa's Dyke (see below), but over 50 excavations have been undertaken on the dyke's undisputed, central section. Much of this material is unpublished and is retained by David Hill and Margaret Worthington. In this article this material is cited as ODP Archive. 10 An exception being ODP Archive, site 133, Brompton Hall, Shropshire, SO 251 933. 11 David Hill and Margaret Worthington, Offa's Dyke: history and guide (Stroud, 2003). 12 For Hill's principal publications, see inter alia D. Hill, ‘Offa's and Wat's Dykes — some exploratory work on the frontier between Celt and Saxon’, in: Anglo-Saxon settlement and landscape, ed. T. Rowley (BAR, British series, 6, Oxford, 1974), 102–7; ‘The inter-relation of Offa's and Wat's Dykes’, Antiquity, 48 (1974), 309–12; ‘Offa's and Wat's Dykes: some aspects of recent work’, Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, 79 (1977), 21–33; ‘The dyke systems in the north — recent work and reconsiderations’, Archaeology in Clwyd, 6 (1984), 11–14; ‘Offa's Dyke — pattern and purpose’, Antiquaries Journal, 80 (2000), 195–206. For a longer but still far from complete list, see the bibliography of Tyler, ‘Kingship and conversion’, 270–302 (286–7). 13 Hill, ‘Offa's and Wat's Dykes — some exploratory work’, 102–7; Hill, ‘The inter-relation of Offa's and Wat's Dykes’; Hill, personal communication. 14 Despite its age Fox's Offa's Dyke remains a very useful survey of the dyke, but in many respects it has now been superseded by Hill and Worthington, Offa's Dyke: history and guide. 15 Fox, Offa's Dyke, 277. 16 Fox, Offa's Dyke, 277. 17 If less extensive than the continental limes Germanicus. On the limes Germanicus, see H.P. Pelham, ‘A chapter in Roman frontier history’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 2nd series, 20 (1906), 17–48; H. Schönberger, ‘The Roman frontier in Germany: an archaeological survey’, Journal of Roman Studies, 59 (1969), 144–97; D.J. Woolliscroft, Roman military signalling (Stroud and Charleston, 2001), 103–54. 18 On this section, see Fox, Offa's Dyke, 5–28. 19 Fox, Offa's Dyke, 28. 20 Fox, Offa's Dyke, 204–11. 21 Fox, Offa's Dyke, 279–81. 22 Hill, ‘Offa's and Wat's Dykes — some exploratory work’; Hill, ‘The inter-relation of Offa's and Wat's Dykes’. 23 M. Worthington, ‘Offa's Dyke’, in: Æthelbald and Offa: two eighth-century kings of Mercia, ed. D. Hill and M. Worthington, (BAR, British Series, 383, Oxford, 2005), 91–6 (91); Hill and Worthington, Offa's Dyke: history and guide, 107, 111. 24 Worthington, ‘Offa's Dyke’, 91. 25 Worthington, ‘Offa's Dyke’, 91–3. 26 Worthington, ‘Offa's Dyke’, 93. 27 Worthington, ‘Offa's Dyke’, 93, citing J. Hoyle and J. Vallender, ‘Offa's Dyke in Gloucestershire: management survey’ (unpublished report, Archaeology Service, Gloucestershire County Council, Planning Department, 1996). 28 Hill, ‘Offa's Dyke — pattern and purpose’, passim; Worthington, ‘Offa's Dyke’, 94; D. Hill, ‘A frontier in flames, the eighth century in south-west Shropshire’, in: The gale of life: two thousand years in south-west Shropshire, ed. J. Leonard, D. Preshous, M. Roberts, J. Smyth and C. Train (Bishop's Castle, 2000), 65–73. 29 For a detailed statement of the case for this minimalist vision, see Hill and Worthington, Offa's Dyke: history and guide, passim. 30 Worthington ‘Offa's Dyke’, 93. 31 Hill, ‘A frontier in flames’, 71. 32 Personal communication. 33 ODP Archive: Site 29, Orseddwyn, Selattyn, Shropshire, SJ 251 339. 34 One exception being at Home Farm, Chirk Castle, Clwyd, SJ 267 383, where a berm of about 31 in. was located. 35 When first constructed in 1960 the earthwork had a berm 4 ft wide. By 1976, due to erosion of the edges of the ditch and spreading of the bank, the berm had completely disappeared and there was a continuous slope from the bottom of the ditch to the top of the bank: The experimental earthwork project, 1960–1992, ed. M. Bell, P.J. Fowler and S.W. Hillson (York, 1996), 233–6; P. Ashbee, and P. Jewell, ‘The experimental earthworks revisited’, Antiquity, 72, number 277 (1998), 485–504 (496). 36 Fox, Offa's Dyke, 259, 277. 37 Fox, Offa's Dyke, 36–9, 67–74, 106–8, 154–7. 38 Worthington, ‘Offa's Dyke’, 91. 39 Worthington, ‘Offa's Dyke’, 91. Because the upstanding sections of the bank are now generally scheduled monuments, the bank has rarely been excavated by the ODP except as a rescue dig. ODP excavations of the ditch have been undertaken much more frequently, though only occasionally has a section across the whole ditch been taken. 40 ODP Archive: Site 27, Bryn Hafod, SJ 243 028; Site 74, Carreg-y-Big, SJ 253 323; Site 24, Coedpath, SJ 293 512. These excavations are cited in D. Hill, ‘The construction of Offa's Dyke’, Antiquaries Journal, 65 (1985), 140–2 (141). 41 Hill, ‘The construction of Offa's Dyke’, 140–2; Hill and Worthington, Offa's Dyke: history and guide, 113–19. 42 For the text and a translation of this document, see A.R. Rumble, ‘An edition and translation of the Burghal Hidage, together with Recension C of the Tribal Hidage’, in: The defence of Wessex: the Burghal Hidage and Anglo-Saxon fortifications, ed. D. Hill and A.R. Rumble (Manchester, 1996), 14–35. 43 Hill, ‘The construction of Offa's Dyke’, 142. 44 The hide was an Anglo-Saxon land unit, in theory the acreage sufficient to support a ceorl (an ordinary freeman) and his household. At an early date, however, the hide effectively became a notional unit of assessment for obligations. On the hide, see T.M. Charles-Edwards, ‘Kingship, status and the origins of the hide’, Past and Present, 56 (1972), 1–33. The Tribal Hidage, a text probably dating to the seventh or eighth century, is usually thought to be a tribute list, originating in either Northumbria or Mercia. It names 35 peoples and gives 34 hidations (there is a joint assessment for Lindsey and Hatfield). Not all the peoples listed are identifiable, but the known groups were all located in southern England. There is a very extensive literature on this text. For further discussion, see C.R. Hart, ‘The Tribal Hidage’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th series, 21 (1971), 133–57; W. Davies and H. Vierck, ‘The contexts of the Tribal Hidage: social aggregates and settlement patterns’, Frühmittelalterliche Studien, 7 (1974), 223–93; J. Blair, ‘The Tribal Hidage’, in: The Blackwell encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England, ed. M. Lapidge, J. Blair, S. Keynes and D. Scragg (1999), 455–6. 45 Hill, ‘The construction of Offa's Dyke’, 142. 46 P. Wormald, ‘The age of Offa and Alcuin’, in: The Anglo-Saxons, ed. J. Campbell (Harmondsworth, 1991) [first published Oxford, 1982], 104–28 (122), citing H. Hofmann, ‘Fossa Carolina’, in: Karl der Grosse, ed. W. Braunfels, 4 vols (Dusselforf, 1965), vol. 1, 437–53. 47 Annales qui dicuntur Einhardi, in: Annales regni Francorum inde ab a. 741 usque ad a. 829 qui dicuntur Annales Laurissenses maiores et Einhardi, ed. F. Kurze (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptorum rerum Germanicarum, 6, Hannover, 1895), 93–4, sub anno 793. 48 W.S. Hanson, and G.S. Maxwell, Rome's north west frontier: the Antonine Wall (Edinburgh, 1983), 132–34. 49 P.A. Jewell, The experimental earthwork on Overton Down Wiltshire 1960, (London, 1963), 50–8, especially 51–4; Ashbee and Jewell, ‘The experimental earthworks revisited’, 489–91. 50 For a discussion of the economics of construction of another large-scale, early medieval, civil engineering project, see C. Gillmor, ‘The logistics of fortified bridge building on the Seine under Charles the Bald’, Anglo-Norman Studies, 11 (1988), 87–106. 51 Fox, Offa's Dyke, 40–4. 52 Fox, Offa's Dyke, 43. 53 ODP Archive: Site 41. 54 M. Worthington, ‘Wat's Dyke: an archaeological and historical enigma’, Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, 79, number 3 (1997), 177–96 (187). 55 Margaret Worthington argues that the alignment of the dyke in the vicinity of the Iron Age hill fort at Old Oswestry suggests that it post-dates the latter, but it is impossible to demonstrate this conclusively; Worthington, ‘Wat's Dyke’, 183, 187. 56 For arguments attributing Wat's Dyke to Æthelbald, see Fox, Offa's Dyke, 272–3; Worthington, ‘Wat's Dyke’, 189–92; N.J. Higham, The origins of Cheshire (Manchester, 1993), 100–1. These arguments are essentially based on the geographical proximity and similarity of construction of the two earthworks. 57 Asser, De Rebus Gestis Ælfredi, in: Asser's Life of King Alfred, ed. W.H. Stevenson (Oxford, 1904), 14: ‘Fuit in Mercia moderno tempore quidam strenuus atque universis circa se regibus et regionibus finitimis formidosus rex, nomine Offa, qui vallum magnum inter Britanniam atque Merciam de mari usque ad mare fieri imperavit.’ Translation from Alfred the Great: Asser's Life of King Alfred and other contemporary sources, ed. S. Keynes and M. Lapidge (Harmondsworth, 1983), 71. 58 Worthington, ‘Offa's Dyke’ 93; Hill and Worthington, Offa's Dyke: history and guide, 105. 59 On these earthworks, see Tyler, ‘Kingship and conversion’, 199–204, and the references give there. 60 Fox, Offa's Dyke, 279–8, and Stenton's ‘Foreword’; Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, 212–15. 61 Fox, Offa's Dyke, 81–2, 92, 279–80. 62 Fox, Offa's Dyke, 280–1. 63 Fox, Offa's Dyke, 74–5. 64 Hill, ‘Aspects of recent work’, 23. 65 Noble, ‘Offa's Dyke reviewed’, 83–4. 66 Hill, ‘Aspects of recent work’, passim; Hill and Worthington, Offa's Dyke: history and guide, 89–97. Excavations of posited original gaps in both Offa's Dyke and Wat's Dyke have been undertaken at a number of sites: ODP Archive, Site 12, Wat's Dyke School, Acton, Clwyd, SJ 334 523; Site 14, bypass, Mold, Clwyd, SJ 257, 653; Site 29, Orseddwyn, Selattyn, Shropshire, SJ 251 339; Site 31, Yew Tree Farm, Sleety, Shropshire, SJ 300 326; Site 32, Dalford, Whittington, Shropshire, SJ 307 352; Site 150, Rownal Paddock, Chirbury, Shropshire, SO 232 984; Site 151, Calves Ground, Chirbury, Shropshire, SO 233 980; Site 152, Rownal Covert, Chirbury, Shropshire, SO 233 979; Site 153, Chirbury Road, Chirbury, Shropshire, SO 235 974; Site 154, Chirbury, Shropshire, SO 235 972; Site 155, Chirbury South, Shropshire, SO 236 972; Site 156, Dudston Covert, Chirbury, Shropshire; Site 157, Lower Garth Low, Brompton and Rhiston, Shropshire, SO 243 954. It is taken as a working assumption by the ODP that gateways in Anglo-Saxon earthworks were entered by way of a causeway of un-excavated earth, rather than by a bridge across the ditch. If evidence for a ditch is found, therefore, this is thought to indicate that the bank also once existed, and that the gap in the dyke was not an original feature. This was the case at all gaps examined by the ODP except Site 150, Rownal Paddock, where a waterlogged ground surface and disturbance by cattle rendered the findings of the dig inconclusive. 67 Stenton, ‘Foreword’, in: Fox, Offa's Dyke, xxi, citing Felix's Life of Saint Guthlac ed. B. Colgrave (Cambridge, 1956), 34. According to Felix, these raids occurred during the reign of Cenred (704–9). 68 Stenton, ‘Foreword’, in: Fox, Offa's Dyke, xxi. 69 W. Davies, Patterns of power in early Wales (Oxford, 1990), 67, taking issue with the opinion of Patrick Wormald as expressed in ‘The age of Bede and Æthelbald’, 121. 70 It is true that there are other earthworks of possibly early medieval date on the fringes of Mercia. These include the two Wansdykes and the Cambridgeshire dykes. None of these other earthworks, however, remotely approaches the scale of Offa's Dyke and certainly none of them can be conceived as delimiting the whole frontier between Mercia and another kingdom. Furthermore, these earthworks have ditches on the ‘Mercian’ side, suggesting that they were defences against raiders from the midlands. Offa's and Wat's Dykes are the only substantial linear barriers defending Mercia. 71 Noble, Offa's Dyke reviewed, 11–12, 27–8, 86–7. For a more detailed, if very diffuse, statement of Noble's vision, see ‘Offa's Dyke reviewed’, 390–451. 72 See note 66 above. 73 Noble, ‘Offa's Dyke reviewed’, 100–50, 390–451. 74 Hill and Worthington, Offa's Dyke: history and guide, 108–11. 75 Hill, ‘Frontier in flames’, 67; Hill and Worthington, Offa's Dyke: history and guide, 108–11. 76 ‘[…] IPSE ELISEG QUI NE(?)/XIT HEREDITATEM POUO(I)S PER VIIII [ANNOS (?)] E POTESTATE ANGLO/RUM IN GLADIO SUO PARTA IN IGNE […]’ [ll. 7–9]. Transcription and translation from V.E. Nash-Williams, The early Christian monuments of Wales (Cardiff, 1950), 123–5. For a new discussion of the Pillar of Eliseg, with a slightly different rendering of the inscription, see Nancy Edwards, ‘Rethinking the Pillar of Eliseg’, Antiquaries Journal, 89 (2009), 143–77. 77 Annales Cambriae, in: Nennius: British history and the Welsh Annals, ed. J. Morris (Chichester, 1980), sub anno 854. 78 Hill and Worthington, Offa's Dyke: history and guide, 108–10. 79 Worthington, ‘Offa's Dyke’, 94. 80 ‘Vastatio Brittonum dexteralium apud Offa’, Annales Cambriae, in: Nennius: British history and the Welsh Annals, ed. Morris, sub anno 778. 81 D.J. Tyler, ‘Orchestrated violence and the “supremacy of the Mercian kings”’, in: Æthelbald and Offa, ed. Hill and Worthington, 27–34. 82 Worthington, ‘Offa's Dyke’, 94. 83 Worthington, ‘Offa's Dyke’, 94. 84 See Tyler, ‘Orchestrated violence and the “supremacy of the Mercian kings”’. 85 Wormald ‘Age of Offa and Alcuin’, 119. 86 For a comprehensive discussion of the changing profiles of these earthworks, see Bell, Fowler and Hillson, The experimental earthwork project, 1960–1992, 27–42, 66–86, 205–8, 233–6. These findings are summarised in Ashbee and Jewell, ‘The experimental earthworks revisited’, 496. 87 J. Hines, ‘Culture groups and ethnic groups in northern Germany in and around the Migration Period’, Studien zur Sachsenforschung, 13 (1999) 219–32 (231). 88 H.M. Jansen, ‘Market places and towns in Denmark 700–1100: a royal initiative’, in: Spaces of the living and the dead: an archaeological dialogue, ed. C.E. Karkov, K.M. Wickham-Crowley and B.K. Young, American Early Medieval Studies, 3 (1999), 119–32 (121). 89 A. Christophersen, ‘Royal power, state formation and early urbanization in Norway c. A. D. 700–1200: a synthesis’, in: Spaces of the living and the dead, ed. Karkov, Wickham-Crowley and Young, 107–17 (115). 90 Fox, Offa's Dyke, 289, 293. 91 See Tyler, ‘Kingship and conversion’, 188–237; P. Squatriti; ‘Digging ditches in early medieval Europe’, Past and Present, 176 (2002), 11–65. Squatriti takes this interpretation further than I do, applying it to a number of other early medieval European linear earthworks. 92 N.Brooks, ‘The development of military obligations in eighth- and ninth-century England’, in: England before the Conquest, ed. P. Clemoes and K. Hughes (Cambridge, 1971), 69–84 (76). 93 Gildas, De excidio Britonnum, in: Gildas The Ruin of Britain and other works, ed. M. Winterbottom (Chichester, 1987), 18, 2; Bede's Ecclesiastical history of the English People, ed. B. Colgrave and R.A.B. Mynors, revised edn (Oxford, 1991), I, 5, 12; Historia Britonnum, in Nennius: British history and the Welsh Annals, ed. Morris, 23. Looking outside Britain, some might suggest that the Danevirke, a barrier against an expansionist, neo-Romanist state, represents an exception to this proposition. Alternatively, however, one could argue that it is an expression of competitive ideology, as much inspired by Frankish imperial pretensions as a reaction to them. For a comprehensive examination of the Danevirke, see H.H. Andersen, Danevirke og Kovirke: archæologiske undersøgelser 1861–1993 (Aarhus, 1998); H.H. Anderson, ‘Nye Danevirke-undersøgelser’, Sønderjysk Månedsskrift, 11 (1993), 307–12. For a summary, see H.H. Andersen, ‘Danevirke’, in: Medieval archaeology: an encyclopedia, ed. P.J. Crabtree (New York and London, 2001), 71–4. 94 For arguments attributing Wat's Dyke to Æthelbald see Fox, Offa's Dyke, 272–3; Worthington, ‘Wat's Dyke’, 189–92; Higham, Origins of Cheshire, 100–1. 95 Squatriti, ‘Digging ditches’, 27. 96 Squatriti, ‘Digging ditches’, 45 97 These issues have been discussed since Sir Frank Stenton raised them in his seminal ‘The supremacy of the Mercian kings’, English Historical Review, 33 (1918), 433–52. The more extreme aspects of Stenton's case for Mercian imperialism have been called into question in recent decades, most notably by Simon Keynes: for example, ‘Changing faces: Offa of Mercia’, History Today, 40, number 11 (1990), 14–19; ‘The control of Kent in the ninth century’, Early Medieval Europe, 2 (1993), 111–31; ‘The British Isles: (a) England, 700–900’, in: The New Cambridge Medieval History. Volume II: c. 700–c. 900, ed. R. McKitterick (Cambridge, 1995), 18–42. Despite these critiques, the claims were being made, and show us something of the image Offa wished to project. 98 Squatriti; ‘Digging ditches’, 18, citing James C. Scott, Seeing like a state: how certain schemes to improve the human condition have failed (New Haven, 1998), 196, 257–8. 99 Scott, Seeing like a state, 257–8. 100 Scott, Seeing like a state, 257–8. 101 Squatriti; ‘Digging ditches’, 18. 102 D.J. Tyler, ‘An early Mercian hegemony: Penda and overkingship in the seventh century’, Midland History, 30 (2005), 1–19. 103 On Mercia in this period see, Yorke, Kings and kingdoms, 100–27; Kirkby, Earliest English kings, 129–36, 163–79; D.N. Dumville, ‘Essex, Middle Anglia and the expansion of Mercia in the south-east Midlands’, in: The origins of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, ed. S. Bassett (Leicester, 1989), 123–40; Tyler, ‘Kingship and conversion’, passim. 104 Tyler, ‘An early Mercian hegemony’. 105 On this issue, see P. Wormald, ‘Bede, the Bretwaldas and the origins of the Gens Anglorum’, in: Ideal and reality in Frankish and Anglo-Saxon society: studies presented to J. M. Wallace-Hadrill, ed. P. Wormald, D. Bullough and R. Collins (Oxford, 1983), 99–129; Tyler, ‘Kingship and conversion’, 125–31. 106 On ethnic identity in the west midlands, see S. Bassett ‘How the west was won: the Anglo-Saxon takeover of the west midlands’, Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History, 11 (2000), 108–18; D.J. Tyler, ‘Early Mercia and the Britons’, in: Britons in Anglo-Saxon England, ed. N.J. Higham (Woodbridge, 2007), 91–101. 107 On the anglicisation of the west midlands during late seventh and eighth centuries, see T.M. Charles-Edwards, ‘Wales and Mercia, 613–918’, in: Mercia: an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in Europe, ed. Michelle P. Brown and Carol A. Farr (London, 2001), 89–111 (96–7).
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