ANOTHER archaeological find has been unearthed on land designated for army housing in Tidworth.

The 1300-year-old Anglo-Saxon cemetery was discovered ahead of building works as part of a £70 million housing development to provide 322 new homes for Army families by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) in partnership with housebuilder Hill.

The cemetery of about 55 graves date back to the late 7th and early 8th century AD. A similar archaeological site was also found in Bulford.

Simon Flaherty, the site director for Wessex Archaeology, said: “The earliest documentary evidence we have for Saxon settlement at Tidworth dates to 975 AD. This excavation potentially pushes the history of the town back a further 300 years.”

Preliminary results suggest the burials represent a cross-section of a local community, with men, women and children all present. Nearly all the burials contained grave goods; personal effects or significant items interred with the dead.

Most commonly these were small iron knives, although other finds included combs and pins made of bone, beads and pierced coins thought to form necklaces, and several spearheads.

Project manager Bruce Eaton, added: “The site at Tidworth has produced some fascinating archaeology. The mid-Saxon cemetery is of particular importance in its own right, but taken together with the recent excavation of the Anglo-Saxon cemetery on MOD land at Bulford, which was of a similar date, we now have the opportunity to compare and contrast the burial practices of two communities living only a few miles apart and who would almost certainly have known each other.”

One of the graves found was of a 6 feet tall man which contained an unusually large spearhead and a conical shield boss, possibly indicating his status as a warrior.

A rich female burial had bronze jewellery, beads, a bone comb, a chatelaine and a finely decorated bronze work box - suggesting her likely importance within the household and wider community.

Visitors from the Help for Heroes Recovery Centre Tedworth House in Tidworth visited the site. Many of them have had previous experience of archaeology through Operation Nightingale, a ground-breaking military initiative which utilises the technical and social aspects of field archaeology to aid the recovery and skill development of injured service personnel and veterans.

The human bones and objects recovered from the excavation are to be studied by specialists based at Wessex Archaeology in Salisbury to discover what else they can tell us about life and death in Wiltshire 1300 years ago.

The finds will eventually go to Devizes Museum.

The construction of the new homes is due to complete in spring 2018.