LEICESTER, ENGLAND—A team led by Gavin Speed of the University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS) excavated the site of a Bronze Age barrow in central England ahead of the construction of a housing development. A stone ax dating to the Neolithic period was found in the backfill of the barrow ditch, suggesting that use of the site could date back 6,000 years. “By the Iron Age the barrow had partly eroded and its ditches had silted up but much of the mound was likely still upstanding, making it a visible landmark in the local landscape even if its original purpose and meaning had changed,” Speed told the Loughborough Echo. The site was used for at least 12 burials during the Anglo-Saxon period. These skeletons were poorly preserved, but a pottery vessel, spears, knives, a spike, a brooch, and the boss and studs of a shield were recovered. Some scholars think that the Anglo-Saxons may have reused Bronze Age barrows for burials as a display of power through connection to the past. For more on the Anglo-Saxon period, go to "Letter from England: Stronghold of the Kings in the North."
