Buckland Anglo-Saxon cemetery

Buckland Anglo-Saxon cemetery

Location within Kent
Location	Dover, Kent
Type	Anglo-Saxon inhumation cemetery

Buckland Anglo-Saxon cemetery was a place of burial.

The cemetery was discovered in 1951 when the site was being developed into a housing estate.

Background

The Kingdom of Kent.

With the advent of the Anglo-Saxon period in the fifth century CE, the area that became Kent underwent a radical transformation on a political, social, and physical level. In the preceding era of Roman Britain, the area had been administered as the civitas of Cantiaci, a part of the Roman Empire, but following the collapse of Roman rule in 410 CE, many signs of Romano-British society began to disappear, replaced by those of the ascendant Anglo-Saxon culture. Later Anglo-Saxon accounts attribute this change to the widescale invasion of Germanic language tribes from northern Europe, namely the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. Archaeological and toponymic evidence shows that there was a great deal of syncretism, with Anglo-Saxon culture interacting and mixing with the Romano-British culture.

The Old English term Kent first appears in the Anglo-Saxon period, and was based on the earlier Celtic-language name Cantii. Initially applied only to the area east of the River Medway, by the end of the sixth century it also referred to areas to the west of it. The Kingdom of Kent was the first recorded Anglo-Saxon kingdom to appear in the historical record, and by the end of sixth-century, it had become a significant political power, exercising hegemony over large parts of southern and eastern Britain. At the time, Kent had strong trade links with Francia, while the Kentish royal family married members of Francia's Merovingian dynasty, who were already Christian. Kentish King Æthelberht was the overlord of various neighbouring kingdoms when he converted to Christianity in the early seventh-century as a result of Augustine of Canterbury and the Gregorian mission, who had been sent by Pope Gregory to replace England's pagan beliefs with Christianity. It was in this context that the Finglesham cemetery was in use.

Kent has a wealth of Early Medieval funerary archaeology. The earliest excavation of Anglo-Saxon Kentish graves was in the 17th century, when antiquarians took an increasing interest in the material remains of the period. In the ensuing centuries, antiquarian interest gave way to more methodical archaeological investigation, and prominent archaeologists like Bryan Faussett, James Douglas, Cecil Brent, George Payne, and Charles Roach Smith "dominated" archaeological research in Kent.

Archaeological investigation

In 1951, construction began on the Buckland Estate, a housing project on the site of the cemetery. Workmen uncovered a number of artefacts when they began clearing the soil, before coming across skeletal remains. The archaeologist W.P.B. Stebbing was brought in to examine the finds, and he oversaw the excavation of Grave C, revealing that it was of Anglo-Saxon date. The artefacts uncovered were sent to F.L. Warner, curator of Dover Museum, and the Inspectorate of Ancient Monuments decided to implement a rescue excavation of the site.

See also

• Finglesham Anglo-Saxon cemetery
• Polhill Anglo-Saxon cemetery

References

Bibliography

Blair, John (2000). The Anglo-Saxon Age: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0192854032. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Brookes, Stuart; Harrington, Sue (2010). The Kingdom and People of Kent AD 400–1066. Stroud: The History Press. ISBN 978-0-7524-5694-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Evison, Vera I. (1987). Dover: The Buckland Anglo-Saxon Cemetery. London: Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England. ISBN 1-85074-090-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Welch, Martin (2007). "Anglo-Saxon Kent to AD 800". In J.H. Williams (ed.). The Archaeology of Kent to AD 800. Rochester: Kent County Council. pp. 187–250. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)