Three years later there was a storm so violent that in the morning there were bodies on the beach: ancient bodies, each in a coffin of wood a couple of centimetres thick. The skulls all faced west. The coffins were full of sand. There were slim, ornate chains around the necks with coins hanging on them; one skeleton had a goblet stacked on its chest, another had a silver dagger at its side. Christians were not supposed to bury goods with the dead, so the graves must have been made before the coast started to turn Christian round 700 – or after Christians had been beaten inland a century and a
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