Objects from the Saltwood Anglo-Saxon Cemeteries
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AT A LARGER SCALE
Ian Riddler
January 2001
Excavations
by the Canterbury Archaeological Trust and our colleagues at Wessex
Archaeology on behalf of Union Railways (South) Ltd have uncovered
three separate Anglo-Saxon cemeteries at Saltwood, near Folkestone
in east Kent. Firstly we would like to thank Union Railways for
funding the excavations at Saltwood and, through Rail Link Engineering,
for commissioning the Trust to undertake the work along with Wessex
Archaeology.
Research is
in progress on the objects and the landscape as a whole (and will
continue for several years) but a general understanding of the area
is developing, as we begin to work on the objects. This is what
we have discovered so far:
| The
earliest graves belong to the early sixth century and are located
within the easternmost cemetery. They include a female burial
with a pair of square-headed brooches of a distinctive type
which is amongst the earliest to be produced in Kent, copying
types of brooches which have been found in southern Scandinavian.
They date to the first half of the sixth century, around AD
525 or a little later. |
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© Union
Railways (South) LTD |
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By
the middle of the sixth century a second cemetery (the westernmost)
was also in use and it may have acted as a replacement for
the first cemetery, which consists only of 25 graves. The
second cemetery includes several rich burials, including that
of a woman buried with amber and glass beads, two brooches
(one of which is Frankish), a crystal ball within a silver
mount, and an iron weaving batten. The Frankish brooch is
shown here (above) as it was discovered in the grave. Like
so many of the objects from Saltwood, the brooch was removed
from site in a soil block, and its excavation was carried
out in a laboratory in Lincoln. |
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© Union
Railways (South) LTD |
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One
of the males from this cemetery was buried with a ring sword,
a distinctive type of sword with a ring on the hilt which has
Germanic origins (left). It is shown here within its protective
container, which was manufactured on site and used to lift it
safely, in one piece, from the excavation site. This sword will
be excavated in the laboratory. |
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A
complete Frankish grey-ware ceramic vessel (essentially an
imported wine container) came from Grave 133. By this period
Scandinavian and northern Germanic imported objects are supplanted
by those coming from the Merovingian kingdoms, in effect from
northern France.
The westernmost
cemetery may have continued in use up to c. AD 600. We have
excavated 53 graves and that is almost certainly the entire
group from that location. The largest cemetery, however, appears
to be the one in the middle, known to us as SLT98C. This may
begin with a succession of three rich male burials (Graves
5, 7 and 200). Each of these has a full set of weaponry, including
sword, two shields, spear and angon. |
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| There
was also a Coptic bowl in each grave, and other items including
the gaming pieces, iron-bound wooden buckets (for which only
the iron now survives), buckles and pieces of horse harness
(there was a horse burial to the east of Grave 5). The Coptic
bowl from Grave 7 is shown here (right). One of the fascinating
things about this bowl was the fact that it had been repaired
before it was buried. The repair is so good that it cannot be
seen when you look at the bowl. However, it does show up very
well on the x-ray of the bowl (below). |
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© Union
Railways (South) LTD |
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© Union
Railways (South) LTD |
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The
rich female grave 190 is probably a little later in date, c.
AD 620. She was buried with a gold, silver and garnet composite
disc brooch, which we call the Saltwood Brooch (below), as well
as a gold pendant with a Frankish coin minted in Marseille in
AD 590 mounted on it, beads and silver pendants. A knife and
another iron-bound wooden bucket were also in the grave. The
remaining graves from this cemetery are a little more ordinary,
although the person buried in Grave 41 had a buckle which was
made in the eastern Mediterranean and has Christian cross symbols
on it. This is the only one of its type ever to have been found
in an Anglo-Saxon grave. |
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over 850 beads were recovered from the graves and, like the
brooches, they show how fashion changed from the sixth to the
seventh centuries. The sixth century beads are often polychrome,
ie each bead was made with two or more colours. When these were
strung together, the overall effect was very colourful. Seventh
century beads, however, are a little more sober. They are mostly
made of glass, whereas amber beads were common in the sixth
century. They do include some beautiful purple amethysts and
most of the glass beads are a single colour, usually red, orange
or blue. The location of every bead found on the site was recorded
in detail and that should enable us to reconstruct the strings
of beads as they were originally worn. |
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© Union
Railways (South) LTD |
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| All
of the objects have been meticulously conserved by Rob White
and his staff at the Lincolnshire County Council Conservation
Department and our thanks are also due to the archaeologists
of Rail Link Engineering all of whom have been extremely helpful.
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For
more information see also:
Canterbury's Archaeology 1999–2000, Kent
Sites PDF
Canterbury's Archaeology 2000–2001, Kent
Sites PDF
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