The early medieval buildings (re)constructed in our Gyrwe’s farm and showcased in these Digital Collections are pivotal for the historical problematics that we have outlined above.
Sunken-floored structures like the grubenhaus that was found at New Bewick are referred by scholars to a building typology that is rooted in the northern areas of the Continent since Antiquity. This typology would have been imported by groups of people who started to settle in Britain in the 5th century CE, and who were generally considered as belonging to the heterogeneous populations that ancient written sources defined with the term Germani.
The timber structures found at Thirlings, including the one labelled as “Building A” that was (re)constructed in Gyrwe’s farm, form a rural settlement that is thought to have accomplished on a local scale the management of landscape resources exerted by emerging Anglo-Saxon elites. Several features of these buildings were referred by scholars to the direct influence of architectural typologies from the Continent.
The settlement excavated at Yeavering – with its cuneus-shaped grandstand labelled as “Building E” and also (re)constructed in the farm of Jarrow’s Museum – seem to provide insights on the way royal elites of early medieval Northumbria designed hierarchically-orientated spaces to assert, consolidate, and defend their authority.
The three (re)constructed buildings and early medieval Northumbria | Five languages | Local groups | The past in the present | Anglo-Saxonism | The three buildings and their significance | The sites of the (re)constructed buildings | “Germanic” vs “Romano-British” | Early medieval timber buildings in Britain | (Ex)perimental reconstructions
