Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-wq2xx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T05:32:11.180Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Excavation of Two Barrows, One of Saxon Date, at Ford, Laverstock, near Salisbury, Wiltshire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2011

Summary

Circular soil marks were shown by excavation to mark the line of the ditches of two ploughed-out barrows one of Early Bronze Age Wessex II date, the other Saxon. The grave of the Bronze Age barrow contained a cremation with a pair of bone tweezers. The ditch of the Saxon barrow was interrupted by a causeway and evidence is adduced for an external bank and a small internal mound similar to that of prehistoric disc barrows. The grave was very large and contained the skeleton of a male individual equipped with a hanging bowl containing onions and crab-apples, seax, a shield with sugar-loaf boss, two spears, a buckle, and a bone comb. The burial is of seventh-century date and the seax is of special significance because of the elaborate nature of its scabbard fittings.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1969

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

page 98 note 1 Wilts. Arch. Mag. lix (1964), 86.

page 99 note 1 I am greatly indebted to Mr. Hunt and his father (Mr. J. W. P. Hunt) for so willingly agreeing to the subsequent excavation (in 1964). Mr. Hunt also kindly back-filled the excavation with a tractor blade.

page 99 note 2 The excavation was directed jointly by Mr. D. J. Algar and the writer. We are indebted to members of the Research Committee Group for their help with the excavation, part of which was conducted under atrocious weather conditions. Thanks are also due to Miss V. Evison for her comments on the seax, to Mrs. C. Boddington for redrawing some of the figures and to Mrs. F. de M. Vatcher for undertaking the conservation of the finds (with the exception of the seax).

page 99 note 3 History of Ancient Wilts. (1812). Map of Amesbury Station V, South District.

page 102 note 1 All the finds were presented by Mr. Hunt to Salisbury Museum and are on exhibition there.

page 102 note 2 Proc. Prehistoric Soc. xxix (1963), 412Google Scholar.

page 102 note 3 Wilts. Arch. Mag. lxi (1966), 6Google Scholar.

page 102 note 4 Medieval Archaeology, v (1961), 71Google Scholar. I am indebted to Mr. Biek for his comments and to Mr. V. R. Rickard for his X-ray examination.

page 104 note 1 Unpublished. I am grateful to Miss Evison and the Ministry of Public Building and Works for permission to mention it here in advance of the publication of the Beckford cemetery.

page 104 note 2 Antiq. Journ. xliii (1963), 40Google Scholar.

page 104 note 3 Arch. Journ. cxx, fig. 7a.

page 104 note 4 Ibid., p. 62.

page 106 note 1 I am grateful to Miss Gedye and Mr. Hodges for accepting the seax for conservation and reconstruction at the Institute of Archaeology, University of London. It was drawn by Mr. P. A. Broxton, and during its drawing Mr. Broxton was able to draw attention to certain new features bearing on the reconstruction of the scabbard.

page 107 note 1 Antiq. Journ. xliii (1963), 62Google Scholar.

page 107 note 2 V.C.H. Cambridgeshire, i, p. 318, fig. 1 (1938).

page 109 note 1 Proc. Suffolk Inst. of Arch. xxix, ii (1962), 208Google Scholar.

page 109 note 2 Antiquity, xxxiii (1959), 257Google Scholar.

page 109 note 3 Proc. Soc. Antiq. London, 2nd ser., xxii (1907–9), 7983Google Scholar, figs. 18–22.

page 109 note 4 Archaeologia Aeliana, viii (1931), 328Google Scholar.

page 109 note 5 B.M. Anglo-Saxon Guide (1923), fig. 91; V.C.H. Oxon, i, 348–50, fig. 1.

page 110 note 1 Antiq. Journ. xliii (1963), 47Google Scholar, fig. 28d.

page 111 note 1 Excavated by Mrs.Hawkes, , Medieval Archaeology, x (1966), 171Google Scholar.

page 113 note 1 See, for example, the discussion by Haseloff, G., Medieval Archaeology, ii (1958), 72CrossRefGoogle Scholar ff.

page 114 note 1 British Prehistory (1958), pp. 145–6.

page 114 note 2 This is written without prejudice to the observation of Bonney, D. J. (Wilts. Arch. Mag., lxi (1966), 27Google Scholar) that for Wiltshire 29 per cent of Saxon burial sites lie on parish boundaries while a further 13 per cent lie within 500 feet ofa boundary suggesting that such burials have been deliberately placed on or close to a boundary.

page 114 note 3 Medieval Archaeology, v (1961), 226–30.

page 114 note 4 Bôhner, K., Die fränkischen Altertümer des Trierer Landes (1958), pp. 135–44Google Scholar.

page 114 note 5 Werner, J., Das alamannische Gräberfeld von Bülach (1953), p. 60Google Scholar.

page 114 note 6 Evison, V. I., ‘The Dover Ring-sword and Other Sword Rings and Beads’, Archaeologia, ci (1967), 72Google Scholar.

page 114 note 7 Ibid., fig. 14e.

page 114 note 8 Ibid., fig. 3c and pl. xi.

page 114 note 9 Ibid., fig. 12.

page 114 note 10 K. Böhner, op. cit., Abb. 7.

page 114 note 11 V. I. Evison, op. cit., figs, 4d and 6c; a U-section strip was found with the Sibertswold seax, Ant. Journ. xliii (1963), 90Google Scholar, fig. 34h.

page 114 note 12 Moosbrugger-Leu, R., ‘Le Scramasax decoré de Lausanne, Bel-Air (tombe 48)’, Revue Suisse d'Art et d'Archéologie, xxiii (1963/4), fig. IGoogle Scholar.

page 115 note 1 British Museum, The Sutton Hoo Ship Burial, fig. 5.

page 115 note 2 Åberg, N., Den Historiska Relationen mellan Folkvandringstid och Vendeltid (1953), fig. 187Google Scholar.

page 115 note 3 British Museum Guide to Anglo-Saxon Antiquities (1923), figs. 43 and 71.

page 115 note 4 Bruce-Mitford, R. L. S., The Sutton Hoo Ship Burial (1968)Google Scholar, fig. 10a.

page 115 note 5 Olsén, P., Die Saxe von Valsgärde (1945), Abb. 283Google Scholar.

page 115 note 6 Lethbridge, T. C., A Cemetery at Shudy Camps, Cambs. (1936)Google Scholar, fig. 7, 1; Matthews, C. L., ‘The Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Marina Drive, Dunstable’, Beds. Arch. Journ. i (1962), fig. 2Google Scholar.

page 115 note 7 Ypey, J., ‘Een scramasax met schede’, Berichten van de Rijksdienst voor het Oudheidkundig Bodequities monderzoek, 10/11 (1960/1), 565–7Google Scholar, Afb. 23 and 24.

page 115 note 8 T. C. Lethbridge, op. cit., fig. 8.

page 115 note 9 Trans. Dartford District Ant. Soc. viii (1938), 22Google Scholar.

page 115 note 10 Arch. xxxv (1853), 476Google Scholar.

page 116 note 1 Berks. Arch. Journ. liii (1952/3), 53Google Scholar, fig. 5. Traces of wood and of bone on iron are somewhat similar, and it may be that the Blewburton and Harnham Hill traces were actually of bone also.

page 116 note 2 British Museum Reg. nos. 1902, 7–22, 43 and 44.