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Proc. Hampshire Field Club Archaeol. Soc. 61, 2006, 63-80 (Hampshire Studies 2006)

CHANGING BURIAL PRACTICE INSEVENTH-CENTURY HAMPSHIRE: THE ANGLO-SAXON

CEMETERY AT PORTWAY WEST, ANDOVER

By N I C K STOODLEY

ABSTRACT

The seventh century cemetery at Partway West ruas the successor to the late fifth to sixth century one found in 1974 at Partway East. It belongs lo class of cemeteries more commonly known as Final-Phase, a distinct and shorl-lived group which displays many differences in terms of burial rites when compared lo the practices of the preceding two centuries. This article summarizes the evidence from the 17 excavated graves and assesses it against the background of seventh- and eighth-century Hampshire, arguing that the changes are more complex than has been originally thought and ultimately result from a variety of different stimuli.

INTRODUCTION

The evidence from Portway West will first besummarized and the salient points highlighted.Where relevant, comparisons will also be madeto Portway East. Full details, including an illus-trated catalogue and specialist reports, can befound in the site archive at Hampshire CountyCouncil Museums Service Accession NumberAS73.

In 1981 Andover Archaeological Society(AAS), unde r the direction of Max Dacre, andTest Valley Archaeological Committee (TVAC),investigated an Anglo-Saxon cemetery on thewestern part of the Portway Industrial Estate,Andover, Hampshire (Fig. 1). It was sited 800 m away from the late fifth- to sixth-century mixedrite cemetery at Portway East, the probablepredecessor of Portway West (Cook and Dacre1985, 22), at NGR SU 337464 and at 90 m ODoverlooking the River Anton on the northfacing slope of the valley. The cemeteries were

placed in a rich archaeological landscape, withevidence from the Neolithic, Bronze Age, IronAge and Romano-British periods. In particu-lar, it lies close to the Silchester to Old SarumRoman road, and just south of the prehistorictrack known as the Harrow Way (Fig. 1).

Portway is an example of the 'two cemeterypat tern ' , i.e. where a burial g round of thefifth and sixth centuries was replaced in thefollowing one by a new burial location. The latercemeteries can be identified by several notablechanges that occurred to practice dur ing theseventh century: a reduction in grave goods,the appearance of several new types of objects,the move towards jus t inhumat ion as a me thodof disposal, more standardised orientation andthe use of external features to mark the locationof individual graves (Hyslop 1963, 190-91).This class of cemetery is traditionally knownas Final-Phase, a term coined by Leeds in 1936to denote the last of the burials accompaniedby grave goods. A famous example of pairedburial grounds was discovered at Winnall, Win-chester (Meaney and Hawkes 1970) but thesurviving evidence is not expansive. The earlycemetery, Winnall I, was discovered duringthe construction of the railway and the onlysurviving evidence is three unstratified shieldbosses. Winnall II, the apparen t successor,was discovered 400 m to the north-east dur ingdevelopment in 1955; about half of the burialground was investigated unde r controlled con-ditions. The general scarcity of evidence inHampshire relating to this major real ignmentof mortuary customs made the publication ofthe Portway West site a priority.

The excavations yielded 16 graves, thoughpreviously in 1974 a single grave (17) had been

63

64 HAMPSHIRE FIELD CLUB AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY

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recovered by Andover and District Excava-tions Committee. The graves were excavatedin entirety, except for three interments (1, 4 and 6), of these, 11 contained skeletal material.Interestingly six did not produce any trace ofan interment, which is surprising as skeletalpreservation was generally good. It is thereforeunlikely that the body had disappeared entirely.

Perhaps, as suggested for two empty graves atPortway East, the pits served as a monument toindividuals who had died away from the settle-ment (Cook and Dacre 1985, 56).

It is certain that the graves were once partof a much larger cemetery: the cemetery plan(Fig. 2) shows three distinct clusters of burialsand the areas in between probably contained

STOODLEY: CHANGING BURIAL PRACTICE IN SEVENTH-CENTURY HAMPSHIRE 65

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66 HAMPSHIRE FIELD CLUU AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY

Table 1 Comparison of grave dimensions between cemeteries

Average length

Portway WestPortway EastWinnall IIBargates

167.48170.48188.76193.46

rage width Average depth

63.35 24.6967.02 65.6983.29 36.9670.52 32.07

many more , which were destroyed during thedevelopment of the area. With such a smallproport ion available, it is hard to say anythingconclusive about the development and internalorganisation of the cemetery, though a fewsuggestions can be made . The main clusterof graves is arranged in rough rows and thecemetery may have been organised on thisprinciple. The use of rows can be recognisedin the Hampshire cemeteries of Winnall II(Meaney and Hawkes 1970) and Bedhampton(unpubl ished) . Assuming that the excavatedgraves belong to the same cemetery, it wouldhave covered a minimum area of about 3,600m 2 - roughly twice the size of Portway Eastwhich contained 69 graves and 86 cremations.There does not appear to have been a standardsize of Final-Phase cemetery: it is estimatedthat about half of Winnall II was excavated andthis yielded 47 graves. However Harford Farm(Norfolk), a completely recovered example,produced just 45 graves (Penn 2000).

BURIAL PRACTICE (Figs. 3-4)

Grave Structure

Apart from one small oval-shaped grave, thepits are either rectangular or sub-rectangularshapes, the p redominan t forms of the period.Compared to Portway East (Table 1), the gravesexhibit roughly the same average length andwidth, though it is interesting that they weremuch shallower overall, a situation also notedin other contemporary cemeteries. This mayindicate that the protection of the body was no

longer so important . An explanation for thischange may be sought in the fact that gravegoods were no longer routinely placed withthe dead (see below); a deep layer of fill was nolonger necessary to deter robbery.

None of the graves produced evidence foran internal grave structure, such as a coffin,planking or stone packing, which is in starkcontrast to Portway East where 17% of thegraves produced such features. At Portway West,two penannula r ditches were excavated: onesur rounded grave 11 and a partial example wasfound in the nor thern part of the cemetery. Thelatterwas not excavated in its entirety, which mayexplain why a central grave was not found. Pen-annular ditches belong to a group of externalmortuary features that become common in theseventh century (Hogarth 1973), a time when a greater emphasis was placed on marking gravelocation. It is possible that low barrows wereraised from these ditches, though the break inthe circuit cautions against this. It is more likelythat they were quarries for an earthwork bank,with the bank and ditch demarcat ing a sacredzone around the grave. In this case, the gapwould probably have served as an ' en t rance 'into the area. They are not found in the ceme-teries of the fifth and sixth centuries, though atPortway East, two cremations were sur roundedby annular ditches (Cook and Dacre 1985, 59).

The complete example comprised a ditchwith a diameter 5.5 m and a dep th ofjust 0.15 m;both the examples have an eastern ' entrance. 'Local parallels are not numerous , though threedefinite penannula r ditches, each containinga central grave, have been excavated at CookStreet, Southampton (Garner 1994, 84; 2001,


177). It is possible that individuals associatedwith such structures were of a higher social rank:the presence of additional grave furniture, suchas coffins and the occurrence of grave goodsin several of the Southampton examples maysuppor t this notion. The example from PortwayWest produced evidence for a small necklet, inaddition to an unidentified iron object.

Deposition

All of the burials except the male in grave 17were extended supine (Fig. 5) . This body hadbeen placed on the right side but was twistedover to such an extent that the body was lyingalmost prone . Burial face-down is a minorityrite. In addition, this grave had been dug intothe ditch of the Bronze Age barrow. Is this merecoincidence or were both location and ritualmarking this man out as different?

Orientation

It was possible to establish the orientation of 11burials and the majority of these were placedwith their heads between 167° and 200°, i.e.within almost 30° of the South Pole. A similarrange is also found at Portway East where theditch running north-south along the easternside of the cemetery determined the al ignmentof many of the graves. At Portway West it ispossible that the graves may have been orien-tated on the western boundary of a potentialPortway West land-unit (Stoodley forthcoming), though it seems likely that the graves near tothe Bronze Age barrow had their directiondetermined by the curve of the barrow ditch.

Multiple burial

In common with all early and middle Anglo-Saxon cemeteries the majority of gravescontained single interments. The exceptionis grave 3, which is a genuine double burial oftwo (probable) adult males (Fig. 3), which isinteresting because combinations involvingtwo adults of the same sex are rare; it was muchmore common for an adult and a juvenile to bepaired (Stoodley 2002a, 112-14). Moreover, a

third individual was represented by fragmentsof clavicles and scapulae, which may suggest thatthis grave was originally occupied by a singleinhumat ion and was then reused by burials A and B, an act which almost totally destroyed theearlier, primary, interment .

Both the individuals were found to beheadless and this indicates that we are lookingat an even more complex burial rite. Theremains were in a poor condit ion and it wasnot possible to examine the cervical vertebrae,which might disclose the m a n n e r in which theact had taken place. It seems, however, thatdecapitation should be considered as a riteaccorded to these two. Overall, this is a highlyunusual and potentially significant discovery.

The grave goods

A total of 13 objects were recovered from sixgraves. Of these, all the objects from the TVACexcavations and the Pspear from the AAS exca-vations are now unfortunately lost. Burials withaccompanying objects were sparsely furnished;the exception was grave 6, which contained fiveobjects.

Iron work It was reported that a spearhead or a knifewas found with grave 8. This object cannot belocated and unfortunately was not drawn, buton the plan of the grave it is lying outside theupper right arm point ing to the head end of thegrave, a position consistent with its interpreta-tion as a spear. Knives are the most frequentlyoccurring objects and were recovered fromthree graves (6, 7 & 10). They are well repre-sented in cemeteries spanning the entire earlyAnglo-Saxon period, which must be a simplereflection of their usefulness in everyday life.All the knives were to the left of the pelvis, inall likelihood attached to a belt. Yet only grave6 contained a buckle and even this examplewas not found in the waist area. Nevertheless,a simple rope knotted at the waist would haveserved as an adequate substitute for a buckledleather strip. One of the knives (grave 6, Fig.6) has a curved back and cutting edge andcan be assigned to Bohner (1958) class A /

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STOODLEY: CHANGING Bl'RIAl. I'RA(: IK IE IN SKA I N 111-( ;l N i l RV I lAVll'SI IIRI. 71

Fig. 5 Grave 17

Evison (1987) type 1, a form popular through-out the early Anglo-Saxon period. The othertwo examples have straight cutting edges andcurved backs and thus belong to Bohner classC/ Evison type 4, a type fashionable in theseventh and eighth centuries (Fig. 7). It maybe significant that the three burials with kniveswere all in the same row in the southern half ofthe cemetery.

Grave 6 produced a fragmentary iron chainconsisting of ten links (Fig. 6). One link has a length of 29.8 mm, which gives a total lengthfor the chain of about 300 mm. At one end thechain terminates in a copper alloy ring whichhas a copper alloy double pronged objectadhering to it by corrosion. It also has onecopper alloy and one iron ring associated withit. The chain and rings were found together, justoutside the left femur. In all likelihood, thesewere associated with the buckle that was closeby (see below), forming part of a chatelainesuspended from the waist. Patches of miner-alised textile are preserved on the links of thechain, probably from the garment covering thelegs.

Copper alloy Two graves produced copper alloy buckles,though neither was associated with the waistarea. The example in grave 6 has just beendiscussed. In grave 8 the buckle was just outside

the right humerus and close to the probablespearhead, where it may have been attached toa strip of some description and used to fastena cloth around the spearhead. Evison hasmade a similar suggestion for pins that havebeen found in association with spearheads(Evison 1987, 82). In fact, mineralised textileremains were found on the rivet heads, perhapsfrom the wrapping around the spear. Geake's(1997, 79) study has discovered that althoughthe majority of small buckles did act as beltfasteners, the variety of positions in which theyhave been found demonstrates that they weremultipurpose, serving to fasten the straps ofknife scabbards, bags, etc.

Both buckles are similar and are of a relativelysimple design, consisting of a plain oval loopand tongue with a rectangular plate. They arenot identical, however, for the example fromgrave 6 (Fig. 6) has an iron tongue, while thebuckle from grave 8 (Fig. 7) has a bronze one.Parallels can easily be identified in contempo-rary cemeteries such as Snells Corner (Hants)(Knocker 1956) (graves 19 & 22) and Polhill(Kent) (Hawkes 1973). Small simple buckles ofthis form are easily the most popular in seventh-and eighth-century contexts (Geake 1997, 79).Until recently, it has been usual to view theseitems as type-fossils of the period, but as Geakepoints out, they are fairly common in late fifth-to sixth-century burials too (ibid.).

Grave 6 yielded a silver and garnet compositepin (Fig. 6). These items take one of two forms:either a pair of garnet-set pins linked by silverchains, for example graves 39 and 55 at Cham-berlains Barn, Leighton Buzzard (cemeteryII) (Hyslop 1963) and Winnall II (grave 8),or single pins without attachments for chains,such as this example, with parallels in Kent atSibertswold (grave 180) and Chartham Down(grave 44) (Meaney and Hawkes 1970, 37). Inthe Portway West example, two pieces of garnetlying on a gold foil were held in the head ofthe pin by a resin. The position of this pinwas not included on the plan of the burial,but Geake (1997, 66-67) states that the mostcommon place for a single pin to be found isthe neck or throat area, followed by the chestand upper body. The association with the neck

72 HAMPSHIRE FIELD CLUB AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY'

— wjm\ Grave 6

0

Nos: 1-5

50mm 50mm

No: 6

Fig. 6 Grave goods from grave 6

area suggests that in many cases a pin was usedto fasten an item of clothing, perhaps a cloak orheadscarf. Single pins may also have been usedto fasten shrouds. It is, however, very difficultto distinguish the function that a single pinserved (Geake 1997, 66-67) , although a singlepin in a cemetery, where grave goods werestill being buried, implies that clothed inier-ments were taking place and the pin was actingas a fastener. At Winnall II, the single pin ingrave 7 was recovered from the area between

the skull and the head of the grave, perhapsfastening a head-dress or acting as a hair pin(Meaney and Hawkes 1970, 37). In addition,the iron pin in grave 43 at Bedhampton wasin a similar position, while the bronze pin ingrave 6 at Snell's Corner was positioned at theneck. Despite these local parallels, single pinsare rare in Hampshire . In fact they are spreadthinly th roughout the country except in Kent,where they were relatively popular at this time(Geake 1997,67).

STOODLKY: CHANGING BURIAL PRACTICE IN SKVKNTH-CENTURY HAMPSHIRE 73

Grave 7 Grave 8

Grave 10

o

No: 2

Fig. 7 Grave goods from 7, H & l()

50mm 50mm

Nos: 1 and 3

Gloss beads Two polychrome glass beads were found on dieright hand side of die chest of burial 11. Thefirst is a dark glass bead with white inlay and thesecond is green glass with ropework inlay. Unfor-tunately, these beads arc now lost, but the latterappears to be of Brugmann's (2004,41) AnnularTwist type, which she has as a seventh- to eighth-century development. The position that thesewere found in indicates that they were part of a tiny necklace or necklet. By the seventh century,large necklaces are no longer deposited; in theirplace small necklets of beads, pendants and thinwire rings are found. The female of contem-porary date recovered from grave 4 at WestonCol ley, Micheldever, also produced several beadsand fragmentary wire rings (Fern and Stoodley2005). Necklets may originally have consisted ofother objects of a perishable nature that havelong since disappeared.

Bone object A bone comb was found in grave 6 (not illus-trated due to fragmentary stale) . The comb isof the usual double-sided composi te antler orbone variety, which was common th roughou tthe period. It consists of flat plates of boneinto which the teeth have been cut. Iron rivetswere then used to attach reinforcing platesto each side of the comb and the plates havebeen decorated with a double row of doLs.O n e of the combs from Porlway East (grave25) was decorated with a single row of r ingand dot motifs. The posit ioning of combs ingraves varies considerably and they cannotbe described as part of the dress; rather, theyappear to have been separate grave furnish-ings (Geake 1997, 63). The position of thecomb in grave 6, to the left of the lower chest,could be taken to suppor t this thesis; e i therit was placed on top of the body dur ing the

74 HAMPSHIRE FIELD CLUB AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOC1E1Y

burial, or thrown in when the grave was beingbackfilled.

DATING AND CHRONOLOGY

At the outset it must be stressed that there islittle conclusive dating evidence. There are nointercutt ing graves from which stratigraphicrelationships can be discerned. It is hard toassign absolute dates because most of the asso-ciated grave goods are not diagnostic. Althoughmost of the objects regularly occurred in Final-Phase cemeteries, they were also deposited inthe fifth and sixth centuries. If it is accepted,however, that Portway West was the successor toPortway East (StoatMey forthcoming), then it islogical to place the foundation of the formershortly after the latter closed and to envisage anunbroken sequence of burial from the earlier tothe later cemetery. Prior to the a b a n d o n m e n tof Portway East, practices normally associ-ated with the Final Phase may have begun totake hold (Sloodlcy forthcoming), which mightindicate that burial cont inued into the earlyseventh century. Portway West would then havebeen established shortly after, al though thereare no interments from the latter which can bedefinitely placed in the early seventh century.It could be countered that the general scarcityof grave goods at Portway West, compared tosome other later cemeteries, such as WinnallIT, is notable and may in fact indicate that thecemetery was established later in the seventhcentury. Recent work utilising the latestdevelopments in radiocarbon dating at theButtermarket cemetery, Ipswich, have shownthat an absence of grave goods cannot be inter-preted in chronological terms, however (Sculland Bayliss 1999, 86).

The only object to which a close date canbe assigned is the composite pin from grave 6.Similar examples have been found with objectsthat are dated with some confidence lo thesecond half of the seventh century (Meaney andHawkes 1970, 47-48). Apart from this pin, thereare no objects particularly diagnostic of theseventh century and it is the lack of burial wealthgenerally, which implies a post 600 AD dale.

In addition, penannular ditches are consid-ered to be a mortuary feature of the later seventhand eighth centuries (Hogarth 1973,118-119)and Garner has dated the cemetery at CookStreet, Southampton, which contained severalpenannular ditches, to the first half of theeighth century (Garner 2001, 181). Burial 2 atCook Street was enclosed by a penannular ditchand gave a calibrated radiocarbon age of AD658-762 and AD 642-777 at one and two sigmalevels of confidence respectively (Garner 2001,177). With regard to the chronology of PortwayWest, it is worth pointing out that grave 2 cutsthe partially excavated penannular ditch. Thiscould have happened shortly after the construc-tion of the penannular ditch, but this wouldimply that little respect was being shown to theoccupant of the central grave, if indeed thereever was one. Alternatively, the cemetery couldhave been in use for long enough to permitthe digging of a grave into an earlier mortuarystructure without causing concern. It is hard tobelieve that it would have been acceptable toallow graves to encroach over the ditch withinliving memory of the earlier burial. The factthai the two males in grave 3 appear to have re-used a pre-existing grave pit should be viewedin a similar light. The evidence seems to suggestthat the cemetery at Portway West was in usefor a considerable length of time, probably inexcess of a hundred years: 625-750 AD

DISCUSSION: CHANGING BURIAL RITESIN HAMPSHIRE

Miranda Hyslop (1963, 190-1) has compiled a list of criteria by which Final-Phase cemeteriescan be identified and Portway West, demon-strates many of these features, particularly thereduction of grave goods and cemetery relo-cation. Integral to the Final-Phase model isthe belief that the changes witnessed withinburial practices are directly associated with andresulting from the conversion to Christianityin the seventy century. Thus, a seemingly neatprogression in burial from pagan to Christiancould be charted both in terms of grave goodsand cemeteries. This model was applied in


Table 2 Comparison of graves with andwithout grave goods by cemetery

Number of Proportion burials without grave

goods

5th—6th century Portway East 71 24Alton 50 26Droxford 41 22Worthy Park 105 377th-8th century Portway West 17 71Bedhampton 88 78Winnall II 47 45Ports Down I 28 89Bargates 27 23Snells Corner 33 18

Hampshire to Winnall, Winchester (Meaneyand Hawkes 1970). The early cemetery, WinnallI, was succeeded by a new site 400 m to thenorth-east, which displays all the hall-marks of a Final-Phase cemetery. In the report, the authorsargued that relocation to a new cemetery tookplace unde r Christian influence and that thedecline in grave goods was a response to therecent conversion of the area (Meaney andHawkes 1970, 54).

More recentiy scholars have shied away froma purely religious explanation. It has beenpointed out that the documentary sources forthe conversion and the decline of the practicedo not tally; in addition not a single canonor law forbids the practice (for general viewssee Boddington 1990, 187-190; Morris 1983,53-62) . In opposition to these views, Shepherd(1979) concentrated on economic reasons forthe decline of the accompanied rite, while Bod-dington (1990) argued that a mixture of social,economic and landscape factors could beresponsible. The evidence from Portway clearly

shows that the change that occurred in bothcemetery location and mortuary customs in theseventh century is complex and multi-faceted.The former of these topics has been discussedin detail by the author elsewhere (Stoodleyforthcoming); the latter will be considered hereand will involve evaluating the evidence againstthe backdrop of seventh-century Hampshire .

O n e of the most notable and widely statedchanges in the seventh century is the declinein the number of grave goods placed with thedeceased. Table 2 shows that in most of Hamp-shire's Final-Phase cemeteries, the numberof unaccompanied burials has significantlyincreased. Those that are still accompaniedgenerally have only knives and buckles. AtPortway West, grave goods accompanied sixof the burials. But the only individual interredwith a range of objects is in grave 6. This womanhad five items, while the o ther individuals wereinterred with just one or two objects, such as a knife.

Rather than there being a uniform declinein grave furnishing, it is possible that thereis not a simple progression from accompa-nied burial to unaccompanied ; there may bea short-lived and del iberate phase of buriala round the early seventh century, which ischaracterised by a lack of burial wealth a n d /or diagnostic grave goods, which would resultin invisibility. Geake (2002, 146) has identi-fied a lacunae in burial in the early seventhcentury, which she suggests may have resultedfrom a crisis leading to a general indecisionover how to go about in ter r ing people andwhich was manifested in an unaccompan iedand consequently difficult to identify rite. O n eimplication of this is that poorly furnished orunaccompan ied burials in Final-Phase cem-eteries are being dated too late; these are themissing early seventh-century in terments andare no t to be treated as con temporary withthose of the later seventh century. They couldbe earlier, which would lend suppor t to thenot ion that the two Portway sites succeededeach o ther without a break.

In addition to the fluctuating nature of thegrave good rite, there is differential t rea tmentof males and females. Gender-specific


behaviour is a major characteristic of the burialrite in the migration period, with weaponsand jewellery restricted to males and femalesrespectively (Stoodley 1999), but dur ing theseventh century significant modification takesplace. Foreign influences and insular devel-opments lead to profound changes in thefurnishing of the female body, characterisedby the introduction of new types of jewelleryand costume (Geake 1997, 120). The result is,that in contrast to the sixth century, when clearregional differences were observed in costume,a similar fashion was now found th roughoutthe country. On the surface Hampshire is nodifferent: examples are found at Portway West(grave 6), Winnall II (especially graves 7, 8 and10), Lower Brook Street, Winchester, (Biddle1975), Weston Colley (grave 4) and Snells'Corner grave 6. Hampshire obviously was noti m m u n e to these fashions, but the tiny numbersof these burials in any one cemetery is intrigu-ing, especially when compared to a region likeKent. The general lack of evidence for femalecostume indicates that in this area at leastHampshire had not fully embraced these newcultural mores. Of course, future discoveriesmay contradict this assertion, but it is possiblethat Hampshire stands in opposition to thewidespread consistency observed in femaleinterments across the country in the seventh-century, which is usually taken to indicate thatsome sense of a 'nat ional ' identity was beingsymbolised via higher-status females. Attentionhas been drawn to differences in seventh-century material culture, particularly styles ofart, which may ' represent an explicitly politicalassertion of difference in identity, articulated interms of allegiance to rival networks' (Hines,1999, 231). Was Hampshire more resilient tochanges in female costume? This might havebeen the case if the influences were flowingout of a region (s) which was deemed a politicalor military threat. It should not be forgottenthat dur ing the seventh century, Hampshirewas a hotly contested region and was put underincreasing pressure by neighbour ing kingdoms(Yorke 1989).

The situation regarding the weapon-burialrite is ra ther more complex. On the basis of

community cemeteries such as Winnall II,Bedhampton and Portway West, which haveproduced only one possible weapon betweenthem, it would seem that the rite came to a sudden end. The weapon-burial rite did notdisappear overnight, however; weaponry wasstill being deposited in the wealthy burials ofthe seventh century, e.g. Oliver's Battery, Win-chester (Andrews 1932), and it seems that thenewly emerged elite of the seventh centuryhad appropria ted this as a means to symbolisetheir rank. Yet the evidence from Hampshireindicates that the situation may have been evenmore complex than this. Research has discov-ered that individuals were still being interredwith weapons in cemeteries that were nei thercommunity burial grounds , nor the site ofelite burials (Stoodley 1999), e.g. Ports DownI, (Corney et al, 1969), Snells Corner andBargates (now in East Dorset) (Jarvis 1983), allof which have weapon burials in conjunctionwith a p redominance of male burials. Moreover,a recent excavation in a seventh- to early-eighthcemetery at Southampton (Hamwic) hasproduced similar findings (Stoodley 2002b). A new type of site can be recognised which hasa distinctively masculine and martial character.These would not normally be considered high-status sites, but are sufficiently different tothe community cemeteries to be treated as a separate category. Thus, the change in burialpractice is not only about a reduction in gravegoods but also involves the fragmentation ofonce associated practices into separate sites.This is a very different situation to the earlyAnglo-Saxon period where only communitycemeteries were used. Given this complexity,it is much harder to regard Christianity as thesole driving force behind the change.

Also indicative of seventh-century mortuarycustom is a much greater concern with thestructure of the grave. Previously, the gravecould have been embellished with coffins andstone linings: for example, structures thatafforded the occupant some protection, butwere invisible from the surface. In the seventhcentury a much greater preoccupation withexternal marking is observed: marker posts,barrows and penannular and annular ditches


could be employed. For example, the burialgrounds of Bargates, Portway West and severalof the Hamwic cemeteries have producedpenannula r ditches. This is important and dem-onstrates that the changes found in portablematerial culture were not the only ones toaffect the burial rite. Had this method of displaytaken over the role that the grave goods hadpreviously occupied? Moreover, had the elitepractice of marking the grave with externalfeatures, seen earlier on in the seventh century,(such as Taplow in Buckinghamshire and datedto the 620's AD), now filtered down to affectthe burial mores of o ther social groups, albeitin keeping with their more lowly position, lessobtrusive monument s were used?

Another impor tant feature of the burialarchaeology is the p h e n o m e n o n of deviantburials. While some individuals were havingtheir last resting-places marked for posterity,others experienced a different kind oftreatment: unusual rites that have negative con-notations and are occasionally associated withevidence of mal t reatment of the individual.The distinguishing features of these burials are:p rone burial, decapitation and amputat ion oflimbs, the binding of hands and feet and ori-entation with the head to the nor th or east, i.e.minority rites indicating that these individualswere viewed as considerably different to the restof society. These practices are found in the fifthand sixth centuries, but dur ing the seventh, inHampshire at least, increase in frequency.

The double burial of two headless males fromgrave 3 is a pr ime example. Decapitation is a minority rite; few individuals in any cemeteryare treated in this way and many burial groundsdo not produce examples (Wilson 1992, 9 2 -95). Decapitation takes two forms: the headis missing entirely or it is lying out of positionelsewhere in the grave (Wilson 1992, 93).The latter has its origins in the Roman period(for example, seven burials at the late Romancemetery of Lankhills, Winchester, had beendecapitated (Clarke 1979, 372)) and its occur-rence in early Anglo-Saxon cemeteries seemsto indicate survival of the rite. The formerprobably represents a different rite, which inthe Anglo-Saxon period seems to have had a

strong association with adult males and shouldbe counted as a deviant practice.

Other cases, which demonstra te theseattitudes, have been excavated in the County.At Winnall II, burials 23 and 11 were decapi-tated (the latter was orientated to the east),while 28, 35 and 46 were disfigured. At PortsDown II, grave 2 belonged to a young adultwho had been decapitated. In this case themandible showed cuts which may suggest thatthe individual had been alive when the act wascarried out (Bradley and Lewis 1969, 41).

Andrew Reynolds (1997, 37) has argued thatsuch practices in the early period representthe burial of wrongdoers within communityburial grounds. At this time there are noexamples of cemeteries given over entirely towrongdoers, but unde r the influence of Chris-tianity and the growth of kingship, such sites,known as execution cemeteries and apparentlyfor non-Christians, are established from theseventh century. The interments again displayevidence of beheading, amputat ion, carelessburial etc. Reynold's model draws heavily onthe evidence from the Winchester area, inparticular Winnall II and Old Dairy Cottage,Harestock; the community burial g round witha small number of deviant burials (Winnall), issucceeded at Harestock by a formal executioncemetery (Reynolds 1997, 37). There mayhave been a gap between the two, as Winnallseems to have closed in the mid eighth centuryand two sets of radiocarbon dates from OldDairy Cottage centre on the ninth and tenthcenturies AD (Cherryson pers. comm.). Thelatter is on the boundary between Chilcombhundred and the estate at Easton, an associa-tion evidenced th roughout Hampshire , whichhas led Reynolds to suggest that wrongdoerswere taken to the edges of the territories to beexecuted and buried (Reynolds 1997, 37).

Portway West cemetery is close to the parishboundary with Penton Mewsey, which mightfossilise the earlier boundary of a Saxon landunit (Russel 1985). Because a separate executionsite did not exist at this time, it could be claimedthat towards the end of its life, Portway West'sfunction changed and it was used to bur)'several individuals accused of and punished


for wrongdoings. It is just possible that Portwaydemonstrates, in part, the evolution of practicesassociated with the development of the judicialsystem. A change in function could also explainboth the proposed longevity of Portway West andthe lack of respect shown to the earlier occupantin grave 3. If the dating of Portway West is correctit may be placed before the establishment of thecemetery at Old Dairy Cottage. Portway Westlacks, however, the final component; it did notdevelop into a proper late Saxon executioncemetery. Perhaps a formal, and as yet undiscov-ered, site was established close by.

CONCLUSION

The detailed study of a partially exploredcemetery has provided evidence for a rangeof practices, demons t radng that burial dur ingthe seventh century in Hampshire was consid-erably more varied than traditionally believed.The significant and wide-ranging changes topractice at Portway; corroborated by examiningother contemporary Hampshire sites, encour-ages a much broader unders tanding of burialduring this period; a break from the intellec-tual straightjacket that the Final-Phase modelimposes. In particular, this case study has throwninto sharp focus o ther fascinating aspects ofthe mortuary rite that the strong emphasis pre-viously accorded to the topic of the declininggrave goods had obscured. It is hard to find an explanation for these changes, al though itseems probable that one general explanation

Andrews, W J 1932 The Winchester Anglo-Saxonbowl and bowl burial, Proc Hampshire Fid Club Archaeol Soc 12.1 11-19

Biddle, M 1975 Excavations at Winchester 1971,tenth and final interim report: part II,Anliq J 55 295-337.

Boddington, A 1990 Models of burial, settlementand worship: the final phase reviewed, inSouthworth E (ed.), Anglo-Saxon Cem-eteries: a reappraisal, Stroud, 177-199.

cannot take of all these developments intoaccount. This was a time when fundamentalchanges to the structure of society were takingplace, such as the establishment of kingdoms,the reintroduction of Christianity and a devel-oping system of law and order to name jus t a few. It is against this varied cultural, politicaland social backdrop that the changing funerarypractices should be interpreted. The trans-formation may result from a combination ofpressures; the traditional religious explanationmay have been only one of the reasons and onethat may not have been relevant for all commu-nities. In fact, as the Portway case-study urges,each case should be studied in isolation beforecollating the evidence, in order to examine forany common or regional pat terning. It is hopedthat other, similar, studies will be under taken ,against which Hampshire can be evaluated andwhich might reveal the presence of hi thertounsuspected complexity.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I should like to express my gratitude to HampshireCount)' Council and Wessex Archaeology for theirassistance with the material and documentary archivesand David Taylor and Rob Read for preparing theillustrations. Thanks are extended to Annia Cherrysonfor making the Old Dairy Cottage radiocarbon datesavailable. Finally, I am grateful to Prof Tim Championfor information about the excavation of the Iron Agesite at Portway West and Dr Andrew Reynolds forhis valuable comments on an earlier version of thispaper.

Bohner, K 1958 Die Frankischen Altertumer des Trierer Landes, Berlin, GDV B, 1.

Bradley, R& Lewis, E 1969 Excavations at the GeorgeInn, Portsdown, Proc Hampshire Fid Club ArchaeolSoc25 (1968) 27-50.

Brugmann, B 2004 Glass Beads from early Anglo-Saxon Craves, Oxford.

Clarke, G 1979 Winchester Studies 3, Pre-Roman and Roman Winchester Part 11 - The Roman Cemetery at Lankhills, Oxford.

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