Secrets, Swords, and Semiotic Saxons: an invitation to experience new discoveries from a Saxon-period cemetery at an undisclosed location in southern England

Migration period England is confusing. Some historical sources of late-antique Roman Britain, and of course the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, tell us of invasions and mass migrations into the south and east of what is now England. Archaeological evidence has never supported those claims and has always favoured small-scale movements of traders, farm workers, and maybe a few mercenaries. Some new discoveries of well-preserved burials with grave goods and weaponry might tell us something new about those migrant people. The semiotic languages of gold, silver, copper and iron can tell us stories of heroic deeds, fantastic mythology, far-flung travel, romantic attachments, and probably some pig farming. A fifth to sixth-century cemetery site at a secret location in southern England is currently under investigation by a team of archaeological stalwarts, who hope to discover why those Saxon migrants chose to settle (and die) here, and why they were so fixated on shiny golden swords.