The Street House Anglo-Saxon cemetery is an Anglo-Saxon burial ground, dating to the second half of the 7th century AD, that was discovered at Street House Farm near Loftus, in the unitary authority of Redcar and Cleveland, England. Monuments dating back as far as 3300 BC are located in the vicinity of the cemetery, which was discovered after aerial photography revealed the existence of an Iron Age rectangular enclosure. The excavations, carried out between 2005 and 2007, revealed over a hundred graves dating from the 7th century AD and the remains of several buildings. An array of jewellery and other artefacts was found, including the jewels once worn by a young high-status Anglo-Saxon woman who had been buried on a bed and covered by an earth mound.
The woman's identity is unknown, but the artefacts and the layout of the cemetery are similar to finds in the east and south-east of England. There are contradictory indications of whether the occupants of the cemetery were Christian or pagan, as signs of both traditions are present. It perhaps represents a fusion of the two traditions during the "Conversion Period" when Christianity was taking hold among the Anglo-Saxons but pagan rituals had not yet been displaced, even among Christians. Archaeologists have suggested that the woman and at least some of the people buried around her may have migrated from the south, where bed burials were more common. They may all have been buried together within the space of a single generation, after which the cemetery was abandoned. The finds were acquired by Kirkleatham Museum, Redcar, in 2009 and have been on display there since 2011.
Background The vicinity of Street House Farm, located on Upton Hill to the north-east of the town of Loftus, has been known to archaeologists for some decades as an area of interest. An Early Neolithic long cairn and mortuary structure dating to about 3300 BC, on which a round barrow was built in the Early Bronze Age, was excavated over the course of three seasons between 1979 and 1981. In 1984, the archaeologist Blaise Vyner discovered the remains of an enigmatic structure that he dubbed the "Street House Wossit" (a contraction of "what-is-it"). This was a segmented circle of 56 wooden posts built around 2200 BC. In the centre of the structure, which was approximately wide, were two D-shaped posts encircled by a raised stone bank. After a short period of usage the Wossit was dismantled and the posts burned. Its purpose is unknown but it is likely to have had some kind of religious or cultic significance.
Excavations One of those involved in the 1979–81 dig, archaeologist Steve Sherlock, decided to return to the site after aerial photographs revealed the presence of a rectangular Iron Age enclosure in the vicinity of the Bronze Age monuments. Initial excavations were carried out during ten days in September 2004. It was thought initially that the site was purely Iron Age or perhaps Romano-British. A more in-depth excavation was carried out in July 2005 after a geophysical survey revealed the existence of a large roundhouse, dating from the Iron Age, in the centre of the enclosure. The work revealed three roundhouses, several Iron Age ditches and a series of pits that were evidently graves. The latter came as a complete surprise and were found to date from the Anglo-Saxon period. Various artefacts dating to between 650 and 700 AD were excavated but no bones were recovered, as the acidic soil had destroyed any organic material long ago. Thirty graves were found during the initial excavation.
In 2006, the archaeologists returned to search for the settlement that they believed was associated with the graves. There are examples elsewhere, such as at Garton Green Lane Crossing in the Yorkshire Wolds, of 7th-century graves associated with prehistoric monuments, and it was initially thought that the Street House graves were a similar example. However, the excavation uncovered another twelve graves. It was realised that the cemetery was far larger than first thought, so the following year an archaeological survey of the entire site was attempted. A total of 109 graves was found by the end of the 2007 dig, forming a complex monument laid out in a unique square fashion around a central mound, a bed burial and a building that had possibly served as a mortuary.
Further excavations were carried out in 2010 and 2011 to examine a Neolithic cairn and a Bronze Age mound found near the cemetery, as well as to investigate two areas within the Iron Age enclosure. In 2012, a new excavation found the ruins of a sizeable Roman villa dating to around 370 AD, which had possibly been used by an important Romano-British chieftain. It was located only about south of the Saxon graves and would have been part of an agricultural estate.
Layout of the graves The cemetery consists of neat lines of graves arranged on an east–west alignment, covering a nearly square area of about , in a layout not seen in any other known Anglo-Saxon cemetery. The enclosure within which the cemetery was laid out was many centuries older, dating to about 200 BC; the establishment of a cemetery within its boundaries was probably intended to serve as a deliberate link to the past. It would still have been clearly visible in Saxon times. The layout of the cemetery seem to have consciously reflected that of the earlier enclosure, with its apparent main entrance aligned with that of the enclosure.
Most of the graves were laid out in a highly ordered fashion with a double row on the north and south sides. Each grave was set apart on an east–west axis and apart north to south. None were intercut. They were arranged in a pattern that formed a square enclosure, with a gap in the southern side forming a main entrance and another smaller gap on the eastern side forming a secondary entrance or exit. The degree of precision visible in the layout strongly suggests that the cemetery was planned in advance.
There are several groups of graves, numbering around 22 per cent of the total, that do not fit into the overall square plan of the cemetery. A few of these seem to have been older burials, possibly Romano-British, but the others may have been laid out by different groups of people in Saxon times. The most notable of these "non-standard" burials is that of the woman dubbed the "Saxon Princess" near the very centre of the enclosure. Although her burial has attracted the most attention for the quality of its finds, it may not have been the most important grave in the cemetery. A second larger mound stood a short distance away, partly surrounded by a ring ditch. No burial was found within and the mound has been interpreted as a mausoleum or memorial to an important individual. It is noteworthy that the "Saxon Princess" and a number of burials in the cemetery's north-east quadrant were arranged in an arc around the mound, suggesting that it may have been seen as the focal point of the cemetery.
The discovery of the graves' east–west alignment has prompted suggestions that the cemetery reflected Christian tradition, although the evidence overall is contradictory about whether the occupants were Christians. The individual graves were fairly uniform in size, usually measuring long, wide and in their original form about deep. They had a rectangular plan with rounded corners and a flat base. The bodies were not interred in coffins; the graves' occupants were buried in their clothes, accompanied by various items that they owned or were given as tokens by mourners. Although none of the bodies have survived it is thought from their size that most of the graves were intended for women, laid out fully extended. A substantial number are too small for an adult of normal height to have been laid out in such a way and, judging from analogous Saxon graves found elsewhere in England, it is thought that these might have contained crouched burials. The two different methods of burial – crouched versus fully extended – may therefore indicate some difference in ethnic affiliations or political or religious identities.
Some of the graves are marked by plain triangular stones set at one end. These are not carved or inscribed with names as in Christian cemeteries, but are similar to markers found in pagan cemeteries. Some graves are interrupted by stakeholes cut into them, possibly indicating the presence of wooden poles that might have served as markers or supported wooden structures within the graves. This is unusual in the north of England, though comparable examples have been found in Kent in the south-east.
In addition to the graves, several buildings stood within the cemetery. A larger rectangular structure with an east-west alignment, identified from postholes left in the ground, stood on the east side. It has been interpreted as a chapel or shrine. A smaller grubenhaus – a type of sunken building – which is thought to have been used as a mortuary chapel was located close by in the central area of the cemetery. An Iron Age roundhouse had also once been located within the north-west quadrant but was no longer standing at the time the cemetery was laid out. All of these buildings would have stood on the crest of a ridge, and would have been especially prominent to travelers arriving from the south.
The cemetery seems to have been laid out on a single occasion and used for only a short time afterwards. It is thought that the mourners would have entered through the south side and assembled in the empty south-western area of the cemetery before proceeding to the shrine to carry out the burial rites. After interring the deceased in a grave they may have used the eastern entrance to leave the cemetery. Alternatively, different groups of people may have used the two entrances, perhaps reflecting the fact that some of the graves do not fit into the overall square plan and may therefore belong to a different group.
Artefacts 64 individual graves, comprising 59 per cent of the total in the cemetery, were found to contain artefacts. Certain types of artefact can help to identify the gender of the occupants; male graves, for instance, tend to contain weapons and tools, while female ones are associated with jewellery, shears and chatelaines (belt hooks) which were used to suspend keys or small tools. 34 of the graves contained such gender-specific goods, of which 19 were associated with females and 15 with males. The female graves seem to have been predominantly located in the north and west of the cemetery and the males in the south and east. It is possible that the paired graves may have been those of spouses, a pattern that is apparent from Saxon cemeteries elsewhere in the country.
15 of the graves contained beads and items of ironwork were found in 25 graves. A seax (a type of short sword with a blade on one edge) was found in grave 29 and was the only weapon found in the cemetery. The discovery of such weapons as grave goods is extremely rare, as their value meant that they were typically passed on from father to son rather than being buried with a person. It originally measured about long but had broken into four pieces, and part of the pommel and handle also survived. Its blade had been decorated with a punched pattern along the top edge. Smaller domestic knives were found in 19 graves as well as other items made of iron such as belt buckles and sets of keys. In grave 81, two whetstones for sharpening knives were discovered along with the knives themselves, one resting on top of each whetstone.