Agrowing body of information on Anglo-Saxon burial practice has recently been published in reports on Wasperton in Warwickshire, Mucking in Essex and Bloodmoor Hill, Boss Hall With the recent publication of five major Anglo-Saxon cemeteries and the discovery of another rich site in Kent, new evidence indicates that the period was one of prosperity, diversity and intellectual freedom rather than ethnically charged violence. Chris Catling investigates. left Aerial view of the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at The Meads, near Sittingbourne in Kent, showing the remains of the Bronze Age ring ditch (centre) and outlines of some of the inhumations to the left. l Trust ica log Arc haeo : Can terbury photo and Buttermarket in Suffolk. In order to get a sense of what this newmaterial tells us about the period during which Britain ceased to be culturally Roman and gradually became Anglo-Saxon, we look at two sites in detail: Sittingbourne, in Kent, where stunning finds have just emerged from a recently excavated Anglo-Saxon cemetery, and Wasperton, one of the most important excavations of the 1980s, only just published after 25 years. In May 2008, construction work began on a mixed retail and residential development on an area known as The Meads, near Sittingbourne, in Kent. It was thought unlikely that untouched archaeological deposits would have survived, because the topsoil and subsoil had been quarried more than a century ago as a source of brickearth. Even so, an aerial photograph of 1982 appeared to show the crop-marks from large ring ditches on the site, so Andy Linklater of Canterbury Archaeological Trust (CAT) was given the task of undertaking a watching brief at the site. Saxon reuse of a prehistoric monument As the topsoil began to be removed by GSE Ltd, the first major feature to be located was one of the prehistoric ring ditches seen in the cropmarks. Within the circuit of the ring ditch, several features containing corroded iron objects were also noted. As further areas were stripped, it rapidly became apparent that a major AngloSaxon cemetery was also present on the site. Construction had already commenced, which negated the option to preserve the site in situ, so there was no alternative other than to launch an excavation. A CAT team, led by Tania Holmes, carried this out from May to December 2008; by the time the excavation was completed, 227 Anglo-Saxon inhumations and two cremations had been excavated. Bone preservation was very poor, with just a few long bones and teeth  | Issue 246 www.archaeology.co.uk | current archaeology 21