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Yeavering Saxon Royal Palace: The temple and associated buildings
Early on in the development of Yeavering, a complex of buildings developed at the western end of the site. These
buildings were different from the great halls, both in construction and
alignment, and mark a shift in the focus of ritual activity away from the area of the Great Enclosure.
One of the buildings (D2) contained a huge pile of animal bones, mostly ox skulls. The excavator, Hope Taylor,
suggested that this building had been a temple and this idea is supported by the presence of a cemetery which
developed around the building. A smaller building (D1), associated with the temple, was interpreted as a kitchen
for the preparation of ritual feasts.
The floor of the kitchen building was dug into the ground forming a
sub-rectangular pit that was lined with clay. The upper part of the structure consisted of timber posts with light
screen walls. Such sunken floored buildings are common in the Anglo-Saxon period and are known as Grubenhaus. Some
interpretations have suggested that there may have been a thatched, tent-like structure over the pit, as shown in
this reconstruction from Bede's World. It is also possible that they may have had a suspended wooden floor,
although no evidence was found for one at Yeavering.
After the first destruction of Yeavering the temple buildings and cemetery
were abandoned and the focus of burial shifted back to the east end of the site.
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