LINCOLNSHIRE, ENGLAND—According to a report in The Guardian, an Anglo-Saxon cemetery dating from the late fifth to mid-sixth centuries A.D. and containing at least 20 graves has been discovered in England’s East Midlands. The men in the cemetery were buried with shields and spears, as would be expected. The women, however, were interred with elaborate brooches to fasten their clothing and necklaces made of amber, glass, and rock crystal beads. The only remains of children recovered during the excavation were of a baby cradled in a woman’s left arm. Hugh Willmott of the University of Sheffield said the skeletons and artifacts in the cemetery hint at the movement of goods and people during the Anglo-Saxon period. Some of the women carried fabric bags held open with rings made of elephant ivory from sub-Saharan Africa. Silver buckles and rings recovered from the graves, he added, resembled those associated with other Germanic communities to the south, and isotopic analysis of the bones of one of the women suggests she grew up in the chalk hills along England’s southeastern coast. To read in-depth about the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria, go to “Letter from England: Stronghold of the Kings in the North.”
