PROJECT: ieldran, the Early Anglo-Saxon Cemetery Mapping Project

Katy Myers (Michigan State University) announced that ieldran, the Early Anglo-Saxon Cemetery Mapping Project built as part of the Cultural Heritage Informatics Initiative (a partnership between Michigan State’s Department of Anthropology and Matrix), is live.

The Early Anglo-Saxon Cemetery Mapping Project provides locations, summaries, and information about citation and collections for numerous cemeteries from the mid-5th to early 7th century in England. Each site can be clicked on to reveal more information about the cemetery, the burials, associated artifacts, references for books and journal articles written about the cemetery, and where the original excavation materials, human remains, and artifacts are kept.

According to project documentation, Myers created the map and framework for the ieldran (an Old English term for “ancestors”), while Matthew Austin (Department of Archaeology, University of Reading) provided the data. Myers celebrated the team’s accomplishment in providing open access archaeology, but shared that there are two major, forthcoming features to the site: user submissions and downloadable spatial data.