Anglo-Saxon cemetery is unearthed near Stonehenge... again

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Salisbury Plain may be best known for Stonehenge, but the chalk plateau has revealed other, more hidden secrets over the past month.

In April an Anglo Saxon cemetery of around 150 graves holding beautiful grave goods was unearthed in Bulford, Wiltshire.

And now, another cemetery has been discovered with 55 graves, just 7 miles (11km) down the road in the village of Tidworth.

The 1,300-year-old Anglo-Saxon cemetery was discovered on land marked for a £70 ($102) million housing development for army families.

The cemetery of 55 graves dates back to the late 7th and early 8th century AD.

Most of the burials contained personal effects or significant items.

The majority of the items were small iron knives, although other finds included combs, pins made of bone, beads and pierced coins thought to form necklaces. There were also several spearheads.

Anglo-Saxon cemetery teeming with 'fascinating' objects is unearthed near Stonehenge for the second time in a month


The 1,300-year-old cemetery was found on land marked for development

Cemetery of 55 graves dates to the late 7th and early 8th century AD

The majority of the items found in graves were small iron knives

Combs, pins made of bone, beads and pierced coins were also found


By Abigail Beall For Mailonline
6 May 2016
Daily Mail

Salisbury Plain may be best known for Stonehenge, but the chalk plateau has revealed other, more hidden secrets over the past month.

In April an Anglo Saxon cemetery of around 150 graves holding beautiful grave goods was unearthed in Bulford, Wiltshire.

And now, another cemetery has been discovered with 55 graves, just 7 miles (11km) down the road in the village of Tidworth.


The 1,300-year-old Anglo-Saxon cemetery was discovered on land marked for a £70 ($102) million housing development for army families. The cemetery of about 55 graves (one pictured) dates back to the late 7th and early 8th century AD

The 1,300-year-old Anglo-Saxon cemetery was discovered on land marked for a £70 ($102) million housing development for army families.

The cemetery of 55 graves dates back to the late 7th and early 8th century AD.

Most of the burials contained personal effects or significant items.

The majority of the items were small iron knives, although other finds included combs, pins made of bone, beads and pierced coins thought to form necklaces. There were also several spearheads.

The land, in Tidworth, Wiltshire, is part of a new housing development to build 322 new homes for Army families.


This is the second site of Anglo Saxon graves found in Wiltshire in the last month. On 18 April, a cemetery of 150 graves was found in Bulford (shown on map). This week, another cemetery has been discovered with 55 graves, just 7 miles (11km) down the road in the village of Tidworth



Most of the the burials contained personal effects or significant items. The majority of the items were small iron knives, like the four pictured left, although other finds included combs, pins made of bone, beads and pierced coins thought to form necklaces. Other contained weapons like the Saxon shield boss, shown right


Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire and Hampshire is teeming with ancient archaeological sites, including Stonehenge and Avebury


WHAT WAS THE BOX USED FOR?


Small cylindrical boxes have been found in Anglo Saxon burials up and down the country, but their function is disputed.

The various names given to them indicate different interpretations: work box, thread box, relic box, according to a study by Catherine Hills of the University of Cambridge.

Early interpretations were practical, with experts suggested they were worn by woman as portable sewing boxes, for example. One has been found with pins inside it.

But they may have been used to hold magic 'weaving spells', Christian relics or drugs, acting as a kind of first aid box.


Small cylindrical boxes have been found in Anglo Saxon burials up and down the country, but their function is disputed. The various names given to them indicate different interpretations: work box, thread box, relic box, according to a study by Catherine Hills of the University of Cambridge

A handful of boxes have been found with pieces of fabric and thread inside.

Because they tended to be silk or other quality fabrics, an expert called Meaney suggested the boxes held relics - 'perhaps fragments from the clothes or vestments of holy people.'

European examples of similar boxes from around the same time, known as 'amulet capsules' seem to strengthen the Christian purpose of the boxes because they are decorated with crosses.

'They are found in early medieval female graves, predominantly of the seventh century, including at least a hundred Merovingian examples mostly from the Rhineland, and many Anglo-Saxon,' the study said.

While many of the Anglo Saxon examples are decorated with a cross or crosses on both ends, they may simply be a type of non-religious decoration.


Early interpretations were practical, with experts suggested they were worn by woman as portable sewing boxes, for example. One has been found with pins inside it. But they may have been used to hold magic 'weaving spells', Christian relics or drugs, acting as a kind of first aid box



One of the graves found was of a 6ft (1.8 metre) man with an unusually large spearhead and a conical shield boss, indicating his status as a warrior

'The earliest documentary evidence we have for Saxon settlement at Tidworth dates to 975AD,' Simon Flaherty, site director for Wessex Archaeology, said.

'This excavation potentially pushes the history of the town back a further 300 years.'

The first results suggest the burials represent a cross-section of a local community, with men, women and children all present.

'The site at Tidworth has produced some fascinating archaeology, Project manager Bruce Eaton said.

'The mid-Saxon cemetery is of particular importance in its own right

'But, taken together with the recent excavation of the Anglo-Saxon cemetery on MOD land at Bulford, which was of a similar date, we now have the opportunity to compare and contrast the burial practices of two communities living only a few miles apart and who would almost certainly know each other.'

One of the graves found was of a 6ft (1.8 metre) man that contained an unusually large spearhead and a conical shield boss, possibly indicating his status as a warrior.

A rich female burial had bronze jewellery, beads, a bone comb, a chatelaine - decorative belt hook or clasp - and a finely decorated bronze work-box.


'The earliest documentary evidence we have for Saxon settlement at Tidworth dates to 975AD,' Simon Flaherty, site director for Wessex Archaeology, said. A Saxon bone pin pictured



The first results suggest the burials represent a cross-section of a local community, with men, women and children all present. Hoops from a Saxon necklace shown left, Saxon beads right

The items suggest the woman's likely importance within the household and wider community.

The finds will eventually go to Devizes Museum in Wiltshire.

This is the second site of Anglo Saxon graves found in Wiltshire in the last month.

Archaeologists unearthed a cemetery of 150 graves holding beautiful grave goods, including an intricate comb, jewellery, a 'sewing box' and intriguing shells in Bulford, Wiltshire in April.

There were also indications the site has been of spiritual significance for 5,000 years with collections of Neolithic goods suggesting it may also have been an important burial site for Stone Age man.


A rich female burial had bronze jewellery, beads, a bone comb, a chatelaine - decorative belt hook or clasp - and a finely decorated bronze work-box. Saxon bone comb shown. The items suggest the woman's likely importance within the
household and wider community


Small cylindrical boxes have been found in Anglo Saxon burials up and down the country, but their function is disputed. A conservationist lifting the Saxon workbox, left. The team surrounding a grave is pictured right


THE ANGLO SAXON CEMETERY FOUND LAST MONTH

Archaeologists unearthed a cemetery of about 150 graves holding beautiful grave goods, including an intricate comb, jewellery, a 'sewing box' and intriguing shells in Bulford, Wiltshire in April.

There were also indications the site has been of spiritual significance for 5,000 years with collections of Neolithic goods suggesting it may also have been an important burial site for Stone Age man.

Experts at Wessex Archaeology excavated the site, earmarked for 227 new Army family homes. It is around four miles from the famous Stonehenge circle.

Investigations revealed 150 graves from the mid-Anglo-Saxon period in England, with one grave dated to between AD 660 and 780.

This grave held the remains of an Anglo Saxon woman who died in her mid to late 20s and was laid to rest with two boxes and a cowrie shell.

 
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