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Warrior Queen Is Unearthed (1,500 Years Old - Anglo-Saxon)
Linconshire Echo ^
| 9-20-2003
Posted on 09/20/2003 4:51:38 PM PDT by blam
WARRIOR QUEEN IS UNEARTHED
10:30 - 20 September 2003
A 1,500-year-old Anglo-Saxon "warrior queen" has been found buried just two feet under the surface of a county field.
Lincolnshire's own 6ft tall "Boadicea" has been described as one of the best Anglo-Saxon finds of its kind in the county.
She was still holding her shield and had a dagger at her side when she was found. On either side of her at the site just outside Lincoln were the remains of a man and a woman who were possibly her attendants.
The woman was wearing an amber necklace and had her feet bound together with rope. The male companion was buried with his hand over a pot.
The exceptional discovery was originally made by a man with a metal detector.
Mystery surrounds the identity of the 6ft tall warrior queen.
Her ancient Briton predecessor Boadicea led a rebellion against the Romans in 61AD. After the Romans left England in 410AD tribal conflict was rife and the mystery queen might have fallen victim to this.
All the bones and artefacts discovered at the scene are now being examined by independent conservator Wessex Archaeology and at a later date will be brought back to the City and County Museum in Friars Lane.
Lincolnshire County Council archaeologist Adam Daubney said that there was an enormous sense of excitement when the bodies were unearthed.
"Any discovery from Anglo-Saxon times is important for Lincolnshire because this era of history is not as well documented as other periods," he said.
"In other parts of Lincolnshire we have found two large Saxon burial sites at Loveden Hill and Ruskington.
"But one of the interesting things about this is that a total of four shields have been found.
"The shield would have been originally made from wood but the boss - which held the handle in place - was made of iron and this has survived."
The Channel Four television programme Time Team carried out the excavation and the programme is due to be broadcast next spring.
The owner of the land on which the burial site was discovered asked not to be named to avoid the venue's location becoming common knowledge.
He said: "Two years ago a discovery of a brooch was made on the site which was unmistakably Anglo-Saxon. It was incredibly exciting to discover the burial site."
Councillor Marianne Overton, a member of Navenby Archaeology Group which assisted Time Team with the excavation, helped out at the three-day dig which took place between Tuesday and Thursday last week.
"What struck me was that there are possibly a great many more sites like this across the county," she said.
"When you actually see the venue and are able to imagine what life would have been like then you get a strong sense of the history of the county in which we live."
TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: anglosaxon; godsgravesglyphs; lincolnshire; middleages; queen; renaissance; unearthed; warrior
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To: DaGman; Xenalyte
Ping
21
posted on
09/20/2003 5:30:24 PM PDT
by
BenLurkin
(Socialism is slavery)
To: Diogenesis
"The second woman had the amber beads around her neck and her feet were tied with a rope . . . and the man had his hand over a pot which had deliberately been made with holes in it so that it would never be used again."Something tells me that the people who buried these folks were not a very nice bunch.
22
posted on
09/20/2003 5:34:08 PM PDT
by
BenLurkin
(Socialism is slavery)
To: blam
Bodacious find. G-9, from here.
23
posted on
09/20/2003 5:40:12 PM PDT
by
txhurl
(When oh when will my arrowhead hunting addiction abandon ME!?!?!)
To: Darkchylde
To: blam
You know, there was an English queen who was over six feet and homely.. never married. I can't remember who it was. Anybody?
25
posted on
09/20/2003 5:51:03 PM PDT
by
Burn24
To: blam
Could you ping me to your neat finds? Thanks!
26
posted on
09/20/2003 5:55:27 PM PDT
by
annyokie
(One good thing about being wrong is the joy it brings to others.)
To: Servant of the 9
Nah, too tall.
I'm probably related to a
race of short weird people...
To: blam
"The bones of the female warrior suggested she was six feet tall." Xena!!! We found ya!
28
posted on
09/20/2003 6:04:43 PM PDT
by
Ciexyz
To: blam
Wonderful read. Thank you Blam.
The theorizing is amusing.
The truth is likely more amazing.
29
posted on
09/20/2003 6:06:48 PM PDT
by
Spirited
To: annyokie; Clara Lou; farmfriend
FReeper 'farmfriend' does the ping list for these posts. I've alerted her.
30
posted on
09/20/2003 6:11:58 PM PDT
by
blam
To: blam
Pre-Christian Celtic warrior leader Boadicea killed many Roman Britons in revenge for their ravage
of her people. Yet this statue commemorating her is a prominent feature in London today.
|
To: blam
Cool. Put me on your ping list please.
32
posted on
09/20/2003 6:16:03 PM PDT
by
Sacajaweau
(God Bless Our Troops!!)
To: blam
Rofl...beat me too it.
To: Diogenesis
"You know, if I were a single man, I might ask that mummy out," Clinton said. "That's a good-looking mummy." He always reverts to type [male on the prowl], doesn't he?
34
posted on
09/20/2003 6:18:28 PM PDT
by
syriacus
(Prankin' Al Franken....says he didn't lie to Ashcroft. His letter was only a prank. A Frankenprank?)
To: blam
After watching a special on one of the cable channels on "The Search for the historical King Arthur", I bought two books at amazon.com: "In Search of the Dark Ages (of Britain)" by Michael Wood, a British historian. First chapter is "Boadicea." Wood also wrote "In Search of England" which devotes coverage to the Saxon era.
Second book was "The Holy Kingdom" by Adrian Gilbert in which he extensively covers the same time frame, incl. Boadicea. He postulates that King Arthur's home base was Wales, not Somerset, as is commonly assumed.
35
posted on
09/20/2003 6:20:25 PM PDT
by
Ciexyz
To: blam
But one thing seems certain. By virtue of the fact that she was buried with a shield and dagger it seems probable that she was a high ranking member of society. And she was almost certainly involved in conflict.
Maybe she was an early Joan of Arc.
36
posted on
09/20/2003 6:24:01 PM PDT
by
syriacus
(Prankin' Al Franken....says he didn't lie to Ashcroft. His letter was only a prank. A Frankenprank?)
To: blam
Let's think about this.
She was the queen.
She was over 6 feet tall.
She had a sword and dagger and presumably did not carry them just to 'accessorize'. She knew what to do with them.
Now imagine it's 410AD. The queen is having a PMS kind of day.
RUN FOR DEAR LIFE!
37
posted on
09/20/2003 6:26:10 PM PDT
by
LibKill
(Father Darwin has a sense of humor but no mercy whatsoever.)
To: blam
Wow, interesting find. They never mention how tall the other two were. I wonder if six feet was very unusual, or if the Anglo Saxons were taller people.
38
posted on
09/20/2003 6:27:10 PM PDT
by
Eva
To: Diogenesis
Dammit!!! How'd you get that 'first thing in the morning' pic of me??? Did you somehow manage to install a secret cam in my medicine cabinet??? .
To: blam
The part about this that just doesn't make sense to me is that her feet were tied together, though she was buried with honor (i.e., with the shield and dagger). Wonder why it seems assumed that she was a queen? Could she have been a human sacrifice? Why would a ruler's subjects bury her with her feet tied together? If she was a queen (or at least a notable warrior), perhaps she was interred by enemies who respected her enough to bury her with the weapons and amber beads?
40
posted on
09/20/2003 6:38:59 PM PDT
by
solzhenitsyn
("Live Not By Lies")
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