‘It’s simple. If there really is an Anglo-Saxon cemetery under the outer bailey, the builders of the castle would never have dug a well where there were corpses.’
‘Oh, well, we shall see. One thing: at the rate Veryan and Tynant are taking their measurements and plotting out where to begin the dig, somebody may have found all the wells before they and we and the workmen have to put our backs into the spade-work. Let’s hope it will be easier than humping these blocks of stone.’
Malpas Veryan joined them. He was accompanied by two burly fellows in jeans, shirts and unzipped, grubby windcheaters.
‘Our fellow labourers,’ he said. ‘They will be helping to clear the outer bailey and we shall begin digging in a day or two, when we’ve got the circle of the cairn mapped out and the site free of stone and rubble. This is Bill Stickle and this is Gideon Stour. Gentlemen, Mr Monkswood and Mr Hassocks, who will be helping us to excavate the last resting-place of a prehistoric chieftain.’
‘I do fondly hope as he won’t haunt us,’ said Bill Stickle, with a laugh in which Gideon Stour joined.
‘I thought we were going to dig up an Anglo-Saxon burial ground,’ said Bonamy in a murmur to Tom. ‘You can’t call the Anglo-Saxons prehistoric. What exactly shall we be looking for, sir?’ he asked in his ordinary voice.
‘Bronze Age burials. Did I hear you murmur something about the Anglo-Saxons? Undoubtedly they had a settlement in these parts, but we are after something which is of the greatest interest to Tynant and myself. We hold somewhat differing theories about Neolithic and Bronze Age burials and this excavation may go some way in proving which of us is right.’
‘So what
‘Basically, a central grave, but multiple interments are not unknown. Sometimes members of a family were buried in the same mound. The principal grave will no doubt be easy enough to locate, for it will be in the centre of the circle we are measuring out. The other interments may be almost anywhere within the same circle. Our guide is the enormous ditch which is so obvious a feature of Saltergate’s defence system. I am certain it represents a segment of a circle and that is our clue, for it must have been part of a henge.’
‘It sounds splendid fun, sir.’
‘I think so. Now I don’t want you fellows breaking your backs lugging Saltergate’s blocks of stone about. You ease yourselves in gently until you get used to the job. In any case, these two splendid fellows will help both parties, I am sure, if Saltergate needs a little assistance occasionally.’
‘You be our employer, sir, not t’other gentleman,’ said the older workman firmly but civilly. His companion was more forthright.
‘We be hired to dig, not to tote blocks o’ stone about,’ he said.
‘Oh, dear! These union rules!’ said Veryan lightly.
‘Would you be wanting us further?’ asked the older man.
‘No, no. There is nothing to do until the marking-out is all done. That is why I thought you might care to help Mr Saltergate a little.’
They made no reply except to touch their foreheads and slouch off.
‘Not exactly chaps I would choose to go with on a walking-tour,’ said Tom, ‘if you don’t mind my saying so, sir.’
‘Oh, I do so heartily agree, but, having made their point, they will now help Saltergate if and when he needs assistance,’ said Veryan.
‘How soon will you be going to commence digging, sir?’ asked Tom.
‘Oh, probably tomorrow. That’s why we don’t want you to wear yourselves out dealing with blocks of stone. I wonder what made you think of Saxon cemeteries?’
‘Something Mr Saltergate said, I think.’
‘Oh, well, his interest is in buildings and his conception of history begins with Edward the Confessor,’ said Veryan, laughing. ‘No, no. Tynant and I will be looking for signs of a disc barrow.’
‘But the area you are to cover is pretty flat for that, isn’t it, sir?’ said Bonamy.
‘Tynant’s theory – and here he is in agreement with Saltergate – is that the earliest castle on this hill was a motte and bailey and constructed of wood. The stone buildings came later. The wooden keep was where the remains of the later one still stand, and Saltergate thinks that the outer bailey was flattened when the second castle was built. That meant the domestic quarters could be erected on level ground at the foot of the sharp rise which leads up to the keep. The earliest castle would probably have had only a palisade around the living-quarters. In time of trouble all the inhabitants would have crowded into the keep, the drawbridge over the defensive ditch would have been raised and on the slope up to the keep there might have been a broad ladder from which a section could be removed to make an assault on the keep more difficult. But this is childish stuff compared with our excavations.’
‘Are we likely to find skeletons or anything else interesting, sir? What exactly do we expect?’
‘At some sites archaeologists have found two types of funeral procedure, inhumations and cremations. First, whether it was one or the other, came, as I told you, the main burial, usually the deepest down, then followed what have been termed satellite burials, sometimes on a level with the primary interment, sometimes rather higher up in the mound, and, later still, secondary burials have turned up, but, as those were higher up still, we may not find any traces of them on this site. Any bones might have been dug up and thrown away when the Normans flattened the site to make their outer bailey, but we hope not.’
‘Would there be any good finds in the primary grave, sir, apart from skeletons or cremated dust, I mean?’ asked Tom.
‘It depends upon what you mean by “good finds”, Mr Hassocks. Anything we shall find is certain to have been duplicated elsewhere – a bronze dagger, a beaker, perhaps an archer’s wrist-guard, possibly (although this is fairly rare) some magic symbol such as the head of a hawk which was found in the barrow at Kellythorpe.’
‘Couldn’t the hawk’s head have been, like the dagger, the beaker and the wrist-guard, something simply to help
