The chance discovery of a mysterious wealthy lady in poor farmland soil is about to rewrite the history of Anglo-Saxon England.
The find by Tom Lucking, a student, of the remains bedecked with an exquisite gold pendant and diplomatic coins has led to a reassessment of the powerbases of the Anglo-Saxon elite in the 7th century.
Discovery of ‘Winfarthing Woman’ redraws map of medieval power
David Sanderson, Arts Correspondent
December 4 2017
The Times
The pendant found in Winfarthing, Norfolk, indicates that the powerbases of the Anglo-Saxon elite were not where experts had thought
The chance discovery of a mysterious wealthy lady in poor farmland soil is about to rewrite the history of Anglo-Saxon England.
The find by Tom Lucking, a student, of the remains bedecked with an exquisite gold pendant and diplomatic coins has led to a reassessment of the powerbases of the Anglo-Saxon elite in the 7th century.
The “Winfarthing Woman”, named after the village in Norfolk where she was found, was described yesterday as a high-status individual who might have even been royal. The pendant found with the body features hundreds of tiny individually set garnets, some used to create an interwoven serpent-type motif, whose hand-cut garnet eyes are half a millimetre in diameter.
“It is an exceptional piece of workmanship which has only the highest standard of garnet cutting,” Tim Pestell, a senior curator at Norwich Castle Museum, said.“It shows that the person buried in this grave was of the very highest status, certainly aristocratic and quite possibly royal.”
A cross indicated, according to Mr Pestell, that she was one of the earlier converts to Christianity in Anglo-Saxon England and also showed the “top-down” nature of the society’s conversion to the faith. There were also two coins from a Frankish king, which were “quite possibly a diplomatic gift”.
However, the really “interesting thing”, Mr Pestell said, was the location of the find. The assumption had been that in the kingdom of East Anglia during this medieval period the centres of power were in what is now southeast Suffolk and northwest Norfolk. This was based on the discovery of the Sutton Hoo burial ship and other finds. Archaeologists had paid little attention to the poor agricultural soil of the central clayland around Diss.
The exquisite pendant and coins were buried with the “Winfarthing Woman”
“This is right in the middle,” Mr Pestell said. “So very clearly our thoughts about where these powerful centres are have been misunderstood. This is not in the place we would expect to find it. It is rewriting history.”
Mr Lucking, 26, from Felixstowe, Suffolk, is now a field archaeologist. He said that he had been bitten by the metal detecting bug at the age of 11. His friend Stuart Isaacs — who had gained permission from the landowner to search the field — will share in the windfall when the pendant is sold. After he found a bronze bowl in the field he contacted the local Finds Officer and a few days later a concerted excavation began. “Everyone was getting excited and then when the serpentine work appeared people got very excited,” he said.
John Glen, the Arts, Heritage and Tourism Minister, said it was one of a number of finds by the public that were “revolutionary in redefining what we know about the past”.
The Winfarthing Woman was highlighted yesterday in the annual report of the Portable Antiquities Scheme as an example of best practice by amateur detectorists. In 2016 a record 1,120 finds of treasure were reported by the public.
Norwich Castle Museum is trying to raise the £140,000 at which the pendant has been valued.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...woman-redraws-map-of-medieval-power-3s3bs7ljc
The find by Tom Lucking, a student, of the remains bedecked with an exquisite gold pendant and diplomatic coins has led to a reassessment of the powerbases of the Anglo-Saxon elite in the 7th century.
Discovery of ‘Winfarthing Woman’ redraws map of medieval power
David Sanderson, Arts Correspondent
December 4 2017
The Times
The pendant found in Winfarthing, Norfolk, indicates that the powerbases of the Anglo-Saxon elite were not where experts had thought
The chance discovery of a mysterious wealthy lady in poor farmland soil is about to rewrite the history of Anglo-Saxon England.
The find by Tom Lucking, a student, of the remains bedecked with an exquisite gold pendant and diplomatic coins has led to a reassessment of the powerbases of the Anglo-Saxon elite in the 7th century.
The “Winfarthing Woman”, named after the village in Norfolk where she was found, was described yesterday as a high-status individual who might have even been royal. The pendant found with the body features hundreds of tiny individually set garnets, some used to create an interwoven serpent-type motif, whose hand-cut garnet eyes are half a millimetre in diameter.
“It is an exceptional piece of workmanship which has only the highest standard of garnet cutting,” Tim Pestell, a senior curator at Norwich Castle Museum, said.“It shows that the person buried in this grave was of the very highest status, certainly aristocratic and quite possibly royal.”
A cross indicated, according to Mr Pestell, that she was one of the earlier converts to Christianity in Anglo-Saxon England and also showed the “top-down” nature of the society’s conversion to the faith. There were also two coins from a Frankish king, which were “quite possibly a diplomatic gift”.
However, the really “interesting thing”, Mr Pestell said, was the location of the find. The assumption had been that in the kingdom of East Anglia during this medieval period the centres of power were in what is now southeast Suffolk and northwest Norfolk. This was based on the discovery of the Sutton Hoo burial ship and other finds. Archaeologists had paid little attention to the poor agricultural soil of the central clayland around Diss.
The exquisite pendant and coins were buried with the “Winfarthing Woman”
“This is right in the middle,” Mr Pestell said. “So very clearly our thoughts about where these powerful centres are have been misunderstood. This is not in the place we would expect to find it. It is rewriting history.”
Mr Lucking, 26, from Felixstowe, Suffolk, is now a field archaeologist. He said that he had been bitten by the metal detecting bug at the age of 11. His friend Stuart Isaacs — who had gained permission from the landowner to search the field — will share in the windfall when the pendant is sold. After he found a bronze bowl in the field he contacted the local Finds Officer and a few days later a concerted excavation began. “Everyone was getting excited and then when the serpentine work appeared people got very excited,” he said.
John Glen, the Arts, Heritage and Tourism Minister, said it was one of a number of finds by the public that were “revolutionary in redefining what we know about the past”.
The Winfarthing Woman was highlighted yesterday in the annual report of the Portable Antiquities Scheme as an example of best practice by amateur detectorists. In 2016 a record 1,120 finds of treasure were reported by the public.
Norwich Castle Museum is trying to raise the £140,000 at which the pendant has been valued.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...woman-redraws-map-of-medieval-power-3s3bs7ljc
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