It became clear as the project progressed that the examination of the nature of middle and late Saxon metalwork and/or coin assemblages from individual sites would require a separate dataset (henceforth the 'Sites dataset') from that used in the first phase of the project to analyse the coins and metalwork across regional landscapes (the 'National dataset'). At the time of creation of the National dataset, the PAS database contained few assemblages of finds that could reliably be assigned to specific sites, and there was little concordance with those sites represented in the EMC database. On the other hand, the focus on individual sites of activity meant that any source which provided an assemblage from a discrete site could be considered. This meant that other sources of more localised data could be used for the 'Sites dataset', notably county archives and excavation reports. In addition, many records had been added to both the national databases (the EMC and the PAS) since the downloads that were used in the landscape studies (for an introduction to these sources see Section 2.1), so new downloads and filtering of these datasets was also undertaken.
This section describes the compilation of the 'Sites dataset' from each source used. Comparative dating of artefacts and coins was problematic given the level of detail available about individual finds and a very simplified dating system was adopted to allow broad comparison between sites. Objects were dated as either 'Middle Saxon', 'Late Saxon' or 'Middle/Late Saxon', and the criteria for this dating, which varied between sources, are highlighted in the discussion below. In addition, the way in which a 'site' is defined varies between the different data sources, and is also discussed below.
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Last updated: Tues Apr 21 2009