NORFOLK, ENGLAND—Live Science reports that a cemetery containing more than 80 Anglo-Saxon burials arranged in rows has been unearthed in eastern England. Based upon pottery found in the fill, James Fairclough of Museum of London Archaeology says the cemetery dates from the seventh to the ninth centuries A.D. Fairclough added that the cemetery appears to be Christian, since there are no grave goods, and the burials were arranged on an east-west grid. Many of the wood coffins, made from split and hollowed oak trees, were found intact, due to the waterlogged environment. Six of the graves had been lined with planks, and may be the earliest such graves in Britain. Fairclough’s team also found the remains of a timber structure that may have been a chapel. The skeletons from the cemetery will be analyzed for information on sex, age, and possible family connections. To read in-depth about an Anglo-Saxon kingdom, go to “Letter from England: Stronghold of the Kings in the North.”
