A 1,400-year-old royal hall of “world importance” has been discovered on private property. Rendlesham, Suffolk, is home to The Hall of the First Kings of East Anglia, which was uncovered this summer.
It was the “largest vast and materially opulent settlement of its date recorded in England,” according to Prof. Christopher Scull. As part of the Suffolk County Council’s Rendlesham Revealed project, it was uncovered by a community dig.
The hall was “mentioned in the works of The Venerable Bede in the 8th Century,” the source claimed.
The hall, which measured 75 feet (23 meters) long by 33 feet (10 meters), was located within a larger town that covered more than 124 acres (50 hectares).
Between AD 570 and AD 720, it served as the administrative hub for a significant region of the East Anglian kingdom that was centered on the River Deben Valley.
In Rendlesham, between the years AD 655 and 663, King Swithelm of the East Saxons was baptized by the East Anglian King Aethelwold, according to Bede’s chronicles.
The project’s chief academic advisor, Prof. Scull, said: “The outcomes of this season’s excavation are significant on a global scale.
“Rendlesham is the largest and most materially prosperous settlement of its time that is known to exist in England, and an excavation of the hall has proven that the royal mansion described by Bede actually existed there.
Only at Rendlesham do we have the more extensive settlement and landscape backdrop of an early English royal center, as well as an assortment of metalwork that sheds light on the lifestyles and activities of its residents across the socioeconomic spectrum.
According to him, the research represented a “significant gain in our understanding of the early East Anglian kingdom and the larger North Sea environment it was a part of.”
The excavations also uncovered a ditch that surrounded the royal compound, food preparation and feasting artefacts that demonstrated the eating of enormous amounts of meat, primarily beef and pork, as well as dress jeweler, personal goods, glass drinking vessel pieces, and ceramics.
Early Neolithic (fourth millennium BC) and Roman (first century AD) village remnants were also discovered.
The authority’s cabinet member for protected landscapes and archaeology, Conservative Councilor Melanie Vigo di Gallidoro, stated: “It can’t be overstated how vital this section of Suffolk is to understanding our local and national past.”
Nearby Sutton Hoo, where an Anglo-Saxon burial ground was discovered in 1939, is the region.
Over 250 volunteers participated, including young people from Suffolk Family Careers and Suffolk Mind as well as elementary school students from Rendlesham, Eyke, and Wickham Market.
The summer excavations came to a close, and a study of the findings is anticipated for the following year.
