Revealing the past – for everyone’s benefit

In the heart of Burnham Market, Norfolk, at least 472 individuals were buried at what is considered to be one of the largest early Anglo-Saxon cemeteries excavated to date.

Used as a community burial ground during the 6th and 7th centuries, the site was later used to bury executed individuals until the 9th century.

Unusually for the sandy soils of East Anglia, the cemetery’s rarity lies in the unusually high preservation of bone, textile and other organic remains. Burials contained significant grave goods, including weapons and jewellery, with some thought to have come from Merovingian France. The site also yielded a whooping 2,711 beads, with some graves individually containing over 100 beads! 📿

Comment "Burnham" to book your ticket to join our 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝘄𝗲𝗯𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿 on 𝟰𝘁𝗵 𝗡𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝘁 𝟳𝗽𝗺.

#Archaeology #AngloSaxon #Cemetery #Norfolk #Excavation

📸 © NPS Archaeology and Trigger Air

It`s rare to find Anglo-Saxon structures in south-west Britain, but our #CAArchTeam has done just that. Not only have they uncovered an Anglo-Saxon village on a site south of Gloucester, but we also believe it includes one of the most westerly Anglo-Saxon halls excavated in the country to date! 🤯

The settlement comprised a series of post-built structures and a sunken-featured building, dating to the 7th century AD. Finds including charred plant remains and animal bone suggest everyday domestic activities were taking place around hearths, such as cooking and food preparation.

The site also adds to growing evidence that Anglo-Saxon communities either reoccupied or continued to occupy Late Roman settlements. 🕵️‍♀️

Comment "HALL" and we will send you a link to the full story and details of our upcoming talk on the site.

#Archaeology #AngloSaxon #Gloucester #Roman

𝗖𝗵𝘂𝗰𝗸 𝘂𝘀 𝗮 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗿, 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂? 🍺

Some archaeological artefacts require a bit of imagination to picture what they looked like when they were new or to understand how they were used, as they can sometimes be completely unfamiliar to us today. These finds do not fit into that camp.

Not to lean into stereotypes about archaeologists, but when these four beer bottles were unearthed during our excavations of a tobacco clay pipe factory at Saw Close, Bath, the team had no doubt about what they had found!

Three of the four bottles are embossed with the name of their breweries, allowing us to identify where they came from. One was produced by Bath Brewery Limited, and the other two came from Bristol United Breweries.

We`ve added these tasty finds to our Virtual Museum, comment "BEER” and we will send you the link to take a closer look 🍻

#Archaeology #Bath #SiteThenPub #ClayTabaccoPipe #CAArchTeam

Professor Colin Renfrew was one of the titans of modern archaeology and is known to generations of first-year archaeology students as one of the authors of 𝘈𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘦𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺: 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴, 𝘔𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘥𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘗𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦. But, among his many accolades, he can also add being described by the students of Leckhampton Primary School as "very busy and clever"! 🎓✏️

It`s not just artefacts re-surfacing from the @museumofgloucester archives during our #StoreToStore project. Our volunteers recently uncovered these handwritten and decorated thank you letters, sent by schoolchildren in 1976 to Professor Renfrew following his visit to Leckhampton Primary School in Cheltenham, where he spoke to them about Roman history.

By all accounts, the pupils particularly liked looking at his collection of Roman pots, animal teeth and especially a horse`s tooth! 🐎

📷 Photo of Prof Renfrew – McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research

@cambridge_archaeology #Archaeology #Roman #MuseumCollections #Cheltenham #Heritage #ArchiveDiscoveries #Archives

On a site south of Gloucester, the #CAArchTeam recently excavated a waterhole which contained 150 𝘪𝘯-𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘶 waterlogged timbers — these have been radiocarbon dated to the Middle Bronze Age (1500 – 1100 BC)!

As the timbers were found in their original position within the waterhole, we were able to study the structure they once formed. The timbers comprised a platform of aligned planks, a log ladder, wattle walls and a wooden trough. This shows us that the waterhole was accessed via a ladder leading down to the platform, with the water separated from the natural soil by a wattle wall.

….and a third of the timbers show evidence woodworking from an axe, including wood splitting and tool marking!🪓

Want to dig deeper? Comment "WATERHOLE" and we`ll send you a link to learn more about this Bronze Age waterhole and details on our upcoming talk on the excavation.

#Archaeology #BronzeAge #Gloucester

‼️Fresh from the Trench!‼️This beautiful near-complete slack-shoulder pottery vessel was discovered by our #CASiteTeam during summer excavations of a Middle to Late Iron Age settlement near Bedford.

The term ‘slack-shouldered’ pottery, refers to the shape of the pottery shoulder, so named because it lacked definition. They were usually hand-made bowls or jars that probably had a variety of functions including storage and food preparation. They were popular throughout the Middle to Late Iron Age in the South Midlands when they began to replace a sizable proportion of pre-existing pottery traditions.

Post-excavation for the site is yet to begin, but preliminary analysis hints at a possible long-standing settlement reflecting a shift to higher ground beyond the river valleys with intensive occupation. We’re very excited about what we predict will be very important contributions to our understanding of Iron Age activity in the region.

#CAArchTeam #Archaeology #Bedford #IronAge