Trigger Warning: Images of Human Remains & Mentions of Rape/Necrophilia
Glossary
Deviant - Deviating from normal social, etc., standards or behaviour.
Hundred - a subdivision of a county or shire, having its own court; also formerly applied to the court itself
Perimortem - At the time of death
Wergeld - the price set upon a man according to his rank. This would be paid as compensation in the event of death, harm, or a broken oath.
Isotopic Analysis - analysis of isotopes that are taken from archaeological remains to provide details on how old the remains are, where the individual lived at birth and later in life, and further information
“The dead are not all remembered equally.” - Howard Williams, 2011
It is the 1960s in Oakridge, Basingstoke. The solitary cranium of a young female is uncovered by a construction crew at a roadside.
Oakridge is an exceedingly rare site in that the remains are singular and exhibit a show of brutal punishment and mutilation at the time of death. This is considered to be “the first case of formal facial mutilation” as the evidence is frequently limited due to the deterioration or loss of the soft tissues and a lack of marks left on the skeletal structure. The discovery of this site provides the opportunity for further understanding of local law, mob mentality, as well as legal action that is usually lost on the archaeological record, especially in reference to the Anglo-Saxon period which is dated from 410 AD to 1066 AD.
It is theorised by archaeologists that this mutilation was not intended to kill her, but done as an extreme form of humiliation and debasement. This belief is based on analysis undertaken on the perimortem cut marks, which are multiple and precise. This mutilation does not align with a single law, rather is an accumulation of several, which leads archaeologists to believe that this is the work of local people rather than a formal judicial action, and was done as a way to mark her for an offence - a form of scarlet letter. It is remarked upon that the aim was to ensure that these criminals, and in this instance this young girl, ‘lost face’.
Her isotopic results and tooth analysis have revealed that she was between 15 and 18 years old and was not local to the area. Her remains have been radiocarbon dated to between 920 - 946 AD. There is extreme perimortem trauma to her nose and mouth, with no remodelling, further proving that this was inflicted at the time of death. Only the skull was recovered, and it is possible that decapitation was included as part of her humiliation and punishment but this cannot be confirmed. This site is a rare occurrence that aids in the understanding of local law, mob mentality, as well as revealing legal action that is usually lost on the archaeological record due to the loss of organic materials. The cranium itself was found 80 metres south of a parish hundred boundary, as well as near an Iron Age site, which would have been used as a reference point within the landscape. The repeated use of a site over successive stages of occupation and having these earlier connections allows this case to stand out further as it implies some form of ritualism or reverence of space, time, and the ancestors.
Anglo Saxon Legal Codes
Legal texts are among some of the oldest written documents that survive from many different civilisations across time. In reference to Anglo-Saxon communities specifically, Andrew Reynolds (University College London) comments that whilst legal texts are significant and provide a lens through which to see these communities, that it is also pertinent to be aware that the enforcement of these laws and the standard to which they are upheld will differ depending on where and when you are in the territory. It is also critical to consider that regional and local laws would likely also have been in use and may not feature on the national legal records. Moreover, many laws may have communicated through oral tradition rather than viewing these laws in their entirety in a written form.
Law and order saw a change throughout the Anglo-Saxon period with laws being introduced on a national scale, and Christianity becoming a major factor within the formation of new laws and the upholding of new Christian ideals. This is reflected through burial evidence across the UK. These changes also coincide with the major change of the conversion to the Catholic Church in the 9th century. At this time, there was a sharp increase in the country’s lawmaking and the enforcement of laws, with gallows being placed at ports, entrypoints, and they are thought to have been placed within the majority of large towns. Several laws themselves lay out punishments, usually in reference to wergeld (or ‘man’s price’). These laws commonly focus heavily on the male experience, and later also encompass religious and ecclesiastical laws which are held to the very highest standard. It is thought that women sometimes evaded the law due to the legal codes being heavily tailored towards male perpetrators. This is also seen within the archaeological record where the majority of the deviant remains found are those of young men.
Mutilation was a form of punishment undertaken by the judiciary, short of execution. Many Anglo-Saxon laws decree scalping and mutilation as the primary punishment as wergeld appears to have been a tangible honour to the Saxon peoples and its right must be upheld. Moreover, King Cnut’s clause 53 (a law) shows a female adulterer losing her nose and ears as punishment, a code that aligns with the damage seen on the cranium at Oakridge. This could also be implemented for thievery, such as with the idea that thieves lost their hands, as well as through activities such as branding, that would not be evident in the osteological record due to the loss of the soft tissues. Despite these being seen as kinder punishments than execution, many likely would have lost their lives due to complications and infections from the mutilation site.
Grave Reopenings
Historically, the reopening of graves was primarily for the purpose of grave robbing. However, new research by Aspöck has shown that graves from the Anglo-Saxon period were opened relatively close to the date of internment and that it is likely that some of the bodies had not finished decomposing by the time their grave was opened. This brings forth new considerations into the treatment of the dead, as well as how the dead were treated and remembered.
In the case of these deviant cemetery sites it is likely that these graves were reopened as a secondary form of punishment where they are once again humiliated after death. The opening and viewing of decomposing remains reinforces fear and allows for the punishment of the deceased individual to be felt within the community for an extended period of time, maintaining fear and order within the population. There is some consideration that this may have been a ritual occurrence to revisit the deceased, however, the movement of bodies and in some cases, the removal of parts of the remains from the grave, present this as an abusive and degrading act. The reopening of graves may not always be obvious and it is unknown how many graves would have been opened during the Saxon period.
Some theories show that these graves, mostly of younger women, were reopened for nefarious means, specifically for the further debasement and rape of these women. This is theoretical and based on the positioning of the remains, as well as the times of reopening. The graves were cut to the size of the individual, however, after they were reopened the bodies were pushed far up to the head-end with legs akimbo. Rape and necrophilia are unsettling but very real considerations in this instance. Grave desecration was outlawed within the Anglo Saxon code, and these offences may have resulted in legal action themselves.
The reopening of deviant burials is a further aspect of deviance that requires further analysis. These instances of desecration are highly motivated, and by understanding these motivations archaeologists can produce a clearer understanding of the societal and cultural driving forces that allow deviancy to be so prevalent.
What does this tell us?
Throughout the period, women were needlessly debased and defiled, even after death. These instances build an image of a society where women were clearly second class citizens who were not even important enough to factor into the legal codes. However, this is not always the case as there are many instances of Anglo-Saxon men championing their female counterparts, such as King Edward the Elder building and endowing an abbey for his daughter Elflaeda. Women of all echelons, with a few exemptions, were not afforded the same opportunities or respect as their male counterparts. Despite these occurrences, it is clear that Anglo-Saxon attitudes were not kind to women and heavily favoured men and even young boys who were considered to be adults around the age of 10! This is again reinforced by the likely mob action against this teenage girl, which resulted in her losing her nose, ears, and her scalp.
Further Reading:
Aspöck, E. (2011). Past ‘Disturbances’ of Graves as a Source: Taphonomy and Interpretation of Reopened Early Medieval Inhumation Graves at Brunn Am Gebirge (Austria) and Winnall II (England). Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 30(3), pp.299–324. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0092.2011.00370.x.
Aspöck, E. (2015). Funerary and Post-Depositional Body Treatments at the Middle Anglo-Saxon Cemetery Winnall II: Norm, Variety – and Deviance? In: Death embodied: Archaeological Approaches to the Treatment of the Corpse. [online] Oxbow Books, pp.86–108. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1989441.7 [Accessed 19 Apr. 2023].
Cole, G., Ditchfield, P.W., Dulias, K., Edwards, C.J., Reynolds, A. and Waldron, T. (2020). Summary justice or the King’s will? The first case of formal facial mutilation from Anglo-Saxon England. Antiquity, [online] 94(377), pp.1263–1277. doi:https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2020.176.
Hough, C. (2021). Early English Laws: Women and Law in the Anglo-Saxon Period. [online] Earlyenglishlaws.ac.uk. Available at: https://earlyenglishlaws.ac.uk/reference/essays/women-and-law/ [Accessed 29 Jan. 2023].
Lucy, S.J. (1996). Housewives, Warriors and slaves? Sex and Gender in Anglo-Saxon burials. In: Theoretical Archaeology Group, ed., Invisible People and processes; Writing Gender and Childhood into European Archaeology, Theoretical Archaeology Group. Leicester University Press, pp.150–168.
Reynolds, A. (2011). Crime and Punishment. In: H. Hamerow, D. Hinton and S. Crawford, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.238–259.
Reynolds, A. (2013). Judicial culture and social complexity: a general model from Anglo-Saxon England. World Archaeology, 45(5), pp.699–713. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2013.878524.
Reynolds, N. (1988). The rape of the Anglo-Saxon women. Antiquity, 62(237), pp.715–718. doi:https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003598x00075141.
Williams, H. (2011). Mortuary Practices in Early Anglo-Saxon England. In: H. Hamerow, D. Hinton and S. Crawford, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.238–259.
Never read an article about archaeology before but this was really interesting, never knew that so much can be learned from just a single burial site! Very gruesome though 😬