The Trumpington Cross, made of gold and garnet, was found on the skeleton of a 14-18-year-old female laid to rest in the extremely rare ‘bed burial’ ceremony.

Only a handful of Anglo-Saxon bed burials have ever been discovered in the UK – and the pectoral cross is only the fifth of its type found to date.

The 3.5cm diameter Trumpington Cross comes from one of the earliest Christian burials in Britain, probably dating between AD650-AD680. Because the earliest Anglo-Saxon converts to Christianity were from noble families, with its adoption filtering down through the social hierarchy, the teenager buried at Trumpington Meadows was undoubtedly of aristocratic or even royal status.

Although buried with treasured possessions including gold and garnet pins, an iron knife, glass beads and a chain which would have hung off her belt, it was the unexpected presence of the cross –which marks the teenage girl as an early convert to Christianity – which most excited Cambridge University archaeologists.

Thought to be worth in excess of £80,000, the cross has been generously gifted, under the 1996 Treasures Act, to Cambridge University’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA).

It has been donated by Grosvenor, the owners of the land upon which Cambridge University archaeologists discovered the burial site in 2011.

Jody Joy, Senior Curator at the museum,said: “MAA has one of the best collections of Anglo-Saxon artefacts in the British Isles – and we are indebted to Grosvenor for their generosity in allowing this beautiful, mysterious artefact to remain in Cambridge.

"The Trumpington Cross and other material recovered from the dig are of international quality and significance – but with the strongest connections to Cambridge and the surrounding settlements.

“Taking pride of place in our galleries,the cross will allow us to tell the story of the coming of Christianity to the region and some of the history of this previously unknown Anglo-Saxon settlement – as well as the very early years of the English church after St Augustine was dispatched to England by the Pope in 597AD to convert the pagan Anglo-Saxon kings.”