Context (Field collection)
Excavated from Context 3051.5.
Event Date 19/2/2011
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

Context (Field collection)
In 2010-2011, the Cambridge Archaeological Unit (CAU) undertook excavations along Trumpington's riverside in advance of the construction of the Trumpington Meadows housing development by Grosvenor Britain & Ireland. During the excavations an Early Anglo-Saxon settlement was found and, within the settlement, four burials. The burials were clustered together in a row, although radiocarbon dates indicate that they all may have been buried at different points in the seventh century. On Saturday, 19 February 2011 Grave 1 was excavated, which revealed a rare bed burial. It contained the remains of a girl, aged between 14 and 18 years, who was buried with a gold and garnet cross, linked gold and garnet pins, a chatelaine, a comb and a knife. She had been dressed in fine linen tabbies and a bead-edged shawl and was laid on a wood-framed bed, with a wool blanket covering a mattress. This grave is almost certainly the last burial of the four.
Event Date 19/2/2011
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

Context (Auction / Sale)
The cross and pins, together with the associated burial, were declared Treasure under the terms of the Treasure Act 1996. In December 2017 the landowners, Grosvenor Britain & Ireland, waived their claim on the reward thereby donating the whole burial (2017.58-2017.74) to MAA.
Event Date 12/2017
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

Context (Analysis)
Evans et al. note that 'cleaning nearly all the eyelets revealed [mineral-preserved organic] wood remains throughout the middle section and the upper surfaces of the arm tips. In each case the longitudinal grain direction runs parallel to the arm, suggesting that the loop fixings had been driven into the radial surface of wood, and in most cases no [mineral-preserved organic] remains were visible through the loop section' (p. 316). This eyelet bears the 'imprint of radial longitudinal section of a ring porous hardwood [but] insufficient remains for species identification' (p. 322).
Event Date 2018
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

Context (Analysis)
The bed, carved from ash (Fraxinus excelsior L.), was plank-built, probably footless, and held together with iron fittings: eight double cleats, 13 eyelets and three plates. Traces of wood preserved on one of the iron plates (2017.68.3) provides evidence of carved decoration on the headboard. A mattress may have been supported by a knotted cord net strung from the iron eyelets (2017.67.1-13) that were attached above the joins between wood planks. This net probably supported a straw mattress covered with a wool blanket, with evidence for both having been preserved on some of the iron fittings. (Evans et al. pp. 321-327)
Event Date 2018
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

Context (References)
Evans, C., Lucy, S. and Patten, R. (2018). 'Anglo-Saxon Burials and Settlement'. In Riversides: Neolithic Barrows, a Beaker Grave, Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon Burials and Settlement at Trumpington, Cambridge. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research. pp. 316 and 321-327, Fig. 5.5, Fig. 5.7, Table 5.5
Event Date 2018
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

Description (Physical description)
Iron eyelet. Arms, rectangular in section, come together in the middle to create a loop at the head that is round in section. The arms taper to the tip; one is longer than the other. Remains of mineralised wood, probably ash (Fraxinus excelsior L.). Part of the iron fittings of the ash bed.
Event Date 9/1/2019
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

Description (Physical description)
Iron eyelet, part of the iron fittings of an ash bed. Arms are rectangular in section, and come together in the middle to create a round loop at the head; arms taper to the tips; one is longer than the other. Remains of mineralised wood, probably ash (Fraxinus excelsior L.) present. Corroded surface; corrosion is bright orange in places.
Event Date 11/5/2021
Author: Jazmin Hundal

Conservation (Remedial)
CON.2023.5655 | Remedial
Event Date 20/4/2023
Author: Kirstie French

Exhibition (Li Ka Shing Gallery)
EXH.2023.12 | Beneath Our Feet: Archaeology of the Cambridge Region
Event Date 21/6/2023
Author: Eleanor Wilkinson

Conservation (Stabilisation)
CON.2024.6027 | Stabilisation
Event Date 26/9/2024
Author: Stephanie De Roemer