The Excavation of an 11th-century Viking Hall and 14th-century Rooms at Waltham Abbey, Essex, 1969–71

Abstract

EXCAVATIONS N. of Waltham Abbey church between 1969 and 1971 revealed a range of 14th-century rooms of the Augustinian abbey butting up against the W. side of the 12th-century claustral buildings. Pre-conquest remains discovered are interpreted here as a rectangular late-Viking turf-walled hall of aisled construction, possibly associated with Tovi, one of Cnut's ministers. Earlier pits, gullies and a linear ditch are probably 9th-century.Among the finds were: a sequence of pottery, including imported wares, of the 9th to the 17th century; gilded silver and bronze objects of dress; objects of bone; and medieval floor tiles. There is a documentary survey, and specialist descriptions of jettons and of a pre-conquest alphabet inscribed on lead.