TREASURE ANNU AL REPORT 2005/6 - Portable Antiquities Scheme

225. st martin in the Fields, Westminster, London:
Two Anglo-saxon grave assemblages (2006 T556)
Date: 7th century
Discovery: Found by Museum of London
Archaeological Services during controlled excavation
in May 2006.
Description:
Grave group 343: A silver finger-ring in three
fragments. The bezel is round and bordered by a group
of three pellets on either side; the remaining two
fragments are from the plain, round-sectioned hoop
of strikingly large diameter. It may be possible that
a very small piece of the hoop is missing where it
joins the bezel. Bezel dimensions: 12 x 22mm; weight:
6.83g. Surface analysis indicated a silver content
of approximately 97%. The ring is heavily corroded,
although it is likely that the large, flat and round bezel
was decorated, for instance carrying a monogram or
engraved device. Rings of similar type are reasonably
common on the continent, where the groups of three
pellets are indicative of a 7th-century date.
Associated finds: A fragment of glass; parts of a
hanging bowl including escutcheons, basal discs
and rings; a complete glass palm cup.
Grave group 381:
1. A sub-triangular gold pendant with broad
attachment loop, set with an opaque blue glass gem
and in excellent condition. A twisted cable border is
framing the edge of the pendant, while a plain frame
set inside it holds the gem itself. Length: 23mm;
thickness: 4mm; weight: 1.64g. Surface analysis
indicated gold and silver contents of approximately
53–56% and 40–43% respectively, and confirmed the
gem as glass. This type of pendant is typical of female
necklaces of the ‘Conversion Period’. It can be paralleled
in finds such as the Desborough, Northamptonshire,
necklace (Webster & Backhouse 1991, 28), which had
numerous tear drop-shaped pendants, or the pendants
of sub-triangular shape from Winchester, Lower Brook
Street (Geake 1997, Fig. 4.5). In both cases, several
pendants were found in the grave and they were set
with garnets rather than glass. The frame of the St
Martin’s pendant compares closely, for instance, to the
intaglio pendant from Harford Farm, Norfolk, gr. 33.
Garnet pendants of this type date to the 7th century,
although it does not seem possible to narrow the date
range down further with certainty (Geake 1997, 39f;
Penn 2000, 51).
2. Six fragments of silver wire, found together with
the three glass beads. It is not unusual to find glass
beads threaded onto silver wire slipknot rings and worn
on women’s necklaces of the 7th and even early 8th
centuries (Geake 1997, 49).
Associated finds: Two amethyst beads; an iron knife;
further unidentified iron object(s); one pottery sherd.
Discussion: These items were uncovered at the
feet of a burial presumed from similar inhumations
elsewhere to be female. The assemblage conforms to a
recognisable pattern for grave goods of the suggested
period. Traces of a much degraded leather shoe were
also found with the burial.
Disposition: Museum of London hopes to acquire
with the main site archive.
S MARZINZIK, G EGAN & N POWELL
226. streethouse area, Redcar and Cleveland:
Two Anglo-saxon grave assemblages
(2005 T540 & 2006 T473)
Date: Probably 7th century
Discovery: Found by Stephen Sherlock Services Ltd
during controlled excavation of a site of Iron Age
buildings and a series of Anglo-Saxon grave cuts, in
August 2005 and August 2006 (Grave 42).
Description:
Grave no. 10: East-west orientation, a gold pendant
and 3 beads located in the area of the chest and head,
an iron girdle hanger at the centre of the grave against
the southern wall.
1. A gold pendant with a filigree design in two
concentric circles. The central setting is empty. It may
originally have contained a garnet or organic setting
such as bone or shell. The item has a single suspension
loop. It is similar to a number of other pendants, for
instance from Harford Farm, Norfolk. The current
pendant belongs to a large group of related pendants,
all of 7th-century date (see, for example, Geake
1997; Webster & Backhouse 1991). Diameter: 27mm;
weight: 2.63g. Surface analysis indicated contents of
approximately 66–68% gold and 28–30% silver.
2. Three monochrome glass beads, two smaller, annular
and translucent, and one larger, opaque and barrelshaped.
One of the former still has a wire fragment
through its opening, suggesting that it was originally
worn on a small ring. Beads on slipknot rings, although
also found in earlier contexts, are most typical of the
7th century.
3. A number of corroded iron fragments may come
from a chatelaine or an iron key.
4. A very small, hexagonal garnet with a now separate
gold backing-foil.
Grave no 21: East-west orientation, a string of 8 beads
with a pierced coin at each end positioned at the
approximate centre of the grave cut.
1. Two coins belonging to the North Eastern style
coinage associated with a Late Iron Age people
traditionally known as the ‘Corieltavi’, likely to have
been produced within a decade either side of the
Roman invasion of AD 43. Both coins have been pierced
for suspension, with the position of the hole indicating
that they are likely to have displayed the wreath
pattern on the front rather than the horse on the back.
2. Eight beads: 1 pale green barrel; 1 green biconical; 1
turquoise miniature ‘melon’; 1 white barrel; 1 dark blue
bun; 1 translucent blue biconical; 1 dark blue
biconical; 1 orange-red biconical.
3. Silver wire rod: broken into two parts. The shorter
part is thickened and ends in a small loop.
Weight: 0.8g. Surface analysis indicated a silver content
of approximately 99%.
Grave no. 42: West-east orientation, with three gold
pendants and gold-alloy wire bead, a jet pin fragment,
and the complex iron remains of a bed.
1. A large gold pendant, shield-shaped and mounted
with a larger central red gemstone, probably garnet,
carved into shape reminiscent of a scallop shell with 11
separate lobes and a scalloped lower edge. This scallop
shell design is unusual in Anglo-Saxon jewellery. The
central stone is surrounded by two rings of settings
of square cloisons, each originally holding a small red
gem. There are signs of wear on the lower side of the
pendant and on the inside of the suspension loop
fitting. Dimensions: 40 x 30mm approx. Surface analysis
conducted at the University of Durham indicated an
unusually low gold content (37%), suggested as a
reflection of the debasement of the later Merovingian
coinage which was used for the source of much of the
gold in jewellery in the
7th century (Jones: personal communication).
2. A gold-alloy bead formed from a fine circularsectioned
gold alloy wire with rilled decoration on
the exterior, probably wound on an organic former to
achieve the desired shape. Dimensions: 8 x 3mm approx.
Surface analysis conducted at the University of Durham
indicated a gold content of approximately 77%.
3. A gold-alloy pendant, oval in shape with a suspension
loop to the top. A central oval gemstone is a dark red
colour under strong light, but has some imperfections
or cracks. There is wear to the stone’s surface.
Dimensions: 18 x 13mm. Surface analysis conducted at
the University of Durham indicated a gold content of
approximately 70%.
4. A gold-alloy pendant, round in shape with a
suspension loop to the top. The central stone is dark
red glass containing small bubbles when observed
under magnification. Blistering on the surface can also
be seen. Diameter: 13mm approx. Surface analysis
conducted at the University of Durham indicated a
gold content of approximately 62%. The gold items
from grave 42 may have been all from the same
necklace, with each pendant separated by gold wire
spacer beads, similar to the necklace from Desborough,
Northamptonshire, dated to the second half of the 7th
century (Webster & Backhouse 1991, p. 28–29).
Associated finds: A fragment of the spherical top of a
jet or shale pin with a disk neck, diameter: 10–12mm
approx. Similar to Roman examples dateable to the 3rd
and 4th centuries AD and so, with its position at the
head of the grave, possibly an heirloom item worn in
the hair. Also, some 30 finds are iron objects associated
with an Anglo-Saxon bed, or are parts of grave-goods
placed on or around the bed, and mineralised wood and
possibly textile attached in many places, suggesting
further the shape and design of the bed. The bed
appears to have been a rectangular box constructed
from wooden planks with an overall dimension of
approximately 1800mm long by 800mm wide and at
least 500mm tall. Scrolled terminal brackets held the
top and bottom halves of each side panel together.
These seem to have been fixed down each side at
regular intervals of 30cm, and possibly along the
outside of both the headboard and the footboard.
A headboard was attached to the bed by being
connected to each side panel by an iron headboard
stay and may have been reclined at
an angle.
Grave no. 43: Located to the immediate north of
grave 42, with a gold pendant, a gold bead and two
further beads.
1. An unusual triangular gold-alloy pendant, with a
suspension loop to the top. It holds a stone made
from a cut-down Iron Age bead comprising a dark
translucent blue glass with white opaque spirals trailed
onto low projections. Guido (1979, p. 53–57) identifies
this type of bead as Oldbury type, class 6, with a
distribution based on Kent. Length of each side: 16mm.
2. A gold-alloy bead formed from fine circularsectioned
gold alloy wire. An organic former appears to
have been used to achieve the desired shape. Length:
20mm approx; diameter: 7mm approx. Surface analysis
conducted at the University of Durham indicated a
gold content of approximately 62%.
3. Two beads, as yet unanalysed but one definitely gold
alloy, similar in form and construction to the gold bead
above, although of differing sizes.
Discussion: Unfortunately no human remains have
yet been recovered from any grave on the site due to
the high acidity of the soil. The normal circulation area
of the Iron Age coins recovered from grave 21 covers
the modern counties of Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire
and parts of Yorkshire just north of the Humber. The
findspot of these coins would be the most northerly
known. Although a little lightweight, the coins are in
exceptionally fine condition and exhibit no real signs
of any wear. If deposited more than 500 years after
their production they must have been extremely
carefully curated or else originated from a coin hoard
rediscovered shortly before the time of the burial. The
presence of these coins is unusual, as Iron Age coinage
does otherwise not seem to occur in early Anglo-Saxon
graves (see for instance, White 1988, 62ff).
The closest parallels to the bed in grave 42 are to
the 7th-century bed burial at Swallowcliffe Down,
Wiltshire, (Speake 1989), two examples at Barrington,
Cambridgeshire (Welch, 1992 p. 89), and to Shrubland
Hall, Suffolk (Watson 2005). It is consistent with highstatus
female bed burials in southern England in the
later half of the 7th century (Lucy 2000, p. 96–97).
Although grave 42 is one of a number of graves within
a pagan Saxon cemetery tentatively dated to the 7th
century AD, it generally stands apart from the others
and is more closely associated with a prehistoric
82 EARLY MEDIEVAL EARLY MEDIEVAL 83