Dating back over nine centuries, the Bayeux Tapestry tells the epic story of William of Normandy’s conquest in England in 1066. One of the earliest scenes stitched onto the approximately 224-foot-long (68.3-meter) masterpiece depicts Harold Godwinson, the last Anglo-Saxon King of England, enjoying a feast at one of his manors in the village of Bosham. Now, archaeologists think they may have discovered the manor’s ruins—all thanks to a toilet.
After conducting new surveys and re-analyzing past excavations, archaeologists from the UK have uncovered what they believe to be Harold’s residence in Bosham. The manor is depicted twice in the Bayeux Tapestry, but the location of the actual building had been lost—until now. Their investigative work, detailed in a January 9 study published in The Antiquaries Journal, further grounds the iconic embroidery into real life.
“The Norman Conquest saw a new ruling class supplant an English aristocracy that has left little in the way of physical remains, which makes the discovery at Bosham hugely significant—we have found an Anglo-Saxon show-home,” Oliver Creighton of the University of Exeter said in a Newcastle University statement.
Scholars had previously suggested that a private home in Bosham currently stands where the royal manor used to be, giving archaeologists from the two universities a good starting point. In addition to re-examining the results of excavations from 2006, the team conducted new surveys and studied maps, among other records. They ultimately documented two previously unidentified buildings belonging to the medieval era, which started in the UK with William’s conquest in 1066.
However, the 2006 excavations had uncovered—and overlooked—a feature that points to a building that existed before William overthrew Harold: a toilet belonging to a large wooden building. Recently, archaeologists have realized that, starting in the 10th century CE, some prestigious residences in England had toilets, according to the researchers. The large wooden building must have been a high-status home belonging to a high-status resident.
As a result, Creighton and his colleagues confidently identified it as part of Harold’s “lost” residence in Bosham from the Bayeux Tapestry, a complex that included a surviving nearby church.
“The realisation that the 2006 excavations had found, in effect, an Anglo-Saxon en-suite confirmed to us that this house sits on the site of an elite residence pre-dating the Norman Conquest,” said Duncan Wright of Newcastle University, who led the study. “Looking at this vital clue, alongside all our other evidence, it is beyond all reasonable doubt that we have here the location of Harold Godwinson’s private power centre, the one famously depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry.”
It goes to show that sometimes ancient sources—including works of art—are more accurate than one might think.
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