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Norfolk Heritage Explorer

Record Details

NHER Number:	5668
Type of record:	Monument
Name:	Viking burial

Summary

In 1867 workmen digging gravel found a skeleton buried with two brooches and a sword. The brooches and sword are both Scandinavian in style and the inhumation is a very important example of a Viking burial. The brooches are of 'tortoise type' and are made of gilt copper alloy with twisted threads of silver.

Images - none

Location

Grid Reference:	TL 8296 8741
Map Sheet:	TL88NW
Parish:	LYNFORD, BRECKLAND, NORFOLK

Full description

1867.
Very important Viking double burial found - sword and brooches.
See full details and list of references in file.
E. Rose (NAU), 17 May 1990.

'During the course of the year 1867 some men employed in raising gravel at Santon, found a skeleton laid at full length about two feet below the surface. The spot where the burial had taken place is on the slope of the hill to the north of the church, and at no great distance from the River Ouse'. With the skeleton were found an iron Scandinavian sword and two characteristic Scandinavian 'tortoise' brooches (S2). The original account indicates this is unlikely to be a double burial.
See (S1).
M. Dennis (NLA), 23 May 2006.

Monument Types

FINDSPOT (Late Saxon - 851 AD to 1065 AD)
INHUMATION (Late Saxon - 851 AD to 1065 AD)

Associated Finds

BROOCH (Late Saxon - 851 AD to 1065 AD)
SWORD (Late Saxon - 851 AD to 1065 AD)

Protected Status - none

Sources and further reading

---	Article in Serial: [anonymous]. 1907. [proceedings of meeting held Thursday, 8th February, 1906]. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London. Second Series Vol XXI pp 72-84. p 75.
---	Article in Serial: [anonymous]. 1909. [proceedings of meeting held Thursday, 28th November, 1907]. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London. Second Series Vol XXII pp 1-32. p 8.
---	Publication: Smith, R. 1923. British Museum Guide to Anglo-Saxon Antiquities. p 94.
---	Article in Serial: [anonymous]. 1887. On an iron sword of Scandinavian type found in London, now in the British Museum; and a bronze stirrup of the same period found near Romsey, in Hampshire, in the possession of Philip B. Davis Cook, Esq. Archaeologia. Vol L pp 530-533. p 531.
---	Monograph: Wheeler, R. E. M. 1927. London and the Vikings. pp 33, 35.
---	Record Card: Ordnance Survey Staff. 1933-1979?. Ordnance Survey Record Cards. TL 88 NW 6 [2].
---	Record Card: NAU Staff. 1974-1988. Norfolk Archaeological Index Primary Record Card.
---	Publication: Fox, C. 1923. The Archaeology of the Cambridge Region: a topographical study of the Bronze, Early Iron, Roman, and Anglo-Saxon Ages, with an introductory note on the Neolithic Age. p 299.
---	Record Card: Clarke, R. R. and NCM Staff. 1933-1973. Norwich Castle Museum Record Card - Late Saxon. Lynford [2].
---	Publication: Shetelig, H. 1940. Viking Antiquities in Great Britain. IV. pp 12-13.
---	Secondary File: Secondary File.
---	Article in Serial: Greenwell, W. 1870. On the Opening of Grime's Graves in Norfolk. Journal of the Ethnological Society of London. Vol II No 4 pp 419-439. p 438.
---	Article in Serial: Greenwell, W. 1870. Scandinavian Brooches found at Santon, in Norfolk. Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and Natural History. Vol IV Pt 4 pp 208-217.
<S1>	Article in Serial: [anonymous]. 1914. [proceedings of meeting held Thursday, 25th June, 1914]. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London. Second Series Vol XXVI pp 230-248. p 242.
<S1>	Article in Serial: [anonymous]. 1916. [proceedings of meeting held Thursday, 25th May 1916]. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London. Second Series Vol XXVIII pp 226-233. p 230.
<S1>	Monograph: 1901. The Victoria History of Norfolk. The Victoria History of the Counties of England. Vol 1. pp 347-350.
<S2>	Illustration: [unknown]. [unknown]. Drawing of a Late Saxon brooch. Card. 2:1.