10th March 2008, 05:11 PM
In Jess Tipper's excellent book on the Grubenhaus there are references to urban 9th to 12th century SFB's (such as the Coppergate examples)which the author classes as a differnt category of building than the early and middle Anglo-Saxon varieties. Ones in the country are much rarer. Some examples dating to the 13th and 14th century are cast doubt on because the excavator had previously dug early saxon ones, and the suggestion is that this experience biased the interpretation. There are also cases of early Saxon SFB's with 11th and 12th century material in the top fills suggesting they were left still hollows in the medieval period. I personally have dug very SFB-like features in East Yorkshire with 11th 12th century material in them. The site also had legitimate middle Saxon SFB's with which I can only assume that the apparent medieval examples were contemporaneous.