Salisbury Plain may be best known for Stonehenge, but the chalk plateau has revealed other, more hidden secrets over the past month. In April an Anglo Saxon cemetery of around 150 graves holding beautiful grave goods was unearthed in Bulford, Wiltshire. And now, another cemetery has been discovered with 55 graves, just 7 miles (11km) down the road in the village of Tidworth. The 1,300-year-old Anglo-Saxon cemetery was discovered on land marked for a lb70 ($102) million housing development for army families. The cemetery of 55 graves dates back to the late 7th and early 8th century AD.
Most of the the burials contained personal effects or significant items. The majority of the items were small iron knives, although other finds included combs, pins made of bone, beads and pierced coins thought to form necklaces. There were also several spearheads. The land, in Tidworth, Wiltshire, is part of a new housing development to build 322 new homes for Army families.
'The earliest documentary evidence we have for Saxon settlement at Tidworth dates to 975AD,' Simon Flaherty, site director for Wessex Archaeology, said. 'This excavation potentially pushes the history of the town back a further 300 years.' The first results suggest the burials represent a cross-section of a local community, with men, women and children all present. 'The site at Tidworth has produced some fascinating archaeology, Project manager Bruce Eaton said.
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