A 7th-century cemetery was discovered in Updown, Kent, United Kingdom, in the 1970s. It was excavated by Sonia Chadwick Hawkes and Brian Philp in advance of development. Part of the cemetery is protected as a scheduled monument, and its full extent may encompass around 300 graves. 78 of the graves have been excavated.
Location
The Kingdom of Kent.
There are four early medieval burial sites in and around Eastry:[1]
Eastry I – Buttsole cemetery to the east of Eastry, with activity focused on the 6th century; discovered in 1792
Eastry II – a single burial at Eastry House; discovered in 1970
Eastry III – Updown cemetery with 78 graves excavated; discovered in 1973
Eastry IV – four burials at Eastry Mill; discovered in 1969
The cemetery now known as Updown early medieval cemetery (Eastry III) may have been established as a replacement for Buttsole cemetery.[1]
Updown early medieval cemetery is located in Sangrado's Wood, a kite-shaped field south of Eastry in Kent. The area used to be covered by woodland.[2] According to archaeologist Martin Welch, "Eastry was an important regional centre throughout the Anglo-Saxon period".[3] Eastry developed as a royal vill in the early medieval period, and archaeologist Sonia Chadwick Hawkes suggested that the presence of a cemetery indicates that Eastry was an important royal residence in the Kingdom of Kent, possibly with an associated township.[4]
The cemetery was established close to a Roman road connecting Richborough Roman fort and the Roman fort at Dover;[2] this is in common with most early medieval cemeteries in Kent – 85% were built within 1.2 km (0.75 mi) of a Roman road.[5]
Cemetery features
The field known as Sangrado's Wood, south of the excavated area of Updown early medieval cemetery
The cemetery occupies an area roughly 150 by 80 m (490 by 260 ft) and has an estimated 300 burials. Across two excavation campaigns in 1976 and 1989, 78 graves were investigated.[6] Evidence of wooden coffin-like features were found in 27 graves.[7] Nineteen penannular ditches (circular ditches with a segment missing so the circle does not close) were discovered through excavation, each one surrounding at least one burial.[8] The material from the ditches when they were dug was likely used to create an earthwork feature in the enclosed area, possibly a low mound. Burials marked in this way may have indicated the burials were more important than those without a ditch and earthwork.[9]
The graves are exclusively inhumations and aligned east-west.[7] In Welch's opinion, the "1976 and 1989 cemetery sample represents a community that is comfortably off, though not outstandingly wealthy".[10] With around a quarter of the site excavated, the date range during which the site was used is uncertain, and could extend into the 6th or 8th centuries.[2] No buildings or associated settlement have been found in association with the cemetery.[1]
Discovery and excavation
The part of the cemetery lying in the path of the planned Eastry Bypass was excavated in 1989.
The site was discovered in 1973 through the use of aerial photography.[11]Kenneth St Joseph suggested that the cluster of rectangular features around 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) long and roughly aligned east to west was likely to be a cemetery.[12] The site was designated a scheduled monument in 1975.[13]
Three years after the cemetery was discovered, part of the site was at risk due to plans to lay a pipeline through the area. The landowners commissioned a rescue excavation to record archaeology which may be affected; the dig was led by Sonia Chadwick Hawkes and funded by the Southern Water Board, the Kent Archaeological Society, and the landowners.[14] The work involved excavating 36 graves and established the cemetery extended further than identified through aerial photographs. The burials were dated to the 7th century.[15]
In 1989, proposals for a new bypass passing through Eastry led to further rescue excavations. Led by Brian Philp, the Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit dug in September and October. They excavated along the route of the proposed bypass, partly intersecting with the area excavated by Hawkes in 1976, uncovering 41 new graves.[16]
While no buildings or settlement have been discovered associated with the cemetery, Hawkes hypothesised that Eastry Court may be on the site of a settlement contemporary with Updown cemetery. Excavations by Christopher Arnold in 1980 and Time Team in 2005 in Eastry did not find evidence of a settlement.[1]
The results from a project profiling the genomes from 460 individuals from medieval north-west Europe were published in 2022, including a sample of five individuals from Updown cemetery. The analysis found that "the individuals who we analysed from eastern England derived up to 76% of their ancestry from the continental North Sea zone", and in early medieval England there was "complex, regionally contingent migration with partial integration that was probably dependent on the fortunes of specific families and their individual members".[17]
Grave 47 from the 1989 excavation contained the remains of a girl aged around 10 or 11 years.[18] The individual has become known as 'Updown girl' in scholarship and media reports after the term was used in a special issue of Current Archaeology.[19] The analysis of her DNA indicated that she had mixed European and West African ancestry. She had a West African male ancestor who lived in the 6th century. The investigating team suggested that "the movement of the Updown girl's ancestors was presumably linked to ... Late Antique trading routes".[18] The research also showed that Updown girl was buried close to relatives, possibly great aunts, who had a largely Continental Northern European ancestry. The similarity of burial between Updown girl and her nearby female relatives suggests that Updown girl's ancestry did not impact how society viewed her, and "their funerary parties had intended to highlight a shared regional identity."[18]
Welch, Martin (2007). "Anglo-Saxon Kent". In John H. Williams (ed.). The Archaeology of Kent to AD 800. Woodbridge: Boydell Press and Kent County Council. pp. 187–248. ISBN9780851155807.
