Pandemic disease and climate change might seem like contemporary concerns, but the archaeological record has much to tell us about the impact of similar events on communities who lived centuries earlier. Intriguing insights are emerging from an Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Broughton Lodge, near Willoughby-on-the-Wolds in Nottinghamshire, which was excavated during a pioneering community project in the 1960s and has yielded further clues during subsequent scientific research. The high-status artefacts and exotic materials accompanying many of the graves speak of a diverse mix of cultural influences and trade links stretching across Europe and far beyond – but the site is also home to the largest number of multiple burials yet identified at any 6th-century cemetery in England. Why were so many people from this apparently thriving community dying in quick succession? A new exhibition at the University of Nottingham Museum draws together evidence from the original excavations and recent scientific analysis to explore possible causes, and the experiences and beliefs of the people buried there.
It had long been known that the site, which lies beside the Fosse Way (the Roman road from Exeter to Lincoln), was home to extensive Roman remains, including a large settlement and a cemetery. Evidence of activity dating to this period is described by the 18th-century antiquarian William Stukeley, and more buildings and burials were uncovered during investigations on an adjacent site in 1948-1951. Broughton Lodge’s early medieval significance, however, only became apparent in the 1960s, when the construction of a flyover for the A46 (the modern successor of the Fosse Way) revealed graves and a cobbled surface. Despite the site’s history, the Ministry of Works judged the archaeology to be too damaged to merit further investigation – but luckily the discoveries had come to the attention of Malcolm Dean, a local maths teacher who was also a member of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire, a major county historical and archaeological society.
Recognising the site’s potential – and its immediate threat of destruction – Malcolm sprang into action, assembling a team of willing volunteers from the local community to excavate and record the remains before they were lost forever. They were assisted in their endeavours by Alan MacCormick, the newly appointed Curator of Archaeology at Nottingham Castle Museum, as well as by Malcolm’s rigorously methodical approach to excavation, based on a large grid system (well, he was a mathematician!). From 1963-1964 and 1965-1966, two seasons of digging revealed dozens of graves, many of them richly furnished, as well as a section of the original Fosse Way, with the volunteers pressing on undeterred even as the modern roadworks continued around them. These discoveries finally convinced the Ministry of Works of the site’s importance, and they agreed to fund a final phase in 1968.
Clerical sinners and forgeries