Excavated follower of fashion
Trendy Anglo-Saxon women were buried with handbags, brooches and necklaces
The fashion for large handbags is clearly nothing new.
not only did this Anglo-saxon woman carry an outsize ivoryembellished accessory, she had it buried with her.
her body was one of 23 found in an early medieval cemetery at scremby, Lincolnshire. Many of the remains were from women who had been given a lavish burial. one had been buried cradling a baby.
Jewellery and other artefacts unearthed at the site are throwing new light on the fashions and culture of a period 1,500 years ago known as the Dark Ages. Amber necklaces, ornate brooches, copper symbols that were hung from girdles and even tweezers were found buried with their owner.
the find confirms Anglo- saxon women were of roughly equal status to men and both sexes wore elaborate jewellery. the discovery, after a local metal detectorist found items dating from around 500AD, led to the most extensive investigation of an Anglo-saxon cemetery for more than a century.
hugh willmott, senior lecturer in European historical archaeology at sheffield University, said: ‘the burials were accompanied by a rich array of objects, in keeping with the funerary rites adopted during the early centuries of the Germanic migrations to eastern England. what is interesting is the significant proportion of very lavish burials which belonged to women.
‘ these women wore necklaces made from sometimes hundreds of amber, glass and rock crystal beads, used personal items such as tweezers, carried fabric bags held open by elephant ivory rings, and wore exquisitely decorated brooches to fasten their clothing.’
scientists are analysing tooth and bone samples to identify where the individuals grew up and what they ate. the ivory will be tested to find what species it came from.
the excavation will feature on Digging For Britain on BBc4 at 9pm tomorrow.