Excavation: 1849.E2.80.931976 West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village

stone relief depiction of stanley west holding archaeological trowel @ west stow.

the man responsible initiating archaeological investigation of anglo-saxon village stanley west, had first become interested in anglo-saxon england when working assistant @ ipswich museum. in 1947, joined west stow excavation being run brown unearthed 2 romano-british pottery kilns. during investigation, became clear excavators there had been later anglo-saxon settlement on site, evidenced finding of anglo-saxon potsherds in rabbit-burrow scrapes on area , discovery of section of hut in site s north-eastern corner. proceeding publish findings on kilns in 1952, west went on excavate anglo-saxon areas of ipswich mopbw alongside studying archaeology in academic capacity @ university of cambridge. in april 1958, attended conference on anglo-saxon pottery in norwich organised council british archaeology. here, met professor vera evison of birkbeck college, london, , posed question why archaeologists had far focused on excavation of anglo-saxon cemeteries rather settlements; replied latter far harder detect former. in response, west informed anglo-saxon potsherds had emerged @ west stow, , intrigued, began excavating @ site ministry of public building , works (mopbw).

meanwhile, inspired mary leakey s discoveries in olduvai gorge, west traveled eastern africa excavate @ tanganyikan city of dar es salaam, returning england 5 years later, in 1965. here, evison , john hurst, inspector of mopbw asked him take charge of west stow excavation, agreed to. on next 7 years opened area of approximately ¾ of acre each season. funded mopbw, west hoped excavate of site possible, ultimately, excavation remained restrained settlement site, not exploring surrounding field systems, idea proposed dr. van es, head of dutch archaeological service. excavation undertaken team of site supervisors , 6 builders labourers, aided 30 volunteers drawn both universities , local area.

the top stratigraphic layer on site, sediment of blown sand known layer 1, removed backhoe, exposing old ground surface (layer 2) beneath it. evidence of late medieval ridge-and-furrow ploughing found in layer, , dated through discovery of 13th century pottery. layer 2 consisted largely of dark soil removed backhoe. below revealed layers in anglo-saxon village had been constructed. towards end of final season, excavators @ west stow made use of pioneering system of retrieving seeds , plant remains flotation, had been developed archaeologists @ university of cambridge.