‘Stunning’ Anglo-Saxon burial site found along HS2 route

An Anglo-Saxon burial site containing the remains of more than 140 people interred with some of their most favoured objects, including jewellery, knives and even a personal grooming kit, has been discovered by archaeologists working on the HS2 route.

The site, near Wendover, Buckinghamshire, contained a “stunning set of discoveries”, said the historian Dan Snow. “Traditionally, this period has been dismissed as a dark age. But archaeology has filled the gaps.”

The findings would “tell us more about how our predecessors lived, fought and ultimately died”, he said. “It is one of the best and most revealing post-Roman sites in the country.”

One skeleton, a male aged between 17 and 24 at the time of death, was found with a sharp iron object embedded in his vertebrae, suggesting he suffered a violent death.

Osteologists who have examined the skeleton believe a weapon was thrust into his body from the front before embedding it in his spine.

A vivid blue stain on his collarbone came from a brooch used to hold up garments. Many of the site’s skeletons were found with two collarbone brooches keeping cloaks or peplos – long outer robes worn by women – in place.

One female skeleton was found with a vast array of goods, including a complete ornate pale green glass bowl thought to be made around the turn of the fifth century, indicating she was a person of high status. Other items found with her remains included rings, brooches, iron belt fittings and ivory objects.

The site contained 138 graves with 141 inhumation burials and five cremation burials, making it one of the largest Anglo-Saxon burial grounds uncovered in Britain. More than 2,000 beads were unearthed, along with 89 brooches, 40 buckles, 51 knives, 15 spearheads and seven shield bosses.

Dr Rachel Wood, the lead archaeologist for Fusion JV, the company that carried out the fieldwork, said it was a “once in a lifetime discovery”.

“It’s rare to discover Anglo-Saxon cemeteries, especially with this many individuals – men, women and children – and an amazing range of grave goods.

Almost all the individuals were buried with fantastically decorated brooches, but we’ve also found the glass and amber beads, swords, shield bosses, spearheads, fantastically decorated pottery jewellery – quite a lot of unique objects.

“The fifth and sixth centuries are not ones we know a lot about, and all the objects we found will be able to tell us a lot about these people. It gives us a great snapshot of society.”

Most of the individuals appear to have been relatively wealthy, able to import some of the items from across Europe. Two glass cone beakers that were uncovered intact would have been used to drink wine brought to England from abroad. The beakers are similar to ones that were made in northern France, although some were also made in England at the time.

The discoveries include personal grooming items, such as ear wax removers, toothpicks, tweezers, combs and a tube that may have contained a cosmetic such as eyeliner.

A team of 30 archaeologists worked on the site for almost a year, completing fieldwork in 2021. As well as the Anglo-Saxon burial ground, evidence of Neolithic, bronze age, iron age and Roman activity was discovered.

The HS2 route has proven rich in archaeological finds. More than 1,000 archaeologists have worked on 60 separate sites between London and the West Midlands over the past three years.

Objects that have been unearthed will be preserved and many will eventually be displayed in museums. But larger finds will be bulldozed to make way for the new rail line.

‘Rare and significant’ brooch found at site linked to KING ARTHUR

Archaeologists stumbled across the “rare and significant” piece of jewellery and hailed it as the first evidence that the area was home to the rich and powerful during the time. The Romano-British brooch was discovered in a field at St Mabyn, Cornwall, less than a mile from Castle Killibury hill fort, previously identified as the origin of Arthur’s Camelot.

The discovery has now raised the prospect that the brooch might once have belonged to his queen, Guinevere.

The hill fort is today known as Castle Killibury and has not previously yielded much interest after being ploughed for centuries.

The brooch was found in a meadow known as Chapelfield, where developers are now seeking planning permission to build 14 houses.

The piece of jewellery is made of a copper alloy and archaeologists think it dates from the 5th or 6th century – around the time a real King Arthur might have lived.

Although many sites claim to be associated with Arthur, what makes the Castle Killibury hill fort of potential significance is that the connection was first suggested by Welsh writers. 

Usually, claims are made to serve more parochial interests.

Romano-British copper alloy brooches signify that the people who lived here had some importance

The artefact is currently undergoing recording and conservation at the Royal Cornwall Museum.

The owners of the brooch, who also own the field where it was found, live in Malaysia.

But the publicly-available archaeological report attached to Cornwall Council’s planning documents says: “The brooch is a rare and significant find, suggestive of a reasonably ‘well-healed’ Romano-British farmstead settlement.”

The archaeologists were surprised by the discovery, as they had been expecting only medieval finds.

Some Arthurian scholars claim that the 11th-century Welsh tale of Culhwch and Olwen – thought to be the very first literary reference to a legendary King Arthur – placed his headquarters at “Celliwig in Cornwall”.

They suggest that the similarity of the name, and the fact that it is a hill fort from the right period in history, place the site at Castle Killibury. 

Other scholars dispute this and say the Culhwch and Olwen story places Arthur’s headquarters in Wales.

The St Mabyn brooch was found in May and is described in a report written last month. 

It comes just weeks after archaeologists, commissioned by English Heritage found evidence of an important Romano-British castle at Tintagel, long celebrated by poets as King Arthur’s birthplace.

The “Pompeii” Of Bronze Age Houses Was Just Uncovered In Britain

In the marshy fens of Cambridgeshire, archaeologists have uncovered what is being described as the “best-preserved Bronze Age dwellings ever found” in Britain.

The incredible find provides a snapshot into the everyday life of those living in the marshes around 3,000 years ago. Following a fire, the circular houses and their contents collapsed into an underlying river and became enveloped in a thick layer of silt, perfectly frozen in time. 

The houses show an astonishing level of preservation. Not only have the posts that supported the floors and beams of the roof survived in situ but an array of objects from everyday life have also been spectacularly preserved.

From textiles and tools to cooking pots that still contain their last meal, the incredible conditions have led some to compare it to a Bronze Age Pompeii.

The extent of domestic objects found sandwiched between the roof and the floor when the house collapsed is unprecedented from any British site.

“It feels almost rude to be intruding,” explained Mark Knight, director of the site that is being excavated by the Cambridge Archaeological Unit, to The Guardian.

“It doesn’t feel like archaeology anymore, it feels like somebody’s house has burned down and we’re going in and picking over their goods.” These goods were not just everyday objects either, many were precious and expensive at the time.

A bronze sickle has been found, for example, as have glass beads that may once have formed a necklace.

The dwellings were originally discovered in 1999 when a series of poles were noticed sticking out of the edge of the fen. But it wasn’t until 2006 when extensive excavations revealed the true extent of what had been preserved in the waterlogged ground, that the significance of the site really became apparent.

The settlement was built on a series of poles sunk deep into the river channel over which they sat. At the time they were standing, the region would have been a watery network of rivers winding their way through the marshes before emptying out into the Northern Sea.

And yet despite residing in the marshes, it seems that the people were not living off them. The researchers were surprised to find that they were not eating fish, eels or clams, nor were they using reeds to make things with. Instead, it seems they were eating domestic animals such as pigs and sheep.

The spine of a cow was even found in one of the smaller buildings, leaving some to suggest that the meat may have been left to hang before the fire destroyed everything.

Considering the closest dry land where grazing could have occurred at the time was around half a kilometre (0.3 miles) away, this completely changes how archaeologists thought Bronze Age people utilized the landscape and resources surrounding them.  

This could imply that the location of the settlement had less to do with food, and more to do with control.

During this time, the rivers would have been the main transport links, so perhaps by controlling these, the inhabitants could have gained wealth, power, and status, an idea supported by the variety of food found buried in the buildings.