Anglo-Saxon coffins found in England may shed light on early Christians
A rare discovery of 81 Anglo-Saxon coffins made from the hollowed-out trunks of oak trees may provide new insights into how people lived in the early days of Christianity in Britain , archaeologists say. The coffins, which date back to the 7th-9th centuries, were uncovered at a previously unknown Anglo-Saxon cemetery on a site called Great Ryburgh in Norfolk, eastern England , where six rare plank-lined graves were also found. Evidence suggesting the cemetery served a community of early Christians includes a timber structure thought to be a church or chapel, wooden grave markers and a lack of grave goods that would have been expected at pagan burial sites. "This find is a dramatic example of how new evidence is helping to refine our knowledge of this fascinating period when Christianity and the church were still developing on the ground," said Tim Pestell, curator at Norwich Castle Museum in Norfolk, where the finds from the dig will be kept. Few Anglo-Saxon coffins ...