Post #114

This is a reconstruction of building D2 at the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Yeavering. It is widely agreed to be a pagan temple or shrine room which the early English called a weoh or hearg. The building contained no evidence of human habitation at all, but did have a large pit containing sacrificial animal bones, mainly oxen skulls. There are also three post holes behind a partition wall which are thought to have been where the idols of the gods stood. Such temples are well attested in historical sources. Bede says that King Rædwald kept a temple with shrines to the old gods. Elsewhere Bede recounts the story of Coifi the pagan priest who defiled a temple, and he also says that the Christian King Earconbert of Kent destroyed many temples and idols in 640AD.