In previous chapters we began an exploration of the archaeology representing an early ‘Anglo-Saxon’ or perhaps more accurately ‘Anglo-British’ community which lived along the Warwickshire & Worcestershire Avon valley in the 5-7th centuries, in a chain of settlements along a westward flowing river in an area – the West Midlands – generally regarded as the western frontier of ‘Anglo-Saxon’ activity. This community provides perhaps the perfect case-study for getting to grips with the complexities of late antiquity in Britain, with themes of both continuity and change, and the interplay and transformation of identities after Roman withdrawal, leading ultimately to the emergence of coherent Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

In part 2 (here) we explored the cemetery at Wasperton – a rare case of a community cemetery in continuous use from the Roman to early medieval period – and presented a costume reconstruction based on one 6th century woman’s burial, with a particularly diverse array of jewellery and textiles which provide a compelling image of the interaction of different influences and fashions adopted by the folk who lived here at a ‘crossroads’ between cultures.

Although there are many early medieval cemeteries in this zone – some exhibiting a proportionally more impressive array of grave-goods – Wasperton is one of very few to have been excavated relatively recently and subject to modern analysis. Unlike with other cemeteries in the valley (many excavated in the early 20th century) the work at Wasperton sheds light on phases of burial tradition, bioarchaeology, and the invaluable insights into textiles and costume locked within the mineralised remains on the backs of metal items – the ‘mud’ which, in the earlier days of cemetery excavation would’ve been ignored and scrubbed away. Our choice of a high-status woman’s burial as a case-study is partly justified by the fact that it is these burials, with their impressive copper-alloy jewellery on which textile remains can be preserved, which provide the richest seam of information for costume more broadly. Lower-status burials, or burials from phases in which such elaborate grave-goods were not included, unfortunately yield little to no information with which costumes can be reconstructed, and it is for this reason that costume presentations skew towards high status, and towards phases with well-furnished burials.

Information concerning mens costume is also proportionally scarcer within these cemeteries, with mens dress including fewer metal items on which textiles can be preserved (Walton-Rogers, 2007). Setting aside the famous but highly atypical princely burials of the late 6th to 7th centuries, masculine grave-goods assemblages from furnished burials within cemeteries tend to have (and to some extent are defined by) an absence of anything which could be described as jewellery: the only common metal dress-item being a buckle at the waist, which even in putatively ‘high status’ / well-furnished burials can often be small, utilitarian and plain. The extremely limited textile remains tend to come from these buckles, only found at the waist, providing little evidence directly representing the form and construction of garments without reference to more complete examples of clothing from adjacent periods and cultures. Well-furnished male burials instead tend to stand out through the inclusion of non-costume-related objects – particularly weapons and shields – though represented primarily by degraded iron remains, these still typically appear superficially less impressive than the equivalent feminine assemblages. The true impressiveness of such items can only be revealed through deeper analysis (particularly via radiography and metallography) and visualised by reconstruction.
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Complimenting the costume reconstruction already presented based on Wasperton G24, here we present the results of team member Marc Smith’s project to represent another of the 242 burials from the same cemetery: grave 91. 

​Though widely regarded as poor in early Anglo-Saxon (5-7th century) cemetery material, the West Midlands is home to some spectacular cemetery finds, most of which, excavated prior to modern archaeology and not on public display, remain obscure even to specialists.

Many of these finds originate from a chain of community burial sites along the river Avon in the south Midlands (Warwickshire & Worcestershire). Situated between the territory of what would later emerge as the kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex, the people buried here in the 5-6th century belonged to neither, yet are enmeshed in the origins of both. This community was also sandwiched between conclusively 'Anglian' territory and the Welsh Kingdoms, so might better be termed 'Anglo-British' than 'Anglo-Saxon', with clear signs of local Romano-British continuity intermingling with migration and change. Living in a 'transport triangle' criss-crossed by Roman-roads and navigable rivers, this community arguably provides the perfect case-study for engaging with the complexity of ethnogenesis / identity formation, and transformation, from late antiquity into the early medieval period in lowland Britain. 
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In recent years we have undertaken a long-running project to re-create some of these treasures, to raise awareness of these amazing finds hitherto not on public display, and in particular, to reconstruct the image of a series of individuals from this 6th century community, based on the archaeology of specific burials, providing an opportunity to come 'face-to-face' with the folk who lived in the heart of what is now England, at the crossroads of kingdoms, 1500 years ago.

These reconstructions were unveiled at a series of public events at Sutton Hoo (National Trust) in summer 2023.

Compared to the famous shield from Sutton Hoo Mound 1, the shields from the other treasure-filled princely Anglo-Saxon burials lack ostentatious decorative fittings. In the first chapter (link) we discussed the striking similarity of these shields, which appeared to be high-performance gear for warrior princes, optimised for agility rather than ostentation. In the second chapter (link) we reported on our project to produce an authentic replica of such a shield, and explore just how light weight they could have been. 

Aside from the magnificently decorated, heavy shield from Sutton Hoo Mound 1, remains of early Anglo-Saxon shields suggest they were typically relatively plain. Curiously the shields from the other treasure-filled princely burials – Taplow, Broomfield, Prittlewell, Sutton Hoo Mound 17 and others appear especially so, not befitting the status of these burials, with little in the way of decorative fittings, and very minimal, unusually simplified bosses. 
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In the previous chapter (link) we revealed that (in contrast to the wide variability of shields from contemporary graves) the late 6th century princely burial shields were all practically identical, with suites of four simple disc mounts on the board, simple 1a(i) iron grip reinforcers, and innovative SB-4b / Dickinson’s Type 6 shield bosses – the smallest and lightest of all Anglo-Saxon bosses. In a number of these cases the boards were also made of ultra-light-weight willow. This is the lightest combination of fittings possible, among those evidenced from early Anglo-Saxon graves.   We have therefore argued that the princely shields represent a class of very carefully made, high-performance versions of the standard Anglo-Saxon shield, with weight-reduction prioritised over ostentation.
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In 2021 we undertook a project to reconstruct such a shield – to explore precisely how light such a shield could be for a given diameter, and to explore methods consistent with archaeological clues which might have been employed to embellish such shields, commensurate with the status of their owners, without compromising their performance.  The result would provide a theoretical minimum weight for an early Anglo-Saxon shield of practical size, and represent our tenth and most ‘authentic’ shield reproduction to date.