Economic Collapse?: A Historical and Archaeological Perspective on the Anglo-Saxon Emporium

M view pre-conquest England, before William the Conqueror in 1066, as a period of little international trade, no economic activity, and few urban centers. However, Anglo-Saxon England did contain a remarkable degree of “urbanism” in a period dominated by rural agricultural settlements and high status portable wealth. The urban, economic sphere was centered on emporia – organized merchant communities characterized by high degrees of manufacturing, water based trade and no political or defensive structures. These emporia, otherwise known as wics, were essentially oversized permanent market places physically divorced from judicial and political centers. Imagine a city, large, sprawling and filled with the hustle and bustle of urban dwellers going about daily affairs. Perhaps most inhabitants are engaged in daily tasks such as weaving fresh wool into yarn in dark loom houses while others tend the scorching fires of kilns. Still others might be walking the docks, examining new goods being unloaded by foreign traders. The entire city is alive with the sounds of human inhabitation, yelping English hunting dogs, the crack of the loom weights, and the sounds of merchants cutting deals. As far as the eye can see, neat long houses string back from the docks. Far off in the distance, there is countryside, the counterpart to this urban center. Though very different from modern perceptions of the industrial, mechanized urban sprawl, this medieval antecedent is not so different in its basic human components. Humans, animals and merchandise all inhabit this strictly ordered environment. Yet, even as the emporium seems to meet modern expectations of urban life, it also contradicts them. Instead of a bustling cultural, economic and political center, the emporium is strictly commercial. No large palaces or courthouses mar the simple skyline. Their simultaneous familiarity and distinctiveness place these early medieval urban centers in dialogue with modern perceptions of town and city; as alternative forms, they challenge our minds to question the nature and purpose of cities in the broadest sense of the word. Traditionally, the early Middle Ages are seen as a “black hole” in economic prosperity and urban life, especially in England. The period from the 5th to the 11th centuries is often seen as a bleak era in the shadow of Rome’s great past; the achievements made in urban centers, trade and manufacturing are measured by the example of ancient Rome. The most quintessential view of this period is that of Edward Gibbon who wrote in his seminal work The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire that “the active virtues of society were discouraged... a large portion of public and private wealth was consecrated to the specious demands of charity and devotion,” which was embraced by a “servile and effeminate age.”1 Such a one-sided view of this period is an extremist position; however, even many modern historians such as Bryan Ward-Perkins adopt similar negative views.2 This understanding cheats the early Middle Ages of its successes and amplifies its failures. By looking at the range of archaeological and documentary evidence from the middle and late Saxon period, it is evident that during the 6th to the 9th centuries a new understanding of town life and urban planning sprung up along with commodity trade in both England and the rest of the Northern World. This trade was not simply a matter of gift exchange for the elite, water based trade communities, but rather a complex system of trade, borrowing little from the Mediterranean models. This system became highly embedded in Anglo-Saxon society as can be seen by both literary and archaeological evidence. In examining emporia through both literary and archaeological lenses, it is apparent that quantifying successes, failures and civilized life are far more complicated than previously assumed. Over the past century, the development of the archaeological discipline and a renewed interest in an insular “English” identity have pushed the study of Anglo-Saxon history, art and material culture to new levels. These developments have resulted in a veritable flood of scholarship concerning who the Anglo-Saxons were and what type of kingdoms they created. In these works, much has been made of the reintroduction of urban life in the 6th through the 9th centuries; scholars have questioned what these emporia are, how they functioned, and in what ways they influenced later medieval and modern notions of town and trade. Henri Pirenne and Colin Renfrew proposed the traditional view of emporia in 20th century; these scholars alongside many others developed lasting models for economic history in which these early medieval settlements are seen as little more than remnants of true trade in a collapsed civilization where the aristocracy used trade centers solely to transport high status goods.3 However, the idea that elites maintained these sites only in order to facilitate long-distance movement of high status gifts does not fit with