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Excavations ahead of a new housing development in Banbury, Oxfordshire, have uncovered a previously unknown Anglo-Saxon cemetery of more than 50 burials, many of them richly furnished.
These findings were recently announced by Border Archaeology, who excavated the 8,300m2 Calthorpe Gardens site for Orbit Homes between November 2022 and March 2023. It was already known that the site’s chronology stretched back as far as the mid- to late Bronze Age, as a previous survey had revealed features (confirmed by the more recent excavation) including large sub-oval enclosures and smaller ring-gullies possibly representing roundhouses, as well as intersecting linear ditches and multiple pits, pointing to the presence of an open settlement crowning a high plateau. The discovery of early medieval archaeology, however, adds a previously unknown phase to the site’s story.
Some 52 burials were excavated within the Anglo-Saxon cemetery, containing the articulated and disarticulated remains of men, women, and children and spanning the 7th to 9th centuries. Many were accompanied by grave goods hinting at high social status, including gold-plated pendants and beaded necklaces, and six were so rich that they have been highlighted as potentially coming under the 1996 Treasure Act (see https://finds.org.uk/treasure for more information about the Treasure process and its legal obligations in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland; for more on Scottish Treasure Trove, see https://treasuretrovescotland.co.uk).
One such artefact was a gilded pen- dant with an intricate entwined serpent decoration, which was found in a male grave together with a pin set, as well as shells and amethyst beads that may hint at trade links with the Mediterranean or Red Sea area. Post-excavation analysis is ongoing, but such far-flung finds could offer clues to the community’s socio-economic structure, while the grave goods as a whole, including a child’s pendant with a possible cross motif, may shed light on local transitions from pagan beliefs to Christianity, and how the community responded to these changes.
No settlement associated with the cemetery has yet been identified, but Border Archaeology has described the site as regionally and nationally significant, and Post-Excavation Services Director Janice McLeish highlighted the complexity of the surrounding archaeological landscape, with evidence of human activity spanning around 6,000 years until the cemetery was created.
‘The site is a multi-phase site located on a hilltop and covers a vast timeline, so not only will it inform on a regional basis, but, due to the high-status burials, it will be a vital part of the national understanding of the Anglo-Saxon populations within a wider context and help look at the connection of this landscape with earlier prehistoric communities,’ Janice explained.
Echoes of activity post-dating the Anglo-Saxon period are much more scarce, however – it is possible that the site was abandoned, though traces of later medieval or post-medieval plough furrows could indicate an agricultural afterlife for the area.
Text: Rebecca Preedy / Photo: Border Archaeology
