Emily Chan
In 2018, two amateur metal detectorists accidentally discovered the ancient grave of a man in southern England. The man was from the sixth century and was thought to be an Anglo-Saxon warlord. His skeleton was located at a site overlooking the central Thames Valley.
The metal detectorists visited the site a total of three times. Initially, their equipment showed what seemed to be buried iron. They assumed it was just a modern agricultural tool of little interest. But, on their last visit, they unearthed two bronze bowls.
Afterward, they notified the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) run by the British Museum and the National Museum of Wales, which keeps track of amateur archaeological finds.
A PAS archaeologist recovered the bronze bowls and a pair of iron spearheads. These items indicated that the site was an Anglo-Saxon grave.
In 2020, a team of archaeologists led by Gabor Thomas from the University of Reading in the U.K. conducted additional excavations at the site, finishing what the metal detectorists started.
They revealed the skeletal remains of a man, who they named the “Marlow Warlord” after a nearby town. The man would have been about six feet tall during a time when the average male height in Britain was five feet and seven inches.
He was buried with a number of weapons, including an iron sword with a decorated scabbard made of wood, bronze, and leather. It was likely made by an expert craftsman. Some of the leather has managed to survive because the corrosion of the sword’s iron blade protected it from quickly rotting away.
The sword’s scabbard contained a cut mark that may have been made by a warrior on foot who attacked the user of the sword seated on horseback. This insinuated that the weapon was not just for show and was actually used for combat.
Previously, the region in which the warlord’s remains were found was believed to be a “borderland” between large Anglo-Saxon communities in London and Oxford.
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