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9.ANGLO SAXONS

In this exploration of the Anglo-Saxons and the early medieval Scots (c. 5th–11th centuries CE), pupils uncover how archaeology reveals daily life, belief and emerging kingdoms through evidence from settlements, royal centres, monasteries and burials. From West Stow and Sutton Hoo to Dunadd and Iona, they examine timber halls, carved stones, metalwork and environmental remains to understand how communities organised work, expressed identity and built power in a period once called the “Dark Ages,” discovering instead a dynamic and interconnected early medieval Britain.

KEY

Session 1.1 Carefully designed sessions led by academics experienced in bringing the latest research into the classroom. Available in person or online.

Workshop 1.1 Hands-on workshops that engage pupils in experimental archaeology, designed to help them test hypotheses, explore processes, and evaluate evidence. Available only in person.

9.1 - Anglo-Saxon Daily Life: Objects and Everyday Worlds

In this session, pupils investigate Anglo-Saxon daily life not through chronicles or heroic poetry, but through the archaeological record of settlements such as West Stow, Mucking, and rural excavated sites across England. By examining pottery, loom weights, spindle whorls, agricultural tools, animal bones, metalworking debris and food remains, they explore how archaeologists reconstruct farming practices, textile production, craft specialisation and seasonal rhythms of work. Particular attention is given to how settlement archaeology allows scholars to understand diet, resource management and economic organisation, and how recent environmental and archaeobotanical studies are refining our understanding of land use and sustainability in early medieval England. Rather than presenting the Anglo-Saxons as isolated villagers, pupils learn how material evidence reveals dynamic communities embedded in regional networks of exchange. Through artefact analysis and settlement layouts, they discover how ordinary households contributed to broader political and economic systems, and how new research increasingly challenges older narratives of simplicity by revealing technological skill, craft diversity and long-distance connections.

Duration: 1 hour
Price: £50
Level: KS2
Delivery: This session can be delivered either in school or online.

9.2 - Architecture and Settlement: Building Community and Power

This session focuses on Anglo-Saxon architecture as evidence for social organisation, using archaeological case studies from West Stow, Yeavering (Ad Gefrin) and high-status complexes such as Rendlesham. Pupils investigate how archaeologists reconstruct timber halls and sunken-featured buildings (Grubenhäuser) from postholes and soil stains, and how different building types supported domestic work, craft production, storage and communal gathering. By examining site plans and reconstruction models, they explore how settlement layouts reflect hierarchy, kinship structures and emerging political authority. The session introduces recent large-scale landscape research and geophysical survey that have transformed our understanding of royal and elite sites, revealing that places such as Rendlesham were extensive centres of production, assembly and redistribution rather than isolated “halls of kings”. Pupils learn how built environments communicate status and power, and how architecture—though constructed of perishable materials—can still be reconstructed through careful archaeological method.

Duration: 1 hour
Price: £50
Level: KS2
Delivery: This session can be delivered either in school or online.

This AI generate image is for illustration purposes to reflect the nature of the workhsop offered.

9.3 - Role-Play Workshop: Justice in an Anglo-Saxon Village

In this interactive workshop, pupils step into the world of an Anglo-Saxon village assembly (the “moot”), where disputes were discussed and decisions were made according to early medieval law and custom. Using simplified examples inspired by Anglo-Saxon law codes, pupils take on roles within the community — including villagers, witnesses, elders and the local lord — and work together to resolve conflicts. Through role play, pupils explore key ideas of the Anglo-Saxon legal system, including compensation for injury, oath-taking, reputation and community judgement. Faced with different scenarios they must discuss the evidence and decide what outcome best fits Anglo-Saxon law and values. The activity works particularly well alongside similar role-play sessions offered for ancient Athens and Rome, allowing pupils to compare how different societies organised justice and resolved disputes.

Duration: 1.5 hours
Price: £120
Level: KS2
Delivery: This session can be delivered in school.

Session 9.4 - Britain and the Mediterranean after Rome: Trade, Power and the World of Tintagel

In this session, pupils explore the archaeological discoveries at Tintagel in Cornwall, one of the most remarkable early medieval sites in Britain. Once famous mainly for its association with the legends of King Arthur, Tintagel has been transformed by recent excavations that reveal it was an important high-status settlement between the 5th and 7th centuries AD. Archaeologists have uncovered substantial stone buildings, imported pottery, glass and other artefacts showing that the site was far more than a simple fortress. These discoveries demonstrate that Tintagel was connected to long-distance trade networks linking Britain with the Mediterranean world, including regions such as Byzantium and the eastern Mediterranean. Through objects such as amphorae that once carried wine and olive oil, pupils learn how archaeologists reconstruct trade, political power and cultural connections in the early medieval period. The session shows how Tintagel provides important evidence that post-Roman Britain remained part of a wider world of exchange and ideas stretching far beyond the British Isles.

Duration: 1 hour
Price: £50
Level: KS2
Delivery: This session can be delivered either in school or online.

9.5 - Anglo-Saxon England and the Circulation of Ideas

In this session, pupils explore the famous Franks Casket, an extraordinary carved whalebone box now in the British Museum, to discover how Anglo-Saxon culture was connected to the wider world of early medieval Europe. Through its intricate carvings and runic inscriptions, the casket combines stories from different traditions, including scenes from Germanic legend, Roman history and the Bible, revealing how knowledge, beliefs and ideas travelled across Europe in the early Middle Ages. The session shows how Anglo-Saxon England was deeply embedded in a broader world of shared stories, learning and artistic traditions stretching from Scandinavia and the Mediterranean to the kingdoms of early medieval Europe.

Duration: 1 hour
Price: £50
Level: KS2
Delivery: This session can be delivered either in school or online.

9.6 - Life as ... an Anglo-Saxon Woman NEW 2026

In this session, pupils explore women’s lives through grave goods, dress accessories, textile tools and household artefacts. They investigate how brooches, beads, belt fittings and weaving equipment reveal both social identity and economic contribution, and how burial evidence allows archaeologists to reconstruct status, wealth and belief systems. Rather than presenting women solely in domestic roles, the session examines how material culture suggests participation in craft production, estate management and religious life. Recent bioarchaeological research is introduced in accessible form, showing how isotopic and DNA studies are reshaping our understanding of mobility and ancestry in early medieval England, and challenging older assumptions about static, homogeneous communities. Pupils learn how archaeology allows historians to move beyond later written sources and reconstruct complex female lives grounded in work, belief and material expression.

Duration: 1 hour
Price: £50
Level: KS2
Delivery: This session can be delivered either in school or online.

Session 9.7 - Life as ... an Anglo-Saxon Child

This session focuses on childhood as a historically specific experience, reconstructed through burial evidence, skeletal analysis and settlement archaeology. Pupils examine how grave goods associated with younger individuals, differences in burial treatment, and bioarchaeological indicators of nutrition and stress help scholars understand health, care and socialisation. They explore how children gradually entered adult roles through learning craft skills, agricultural labour and participation in community life. Drawing on recent academic approaches that emphasise childhood as an active social category rather than a passive stage of life, pupils investigate how early medieval communities structured education, apprenticeship and responsibility. Through material evidence rather than romanticised narratives, they discover that childhood in Anglo-Saxon England was shaped by status, gender and environment, and that archaeological science now allows us to reconstruct early life experiences with increasing precision.

Duration: 1 hour
Price: £50
Level: KS2
Delivery: This session can be delivered either in school or online.

9.8 - Life as ... an Anglo-Saxon Warrior

In this session, pupils investigate the role of the warrior in Anglo-Saxon society through the extraordinary archaeological discoveries at Sutton Hoo, alongside evidence from other furnished burials and elite landscapes. They examine weapons, shields, helmets, feasting equipment and imported luxury goods, asking how these objects communicated authority, alliance and belief. Rather than treating Sutton Hoo as an isolated treasure trove, the session situates it within broader political and economic systems of gift-exchange, tribute and regional dominance. Recent research at sites such as Rendlesham is used to demonstrate how elite power was supported by craft production, agricultural management and landscape control, revealing kingship as a material and infrastructural phenomenon rather than simply a heroic narrative. Pupils learn how archaeology reconstructs political authority through objects, settlement patterns and ritual display, and how new discoveries continue to reshape our understanding of early medieval England.

Duration: 1 hour
Price: £50
Level: KS2
Delivery: This session can be delivered either in school or online.

9.9 - Life as ... a scholar. Bede and the World of the Anglo-Saxons

In this session, pupils explore the life and work of Bede (c. 673–735), the monk and scholar whose writings provide one of the most important sources for understanding early Anglo-Saxon England. Through the study of manuscripts, monasteries and archaeological evidence from sites such as Jarrow and Wearmouth, pupils discover how monasteries became centres of learning, writing and knowledge in the early medieval world. Using Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People alongside material culture and archaeological discoveries, pupils learn how historians combine written sources and archaeology to reconstruct the past. The session introduces the world of Anglo-Saxon scholars, the spread of Christianity, and how Bede’s work helped shape our understanding of early English history.

Duration: 1 hour
Price: £50
Level: KS2
Delivery: This session can be delivered either in school or online.

This AI generate image is for illustration purposes to reflect the nature of the workhsop offered.

9.10 - Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts and Miniatures

In this workshop, pupils explore the beautiful world of early medieval manuscripts, discovering how books were made and decorated in Anglo-Saxon monasteries. Using examples inspired by manuscripts such as the Lindisfarne Gospels, pupils examine how scribes and artists used colour, intricate patterns and gold to create illuminated initials and miniature illustrations that brought texts to life. After studying the designs and techniques used by medieval artists, pupils create their own decorated initial or miniature. They will add colour and apply gilded details to their work, learning how illumination transformed manuscripts into both works of art and powerful symbols of learning and faith in the Anglo-Saxon world.

Duration: 1.5 hours
Price: £120
Level: KS2
Delivery: This session can be delivered in school.

Session 9.11 - Beyond Britain: The Franks and Charlemagne

In this session, pupils explore the rise of the Frankish kingdoms (5th–9th centuries AD) and the creation of a vast empire under Charlemagne, one of the most influential rulers of early medieval Europe. Using archaeological evidence from churches, royal residences and fortified settlements, pupils examine how power was organised and displayed across the Frankish world, from the royal courts of the Merovingian kings to the monumental palace complex at Aachen, Charlemagne’s capital. Pupils discover how the Frankish rulers combined Roman traditions, Christian authority and Germanic customs to build a new political order in Western Europe. The session highlights how Charlemagne’s reforms in administration, learning and religion helped shape medieval Europe and left lasting archaeological traces in the landscapes, buildings and objects of the Carolingian world.

Duration: 1 hour
Price: £50
Level: KS2
Delivery: This session can be delivered either in school or online.

9.12- Beyond Britain: Monastic Communities in Europe and the Middle East

In this session, pupils explore the birth of monasticism in Late Antiquity (3rd–6th centuries AD), when some Christians chose to withdraw from ordinary society to dedicate their lives to prayer, study and communal living. Beginning with the desert monks of Egypt and the Middle East, such as the followers of Anthony and Pachomius, pupils examine how early hermits and monastic communities created new forms of religious life that soon spread across the Mediterranean and into Europe. Using archaeological evidence from early monasteries — including desert cells, communal buildings, churches, manuscripts and everyday objects — pupils investigate how monks organised their daily routines of work, prayer and learning. The session highlights how these early monastic communities became centres of literacy, scholarship and cultural preservation, shaping the religious and intellectual landscape of the early medieval world and influencing monastic traditions from the Middle East to Britain.

Duration: 1 hour
Price: £50
Level: KS2
Delivery: This session can be delivered either in school or online.

Prices

Prices include all equipment, teaching and workshop materials and FREE preparatory and follow up activities for your classroom.

Discounts are applied when three or more sessions/workshops are booked together.

Travel costs may apply for schools located more than 20 miles from Newcastle upon Tyne (UK).

Number of pupils: Each in person session is designed for one classroom, typically around 30 pupils. Online sessions can be extended to larger groups.

Info and Booking

To contact us for more info and for booking please check our Contact Us page or write us at archaeotrek@gmail.com

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