[Regia-NA] FW: AS burials at Cherry Hinton

[Nicholson, Andrew]

On Mon, 12 Aug 2002 21:33:26 +0100, Deborah Shepherd <dshepherd@CSBSJU.EDU>
wrote:

>Is there anyone on the list who knows about the excavation of a reputed
>Anglo-Saxon Christian cemetery at Cherry Hinton, apparently by the
>Hertfordshire Archaeological Trust? I've read two news articles about it
>that raise more questions for me than they answer. (The better-seeming
>article is at http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/archaeology/ser3pro5_1.shtml). I
>am intrigued by the hypothesis that the burials (ca. 800 burials?)
>represent an early Christian community serviced by a church that had been
>abandoned in the 12th century in favor of a different church on a manor
>known by the same name. I'd at least like to know if that is a correct
>assessment of the current professional opinion. And isn't this a rather
>large number of burials?
>
>Thank you.
>Deborah Shepherd


The cemetery at Cherry Hinton is indeed broadly Saxon (perhaps Middle Saxon
to Saxo-Norman).  There were some 660 burials, many truncated by later
interments (in itself suggesting a long span of use), surrounding a timber
structure interpreted as a small church.  The structure had a series of
infant or child burials under the eaves - a practice associated with Saxon
churches elsewhere (apparently the water running off the eaves of the
church was a substitute for the baptism they had not received; perhaps a
specialist could enlighten us on the theology?).  Fragments of a stone
cross were recovered from a nearby pit.

One radiocarbon date was taken for the Meet the Ancestors programme but
until a full dating programme is undertaken (and all the intercutting
suggests there is great potential for Bayesian analysis), the chronology is
a bit of a guess.  There were a few 'pillow stones' of Late Saxon type.
The suggestion of a Roman date (see earlier postings) was made after the
evaluation (which shows how enlightening trial trenches can be ...) although
I recall we said the burials could be Saxon too!  We were surprised to find
such a large, previously unrecorded cemetery and church site but it appears
that the present church at Cherry Hinton may have been built on a new site
in c 1200, associated with the amalgamation of two local manors.

I don't know what stage the analysis is at now but there's a link to the
HAT website on the Britarch list of contractors, if you wish to contact
them.

Hope this helps,
Jonathan