More is known of the location and density of English settlements AD 700-1000 from the activities of metal-detector users than from archaeological fieldwork. This article presents the results of the VASLE project, which was undertaken at the University of York from 2004-7. The aim of the project was to use the rich database of coins and metalwork derived primarily from metal-detecting to illuminate Viking and Anglo-Saxon landscape and economy. The VASLE project had three inter-related objectives, to: (a) investigate the national visibility of metal-detected sites; (b) study settlement hierarchies by defining characteristic assemblage 'fingerprints' for type sites; and (c) use targeted and controlled metal-detecting on a small number of sites to study their development and settlement morphology.
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Last updated: Tues Apr 21 2009