WILTSHIRE, ENGLAND—A research team from Wessex Archaeology has excavated a large Anglo-Saxon cemetery discovered in the 1970s near the village of Collingbourne Ducis on England’s Salisbury Plain. The 1,600-year-old burials include four cremation graves and more than 80 inhumation graves placed on what had been a wooded hilltop. The team found traces of infections such as tuberculosis and leprosy among the bones. Some of the graves contained shield bosses, knives, and spearheads, and are thought to have belonged to warriors. “All of the burials seem to have an iron knife. We’re not too sure if it’s symbolic of reaching a particular grave, but some of the infant or small child burials have got them as well,” Neil Fitzpatrick of Wessex Archaeology said in a Culture 24 report. Fitzpatrick added that most of the graves had grave goods, but individuals who had been buried in a crouched position tended to have been buried with only an iron knife. Many of the women had been buried with reused Roman beads or other jewelry. The team also found traces of funerary structures on both sides of the cemetery. To read about another recent discovery in the same area, go to "A Villa under the Garden."
