17th November 2005, 03:15 PM
Quote:quote:Originally posted by sniper
the whole issue of grave goods and sex and gender in Anglo-Saxon cemeteries spring to mind, wonder if the sword=male, jewellery=female thing is a British idea?
Probably was at one point (probably still is in most peoples minds). I was told a couple of years back by PG students, and lecturers at uni, that if you re-analyse the cemeteries excavated in the early/mid C20th on an osteological basis you get a different gender mix than originally published. Basically a lot of people seemed to have gone "ooh look a sword, that must be a man" and left it at that.
I don't think any of this is a British thing, but then I haven't lived in other countries long enough to see if it is the same elsewhere.