In Photos: Rare Anglo-Saxon Cemetery Uncovered

By Megan Gannon, Reside Science Contributor | November 16, 2016 11:48am ET

Credit score: MOLA

Rows of coffins

In a shock discover, archaeologists found an Anglo-Saxon cemetery in England with greater than 80 graves. Many of the burials contained uncommon picket coffins, which had been preserved because of the waterlogged setting of the positioning.
Right here, an aerial view of the excavation exhibits how the graves at Nice Ryburgh, Norfolk, have been organized in rows in an east-west alignment, a mark of Christian cemeteries.
[Read the full story on the newfound cemetery]
Credit score: MOLA

Uncommon coffins

These picket coffins have been made by hollowing out the trunks of oak bushes. Although undecorated, they nonetheless would have taken a little bit of effort to supply. These are the primary dug-out coffins from this period to be excavated, based on the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA).
Credit score: MOLA

Anglo-Saxon stays
Credit score: MOLA

Waterlogged cemetery

Whereas picket coffins usually decay within the floor, the moist situations on the website helped protect the burials. Specifically, when the alkaline river water blended with the extra acidic sand the place the coffins have been buried, it created a impartial, waterlogged space that might protect the coffins.
Credit score: MOLA

Plank-lined grave

The archaeologists additionally found some graves that had been carved into the bottom and lined with picket planks. The archaeologists aren't positive how these graves are associated to the dug-out coffins discovered on the website.
Credit score: Historic England and Judith Dobie

Dug-out grave

This reconstruction of coffin from an early Anglo-Saxon grave at Mucking Cemetery II in Essex exhibits what a dug-out picket coffin would have regarded like.