Boyle Angela

In 1985 Oxford Archaeology excavated an Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Butler's Field, Lechlade, Gloucestershire. The excavations recovered a maximum of 223 inhumation burials in 200 graves, and the remains of at least 45 cremation burials. Butler's Field is the wealthiest Anglo-Saxon cemetery to have been excavated under modern conditions within the Thames Valley. The finds assemblage comprises thousands of objects, some of which are rare or unique in England. The cemetery was in use from the late 5th century until the late 7th century, and such a long peiod of use makes the cemetery very unusual in England and of considerable value for Anglo-Saxon studies. The grave catalogue and human bone report, along with the prehistoric and Roman archaeology from the site, were published in Volume 1 of this report in 1998. This volume presents the specialist reports on the Anglo-Saxon grave goods, a review of the chronology of the cemetery, and an overview of burial practice and the evidence for the population who were buried there.

Excavations 2000-2005

Archaeological Recording at St George's Church, Bloomsbury

The Old Burial Ground of the Royal Hospital Greenwich (1749-1857) provided the resting place for a very Motley crew - the battered and worn out veterans of the Royal Navy of the Georgian period. Recent excavations in the cemetary by Oxford Archaeology revealed the coffined burials of over a hundred Greenwich Pensioners (the equivalent of the Chelsea Pensioners), who had ended their long and colourful lives at the Hospital. These were sailors and mariners that sailed and fought in Britain's numerous wars of the 18th century, many seeing action at such famous engagements as the Glorious First of June, Copenhagen, the Nile, and Trafalgar. The hazards and physical demands of their lives are clearly reflected in their skeletons, with fractures, infections, amputations, joint disease and scurvy being common. Osteological findings are interpreted in the light of rich documentary sources on the social history of the lowerdeck of Nelson's Navy, and form an invaluable alternative data set in reconstructing the extraordinary lives of these 'picked and brine pickled survivors'.