The Anglo-Saxon Cremation Cemetery at Lackford, Suffolk: A Reconsideration Following Excavations in 2015–16

The Anglo-Saxon cremation cemetery at Lackford, Suffolk was first investigated on a large scale in the 1940s, when more than five hundred burials were excavated. Finds made in 2015–16 prompted Sue Anderson and colleagues to reassess the earlier excavations and examine newly recovered urns and cremated remains using methods unavailable to the original investigators.

The newer material offers direct evidence of the people and animals included in cremation rites, alongside small grave goods and traces preserved within the pottery. The cemetery was in use from the first half of the fifth century until at least the middle of the sixth. By comparing Lackford with Spong Hill and other sites in the Lark valley, the authors explore how this unusually large cremation cemetery fitted into the changing burial traditions of early Anglo-Saxon East Anglia.