St Cuthbert died in the year 687, and was buried at the monastery on the island of Lindisfarne. Eventually his body was removed to Durham Cathedral, and in 1827 his tomb was opened and this gold pectoral cross was discovered around his neck. This cross must date from a similar period to the Ixworth Cross, but presumably was made in a Northern workshop. St Cuthbert's cross is inlaid with garnets, just as in our cross, and the overall shape is similar. The association of such a cross with a Bishop, as Cuthbert became in 685, may indicate that the Ixworth Cross could have a similar background. Was the Ixworth Cross also the property of a Bishop or similar highly placed churchman?

The Trumpington Cross

One of the most unusual Christian burials known in Britain has been found near Cambridge near Junction 11 of the M11. The body of an Anglo-Saxon teenage girl had been interred on a wooden bed, wearing a striking gold cross set with garnets. On March 16th the Times reported on this rare archaeological find in a female grave at Trumpington. The cross, valuable enough to suggest that the girl, 16, was of high status, is only the fifth of its kind to be found, and was excavated from her grave in Trumpington, Cambridgeshire. She was in one of four graves, the others being more typical examples of Anglo-Saxon burials of the time, with no indications of Christianity. Set with garnets, the cross dates the grave to between 650AD and 680AD. “We think there’s only been one other bed burial combined with a Christian pectoral cross ever found,” said Alison Dickens, of Cambridge University’s archaeological unit. “Bed burials are conspicuously rare, but there is a little cluster around the Cambridge area.” The cross, 3.5cm (1.5in) in diameter, is only the fifth such piece to be found in the UK. The most famous came from the coffin of St Cuthbert (died 687) in Durham Cathedral. It is very similar to the Ixworth Cross and the Wilton Cross, both found in the 19th century. A cemetery at Westfield, Ely, dug by the Cambridge unit in 2006, also contained a later 7th-century burial with a cross pendant, of a child aged 10-12, probably a girl, who was thought to have been associated with the first monastery at Ely.

At lectures given at Sutton Hoo in July 2014, Dr Sam Lucy advanced our ideas about these crosses. Beginning with the Trumpington Cross, which is a modern and well recorded excavation, we find that the reverse of this cross contains small brackets which were used to sew the cross on to a garment at the neck. Gold and garnet link pins were also found by the head which were used to fasten a veil or headdress. This bed burial and associated jewellery is undoubtedly a female grave. This leads us to the possibility that all the bed burials so far discovered may well be female graves, and that these so-called pectoral crosses were not indicative of male bishops, but of high status Christian women, who themselves may have led a female religious community. The radio carbon dating obtained for the Trumpington body is from 665 to 680 AD. Re-examination of the illustrated iron fittings, described above as found with the Ixworth/Stanton Cross, has led to the conclusion that this was also a bed burial. Taken together with the associated fibula or brooch, it is easy to conclude that the grave occupant was most probably a woman. Where does this leave St Cuthbert's Cross? Cuthbert died in a hermit's cell on Inner Farne island on or about 20th March, 687 AD. It is immediately unlikely that such an ascetic would have worn a valuable jewel. The body was taken to Lindisfarne for burial. Even at Lindisfarne the grave was soon opened so that his body could be moved to a new resting place at the high altar in 698. In 875 the body was removed to avoid viking raids, and apparently it wandered for seven years until located at Chester Le Street, where King Aethelstan is recorded as visiting the shrine. He left valuable textiles to adorn the shrine. There was a further move to Ripon in 995, and a final move to Durham. At Durham the shrine was moved more than once until the great Norman cathedral was built by 1104. It seems quite probable that the cross was a gift from a female pilgrim, and could have been inserted into the coffin as early as the 690s.

Winfarthing woman's garnet pendant Winfarthing woman's gold cross

Newspapers reported on 4th December 2017 that a significant Anglo-Saxon find had been made at Winfarthing, near Diss, in Norfolk. The papers were actually reporting upon the publication of the annual report of the Portable Antiquities Scheme for 2016. The discovery of an “exquisite” gold pendant by a student metal detectorist is being credited with rewriting the understanding of Anglo-Saxon history. The find of the female skeleton wearing a pendant of gold imported from Sri Lanka and coins bearing the marks of a continental king is prompting a fundamental reassessment of the seats of power in Anglo Saxon England. Much of the gold jewellery was still on the skeleton of the woman, who would have been of extremely high status, buried between around 650 and 675 AD, and probably one of the earliest Anglo-Saxon converts to Christianity. One of the large pendants, found lower down on the skeleton's chest, was made of gold and inlaid with hundreds of tiny garnets and in itself is valued at £140,000. A gold cross among the treasure counts as one of the earliest “potent” symbols of Christianity ever found. The Norwich Castle Museum is now raising the £145,000 needed to buy the trove, dubbed the Winfarthing Woman, whose craftsmanship is the “equal” of the famous Staffordshire Hoard, according to Senior Curator Dr Tim Pestell. “It shows that the person buried in this grave was of the very highest status, certainly aristocratic and quite possibly royal.” The Winfarthing Woman was highlighted in the annual report of the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) as an example of best practice by amateur metal detectorists.