Digital copy of view grave I of child with iron spear next to skull, excavations by Brian Hope-Taylor 1948-49. Digital image only

Description Digital copy of view grave I of child with iron spear next to skull, excavations by Brian Hope-Taylor 1948-49. Digital image only

Date 1948 to 1949

Collection Papers of Brian Hope-Taylor, archaeologist, Cambridge, England

Catalogue Number SC 766820

Category On-line Digital Images

Scope and Content Grave I, Farthing Down, Surrey This is a view of one of the flat graves discovered at Farthing Down. It contained the remains of a child, aged about two years old with a small iron spear placed near the skull. The child was thought to a boy because of the presence of the spear but the sexing of burials from grave goods may not always be a foolproof method, where the sex of the individual cannot be ascertained. Anglo-Saxon cemeteries are the best source of evidence on Anglo-Saxon life, as they often contain a wealth of grave goods. Barrows or burial mounds in Anglo-Saxon society were often reserved for the elite. This idea is supported by the fact that not everyone was buried in them, as was the case at Farthing Down where several of the burials were in flat graves with no above-ground structure. Farthing Down is an Anglo-Saxon cemetery dating to the late 6th/early 7th century. In 1945 Brian Hope-Taylor discovered Romano-British field systems in the same area. This research led to the 1948-9 excavations at the Anglo-Saxon cemetery. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Accession Number 2001/164

External Reference HT/54/21

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/766820

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap