Anglo-Saxon burial holds an older sister cradling her little brother after they both died 1,400 years ago, possibly of an infectious disease
Two Anglo-Saxon children buried together 1,400 years ago were brother and sister, analysis of skeletons DNA reveals a confirmed family link, rare in Anglo-Saxon burials.
The siblings may have died at the same time from a fast-acting illness, according to a statement from the British archeology show Time Team.
Archaeologists initially discovered the rare double burial in an Anglo-Saxon cemetery in Cherington, a village in southwest England, in September 2024. In the grave, excavators found the skeleton of a 7 or 8-year-old boy holding an iron sword and the skeleton of a teenage girl buried with a necklace and a workbox – a cylindrical metal object that could hold thread and cloth – dated to the second half of the 7th century.
Time Team presented the excavations of the double burial in a episode released in Januarybut a DNA analysis of the skeletons was recently carried out by scientists at the Francis Crick Institute in London. The results were announced on the April 14 episode of Time Team. podcast.
DNA confirmed “we have a boy and a girl.” Jacqueline McKinleysaid the osteoarchaeologist from Wessex Archeology who excavated the burial, in the podcast. “But I know what their relationship is now: they were brother and sister.”
The siblings appear to have been buried in the same grave at the same time. The older sister was facing her little brother and was found at a slightly higher level, suggesting she was propped up on pillows that have since disintegrated. It’s “a very telling position,” McKinley said. “For me, it shows what his role was before his death. It was someone who took care of him, watched over him.”
Because the siblings died at the same time, McKinley suspects a fast-acting infectious disease could be the cause. “I think she probably caught something from him, and that’s why they died at the same time,” she said. However, it is not clear how the siblings died.
Further DNA analysis could clarify whether a pathogen was responsible for the siblings’ deaths. But McKinley pointed out that the bacteria responsible for some life-threatening illnesses, such as sepsis or meningitis, would not leave their DNA behind, limiting confirmation of the siblings’ cause of death.
McKinley is currently working on a nearby Anglo-Saxon cemetery in Wiltshire which also contained double burials. However, at this site, DNA analysis done so far has not shown any first- or second-degree relationships, such as siblings, parents and children, grandchildren and grandchildren, or uncles and nieces, she said. Rather, the relationships between those buried in double graves help to confirm historical information that Anglo-Saxon households included adoption, foster care, and extended family networks.
The discovery of brothers and sisters in an Anglo-Saxon tomb “opens up a whole new perspective”, Helene Geakedeclared a Time Team archaeologist and Anglo-Saxon specialist in the podcast. “Immediately your thoughts are with the wider family and what a horrible tragedy it must have been to lose two children at the same time.”
