The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca

• 198 • Julian D.Richards
the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that claims that the Viking army over-wintered there in 873–874.
Excavations by Martin Biddle located a D-shaped enclosure constructed so that the River Trent
formed the long side, whilst the rest of the site was surrounded by a bank and ditch into which
the monastery church was incorporated as a gatehouse. Some 50 m west of the enclosure, an
earthen mound had been built over a massive, two-roomed stone structure, which may originally
have been intended as a mausoleum for the Mercian royal family. The mausoleum had been
reused as a charnel house, in which the remains of some 250 individuals had been interred. The
bones were disarticulated when they were buried, with longbones stacked together and skulls
placed on top. This suggests that they had been exposed or buried elsewhere, allowing the flesh
to come off, before being collected together for reburial. Analysis of the skeletal remains shows
that 80 per cent were robust males who died aged 15–45. The mass burial is dated by a group of
five pennies deposited some time after 871. The form of the burial, its demographic characteristics,
and its date all suggest that these were members of the Viking ‘great army’ with their womenfolk,
although the absence of fatal injury marks suggests that they died from disease or starvation,
rather than in battle.
Further Scandinavian burials were found near the east end of the church at Repton, including
that of a man aged 35–40, who had been killed by a massive cut to the top of his left leg. He wore
a necklace of two glass beads and a Thor’s hammer silver amulet. By his side was a sword in a
fleece-lined scabbard, a folding knife and a key, whilst a boar’s tusk and jackdaw bone had been
placed between his legs. A substantial pesthole at the east end of the grave suggests that it had
been marked by a wooden post (Biddle and Kjølbye-Biddle 1992).
At Ingleby, some 4 km south-east of Repton, fragmentary remains have been found of the
only known Scandinavian cremation cemetery in England. The cemetery originally comprised 59
barrows, although of the 15 excavated, eight were found to be cenotaphs; others contained
cremated animal as well as human remains, and in some cases the bodies may have been cremated
on biers constructed of sections of ship’s planking. It has been suggested that the Ingleby
cremations may be amongst the earliest Viking burials in the British Isles. They are
contemporaneous, however, with several of the cenotaphs. The cenotaphs may reflect a ‘hedging
of bets’ by warriors whose bodies were perhaps buried by the church at Repton but to whom a
mound was still erected in the pagan cemetery (Richards et al. 1996).
Pagan symbolism is also evidenced amongst many of the burials of first-generation Viking
settlers on the Isle of Man. The graves of these first landtakers were frequently marked by
coastal mounds that would have been visible from the sea. In the parish of Jurby, six out of eight
of the quarterland farms (a quarterland was a unit of land division) on the coastal strip are
distinguished by a prominently sited burial mound. At Balladoole (Figure 11.2), a stone cairn was
erected forming the outline of a ship. The distribution of some 300 clench nails marks the
location of an actual vessel, some 11 m in length. It appears that two corpses were buried in the
boat, including a male accompanied by various personal items, a shield and riding equipment.
The burial cairn was covered by a layer of cremated animal bones, including horse, ox, pig, sheep
or goat, dog and cat. It had been cut into a Christian cist grave cemetery, some of whose occupants
had been so recently buried that their limbs were still articulated. It is difficult to avoid the
conclusion that such desecration was deliberate. At Ballateare, a circular mound covered a burial
pit in which a young male had been placed. The body had been wrapped in a cloak held in place
by a ring-headed pin. Various weapons had been placed outside the coffin, most of which showed
evidence of deliberate mutilation. The sword had been broken in three pieces and replaced in its
scabbard. A shield with two deep indentations to the boss had been placed on one side, and two
spears had been broken and thrown in the backfill. A thin layer of cremated animal bone had
again been thrown over the mound, but this time it also included the skeleton of a young female