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ENGLAND Anglo-Saxon burials is a period of great diversity of burial rite, combining references All this suggests that the 4th-century is a period of great diversity of burial rite, combining references to Roman, British and Christian practice and ideas. Tooth analysis reinforces this cosmopolitan picture. Just over half (eight out of 15) of the 4th- to 5th-century burials tested for their oxygen and strontium values had local signatures, consistent with the Jurassic clay-carbonate geology of this part of south and east Warwickshire. Four individuals had higher strontium ratios, indicative of origins in the older Palaeozoic rocks of Wales and the west of England. Three had ratios that are characteristic of the young Mesozoic rocks and warm climate of southern Europe, such as those found in Italy or Spain. bonate geology of this part of south and east Warwickshire. Four individuals had higher strontium ratios, indicative of origins in the older Palaeozoic rocks of Wales and the west of England. Three had ratios that are characteristic of the young Mesozoic rocks and warm climate of southern Europe, such as those The next clearly recognisable phase in the history of the cemetery is defined by Saxon-style urn cremations from AD 480. These are accommodated in an unused area of the enclosure, away from the earlier plots, and are entirely consistent with the idea of a migrant population arriving andthenbeing absorbed into thecommunitytothe extent that theyareallowed their own The next clearly recognisable phase in the history of the cemetery is defined by Saxon-style urn cremations from AD 480. These are accommodated in an unused area of the enclosure, away from the earlier plots, and are entirely consistent with the idea of a migrant population arriving andthenbeing absorbed into thecommunitytothe extent that theyareallowed their own area of the cemetery. l Trust ica log Arc haeo : Canterbury photoS Stone- and timber-lined graves Stone- and timber-lined graves But this is to leap ahead and leave out a group of 37 inhumations that Martin Carver has identified as belonging to the period between the late 4th and late 5th centuries. These are characterised by a lack of grave goods and the use of timber linings and stone supports. A small number of But this is to leap ahead and leave out a group of 37 inhumations that Martin Carver has identified as belonging to the period between the late 4th and late 5th centuries. These are characterised by a lack of grave goods and the use of timber linings and stone supports. A small number of similar post-Roman graves were found at Lankhills (some of them lined with tile or flint), where the excavator, Giles Cark, rejected the idea that the stones were intended to hold together flimsily constructed coffins and instead saw the inclusion of stone as a reference to the rock-cut tomb of Christ. By contrast, Ann Woodward wonders whether similar graves at Poundbury represent a reversion to the pre-Roman idea of burial in stone-lined cists. In Wales, Heather James has also suggested that stone and timberlined graves of this period have their roots in the religious thinking of the local Iron Age. Noting the westerly distribution of such graves, ABoVE A square-headed brooch in gilded copper alloy, found with a female burial. 26 current archaeology | www.archaeology.co.uk Martin Carver also comes down on the side of a regional reversion to later Iron Age practice regional reversion to later Iron Age practice and he regards these as highly significant graves because this new rite ‘rep- and he regards these as highly significant graves because this new rite ‘represents a fundamental change of resents a fundamental change of thought’ on the part of the local community, one that is made possible by a period of ‘post-imperial devolution’, during which time people are briefly free to make their own choices in the absence of an enforced political ideology. This is a key idea, to which Martin returns in his overall conclusions regarding the significance of the Wasperton cemetery. devolution’, during which time people are briefly free to make their own choices in the absence of an enforced political ideology. This is a key idea, to which Martin returns in his overall conclusions regarding the significance of the Wasperton cemetery. Fully Saxon graves Fully Saxon graves The contrast between these earlier inhuma The contrast between these earlier inhuma- tions and the 23 urned cremations of the tions and the 23 urned cremations of the period 480-530 is very marked and it is difficult to escape the conclusion that these represent the burial practice of incoming period 480-530 is very marked and it is difficult to escape the conclusion that these represent the burial practice of incoming families who obtain their own fenced families who obtain their own fenced space within the existing cemetery. The same maywell be true of a second smaller group of burials – in this case of Saxon-style gendered inhumations – that are also allocated a spare area of the cemetery. Within these graves, which date from the early 6th century, men are typically buried with spears, shields and knives, and women with brooches and beads. What happens next is that gendered burial not only becomes the dominant rite (accounting for 50 of the 65 graves of 6th-century date), it also becomes the norm within the original cemetery plots. It is as if the pre-exiting community has adopted the burial rite of the incomers or that members of the incoming groups had been space within the existing cemetery. The same maywell be true of a second smaller group of burials – in this case of Saxon-style gendered inhumations – that are also allocated a spare area of the cemetery. Within these graves, which date from the early 6th century, men are typically buried with spears, shields and knives, and women with brooches and beads. What happens next is that gendered burial not only becomes the dominant rite (accounting for 50 of the 65 graves of 6th-century date), it also becomes the norm within the original cemetery plots. It is as if the pre-exiting community has adopted the burial rite of the incomers or that members of the incoming groups had been absorbed into the pre-existing community. The fact that there is no sign of an early Saxon settlement in the 10-ha area surrounding the landscape leaves open the question where these incomers lived; but their choice of an existing cemetery for the burial of their dead implies a respect for the existing community and an accommodation by that community of new arrivals. Textile evidence Penelope Walton Rogers, the specialist in AngloSaxon fabrics, has managed to extract a similar story from the microscopic remains of clothing September 2010 |
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mineralised through contact with buckle backs and belt straps. From this, she demonstrates that someof the people buried in 6th-century ‘Saxon’ graves were wearing textiles made using practices characteristic of Roman-British weavers. Similar textiles (2/1 twill [two up, one down weave pattern], with a tubular selvedge, softfinished by fulling and teaselling) are typically found elsewhere in Britain in cemeteries that lie close to old Romano-British settlement centres. Penelope does not believe, however, that they are indicative of a separate cultural group; the graves in which these fabrics are found are not otherwise distinguished by artefacts of burial practice from any other graves. Instead, they indicate that Romano-British skills and technology continued in some places alongside weaving techniques that are newly introduced in the Anglo-Saxon period. By the second quarter of the 6th century, everyone in the cemetery appears to be culturally Saxon on the basis of their grave goods. Tooth and bone isotopes now show exclusively local signatures and suggest that population movement for the time being has diminished. Social stratification Greater social stratification begins to be evident from the mid-sixth century onwards, as some families begin to bury their dead outside the enclosure. One mid-6th century group is focused around an existing barrow, while a second group surrounds a newly erected mound with a mid- or late-6th century grave at its centre. In the 7th century, more burials take place outside the enclosure, possibly also under new mounds. These are members of the community who are clearly differentiated in some way by their status, but it is unclear whether they represent the future or the past. They are the last to be buried at this particular cemetery and it is fascinating to note that, once again, the Wasperton community seeks symbolically to establish continuity by adopting the barrows and the burial practices of the prehistoric past. Did the fact that they had no successors at this cemetery mean they were the last of the old order, extinguished by some higher political force? Or did they evolve into the new aristocracy and, in a decisive break with the past, create new kinds of cemeteries elsewhere in the landscape? | Issue 246 Male gender graves Female gender graves Child/Juvenile gender graves undetermined ll Press : Boyde IMAGE Conflict or co-existence? Martin Carver answers this question by challenging our notion of the late-Roman to early Saxon transition as bleak and bellicose, characterised by ethnically charged conflict. Instead, he characterises Late Roman and Early Medieval society as multi-ethnic and multi-cultural as a result of Britain’s membership of the Roman world, with its mobility of people and its fluidity of ideas. Between ‘British’, ‘Anglian’, and ‘Saxon’ there was a long period of co-existence and much intermarriage. ABoVE A plan of the cemetery showing possible family groups, established in the Late Roman period and persisting into the late 5th century, then losing their coherence towards the later 6th century, by when the burials are clustered round barrows (both prehistoric and newly constructed) outside the enclosure boundary. Better still, this was ‘an age of intellectual freedom’, he declares, in which diversity of burial rite was possible because ‘there was, as far as we can currently see, no sign of an interregional authority, secular or sacred, to prevent it’. The final sentence of his report hints that just such an authority will, however, bring this golden age to an end: Wasperton’s cemetery will fall out of use because of a new political agenda that enforces pan-European homogeneity on burial practice and eventually on many other areas of life more radically and thoroughly than any previous culture, and it comes bearing the symbol of a cross. fURthER READING  Wasperton:a Roman,British and Anglo-Saxon Cemetery in Central England,by Martin Carver, Catherine Hills and Jonathan Scheschkewitz, Boydell and Brewer, 2009. The Anglo-Saxon Settlement and Cemetery at Bloodmoor Hill,Carlton Colville,Suffolk, by Sam Lucy, Jess Tipper and Alison Dickens, 2009 Excavations at Mucking Vol 3:The Anglo-Saxon Cemetery Excavations by Tom and Margaret Jones, by Sue Hirst and Dido Clark, 2009 Early Medieval (late 5th to early 8th centuries AD) Cemeteries at Boss Hall and Buttermarket,Ipswich,Suffolk, by Christopher Scull, 2009 New light on the Anglo-Saxon succession:two cemeteries and their dates, by C M Hills & T C O’Connell, in Antiquity Vol 83 No 322 December 2009, pages 1096 to 1108 Ca www.archaeology.co.uk | current archaeology 27

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ENGLAND Anglo-Saxon burials is a period of great diversity of burial rite, combining references

All this suggests that the 4th-century is a period of great diversity of burial rite, combining references to Roman, British and Christian practice and ideas. Tooth analysis reinforces this cosmopolitan picture. Just over half (eight out of 15) of the 4th- to 5th-century burials tested for their oxygen and strontium values had local signatures, consistent with the Jurassic clay-carbonate geology of this part of south and east Warwickshire. Four individuals had higher strontium ratios, indicative of origins in the older Palaeozoic rocks of Wales and the west of England. Three had ratios that are characteristic of the young Mesozoic rocks and warm climate of southern Europe, such as those found in Italy or Spain.

bonate geology of this part of south and east Warwickshire. Four individuals had higher strontium ratios, indicative of origins in the older Palaeozoic rocks of Wales and the west of England. Three had ratios that are characteristic of the young Mesozoic rocks and warm climate of southern Europe, such as those

The next clearly recognisable phase in the history of the cemetery is defined by Saxon-style urn cremations from AD 480. These are accommodated in an unused area of the enclosure, away from the earlier plots, and are entirely consistent with the idea of a migrant population arriving andthenbeing absorbed into thecommunitytothe extent that theyareallowed their own

The next clearly recognisable phase in the history of the cemetery is defined by Saxon-style urn cremations from AD 480. These are accommodated in an unused area of the enclosure, away from the earlier plots, and are entirely consistent with the idea of a migrant population arriving andthenbeing absorbed into thecommunitytothe extent that theyareallowed their own area of the cemetery.

l Trust ica log

Arc haeo

: Canterbury photoS

Stone- and timber-lined graves

Stone- and timber-lined graves

But this is to leap ahead and leave out a group of 37 inhumations that Martin Carver has identified as belonging to the period between the late 4th and late 5th centuries. These are characterised by a lack of grave goods and the use of timber linings and stone supports. A small number of

But this is to leap ahead and leave out a group of 37 inhumations that Martin Carver has identified as belonging to the period between the late 4th and late 5th centuries. These are characterised by a lack of grave goods and the use of timber linings and stone supports. A small number of similar post-Roman graves were found at Lankhills (some of them lined with tile or flint), where the excavator, Giles Cark, rejected the idea that the stones were intended to hold together flimsily constructed coffins and instead saw the inclusion of stone as a reference to the rock-cut tomb of Christ. By contrast, Ann Woodward wonders whether similar graves at Poundbury represent a reversion to the pre-Roman idea of burial in stone-lined cists. In Wales, Heather James has also suggested that stone and timberlined graves of this period have their roots in the religious thinking of the local Iron Age.

Noting the westerly distribution of such graves,

ABoVE A square-headed brooch in gilded copper alloy, found with a female burial.

26

current archaeology | www.archaeology.co.uk

Martin Carver also comes down on the side of a regional reversion to later Iron Age practice regional reversion to later Iron Age practice and he regards these as highly significant graves because this new rite ‘rep-

and he regards these as highly significant graves because this new rite ‘represents a fundamental change of resents a fundamental change of thought’ on the part of the local community, one that is made possible by a period of ‘post-imperial devolution’, during which time people are briefly free to make their own choices in the absence of an enforced political ideology. This is a key idea, to which Martin returns in his overall conclusions regarding the significance of the Wasperton cemetery.

devolution’, during which time people are briefly free to make their own choices in the absence of an enforced political ideology. This is a key idea, to which Martin returns in his overall conclusions regarding the significance of the Wasperton cemetery.

Fully Saxon graves

Fully Saxon graves

The contrast between these earlier inhuma

The contrast between these earlier inhuma-

tions and the 23 urned cremations of the tions and the 23 urned cremations of the period 480-530 is very marked and it is difficult to escape the conclusion that these represent the burial practice of incoming period 480-530 is very marked and it is difficult to escape the conclusion that these represent the burial practice of incoming families who obtain their own fenced families who obtain their own fenced space within the existing cemetery. The same maywell be true of a second smaller group of burials – in this case of Saxon-style gendered inhumations – that are also allocated a spare area of the cemetery. Within these graves, which date from the early 6th century, men are typically buried with spears, shields and knives, and women with brooches and beads. What happens next is that gendered burial not only becomes the dominant rite (accounting for 50 of the 65 graves of 6th-century date), it also becomes the norm within the original cemetery plots. It is as if the pre-exiting community has adopted the burial rite of the incomers or that members of the incoming groups had been space within the existing cemetery. The same maywell be true of a second smaller group of burials – in this case of Saxon-style gendered inhumations – that are also allocated a spare area of the cemetery. Within these graves, which date from the early 6th century, men are typically buried with spears, shields and knives, and women with brooches and beads. What happens next is that gendered burial not only becomes the dominant rite (accounting for 50 of the 65 graves of 6th-century date), it also becomes the norm within the original cemetery plots. It is as if the pre-exiting community has adopted the burial rite of the incomers or that members of the incoming groups had been absorbed into the pre-existing community.

The fact that there is no sign of an early Saxon settlement in the 10-ha area surrounding the landscape leaves open the question where these incomers lived; but their choice of an existing cemetery for the burial of their dead implies a respect for the existing community and an accommodation by that community of new arrivals.

Textile evidence

Penelope Walton Rogers, the specialist in AngloSaxon fabrics, has managed to extract a similar story from the microscopic remains of clothing

September 2010 |

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