They reveal the possible face of a seventh-century Anglo-Saxon teenager

() The grave of a young woman who lived over 1,300 years ago in Britain continues to intrigue and baffle scientists and historians.

She was buried with a gold and garnet cross encrusted, and her grave was discovered more than a decade ago.

Now, the researchers have managed to reconstruct the face of this Anglo-Saxon teenager, unearthed in 2012 south of Cambridge, near the English town of Trumpington, while they continue to unveil its mysteries.

The remains of the young woman, who died around the age of 16, according to the researchers, presented surprising questions: where did she come from? Why was she entombed in a bed, a custom typically associated with high-status women of the time? And how did she die?

“Personally, it’s very satisfying and strangely emotional to see the face of someone you’ve studied for years and share their story,” Dr. Sam Leggett, a bioarchaeologist at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, said by email.

The Trumpington cross was found during an excavation of the grave in 2012. It indicates that the teenager had high status during her lifetime.
University of Cambridge

discover the past

Leggett is part of a team using modern technology to investigate the young woman’s past. Research so far has revealed that she lived in the 7th century – between 600 and 700 – and that she probably traveled to England from the southern German Alps. And her ornate cross, often referred to as the Trumpington Cross, indicates that she was likely an aristocrat, if not royal, and one of the earliest converts to Christianity at the time.

“I hope that the research we carry out on Trumpington, and on similar burials in England, helps to show the importance of women and girls in the early medieval world, in the Christian Church in particular, and the power and importance they had. in seventh-century society,” Leggett said.

The Trumpington Cross found at the burial site, believed to have been unearthed for the first time since the 7th century. Credit:
University of Cambridge

recreation of the face

Forensic artist Hew Morrison created the facial reconstruction of the young woman. But without the DNA results, her hair and eye color remained guesswork, Morrison told via email, explaining further that he was able to use data about the depth of facial tissue to imagine the features. her.

“There is more room for artistic license when it comes to the facial reconstruction of a historical person, as opposed to an actual forensic case,” Morrison said.

Still, the reconstruction offers audiences a new way to imagine the teenager as a living person, rather than an academic enigma.

“It’s not necessarily an analytical step,” said Dr. Sam Lucy, a Cambridge University archaeologist involved in the research on the young woman and an expert on the time in which she lived.

The Trumpington bed burial is shown in its entirety in this composite image. Credit: University of Cambridge

“The main goal of doing it is to humanize her,” Lucy said, referring to the facial reconstruction. “It helps you remember that these were people who had hopes and dreams, and who died young, and who had bouts of ill health – and that she was probably quite a special person, but perhaps also quite a sick person.”

Lucy says she is still hoping to find out why the young woman was buried near Cambridge and what significance the area may have had for people at the time.

The field where the remains were found “was probably part of a settlement,” Lucy said.

But what most intrigues the archaeologist about that time period – and the burial site – is what scientists still don’t know about the seventh century.

“It’s that period that we consider historical, but for which we really don’t have much historical documentation,” Lucy explains over the phone. “So people think they get it, but when you go back and look at the texts out there, it’s not the whole picture at all.”

The University of Cambridge Museum of Archeology and Anthropology is displaying the portrait of the teenager and her ornate cross in an exhibition titled “Beneath Our Feet: Archeology of the Cambridge Region”, which It opened on Wednesday and will remain open until April 14, according to a press release.