Saxon burials were first discovered at RAF Lakenheath in the 1950s, during work on the Lakenheath hospital.
The burial of the Lakenheath Warrior was of a fully-armed man alongside his horse adorned with a highly ornamented bridle. It is still one of the most spectacular Suffolk finds from this period, outside Sutton Hoo.
The book gives a detailed picture of life on the Suffolk Fen-edge in the Early Saxon period. It includes new research into glass and metal-working technologies, the sourcing of the materials of everyday life, as well as the forms of burial, the human skeletal remains, and the grave goods.
Discoveries from over a decade of excavations at RAF Lakenheath, detailed in the book, include:
- 427 graves
- 6 men buried with swords (two accompanied by horses)
- 3 minstrels (men buried with lyres)
- 1 man buried with a quiver of arrows
- 8 cremation burials (four contained horse remains)
- 96 female or juvenile graves with brooches
- 2,500 glass beads
Authors Jo Caruth and John Hines, said:
“The excavations that began at RAF Lakenheath in 1997 came to reveal a closely spaced group of burial sites, very close in date, that have delivered a wealth of archaeological data.
“In compiling this book, we were able to build upon highly professional recording and recovery in the process of excavation with a range of cutting-edge post-excavation studies, reflecting complementary expertise in the study of human remains, artefacts and features.
"The result is deep insight into the lifestyles, resources and horizons of a Fen-edge population from the 5th to 8th centuries AD, including personal connections and choices made within that community. We can follow them between and across a series of dramatic thresholds, from the earliest Anglo-Saxon settlements through the climatic crisis and pandemic plague of the 530s and 540s to the advent of Christianity and its eventual embedding in the kingdom of the East Angles.”
Councillor Philip Faircloth-Mutton, Suffolk County Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment, Communities and Equality, said:
“Suffolk is home to an incredibly influential past. The volume of history that has been uncovered, and now expertly documented from RAF Lakenheath, is quite breath-taking.
“Thanks to Jo and John and all the partners involved, Suffolk County Council’s Archaeological Service has been able to capture and document details which will be read nationally and internationally.
“I’ve no doubt that this book will be a fundamental reference point for serious and informed study of the transition from Roman Britain to Anglo-Saxon England in the East of England. It will support even more pioneering international research in a new era of cemetery archaeology from the European Early Middle Ages."
