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Description: | Nationally important collection of Anglo-Saxon cremation urns, cremation goods, human bone and animal bone from Spong Hill Anglo-Saxon cemetery. The collection represents the largest series of cremations (2384) and cremation urns (2332) ever excavated from an Anglo-Saxon cemetery in the UK, it is comparable with the largest contemporary (5th and 6th centuries) cemeteries on the continent. Many of the urns have been restored. Most of the cremation urns are decorated, some with stamps in the form of animals, swastikas and runes.
The major excavation at the site was from 1968 to 1981, although the collection started in 1930 as a result of the donation of casual finds and a minor excavation was conducted in 1954.
The vast size of the collection meant that the conclusions drawn from the excavation were immensly valuable in terms of typology, chronology and the association of different objects, and enabled urns made by the same potter to be identified. The collection is notable in its preserved assemblage of cremated human and animal bone; until this excavation cremated bone was not kept or examined in any quantity as it was not felt that any information could be obtained from it, however, information about cremation practice was derived from this material; this part of the collection still offers research potential. In addition, the size of the collection, representing the near complete excavation of a cemetery, enabled the relationship of the urns and the bones and grave goods they contained to be investigated, shedding light on an aspect of early English society. Together with inhumations the site represents 2441 burials. There is a collection of cremation goods from half of the urns, including glass beads, brooches, worked ivory, spindlewhorls, toilet sets, glass vessels and bone gaming pieces. There are grave goods from 54 inhumations including the only sword. The collection and excavation has been substantially published.
The collection includes a number of rare finds and the greatest concentration of a number of object types found at one site. Uncommonly, there are lids associated with 34 of the urns including the most remarkable item in the collection, a unique lid decorated with a three dimensional human figure; the famous 'Spong Man'. This is one of only two three-dimensional figurative sculptures from this period in Europe. The cremation urns include animal accessory vessels which were not previously recorded from a cemetery. The brooches within the collection contain a high proportion of early cruciform brooches with continental associations. The collection also represents the highest number of Saxon claw beakers from any site and the highest number of Kempstone cone beakers found in England. There is a rare bronze-bound wooden bucket. The human bone has yielded archaeologically rare examples of gallstone and lymph nodes. The animal bone covers a wider range of animals than other contemporary English cremation cemeteries, including a number of wild species.
cremation urns, cremated animal bone | Format: | 2400 indvidual artefacts and objects together with 350 boxes of site archive material | Subjects: | Typology Anglo-saxon period Bones Pottery Archaeology Cremations Human remains (archaeology) Archaeological objects Burials | Temporal: | Saxon 400-1066 | Source: | Cornucopia - Discovering UK Collections | FAX: | +44 (0)1603 493623 | Telephone: | +44 (0)1603 493625 | Identifier: | oai:www.cornucopia.org.uk:7095 | Format: | 2400 indvidual artefacts and objects together with 350 boxes of site archive material | Go to resource |
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