In Lowbury Hill Mystery of Anglo-Saxons buried 1,400 years ago may soon be solved

The mystery surrounding the remains of two Anglo-Saxons buried 1,400 years ago in south Oxfordshire, identified as a man and a woman, may finally be solved thanks to modern scientific techniques.

The pair, who were found at Lowbury Hill, Oxfordshire, in 1913 and 1914, is being studied further by a team from the Universities of Reading, Cranfield, and Oxfordshire Museum Service.

The remains of the man are currently on display at the Oxfordshire Museum in Woodstock, but the woman’s bones have been in storage up until now.

Previous research indicates that the man was a seventh-century warrior who lived in Cornwall or western Ireland before being buried on Lowbury Hill. His coffin contained a sword, shield, enamelled spearhead, knife, shears, a bronze hanging bowl, and a bone comb.

His discovery within an Early Medieval barrow and the items with which he was buried indicate he was a high-status individual from the Anglo-Saxon period, with some experts suggesting he may have been a soldier.

He was discovered near a woman, who was buried in line with the wall of a Roman-era enclosure on the hilltop. From her skeleton, she is believed to have been about 40 years old. Her remains have been radiocarbon dated to about 550 to 650 AD.

“While the woman was buried without any significant items, her remains may still reveal her story and tell us something new about the past,” said PhD candidate Summer Courts, who is conducting the investigations.

Late last year, both sets of remains were taken for detailed laboratory analysis. Summer Courts, who studied the remains as part of her PhD research at the University of Reading, and Professor Amy Smith, her supervisor and Curator of the University’s Ure Museum, are hoping the modern analysis will confirm the pair’s sex, their ancestry and relations, their health, and where and how they lived.

PhD candidate Summer, said: “This is a fascinating site with a thrilling history. We hope that with the latest archaeological techniques, and with the help of the local community, we can find out more about the lives of these two people and the Lowbury Hill site.

“We would like to know more about how the site was used by past communities, who the two individuals buried on the hill were, and why their communities felt it was appropriate to bury them there.”

Bone analysis took place at the Cranfield Forensic Institute with project co-supervisor Dr. Sophie Beckett and samples will be sent to Germany for examination in collaboration with Dr. Stephan Schiffels at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Results from the study are expected later in 2023. The bones of the man returned to Oxfordshire Museum in February, overseen by co-supervisor Angie Bolton, Archaeology Manager at Oxfordshire Museum Service, ready to be put back on display to the public.

Evidence of a Roman shrine dating back was discovered during dig at Leicester Cathedral

Excavations by the University of Leicester archaeologists for have uncovered evidence that the site of Leicester Cathedral has been used for worship and religious observance for nearly 1,800 years.

In order to make room for the construction of a visitor and learning center, the cathedral was closed in January 2022. During excavations, which have been carried out as part of the £12.7m Leicester Cathedral Revealed project, thousands of finds have been uncovered.

The excavations revealed the cellar of a Roman building, which contained the base of an altar stone, raising the possibility that the room was a shrine or cult room.

When the archaeologists reached the Roman period level, approximately 10 feet (3 meters) below ground, they discovered evidence of a well-made semi-subterranean structure with painted stone walls and a concrete floor.

The decorative paintwork suggests that the space, which measures about four by four meters, was used as a reception room rather than a storage area, possibly within a larger structure such as a townhouse.

The sunken room was probably built in the 2nd century AD and was deliberately dismantled and filled in, possibly in the late 3rd or 4th century, the University of Leicester said in a press release.

They also discovered the base of an altar stone within that space, lying broken and face down amidst the rubble. The altar, which measures 25cm by 15cm and is carved from local Dane Hills sandstone, has decorative mouldings on three sides.

The back is plain, indicating that it was intended to be placed against a wall. It would have originally stood taller than it was wide, perhaps around 60cm tall, but it is broken mid-shaft and the upper part of the pedestal and capital are missing.

Mathew Morris, Project Officer at the University of Leicester Archaeological Services (Ulas) who led the excavations, said: “Given the combination of a subterranean structure with painted walls and the altar we have found, one interpretation, which seemed to grow in strength as we excavated more, could be that this was a room linked with the worship of a god or gods. What we’re likely looking at here is a private place of worship, either a family shrine or a cult room where a small group of individuals shared in private worship.

“Underground chambers like this have often been linked with fertility and mystery cults and the worship of gods such as Mithras, Cybele, Bacchus, Dionysius, and the Egyptian goddess Isis. Sadly, no evidence of an inscription survived on our altar, but it would have been the primary site for sacrifice and offerings to the gods, and a key part of their religious ceremonies.”

“The discovery of a Roman altar at Leicester Cathedral, the first to ever be found in Leicester, is an amazing find for the Leicester Cathedral Revealed project. For centuries there has been a tradition that a Roman temple once stood on the site of the present Cathedral. This folk tale gained wide acceptance in the late 19th century when a Roman building was discovered during the rebuilding of the church tower.

The origins of this story have always been unclear but given that we’ve found a potential Roman shrine, along with burials deliberately interred into the top of it after it’s been demolished, and then the church and its burial ground on top of that, are we seeing a memory of this site being special in the Roman period that has survived to the present day?”

Leicester is one of the most excavated cities in Britain, and much is known about the Roman town that came before it, Ratae Corieltavorum.

This most recent dig aimed to look at different facets of the city’s history and discover more about the Cathedral’s early history as a parish church.  Experts will be able to trace the history of this area of Leicester back to the Victorian era, as well as Medieval, Saxon, Roman, and possibly even early Iron Age settlements.

‘Startling’ new evidence reveals gladiators fought in Roman Britain

Gladiator fights backed by roaring crowds in impressive-looking arenas have long inspired film-makers behind classics such as Gladiator and Spartacus. Now new research reveals for the first time that such a sporting spectacle took place in Britain in the late second century AD.

Crucial evidence has been discovered within a spectacular vase – decorated with a depiction of gladiatorial combat – which was unearthed from a Roman grave in Colchester in 1853.

New tests prove the Colchester Vase was made of local clay around AD 160-200 and that an inscription bearing the names of two featured gladiators was cut into the clay before firing, rather than afterwards, as previously assumed. It was therefore an intrinsic part of the vessel’s original design rather than a later addition to a generic arena representation.

That means the vase was the ultimate in sports memorabilia, perhaps commissioned by a gladiator trainer or owner, or someone else involved with such contests.

Frank Hargrave, director of Colchester and Ipswich Museums (CIMS), which owns the vase, told the Observer the research has led to “startling new conclusions”, showing its true significance in recording a real spectacle in Colchester, known to the Romans as Camulodunum.

“It’s the only evidence of a Roman arena gladiator combat actually being staged in Britain,” he said. “There are no written descriptions. The vase is such high quality that there’s been a bit of snobbery, an assumption that it couldn’t possibly have come from Britain, whereas all the analysis has now put that to bed.”

Glynn Davis, a Roman archaeologist and CIMS senior curator, described the findings as “incredibly significant”. “There’s nothing else like that from Britain. It’s a commemorative piece, almost a trophy for the trophy cabinet. Later, it’s used as a funerary vessel.

There must be an intimate connection with the deceased. They could well have sponsored the games. Or they were an absolute sports nut. For whatever reason, they saw the fight and thought, ‘I want a memento of that’.”

The research involved a large team, including academics from the universities of Durham, London and Reading. Their osteological and isotopic analysis of the cremated human remains within the vase revealed a “non-local” male of “potentially European origin”, aged over 40.

The vase – 212mm x 158mm – reflects that gladiatorial combat was part of Roman arena spectacles, where programmes included exotic animals. Its decoration features two men baiting a bear and a dog chasing a hare and deer.

Gladiators were typically paired with different combinations of armaments, and the vase shows a “secutor”, whose full armour included a heavy shield and helmet, and a “retiarius” who, with little more than a shoulder-guard, could move quickly, inflicting a blow with his trident or ensnaring his opponent with his net. Although the secutor was well-armoured, he was weighed down and his vision was restricted.

The gladiators were slaves, and those on the vase are identified as Memnon and Valentinus, thought to be stage names.

John Pearce, senior lecturer in archaeology at King’s College London, argued that – as such names were sometimes based on Homeric heroes – that of Memnon may have been inspired by the mythical bellicose king of the Ethiopians, whose martial reputation was second only to Achilles, who later slew him at Troy. “Memnon appears quite often in Roman literature. He’s described as this massively impressive ‘black-skinned’ person, this hero who comes from Troy. I’m wondering why Memnon would be chosen as the name of the gladiator. Is that because we’ve got a black gladiator who is from somewhere well south of Colchester – from north Africa?”

The vase shows the moment after Memnon overcomes his opponent, who is holding up his forefinger in a sign of submission by gladiators.

In their forthcoming research paper, Davis and Pearce write: “The ad digitum gesture by Valentinus signals the end of combat, but the decision to spare or slaughter him, and thus his fate as victim or survivor … is unreported.”

Davis said: “You’re looking at this moment in time. Is Valentinus spared? That would be down to the owner of the gladiators and sponsor of the games, as they are slaves.”

While gladiators were seen as social outcasts, they were also celebrities. Their gruelling training was an expensive investment, and owners were reluctant to see them slaughtered.

Most contests were not fights to the death, Davis said. Although he praised their portrayal in classic films such as Spartacus and Gladiator, he added: “There’s a lot of misconception about gladiators in the ancient world. It was big business and they were a commodity. Although thousands of people died in arenas in the Roman world, they were generally criminals and prisoners of war. Gladiators did die, but not in this bloodbath of popular culture.”

Although no amphitheatre – the usual arena for gladiatorial combat – has yet been discovered, Colchester has two Roman theatres where such an event could have been staged. Pearce said: “With our re-analysis of the Colchester Vase, we can be confident that this was an event that took place here.”

The vase will be displayed in a major exhibition on gladiators at Colchester Castle from 15 July. Roman oil lamps, including one shaped as a gladiator’s helmet, will be among the exhibits.

Iron Age comb found made from a human skull in the UK

Researchers from the London Archaeological Museum (MOLA) determined that an Iron Age comb they found during an archaeological dig that ended in 2018 was made from a human skull and was most likely used as a talisman rather than styling hair.

The accessory dubbed the Bar Hill Comb was among 280,000 items of interest collected between 2016 and 2018 during the A14 improvement scheme.

The comb is around 2 inches long with a curved top and teeth carved into the bottom.

The reconstruction drawing created by the MOLA researchers suggests that the comb was originally rectangular with a circle carved out in the middle for attaching to clothing.

“The Bar Hill Comb may have been a highly symbolic and powerful object for members of the local community,” Michael Marshall, a prehistoric and Roman finds specialist at MOLA said in a statement.

“It is possible it was carved from the skull of an important member of Iron Age society, whose presence was in some way preserved and commemorated through their bones.”

He said only two other comparable examples have ever been found in Britain – both within 15 miles (24km) of the Bar Hill Comb.

The lack of wear on the comb’s teeth distinguishes this bone from other finds, suggesting that it was possibly worn as an amulet rather than used to brush the hair at all.

Many people in the British Isles during the Iron Age revered human skulls, according to historians.

Both carved stone heads and skulls served as talismans, as evidenced in ritual practices documented by archaeologists and in folklore.

The comb’s tines show no signs of use or deterioration, and traces of a hole that was drilled into its top indicate that it was once attached to a string for wearing.

Archaeologists have found seven pairs of Anglo-Saxon brooches in seven graves during an excavation in Gloucestershire

Archaeologists have found seven pairs of Anglo-Saxon saucer brooches, one pair in each of seven burials unearthed in an excavation in South West of England Gloucestershire.

The wonderful discovery was announced on Twitter by Cotswold Archeology.

At the site, the Cotswolds Archaeology team unearthed more than 70 Anglo-Saxon burials, some of which had luxurious grave goods. They are from the 5th or 6th centuries.

Seven pairs of gold-gilt plate (or saucer) brooches were found, in seven separate graves. Plate brooches such as these were decorative items, worn in pairs at the chest and used to fasten clothing.

(1/3) These beautiful #AngloSaxon disc brooches originate from a site that revealed features dating from the Iron Age through to the 3rd or 4th century and beyond. We carefully excavated over seventy Anglo Saxon burials, some containing high-status grave goods… #Archaeology pic.twitter.com/ou1fV8rDt3

— Cotswold Archaeology (@CotswoldArch) April 4, 2022

They’re known as saucer brooches after their shape: a circular central body with a raised rim.

They are made of gilded copper alloy and were relief-cast (cast from a single piece of sheet metal) with decorative motifs in geometric patterns.

The designs on cast saucer brooches are based on geometric motifs. The commonest design is the running spiral, so-called because each of the spirals is linked to the next and they run around the brooch, normally with a pellet in the center. The commonest number of spirals is five or six, but there are occasionally more.

Cast saucer brooches are similar to button brooches, with the upturned rim that gives them their name. They were worn in pairs, so in graves, it is normal to find two very similar, but not mould-identical, brooches together.

The saucer brooches are still a high-status signifier for burials from this early period of Anglo-Saxon history in England, often found in tandem with other expensive pieces of jewelry.

Ranging in size from 20-70 mm in diameter, saucer brooches were worn in pairs across the chest to fasten garments. Their designs are more simple than, for example, the long square-headed brooches which were so large they offered much more space to create complex, highly sophisticated designs.

“Those we uncovered were either positioned one on each shoulder or two next to each other on the left shoulder with an associated clothing pin, giving a vivid impression of how they once looked on their wearers,” they wrote on their Cotswold Archeology Facebook page.

3,000-Year-Old leather Shoe discovered On A Beach In Kent, UK

A Bronze Age relic found on a Kent beach is believed to be the oldest shoe ever found in the United Kingdom. The shoe, made of leather, is 3,000 years old and was discovered by archaeologist Steve Tomlinson.

Tomlinson sent the shoe to an East Kilbride, Scotland unit for carbon dating even though he didn’t think it was particularly noteworthy when he first discovered it. He got a response stating the shoe was from the late Bronze Age five weeks later.

“The date they had given me was just astonishing. It’s incredible, and it’s so, so rare. Textiles like this don’t survive often, they have to be found in anaerobic conditions,” Tomlinson told Kent Online.

The shoe is potentially the oldest found in the British Isles, and is also thought to be the smallest Bronze Age shoe found in the world. The shoe is 15cm long, and it is thought that it was worn by a child aged two- to three years old.

Previously, the 2,000-year-old shoe discovered by archaeologists at the Somerset quarry in 2005 was thought to be the oldest in the United Kingdom.

However, the discovery in Kent is even older – and is also potentially the smallest Bronze Age shoe ever found in the world,” Kent Online reports.

“I will certainly look forward to the future and what we can all learn from this incredible find. Finding something like that is quite extraordinary. It opens up history too; we just know nothing about these kinds of things,” Tomlinson said.

Now, additional research is being done to see what kind of animal the leather was made from and whether any DNA can be derived from the artifact.

The Bronze Age shoe is anticipated to go to the British Museum once all scientific investigations have been completed.

Researchers Examine Discarded Roman Tiles

Markings found in Roman tiles have shown workers were “more of a mixture” of people than first thought. The imprint of a woman’s sandal and a written name were found on items recovered from a 3rd Century tile factory at Priors Hall Park, Corby.

Experts said they showed workers were not just young male slaves but “literate men and women in nice shoes”.

Nick Gilmour, from Oxford Archaeology, said the marks showed it was “not clear cut” who the Roman workers were. Archaeologists have been working on-and-off at the Northamptonshire site for about 12 years, ahead of a development of more than 5,000 homes.

The Little Weldon Roman villa had first been uncovered in the 18th Century, but in 2011 during a geophysical survey a second Roman villa was revealed.

Oxford Archaeology took on the excavations in 2019 when Urban & Civic took over the development. They uncovered a temple/mausoleum that was turned into a pottery, brick and tile manufacturing centre sometime in the later 3rd to early 4th Century, to make building materials for Roman villas.

The latest findings come from the analysis of recovered material, including six tonnes of discarded tiles which are now being recorded. Mr Gilmour said Romans in the area were producing tonnes of tiles weekly to distribute around a network.

While many are just basic tiles, “maybe one in 10,000 is really interesting”, including a “big thick tile” in which somebody had used their finger to trace letters in it, he said.

Individual tilers would often mark about one in every few they produced with a signature, so they could get paid for what survived the kiln. But these tile signatures were usually patterns and symbols which showed that workers were not high status.

Mr Gilmour said the latest find was “really unusual” because it reads “Potentius fecit”, which translates as “Potentius made me”, or as some linguists would say, “I was made by Potentius”.

“They have actually written their name with their finger,” he said.

“It demonstrates that the tiler was literate – perhaps surprising for someone who was in a role usually carried out by an indentured servant… so they were higher status than we thought.”

He said his team had tried to find other examples of this kind of signature, but had not yet seen one.

“It’s not definitely the only example, but we have asked a lot of experts in the field so we are close to convinced there isn’t another one,” he said.

“The irony is the reason that we have got it is because it failed, it wasn’t even vaguely flat and wasn’t used on a villa or it wouldn’t have been in the tile rubbish tip.

“So he might have been literate, but he was maybe not so good a tiler.”

Tilers also used to check every few tiles with their feet by tapping them lightly, to see if they were dry and ready to be fired. A second terra cotta coloured tile with small indentations is believed to be the imprint of nails on the bottom of a woman’s sandal, as it showed a very narrow foot shape.

“It looks like women were working in the tilery as well, so it’s not as clear cut as we thought,” Mr Gilmour said.

“The workers were not just young male slaves – these markings show there were literate men and women in nice shoes as well, so it was more of a mixture.

“There was definitely still a hierarchy… the man in the villa would have been in charge, but who the workers were is not clear cut.”

He added that the footprints of animals and imprints of leaves found in the tiles would also be studied, to find out whether the work was seasonal and what the environment was like.

Mr Gilmour added that the finds in Corby showed the “possible scale” of the tile industry. During a second phase of work in 2021, they found an intact Roman road that shows how Corby joined up with surrounding settlements.

“It’s not uncommon to find a kiln next to a villa, but it would be a small one just for making tiles for the one villa,” he said.

“But at Corby they were producing tiles to sell to a wide area, which is a much more modern idea.

“The next step is scientifically examining them under a microscope to look at what’s in the clay, so that longer term we can see where they were moving them to.

“Was it two or three miles or across [the now] county or further?”

Tudor Pendant Recovered in English Field

Charlie Clarke had been metal detecting for just six months when he stumbled across what he calls his “once in a lifetime – no, once in 30 lifetimes”, find. He was exploring a Warwickshire field, turning up “junk” and about to call it a day, when a clear beep on his detector led him to dig to the depth of his elbow. What he saw there caused him to shriek “like a little schoolgirl, to be honest. My voice went pretty high-pitched”.

What the Birmingham cafe owner had discovered was a huge and quite spectacular early Tudor pendant and chain, made in gold and enamel and bearing the initials and symbols of Henry VIII and his first wife, Katherine of Aragon.

When Rachel King, curator of Renaissance Europe at the British Museum, first heard about the discovery, she had to sit down. Nothing of this size and importance from the Renaissance period had been found in Britain for more than 25 years, she said.

The heart-shaped pendant, attached to a chain of 75 links and made of 300 grams of 24-carat gold, is decorated with a bush bearing the Tudor rose and a pomegranate, Katherine’s symbol, and on the reverse the initials H and K. Ribbon motifs carry the legend TOVS and IORS, which King called “a beautiful early English Franglais pun” on the French word “toujours” and “all yours”.

Despite initially seeming almost too good to be true, said King, careful scientific analysis has proved the pendant to be genuine. What experts have not been able to uncover, however, despite scouring inventories and pictures of the time, is to establish a personal link to Henry or Katherine.

“Nonetheless, its quality is such that it was certainly either commissioned by or somehow related to a member of the higher nobility or a high-ranking courtier.”

One hypothesis, based on careful analysis of its iconography and other historical records, is that the pendant may have been commissioned to be worn or even given as a prize at one of the major tournaments of which Henry was so fond, around the time of the famous Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520. Though its size suggests it would only fit a woman, it may not have been meant to be worn at all.

Nothing remotely similar survives from the period, said King. “In the British Museum, we’ve got the largest collection of objects from the early Tudor periods in precious metal; none of them are anything like this.”

But what on earth was it doing in Warwickshire? On that, she said, they were still “feeling their way”. “We don’t know why it was in Warwickshire and who had it there. At least not yet.”

Discovered before the start of the pandemic, the pendant was unveiled at the launch of the annual reports of Treasure Act for 2020 and the Portable Antiquities Scheme for 2021.

A total of 45,581 archaeological finds were recorded in that period, of which 1,085 are classed as treasure – 96% were found by detectorists, most on cultivated land.

The Tudor pendant has not yet been valued but is certain to be worth a highly significant sum which Clarke will split with the landowner of the field. He said it meant his four-year-old son, also called Charlie, would have “the best education possible”. “That’s all it’s really about. Birmingham is a bit of a rough place, and I think any parent … would want the best education for their children.”

Inevitably, Charlie wants to be a treasure hunter when he is older, says his dad. “He wants to go to the jungle and find a box of pirate treasure. At that age, it must be so intriguing.

“People say it’s like winning the lottery; it’s not. People actually win the lottery. When was the last time a crown jewel was unearthed?”