Settlement and territories: Early and Middle Saxon settlements and the antiquity of hundreds in Suffolk

Despite the past debate surrounding the relationship between sites of Early and Middle Anglo-Saxon activity and parish boundaries, the relationships between Anglo-Saxon settlements, cemeteries and the boundaries of larger territorial units, particularly hundreds, remains little explored. This article investigates the important association between Anglo-Saxon settlements and hundred boundaries using data from the Suffolk Historic Environment Record (HER) and Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS). It is argued that the relationship between Early and Middle Saxon settlements and hundred boundaries is variable, a pattern which may be associated with the differing origins and character of individual or groups of hundreds. This observation offers a method for distinguishing those hundreds that once formed post-Roman folk territories from those which were laid out later.