Archaeologists in England have unearthed medieval bling – an elaborate silver cross with human faces and a gold necklace with semi-precious stones and Roman coin pendants – in the grave of what may have been an early female Christian leader, such as an abbess or possibly even a queen.
The team made the discovery while breaking ground on a housing development in Northamptonshire, England. Dating from 630 to 670 AD, the items appear to be part of a medieval burial for an elite woman.
The necklace was cleaned and reconstructed by conservators from the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA). Thirty different pendants and beads give the jewellery a surprisingly modern look, and the centrepiece is a cross of garnets set in gold. The large rectangular pendant, however, appears to have originally been part of a hinged clasp and then reused, according to MOLA specialists.
Little else remains from the burial. A few fragments of tooth enamel are all that remains of the woman’s skeleton, but planned work by MOLA specialists will include residue analysis that may reveal how the decorated pots were used. Another burial was found nearby, but it was undated and contained no high-status artefacts. The archaeologists do not expect to find anything else at the site.
“This find is truly a once-in-a-lifetime discovery,” said Simon Mortimer, an archaeological consultant with RPS, a company that manages development projects, in a statement.
