The burials of a woman and a man from the Wendover cemetery will also be a key part of the exhibition.
The cemetery is one of the biggest Anglo-Saxon ones uncovered so far, containing 138 graves made up of 141 regular burials (some graves had more than one body) and five cremation burials.
Discovered in 2022, conservation work on its many finds has yet to be finished, meaning this is the first time the public can see them – and some still have mud clinging to them.
Thorn said: “HS2 kindly loaned us the stuff early for the exhibition, it will go back to HS2 for the rest of the research to be done, and it will eventually all be donated to the museum.”
One astonishing item is cremation urn with a chunk of Roman glass in its base.
“Why they would put glass in the bottom of a cremation urn, we don’t know – it’s not easy but it’s been done very deliberately – maybe to let the spirits out?” said Thorn.