Shining a light on the high worth of women in the Dark Ages
THE emancipation of women is generally considered a relatively modern phenomenon but a new burial site in Lincolnshire has shown that females were already enjoying high social status, wealth and power in their own right during the Dark Ages.
Archaeologists found many of the women buried at a 5th-century cemetery in Scremby were expensively dressed and surrounded by riches including amber necklaces, hundreds of glass beads, silver buckles and ivory clasps.
Dr Hugh Willmott, senior lecturer in European historical archaeology at the University of Sheffield, said: “What is particularly interesting is the significant proportion of very lavish burials which belonged to women.
“There are proportionally far more highly furnished female burials than you might ordinarily expect.
“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.
“In what is often seen as a very masculine warrior society, the women were clearly held in high regard.”
The Germanic Anglosaxons migrated to Britain around the beginning of the 5th century and by 900AD had established four powerful kingdoms –
East Anglia, Mercia, Northumbria and Wessex. They turned England into one of the wealthiest countries in Europe.
Where early settlers had been war-like, by the later period most had formed agricul- tural communities, overseen by nobles and royalty.
Previously, historians believed women had little power in Anglosaxon England, effectively becoming their husband’s property upon marriage. However, Emma Fells, a lecturer at Nottingham University, has argued that they were “near equal companions with males... much more than in any other era before modern time”.
The cemetery on the southern edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds appears to support the claims that women were on a more equal footing, particularly in East Anglia.
Usually, fewer than 10 per cent of female graves are found with rare items but at Scremby it was 25 per cent.
A woman buried with a newborn child was found to have more than 500 beads placed in the grave. Normally 100 was considered a wealthy haul.
The cemetery was first uncovered when a metal detector enthusiast found a number of Anglo-saxon artefacts, including copper-gilded brooches, iron shield bosses and spear heads.
The goods discovered in the 20 graves were found to have travelled from far away, such as a silver trapezoid buckle usually found in Kent.
Bone and teeth analysis also suggests one of the women was originally from the South Downs, showing both objects and people were travelling widely during the period.
Men in the cemetery had also been buried with rich grave goods including weaponry such as spears and shields.
The team of archaeologists is now carrying out extensive analysis of the skeletons and artefacts to find out where they originated.
Dr Katie Hemer, a lecturer in bioarchaeology at the University of Sheffield, said: “We will analyse the elemental composition of the metalwork and identify the elephant species which produced the ivory rings.”
The excavation will feature in an episode of Digging for Britain, presented by Prof Alice Roberts on BBC4 at 9pm tomorrow.