It's quick and easy to access Live Science Plus, simply enter your email below. We'll send you a confirmation and sign you up for our daily newsletter, keeping you up to date with the latest science news.
The skeletal remains of the Marlow Warlord, as he's been dubbed, show he was very tall for the time – about 6 feet, when the average height was about 5 feet 7 inches.
Archaeologists have unearthed the rich burial of a sixth-century man thought to be an Anglo-Saxon warlord in southern England, after it was first discovered by metal detectorists.
The skeleton of the man, dubbed the "Marlow Warlord" after the Berkshire town near where the remains were found, was buried with several weapons, including a sword in a decorated scabbard. He would have stood at about 6 feet (1.8 meters) tall at a time when the average male height in Britain was about 5 feet 7 inches (1.7 m). Archaeologist Gabor Thomas of the University of Reading in the U.K., who led the excavations at the site overlooking the central Thames Valley, said the burial shed new light on the politics of the region, which was thought until now to be a "borderland" between large Anglo-Saxon communities around London and Oxford, only decades after the collapse of Roman rule in Britain.
The new discovery suggests instead that the region was then more important than historians had suspected, with powerful Anglo-Saxon groups of its own that were ruled by high-status individuals, Thomas told Live Science.
The prominent burial site and the rich grave goods of the Marlow Warlord are evidence of his prestige, he said. "They're making a clear statement about this individual's leadership of this local tribe that lives in the area."
Image 1 of 6
The ancient grave, thought to be that of a an Anglo-Saxon warlord who lived in the 6th century, was discovered at a site overlooking the central Thames Valley in southern England.(Image credit: University of Reading)
The skeletal remains of the Marlow Warlord, as he's been dubbed, show he was very tall for the time – about 6 feet, when the average height was about 5 feet 7 inches.(Image credit: University of Reading)
Archaeologists think the Marlow Warlord was the ruler of an early Anglo-Saxon tribe situated between the large Anglo-Saxon communities around Oxford and London.(Image credit: University of Reading)
The finds shed new light on the early Anglo-Saxon politics of the region, a few decades after the collapse of Roman rule in Britain and a time of great change.(Image credit: University of Reading)
An iron sword in a decorated scabbard of bronze, leather, and wood was found in the grave. Damage to the scabbard suggests the sword was used in warfare.(Image credit: University of Reading)
Grave goods buried with the Marlow Warlord indicate he was a high-status individual and probably a local ruler. They included bronze bowls imported to Britain from Belgium or France.(Image credit: Portable Antiquities Scheme/University of Reading)
Ancient sword
Two amateur metal detectorists from the area, Sue and Mike Washington, discovered the ancient grave in 2018.
They'd made three trips to the site, with their equipment initially showing what appeared to be buried iron — something they thought was probably a fairly recent agricultural tool of little interest.
Sign up for the Live Science daily newsletter now
Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox.
On their last visit, however, they unearthed two bronze bowls, — and, realizing the significance of the find, registered their discovery with the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) run by the British Museum and the National Museum of Wales, which records amateur archaeological finds.
A PAS archaeologist then investigated, recovering the bronze bowls and a pair of iron spearheads that suggested the site was likely to be an Anglo-Saxon grave. Those objects will soon go on display at the Buckinghamshire Museum in Aylesbury.
After that investigation, Thomas led a full excavation in August that revealed the skeletal remains of the Marlow Warlord, alongside the sword and other grave goods. The sword is made of iron and is held in a decorated scabbard made of bronze, leather and wood. Some of the leather has survived many centuries in the ground because it was protected by the corrosion of the iron blade — organic material like leather usually quickly rots away in the earth, so this is a rare find that can now be tested for any remaining genetic material, he said.
The scabbard also had a bronze fitting called a "chape" at the end, which showed a cut-mark where it might have been damaged by a warrior on foot who struck the wearer of the scabbard seated on horseback.
This suggested the sword was a working weapon, rather than just for show, he said. "It's quite an interesting piece of evidence that this person saw active combat."
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms
Several other items buried with the Marlow Warlord indicate his importance.
The bronze bowls were imported to Britain from what is now Belgium or France, which suggested he had far-reaching connections, Thomas said. The glass vessel was also a very rare find from the period — glass was relatively common under Roman rule, but it is seldom found at early Anglo-Saxon sites — while the sword itself must have been made by an expert craftsman.
The styles of the bowls and the glass vessels suggest the grave dates to the sixth century — less than a century after the end of Roman rule in Britain and a time of great change.
Thomas and the University of Reading are now running a crowdfunding campaign to carry out chemical and genetic tests on the objects in the Marlow Warlord's grave — that could more firmly date its age.
"In the sixth century, you start to get [Anglo-Saxon] kingdoms emerging," Thomas said. "Upstream of where we are talking about, you've got the kingdom of Wessex, which develops into probably the strongest kingdom of post-Roman England."
"You've also got kingdoms downriver, including the kingdom of Kent, that start muscling-in and trying to acquire territory."
"What is clear that you've got a local autonomous tribe here, with war leaders — it doesn't take off into a kingdom like Wessex and Kent, but that's probably an historical accident," he said. "Clearly it had the conditions to take off in that direction."
Tom Metcalfe is a freelance journalist and regular Live Science contributor who is based in London in the United Kingdom. Tom writes mainly about science, space, archaeology, the Earth and the oceans. He has also written for the BBC, NBC News, National Geographic, Scientific American, Air & Space, and many others.
