Archaeologists Find Extraordinary Hoard In Anglo-Saxon Cemetery | Time Team | Chronicle

Investigating a Bronze Age barrow in the New Forest, Tony and the team uncover a Saxon Cemetery with a startling array of grave goods - spears, shields, jewelry - and a collection of rare buckets unique in Britain. A Byzantine brass bucket - one of only 11 in the world - was found during a three-day live dig in a Saxon cemetery a year ago. Time Team is now returning to find out more about the people who lived and died here.

The Staffordshire Hoard is the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork yet found. It is described as "possibly the finest collection of early medieval artifacts ever discovered.

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[thecourtlyalchemist]

If I owned land in the UK, I would spend the rest of my days digging holes.

[FLEABONE]

A a woman born in East Anglia but mostly raised in the US with a few years schooled in Lowestoft I love your shows. It brings me home especially when I catch a suffolk accent. I'm a proud relative of Amos Beamish the Famous Giant of Barnby he is my great great great... uncle.

[komradtombstone]

I have a theory about the large number of double-burials, with so much weaponry buried along with the corpses: there was an attack on the village, and those people buried together were relatives who died in the raid, the adults having attempted to defend the village. The fact that the one skull, at least, showed signs of blunt-force trauma could definitely point to someone killed in battle.

Like many of the peoples of that time period, the Saxons were a "warlike" folk (I mean what Germanic people WASN'T in those days?). They believed in basically the same gods and goddesses as the Norse (Vikings) did. To those people, dying in battle, defending one's home and family, would have been seen as a "good death, " and they would have been buried with their weapons as a sign of their warrior honour.

If it was a raid, and a large number of family members were killed all at once (even the elderly and children were considered legitimate targets in olden times), it stands to reason that brothers would be buried together, children would be buried with parents, etc. This is all an educated guess, but I think it fits.

[TihetrisWeathersby]

The Anglo Saxon period is probably my favorite for Medieval england

[sharonkaczorowski]

All these double burials suggest something bad happened here…probably an attack. The burial with the infant/toddler was very touching.

[bettyir]

There's a hole in your bucket, dear Tony, dear Tony. There's a hole in your bucket, dear Tony, a hole. 🎶🎶

[dann]

Just noticed Carenza's sunburned arms, so dedicated! Love this team !

[barbaraalice]

Wonderful explanation by museum why/how finding of amateur followed proper identification procedure thus encouraging Time Team investigation. That itself is exciting for public education.

[Cara-]

As a Medievalist, the Staffordshire Hoard and Sutton Hoo helmet are some of my favorite artifacts and in my opinion, are the embodiment of Anglo-Saxon Britain.

[peterdorninbalance]

As always, a wonderful episode about England's rich history! I love the protagonists, some of whom are already legends!

[WilliamCooper-lf]

I want everyone to understand what this documentary is getting at: which is, that artifacts discovered do not necessarily mean the people who made the item, ever lived in the area. I've seen so called archaeologists find an item older than the place they know the age of, then ascribe the item's age to the location, instead of ever thinking it was taken there. Ancient people were just like us today; they admired their treasures. They held in high esteem loot taken from their enemies. Monarchs and high officials hoarded war trophies, just as eagerly as WWII vets prized a German Luger. So, in such reasoning we must apply a simple logical deduction of if the item originates there or did it originate in a different year and location and eventually wind up where it was found?

[Jerbod]

This is one of the most interesting episodes.

[timothyaschauer]

Awesome dig, love to have been there and lent a hand.

[Patrick_Cooper]

The literal meaning of 'kick the bucket".

[HappyBeezerStudios]

The buckets fit perfectly into each other. A very space saving way to store them.

[markhand]

Regarding the question as to 'why such young people would have been buried with weapons?' i would say it had to do with the warrior mentality of that age in believing that any afterlife would be a violent place where you had to protect yourself as this is all they knew like in norse views of the afterlife.

[johndewey]

Looks like more than one person had kicked the bucket!

[Blessings.]

Since this was so long ago I am hoping it includes all test results on the buckets . What was in each one which grave they came from ect. An update on anything else, after the program finishes… that’s what I wish to know…

[thomasspravka]

I love the pace of walking, as if the artifacts were about to run and hide!

[Raycheetah]

10:08 "These were rural folk with clean water and uncrowded housing. Two people just *couldn't* have died of a communicable disease at the same time. Much likelier that they left the grave open for new bodies to be added. Don't worry yourself that both skeletons appear to remain nicely articulated, in spite of the prolonged exposure I posit, or that those grave goods were left exposed along with the rotting bodies." =9[.]9=