The Taplow burial is a 7th century Anglo-Saxon burial mound, situated in the churchyard of Taplow Court, Buckinghamshire. The burial dates to ca. AD 620, roughly contemporary with the Sutton Hoo burial. The barrow is situated on a hill overlooking the Thames Valley. The name Taplow itself is in origin that of the burial mound, from Old English Tæppas hláw "Tæppa's mound", so that the name of the unknown chief or nobleman buried in the mound would seem to have been Tæppa.
The burial was excavated in 1883 and a number of treasures were discovered, unrivalled until the discovery of the Sutton Hoo burial in 1939. The "local antiquarians" who excavated the site in 1883 caused a lot of damage to the site and failed to keep a consistent record of their observations.
Among the grave goods, now in the British Museum, were 19 vessels for feasting and drinking, at least three weapon sets, a lyre, a gaming board, and rich textiles, the whole ensemble "recognisably a version of the standard Germanic princely kit". Many of the objects seem to be of Kentish origin. The several gold braids in the burial may have been a symbol of royalty, and the largest horns and the belt buckle were apparently already old when buried, suggesting the treasure of a "Kentish princely family".[1] The location of the barrow is right at the boundary of the kingdoms of Wessex, Sussex, Essex and Mercia during the early (6th century) Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. As the southern Chilterns region was conquered by Mercia in the early 7th century, the occupant of the barrow at the moment of his death might have been a Kentish sub-king under Mercian dominion.
All at the British Museum, with several displayed in Room 41: