Bid to unearth Saxon mystery (From Hampshire Chronicle)

Bid to unearth Saxon mystery

6:28pm Sunday 3rd August 2008 in News

THE mystery of a mass Saxon grave discovered in Harestock in the late 1980s is set to be reopened by an archaeologist using the latest scientific techniques.

Annia Cherryson, a specialist in ancient burial practices and osteoarchaeology, who grew up in Romsey, has returned to Hampshire from Sheffield University to gather more evidence about the site.

She studied the cemetery as part of her PhD thesis and secured a grant from the university to radiocarbon date the skeletons, confirming they are from around 800 - 1000AD.

In the late 1980s, Winchester Museums led an excavation that uncovered a number of skeletons buried in shallow pits, many of which had been decapitated with their heads placed between their legs.

It is suspected the site is an "execution cemetery", its location outside Winchester's ancient boundary ties in with late Saxon law, which specifically prohibits the burial of executed criminals in consecrated ground.

Since the 1980s, advances have been made that makes it easier to outline the lives of the remains.

Dr Cherryson said of one skeleton (pictured): "He is perhaps in his mid-30s and has not led an easy life.

"He has a compression fracture of the spine and osteoarthritis in his left knee, both of which may be linked to a traumatic event.

"He also suffered from active infections in his lower left leg and lower jaw."

Helen Rees, curator of Archaeology at Winchester Museums, said: "I am pleased that the more grisly aspects of what we hold in store are yielding up their secrets to science."

Although there were similar sites discovered in Meon Hill and Stockbridge Down in the 1930s, the site in Harestock is considered the most important because of Winchester's foremost role in late Saxon England.