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Summary

Early Anglo-Saxon cemetery site on land west of South Cliff Farm, South Carlton

Full description

PRN 54979
A quantity of early to middle Saxon metalwork, discovered by metal detector, was known to have come from a restricted area of a field to the west of South Cliff Farm, South Carlton. Trial trenching identified part of an Anglo-Saxon cemetery, containing an urned cremation burial and three inhumation burials. The evaluation suggested that the cemetery is relatively small, probably covering no more than 0.25ha, but including both cremation and inhumation burials. The inhumation burials lay in shallow graves and were aligned east to west. They included a female, a possible male and a male and contained a range of grave goods including personal jewellery and a shield boss. The finds from the metal detector surveys and the results of the evaluation have confirmed the cemetery was in use between the late 5th and early 7th century AD. One of the inhumations truncated a shallow pit containing cremated animal bone, while another inhumation lay close to the line of a post-medieval road, which may have followed the line of a much earlier boundary and defined the limits of the cemetery. A number of machine-excavated trenches, dug to define the limits of the cemetery, failed to locate additional graves. {1}{2}{3}
The South Cliff Farm cemetery site, lying 5km north of Lincoln, is currently (2003) the most closely located Anglo-Saxon inhumation cemetery to Lincoln. It also lies in an area that, apart from the poorly dated burials at the Roman villa site at Scampton, was not previously known to contain Anglo-Saxon burials. {2}{3}
The fifth century disc brooches found on the site may well be heirloom pieces deposited in graves during the sixth or seventh century and so the cemetery may perhaps date from the sixth century rather than from the fifth. {4}

<1> GSB Prospection Ltd, Jan 2004, Geophysical Survey Report for South Cliff Farm, South Carlton, 2003/71 (Report). SLI9449.

<2> Wessex Archaeology, May 2004, South Cliff Farm, South Carlton: An Archaeological Evaluation and an Assessment of the Results, SCSC03 (Report). SLI9450.

<3> Wessex Archaeology, May 2004, South Cliff Farm, South Carlton: An Archaeological Evaluation and an Assessment of the Results, LCNCC 2003.304 (Archive). SLI9451.

<4> Green, Tom, 2008, Conversation with Dr Tom Green, 21/07/2008 (Verbal Communication). SLI12006.

Monument Types

• BURIAL (Early Medieval/Dark Age - 475 AD to 625 AD)
• CEMETERY (Early Medieval/Dark Age - 475 AD to 625 AD)
• CREMATION (Early Medieval/Dark Age - 475 AD to 625 AD)
• CROUCHED INHUMATION (Early Medieval/Dark Age - 475 AD to 625 AD)
• EXTENDED INHUMATION (Early Medieval/Dark Age - 475 AD to 625 AD)

Associated Finds

• DISC BROOCH (Early Medieval/Dark Age - 450 AD to 599 AD)
• BEAD (Early Medieval/Dark Age - 475 AD to 625 AD)
• BEAD (Early Medieval/Dark Age - 475 AD to 625 AD)
• BUCKLE (Early Medieval/Dark Age - 475 AD to 625 AD)
• HUMAN REMAINS (Early Medieval/Dark Age - 475 AD to 625 AD)
• KNIFE (Early Medieval/Dark Age - 475 AD to 625 AD)
• NAIL (Early Medieval/Dark Age - 475 AD to 625 AD)
• RING (Early Medieval/Dark Age - 475 AD to 625 AD)
• RIVET (Early Medieval/Dark Age - 475 AD to 625 AD)
• ROPE (Early Medieval/Dark Age - 475 AD to 625 AD)
• SHERD (Early Medieval/Dark Age - 475 AD to 625 AD)
• SHERD (Early Medieval/Dark Age - 475 AD to 625 AD)
• SHIELD (Early Medieval/Dark Age - 475 AD to 625 AD)
• CLASP (Early Medieval/Dark Age - 500 AD to 625 AD)
• CRUCIFORM BROOCH (Early Medieval/Dark Age - 550 AD to 625 AD)

Associated Events

• Gradiometry survey at South Cliff Farm, South Carlton
• Fieldwalking on land west of South Cliff Farm, South Carlton
• Archaeological evaluation on land west of South Cliff Farm, South Carlton

Sources and further reading

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.