The evidence for human settlement in the area of Durham is for the most part, limited, save for a scattering of Palaeolithic and Mesolithic toolsets, as well as a few Bronze and Iron age artefacts. Before the invasion of Aulus Gallus (governor of Roman Britain between 52 and 57 CE) and the subsequent conquest of the Brigantian confederacy, the promontory fort of Maiden Castle stood as the local political and economic power centre. In the Romano-British period, there are only tentative signs of activity, at a farmstead in Old Durham Gardens and underneath the Cathedral's Great Kitchen. Between the withdrawal of Roman administration in the early fifth century and the advent of Bernician power in the middle of the seventh century, Durham is archaeologically blank.
However, where archaeology fails, medieval Welsh poetry may provide the answer. The Armes Pyrdain, a nationalistic hymn that urges the men and women of Wales to gather arms and rally against the Saxons, at a time when the Great Heathen Army overran the Northumbria and Mercia, and drove Wessex to the brink of collapse, mentions Caer Weir, meaning 'stronghold on the river'. Maiden Castle may have been occupied occasionally during the early Medieval period; its proximity to Ebrauc/Eoferwic (York) and Din Guarie (Bamburgh), two Brittonic settlements that became Anglo-Saxon royal centres, and its capacity to control traffic moving into the North Sea, would make it an ideal stronghold. On the other hand, the poem indicates that the Caer is located on an extreme point in the British Isles, which would suit a Pictish stronghold such as Caithness or Craig Phadraig, or even Orkney, rather than Durham.
The Armes Pyrdain mentions the stronghold within the Marwand Cunedda, an elegy that mourns the death of the semi-legendary Cunedda, progenitor of the royal family of Gwynedd. Caer Weir is described as a target of Cunedda's warpath, along with Caer Lywelydd, most likely Carlisle. Sir Ifor Williams, among others, believed the elegy to date to the tenth century at the earliest, however, recent scholarship by John Koch and R.G. Gruffud has suggested that as no mention of Gwynedd, or any other place in Wales proper, is references, with Cunedda's activities confined around Roman civitates in the north and north-east of Britain, it may have originated immediately after the ruler's death, perhaps first as oral tradition and then written down a century afterwards. Cunedda's association with Gwynedd has also been argued to be a later invention, as has Taliesin's inclusion in the poem.
If the mention of Caer Weir comes from an authentic sixth or seventh-century source, then reconciling it with the archaeological evidence is difficult. However, there was another fort along the River Weir; the Roman foundation of Concangis, which the Anglo-Saxons named Cuneceastra; modern-day Chester-le-Street. This foundation was built alongside Cade's Road, which possibly extended from the mouth of the Humber to the river Tyne. The river was navigable enough to supply a permanent garrison, and to evacuate the garrison should the need arise. Additionally, it is listed in the Notitia Dignitarum as well as the Ravenna Cosmography, indicating that the site was remembered for a substantial period of time after the withdrawal of Roman administration.
The possibility that Caer Weir is a poetic renaming of Concangis is a plausible one. The old fortress remained relevant in the later Anglo-Saxon period as the resting place of St.Cuthbert, becoming the spiritual heart of the north-east until the foundation of Durham in 995. A well-travelled medieval listener may have made the association. Carlisle was also an equally significant monastic centre by the later seventh century, visited by St.Cuthbert. The saint's vita indicates. that Carlisle had preserved much of its Roman infrastructure, including a miraculously working fountain and intact city walls. Caer Lywelydd and Caer Weir, therefore, would have been natural locations within a poem re-told for a nationalist Welsh audience, linking the honor of their supposed progenitor with two of the most important spiritual strongholds of the north.
To conclude, there is a case to be made that Durham was occupied during the period between Roman and Northumbrian rule, but a stronger argument can be made for Chester-Le-Street, which is supported by both the archaeological record and contemporary oral tradition. The broader picture of the area; the situation immediately before the Roman withdrawal, the rise and fall of Coel's Northern Britain, and the transition between the Britons of Bryneich and the Angles of Bernicia, is a topic which I will focus on in upcoming posts.
No comments:
Post a Comment