NORTHAMPTON, ENGLAND—BBC News reports that a gold necklace dated to between A.D. 630 and 670 was discovered in a grave in England’s East Midlands by a team of researchers from the Museum of London Archaeology, who were investigating a site ahead of a construction project. Only tiny fragments of tooth enamel from the human remains in the burial have been preserved. The necklace is made up of at least 30 pendants and beads made of Roman coins, gold, garnets, glass, and semiprecious stones. The centerpiece of the necklace is rectangular in shape and features a cross motif of red garnets set in gold. Team leader Levente-Bence Balazs and his colleagues think the pendant may have been recycled from a hinged clasp. Two pots, a shallow copper dish, and a cross elaborately decorated with silver human faces were also recovered from the grave, which may have belonged to a royal woman, or to an early Christian abbess. To read about a peculiar find in a woman's burial that was unearthed at a German monastery, go to "Medieval Female Scribe," one of ARCHAEOLOGY's Top 10 Discoveries of 2019.
