UK’s answer to Tutankhamun’s tomb

 A royal burial site found beneath a roadside verge in Essex has been dubbed one of the most significant archaeological finds ever made in England.

Discovered between a pub and an Aldi supermarket, it is thought to be the burial chamber of the brother of Anglo-Saxon King Saebert. Researchers behind the find have hailed it as the ‘British equivalent of Tutankhamun’s tomb’ – despite little similarities in appearance. Belying its unglamorous location, inside the chamber are 40 artefacts thought to have belonged to the ancient Essex prince Saexa. The Anglo-Saxons were Pagans, but the Christian items found in the chamber suggest the religion was still important in England 1,400 years ago.

It is the earliest Christian Anglo-Saxon princely burial found in the UK, according to experts from the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA). 

Royal families emerged in Anglo-Saxon times in Kent, Essex and across south-east England. Saebert and Seaxa’s mother was from the Kentish royal family, but their maternal aunt, Bertha, was a French princess who married into their royal family and brought her Christian beliefs with her.

That may explain the gold crosses on the prince’s eyes and the coins in the chamber, which are clearly Christian, while the very idea of a burial chamber is Pagan.

The researchers say the site represents a ‘transitional moment’ in this country’s history before Christianity took over. Experts are fascinated by this time in English history as Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were emerging, with separate royal families in different parts of the country.  The name Essex comes from the East Saxon families which ruled over this part of England. Just like Tutankhamun’s famous tomb in Egypt, it is completely intact, with looters and 19th Century amateur archaeologists having been unable to find it as the mound on top of it collapsed.              

(Dailymail)