Anglo-Saxon burials at Eastry

The last few years have seen the excavation, usually as a result of disturbance by minor building and ground works, of a number of early Anglo-Saxon burials at Eastry, now a village but once a regional administrative centre of the Kings of Kent. It is intended that these new discoveries will be published as part of a major re-evaluation of Anglo-Saxon Eastry which the author is undertaking along with Tania Dickinson, Chris Fern and Alex Holton. One of the most interesting of the recent finds is Grave 2 from Cross Farm, which is pictured here. The burial was that of a woman aged between 35-40 years, who had suffered a very bad tooth abscess shortly before her death; perhaps this had contributed to her demise? She was buried in a chalk-cut grave, aligned SW-NE. Her grave goods included a pair of copper alloy cruciform brooches, an iron buckle with inlaid wire, a knife, and what appear to be the contents of a purse, including a Roman copper alloy key. The brooches, together with the buckle, suggest a date for this burial sometime during the second half of the 5th century AD. The brooches were probably manufactured in Jutland or Frisia; whether or not their wearer had travelled across the North sea with them, this woman would certainly be able to shed a great deal of light on the origins of the Kingdom of Kent if she could speak to us today.

Andrew Richardson

COVER & BELOW: The female skeleton in grave 2. ABOVE: One of the brooches.