Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Wednesday 3 February 2021

More dead Anglo-Saxons


Recently I posted about the excavation of a major Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Overstone in Northamptonshire and I linked that to a recent survey across Western Europe of changes in burial practices from the fourth to sixth centuries. That post can be seen at Anglo-Saxon burial customs

Today the Mail Online has an illustrated report about the excavation of an Anglo-Saxon cemetery in the western part of Cambridge. Despite having been built over the clearance of those houses for college accommodation had revealed well preserved human remains from the same period as those covered in my post above, that is from 400-650. This was the time of primary Anglo-Saxon settlement and the establishment of the various kingdoms and sub kingdoms that made up the Heparchy and were to be the context of the conversion of these peoples to Christianity.




No comments: