Two Anglo-Saxon children buried together 1,400 years ago were brother and sister, DNA analysis of their remains reveals. A rare familial connection has been identified in Anglo-Saxon burials.
British archeology program Time Team said the brothers may have died at the same time from a fast-acting illness.
Archaeologists first discovered the unusual double burial in September 2024 in an Anglo-Saxon cemetery in the southwestern English village of Cherrington. Inside the tomb, researchers discovered the skeleton of a 7- or 8-year-old boy holding an iron sword, dating back to the late 7th century, and the skeleton of a teenage girl, who was buried with a necklace and a workbox (a cylindrical metal object believed to have contained thread or cloth).
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Time Team featured the excavation of the double burial in an episode released in January, and DNA analysis of the human remains was recently completed by scientists at the Francis Crick Institute in London. The results were announced on the April 14 episode of the Time Team podcast.
Jacqueline McKinley, an osteoarchaeologist at Wessex Archaeology, who excavated the burial, said in a podcast that DNA “confirmed that we have a boy and a young girl.” “But I know what their relationship is now. They were brother and sister.”
It appears that the brothers were buried at the same time and in the same grave. The sister was found facing her brother in a slightly higher position, suggesting that she had been propped up on a pillow that had since collapsed. This is “a very thought-provoking position,” McKinley said. “To me, it shows her role before he died. She was the one who cared for him and watched over him.”
Because both brothers died at the same time, Professor McKinley suspects a fast-acting infection was the cause. “I think maybe she received something from him and that’s why they died at the same time,” she said. However, it is not clear how the brothers died.
Further DNA analysis may reveal whether the pathogen was responsible for the brothers’ deaths. However, Professor McKinley said the bacteria that cause life-threatening conditions such as sepsis and meningitis do not leave behind DNA, limiting confirmation of the cause of the brothers’ deaths.
McKinley was currently working on the construction of an Anglo-Saxon cemetery near Wiltshire, which included a double burial. But at the scene, she said DNA analyzes conducted so far have not shown any first- or second-degree relationships, such as siblings, parents and children, grandchildren and grandchildren, or uncles and nieces. Rather, the relationships between those buried in double graves serve to confirm historical information that Anglo-Saxon households included adoptions, adoptions, and extended family networks.
The discovery of the brothers in an Anglo-Saxon grave “opens up a whole new perspective,” TimeTeam archaeologist and Anglo-Saxon expert Helen Geake said on the podcast. “Your thoughts immediately went out to the entire family, and what a terrible tragedy it must have been to lose two children at the same time.”
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