Updown early medieval cemetery

Updown early medieval cemetery in Eastry, Kent, United Kingdom, was used as a burial place in the 7th century. Eastry was an important administrative centre in the Kingdom of Kent. Updown was one of four cemeteries in and around Eastry. The cemetery measures roughly 150 by 80 m (490 by 260 ft) and may have encompassed around 300 graves. The site was rediscovered in 1973 in the grounds of Updown House, from which the cemetery took its name. Part of it was protected as a scheduled monument two years later. Excavations followed in 1976 by Sonia Chadwick Hawkes and 1989 by Brian Philp, both times ahead of development plans in the area: first a pipeline and then a bypass. A total of 78 graves were investigated. Ancient DNA from five of the burials was tested in the 2020s. This led to the discovery that one of the individuals in the cemetery, dubbed Updown Girl, had mixed European and West African ancestry.