10.5284/1073313
Duncan, Holly B
Duhig, Corinne
Phillips, Mark
A Late Migration/Final Phase cemetery at Water Lane, Melbourn
Archaeology Data Service
2005
en
Article
https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/library/browse/series.xhtml?recordId=1000241
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Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, 92, 57-134
Part of an Anglo-Saxon cemetery was investigated in 2000 in advance of housing development. The cemetery was in use for around 100 years between c. AD 575 and c. AD 675. A total of fifty-two graves, containing the remains of fifty-nine individuals, were excavated. One further isolated grave lay approximately 20m northwest of the main burial area. The graves were organised around a number of focal points, including a richly furnished, female, `founder' burial and a variety of distinctive cemetery structures. Three-quarters of the burials were accompanied by grave goods. The assemblage of human bone is informative due to its good preservation and recovery. There is a high degree of reuse of grave-plots. No physical remains of boundary markers were found. Further burials are believed to have existed to the west. Earlier excavations in the vicinity in 1956 uncovered twenty-eight graves containing thirty individuals; however the exact location and plan of these investigations are now lost. In addition to the Anglo-Saxon cemetery, a number of earlier features were investigated; these dated principally to the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age and the Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age. Includes reports on