Tatberht’s Lundenwic

Description

During excavations at the National Portrait Gallery in London, a sheep bone was found inscribed with the name `Tatberht’. This man may well have lived in a house at this location sometime during the 8th and 9th centuries. This well-presented study aims to reconstruct the London or Lundenwic that Tatberht and his contemporaries would have known by focusing on the evidence produced during four major excavations (at 28-31 James Street, at the Lyceum Theatre in Exeter Street, at the National Portrait Gallery, Maiden Lane and Exchange Court). Jim Leary with contributors presents the evidence from each site in turn, looking at the archaeological sequence in each area and the type of finds, such as pottery, loomweights, slag, metalwork, environmental remains, human bone and the occasional coin as well as a group of charred honeybees. One technical chapter by Richard Hughes looks in detail at the wattle and daub remains from the National Portrait Gallery. This evidence is then discussed in a synthetic discussion in which Jim Leary considers the evolving shape, its industry, animals and daily life of Tatberht’s Middle Saxon London.