Recently a photo of an intact early Anglo-Saxon skeleton absolutely skewered by a modern cable or pipe, has gone viral. It’s a powerful photo emblematic of the trampling of heritage by modernity, and brutal disrespect of human remains. Except it isn’t…..Early Anglo Saxon burial (Oakington, Cambs) bisected by modern utility pipe
The viral posts circulating about the ancient skull pierced by a gas line have become increasingly sensationalized and misleading, lacking important context. The reality is that the skeleton in question was that of a 6th century Anglo-Saxon adult female, discovered during the excavation of an Early Anglo-Saxon cemetery in Oakington, Cambridgeshire, by archaeologists from Manchester Metropolitan and Central Lancashire universities in 2014.
The presence of an Anglo-Saxon cemetery in the area had been known since 1938, with further excavations in 1993 uncovering 25 additional burials and settlement evidence. However, the full extent of the cemetery had remained largely unknown for most of the last century, as the local community, businesses, and utility companies went about their everyday activities.
The particular burial in question, nicknamed “Piper”, was located very close to the modern road, where underground infrastructure supplying the village had been installed. The skeleton was found adorned with grave goods, including two small-long brooches on the shoulders, an expensive large cruciform brooch facing down, and wrist-clasps representing a sleeved dress beneath a peplos gown and centrally pinned cloak, as well as swags of glass and amber beads.
The sensationalized social media posts, with diminishing context with each share and retweet, have failed to accurately represent the nuanced and fascinating historical significance of this archaeological discovery. The true story is one of uncovering and preserving an important piece of Early Anglo-Saxon history, rather than a simplistic tale of modern infrastructure intruding upon the past.
The now infamous yellow pipe, which we understand to likely be a gas line, had been installed using the standard practice of directional drilling. This involves machinery tunneling a long route for pipes, between small access trenches, minimizing the disruption that would be associated with the more obvious and low-tech “cut and fill” method for laying pipes.
Although geophysical sensing methods are used to scout for anomalies, hazards, or archaeological remains ahead of the drilling, these cannot reliably detect human bone. It is overwhelmingly likely that the installer of the pipe was entirely unaware they had punched through a 1500-year-old burial.
The archaeologists noted during the 13-hour excavation how impressively the boring of the pipe had punched through cleanly, with minimal disruption to the burial, and missing the grave-goods by a matter of centimetres. Respectful treatment of human remains is certainly desirable, and an increasingly important priority for archaeologists conducting excavations. No archaeologist or engineer would want to see an ancient burial skewered in this way. What happened to “Piper” was obviously unfortunate, but was almost certainly an unavoidable accident, and not a wanton act of ignorance and desecration.
