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An excavation in eastern England discovered the remains of an early medieval royal hall used by the kings of East Anglia, mentioned in the writing of Venerable Bede, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People. The discovery was made in Rendlesham, a village near the eastern coast of England, in Suffolk county.
According to the note published by Medievalists.net, the Rendlesham royal hall was an important political bastion of the East Anglian kingdom from the year 570 until 720, as Venerable Bede’s texts show. Venerable Bede identified Rendlesham as the place where the East Anglian King Aethelwold stood sponsor at the baptism of King Swithelm of the East Saxons (Essex) between the years 655 and 663. In fact, it was Aethelwold who persuaded Swithelm to convert to Christianity.
The archaeologists also found jewelry, personal items, fragments of glass drinking vessels and pottery, and the remains of food preparation and feasting that show the consumption of vast quantities of meat, mainly beef and pork – as expected from a royal hall.
Professor Christopher Scull of Cardiff University, an academic advisor for the dig, told Medievalists.net that “the results of this season’s excavation are of international importance. Rendlesham is the most extensive and materially wealthy settlement of its date known in England, and excavation of the Hall confirms that this is the royal residence recorded by Venerable Bede."
