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The Taplow Barrow is an
early medieval The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Mi ...
burial mound Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...
in
Taplow Court Taplow Court is a Victorian house in the village of Taplow in Buckinghamshire, England. Its origins are an Elizabethan manor house, remodelled in the early 17th century. In the 18th century the court was owned by the Earls of Orkney. In the 185 ...
, an estate in the south-eastern English county of
Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...
. Constructed in the seventh century, when the region was part of an
Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...
kingdom, it contained the remains of a deceased individual and their
grave goods Grave goods, in archaeology and anthropology, are the items buried along with the body. They are usually personal possessions, supplies to smooth the deceased's journey into the afterlife or offerings to the gods. Grave goods may be classed as a ...
, now mostly in the
British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
. It is often referred to in archaeology as the Taplow burial. The Taplow burial was made in what archaeologists call the "conversion period", during which the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were undergoing Christianisation. This period saw the erection of "Final Phase" burials: a select number of inhumations featuring lavish grave goods far richer than the graves of the preceding "
migration period The Migration Period was a period in European history marked by large-scale migrations that saw the fall of the Western Roman Empire and subsequent settlement of its former territories by various tribes, and the establishment of the post-Roman ...
" (fifth and sixth centuries). The majority of these Final Phase burials were spatially separate from the new churchyard burials, although the Taplow Burial—which was likely placed next to an early church—is one of the few known exceptions. Located atop a hill, the area around it was previously an
Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...
hillfort A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roma ...
and offers widespread views of the local landscape. Interred beneath the mound was a single individual—interpreted by archaeologists as a local chieftain—buried with a range of grave goods. These included military gear such as a sword, three spears, and two shields, as well as other items like
drinking horn A drinking horn is the horn of a bovid used as a drinking vessel. Drinking horns are known from Classical Antiquity, especially the Balkans, and remained in use for ceremonial purposes throughout the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period in ...
s and glass beakers. Such elite items likely reflected the individual's aristocratic status. Several of these items were of probable Kentish manufacture, suggesting that the individual may have had links with the
Kingdom of Kent la, Regnum Cantuariorum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the Kentish , common_name = Kent , era = Heptarchy , status = vassal , status_text = , government_type = Monarchy ...
. Little of the body survived, preventing
osteoarchaeological The term bioarchaeology has been attributed to British archaeologist Grahame Clark who, in 1972, defined it as the study of animal and human bones from archaeological sites. Redefined in 1977 by Jane Buikstra, bioarchaeology in the United States no ...
analysis to determine their age or sex, although the content of the grave goods has led archaeologists to believe the individual was male. The mound was excavated in 1883 by three local
antiquarians An antiquarian or antiquary () is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artifacts, archaeological and historic si ...
. At the time, it represented the most lavish Anglo-Saxon burial then known and remained so until the discovery of the
ship burial A ship burial or boat grave is a burial in which a ship or boat is used either as the tomb for the dead and the grave goods, or as a part of the grave goods itself. If the ship is very small, it is called a boat grave. This style of burial was pr ...
at
Sutton Hoo Sutton Hoo is the site of two early medieval cemeteries dating from the 6th to 7th centuries near the English town of Woodbridge. Archaeologists have been excavating the area since 1938, when a previously undisturbed ship burial containing a ...
,
Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...
in the 1930s. At the request of the clergyman in charge of the churchyard, the grave goods recovered were donated to the British Museum, where many of them remain on display.


Context

In early medieval English archaeology, the seventh-century is sometimes termed the "conversion period" to distinguish it from the preceding "
migration period The Migration Period was a period in European history marked by large-scale migrations that saw the fall of the Western Roman Empire and subsequent settlement of its former territories by various tribes, and the establishment of the post-Roman ...
". A broad range of funerary monuments were erected in early medieval England, among the best known of which are earthen
tumuli A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones buil ...
often known as "barrows". Many early medieval barrows have been destroyed, although a few survive, albeit in a much denuded form: these include the sixth-century barrows at
Greenwich Park Greenwich Park is a former hunting park in Greenwich and one of the largest single green spaces in south-east London. One of the Royal Parks of London, and the first to be enclosed (in 1433), it covers , and is part of the Greenwich World Herita ...
, London, the early seventh-century barrows at
Sutton Hoo Sutton Hoo is the site of two early medieval cemeteries dating from the 6th to 7th centuries near the English town of Woodbridge. Archaeologists have been excavating the area since 1938, when a previously undisturbed ship burial containing a ...
,
Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...
, and the late-ninth century barrows at Heath Wood,
Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...
. As well as these larger surviving barrows, smaller barrows were possibly also found in early medieval cemeteries in south-eastern England. Excavation has found penannular and annular ring-ditches around various inhumation burials at cemeteries like
Finglesham Finglesham is a village in the civil parish of Northbourne, and near Deal in Kent, England, which was the location of the Finglesham Anglo-Saxon cemetery, site of a seventh-century Anglo-Saxon archaeology find known as "Finglesham man," as descri ...
, Polhill, and
Eastern Eastern may refer to: Transportation *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai *Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991 *Eastern Air Li ...
, which archaeologists have interpreted as the quarry ditches and perimeters of since lost burial mounds. The archaeologist
Martin Carver Martin Oswald Hugh Carver, FSA, Hon FSA Scot, (born 8 July 1941) is Emeritus Professor of Archaeology at the University of York, England, director of the Sutton Hoo Research Project and a leading exponent of new methods in excavation and surve ...
argued that the burial mounds erected in the late sixth and seventh centuries were created by practitioners of
Anglo-Saxon paganism Anglo-Saxon paganism, sometimes termed Anglo-Saxon heathenism, Anglo-Saxon pre-Christian religion, or Anglo-Saxon traditional religion, refers to the religious beliefs and practices followed by the Anglo-Saxons between the 5th and 8th centurie ...
defiantly displaying their beliefs and identity in the face of encroaching Christianity. In his view, these lavish barrow burials were "selected from a demonstrably pagan repertoire". The historian John Blair disagreed, suggesting that "they are not relics of entrenched pagan practice, even if one purpose of them was to manufacture links with an imagined past suggested by prehistoric barrows." Blair attributed them to a growing "striving for a monumental expression of status", which in more solidly Christian societies of the time was also finding form through funerary churches and above-ground sarcophagi. In early medieval England—unlike in neighbouring
Francia Francia, also called the Kingdom of the Franks ( la, Regnum Francorum), Frankish Kingdom, Frankland or Frankish Empire ( la, Imperium Francorum), was the largest post-Roman barbarian kingdom in Western Europe. It was ruled by the Franks dur ...
—grave goods are very rare in churchyard burials. The archaeologist
Helen Geake Helen may refer to: People * Helen of Troy, in Greek mythology, the most beautiful woman in the world * Helen (actress) (born 1938), Indian actress * Helen (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) Places * Helen, ...
observed that typically, "Final Phase" style burials and "churchyard-type" burials were mutually exclusive in seventh-century England, even if they were located within a few miles of each other. Taplow is one of a few exceptions to this, representing a lavishly furnished "Final Phase" style burial inside a churchyard. Other examples of grave-goods being used in churchyards of this period are known from
Eccles, Kent Eccles is a village in the English county of Kent, part of the parish of Aylesford and in the valley of the River Medway. Archaeology It is near to the site of a Roman villa estate and pottery kiln, excavated between 1962 and 1976. The site was o ...
, St Paul-in-the-Bail, Lincoln, and from records of the grave of
St Cuthbert Cuthbert of Lindisfarne ( – 20 March 687) was an Anglo-Saxon saint of the early Northumbrian church in the Celtic tradition. He was a monk, bishop and hermit, associated with the monasteries of Melrose and Lindisfarne in the Kingdom of Nor ...
.


History

The name
Taplow Taplow is a village and civil parish in the Unitary Authority of Buckinghamshire, England. It sits on the left bank of the River Thames, facing Maidenhead in the neighbouring county of Berkshire, with Cippenham and Burnham to the east. It is th ...
itself is in origin that of the burial mound, from Old English ''Tæppas hláw'' "Tæppa's mound", so that the name of the unknown chief or nobleman buried in the mound would seem to have been Tæppa. Stevens suggested that it derived from ''hlæw'' (mound) and ''tap'' or ''top'', meaning "the mound on the crest of the hill". During Stevens' investigation, the mound measured 15 feet in eight at its centre, and 240 feet in circumference. He described it as being "somewhat bell-shaped", suggesting that this had been caused by the addition of later inhumation burials around its eastern perimeter. The Taplow barrow is located within an earlier Iron Age hillfort. It is positioned on the only hill in the area which offers long-distance views in most directions, which was likely a deliberate decision by its builders. The archaeologist Howard Williams suggested that this prominent landscape location was chosen "to assert claims over land and territory, and express a new identity for the deceased and his kin". In this way, Williams argued, the mound was more than just "a 'marker' for the dead, but something that evoked status, and aspired pasts and futures, and perhaps also the presence of the dead active within the mound." A similar choice of location, overlooking the landscape, was chosen for the roughly contemporary barrow at
Asthall Asthall or Asthal is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish on the River Windrush in Oxfordshire, about west of Witney. It includes the Hamlet (place), hamlets of Asthall Leigh, Field Assarting, Assarts, Stonelands, Worsham, Oxfo ...
, Oxfordshire, which contained an early seventh-century cremation burial. Without a fuller excavation of the churchyard having been carried out, the relationship of the mound to other early medieval burials and to the church itself is unclear. Leslie Webster noted that the connection between the church and the mound "raises fundamental questions about the mechanisms of conversion and the assertion of secular power in the conversion period."


The deceased individual

Various archaeologists have suggested that the interned individual was male. After completing his excavation of the site, Stevens concluded that the individual interned was "a great chief" who ruled before Christianity came to Anglo-Saxon England. Given that Buckinghamshire was in Mercia for much of this period, Stevens noted that "it is not beyond the bounds of probability that he was a Mercian Angle of distinction." The archaeologists Stuart Brookes and Sue Harrington noted that the individual buried at Taplow has often been considered to be "a Kentish 'prince' by virtue of the sheer quality and point of origin of his material culture". They added that the burial had "prompted discussion on the strategic importance of Kentish hegemony over the productive Upper Thames Valley" during the seventh century. Webster suggested that the deceased was "a local ruler who controlled a key section of the Thames valley on behalf of Kentish overlords", the latter indicated by the "significant number" of Kentish artefacts in the grave.


Grave goods

The 1883 excavation found that the soil of the mound contained various worked flint tools, including scrapers, cores, and flints, worked animal bones, and pieces of Romano-British pottery, including a sherd of
Samian ware Terra sigillata is a term with at least three distinct meanings: as a description of medieval medicinal earth; in archaeology, as a general term for some of the fine red Ancient Roman pottery with glossy surface slips made in specific areas of t ...
. This material was unlikely to be deliberately placed there but was interpreted as having been mixed up in the soil that the mound's early medieval builders used. The burial was located beneath the base of the mound itself. The grave was determined to measure twelve feet by eight feet and was aligned on an east to west axis. On its base was a layer of fine gravel. The only remaining physical evidence of the body was a thigh bone and fragments of vertebral bones; there was no evidence of any teeth, which typically survive best. Shreds of fabric were found, which excavators examined under a
microscope A microscope () is a laboratory instrument used to examine objects that are too small to be seen by the naked eye. Microscopy is the science of investigating small objects and structures using a microscope. Microscopic means being invisibl ...
and thought were woollen. The grave goods at Taplow were "not as rich or as eclectic" as those in Sutton Hoo Mound I, leading Leslie Webster to suggest that it was "of somewhat lesser status". The historian John Blair nevertheless compared Taplow with Sutton Hoo, stating that these were "remarkable for the extraordinary range and richness of their grave-goods, and must commemorate people of more than simply local status."


Artefacts

Among the grave goods, now in the
British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
, were 19 vessels for feasting and drinking, at least three weapon sets, a lyre, a gaming board, and rich textiles, the whole ensemble "recognisably a version of the standard Germanic princely kit". Many of the objects seem to be of Kentish origin. The several gold braids in the burial may have been a symbol of royalty, and the largest horns and the belt buckle were apparently already old when buried, suggesting the treasure of a "Kentish princely family".Tyler, 55-56; 56 quoted The exact location of these items in the grave was not determined with any accuracy, with excavators attributing this to the collapse of the mound into the burial chamber. Stevens nevertheless offered suggestions as to where the items had been placed based on what he and others observed during the excavation. Evidence for rotten wood was found, leading to the suggestion that a wooden plank had been placed atop the body. *An iron sword measuring 30 inches in length and 2 1/2 inches wide. The excavators believed that traces of the scabbard could be seen in the grave. This was found to the left hand side of the body. *Two iron shield bosses, each 5 inches wide and 3 1/2 inches in height. These were located near the head of the grave, to the right of the body. *An iron link and iron ring. *Three iron spearheads. One was of the
angon The ''angon'' (Medieval Greek , Old High German ''ango'', Old English ''anga'' "hook, point, spike") was a type of javelin used during the Early Middle Ages by the Anglo-Saxons, Franks, Goths, and other Germanic peoples. It was similar to, and p ...
type and measured 26 inches in length. The other two were smaller. These were on the right hand side of the body. *An iron knife or small
seax ''Seax'' (; also sax, sæx, sex; invariant in plural, latinized ''sachsum'') is an Old English word for "knife". In modern archaeology, the term ''seax'' is used specifically for a type of small sword, knife or dagger typical of the Germanic pe ...
. *An iron cauldron or tub lined with bronze, that was two foot in diameter. It had been crushed. This was located crushed alongside one of the two buckets against the thighs. *Two buckets made from timber staves with bronze fittings. One was crushed alongside the cauldron at the thighs; the other was found on the left-hand side of the body, near to the head. *A twelve-sided bronze bowl with two handles. This had also been crushed. This was on the left hand side of the body. *Four green glass drinking cups. These had been broken. Three of these were found inside the tub; the fourth was at the foot of the grave. *Two large drinking horns with gilded silver mounts around their rims. The mounts had been crushed. These were found inside the tub. *Four smaller horns or cups with mounts; these were found in a fragmentary state. One was on the left hand side of the body, and the other at the foot of the burial. *Shreds of gold, found spread over an area of about two yards and believed to have been from some fabric. *A gold buckle decorated with garnets, measuring 4 inches in length. The excavators thought that this had been placed about three feet east of the femur. *Two pairs of metal clasps, possibly gold, which were suggested as having been attached to a
girdle A belt, especially if a cord or rope, is called a girdle if it is worn as part of Christian liturgical vestments, or in certain historical, literary or sports contexts. Girdles are used to close a cassock in Christian denominations, including th ...
. These were believed to have been placed toward the left hand side of the body. *A crescent-shaped metal ornament about 6 inches in length. This was found at the foot of the grave. *Several bone draughtsmen. These were found at the foot of the grave. All at the British Museum, with several displayed in Room 41:
Pair of drinking hornsGold belt buckle
(illustrated above)
Four glass claw beakers

Set of gaming pieces
Williams suggested that the choice of grave goods placed within the mound alluded to "an aristocratic lifestyle in this world and the next". Taplow remained what archaeologist Leslie Webster called "the most prestigiously furnished Anglo-Saxon burial" known until the discovery of the ship burial beneath Sutton Hoo Mound 1. In 2010, Brookes and Harrington stated that the Taplow burial remained "second only to Sutton Hoo in wealth and display".


Church

The historian John Blair argued that the existence of a pre-Viking church "cannot be sustained from the parch-mark evidence". Taplow is not the only example where a church was built adjacent to an elite barrow burial, as other examples are known from
High Wycombe High Wycombe, often referred to as Wycombe ( ), is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England. Lying in the valley of the River Wye surrounded by the Chiltern Hills, it is west-northwest of Charing Cross in London, south-southeast of Ayl ...
in Buckinghamshire and
Ogbourne St Andrew Ogbourne St Andrew is a civil parish and small village in Wiltshire, England, north of Marlborough. The parish is on the banks of the River Og and includes the hamlets of Ogbourne Maizey and Rockley. History Domesday Book of 1086 recorded a ...
in
Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...
. Blair raised the point that these churches may have been established in the tenth or early eleventh centuries "to Christianize tombs to which folk-legends attached, and which were identified with ancestors or local worthies".


Excavation

In October 1883, an excavation of the barrow was made by Mr Rutland, the Honorary Secretary of the Berkshire Archaeological and Architectural Society, with the assistance of Major Cooper King, Joseph Stevens, and Walter Money. In total, it took around three weeks. Stevens noted that at the time of excavation, a felled yew tree—likely several centuries old—was located in the centre of the barrow. To excavate, a horizontal shaft six feet in width was dug on the south of the mound and then expanded toward its centre. A similar process was then repeated on the north side and then the west side. During the excavation, soil from beneath the yew tree collapsed into the trench, injuring Rutland; the investigation was paused for several days as a result. On resuming the project, the excavators found the body beneath the mound, but shortly after the yew tree fell over into the trench, which delayed the project further. Only after the tree was removed could the grave goods be recovered. He noted that following the investigation, the mound was "restored to its former dimensions". The grave goods were taken to Rutland's house, where they were temporarily exhibited. The Reverend Charles Whately, the custodian of the churchyard, then offered them to the Trustees of the
British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
, who accepted. Stevens noted that the grave goods reflected "a strongly marked Gothic element" and thus suggested that the interred individual might have been a
Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...
, although concluded that an Anglo-Saxon origin was more likely.


References


Footnotes


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * *


Further reading

* Leslie Webster
The Rise, Resuscitation of the Taplow Burial
(2001). *Audrey Meaney, ''A Gazetteer of Early Anglo-Saxon Burial Sites'' (1964). *
Michael Lapidge Michael Lapidge, FBA (born 8 February 1942) is a scholar in the field of Medieval Latin literature, particularly that composed in Anglo-Saxon England during the period 600–1100 AD; he is an emeritus Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, a Fellow of ...
, John Blair,
Simon Keynes Simon Douglas Keynes, ( ; born 23 September 1952) is a British author who is Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon emeritus in the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic at Cambridge University, and a Fellow of Trinity College.< ...
(eds.), ''The Blackwell encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England'', Wiley-Blackwell (2001), . *Tyler, Elizabeth M.,''Treasure in the medieval West'', 2000, Boydell & Brewer Ltd, ,
google books


External links


Taplow Burial
at
The Megalithic Portal The Megalithic Portal is a web resource dedicated to prehistoric archaeology and closely related subjects. The Megalithic Portal's mission is to document, publicise and protect ancient sites and help to ensure their preservation for future generati ...

Taplow Burial
at
Buckinghamshire County Council Buckinghamshire County Council was the upper-tier local authority for the administrative county and later the non-metropolitan county of Buckinghamshire, in England, the United Kingdom established in 1889 following the Local Government Act 1888 ...

Saxon barrow, church and cemeteries in the old churchyard at Taplow Court
at
Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked wit ...
{{commons category, Tappa's Tump Barrows in the United Kingdom Anglo-Saxon sites in England Medieval European objects in the British Museum Anglo-Saxon art Anglo-Saxon burial practices