Walkington Wold Burials
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The Walkington Wold burials in the
East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, often abbreviated to the East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, S ...
, England, comprise the skeletal remains of 13 individuals from the
Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...
period which were discovered in the late 1960s, during the excavation of a
Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...
barrow. Subsequent examinations have concluded that they were decapitated Anglo-Saxon criminals, and that the site is the most northerly of its kind known in England.


Original excavation

Archaeologists Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...
Rod Mackey and John Bartlett discovered the burials while excavating the
Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...
barrow at Walkington Wold, about 2 kilometres (1.25 miles) west of the Yorkshire village of Walkington, from 1967 to 1969. Twelve skeletons were unearthed, ten of which were without skulls, though eleven skulls were also found, most of which were without jawbones. All were buried randomly, though three appeared to have been buried together, with most of the skulls well away from the bodies. Some of the skulls were found at the centre of the barrow mound, while the bodies were all located at the perimeter. Theories of their identity included victims of a late Roman massacre, Anglo-Saxon executions, or even a Celtic head cult.


Re-evaluation

The skeletons were re-examined in 2007 by archaeologists Jo Buckberry from Bradford University and Dawn Hadley from
Sheffield University The University of Sheffield (informally Sheffield University or TUOS) is a public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Its history traces back to the foundation of Sheffield Medical School in 1828, Firth College in 1879 ...
. It was revealed that in fact 13 individuals were unearthed in the late 1960s, all had been aged between 18 and 45, and, while eight of the skeletons and nine of the skulls were identified as certainly male, none were identified as female.
Radiocarbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for Chronological dating, determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of carbon-14, radiocarbon, a radioactive Isotop ...
showed that the remains range from the mid 7th century to the early 11th century. It also indicated that the apparent "triple burial" in fact consisted of separate burials in the same location. Examination of the skeletons revealed that their owners were subjected to judicial execution by decapitation, one of which required several blows. Furthermore, the heads were probably displayed on poles as warnings to others, which was a known practice in Anglo-Saxon England. While the burial site is ideally situated for public display on a rise by a road, the absence of jawbones from most of the skulls suggests that they fell off as the heads decomposed on the poles. The crimes of the men are unknown, owing to the lack of any associated documentation. The burial site is between Walkington and the deserted village of Hunsley, adjacent to the modern hamlet of High Hunsley, at the boundary of the then hundreds of Welton and Cave. The use of an ancient barrow site situated on the boundaries between communities indicates that the executed were excluded from the community, even in death. According to Mackey, the site had been known locally as "'Hell's Gate' – suggesting there was a folk memory romwhen it was used as an execution site."


Significance

While Walkington Wold is "unusual in being the most northerly example yet found of an Anglo-Saxon execution cemetery", the site contributes evidence that such execution cemeteries were used periodically over a long time, being established long before their first documentation in the 10th century, and that men, rather than women, tended to be executed for crimes in mid to late Anglo-Saxon England. It also demonstrates continuity over a period which includes the upheavals of Scandinavian invasion and settlement. The selection of a Bronze Age barrow for the burials fits a pattern of Anglo-Saxon re-use of ancient barrows and mounds. Such barrows were thought to be the haunt of
dragon A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...
s,
goblin A goblin is a small, grotesque, monster, monstrous humanoid creature that appears in the folklore of multiple European cultures. First attested in stories from the Middle Ages, they are ascribed conflicting abilities, temperaments, and appearan ...
s and the like, and the executed criminals at Walkington Wold, excluded from normal human society by their criminal activity and subsequent executions, were made outcasts in death by their association with such spirits.Semple, S. 1998, p. 111.


Notes


See also

*
List of Anglo-Saxon cemeteries Anglo-Saxon cemeteries have been found in England, Wales and Scotland. The burial sites date primarily from the fifth century to the seventh century AD, before the Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England. Later Anglo-Saxon period cemeteries have b ...
* Bed burial * List of Anglo-Saxon bed burials


References

*Bartlett, J.E. & Mackey, R.W. 1973. "Excavations at Walkington Wold, 1967–1969." ''East Riding Archaeologist'' 1(2), 1–100. * *Hadley, D.M. & Buckberry, J.L. 2005. “Caring for the Dead in Late Anglo-Saxon England”, in Tinti, F. (ed) ''Pastoral Care in Late Anglo-Saxon England'' (Woodbridge: Boydell), 121–147. *{{citation , last=Semple , first=S. , year=1998 , title=A Fear of the Past: the Place of the Prehistoric Burial Mound in the Ideology of Middle and Later Anglo-Saxon England , journal=World Archaeology , volume=30 , number=1 , pages=109–126 , doi=10.1080/00438243.1998.9980400 *Wood, A. 2007.
Grisly discovery of headless bodies gives insight into justice Saxon style
” ''Yorkshire Post'', 31 December.


Further reading

*Bailey, G.B. 1985. "Late Roman Inland Signal Station, or Temple? Functional Interpretation at Walkington Wold." ''Yorkshire Archaeological Journal'' 57, 11–14. *Buckberry, J. L. 2008. "Off with their heads: The Anglo-Saxon execution cemetery at Walkington Wold, East Yorkshire". In E. Murphy (ed.) ''Deviant burial in the archaeological record''. (Oxford: Oxbow), 148–168 *Mackey, R.W. 2006. “Walkingon Executions Re-dated” ''East Riding Archaeological Society Newsletter'' 2 November. *Reynolds, A. 1997. "The Definition and Ideology of Anglo-Saxon Execution Sites and Cemeteries" in De Boe, G. & Verhaege, F. (eds) ''Death & Burial in Medieval Europe'' (Zellick: Instituut voor het Archeologisch Patrimonium), 33–41.


External links



– German language, includes image gallery. Barrows in England Anglo-Saxon sites in England Archaeological sites in the East Riding of Yorkshire Execution sites in England Anglo-Saxon burial practices Yorkshire Wolds