Taeppa's Low, ancient site in Buckinghamshire

This does not grant access. Check current paths, opening conditions and ownership before entering.

What is recorded here

Taeppa's Low, better known as Taplow Barrow, is a seventh-century elite burial mound above the Thames. Excavation in 1883 uncovered a richly equipped individual with weapons, drinking vessels, textiles, a lyre and gaming pieces. Until Sutton Hoo was found, it was the richest Anglo-Saxon burial known in England.

Who made it and when

The mound was raised during the seventh-century change from older Anglo-Saxon religions to Christianity. The buried person cannot be named with certainty, but the wealth and Kentish links of the grave goods suggest a ruler controlling an important stretch of the Thames valley.

How it was made and used

Builders placed the burial on a commanding hill within an older Iron Age fort and probably close to an early church. A timber-lined grave beneath the mound held weapons, feasting vessels and personal equipment that displayed rank, alliances and a princely way of life.

What was found

Rutland, Cooper King, Joseph Stevens and Walter Money excavated the mound in 1883. They recovered a sword, three spears, two shields, drinking horns, glass beakers, a lyre, a gaming board, rich cloth and many other objects; most went to the British Museum.

What remains

The mound survives in Taplow churchyard, although later burials and the nineteenth-century excavation altered it. Almost none of the body remained, but the position, grave and recovered objects still allow the burial to be understood.

Why it mattered

Taplow is one of the clearest signs of how rulers used burial, landscape and imported wealth to claim power during England's conversion period. Its rare position beside a church also complicates any simple divide between pagan furnished graves and Christian burial.