Bed burial facts for kids
A bed burial is a special way people were buried long ago. It means someone was laid to rest in the ground, but they were placed on a bed instead of directly in the earth. This type of burial was mostly used for important women during the early Anglo-Saxon period, around the 600s. These burials are quite rare to find today.
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Anglo-Saxon Bed Burials: What Are They?
Many early Anglo-Saxon bed burials have been found in England. Most of them are from the 600s. They are mainly in southern areas like Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, and Wiltshire. But some have also been found in Derbyshire and North Yorkshire.
The beds used for these burials were made of wood. The wood has long since rotted away. But we know the beds were there because of the iron parts. Things like nails, cleats, grommets, and railings show the shape of the bed in the grave. Sometimes, it's hard to tell if the iron parts came from a bed or a coffin.
Who Was Buried in Anglo-Saxon Beds?
Most Anglo-Saxon bed burials are for young women. Many of these graves contain jewelry and other special items. These "grave goods" show that the person was rich and important. For example, the gold jewelry found at Loftus suggests the woman might have been a princess.
Some women buried on beds also had Christian symbols with them. These include pectoral crosses. This has led some people to think they might have been abbesses. Abbesses were important church leaders. In early Anglo-Saxon times, noble families often sent their daughters to become abbesses.
Special Features of Bed Burials
Some bed burials had extra special features. These make them similar to ship burials. For example, some beds were placed inside a special room underground, called a chamber. Other times, a large mound of earth, called a barrow, was built over the grave.
At some sites, a grubenhaus was found nearby. This was a small building with a sunken floor. It's possible the person was laid out in this building before burial. This would allow people to say goodbye.
Archaeologist Howard Williams has described how complex these funerals must have been. He explains that digging the grave and preparing the body took a lot of effort. Then, the bed and the body were carefully lowered into the grave. Many items were placed with the person. Finally, the grave was filled in, and a mound was built.
Burying someone on a bed suggests that death was seen as a kind of sleep. Also, an old English word, leger, meant "a place where one lies." This word was used for both beds and graves. This shows how beds and graves were thought of as similar places.
List of Anglo-Saxon Bed Burials
Since the 1800s, about a dozen Anglo-Saxon bed burials have been found. Here is a list of some of them.
| Location | County | Coordinates | Year Found | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cherry Hinton, Cambridge | Cambridgeshire | 52°11′06″N 0°10′30″E / 52.185°N 0.175°E | 1949 | One bed burial was found among nine Anglo-Saxon graves. | |
| Shrublands Quarry, Smythes Corner, Coddenham | Suffolk | 52°08′24″N 1°06′54″E / 52.140°N 1.115°E | 2005 | 600s | A woman's bed burial in a chambered grave. It had valuable items, including a gold coin pendant from a Frankish king. |
| Collingbourne Ducis | Wiltshire | 51°17′10″N 1°38′53″W / 51.286°N 1.648°W | 2007 | Late 600s | Bed burial of a woman around 45 years old. Only one pot was found in her grave. |
| Edix Hill, Barrington | Cambridgeshire | 52°07′52″N 0°00′40″E / 52.131°N 0.011°E | 1989–1991 | 600s | Two bed burials were found here. One was a young woman (17–25) with leprosy. She had many personal items, like rings, a knife, and a comb. |
| Harpole, near Northampton (Harpole bed burial) | Northamptonshire | 2022 | Mid 600s | A bed burial of an important woman. She was buried with valuable jewelry. | |
| Stanton, near Ixworth | Suffolk | 52°19′12″N 0°52′30″E / 52.320°N 0.875°E | 1886 | Mid 600s | A bed burial with valuable items, including a gold and garnet cross. |
| Lapwing Hill, Brushfield | Derbyshire | 53°14′24″N 1°45′54″W / 53.240°N 1.765°W | 1850 | 600s | A man's bed burial under a mound. He was buried with his weapons. |
| Street House Anglo-Saxon cemetery, near Loftus | North Yorkshire | 54°33′47″N 0°51′29″W / 54.563°N 0.858°W | 2005–2007 | Mid 600s | A young woman's bed burial. She had a gold pendant, glass beads, pottery, and knives. |
| Roundway Down | Wiltshire | 51°22′52″N 1°59′31″W / 51.381°N 1.992°W | 1840 | Possibly a bed burial. Iron parts might be from a coffin. A gold necklace and a bucket were found. | |
| Shudy Camps, near Bartlow | Cambridgeshire | 52°03′00″N 0°21′36″E / 52.050°N 0.360°E | 1933 | Two, possibly three, bed burials were found here. | |
| Swallowcliffe Down | Wiltshire | 51°01′30″N 2°02′13″W / 51.025°N 2.037°W | 1966 | Late 600s | A young woman's bed burial inside a chamber. Many valuable items were found, including a satchel with a cross design, jewelry, and a comb. |
| Trumpington, Cambridge (Trumpington bed burial) | Cambridgeshire | 52°10′19″N 0°06′18″E / 52.172°N 0.105°E | 2011 | Mid 600s | A bed burial of a young woman, about 16 years old. She was buried with a gold cross, a knife, and glass beads. |
| Winklebury Hill, near Shaftesbury | Wiltshire | 50°59′42″N 2°04′12″W / 50.995°N 2.070°W | 1881 | Possibly a bed burial. | |
| Woodyates, near Salisbury | Dorset | 50°57′54″N 1°57′54″W / 50.965°N 1.965°W | 1812 | Possibly a bed burial. Beads made of gold, glass, and jet were found. |
Viking Bed Burials: A Different Kind of Rest
In some Viking ship burials from Norway and Sweden, people were laid on beds. Famous examples include the Oseberg ship burial (from 834) and Gokstad ship burial (from the late 800s). However, these were not "true" bed burials where the bed was buried directly in the ground. Instead, the beds were part of the ship's contents.
Modern Instances: A Unique Choice
In 1910, a man named Morris Lofton was buried in his iron bed frame. This happened in Rose Cemetery in Tarpon Springs, Florida. His bed was his only possession. You can still see it in the cemetery today.
See also
- Chamber tomb
