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Yeavering Essay

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Case study 3 Yeavering
In the early medieval period, Yeavering was an important centre in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Bernicia and its burial system was very complicated including inhumations and cremations, different alignments and different funeral objects. (Lucy, 2000)

Firstly, taking Grave AX as an example, an Anglo-Saxon grave dated to the mid seventh century, was discovered situated in the eastern area of the site. Hope-Taylor (1977) described it as

one of the strangest and most interesting minor features of the site

and it contains a crouch adult body with head to the west which had been interned in a west-east alignment. Different oxidized leftovers of what were initially metal and wooden items were found with the body, together with the fragmentary remains of a goat’s skull, which had been situated to face eastbound (Hope-Taylor, 1977). A wooden shaft has cylindrical bronze bindings with three arms of equal length near one end which is not a weapon or an instrument but be supposed to have served a decorative rather than a strictly utilization purpose (Hope-Taylor, 1977). Post BX, tall and …show more content…

In those terms, the string-graves appear to be connected with a long-established local code of ritual procedure, showing as they do not only eager participation in the customs associated with the site but also particularized knowledge of past events. These circumstances suggest that the string-graves are of pagan or semi-pagan character and these procedures could hardly be thought to be Christian (Hope-Taylor, 1977). No more upsetting demand need be involved than insistence on such uniformity of grave-orientation as would most economically suit the formal burial-bounds laid down with a view to future ‘town-planning’ (Hope-Taylor,

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