Monument record 9574/1/1 - Isolated C7th Burial With Grave Goods (The Pioneer Burial)

Metal detecting and subsequent excavation revealed the remains of a 7th century AD burial complete with bronze hanging bowl, sword and helmet with a boar's crest.

{1} Metal detecting revealed burial complete with bronze hanging bowl, sword and helmet with a boar's crest. The burial lay in a shallow grave only 15 centimetres, the skeleton was poorly preserved (only part of the skull, the teeth and two femurs survived acidic ground conditions). The burial appeared to be in isolation beside a Roman road which was probably still in use in the 7th century.

{3} The burial comprised an oval grave pit 2.8m long and 1.3m wide with a maximum depth of 0.15m. Within the grave lay the fragmentary remains of an adult male, aged approx 25. He laid in a supine position with his head originally propped on a pillow and his knees slightly bent.
There were a number of grave goods. Beside the skull, and tipped away from it lay a bronze hanging bowl, which showed evidence of at least one repair. Only one of 5 decorative mounts were recovered. The mount was circular and contained a symmetrical arrangement of square millefiori glass rods set into enamel.
In the area of the legs lay a double edged sword 0.9m long and 55mm wide. X rays have shown it to be of pattern welded manafacture. The welding extends from grip to tip and is formed in an elaborate alternating straight and twisted design, which changes at approx every 80mm down the blade. The corrosion products on the blade retained eviidence of the scabbard constructed from wooden boards with a leather outer binding. Traces of the grip and lower guard of the horn survived.
To the left of the probable body line lay the remains of a helmet. It had been placed in the grave resting on its left side with the left cheek guard folded inside the cap before the nasal guard of the helmet was deliberately bent inwards. This ritualised damage on the helmet was the only sign of pre-depositional damage.

{4} The grave was a large shallow oval feature, 2.8m long and 1.3m wide, surviving to a maximum depth of 0.15m cut into the natural gravely clay. The shallowness of the grave's overburden cover had resulted in the degradation of several of the artefacts by cultivation; the sides of the cit dipped steeply to the slightly irregular base. The width of the grave seems excessive for an ordinary single burial. The size of the grave, and the status of the individual buried there, as reflected by the grave goods, might suggest that a barrow may originally have been present. However detailed hand excavation in the vicinity of the grave pit did not produce any evidence of a quarry ditch though this could have been erased by subsequent cultivation.
At Wollaston the recovery of particular grave goods sets this burial aside from other burials of the period. Helmets occur in two other grave contexts in England, one was clearly part of a Royal cemetery at Sutton Hoo and the other at Benty Grange. The size of the grave and several other individually inconclusive pieces of evidence suggest that this body had been laid on a bed that required the size of the grave. It was noted that the remains were some distance above the base of the cut. The position of the skull and the hanging bowl suggested the presence of a pillow. During the initial examination of the surface of the helmet minerally preserved organics were observed. These appeared to represent feathers and textiles, the latter most probably associated with bedding rather than clothing. No iron fittings were found, but a wooden frame may have been present.
The burial was discovered beside a road, that was initially an earthern drove during the Iron Age and later during the Roman period, may have become part of the Roman route between Towcester and Irchester. The discovery of the burial beside this road may suggest its continued usage into this period. The subsequent open field system, however, lay on a different alignment to the tracks suggesting that by the late Saxon period this communication network had been abandoned. There are only isolated finds of early middle Saxon material within the surrounding area and most of these were limited to stray sherds in the ploughsoil.
It has been clearly demonstrated that all the depositions of hanging bowls in Anglo-Saxon graves belong to the 'Final Phase' assemblages of the seventh and early eighth centuries. It is apparent that although the presence of hanging bowls in Anglo-Saxon graves can be seen to indicate a seventh or eighth century date for the assemblage in which they are found, the graves do not provide a date for the hanging bowls themselves, which could have been manufactured long before they became selected as appropriate grave goods for Anglo-Saxon burials.

<0> Crank, N. (Editor), 2019, South Midlands Archaeology (49), p. 82 (Journal). SNN111755.

<1> Meadows I., 1997, Wollaston: The "Pioneer" Burial, (checked) (Article). SNN48424.

<2> 1997, Chronicle and Echo, p.10-11 (checked) (Journal). SNN58266.

<3> MEADOWS I., 1996-7, The Pioneer Helmet, p.191-3 (checked) (Article). SNN104077.

<4> Meadows I., 2004, An Anglian Warrior Burial from Wollaston, Northamptonshire, (checked) (Report). SNN104679.

<5> PEARSON V., 1997, The Pioneer Helmet: Teachers' Resource Pack, (unchecked) (Educational Resource Pack). SNN76372.

<6> 1999, Medieval Archaeology (43), p.2, 8 (checked) (Journal). SNN107451.

<7> 1997, Pioneer News, (unchecked) (Newsletter). SNN108883.

<8> Meadows I., 2019, The Pioneer Burial: A High-Status Anglian Warrior Burial from Wollaston, Northamptonshire (Monograph). SNN111355.

Record last edited

Nov 28 2019 11:46AM