Jo Buckberry and Annia Cherryson have organized the present collection of ten essays to highlight recent research on cemeteries of the later Anglo-Saxon period, a topic that has long been neglected due to the unfounded belief that Christian burial during this period was egalitarian, uniform, and therefore unworthy of attention. To refute these assumptions, the authors of the papers gathered in this volume successfully demonstrate that many graves from this era exhibit "differential treatment in death" (p. ix), whether due to the deposition of artifacts and other materials such as charcoal and animal bones, the disposition of the skeletal remains within them, or their location in relation to others burials in the same cemetery or region. What I found refreshing about the contributions was their relative lack of emphasis on the question of ethnicity, and attention, instead, to other types of identity related to class, age, gender, familial ties, and physical health. No doubt, the small number and less distinctive types of burial goods used after the seventh century, which do not lend themselves to the discussion of ethnicity, played a role in liberating these scholars from addressing this typically over- employed category.
Although one is nowhere informed as to how or why the contributors to the volume came together, the papers provide reasonable geographic coverage of various regions of Anglo-Saxon England. Moreover, the participants, who represent a mix of faculty, recent graduate students, and current graduate students, offer different interpretive approaches to late Anglo-Saxon burial custom. While some studies provide in-depth analysis of individual cemeteries, others tackle broader questions through a comparative or theoretical approach. Themes addressed in the book include the impact of disability, strategies of commemoration, Christianization, and economic change on mortuary practice in the later Anglo-Saxon centuries. Surprisingly, contrary to expectations for this paradigm-bending exercise, there is little disagreement to be found among the ten essays which may suggest that coverage of perspectives on these issues is not as broad as it might have been. Similarly, I was disappointed that the volume included no comparative study, for instance, of Carolingian or Scandinavian burial custom that might have lent insight into some of the complex issues faced by English archaeologists and historians working on the eighth through mid-eleventh century. Unfortunately, the bibliographies of most pieces were likewise almost entirely insular.
In her opening chapter on grave sites in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, Jo Buckberry notes that one of the largest obstacles to working with Anglo-Saxon cemeteries that postdate the seventh century has been the significant decrease in the number and type of grave goods used during "Final Phase" burials, a factor that has reduced archaeologists' ability to date such sites. Moreover, the situation has been complicated by the location of many of these burials in close association with churches; the cemetery grounds in question were frequently reused or disturbed in subsequent generations and thus are more difficult to isolate and identify properly. Thankfully, the situation has changed with improved radiocarbon dating techniques for skeletal finds as well as with the recognition that burials from this period may also be found in locations not in direct contact with churches. Although it will not be possible to estimate absolute (and thereby relative) chronologies of all later Anglo-Saxon grave sites, especially with respect to undated burials excavated prior to the 1940s, the future certainly looks bright for gleaning more scientific data from the underused graves in question, a point made in a number of essays.
In his piece on strategies of commemoration in female graves of this period, the second contribution to the volume, Howard Williams identifies another long-standing problem with traditional interpretations of "Final Phase" period graves. Noting that scholars traditionally have attributed the decrease in the deposition of grave goods to Christianization, Williams suggests not only why this view is anachronistic but he also argues that it misses the functional role of this burial rite. Instead, one must recognize in graves such as those at Harford Farm near Caistor St. Edmund, Norfolk, a process rather than solely the endpoint seen by archaeologists in their excavations. Using the five wealthy female burials of the late seventh and early eighth century found at Harford Farm, Williams reminds readers that the deposition of grave goods, and funerary rituals more generally, offered survivors a mnemonic connection to the dead. More specific discussion of the gender symbolism of late Anglo-Saxon mortuary strategies, of both male and female populations as implied by the contribution's title, would have helped elucidate the significance of Harford Farm's cemetery.
The next two contributions address late Anglo-Saxon cemeteries in Southampton, a region rich in burial material of this period. Nick Stoodley's essay focuses on a cemetery, called St. Mary's, located underneath the stands (and possibly the pitch) of the Southampton Football Club. The eighth- and ninth-century cremation and inhumation graves found there are distinguished by both their unusual location in full view of the shoreline and the traffic at the mouth of the River Itchen, and by their distancing from other contemporary cemeteries used by the population. Stoodley observes that the predominantly male population buried at the site, as well as the untypically limited vocabulary of female-linked artifacts employed in the graves of the few contemporary women interred here, suggest that the cemetery was used by a high status population involved in controlling trade in the area. Annia Cherryson's piece, which unnecessarily repeats some of the information presented by Stoodley, puts the cemetery of St. Mary's in context, by pointing to other nearby cemeteries, including Hamwic and SOU 13. Some of these sites saw continued use while others were employed for much shorter periods. Not only does Cherryson refute the assumption that churchyard burial was ubiquitous by the tenth century, but she demonstrates the importance of understanding contemporary circumstances at corresponding settlement and trade sites if we are to make sense of the occupation and abandonment of particular burial grounds.
Christopher Guy's essay represents a preliminary report on a recent salvage excavation conducted under the floorboards of the Worcester Cathedral chapter house. In the process of putting in a new heating system under the early twelfth-century structure, part of a later Anglo-Saxon layered burial site was found. It contained the interments of male and female adults, infants, and children. The proposed chronology of the 180 excavated graves (since the oldest and deepest layers with an unknown number of burials were left in situ due to structural concerns) is between c. 680 and c. 1100. Strikingly, although the dry conditions below the chapter house preserve few grave goods, they do suggest widespread use of coffins through evidence like nails and gaps where the original wood rotted away. Nine cases in which the remains of textiles or a single pin were discovered appear to document the use of shrouds for laying the dead to rest. While not all of the scientific evidence is in regarding the population laid to rest at this site, this carefully excavated salvage operation is likely to produce interesting results in the future.
The sixth contribution, made by James Holloway, addresses the geographic and chronological distribution and possible symbolism of charcoal-lined burials, a rite recognized by archaeologists since the 1850s. In later Anglo-Saxon England, graves lined with charcoal ash have been identified in more than thirty-five cemeteries, including those in churchyards as well as those unknown to be connected with a particular church. Because of the locations in which they have been most frequently discovered, they tend to be associated with deceased of high status who found a resting place in urban minsters like Winchester New Minster, Durham Cathedral chapter house, and York Minster. Those that have been dated via radiocarbon methods have centered on the ninth through the eleventh century; interestingly, however, almost no examples of the custom are found in East Anglia, the southeast, or the northwest of England. Sorting out their practical or symbolic function has proved more challenging: perhaps they were meant to absorb bodily fluids, mark burial locations in an effort to prevent future reuse of the site, or signify the penitent state of the deceased. Lacking a clear explanation for such a rite in the historical sources, Holloway concludes that ash-lined burials may have fulfilled some combination of these needs. Why the practice remained fairly rare despite its broad geographic distribution is particularly vexing. Unlike Holloway, I am not convinced that laying ash in a grave represented a costly investment for families that desired that their loved ones be buried in such a fashion. Perhaps more attention to continental examples might have suggested other possible factors that limited employment of this burial ritual.
Sally Crawford's contribution to the volume raises the worthwhile, yet long neglected, question as to whether perceptions of bodily difference or impairment carried meaning in a funerary context in the later Anglo-Saxon period. While she suggests, on the basis of legal codes, that those individuals who lacked independence due to physical or mental disability may have been considered as children, she admits being unable to present specific evidence that this status affected the mortuary treatment of their bodies. By contrast, in her paper on the socially and physically distinctive from the eighth to eleventh century in England, Dawn Hadley enjoys greater success in demonstrating specific examples in which disabled individuals in the late Anglo-Saxon period were not afforded differential treatment in death as a result of their impairments. Some even enjoyed relatively high status burial with markers and stones that offered their weakened limbs special positioning. In contrast to an earlier period, infants, too, enjoyed the benefit of desirable burial spots near protective church walls, whether for religious, social, or commemorative reasons. The heart of Hadley's contribution, however, is more firmly trained on male graves, which seem to have received the most elaborate burial forms in this period, whether they were included in high status contexts or among those excluded from normative burial sites or rituals. Interestingly, deceased men of the later Anglo-Saxon period were more likely to receive charcoal burials, a lead-lined tomb, or a decorative grave slab; on the flip-side of being socially active, however, there were potential risks. Men were frequently among those excluded from central cemeterial groupings, and interred in ditches, on marshy land or on the foreshore of rivers.
One of the contributions to the volume that stands out the most in terms of its originality is Sarah Groves' piece on the Bowl Hole Burial Ground in Northumberland. This seventh- and eighth-century site, subject most recently to excavations between 1999 and 2006, has to date produced ninety-two individual skeletons in addition to a significant quantity of disarticulated bone. The study of the cemetery's chronology has been complicated by wind-blown sand that caused some burials to be situated more deeply in underlying clay as the site eroded, and by the reuse and intercutting of graves. Distinctive features of the cemetery include a high number of prone burials, suggesting that this rite was not necessarily associated with criminality or penance. The paleopathological analysis of the skeletal material, which is still underway, suggests, interestingly, a comparatively low number of health conditions caused by nutritional stress or anemia in childhood but, by contrast, a high incidence of dental disease due to either the high presence of flour, honey, or fruit in the diet of the population (or, as the author admits, possibly a low level of fluoride in the natural water supply). Of those suffering limb injuries in the community, only two skeletons show evidence of weapon trauma. Instead, most of the health conditions identified at the site seem to have been caused by repetitive activities such as the use of teeth as tools--perhaps in the manufacture of fishing nets--and asymmetry in some individuals' limb size and shape--caused possibly by archery and weapon use. Importantly, of those bones tested for oxygen, strontium and lead stable isotopes, only half of the interred were raised in the immediate area; the others came to this place from more distant parts of Northumbria, Iona, and Ireland. Although the piece would have benefited from greater familiarity with the secondary literature regarding Christian burial practice, Grove's analysis compellingly suggests the presence of a distinctive population, which she proposes might have been craftsmen or an itinerant court linked to the nearby fortress of Bamburgh.
The last piece, authored by Elizabeth Craig and Jo Buckberry, might have offered a conclusion to the volume had it not been for the fact that it makes little reference to the preceding essays. Indeed, the authors note the fact that existing periodization of the Anglo-Saxon era has caused scholars to overlook the significant continuity in grave types that existed over the centuries. Moreover, the main focus of this case study, which centers on the cemetery of Raunds Furnells in Northamptonshire, in active use during the tenth and first half of the eleventh century, demonstrates the potential of studies that combine bio-anthropology and social archaeology in an integrated analysis of later Anglo-Saxon cemeteries. By revisiting analysis of Raunds Furnells with attention to paleopathological conditions of the dead, the authors have effectively shown that certain parts of the cemetery contained greater numbers of individuals who suffered from higher stresses on their health and were thus likely individuals of lower status. The authors thereby convincingly exhibit the benefits of approaching previously excavated cemeteries with technologies that can lend greater insight into the populations in question. Combining the study of social and biological status may provide additional evidence for social stratification and possible motives as to why some of the dead received particular funerary rites and not others.
Despite the high quality and quantity of helpful images, maps, and diagrams throughout the volume, this collection suffers from the absence of basic editorial intervention. With just a two-page introduction, the editors have neglected to tease out the larger themes that thread their way through the authors' specific findings and point out what has been learned through the exercise of bringing these papers together. Less crucial, but nonetheless frustrating, was the editors' failure to introduce more cross-referencing and eliminate unnecessary redundancies that occurred when more than one contributor introduced nearly identical subject matter in the course of his or her essay.
Table of Contents
1. Jo Buckberry, "Cemetery Diversity in the Mid to Late Anglo-Saxon Period in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire," 1-25.
2. Howard Williams, "Engendered Bodies and Objects of Memory in Final Phase Graves," 26-37.
3. Nick Stoodley, "Burial Practice in Seventh-Century Hampshire: St. Mary's Stadium in Context," 38-53.
4. Annia Kristina Cherryson, "'Such a resting-place as is necessary for us in God's sight and fitting in the eyes of the world': Saxon Southampton and the Development of Churchyard Burial," 54-72.
5. Christopher Guy, "An Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Worcester Cathedral," 73-82.
6. James Holloway, "Material Symbolism and Death: Charcoal Burial in Later Anglo-Saxon England," 83-92.
7. Sally Crawford, "Differentiation in the Later Anglo-Saxon Burial Ritual on the Basis of Mental or Physical Impairment: A Documentary Perspective," 93-102.
8. D. M. Hadley, "Burying the Socially and Physically Distinctive in Later Anglo-Saxon England," 103-115.
9. Sarah E. Groves, "The Bowl Hole Burial Ground: A Late Anglian Cemetery in Northumberland," 116-127.
10. Elizabeth Craig and Jo Buckberry, "Investigating Social Status Using Evidence of Biological Status: A Case Study from Raunds Furnells," 128-142.