Museum Explorer
Death in
Anglo-Saxon England
Cremation urn
From: Loveden Hill, Lincolnshire
Date: 6th-7th century AD
In early Anglo-Saxon times people often had their bodies burned on a fire (cremated) after they died, and the ashes put into a pot like this one, called an urn. The urn was then buried alongside others in a cemetery.
This urn contained the ashes of an Anglo-Saxon woman as well as the remains of some of her most precious belongings, which were burned with her corpse. This included some glass beads from a necklace, part of a comb made of bone, and three bronze brooches.
