Sword Sunday #42 - a metal detectorist finds a 5th century Anglo-Saxon giant.

In 2018, a the  Maidenhead Search Society (A metal detection club in southern England) managed to beep their way onto an unusual find for the area. Sue and Mick Washington, two member, had previously gotten strong signals there that their high-end metal detectors hinted might be iron, but circumstances had not favored a more in-depth investigation. The third visit, however, worked in their favor, and they started digging. Soon after breaking ground, they found metal bowels and pots that were well over a millennium old, telling them that this would not be any normal day in the field. 

The find, which was turned over to Portable Antiquities Scheme  Officer for Buckinghamshire turned out to be more than just a small collection of rare artifacts. Headed up by archaeology department at the University of Reading, the site was established to be a formal burial site, and the interred had been buried with several ornate pots and jars, as well as a sword in an decorated scabbard, two iron-headed spears and a complete human skeleton. The finds were tentatively dated to the 5th, or 6th centuries, just after the fall of the roman empire. When compared to what is already known of the people, the time, the region, and the natural elements of the region, the burial site is likely to have been someone of considerable import and wealth for their day. The unnamed figured was dubbed the "Marlow Warlord".

We had expected to find some kind of Anglo-Saxon burial, but what we found exceeded all our expectations and provides new insights into this stretch of the Thames in the decades after the collapse of the Roman administration in Britain.This the first burial of its kind found in the mid-Thames basin, which is often overlooked in favour of the Upper Thames and London. It suggests that the people living in this region may have been more important than historians previously suspected. This guy would have been tall and robust compared to other men at the time, and would have been an imposing figure even today. The nature of his burial and the site with views overlooking the Thames suggest he was a respected leader of a local tribe and had probably been a formidable warrior in his own right. -Dr Gabor Thomas, specialist in early medieval archaeology, U. of Reading, 

The sword is described as having an exceptionally well-preserved scabbard - making it one of the best-preserved sheathed swords known from the period -made of wood and leather with decorative bronze fittings. The detail work and the tooling are likely to offer new insights into the levels of sophistication for regional craftsmen of the time.

From EurekAlert, which covered this story:

The early Anglo-Saxon period was one of great change in England with significant levels of immigration from the continent and the formation of new identities and power structures in the vacuum created by the collapse of the Roman administration around 400 AD. Around a century later - the period in which the Marlow Warlord lived -England was occupied by local tribal groupings, some of which expanded into Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, such as Wessex, Mercia and Kent.

The region of the mid-Thames between London and Oxford was previously thought to be a 'borderland' in this region, with powerful tribal groups on each side. This new discovery suggests that the area may have hosted important groups of its own. It is likely that the area was later squeezed out or absorbed into the larger neighbouring proto-kingdoms of Kent, Wessex and Mercia.

Bloggers note: One of the things I, as a historian, have been sensitive to since I started talking about archaeology in this series is the assumptions about gender with regards to burial sites. There was a time when if a weapon was found with a skeleton, the body was immediately marked as 'male' and no other effort was made to further verify that assertion. Furthermore, there were multiple accounts out of Europe and the US of younger graduate and doctoral students who found themselves bullied, or even officially censored for 'daring' to question the genders of the interred in certain burial sites. 

To be clear, I accept as fact that the academic community as a culture (across almost all disciplines) has some level of sexism still invested in it, weather it be born of malice, traditionalism, unconscious bias, or some mix of the three. I also believe that when the technology becomes more widely available, readily held assumptions about sex, gender roles, and even gender identity across history might well be in for some rude awakening for many of us. 

That being said, the determination here of the interred as male is likely not without merit.

First, there are structural differences between the male and female skeletons, including cranial and pelvic shape. If the remains were intact enough to measure those areas, a strong indication can be argued for gender that way. 

Photograph of the excavation site and the remains.

Second, while it is by no means impossible for a woman to stand six feet tall, when you consider the fact that the average Anglo-Saxon of the period was closer to 5'-4", and as an average, men to grow taller than women, the presence of a six-foot tall person makes the strong argument for the figure being male. 

Third, while there are documented cases of women in history having marshal prowess, and taking on the roles of military or political leaders, it is also understood that these were the exceptions that proved the rule. While a sword, or weapon of any type is not irrefutable, rock solid evidence of gender, it does strongly suggest a man based on the known patriarchal structure of the Anglo-Saxon tribes at the time. 

The two key articles I researched for this post did not specifically call out how the body was gendered, or even if there was any scientifically accepted evidence of gender beyond the presence of weapons. Time, and hard science will hopefully tell a more detailed story of life of this formidable figure. 

His Lordship Ivo Blackhawk
Kingdom of Ansteorra
"Long Live the King!"