Palaces or minsters? Northampton and Cheddar reconsidered
John Blair
Since their excavation in the 1950s and early 1960s, palace buildings at Yeavering (Northumberland) Cheddar (Somerset) have exemplified physical impact of kingship on Anglo-Saxon landscape. When, 1980–2, massive eighth- ninth-century halls were found heart Northampton, temptation to recognize a major residence Mercian kings was irresistible. Thanks archaeology, image king's tūn as one fixed point shifting, uncertain world, encouraged by poetic sources adopted first detailed studies local organization, assuming concrete reality.
Anglo-Saxon England