TAKING the Anglo-Saxon period as a whole, the goldsmiths had an extraordinary range of sophisticated manufacturing and decorative processes at their disposal. Some of these were known in Roman times and before, and some of them have continued in use up to the present day. The archaeological evidence for some of these processes is very clear, but for many of the rest, we need to deduce their use from the products themselves. For the purposes of this book, manufacturing and decorative techniques are dealt with in separate chapters. This division is not always clear-cut, but we feel it is helpful in dealing with such a large vocabulary of skills.

CASTING

Casting is a vital part of the repertoire of skills used by the Anglo-Saxon goldsmith, but it will be seen that the evidence we have remains somewhat enigmatic. There is a range of evidence in the form of crucibles and ingot moulds, but the moulds used to cast the objects remain exceptionally scarce, even on the known workshop sites. It is too broad a generalisation to say that every piece of metalwork starts life as a casting, but this is close to the truth, and must certainly have been the case in Anglo-Saxon England. Whatever the goldsmith intended to make, he must first have cast the metal into a convenient form, as close to the final design as possible. If rod or wire was to be made, then the metal would have been cast into a simple open mould, in order to produce a convenient ingot for hammering out. If a small amount of sheet was required, the metal would only need to be melted into a globule, which could then be hammered out on a stake or anvil. The very few remaining examples of Anglo-Saxon hollow ware such as the Ormside Bowl (60, pl. II a and b), Trewhiddle chalice (80), and the Hexham chalice (40), would need larger areas of sheet, but they offer no clues as to how the sheet was originally made. The most likely method would be to cast the metal into a thick disc, using a temporary mould, and then hammer it out to the required thickness. This was common practice in more recent times, before rolled sheet became available.