Category: Medieval

Exceptional 6th c. sword found in Anglo-Saxon grave

Ancient, Medieval

A 6th century Anglo-Saxon grave near Canterbury in Kent has yielded a spectacular sword in an exceptional state of preservation. It is of such high quality craftsmanship that experts are comparing it to the sword with the gold and garnet hilt discovered in the treasure-laden ship burial discovered at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk in 1939.

The sword has a silver and gilt hilt with a finely-crafted decorative pattern. A ring attached to the pommel may symbolize an oath ring and represent an allegiance sworn by the deceased to a king or other leader. The blade is incised with runes. Fragments of the leather and wood scabbard lined with beaver fur were also found.

The Sutton Hoo sword dates to the early 7th century and was more elaborate, the hilt crafted of gold with cloisonné garnets, but it too was found intact inside a wooden scabbard. The Sutton Hoo scabbard was lined with sheep’s wool.

The exact location of the recent sword discovery is being kept secret for now because of how rich a site it is. Archaeologists have so far unearthed 12 burials of men and women, but they estimate there may be as many as 200 in the burial ground. All of the men were buried with weapons — spear-points, shields, and the one grave with this exceptional sword — while the women’s graves contain knives, brooches, buckles and other precious objects. The male grave with the sword also had a piece of jewelry, a gold pendant inscribed with a serpent or dragon, of a type usually found in female burials. Archaeologists hypothesize that it may have been a gift from a female relative or heirloom from an ancestor.

The excavation of the Anglo-Saxon burial site has been filmed for BBC Two’s Digging for Britain program which will air next year. Even so early in the excavation of the cemetery, the remains that have been recovered so far will give new insight into the funerary practices of the Anglo-Saxon community that buried their dead at the site.

[Conservator Dana Goodburn-Brown] has, for example, found fly pupae on the sword, which means that the body was not immediately covered before being buried, perhaps giving loved ones time to say their goodbyes. “So we’re learning something about the funerary practices,” she says in the programme.

It is also illuminating the migration of Germanic peoples of northern continental Europe to Britain after the retreat of Roman forces in the early 5th century.

One of the graves belonged to a woman buried in the later fifth century with objects that had originated in Scandinavia. Some of the later sixth-century graves have artefacts of a Frankish origin.

[Lead archaeologist Duncan] Sayer said: “So we can really see the change in the political landscape within Kent in this site in the fifth and sixth centuries.” […]

The excavation is part of a bigger project. A study of 300 early Anglo-Saxons from across the east coast of Britain found that about 75% of the DNA was from continental northern Europe – “a significant migration event after the Roman administration stopped in Britain”, Sayer said.

He added: “Before we published those results, there was still quite a lot of conversation about whether there really was a significant migration. Now it’s absolutely definite that there has to have been a very significant influx, especially in the east coast taking place over generations. They’re not coming from one place, but multiple places. This cemetery is right at the cutting-edge of that work.”

The sword and other artifacts recovered from the burials will be conserved and studied. When the work is complete, they will go on display at the Folkestone Museum in Folkestone, Kent.

Lombard royal tombs found in Pavia

Ancient, Medieval

Archaeologists with the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore have discovered more than 20 early medieval burials of Lombard royalty under a 15th century cloister in Pavia. Many of the tombs are stone boxes with tiled roofs, both flat and gabled. One of the oldest graves is decorated with a large painted red cross on the interior. The terracotta tile roof tombs date to the 7th century.

The Lombards under their king Alboin invaded Italy in 568, and quickly occupied most of northern Italy, but Pavia was well-fortified and put up an extraordinary fight. Alboin’s forces besieged it for three years while he captured Italy from the Alps to Tuscany, with the exception of a few major cities (including Rome). Pavia finally fell in 572, and it became the capital of the Kingdom of Lombardy until 774.

By the time they invaded Italy, the Lombards were Christian, but like many Germanic populations they were Arians, not Catholics. They built a number of Arian churches in Pavia in the first 80 years of their rule. Aripert I, however, was a devout Catholic dedicated to spreading his faith and during his brief reign (653-661) most of the Lombards converted to Catholicism. In 657, he built the first church at the site of what is now the Basilica of Santissimo Salvatore as a mausoleum for himself, his sons and nephews. This was the first Lombard dynastic mausoleum and it was used by the royal family until the early 8th century.

The church and associated monastery were rebuilt from the ground up in the 10th century by Adelaide, wife of Holy Roman Emperor Otto I, and then completely rebuilt again in the second half of the 15th century. The Small Cloister attached to the church was built between 1460 and 1470. That is where the graves of the Bavarian Dynasty of Lombard kings were believed to have been located.

The parish commissioned archaeologists from the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore to excavate the cloister seeking the early medieval tombs thought to be there. Geophysical surveys and other testing revealed the presence of well-preserved medieval burials. In September and October of 2024, a team of archaeologists excavated the southern half of the cloister, unearthing the 7th century stone and tile tombs of the Lombard royal court. Samples of the human remains have been taken for isotope and DNA analysis to investigate the deceased’s diets, geographic origins and any familial links between them.

Additionally, collaboration with German institutions will allow researchers to explore the ancient DNA of the remains, potentially revealing whether the individuals were exclusively local or had connections to populations from Northern Europe, as documented in other Lombard necropolises in Italy.

These studies promise to shed light on the biological, social, and cultural makeup of Lombard Pavia, offering unprecedented insights into its daily life and social organization.

Unique 500-year-old wooden shoe found in Netherlands cesspit

Medieval

A unique wooden clog has been discovered in a 15th century cesspit in the Dutch city of Alkmaar. Although wooden shoes are icons of Dutch culture, only 44 of them have been found in excavations in the Netherlands and Belgium. Most of them are more recent and in worse condition. This one is made of birch wood, the only wooden shoe on the Dutch archaeological record made from birch, a tree which does not grow in the Netherlands.

The heeled clog was found in parts, but the wood was well-preserved by the waterlogged, anaerobic conditions of the cesspit. After a thorough cleaning of the pieces of the shoe, archaeologists were able to piece it back together and it is basically complete. It has a double heel, an elegant touch that is not found in the more common, rustic models. Its quality and its context in an urban environment indicate this was not a work clog of the kind used by farmers that are the typical examples of the Dutch wooden shoe, but rather a shoe worn for daily use in the city. The shoe size is about a modern European size 36, (a women’s size 5.5 in the US).

The cesspit was discovered in November during construction of an underground waste container, appropriately enough. It was in use from around 1450 to 1558. At that time, almost every home or townhouse had a cesspit used to hold human waste, but also for food and household waste. That’s how things like shoes could wind up in one.

One other unique wooden artifact was found in this cesspit: a grain measure, a round shallow bucket used to, well, measure grain. It was made of thin oak that survived almost intact in the cesspit. Only five fragments of grain measures have been found before in the Netherlands and Belgium. This is the only virtually complete medieval Dutch grain measure ever found. Before this discovery, we only knew what they looked like from images.

The clog and the grain measure will be stabilized, conserved and studied further. If possible, they will be restored, their broken pieces put back together by a non-invasive method and the objects put on display.

188 14th c. reliquary figurines found in Berlin

Medieval

An archaeological excavation at Molkenmarkt, Berlin’s oldest square in the heart of the historic center, has unearthed 188 reliquary figurines from the 14th century, a period before the Protestant Reformation when personal reliquaries were popular devotional objects. The large number of figurines in a single burial context is a unique find on the Berlin archaeological record.

While most of the ceramic statuettes are in fragments, the reconstructed figurines are consistently about three inches high. There are two types: with crowns and without. The crowns likely represented martyrdom or holy marriage. They are all female figures and have medallion-shaped frames in the chest where the relics of saints were preserved for veneration. Fragments of bones were found inlaid into the medallions.

Two later figurines were found in the same context. One is a mid-15th century Madonna with Child. The statuette has lost its head, but the white clay figurine still cradles the infant Jesus in her left arm and in her left holds an apple. The iconography of Mary giving the Baby Jesus an apple (or the Child holding one himself) was popular in medieval art. It symbolized the redemption of man, linking Mary to Eve, only now instead of temptation leading man to his fall, this new Eve and her apple bring redemption through the sacrifice of the new Adam, Christ.

The other figurine is also from the mid-15th century and depicts Saint Catherine. It too is made of white clay, but it is intact and 4.3 inches high. The figure is finely carved and show Catherine with her martyrdom attributes: a sword and a wheel. (Legend has it the emperor Maxentius ordered her broken on the wheel, but she miraculously shattered it with a touch, so he ordered her beheaded instead. That did kill her, but milk flowed from her severed neck instead of blood.) She wears a high, crenelated crown, symbol of her noble birth as the daughter of the 4th century Roman governor of Alexandria.

“Both figures of saints are extremely rare in the archaeological context of the Berlin area – and beyond – and offer a special insight into the bourgeois piety of the late Middle Ages,” says Dr. Sebastian Heber, head of the Department of Archaeological Monuments at the Berlin State Office for Monument Preservation.

Archaeologists with the Berlin State Office for Monument Preservation have been excavating the Molkenmarkt for five years to investigate one of the oldest parts of the city. So far, they have discovered around 600,000 artifacts, including a 17th century Japanese short sword. The excavation campaign will continue until the end of 2025.

Cow bone tile floor found in North Holland

Medieval, Modern(ish)

A floor partially filled in with cow bone “tiles” has been discovered during renovations of a townhouse in Alkmaar, North Holland. The metacarpal and metatarsal bones of cattle were used to replace lost and broken earthenware tiles, a mysterious practice that rarely survives and has only been found before in The Netherlands’ province of North Holland.

The bones were all cut to the same height and laid in a pattern, with the bones in one plane placed with the top side up and in another plane with the sawn underside of the bone facing upwards.

The reason for the use of animal bones in the floor remains unclear. Archaeologists speculate that the bones may have been chosen for a specific reason, possibly related to the trades or activities carried out in the building at the time. However, it is also possible that the bones were used as a cheap way to fill in the gaps where tiles were missing.

“The floor tiles were worn down from intense use, and it is possible that the bones were placed there either for practical or symbolic reasons,” De Jong said. “They may have fit well with the craft being practiced in this space, or they could have been an inexpensive way to complete the floor.”

The building on the Achterdam was constructed in 1609, but these floors typically date to the 15th century. Archaeologists hypothesize that it may have been the foundation of an older structure that was left in place when the new house was built. The floor is still being excavated; the team is hoping to uncover its original extent and find out more about how it was used. They will also study the bones and tile to determine exactly when the floor was laid.