‘Sons of athelings given to the earth’:¹ Infant Mortality within Anglo-Saxon Mortuary Geography

Figures & data

FIG 1. Saltwood, Kent, Note the large clusters of graves which focus on Bronze-Age ring ditches. The trackway has prehistoric origins and remained in use until the 19th century, so the early Anglo-Saxons would have accessed these graves from different places. Redrawn after Brooks and Reynolds 2011. © D Sayer.

FIG 2. Cemeteries included in this study: 1 Apple Down, West Sussex, 2 Abingdon, Oxfordshire, 3 Barrington, Cambridgeshire, 4 Beckford B, Hereford and Worcester, 5 Berinsfield, Oxfordshire, 6 Blacknall Field, Wiltshire, 7 Broughton Lodge, Nottinghamshire, 8 Castledyke South, Lincolnshire, 9 Dover Buckland, Kent, 10 Empingham II, Rutland, 11 Finglesham, Kent, 12 Great Chesterford, Essex, 13 Kingsworthy, Hampshire, 14 Lechlade, Oxfordshire, 15 Norton, Cleveland, 16 West Heslerton, North Yorkshire, 17 Alton, Hampshire, 18 Alwalton, Cambridgeshire, 19 Beckford A, Hereford and Worcester, 20 Bergh Apton, Norfolk, 21 Coddenham, Suffolk, 22 Deal, Kent, 23 Didcot, Oxfordshire, 24 Dinton, Buckinghamshire, 25 Droxford, Hampshire, 26 Empingham I, Rutland, 27 Gunthorpe, Peterborough, 28 Holborough Hill, Kent, 29 Lyminge, Kent, 30 Marina Drive, Dunstable Bedfordshire, 31 Market Lavington, Wiltshire, 32 Meonstoke, Hampshire, 33 Melbourn, Cambridgeshire, 34 Morning-Thorpe, Norfolk, 35 Portway Andover, Hampshire, 36 Ports Down, Hampshire, 37 Orpington, Kent, 38 Sewerby, East Yorkshire, 39 Wakerley, Northamptonshire, 40 Westgarth Gardens, Suffolk, 41 Winterbourne Gunner, Wiltshire. Drawn by D Sayer ©.

FIG 3. Pie chart showing the proportions of children, infants and adults found in large cemeteries with over 100 graves. Drawn by D Sayer ©.

Table 1. Sixteen early Anglo-Saxon inhumation cemeteries with over 100 graves.

Cemetery	Infants aged 0–5	Children aged 6–12	Total under 12	Total skeletons	Extent of cemetery excavated	Skeletal preservation	Reference
Apple Down, West Sussex	16 (13.2%)	12 (9.9%)	28 (23%)	121		good	Down and Welch 1990: 188
Abingdon, Oxfordshire	20 (16.8%)	19 (16%)	39 (33%)	119	50%–75%	unknown	Leeds and Harden 1936
Barrington, Cambridgeshire	15 (10.1%)	14 (9.5%)	29 (19.5%)	148		good	Malim and Hines 1998
Beckford B, Hereford and Worcester	9 (8.3%)	17 (15.7%)	26 (24%)	108			Evison and Hill 1996: 52
Berinsfield, Oxfordshire	12 (10.5%)	17 (14.9%)	29 (25.4%)	114		medium	Boyle et al 1995:113
Blacknall Field, Wiltshire	26 (25.7%)	9 (8.9%)	35 (34.7%)	101		poor	Annable and Eagles 2010
Broughton Lodge, Nottinghamshire	5 (4.8%)	4 (3.8%)	12 (11.4%)	105			Kinsley 1993
Castledyke South, Lincolnshire	14 (6.7%)	12 (5.3%)	26 (14%)	227	55%	poor	Drinkhall and Foreman 1998
Dover Buckland, Kent	20 (5%)	25 (6.3%)	45 (11.5%)	394		poor	Parfitt and Anderson 2012; Evison 1987
Empingham II, Rutland	11 (7.3%)	13 (8.7%)	24 (16%)	150		good	Timby 1996
Finglesham, Kent	17 (8.5%)	16 (8 %)	33 (16.4%)	201		poor	Hawkes and Grainger 2006: 314
Great Chesterford, Essex	67 (40.1%)	12 (7.2%)	79 (46.7%)	167	75%?	poor	Evison 1994
Kingsworthy, Hampshire	14 (14%)	11 (11%)	25 (25%)	100			Hawkes and Grainger 2003, 154
Lechlade, Kent	38 (17.4%)	21 (9.6%)	59 (26.9%)	219			Boyle et al 1998: 48
Norton, Cleveland	3 (2.6%)	20 (17.1%)	23 (19.7%)	117		poor	Sherlock and Welch 1992
West Heslerton, North Yorkshire	21 (11%)	33 (17.1%)	22 (28.1%)	195		poor	Haughton and Powlesland 1999, 177
Total	308 (13.5%)	255 (11.2%)	534 (23.5%)	2286	-	-	-
Average	19.3	14	33.4	142.8	-	-	-

Table 2. Twenty-five early Anglo-Saxon cemeteries with less than 100 graves.

Cemetery	Infants aged 0–5	Children aged 6–12	Total under 12	Total skeletons	Reference
Alton, Hampshire	7 (14.3%)	4 (8.2%)	11 (22.4%)	49	Evison 1988
Alwalton, Cambridgeshire	1 (2.7%)	1 (2.7%)	2 (5.6%)	36	Gibson 2007, 280
Beckford A, Hereford and Worcester	1 (4.2%)	4 (16.7)	5 (20.8%)	24	Evison and Hill 1996, 47
Bergh Apton, Norfolk	-	12 (19%)	12 (19%)	63	Green and Rogerson 1978
Coddenham, Suffolk	2 (5.9%)	3 (8.8%)	5 (14.7%)	34	Penn 2011
Deal, Kent	5 (6.4%)	7 (9%)	12 (15.4%)	78	Parfitt and Brugman 1997, 215
Didcot, Oxfordshire	1 (5.9)	2 (11.8%)	3 (17.6%)	17	Boyle and Mudd 1995
Dinton, Buckinghamshire	1 (5%)	3 (15%)	4 (20%)	20	Hunn et al 1994
Droxford, Hampshire	3(7.3%)	1 (2.4%)	4 (9.8%)	41	Aldsworth & Welch 1979
Empingham I, Rutland	-	1 (7%)	1 (7%)	14	Liddle et al 2000
Gunthorpe, Peterborough	1 (3.1%)	3 (9.4%)	4 (12.5%)	32	Patrick et al 2007, 209
Holborough Hill, Kent	3 (7.7%)	1 (2.6%)	4 (10.3%)	39	Evison 1956
Lyminge, Kent	3 (6.8%)	7 (15.9%)	10 (22.7%)	44	Warhurst 1955
Marina Drive Dunstable, Bedfordshire	2 (4.1%)	10 (20.4%)	12 (24.5%)	49	Matthews 1962
Market Lavington, Wiltshire	3 (7%)	4 (9.8%)	7 (17%)	41	Williams and Newman 2006
Meonstoke, Hampshire	4 (19%)	0	4 (19%)	21	Stoodley and Stedman 2001
Melbourn, Cambridgeshire	4 (6.8%)	1 (1.7%)	5 (8.5%)	59	Duncan et al 2003
Morning Thorpe, Norfolk	2 (2.1%)	7 (7.4%)	9 (8.5%)	94	Green et al 1987
Portway Andover, Hampshire	7 (10.1%)	12 (17.4%)	19 (27.5%)	69	Cook and Dacre 1985, 61
Ports Down, Hampshire	1 (4.5%)	1 (4.5%)	2 (9.1%)	22	Corney et al 1967
Orpington, Kent	1 (1.6%)	3 (4.8%)	4 (6.3%)	63	Richardson 2005
Sewerby, East Yorkshire	1 (1.8%)	3 (5.3%)	4 (7%)	57	Hirst 1985
Wakerley, Northamptonshire	1 (1.2%)	10 (11.8%)	11 (13.9%)	85	Adams and Jackson 1988–9
Westgarth Gardens, Suffolk	6 (9.2%)	3 (4.6%)	9 (13.8%)	65	West 1988, 5
Winterbourne Gunner, Wiltshire	1	1	2	10	Musty and Stratton 1964
Total	61 (5.4%)	104 (9.2%)	165 (14.7%)	1126	-
Average	2.4	4.16	6.6	45	-

Table 3. Chi-Square investigation of infants in early Anglo-Saxon cemeteries

Burial type	Observed	Expected 11%
Infants Large Cemeteries	308	251.46
Infants Small Cemeteries	61	123.86
P-value (significance)	0.00000000002

Table 4. Chi-Square investigation of children in early Anglo-Saxon cemeteries

Burial type	Observed	Expected 11%
Children Large Cemeteries	255	251.46
Children Small Cemeteries	104	123.86
P-value (significance)	0.07

Table 5. Chi-Square infants in early Anglo-Saxon cemeteries with numerical outliers removed¹

Burial type	Observed	Expected 11%
Infants Large Cemeteries	241	233.09
Infants Small Cemeteries	52	109.78
P-value (significance)	0.00000003

¹ This calculation has been carried out with Great Chesterford and all cemeteries with fewer than 30 graves removed from the data. Even with these removed, infants and children are still each 11% of the total cemetery population.

FIG 4. Pie chart showing the proportions of children, infants and adults found in small cemeteries with less than 100 graves. Drawn by D Sayer ©.

FIG 5. Proportions of infants and children in 41 cemeteries displayed as a histogram and arranged according to the number of infants. Cemeteries with over 100 graves are highlighted in red. Notice the increased number of these cemeteries where there are greater numbers of infants. Drawn by D Sayer ©.

FIG 6. Top: Apple Down, West Sussex. This illustration shows the majority of inhumation graves, cremations are not included because age determination is impossible. Note the concentration of older adults and infants marked by the arrow. Bottom: Berinsfield, Oxfordshire. Berinsfield has two groups of graves oriented S/N and W/E and it also has two distinct concentration of infants and children marked with the arrows. Drawn by D Sayer ©.

FIG 7. Top: Great Chesterford, Essex. About 75% of this cemetery has been excavated; note the two zones of children and infants each with concentrations of infant burials. Bottom: Westgarth Gardens, Suffolk. This site has single focus of infants and children in the centre adjacent to the older adults. Drawn by D Sayer ©.

FIG 8. The Avon Valley, large cemeteries are spaced along the Avon hemmed by smaller sites along this boundary between two cultural zones. 1 Beckford B, 2 Bridford, 3 Alverton, 4 Wasperton and 5 Baginton. After Scheschkewitz 2006, 11. © D Sayer.

FIG 9. Kent with lathes, major Roman roads and rivers marked. Not the position of large cemeteries in west Kent with one or two to a lath each hemmed by small sites focus around a Roman road or river. In east Kent the large cemeteries are also hemmed by smaller ones but they also seem to mark the coast as a boundary. 1 Riseley, 2 Polhill, 3 Eccles, 4 Saltwood, 5 Lyminge, 6 Bifrons, 7 Bishopsbourne, 8 Kingston, 9 Breach Downs, 10 Brooksend, 11 Sarre, 12 Ozengell, 13 Broadstairs, 14 Peters Tip, 15 Dover Buckland, 16 Beacon Hill, 17 Finglesham, 18 Gilton, 19 Updown, 20 Sibertswold/Barfriston. After Richardson 2005; Brookes 2011. © D Sayer.

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