An Anglo-Saxon Cemetery in Lincolnshire
7 January 2001

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Further reading
The Anglo-Saxons edited by James Campbell, Eric John and Patrick Wormald (Penguin, 1991) paperback £16
Three experts have collaborated to produce this complete, illustrated guide to the Anglo-Saxons, from their arrival in England to their conversion to Christianity and defence of Britain against Viking attacks.

An Archaeology of the Early Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms by C J Arnold (Routledge, new edition 1997) paperback £17.99
The key introduction to Anglo-Saxon studies and the polemics spurring research in this field. The book confronts the major questions concerning how Christian medieval England emerged from the chaotic and pagan Dark Ages.

Anglo-Saxon England and the Norman Conquest by H R Loyn (Addison Wesley Longman Higher Education, 1991) paperback £20.99
More than 30 years since its first edition, this book still remains a standard text on the social and economic development of Anglo-Saxon England from the first settlements in the fifth and sixth centuries AD to the immediate aftermath of the Norman Conquest. It draws on surviving legal and literary sources, as well as the latest findings of archaeologists, numismatists and art historians.

The Archaeology of Anglo-Saxon England edited by Catherine E Karkoy (Garland Publishing, 1999) hardback £50
This volume offers comprehensive coverage of the archaeology of Anglo-Saxon England, bringing together essays on specific fields, sites and objects, and offering the reader a representative range of both traditional and modern methodologies and interdisciplinary approaches to the subject. Individual sections deal with settlement archaeology, the archaeology of church and monastery, death and burial and women and the material record.

The Anglo-Saxon World by Kevin Crossley-Holland (Oxford University Press, 1999) paperback £6.99

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle translated and edited by Michael Swanton (Dent, 1996) paperback £12.99
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is the first continuous national history of any Western people in their own language. This translation is the most complete and faithful yet published, with extensive notes referring the entries to current knowledge as well as to maps and genealogical tables.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle translated and edited by Michael Swanton (Exeter University Press, 1999) £5.99
A basic translation without the notes, maps and tables that accompany the above.

Other websites

Anglo Saxon England: A guide to online resources
http://orb.rhodes.edu/encyclop/early/pre1000/ASindex.html
Part of the ORB Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies, this website has perhaps the best set of web links covering everything from original Anglo-Saxon texts to bibliographies, maps and teaching resources.

Anglo-Saxon England
www.anthro.mankato.msus.edu/vi/angsaxe.htm
Includes, among much else, a map of Anglo-Saxon Britain and a detailed bibliography.

Angelcynn Anglo-Saxon Living History 400–900 AD
www.angelcynn.org.uk
Excellent website run by the Angelcynn Anglo-Saxon re-enactment society. Contains material on the history, warfare, weapons, armour, clothing and appearance of pagan and Christian Anglo-Saxons, with details on their culture, myths and religion, information on various finds, useful links and an invaluable Anglo-Saxon glossary.

Anglo Saxon cemeteries
www.gla.ac.uk/Acad/Archaeology/staff/jwh/ascems.html
This website contains pointers to a series of resources relating to early Anglo-Saxon cemeteries. Jeremy Huggett, who maintains the site, carried out PhD research involving an analysis of social aspects of burial. As part of this work an early Anglo-Saxon cemeteries database was assembled, consisting primarily of cemeteries from central and central southern England. The database is available on the site, together with a distribution map of the major cemeteries included and discussions on various aspects of early Anglo-Saxon burials. This, for example, introduces Huggett's discussion on sexing and ageing burials:

'Burials have been traditionally sexed on the basis of associated grave goods – brooches and beads with females, weapons with males. The fact that it can be demonstrated that males may also be accompanied by brooches and beads has not detracted from this method. The sex and age of a skeleton is important in social terms as primary burial attributes, and consequently it is necessary to know how the assignments were achieved in order to avoid problems of circularity (brooches are found with females, burial A is accompanied by brooch B, burial A is therefore female, brooch B is associated with a female burial, brooches are associated with female burials). Skeletal attributes may be used to age and sex skeletal evidence independently of any associated artefacts, but it has been found that there may be differences in the attribution of sex according to skeletal methods and by associated grave goods.'

Other resources

Anglo Saxon Books
Frithgarth, Thetford Forest Park, Hockwold-cum-Wilton, Norfolk IP26 4NQ
Tel: 01842 828430
An independent publisher with a wide list of books ranging in subject from riddles, runes, food and drink to magic, legends, warfare, martial arts and leechcraft.

Angelcynn Anglo-Saxon Living History 400–900 AD
Ben Levick, 2 Prospect Row, Old Brompton, Gillingham, Kent ME7 5AL
Tel: 01634 845558
www.angelcynn.org.uk
Leading Anglo-Saxon re-enactment society.

West Stow Anglo Saxon Village
Icklingham Road, West Stow, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk IP28 6HG
Tel: 01284 728718
Website: www.stedmunds.co.uk/west_stow.html
Open to visitors daily.

The West Stow site was discovered by Basil Brown, the indefatigable field archaeologist of the 1930s to 1960s, by fragments of pottery thrown up by rabbits on the heath. It became clear that the site, a low knoll of some five acres in extent, was covered with prehistoric, Roman and Anglo-Saxon pottery. The threatened destruction of the area prompted the Ministry of Works to fund an excavation, which took place between 1965 and 1972. In the event, the whole site was stripped and excavated, so that for the first time in England we had an entire Anglo-Saxon village to study.

At the close of the excavation the establishment of the West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village Trust by the then Borough Council of Bury St. Edmunds enabled the study of the Anglo-Saxons to be developed in an exciting and unique way by the reconstruction of a number of buildings on their original sites. Much of the work is experimental and achieved by translating the interpretation of what was found into practical reconstructions, using the tools and methods believed to have been available to the Anglo-Saxons. Although the site is primarily concerned with experimental archaeology, it offers visitors an evocative sense of the past in a way that cannot be captured by text-books.

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