Untitled - Council for British Archaeology

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aimed at the selected study and re-publication
of these has been in progress. This is part
of a wider study covering the'area of the
rivers of th?. Wash; the Welland, the Nene and
the Ouse valleys. In CBA 9 it includes Bedfordshire
and N.Buckinghamshire as well as
Northamptonshire, and outside the area to the
E. all of modern Cambridgeshire and parts of
the former county of W. Suffolk. For some
purposes also, the former county of Rutland
may be Counted as part of the area.
The initial period of research has concentïated
on one major site in Bedfordshire, the
cemetery at Kemps.ton, with some additional
pottery studies including the reassessment of
the site at Sandy. Work since then has been
concentrated on Northamptonshire sites, where
three lines of approach have been used.
The first group of sites to be examined is
the cemeteries of the "Final Phase". A 'Gaz-
.etteer of C7th Cemiteries in the Ouse Valley'
has been-published and studies of the cemetery
at Delborough and ,that at Crans ley are in
the press . It is suggested that the Desborough
site may have had only the two rich
graves now known as its most richly furnished
graves and that the majority of the site may
,have consisted of poorly-furnished or unaccomr
panied burials. Grave A with the well-known
Desborough necklace, of 37 pieces, of gold
and with eight garnet-set pendants, has objects
acquired'over a lOng period and includes repaired
and replacement items in the garnet-set
pendants and two end beads which may be much
earlier than the remainder of the necklace.
Grave B contained a skillet and other objects,
most probably the remains of an iron-bound
wooden box and its contents. The Cransley
finds were made in 1879 and consisted of a
spearhead with a skeleton (or skeletons) and
possibly other ironwork, and a single bùrial
with a silver wire ring, a sword, a'skillet and
a workbox. Two brooches and two pots are also
recorded. One of the pots is almost certainly
B.A., and a B.A. collared urn survives in the
collections of the British Museum. The sword
is the most reliably recorded example from the
old discoveries of A.S. cemeteries in Northamptonshire,
though these are rare in C7th graves.
The workbox is a woman's accoutrement, and the
deposition of this in the skillet suggests affinities
in rite with the Sutton Hoo and Broomr
field burials. The skillet is non-indicative
of sex and the finds may represent a case of
suttee!
A systematic approach is also being made in
the study of cemeteries of the C5th-6th. One
which lay between Barton.Seagrave and Burton
Latimer vas found between 1880 and 1885, and
produced a group of women's objects, a shieldboss
with an ornamented top knob and a group of
17 pots. The second parish to be examined is
Rothwell from which finds were made between
1905 and 1913 and in 1912-13 but seemingly from
two separate sites. The latter in the Ashmolean
Museum, Oxford, have not previously been
figured, except in general surveys of individual
types of objects; the former were ihe subject
of a brief study with a single plate in
1918. As both these groups seem to have a
direct connection with a B.A. pot, an examinetioh
is being made of the connection between
B.A. urns (signifying barrow groups now
ploughed out) and Saxon cemeteries. The cormay
be seen in the cemeteries at Woodstone,
Hunts., Kempston, Beds., Deaborough III,
Northants., as well as at Rothwell and Cransley.
The third approach is to look at individual
types of objects. Using the Kempston material
as a basis, this has been done for the range of
A.S. shield fittings, and based on the four surviving
examples in Northampton Museum for the
florid brooch also. A completed survey will
look at the cruciform brooches of Northamptonshire.
A further examination hopes to look
at "Man and Horse in Saxon Northamptonshire"
and proposes to illustrate the horse-gear of
Saxon date from Northamptonshire and will also
include a section on the evolution of woros
for horse-gear.
D.H. Kennett, 1C7th Cemeteries in the Ouse
Valley', Beds. Arch. J. 8 (1973), 99-108;
1C7th Finds from Astwick', Beds. Arch. J.
7 (1972), 45-51.
D.H. Kennett, 'C7th Cemetery at Desborough,
Northamptonshire and its context reviewed',
Med. Arch., forthcoming; 'The lost A.S.
finds from Cransley: a forgotten site', J
Northampton Mus forthcoming.
QUINTON, Northants. Site 'B' - R.M. Friendship-
Taylor for Upper NeLe Archaeological Society
Work during 1975 concentrated on an area
some 100 to the N.W. of that dealt with in the
1974 season. (CBA 9 No.5). Spreads of limestone
surfaces were found, which had, in places,
been severely disturbed by medieval ridge and
furrow ploughing. However, several areas were
relatively intact, though unfortunately even
these are now being seriously eroded by modern
ploughing.