Saxon burial urn

Aside from their normal domestic uses, pots were also sometimes used as burial urns. That this pot was used for this purpose is clear from the cremated remains it contains. The ashes from the funeral pyre and the remains of the dead person would be placed in the urn, which would then be buried. Bodies were burned up to and including the Early Middle Ages. After the advent of Christianity, the dead were buried. Not until the twentieth century did cremation become common again. The urn shown here is decorated with grooves and ridges.