Ex libris
& * £
Florence Marion Whitehill
THE ARTS IN
EARLY ENGLAND
PI. A
Frontispiece to Vol. lit
See p. 5 1 1 f.
THE KINGSTON BROOCH
sSSME
II
I, about | natural size ;
II, enlarged about 2^ linear
THE ARTS
IN EARLY ENGLAND
By G. BALDWIN BROWN, M.A.
WATSON GORDON PROFESSOR OF FINE ART
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
* * *
SAXON ART AND INDUSTRY
IN THE PAGAN PERIOD
WITH EIGHT PLATES IN COLOUR, ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-EIGHT
HALF-TONE PLATES, TWENTY-NINE LINE ILLUSTRATIONS
IN THE TEXT, AND EIGHT MAPS
NEW YORK
E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY
1915
CONTENTS
PREFATORY NOTE
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY: THE ARRANGEMENT AND SCOPE
OF THE VOLUMES i
CHAPTER II
THE ARTISTIC ASPECTS OF THE EARLY ANGLO-
SAXON COINAGE 56
CHAPTER III
THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY OF THE PAGAN
PERIOD 114
CHAPTER IV
TOMB FURNITURE: (I) ARMS 192
CHAPTER V
TOMB FURNITURE : (II) THE MORPHOLOGY OF
THE FIBULA 243
vi CONTENTS
CHAPTER VI
PAGE
TOMB FURNITURE: (III) ORNAMENTATION ON
FIBULAE AND OTHER OBJECTS 290
CHAPTER VII
TOMB FURNITURE : (IV) BUCKLES AND OTHER
ADJUNCTS OF THE DRESS 346
PREFATORY NOTE
The Introductory Chapter (p. i to 55) is intended to explain
the scheme followed in the treatment of the various subjects
in the present and the following Volume, and the reader is
there informed of the headings under which the letterpress
is divided, as well as of the intention and character of the
illustrations. The present Note is necessary in order to afford
explanations of the arrangement of the volumes on the
mechanical side, and to give the opportunity for personal
references of a grateful kind.
As is noticed in the Introductory Chapter (p. 3), the
number of things referred to is embarrassingly large. On
the plates there are figured more than eight hundred objects
or groups of objects, each one of which is described in the
text, while a large number of them are mentioned more than
once. An endeavour has accordingly been made to render
it as easy as possible for the reader to refer from illustration
to text or vice versa, and an elucidation of the system of
reference should come in the forefront of these explanations.
In the first place, there is a continuous pagination through the
two volumes so that all references to ' Vol. in ' and * Vol. iv '
are eliminated. References to the pages are always included
within brackets as (p. 100), and this will save the confusion
due to uncertainty whether in a particular case a citation refers
to the pages of the book itself or to those of some other work
that may have just been referred to, and will also abolish the
' antea ' and ' postea ' which are inelegant and tiresome. To
viii PREFATORY NOTE
facilitate reference from the text to a plate, especially in the
cases when these are some distance apart, the page facing
which the plate will be found is in most cases added, as PI. ex
(p. ioo) and the different objects on the plates are marked in
clear arabic figures, the plates being distinguished by Roman
numerals. For the reverse process of referring from the
plate to the text the following is the system adopted, and the
reader is asked kindly to mark it. In a book of this kind to
notice an object on a plate and not to be able to find easily the
corresponding portion of the text is a very trying experience.
It may be explained accordingly that each plate is as a rule
inserted just before the place where there occurs in the text
the first reference to any of the objects figured on the plate,
and the references to all the objects thus figured will generally
speaking be found on one of the four succeeding pages. The
plates are arranged to face forwards towards the right hand
page of the opened volume, and the reader who keeps his
finger in the place where the plate comes will find reference
back to it quite simple. There are cases however when an
object may be described or referred to not, or not only, on
one of these four pages but in some other portion of the text,
and in these cases guidance will be found in the List of
Illustrations that will be found at the beginnings of Vol. in
and Vol. iv. This List gives the colour and half-tone plates,
A to H, and i to clviii, with certain needful details about
each object illustrated, including as a rule its provenance, its
present habitat, the character and material of the object, and
above all its dimensions, for as explained in the Introductory
Chapter (p. 28 f.) these cannot be safely deduced from the
illustrations. These details given in the List render it un-
necessary to put upon the plate itself more than its number,
PREFATORY NOTE ix
position, and title, with a note below it indicating (i) the
approximate scale of the illustrations, and (2) the fact, where
needful, that the particular object was not found in this
country but is of continental provenance. Now in those
cases when the descriptions or references in the text are not
all included within the four pages following the plate, page
numbers will be found in the List appended to the succinct
notice of the object and will give the necessary guidance.
In the same way when cross references are given from one
part of the text to another an indication where the notice of
a particular object will be found is in normal cases given by
the number of the plate on which it is figured, but when the
description does not occur within the four following pages the
correct page reference is the one given within the brackets.
The List of Illustrations is followed in Vol. iv by a second
giving in alphabetical order the chief Anglo-Saxon cemeteries
that have yielded the specimens discussed in the volumes.
The first reference after the name of the cemetery is to the
page where it will be found in its order in the geographical
survey, and there are added sometimes one or two other
references, but there is no attempt to refer to all the places
where objects from the particular cemetery may happen to be
mentioned. The survey in question, (see p. 38 f.), occupies the
latter half of the second of these two volumes (p. 589 f.) and
is supplied with the needful Maps, so inserted as to be
convenient for reference as the text is perused. The blank
space of the ' guard ' portion of the folding Map is used for
necessary notes of explanation, for which see especially Map v
(p. 589). The Maps are based on the view that the lines of
penetration of the Teutonic sea rovers into the country were
the rivers, and not, as some have assumed, the Roman roads,
x PREFATORY NOTE
and in their preparation great assistance has been derived from
Petermann's beautiful hydrographical map of Great Britain
published in 1868, while in their execution much has been
owed to the care and expert knowledge of Mr. A. Shawe, on
Mr. John Murray's staff at 50 Albemarle Street, who has
skilfully carried out the writer's intentions. To Messrs.
Constable of the Edinburgh University Press who have printed
the volumes, and to Messrs. Hislop and Day the engravers
the writer's cordial acknowledgements are due. The colour
plates, A to H, are successful reproductions by the latter firm
from 'Lumiere' autochrome transparencies taken by the writer
direct from the actual objects, and there is thus a guarantee
of photographic accuracy in details not easily secured when
the plate is made from a water colour drawing.
In books like the present much space is commonly occu-
pied with expressions such as ' in the beginning of the seventh
century,' ' of the middle of the sixth century,' ' fifth century
work,' and so on. In order to save some of this space the
plan has been adopted of using large Roman numerals to in-
dicate the century, the appropriate prepositions being, where
needful, understood. Thus the last phrase would be printed
in the text * V work.' It would be a great saving of space in
archaeological works, and would really conduce to clearness, if
type were cut indicating by horizontal lines across the Roman
numerals the period of the century, so that a line across the
top of the V would signify the beginning, across the centre
the middle, of that century, and so on. In the meantime the
modified scheme just explained will, it is hoped, be easily
understood and accepted by the reader. In the case of the
List of Illustrations referred to above, the writer, with some
misgiving and not without a sense of his temerity, has added
PREFATORY NOTE xi
indications of date to most of the objects figured on the plates
illustrative of tomb furniture. Such indications are not mere
guesses but depend on the results of comparative study, though
it would be absurd to claim anything like infallibility in the
judgements expressed. For the purpose in view the centuries
have been divided into three parts, marked V *, V 2, V 3, accord-
ing to a system adopted in Vol. n of this work to show the
approximate date of Anglo-Saxon churches. This is far better
than a division into halves or quarters for it is so often found
needful to indicate a date ' about the middle ' of a century, or
1 in the first part ' or ' the last part ' of it, and V 2, implying
the fifteen years or so on each side of 450 a.d., V8 the last
third of the century, are useful notifications.
Another point to which attention has been paid is unifor-
mity in giving information as to the orientation of graves. The
direction of the feet of a corpse is always the one given, as this
is the direction in which the body would be looking did it rise
upright in the grave. It is confusing when orientation is given
at one time by the feet and at another by the head. ' Right '
and 'left' always mean the right and left of the spectator,
save of course in phrases like ' the right hand of the figure.'
The word ' cinerary,' as applied to an urn, is never used
except there is direct evidence that the vessel actually contained
calcined human bones. In the Index, which is placed at the
close of Vol. iv. the special entries are in many cases grouped
under more general headings, so that, for example, ' Shield '
does not appear under ' S ' but as a sub-entry under ' Arms.'
Other comprehensive headings are * Fibulae,' ' Ornament,'
c Technical processes,' etc. In the references the often-used
abbreviation Jlrch. Journ. stands for the Journal of the Royal
Archaeological Institute ; Ass. for the Journal of the British
xii PREFATORY NOTE
Archaeological Association ; Handbuch for Professor L.
Lindenschmit's Handbuch der T>eutschen Alterthumskunde ;
die Alterthumer der Merovingischen Zeit, Braunschweig,
1880-89.
Acknowledgements of help received during the progress
of this work are owed to proprietors of private collections of
Germanic objects, to the councils of archaeological societies,
and to the custodians of public and semi-public museums both
at home and abroad. Due thanks are paid in the notes to the
text to the numerous private owners who have accorded to
the writer access to their treasures with permission to photo-
graph for reproduction selected objects. The Council of the
Society of Antiquaries of London is hereby thanked for the
kind permission to make use of one or two of the illustrations
contained in the Troceedings of the Society, and other anti-
quarian societies such as those of Kent, Sussex, Essex, Wilts,
Burton-on-Trent, Newcastle-on-Tyne, and York, have aided
the work in kindred fashion. To the Keeper and the Staff
of the Department of Mediaeval Antiquities in the British
Museum the writer offers the most cordial expression of his
gratitude. Among the many individual custodians of collec-
tions who have furnished valuable information as to objects
in their care, a special word of thanks is due to Mr. Reginald
Smith of the British Museum, also to Baron von Hiigel of the
Cambridge Museum of Archaeology, Mr. Thurlow Leeds of the
Ashmolean at Oxford, Mr. Entwistle of the Liverpool Museum,
and particularly to Mr. Hubert Elgar of Maidstone, who has
furnished information as well as photographs of much value.
In regard to public museums, the writer has shared the
experience of all workers in the field of antiquities in that he
PREFATORY NOTE xiii
has everywhere, abroad as well as at home, been welcomed
and aided in his work in the spirit of a common interest in
scientific studies which overleaps all racial or national bound-
aries. Anglo-Saxon art, it must be remembered, is a branch
of Germanic art, and has its affinities in the Alamannic and
Gothic as well as in the Frankish and Lombard regions of
Europe, so that it cannot be properly studied without refer-
ence to collections on the Continent. These chapters are
published at a time when the principal nations of north-
western Europe are engaged in bitter strife, but they were
written and partly printed when in the things of the intellect
all these peoples formed one great community throughout
which there ruled a spirit of devotion to the common task
of the advancement of knowledge. Hence in spite of all
that is happening at the present crisis, it is a pleasure as well
as an act of justice to acknowledge the kindness shown
by the custodians of European museums where Germanic
art is to be studied, in Vienna, Budapest, Munich, Mainz,
Berlin, as well as in Petrograd, Kiev, Paris, Brussels, Namur,
or in Rome, Bucharest, Stockholm and Leiden. The trea-
sures of these collections have been opened even more freely
than those of our own British Museum, for no hint of a
charge for the privilege of photographing has ever been made
in any one of them.
These personal reminiscences cannot end without a pious
tribute to the august Manes of two scholars to whom the
writer owes much and who passed away before the present
evil times — the late Professor Hampel of Budapest, and
Robert von Schneider of the Kunsthistorisches Hof-Museum
at Vienna.
G. B. B.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
IN VOLUME III
COLOUR PLATES
PLATE AT PAGE
A. THE KINGSTON BROOCH .... Frontispiece Vol. in.
I, vn *, The ' Kingston' brooch, a disc fibula of gold inlaid with garnets
and glass pastes, diameter 3$ in., thickness at the rim £ in., thick-
ness in the middle (not counting the central boss) $ in., found in
1771 at Kingston, Kent, Museum at Liverpool (p. 511 f.).
II, Portion of the face of the brooch enlarged about 2 \ linear.
B. PENDANTS, BEADS, BUCKLES, ETC 353
I, vn 2, Necklet found at Sarre, Kent, with central pendant in mosaic
glass, 1 in. in diameter, and gold coins imitated from Roman and
Frankish solidi, date second quarter of vn, British Museum (pp.
444,450-
II, vn, Chain of beads, with inlaid pendant and looped gold coins,
Alamannic, Museum at Munich (pp. 431, 451).
III, vn, Inlaid pendants and looped gold coins from King's Field,
Faversham, Kent, about | full size, British Museum (p. 547).
IV, From the left, vn *, one of a pair of bronze gilt clasps, 4^ in. long
over all, from the Taplow Barrow (p. 362); above in the middle,
vn1, golden buckle, ij in. long, from King's Field, Faversham,
Kent (pp. 362, 542) ; below in the middle, vn, bronze and gold
buckle, same provenance (p. 352) j on the right, vn l, golden buckle
with garnet inlays, 4 in. long, from the Taplow Barrow (p. 352),
all in the British Museum.
xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
HALF TONE PLATES
PLATE AT PAGE
I. ROMAN AND GERMANIC COINS CONNECTED WITH
EARLY ANGLO-SAXON ISSUES .... 59
(From examples in the British Museum.)
1, 1', 3, Roman bronze coins of the Constantinian period.
2, 2', Gold solidus of Magnus Maximus, struck in London.
4, 4', Gold solidus struck by Theodebert 1, King of the Austrasian
Franks (534-548), Prou, Les Monnaies Merovingiennes, no. 39.
5, Reverse of similar gold solidus, Prou, no. 56.
6, Bronze piece, struck by Theodahad, King of the Ostrogoths, c. 536 A.D.
II. MEROVINGIAN SOLIDI AND TRIENTES, AND
GALLO-BRITISH COINS FOUNDED ON GREEK
EXAMPLES 65
(Nos. 1 to 15' in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris ; nos. 16 to 20
in the British Museum.)
1, Prou, Les Monnaies Merovingiennes, 1368. 2, Prou, 177. 3, Prou,
198. 4, Prou, 1053. 5, Prou, 1107. 6, Prou, 1928. 7, Prou,
1921. 8, Prou, 1269. 9, Prou, 1 05 1. 10, Prou, 2234. 11, Prou,
2818. i2,Prou,272. i3,Prou,2873. i4,Prou,277. i5,Prou,57o.
16, Gold stater of Philip of Macedon.
17-20, Degraded imitations of the types on the above in the Gallo-
British coinage.
III. THE CRONDALL HOARD, OBJECTS FROM FRISIAN
TERPEN, ETC 69
1, Imitated gold solidus with runic inscription, British Museum.
2, Gold trinkets with garnet inlays found with the Crondall hoard, Lord
Grantley's Collection.
3, View of Frisian terp in course of demolition.
4, Gold objects found in a Frisian terp, Museum at Leeuwarden, Friesland.
5-8, Gold coins from the Crondall hoard, Lord Grantley's Collection.
IV. SCEAT COINS IN BRITISH AND DUTCH COLLEC-
TIONS 79
I, British Museum, sceattas, Mercia. 2, Sir Arthur Evans' Collection.
3, British Museum, sceattas, Mercia. 4, Do, do., do.
5, Lord Grantley's Collection. 6, Leeuwarden, Hallum find.
7, Hunterian Collection, Glasgow. 8, Sir Arthur Evans.
9, Leeuwarden, Hallum find. 10, Hunterian.
II, Mejuffr. de Man's Collection, Middelburg, Holland.
12, Broadstairs, Kent.
(The above are all obverse and reverse.)
13, British Museum, sceattas, no. 14, Hunterian.
15, British Museum, sceattas, 92. 16, Do., do., 115.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xvii
PLATE AT PAGE
V. SCEATTAS, ENGLISH AND DUTCH, WITH OBJECTS
OF TOMB FURNITURE FOR COMPARISON . .81
I, Lord Grantley's Collection. 2, Middelburg Museum.
3, Mejuffr. de Man's Collection, Middelburg.
4, British Museum, sceattas, 77. 5, Lord Grantley's Collection. 6, Sir
Arthur Evans' Collection, Youlbury, Berks. 7, Formerly in Mr.
Carlyon-Britton's Collection. 8, British Museum, sceattas, 78.
9, Mejuffr. de Man's Collection. 10, From the Hallum find, at Leeu-
warden, Holland.
I I, vii1, Upper plate of applied brooch, 1^ in. in diameter, from St. John's
College Cricket Field, Cambridge, Cambridge Museum (p. 106).
12, v3, Bronze buckle, iT5^ in. wide, found with skeleton at Royston
Heath, Cambs, do. (p. 107).
VI. SCEATTAS, ENGLISH AND DUTCH . . . .85
1, Hunterian Collection, Glasgow. 2, Mejuffr. de Man, Middelburg,
Holland. 3, British Museum, sceattas, 160.
4, Do., do., 151. 5, Hunterian. 6, British Museum, sceattas, 106.
7, Lord Grantley's Collection. 8, British Museum, sceattas, 189.
9, The Hague, Coin Cabinet.
10, Formerly in Mr. Carlyon-Britton's Collection.
11, Hunterian. 12, British Museum, Montague Collection.
13, British Museum, sceattas, 193. 14, Do., do., 198.
15, Do., do., 200. 16, Do., do., 182. 17, Do., do., 199.
18, Do., do., 170. 19, Mr. Carlyon-Britton. 20, Do.
21, British Museum, sceattas, 12.
VII. SCEATTAS, AND A ROMAN PROTOTYPE ... 89
I, Leeuwarden Museum. 2, Do. 3, British Museum, sceattas, 183.
4, Do., do., 171. 5, Do., do., 187.
6, Sir Arthur Evans' Collection. 7, Do. 8, Hunterian Collection, Glas-
gow. 9, Middelburg Museum, Holland.
10, Mejuffr. de Man's Collection, Middelburg.
II, Middelburg Museum. 12, Leeuwarden Museum.
13, Do. 14, Do. 15, Do. 16, Middelburg Museum.
17, Do. 1 8, Do. 19, The Hague, Coin Cabinet.
20, Middelburg Museum.
VIII. ENGLISH SCEAT COINS WITH ARTISTIC TYPES .
1, British Museum, sceattas, 151. 2, Do., do., 153. 3, Formerly in
Mr. Carlyon-Britton's Collection. 4, Do. 5, British Museum,
sceattas, 154. 6, Hunterian Collection, Glasgow.
7, British Museum, sceattas, 191. 8, Do., do., 157.
9, Do., do., 189. 10, Do., do., 115. 11, Do. do., 170.
12, Do., do., 116. 13, Do., do., 184. 14, Lord Grantley's Collection.
15, Hunterian. 16, Sir Arthur Evans' Collection. 17, Hunterian.
18, Reverse of coin of ^thelberht of East Anglia, British Museum,
East Anglia, 2. 19, Hunterian. 20, Bodleian Library Collection.
21, Reverse of bronze coin of Constantine, British Museum.
Ill b
99
xviii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE AT PAGE
IX. OBJECTS ILLUSTRATING THE CONNECTION BE-
TWEEN SCEAT COINS, TOMB FURNITURE, AND
CARVED STONES 103
1, 4, V3, Small cast bronze objects called 'hinged handles,' natural size
c. 1 \ in. long, with birds and with a leaf ornament ; 1, from Wang-
ford, Suffolk, 4, from Lakenheath, Suffolk, Museum at Cambridge
(pp. 105, 107, in).
2, v3, Outline of leopard (?) from a Roman original stamped on a bronze
pail from Chessell Down, Isle of Wight, figured postea, PI. cxix, 6
(p. 475), British Museum.
3, Cast bronze medallion with hole in rim, no attachments at back, i| in.
in diameter, with full-face head in debased Roman style, found,
probably with Anglo-Saxon relics, at Princethorpe, Warwickshire,
Bloxam bequest, Art Museum, Rugby.
5, Head of a wolf (?) from carved stone of about x at Stanwick,
N. Riding, Yorkshire.
6, vii 3, Half of a clasp (?) in gilded silver with fantastic animal in open
work, 1 in. long, from Gilton, Kent, see Faussett, Inventorium
Sepulchrale, p. 16, Museum at Liverpool (pp. 107, in, 362).
7, vi1, Cast bronze pendant, ij in. across, with figure of winged creature
in relief, partly mutilated, from Saxonbury near Lewes, Museum at
Lewes.
8, vi1, Part of the bronze mounting of a bucket representing a quadru-
ped, 2^ in. long, from Bidford, Warwickshire, Museum at Worcester.
9, Part of the east face of the Bewcastle Cross, Cumberland.
10, Merovingian silver coin, de Belfort, no. 6217, with rings near ends of
cross-arms.
u,Sceat coin with the rings attached to the ends of the cross-arms,
Hunterian Museum, Glasgow.
X. EARLY CHRISTIAN OBJECTS IN ANGLO-SAXON
GRAVES ■ . .115
1, iv, Bronze mount of drinking horn found in A.-S. warrior's grave
close to Roman cemetery at Strood, Kent, diameter 3 in., see
Collectanea Antigua, 11, pi. xxxvi, Liverpool Museum (p. 462).
2, 2, vii 2, Silver crosses; from Kingston, Kent, see In<ventorium Sepul-
chrale, pi. iv, 21, \ in. wide, Liverpool Museum.
3, vii8, Silver cross from Chartham Down, Kent, /«*/. Sep., pi. xi, 17,
1^ in. high, Liverpool Museum.
4, vii 2, Gold cross from a barrow on Winster Moor, Derbyshire, see
Nenia Britannica, pp. 67-8, i§ in. high, Sheffield Museum.
5, vii 2, Cross-headed pin for the hair, bronze, from Breach Down, Kent
(p. 109), 4^ in. long, British Museum.
6, 6, vii *, Scutcheon mounts of bronze bowl, diameter i§ in., from
King's Field, Faversham, Kent (p. 473 f.), British Museum.
7, vii 2, Bracteate-like pendant from Sibertswold, Kent, see Ittv. Sep.,
pi. iv, 22, ijk in. diam., Liverpool Museum.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xix
PLATE AT PAGE
XI. EARLY CHRISTIAN OBJECTS, COFFIN RIVETS, ETC. 117
1, vi 8, Gold inlaid pendant from Sibertswold, Kent, Inv. Sep., pi. iv, 13,
i^fc diam., Liverpool Museum (p. 426).
2, vii1, Gold inlaid pendant from a barrow at Uncleby, Yorkshire,
}§ in. diam., York Museum (p. 805).
3, Pewter chalice from an Anglo-Saxon grave in the King's Road
cemetery, Reading, 4 in. high, Reading Museum.
4, Urn, 2| in. high, with stone that covered it, from Kelvedon, Essex,
Colchester Museum (pp. 147, 598).
5, vii 2, Fibula from Suffolk in Mr. S. G. Fenton's Collection, London.
6, Coffin rivets, etc., from Bifrons, Kent, Museum of Kent Archaeological
Society, Maidstone (p. 150).
XII. SKELETON OF ANGLO-SAXON LADY FROM
FOLKESTONE, FOLKESTONE MUSEUM . .151
XIII. A CROUCHING SKELETON, ETC. . . . 153
1, Skeleton in crouching position, from 'Danes Graves' near Driffield,
Yorkshire.
2, Plate 1 from Douglas's Nenia Britannica (p. 126).
3, Head of fibula from Kempston, Beds, showing traces of fabric,
British Museum, much enlarged (p. 152).
XIV. ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY AT SAFFRON WALDEN,
ESSEX 155
XV. FOLKESTONE CEMETERY, KENT . . . . i57
1, View of portion of cemetery excavated 1907-19 10 on Dover Hill,
Folkestone.
2, Part of skeleton in Folkestone Museum.
XVI. EVIDENCE OF SUN WORSHIP, AND LATE TOMB
FURNITURE 171
1, Model Sun Chariot with Sun Disc, of the Bronze Age, at Copenhagen
(p. 162).
2, viii or ix, Necklet with pendants of late date from Saffron Walden
cemetery, Essex, Saffron Walden Museum.
3, viii, Cast bronze buckle of late style, Frankish, 4I in. long, Rouen
Museum.
4, viii or ix, Golden brooch of Viking period, from Hornelund, Varde,
Jutland, Museum at Copenhagen.
5, ix2, Bronze pin-head of late style, from Talnotrie, Newton Stewart,
Scotland, 1 in. diam., Edinburgh Museum of Antiquities.
xx LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE AT PAGE
XVII. OBJECTS AND PROCESSES NOT REPRESENTED
IN ANGLO-SAXON GRAVES 175
1, vii 3, Large iron silver plated buckle, probably Burgundian, from
Fetigny, Switzerland, total length c. 15 in., Museum at Fribourg,
Switzerland (p. 174).
2, 'Placage' in silver over iron, Museum at Namur, Belgium, much
enlarged.
3, Roman scabbard inlaid with silver, Museum at Mainz, Germany.
4, Iron buckle with silver inlays, Frankish, Museum at Mainz.
5, Silver plating on iron, a fragment from the King's Field, Faversham,
Kent, British Museum, c. 2 in. by i| in.
XVIII. ANGLO-SAXON SKELETONS WITH TOMB FUR-
NITURE 177
1, vi1, Skeleton found at Shepperton Gravel Pit, Middlesex, in 1868.
Objects in Guildford Museum.
2, Part of skeleton found in a barrow in the churchyard of Ogbourne St.
Andrew, Wilts. Iron mounts of coffin remain, see Wilts Magazine,
xxii, 345, Devizes Museum (p. 150).
3, vi, Female skeleton from Stapenhill, Staffordshire, with urn, two
brooches, necklace, spindle whorl, buckle for girdle, girdle hanger,
see Trans. Burton-on-Trent Nat. Hist, and Archaeological Soc, 1, 1 56 f.,
Museum of the Society, Burton-on-Trent.
XIX. ANGLO-SAXON TOMBSTONES 181
1, Stone tombstone found at Sandwich c. 1830, 16 in. high, 6 in. square
at top, with Runic inscription RJEHJEBUL, Canterbury Museum.
2, Head of wooden coffin hollowed from tree trunk, and wooden post at
head, 2 ft. 8 in. high by 9 in. square at the base, from Selby, York-
shire, see Philosophical Society's Report for 1876, the Society's
Museum, York (p. 180).
XX. ANGLO-SAXON SKULLS 185
1, Anglian skull from Londesborough, East Riding, Yorks, found with
Anglo-Saxon fibula, beads, etc., Museum at York.
2, Anglian skull from Hauxton, Cambridgeshire, Anatomical Museum,
Cambridge.
3, Skull found at Street Ashton, near the Fosse Way, Warwickshire,
with the open-socketed spear head shown with it, Art Museum,
Rugby.
4, West Saxon skull from Harnham Hill, Wilts, Anatomical Museum,
Cambridge.
5, Jutish skull from Ozengell, Thanet, Kent, as above.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xxi
PLATE AT PAGE
XXI. ANGLO-SAXON HELMET, ETC 195
1, vii2, Framework of helmet from Benty Grange, Derbyshire, see
Bateman, Ten Years* Diggings, p. 28 f., Sheffield Museum.
2, in3, Shield (restored) from Thorsberg Moss, Schleswig, Copenhagen
Museum.
3, Ornamented shield boss from Dietersheim, Rhenish-Hesse, Museum at
Mainz (p. 199).
XXII. UMBOS, ETC., OF SHIELDS 197
1, Handle of shield from Pry, Belgium, Namur Museum.
2, Three umbos from Buttsole, Eastry, Kent, central one 3I in. high,
Maidstone Museum.
3, Shield handle from Colchester, Essex, Colchester Museum.
4, vi *, Umbo from Stowting, Kent, Stowting Vicarage.
XXIII. UMBOS 199
1, vi, From Sittingbourne, Kent, 7^ in. high, \\ in. external diameter,
Dover Museum.
2, vi, Broken umbo from Croydon, Surrey, thickness of metal ^ in. to
jJg- in., Grange Wood Museum, Thornton Heath, by Croydon,
Surrey.
3, VI, Umbo of peculiar construction from Farthingdown, Surrey, 7 in.
high, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
4, VI \ Umbo from Fairford, Gloucestershire, Ashmolean.
5, 6, Umbos from Nienbiktel and Boltersen, in the Elbe-mouth region,
Museum at Liineburg.
7, Umbos from British camp at Hunsbury, Northamptonshire, see Sir
Henry Dryden in Ass. Soc. Reports, 1885, Northampton Museum.
XXIV. APPLIQUES OF SHIELDS, ETC 203
1, Bronze applique in form of fish, 2| in. long, from Suffolk, Fenton
Collection, London (p. 202).
2, Appliques in cast bronze, parcel gilt, from Buttsole, Eastry, Kent,
Maidstone Museum.
3, One of above on larger scale, original c. 2 in. long.
4, vi 3, Applique in cast bronze, 2^ in. long, see J. Brent, Antiquities in
the Museum at Canterbury, p. 46, Canterbury Museum (p. 202).
5, Back of applique from Buttsole, showing mode of fastening, enlarged
nearly twice linear, clear length of shank of rivets £ in., Maidstone
Museum.
6, vi1, Shoe-shaped stud, enlarged, from Kent (p. 359).
XXV. ANGLO-SAXON SWORDS (SPATHAS) . . .209
1, vi *, Spathas from Mitcham, Surrey, in the Collection of Captain
Bidder, Mitcham.
xxii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE AT
2, vi x, Spathas from Saxonbury, Lewes, Sussex, Lewes Museum.
3, vi 2, Spatha from Croydon, Surrey, length 2 ft. 9 in., Grange Wood
Museum, Thornton Heath (p. 219).
4, vi 2, Spathas from Gilton, Kent, Liverpool Museum.
5, vi2, Spatha from Broadstairs, Kent, at Offices of Local Board, Broad-
stairs.
6, iv, Swords from Nydam Moss, Schleswig, Kiel Museum.
7, Damascening on above.
8, Roman sword from Newstead, Roxburghshire (p. 217), length 17 in.,
length of grip 3J in., Edinburgh Museum of Antiquities (p. 217).
9, vii3, Sword hilt from Cumberland, British Museum (p. 217).
10, ix or x, Viking sword, York Museum (p. 218).
XXVI. SWORD HILTS 219
1, vii or viii, Scramasax from Lussy, Switzerland, blade 12 in. long,
handle with wooden grip preserved 5! in. long, Fribourg Museum,
Switzerland (p. 218).
2, V 3, Sword hilt from Shepperton, Middlesex, tang c. \\ in. long, iron
pommel pierced for end of tang, Guildford Castle Museum.
3, vi3, Bronze sword pommel from Bifrons, Maidstone, K. A. S.
Collection.
4, vi 2, ' Cocked hat ' pommel from near Droxford, Hants, Winchester
Museum.
5, VI 3, Silver gilt sword hilt from Gilton, Kent, length of grip 3§ in., see
Akerman, Pagan Saxondom, pi. xxiv, Liverpool Museum.
6> 7, vi *, Bronze ' cocked hat ' sword pommel from Alfriston, Sussex,
Lewes Museum.
8, 9, vi1, Bronze 'cocked hat' pommel from Bowcombe Down, Isle
of Wight, Carisbrooke Castle Museum.
XXVII. SWORD HILTS, Continued 22
1, vii, Ornamented sword pommels from Sweden, Stockholm Museum.
2, Vii, Enriched sword hilt from Bildso by Slagelse, Denmark, see Sophus
Muller, Nordische Altertumskunde, 11, 190, Copenhagen Museum.
3, vii 2 or 3, Sword hilt from Combe, Kent, see Akerman, Pagan Saxon-
dom, pi. xxiv, Saffron Walden Museum.
4, Cocked hat pommel with ring arrangement from Faversham, Kent,
in British Museum.
5, vi *, Button of sword knot (?) from Brighthampton, Oxon, Ashmolean
Museum.
6, vi ', ' Cocked hat ' pommel from above, ibid.
7, vi *, Top of scabbard of sword from above, ibid.
8, vi *, Ornamented silver chape of scabbard of above, ibid.
9, vi, Sword from Croydon, in British Museum, 36^ in. long over all
(p. 210).
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xxiii
PLATE AT PAGE
XXVIII. SCRAMASAXES, KNIVES, ETC. . . . .227
1, vii or viii, Cutlass of abnormal form from Saffron Walden, 10^ in.
long, Saffron Walden Museum, Essex.
2, vii, Long-handled scramasax from Snodland, Kent, total length 20
in., length of handle 8 in., Rochester Museum.
3, Two-edged dagger of exceptional form, from Cookham by the
Thames, blade 9 in. long, Reading Museum (p. 231).
4, vii, Short heavy scramasax from Kent, 9 in. long, Maidstone Museum.
5, and 9, Curved knives of Romano-British form, about 4 in. long,
from Winklebury excavations in Cranborne Chase, Rushmore
Museum, Farnham, Dorset.
6, 'Langsax' from Folkestone cemetery, 15 in. long, with iron pommel
in same piece with tang, Folkestone Museum (p. 218).
7, vii, Full-sized scramasax from Uncleby, Yorkshire, 23I in. long,
York Museum.
8, 11-18, Iron knives from various localities. No. 13 is 6 in. long.
10, x, Knife-scramasax from the City of London, found with coins of
-#sthelred II, 979-1016, length 13 in., British Museum.
1 9, vii, Long-handled scramasax with iron pommel, from Purton, Wilts,
c. 23 in. long, Devizes Museum.
20, vii, Scramasax of exceptional size, from Kidlington, Oxfordshire.
Length 31 in., greatest width 2^ in., thickness at back ^ in.,
British Museum.
[The relative sizes as figured are approximately correct except in the case
of the longer pieces, Nos. 2, 6, 7, 19 and 20, which should be about
half as large again.]
XXIX. AXE HEADS, ANGLO-SAXON AND CONTIN-
ENTAL 231
1, v, Frankish axe head (francisca) with part of handle remaining, from
Nesle Hodeng, Rouen Museum.
2, v, Francisca from Martin Eglise, 7 in. from back to front, Rouen
Museum.
3, Iron axe head with long handle in one piece with it, length 17 in. over
all, found with two iron spear heads in a Roman villa at Alresford,
Hants, Colchester Museum.
4, vi, Axe head of Frankish form, from Hob Hill by Saltburn-on-Sea,
Yorkshire, 8 in. from back to front, Saltburn-on-Sea.
5, vi, Do., from Mitchell's Hill, Icklingham, Suffolk, Colchester
Museum.
6, vi, Do., from Croydon, Grange Wood Museum.
7, vi, Do., see Coll. Ant., 11, pi. L, 7, Maidstone Museum.
8, Diminutive axe head, 3 in. long, found at Little Kimble, Bucks, see
Records of Buckinghamshire, 11, 48, Aylesbury Museum.
9, vi (?), Axe head of different form, Rouen Museum.
10, Axe head from Aldworth, Berks, cutting edge more than 9 in. long,
Reading Museum.
xxiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE AT PAGE
ii, Vs, Axe head found in the tomb of Childeric, 7| in. long, Biblio-
theque Nationale, Paris.
12, Axe head of peculiar form found at Bifrons, Kent; Maidstone,
K. A. S. Collection.
XXX. AXE HEADS, ETC 233
1, Axe head in Oldenburg Museum, of local provenance, cutting edge
10 J in. long.
2, VI 2, Axe head from Chapel Farm, Horton Kirby, Kent, s| in. long,
Maidstone Museum.
3, Axe head of drop-bladed type, from bed of Thames by Reading,
Reading Museum.
4, X, Axe head of characteristic 'Viking' form, 7 in. long, iron, with
inlaid silver ornamentation and gilding, from Mammen by Viborg,
Denmark, see Worsaae, ' La Sepulture de Mammen,' in Memoires de
la Soc. Roy. des Ant. du Nord, 1869, p. 227, Copenhagen Museum.
5, v and vi, Pins for the hair with axe-head terminations, Frankish,
Museum at Namur.
XXXI. SPEAR HEADS 235
1, vi, Group of spear heads from High Down, Sussex. The longest
measures 17 in., Ferring Grange.
2, VI, Spear heads from Kent ; a, from Sarre at Maidstone, 18 in. long;
the others from Kingston at Liverpool.
3, VI, Group from Little Wilbraham, Cambs. The longest measures 21
in., at Audley End.
4, vi, Group from Darlington. The longest is 16 in. long, Mr. Ed.
Wooler's Collection, Darlington.
5, V3, Spear head of Childeric, 9 in. long, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.
XXXII. THE ANGON, ARROW HEADS, ETC. . . .237
1, Arrow heads from Buttsole, Eastry, Kent. The lengths vary from
4^ in. to z\ in., Maidstone Museum (pp. 203, 242, 708).
2, 3, Open and closed spear sockets from Saxby, Leicestershire, at
Midland Institute, Derby (p. 235).
4, v3, Spear head with closed socket, from early burial at Brighton,
Brighton Museum (pp. 235, 682).
5, Arrow head from Kent, Douglas Collection, Ashmolean (p. 242).
6, Arrow head from Chesterton Camp, Warwickshire, Warwick Museum.
7, Do. from churchyard at Radford Semele, Warwickshire (mediaeval ?),
Warwick Museum.
8, vi, Three iron objects from Bifrons. The barbed spear head is 9^
in. long, Bifrons House.
9, Spear head from Suffolk, in Pitt Rivers Museum, Farnham, Dorset.
10, Spear head from Fairford, Gloucestershire, Ashmolean.
11, iv (?), Barbed spear (angon ?), 1 ft. 9^ in. long, from Carvoran on the
Roman Wall, Black Gate Museum, Newcastle-on-Tyne.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xxv
PLATE AT PAGE
12, vi, Angon from Harmignies, Belgium, 3 ft. 6 in. long, Musee du
Cinquantenaire, Brussels.
13, Ferule for butt end of spear, Guildhall Museum, London (p. 241).
14, Do., of different form, from Rochester, Kent, Rochester Museum.
15, vi, Angon from Croydon, Surrey, 3 ft. 2^ in. long, British Museum.
XXXIII. FIBULAE AS WORN 243
1, 2, vi 2, Theodora and Justinian, with an ecclesiastic behind, from the
mosaic in S. Vitale, Ravenna (p. 274).
3, v, *Roma' from a late Roman ivory at Vienna (p. 270).
4, IV, A Roman emperor from a late Roman ivory at Vienna.
XXXIV. SQUARE HEADED FIBULAE FROM THE CEME-
TERY AT BIFRONS, KENT . . . .245
(See p. 256 f.)
1, vi *. 2, vi1. 5, VI3.
7, vi2. 10, 11, v3 (p. 266). 12 (p. 266).
XXXV. ROUND HEADED FIBULAE FROM THE CEME-
TERY AT BIFRONS, KENT 245
(See p. 255 f.)
1, 4, v3 (p. 258). 2, vi3 (p. 258). 5, vi 1. 6, 7, vi2.
10, 12, v3. 11, vi2 (p. 280). 9, 13 (p. 256).
XXXVI. PLATE AND RING FIBULAE FROM BIFRONS,
KENT 245
(See p. 273 f.)
6, 8, v3. 10, vi2 (p. 273). 13, vii1.
XXXVII. SOME TYPES OF FIBULAE NOT REPRESENTED
AT BIFRONS 247
1, vi3, Bronze fibula, Lombard, from Val di Ledro, c. 3^ in. long,
Museum at Trient.
2, vi 3, Do., do., from Monte di Terlago, ibid.
3, VI 1, Penannular brooch from Higham, Kent, Rochester Museum.
4, Penannular brooch from Duston, Northants, Northampton Museum.
5, vi l, Pair of small equal armed brooches from Alfriston, Sussex,
Barbican House, Lewes.
6, Small equal armed brooch, 2J in. long, from Stapenhill, Staffordshire,
Burton-on-Trent.
7, VI 2, Equal armed fibula of early type, 2^ in. broad, from Kempston,
Beds (pp. 248, 271, 562), British Museum.
8, vi, Pair of trefoil headed bronze brooches, 3| in. long, from Stapen-
hill, at Burton-on-Trent.
xxvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE AT PAGE
9, vi, Trefoil headed fibula from High Down, Sussex, at Ferring Grange.
10, vi, Do., 2§ in. long, from Birdoswald on the Roman Wall, at Black
Gate Museum, Newcastle.
XXXVIII. EARLY FIBULAE: FIBULAE FROM SACKRAU,
BY BRESLAU 251
1, iv B.C., Bronze fibula of La Tene type I, Museum at Innsbruck
(p. 258).
2, iv, Roman ' cross bow ' fibula, Trieste Museum.
• 3, IV1, Three silver-gilt triple-coiled fibulae from Sackrau.
4, iv \ Front view of double-coiled fibula of gold from Sackrau, Museum
at Breslau.
5, iv *, Back view of do.
[Nos. 4 and 5 are somewhat enlarged, the three under No. 3 are con-
siderably reduced. The middle one of 3 is 3J in. high. No. 4 is
2§ in. high.]
XXXIX. MISCELLANEOUS ROUND AND SQUARE
HEADED FIBULAE 255
1, vi 3, Silver fibula of a form hardly known in this country, from Market
Overton, Rutland, 3^ in. high, at Tickencote Hall, near Stamford.
2, vi 2, Bronze fibula from Kent, Lord Grantley's Collection.
3, vi 2, Bronze fibula from Kent, as above.
4, vi2, Bronze fibula from Barrington, Cambs, Ashmolean.
5, vi *, Bronze fibula imitating the early sheet silver type, from Enver-
meu, Normandy, Museum at Rouen (p. 253).
6, v l, Part of round headed fibula from Hammoor B, in Museum
at Kiel.
7, v 3, Round headed fibula from a Frisian terp, Museum at Leeu-
warden, Holland.
XL. EARLY CRUCIFORM FIBULAE 259
1, 11, Early fibula with ' returned foot,' from S. Russia, in Antiquarium,
Berlin (p. 258).
2, v l, Early cruciform fibula from Hammoor B, in Holstein, Museum
at Kiel. Date about 400 A.D.
3, v 2, More advanced cruciform fibula, as above.
4, v 3, Early cruciform fibula from Suffolk, Norwich Museum, Fitch
Collection.
5, V3, Early cruciform fibula from Holme Pierrepont near Cotgrave,
Notts, 3^ in. long, Sheffield Museum (p. 262).
6, iv 3, Fibula of very early type found at Dorchester, Oxon, 2§ in. long,
Ashmolean.
7, vi, Fibula of early type from Midlum, Kreis Lehe, Hanover, Pro-
vincial Museum at Hanover.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xxvii
PLATE AT PAGE
XLI. CONSTRUCTION OF ENGLISH CRUCIFORM
FIBULAE 261
1, v3, Early cruciform fibula found in a tomb near Cestersover on the
Watling Street not far from Rugby, 3^ in. long, see H. Schetelig,
Cruciform Brooches of Norway, p. 98, Rugby School Museum.
[Front and back view.]
2, v3, Bronze cruciform fibula finely wrought, from Malton Farm,
Cambs, 4 in. long, Ashmolean. [Perhaps imported.]
3, vi, Head of cruciform fibula from Sancton, Yorlcs, showing mode of
attaching the side knobs, Ashmolean.
4, VI * (c. 500 a.d.), Cruciform fibula, front and back views, found at
Corbridge, Northumberland, 3$ in. long, at Beaufront Castle,
by Hexham.
5, vi 2, Fibula from Blaby, Leicestershire, Leicester Museum (p. 265).
6, vi *, Fibula from East Sheffbrd, Berks, 3| in. long, Museum at
Newbury.
7, vi2, Fibula from near Mildenhall, Suffolk, with traces of enamel,
collection of Mr. S. G. Fenton, London (p. 268).
XLII. SOME SPECIAL FORMS DERIVED FROM THE
CRUCIFORM FIBULA 265
1, VI, Group of fibulae from Kempston, Beds, British Museum.
2» 3> v1, Fibulae from Borgstedt, Schleswig, in Kiel Museum.
4, Enlarged view of a Kempston fibula, about 3J in. long, British
Museum.
XLIII. FEET OF CRUCIFORM FIBULAE . . . .267
1, vi 2, Cruciform fibula from Hornsea, 5 in. long, Museum at Hull.
2, vi 1, Do., from Exning, Suffolk, 4$ in. long, Norwich Museum.
3, vi 2, Do., from Hornsea, 4J in. long, Museum at Hull.
4, Foot of cruciform fibula in Lord Grantley's Collection.
5, Do., from Saxby, Leicestershire, in Midland Institute, Derby.
6, vi 2, Cruciform fibula from Little Wilbraham, Cambs, see Neville,
Saxon Obsequies, pi. 4, 105, 5J in. long, at Audley End.
XLIV. CRUCIFORM FIBULA FROM LONDESBOROUGH . 268
vi 2, Length 5^ in. Remarkable for its fine preservation, Museum at Hull.
XLV. FLORID LATE CRUCIFORM FIBULAE . . .269
1, vi3, From West Stow Heath, Suffolk, 6 in. long, Museum at Bury St.
Edmunds.
2, vi3, From Little Wilbraham, Cambs, 5 in. long. See Neville, Saxon
Obsequies, pi. 2, 8 r ; Haakon Schetelig, Cruciform Brooches of Norway,
pp. 80, 109, 153. He dates it 550-600 a.d. At Audley End.
3, vi 3, From Hornsea, 4$ in. long, Museum at Hull.
xxviii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE AT PAGE
4, vii x, From Upton Snodsbury, Worcestershire, 4^ in. long, Victoria
Institute, Worcester.
5, VI s, From Barrington, Cambs, Ashmolean, Evans Collection (pp. 270,
597).
6, VII !, Foot of fibula similar to No. 3, from Whitehill, Tynemouth,
Northumberland, Black Gate Museum, Newcastle.
7, vi3, From Chesterford, Essex, Liverpool Museum (pp. 270, 597).
XLVI. PLATE AND EQUAL-ARMED FIBULAE . . .271
1, v, Base of ' applied ' brooch with traces of enamel, Museum at Hanover
(P. 278).
2, v, Back, view of similar piece, Museum at Geestemiinde near Bremen
(p. 278).
3, v, Base of applied brooch of different pattern. See Neville, Saxon
Obsequies, pi. 3, 22 for a similar piece, Museum at Hanover (p. 278).
4, vi ', Fibula in form of a duck, from Chessell Down, Isle of Wight,
Carisbrooke Castle (p. 280).
5, IX, Pewter brooch, if in. diameter, found with others in Cheapside,
London, late Saxon, Guildhall Museum, London (p. 280).
6, vii x, Silver brooch enclosing cast of silver coin of the Emperor
Valentinian, York Museum, Croft Collection (p. 279).
7, Vii, Equal armed fibula from Kief, Russia.
8, vii, Do., from Trient, Austria.
9, vii, Do., do.
10, vi, Equal armed fibulae from Sweden, Museum at Stockholm.
Date vi.
XLVII. SAUCER, ETC., FIBULAE FROM KEMPSTON, ETC. 275
1, vi, Group of saucer and applied fibulae from Kempston, Beds, British
Museum.
2, vi 3, Saucer brooch of unusual construction from Duston, Northants,
2§ in. diameter, Northampton Museum.
XLVIII. PETROSSA FIBULAE AND PLATE FIBULAE OF
SPECIAL FORMS 279
1, vi 3, « Ibis ' fibula from the Treasure of Petrossa, io-in. high, University
Museum, Bucharest (pp. 247, 273, 280).
2, IV3, Fibula from the Treasure of Petrossa, as above (p. 273).
3, vi 2, Fibula of Swastika form with four birds' heads and red enamel
in centre, i§ in. diameter, bronze, from neighbourhood of Mildenhall,
Suffolk, collection of Mr. S. G. Fenton, London.
4, vii *, Tri-lobed bronze fibula, z\ in. across, from Lakenheath Warren,
Suffolk, Museum at Cambridge.
5, vi3, Swastika brooch, 1 in. across, bronze, from Alfriston, Sussex,
Lewes Museum.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xxix
PLATE AT PAGE
6, vi3, Circular bronze brooch, i| in. across, pierced with a 'swastika'
pattern, from Market Overton, Rutland, at Tickencote Hall,
Rutland.
7, vi2, 'S' shaped brooch with two birds' heads, one broken, from Iffley,
Oxon, i£ in. long, British Museum.
XLIX. DECORATED QUOIT FIBULAE 281
1, vi8, Quoit fibula from Sarre, Kent, silver parcel gilt, 3^ in. diameter^
British Museum (p. 687).
2, vi3, Quoit fibula from Alfriston, Sussex, silver, with niello, i§ in.
diameter, Lewes Museum (p. 304).
3, vi *, Quoit fibula from Alfriston, Sussex, bronze silvered, 1 fy in.
diameter, Lewes Museum.
L. NON-SAXON RING FIBULAE 285
1, Penannular bronze fibula from Ham Hill, Somerset, Romano-British,
Museum at Taunton.
2, Penannular bronze fibula from High Down, Sussex, probably Romano-
British, c. 3 in. diameter, collection of Edwin Henty, Esq.
3, Pair of bronze annular fibulae found in the garden at Audley End,
Essex, probably mediaeval, at Audley End.
4, Bronze annular fibula found on Coquet Island, Northumberland, with
No. 5, i£ in. diameter, Alnwick Castle Museum.
5, Enamelled plaque found with No. 4. From the shape of the ornaments
in the outer rim probably mediaeval, ij in. diameter, Alnwick
Castle Museum.
LI. ANGLO-SAXON RING FIBULAE 287
1, Vs, Quoit-brooch of penannular type, bronze, ij in. diameter, Bloxam
Collection, Museum at Rugby (p. 284).
2, vi 2, Annular brooch, bronze, ijin. diameter, from Stapenhill, Museum
of the Burton-on-Trent Archaeological Society, Burton-on-Trent.
3, VI *, Ring of bronze annular brooch, faceted, 1 J in. diameter^ from
West Stow Heath, Suffolk, Fenton Collection.
4, vi2, Annular bronze brooch, \\ in. diameter, from Hornsea, Museum
at Hull.
5, Ring made of the tine of stag's horn, 3 in. diameter, possibly used as
an annular brooch, from Londesborough, East Yorkshire, Museum
at Hull.
6, vii J, Two small annular brooches, about 1 in. diameter, from Uncleby,
East Yorkshire, Museum at York.
7, vii1, Annular bronze brooch with garnet settings, ig in. diameter,
as above.
8, vii1, Annular brooch, bronze, with knobs and animals' heads, i| in.
diameter, from Bifrons, Kent, Museum of Kent Archaeological
Society, Maidstone.
xxx LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE AT PAGE
9, v3, Bronze penannular brooch, ij in. diameter, Bloxam Collection,
Museum at Rugby.
10, vn1, Annular brooch, silver, i^ in. diameter, from Faversham, Kent,
British Museum.
ii, vn1, Silver annular brooch, with animals' heads, ij in. diameter,
from Uncleby, Museum at York.
1 2, c. 400, Two animals' heads terminating a golden necklet from near Abo,
Finland, Museum at Stockholm.
LII. ILLUSTRATIONS OF ORNAMENT AND TECHNIQUE 293
1, Stone at entrance to tumulus at Newgrange, Ireland (p. 292).
2, Piece of ivory or bone from Frindsbury near Rochester, Kent, found
with Roman objects, Liverpool Museum (p. 305).
3, Late Celtic bronze gilt fibula from Aesica on the Roman wall, length
4J in., see Arckaeologia, lv, 179 f., Newcastle Museum (p. 292).
4, Buckle of bone, Alnwick Castle Museum.
5, Metal strap-end with spiral inlays, Museum at Worms (p. 292).
6, Burgundian bronze buckle, Museum at Lausanne (p. 303).
7, Enlarged portion of foot of Roman fibula, PI. xxxvm, 2 (p. 304).
8, Piece of bone from Croydon, Surrey, Grange Wood Museum.
9, Enlarged portion of Roman silver incised and nielloed plaque,
Museum at Mainz (p. 304).
10, Back plate of fibula, silver, incised and nielloed, from Faversham,
Kent, Ashmolean, Oxford, with central portion enlarged (p. 537).
11, Enlarged portion of quoit brooch from Alfriston, Sussex, PI. xlix, 2
(p. 304).
LIII. ILLUSTRATIONS OF TECHNIQUE . . . .305
1, iv B.C., Golden ear pendant of fine Greek workmanship from Kertsch,
Hermitage, St. Petersburg (p. 310).
2, vn I, Portion, enlarged, of filigree work on a Kentish disc fibula from
Abingdon, Berks, British Museum (p. 311).
3, Golden eagle of Roman workmanship, Museum at Stockholm (p. 310).
4, Portion of ivory box from Old Park, Dover, Dover Museum.
5, Enlarged view of gold ring, from Bossington, Stockbridge, Hants, late
Saxon, Ashmolean Museum (p. 311).
6, 7, Golden pendants in the Maclean Collection, Fitzwilliam Museum,
Cambridge, see Catalogue of Collection (pp. 306, 310).
8, vn1, Golden jewel inlaid with garnets from Twickenham, Middlesex,
British Museum, diameter 1^- in. (p. 311).
9, 10, The Herpaly Shield boss. Barbaric work, Museum at Budapest,
with portion enlarged.
LIV. SCANDINAVIAN GOLD WORK 309
Enriched necklets in gold from Sweden, in the National Museum, Stock-
holm. Date v.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xxxi
PLATE AT PAGE
The finest work is on the necklet with three strands. That on
the necklets with five and with seven strands is not quite so good.
See Bernhard Salin, Thierornamentik, p. 211 f. The reproduction
is about the size of the originals.
3°9
311
LV. SCANDINAVIAN GOLD WORK
Part of the three strand necklet of gold as above, and portion of golden
girdle, Museum at Stockholm. Date V.
In front four bracteates.
LVI. THE WINDSOR DAGGER POMMEL ....
Silver pommel of dagger with enriched gold plate on one face, found at
Windsor, from the Evans Collection, in the Ashmolean Museum.
Date vii. Enlarged five diameters.
LVII. APPLIED AND SAUCER BROOCHES . . . .313
1, VI 1, Applied brooch from Fairford, Gloucestershire, in British
Museum, 2 in. diameter.
2, VI3, Applied brooch from Frilford, Berks, in Ashmolean Museum,
i§ in. diameter.
3, vi 3, Saucer brooch from Upton Snodsbury, Worcestershire, in Wor-
cester Museum, i§ in. diameter.
4, vi 3, Pair of saucer brooches from Mildenhall, Wilts, in Museum at
Devizes, 2J in. diameter.
5, VI 1, Pair of saucer brooches found at Horton Kirby, Kent, Museum
of Kent Archaeological Society at Maidstone, 2 in. diameter (p. 611).
6, v3, Saucer brooch found at Mitcham, collection of Captain Bidder,
1 1 in. diameter.
7, vi 3, Saucer brooch from Fairford, Glos. In Ashmolean Museum,
21 in. diameter.
LVIII. SAUCER BROOCHES WITH CONVENTIONAL
ORNAMENT, AND BUTTON BROOCHES . .315
1, vi 3, Large saucer brooch from Ashendon, Bucks, 3 J in. diam., with
settings of garnet, at Audley End.
2, vi 8, Pair of saucer brooches, probably from Linton Heath, Cambs, at
Audley End.
3, 4, vi 3, Small button brooches from Alfriston, Sussex, in Lewes
Museum (p. 321 f).
5, vi l, Applied brooch from interment 4 in the pagan Thames-Kennet
cemetery at Reading, Reading Museum.
6, vi 2, Small button brooch, § in. diameter, from Woodyates on the borders
of Wilts and Dorset, Devizes Museum (p. 321 f.).
7, vi8, Button brooch from Chessell Down, Isle of Wight, Museum at
Carisbrooke Castle (p. 321 f.).
xxxii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE AT PAGE
LIX. SAUCER BROOCHES, ETC., WITH SCROLL ORNA-
MENT, AND BUTTON BROOCHES . . .317
1, VI1, Gilded bronze saucer brooch from Alfriston, Sussex, i§ in.
diameter, Museum at Lewes (p. 316).
2, Do., from Higham near Gravesend, Kent, Rochester Museum (pp. 611,
629).
3, Small saucer brooch from Duston, Northants, Northampton Museum.
4, Small button brooch from Kempston, Beds, British Museum (p. 321 f.).
5, vi I, Do., from Alfriston, Sussex, Lewes Museum (p. 322).
6, v 3, Saucer brooch from Mitcham, Surrey, 1$ in. in diameter, collection
of Captain Bidder (p. 316).
7, VI 1, Scabbard mount of silver with gilded ornaments, from Bright-
hampton, Oxon, enlarged, Ashmolean.
LX. THE HUMAN FORM AND FACE IN TEUTONIC
ORNAMENT 319
1, vii1, Bronze mounting of drinking horn from the Taplow Barrow,
Bucks, British Museum.
2, vi J, Foot of square headed gilt bronze fibula, from Alfriston, Sussex,
twice natural size, Lewes Museum.
3, Head from Roman bronze bowl found in Denmark, Copenhagen
Museum.
4, Head from bronze bowl from Denmark of barbaric workmanship,
Copenhagen Museum.
5, v, Two heads from the golden necklet with three strands on PL lxv,
from Westgothland, Sweden, enlarged four and a half diameters,
Museum at Stockholm.
6, VI 3, Portion of applied brooch from Barrington, Cambs, 3 in. across,
ornamented with parts of the human form, Museum at Cambridge
(p. 276).
7, vi1, Pair of button fibulae 1$ in. across, from Bifrons, Kent, K. A. S.
Collection, Maidstone (p. 323).
8, Small buckle from Blekinge, Sweden, 6ee Salin, Thierornamentik,
p. 211, Museum at Stockholm.
9, Bracteate-like pendant with head and arms of human figure in repousse,
from Alten Elsing, Museum at Regensburg (p. 323).
LXI. ROMAN AND BARBARIC ORNAMENT . . .323
1, in, Breast ornament of bronze, silver plated and gilt, 5 in. diameter,
from Thorsberg Moss, Denmark, Museum at Kiel.
2, ill, Portion of similar breast ornament with the original plating on the
outer circle removed and replaced by barbaric work, Museum at Kiel.
3, v3, Bronze plaque or pendant from near Rochester, Kent, tin or silver
inlays on outer rim, Museum at Rochester.
LXII. BIFRONS FIBULA 326
vi ', Square headed fibula of silver, original 5J in. long, made in three
pieces, K. A. S. Collection, Maidstone, Kent.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xxxiii
PLATE AT PAGE
LXIII. INTERLACING ANIMAL ORNAMENT . . .329
1, vii2, Bronze disc, gilded, probably used, like the Kiel plaques, PI. LXi,
as a breast ornament, from Alton Hill, Bottisham, Cambs, diameter
3 in., Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
2, x, Animals with interlacing work on carved stone of about x, in the
Gloucester Museum.
3, vii2, Embossed silver plaque, i£ in. in diameter, found in a tumulus
at Caenby, Lincolnshire, British Museum, see Akerman, Remains of
Pagan Saxondom, pi. xv.
4, vii *, Cocked hat pommel of a sword from Crundale, Kent, with
interlacing animal ornament, British Museum. Below is an orna-
ment of the hilt.
5, vii1, Embossed silver plaque of an 'applied' brooch, if in. across,
found in St. John's College Cricket Field, Cambridge, with naturally
treated animals, Museum at Cambridge (p. 106).
6, vii *, Cast bronze pendant finely chased and gilt, from Gilton, Kent,
i\% in. across, Museum in Liverpool, see Salin, Tkierornamentik,
P- 327-
LXIV. SQUARE HEADED BRONZE FIBULAE OF PLAIN
TYPE'. . . " 335
1, vi2, Square headed fibula from Market Overton, Rutland, 6 in. long,
at Tickencote Hall.
2, vi1, Square headed fibula from Kenninghall, Norfolk, 6j in. long,
British Museum.
3, VI 3, Square headed fibula from High Dyke, near Welbourn, Lincoln-
shire, in Alnwick Castle Museum, Catalogue number 292, 5^ in. long.
LXV. SQUARE HEADED FIBULAE, BRONZE AND SILVER 336
1, VI 2, Square headed fibula from Billesdon, Leicestershire, bronze, 6 in.
long, Museum at Leicester.
2, vii 3, Square headed fibula, silver, from Richborough, Kent, Mayer
Collection, Liverpool (p. 342).
3, vii 2, Square headed fibula, silver, 4 in. long, from Gilton, Kent, grave
48 (p. 342). Mayer Collection, Liverpool. Inset, portion of silver
ornament found with the above (p. 342).
4, VI 2, Square headed fibula with stud on bow, bronze, 6 in. long, from
Ipswich, Christchurch Museum, Ipswich.
LXVL ORNATE SQUARE HEADED BROOCHES FROM
THE MIDLANDS 337
1, vi 3, Square headed bronze fibula from Rothley Temple, Leicestershire,
$\ in. long, Museum at Leicester.
2, vi 3, Ornate bronze square headed fibula damaged below, found on site
of St. Andrew's Hospital, Northampton, Northampton Museum.
3, vi 3, Square headed bronze fibula from Duston, Northants, length
5| in., Northampton Museum.
ill c
xxxiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE AT PAGE
LXVII. SQUARE HEADED FIBULAE FROM ALFRISTON,
SUSSEX . . . ■ 339
1, vi3, Square headed ornate brooch of gilded bronze from Alfriston,
Sussex, 4J in. long, Lewes Museum.
2, vi 3, Do., do., 4§ in. long, same places.
3, vi 3, Do., do., 5 in, long, same places.
LXVIII. LATER ANIMAL ORNAMENT . . . .341
1, vii l, Portion of the silver gilt rim of a vessel with late animal orna-
ment in repousse work, from the Old Park, Dover, in Dover Museum
(p. 462).
2, 4, vi3, Pair of saucer brooches from Broughton Poggs, Oxon, i§ in.
in diameter, Liverpool Museum.
3, vi2, Saucer brooch from Filkins, Oxon, if in. diameter, Liverpool
Museum (p. 689).
5, vi 3, Saucer brooch from Brockbridge, near Droxford, Hants, i§ in.
in diameter, Winchester Museum.
6, vii1, The 'Myton' or 'St. Nicholas' brooch from Warwick, 5^ in.
long, Museum at Warwick (p. 340).
7, VI 3, Saucer brooch from Alfriston, Sussex, 1 x5^ in. diameter, Museum
at Lewes.
8, VI2, Applied brooch from Kempston, Beds, 2^! in. diameter, British
Museum (p. 340).
9, vi 3, Saucer brooch from Alfriston, Sussex, 1 J in. in diameter, Museum
at Lewes.
LXIX. LATEST SAUCER AND CRUCIFORM BROOCHES . 343
1, vii2, Saucer brooch from Wheatley, Oxon, 3^ in. across, Ashmolean
Museum.
2, vii2, Saucer brooch from Bidfoid, Warwickshire, 2j in. across,
Museum at Worcester.
3, vii 2, Late cruciform brooch from Longb ridge, Warwickshire, 7 J in.
long, British Museum.
4, vii1, Saucer brooch from East Shefford, Berks, if in. across, British
Museum.
5, vii 1, Saucer brooch found in a cinerary urn in a tumulus at Marton
near Rugby, z\ in. across, Bloxam Collection, Museum at Rugby
(p. 669).
LXX. BUCKLES OF SIMPLE TYPES FROM BIFRONS,
KENT
Portion of card with buckles and other small objects from Bifrons
Cemetery, Kent, at Bifrons House, three quarters full size.
347
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xxxv
PLATE AT PAGE
LXXI. EARLY GOTHIC BUCKLES: BUCKLES WITH
RECTANGULAR AND OVAL PLATES . . .349
1, iv, Three small golden buckles with encrusted plates, from S. Russia,
Museum fiir Volkerkunde, Berlin (p. 348).
2, Small buckle set with garnets at back of pin, from Crundale, Kent,
British Museum (p. 348).
3, ill, Cross set with carbuncles, from the Crimea, Museum in Odessa,
dated by Prof. Posta II] a.d.
4, vii 2, Buckle of silver gilt with rectangular plate set with garnets, from
Gilton, Kent, 3^ in. long, Museum at Liverpool, see Akerman,
Pagan Saxondom, pi. xxix.
5, vii *, Small square-plated buckle set with carbuncles, from East Boldon,
Co. Durham, Museum at Newcastle, probably vii a.d.
6, VI 3, Bronze buckle with oval plate, from Ipswich, Christchurch
Museum, Ipswich.
LXXII. BUCKLES WITH OPEN-WORK PLATES . . .351
1, Small buckle, 1^ in. long, formerly encrusted (with large garnet?),
from Barfriston, Kent, Museum at Liverpool (p. 350).
2, Bronze buckle with curious pin arrangement and open-work plate,
Museum at Rochester, Kent (p. 350).
3, vii *, Bronze buckle with open-work plate, 2| in. long, from Kingston,
Kent, Museum at Liverpool.
4, Pierced bronze plate, Roman work, Provincial Museum at Bonn.
5, Pierced bronze plates, late Celtic work, from the Marne burials, France,
British Museum.
6, vii *, Bronze buckle with open-work plate, 2 \ in. long, from Uncleby,
Yorkshire, Museum at York.
LXXIII. BRONZE AND IRON BUCKLES . . . .355
1, vii 2, Ornate bronze buckle, 6 \ in. long, inlaid and gilded, from Crun-
dale, Kent, British Museum (p. 352).
2, vii2, Large iron buckle, 6 in. long, diameter of ring (much corroded),
2^ in., from Faversham, Kent, Museum at Maidstone (p. 174).
3, Back view of bronze buckle with complementary plate, from Lavar-
cherie, Belgium, Museum at Brussels.
4, Bronze buckle with oval plate and detachable studs, from Wancennes,
Belgium, Museum at Namur.
5, vii 3, Bronze buckle with triangular plate and fixed studs, provenance
unknown, Museum at Canterbury.
LXXIV. BUCKLE SUITES 357
1, vii2, Bronze buckle, 4 in. long, with complementary plate, from Bar-
friston, Kent, Museum at Liverpool.
2, vii 3, Bronze buckle, tinned, 3^ in. long, with square plate en suite,
from Sibertswold, Museum at Liverpool.
xxxvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE AT PAGE
3, Bone buckle, i£ in. across, from Ozengel], Kent, Liverpool (p. 348).
4, vn 3, Back view of No. 2, with Faussett's original label upon it.
5, vn2, Back view of No. 1, as above.
LXXV. BELT PLATES, ETC 358
1, vi *, Buckle and three belt plates, bronze, the buckle and one plate set
with glass beads. The band on which the plates were fixed appears
by the rivets to have been about ^ in. thick, from Mitcham,
Surrey, at Mitcham Vestry Hall.
2, vi \ Set of belt plates of bronze, tinned, from Bifrons, Kent, the three
largest are 1 ^ in. high. The plates are double and the band passed
between them, a swastika device on face, Maidstone, K. A. S.
Collection.
3, vi1, Iron buckle from Mitcham, Surrey, at Mitcham Vestry Hall
(P- 355).
4, vi 1, Iron buckle from Croydon, Surrey, in British Museum (p. 355).
5, V 3, Bronze buckle, with portions of leather strap pierced by the tongue,
found on a skeleton on Royston Heath in 1858, 1^ in. extreme
width, Museum at Cambridge.
6, vi, Belt plate from Stowting, Kent, bronze, if in. long, Stowting
Rectory.
7, vi1, Shoe-shaped stud, bronze, 1^ in. long, as above.
LXXVI. STRAP ENDS, SPIRAL WIRE CLASPS, ETC. . .359
1, Two bronze strap ends from Ozengell, Kent, 2J in. long, with split
shanks, Liverpool Museum.
2, Three bronze strap ends from Bifrons, Kent, longest 2^- in. long,
K. A. S. Collection, Maidstone. Also two below from Faversham,
Kent, British Museum.
3, Silver girdle fasteners, c. 6 in. long, with hook and eye attachment,
found between Twyford and Borough Hill, Leicestershire, Museum
at Leicester.
4, VI 2, Hook and eye attachments formed of spirally coiled silver wire,
the wire in the inner part of the coil being beaten out flat and orna-
mented with concentric circles, width across from side to side as
shown 2J in. Found at Market Overton, Rutland, now at
Tickencote Hall.
5, vi1, Spiral wire attachments found near the skull of a skeleton at
Twyford, Leicestershire, c. 2 in. in width, Museum at Leicester.
LXXVII. CLASPS OF THE LARGER KIND . . . .361
1, viii (?), Bronze girdle clasp with pierced work, from the Forman
Collection, 8 in. long, Lord Grantley's Collection.
2, vn1, Clasp, gilded bronze, with zoomorphic ornament of the early
part of vn, 4^ in. long, from the Taplow Barrow, Bucks, British
Museum.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS <xxvii
PLATE AT PAGE
3, vn3, One half of a clasp (?) from Gilton, Kent, enlarged ; size of
original i in. long, pierced work in gilded silver, with foliated
ornament terminating the tripartite tail of the creature, Museum at
Liverpool (p. 106).
4, vi 2, Clasp, bronze, from Bifrons, Kent, c. 2 in. long, with zoomorphic
ornament, at Bifrons House.
5, vi2, Half of a clasp, bronze, from Saxonbury near Lewes, i§ in. long,
Museum at Lewes.
LXXVIII. CLSAPS OF THE SMALLER KIND . . .363
(Probably all of vi.)
1, Plain wrist clasp, plate bronze, i£ in. high, one part front view, the
other back, from High Dyke near Welbourn, Lincolnshire, Museum
at Alnwick Castle.
2, Clasp for wrist, plate bronze tinned, with punched ornament, 1^ in.
high, from Holdenby, Northants, Museum at Northampton.
3, Clasp as above, from Rothley Temple, Leicestershire, Rugby School
Museum.
4, Pair of clasps, front and back view, i£ in. broad, from Londesborough,
Yorkshire, cast bronze, Museum at Hull.
5, Pair of clasps in cast bronze, from West Stow Heath, Suffolk, Museum
at Bury St. Edmunds.
6, Clasp in cast bronze, from Mildenhall, Suffolk, Museum at Bury St.
Edmunds.
7, Clasp in cast bronze, gilded, 1 ^ in. broad, from North Luffenham,
Rutland, Lord Ancaster's Collection, Normanton Park, Rutland.
8, Clasp, cast bronze, i£ in. broad, from Bifrons, Kent, at Bifrons
House.
9, Clasp in cast bronze from Londesborough, Yorkshire, Museum at
York.
LXXIX. CLASP SUITES 365
1, vi3, Suite of square headed fibula, 6 in. long, and pair of clasps with
triangular adjuncts, gilded bronze, from Barrington, Cambs, in
Cambridge Museum.
2, vn *, Front and back view of clasp in gilded bronze with triangular
adjunct in the same piece, 3$ in. high, as above.
3, Triangular adjunct from N. Luffenham, Rutland, in the collection
of Lord Ancaster, Normanton Park.
4j Roman stylus (?), 3 in. long, bronze, from Leagrave, Beds, British
Museum (p. 370).
LXXX. LARGE PINS FOR DRESS OR HAIR . . .369
1, VIs, Four pins from King's Field, Faversham, in the British Museum.
The central one is 7| in. long, that with garnet inlays in the head
is now 6| in. long. All are of bronze.
2, v3, Bronze pin found at Leagrave, Beds, 7 in. long, with movable
plates in a ring through the head, British Museum,
xxxviii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE AT PAGE
3, ix, Two bronze pins, one with a hinged head plate ; the other with
a ring through the head is 6\ in. long, found at Brixworth,
Northants, Museum at Northampton. The pin with the hinged
head plate was found with a coin of Cuthred of Kent, 798-806.
4, Pin with fixed head, as above.
5, Bronze pin with head in the shape of a hand, probably Roman,
Museum at Canterbury.
6, vi *, Head, enlarged, of pin of gilded bronze from Alfriston, Sussex,
Museum at Lewes.
LXXXI. SMALL PINS AND PIN SUITES, AND GERMANIC
COSTUME FROM THE FRANKS CASKET. . 371
1, vii2, Pin suite, gold, with garnet set in central medallion, from
Little Hampton, Worcestershire, central medallion, ^ in. in diameter,
British Museum (p. 428).
2, VII *, Pin suite found in tumulus on Roundway Down, Wilts, gold,
with garnets in heads of pins and dark paste in central medallion,
pins i£ in. long, space between the pins with chain at full stretch
c. 5 in., Museum at Devizes (p. 425 f.).
3, vii1, Pendants with garnets and pastes set en cabochon in gold,
found with above, as above (p. 425 f.).
The central medallion and chain with head of pin enlarged, back and
front views (p. 425 f.).
5, 6, vii l (?), Small pins from Kentish cemeteries, 1 J in. long,
Museum at Liverpool.
7, 8, 9, 10, Figures from the carved bone casket of about 650-700 A.D.
called the Franks casket, British Museum (p. 377).
LXXXII. GERMANIC COSTUME OF V TO VI AND IX . 374
1, Frankish noble of the court of Charles the Bald, from an illuminated
MS. of the latter part of IX.
2, Ideal statue of armed Frankish chieftain of about 500 a.d., from a
cast issued by the Germanic Museum at Mainz.
3, Figure of Charles the Bald, latter half of ix, from the Bible of
S. Paolo, Rome.
LXXXIII. GERMANIC COSTUME IN SCULPTURE II
TO IV 375
1, 2, IV, Groups of Germanic captives from the lower part of the carved
ivory diptych of about iv, preserved at Halberstadt, from a cast.
3, ll3, Group from the column of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, showing
two Germanic youths, one with trews and tunic, the other with
trews, tunic and cloak, last half of 11 a.d., see Petersen, etc.,
Taf. 98 a.
4, 113, Group from above showing Germanic female captives in sleeve-
less tunics and cloaks, with hair dressed in different fashions, ibid,
Taf. 82.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xxxix
PLATE AT PAGE
5, XI 3, Group from above, showing Germanic lady with little daughter
in a four-wheeled ox wagon, they wear sleeved tunics and the lady
has a cloak drawn over her head like a veil, ibid, Taf. 96 A.
LXXXIV. GOLD STRIPS, TEXTILES, ETC 385
1, vii1, Metallic gold in narrow strips interwoven with woollen threads,
z\ times natural size, found in the Taplow Barrow, Bucks, British
Museum.
2, Portions of strips of metallic gold that have been woven, Gobelin
fashion, into a woollen fabric. Only the gold is seen. As above.
3, Long brooch of bronze, 5^ in. long, with remains of woven fabric
adhering to the back of it, and the latter in a separate piece (p. 380).
4, Bone comb with single row of teeth and handle, found probably in
London, 4§ in. long, Guildhall Museum. See Proc. Soc. Ant. xii,
"5 (P- 39°)-
LINE ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT
FIG. PAGE
i, OUTLINE OF FIGURE DESIGN ON BRONZE
MOUNT OF DRINKING HORN found at Strood,
Kent . . . . . . . . . .115
2, CRUCIFORM PATTERN ON ROMAN ENAMELLED
BROOCH, Chesters Museum, Northumberland . . 118
3, PLAN OF ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY AT BROAD-
STAIRS, KENT, superimposed on a Bronze Age burying
place 132
4, VIEW OVER FOLKESTONE TO THE ANGLO-SAXON
CEMETERY near the top of the Down on the road to
Dover . . . . . . . . . .141
5, VIEW OF THE SITE OF HIGH DOWN CEMETERY,
SUSSEX, from the low ground to the south between the
Downs and the Sea . , . . . . .142
6, VIEW OF HIGH DOWN FROM THE EAST, above
Worthing ......... 143
xl LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FIG. PAGE
7, GROUP OF ANGLO-SAXON TUMULI ON BREACH
DOWN, KENT 179
8, RUNIC INSCRIPTION ON STONE, in Canterbury
Museum . . . . . . . . . .182
9, SKETCH OF THE TWO SWORD HILTS FROM THE
POUAN FIND, at Troyes .219
10, EARLY FIBULA OF THE SAFETY-PIN TYPE FROM
PESCIERA, North Italy, natural size (below) ; SILVER
FIBULA OF EARLY TYPE FROM KINGSTON,
KENT (enlarged), Museum at Liverpool (above) . . 249
11, HEAD OF A FIBULA FROM A ROMAN GRAVE, at
Reichenhall, Bavaria, showing the arrangement of the
spring 251
12, EARLY BRONZE FIBULA, of the 'long' type from Borg-
stedt, Schleswig . . . . . . . 259
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY: THE ARRANGEMENT AND
SCOPE OF THE VOLUMES
The arrangement of the subject-matter dealt with in the
following pages presents some difficulties. The objects com-
posing it are very numerous and varied and may be regarded
from several different points of view. From that of the
general reader who has been considered throughout it was
necessary that the book should be readable and of manageable
size, while it was desired at the same time to furnish the
archaeologist and the student of history with the material
available for their special purposes. The endeavour has been
to combine these desiderata with a distribution of the matter
that shall be reasonably clear and logical, and some explanation
of the scheme of treatment thus adopted may suitably be
offered at the outset.
The main subject of the two volumes of this work already
published x was Anglo-Saxon architecture viewed in its relation
to the general life of the people in the early middle ages. The
features of that life that were pertinent to the theme were
dealt with in the first volume, while in the second were dis-
cussed the architectural monuments representing the Anglo-
Saxon style from the end of the sixth century to the Norman
Conquest. There remains to be considered a large body of
Anglo-Saxon work of a decorative kind extending over a
period even longer than that covered by the previous volumes,
1 The Arts in Early England: i, The Life of Saxon England in its Relation
to the Arts ; n, Ecclesiastical Architecture in England from the Conversion of the
Saxons to the Norman Conquest, London, John Murray, 1903.
Ill A
2 INTRODUCTORY
a considerable part of it belonging to the pagan epoch prior to
the conversion.
Students of our national antiquities are well aware that
the material just referred to is very abundant and is more-
over difficult to treat because of the numerous archaeological
problems of origin and date and interpretation involved in its
consideration. In the architectural volume an endeavour was
made to cover the field with a reasonable measure of com-
pleteness, and if this same method be still followed far more
space will be required than a single volume or even two would
afford. To circumscribe the treatment by excluding pertinent
subjects from consideration or by evading the discussion" of
crucial points of difficulty would be unworthy of the theme.
The Saxon period of our national history extends over more
than six centuries and the Saxonized region covers by far the
largest, richest, and most populous parts of Great Britain.
The artistic annals of these centuries so far as this region is
concerned provide matter for a considerable chapter in the
general history of the arts in the British Isles, and no apology
is needed for essaying the work of its compilation. If this
prove more extensive than would at first sight seem likely it is
work that wears a national colour, and no one who has set his
hand to such a task could escape the reproach of his conscience
if he spared any effort in carrying it to completion. A like
consideration may reconcile the reader to the survey of an
embarrassing array of objects, for these objects after all belong
to his own country and are the productions of the forefathers
of his race.
The objects in question possess moreover an intrinsic
interest through their artistic excellence. On this a word or
two must be said with the object of removing an impression
that may have been left on some readers' minds by the previous
volume on the architecture of the period. As a fact we do
not find in architecture proper, in the fabric, so to say, of
buildings, evidence of all the artistic taste and talent with which
ARTISTIC MERIT OF SAXON WORK 3
the Anglo-Saxon craftsman was endowed. The branches of
Anglo-Saxon work with which we have now to deal evince
more tact in design and refinement in execution than we find
in the surviving architectural monuments described and
figured in the previous volume. As was there shown, the
Anglo-Saxon builder had a sense of the monumental, but his
masses, though possessed of a rugged grandeur, combined with
this a certain uncouthness, as if the designer were gifted with
large ideas but lacked the needful schooling to express these
ideas in clear and logical form. He seems often uninstructed
in what may be called the grammar of his art, and rather to
be feeling his way towards suitable methods of treatment than
following the established traditions of architectural expression.
The undoubted originality and inventiveness he shows in some
of his arrangements and details are coupled with a curious
uncertainty and vacillation in others, and on the whole Anglo-
Saxon architecture is not without a touch of amateurishness.
In the case of the decorative and industrial arts no such
impression is produced. Anglo-Saxon coins are not only
cleverly designed but executed in a very business-like fashion.
The technique of the so-called * Kentish ' jewellery is beyond all
praise, and the bronze fibulae and buckles are cast and chased
with both decision and delicacy. In the stone carving there
is, it is true, an immense amount of rough and clumsy or
slight and careless work that belongs to degenerate epochs,
but on the other hand the work when at its best, in the earliest
time or at epochs of temporary renaissance, is precise, sensitive,
and assured. The execution of the work in the manuscripts
and in ' tours de force ' like the Durham embroideries of X
exhibits professional mastery of the most accomplished kind.
The Saxon weapon-smith was a notable adept in the manipula-
tion of malleable iron to shield-bosses or spear-heads. Hence
it follows that any unfavourable impression of Anglo-Saxon
craftsmanship derived from architectural examples must be
put aside when the attention is turned to the smaller or
4 INTRODUCTORY
movable objects with which the remainder of this work is
concerned, for on these we have every right to dwell with a
consciousness of national pride.
In view of the fact that this book is written mainly from
the artistic point of view it will be well to press this point
with some insistence.
When we regard the Anglo-Saxon as an artist, the facts
that come within our ken will be to some readers rather
surprising.
Observers of British national idiosyncrasies will have noted
that many of our countrypeople fall unconsciously into the
pose of the ancient Romans, who affected to despise the
practice of the fine arts, and deemed it more dignified to pay
the foreigner, the ' hungry Greekling ' of Juvenal, to produce
for them whatever in this line might be desired. These
people ignore the possibility of any effective artistic ability on
the part of the British born. With others of our fellow
citizens the same peculiarity shows itself in a different form.
They do not despise the practice of the arts, but on the con-
trary glorify it, while at the same time they refuse to credit
their countrymen, past or present, with any special ability in
this department, or if they are driven to admit ability they
confine it to the Celtic element in our population. It is with
both parties almost an article of faith that anything con-
spicuously good in art that is found in Britain must in some
way or another have come from abroad. If the masterpiece
in question be a portable object it has been ferried across the
sea, while if it be a fixed monument it is the work of some
imported artist. This is especially the case in regard to the
Anglo-Saxon region and period. The popular idea of early
Anglo-Saxon culture was expressed recently in an * obiter
dictum ' of an accomplished writer in the Westminster Gazette,
* China possessed a civilization, and a great civilization, at a
moment when our own Anglo-Saxon ancestors were running
about in skins daubed with paint,' and this gives colour to the
POPULAR VIEW OF SAXON ART 5
remark of the Director of a London museum, presumably in
touch with public opinion on such matters, to the effect that
* it was vaguely believed that the Roman remains in England
and Scotland were the only things that could count as works
of art previous to the Norman invasion.' Even professed
antiquaries who have not specially studied early work are
betrayed into expressions which show the strength and pre-
valence of this prejudice. It happens that one of the
specialities of the Anglo-Saxon goldsmith was the making
and adorning of silver spoons. In a monumental work by
an English authority, Mr. C. J. Jackson's The Spoon and its
History \ a gloomy picture is drawn of l the dark ages which
succeeded the civilization of Rome,' and the author decides
that at such an epoch objects like spoons were made of the
cheapest material with the least expenditure of labour, and
that * the workmanship was of the rudest description.' He
then goes on to figure and describe one of the actual spoons
found in an Anglo-Saxon grave, similar to those shown sub-
sequently, PI. xciv (Chapter viii) — dainty objects in gilded
silver, adorned with niello-work and inlaid garnets, by no
manner of means carelessly made and neither cheap nor rude !
The truth is that in the popular estimation the Anglo-
Saxon is credited with a racial character of a rather stolid and
heavy order and it is easy to believe that he would not make
a good artist. Hence it is that those who, whether as a
matter of secret pride or of open regret, deprecate the national
ability in art have credited the foreigner at one time or another
with all the good artistic work of Anglo-Saxon England.
The noble early stone carving of Northumbria, commonly
assigned to VII, is put down to supposed foreign workmen
brought over by the wealthy and energetic Wilfrid. Irish
calligraphists have been assumed as the illuminators of the
Gospels of Lindisfarne. The beautiful embossed silver
' Ormside ' bowl at York is attributed to Alexandria. In
an earlier period the fine disc-shaped inlaid brooches so com-
6 INTRODUCTORY
mon in Kent have been suspected of a Frankish provenance ;
at a later date the gold and enamel work of the { Alfred ' jewel
and the exquisite needlework of the embroideries found in
St. Cuthbert's coffin at Durham are called by c that blessed
word ' ' Byzantine.' Yet there is very substantial evidence,
some of it as cogent as archaeology ever offers, that most of
these masterpieces, together with the rest of the artistic work
of which they are only the finest examples, are the production
of homestaying Anglo-Saxon craftsmen.
Wilfrid's ' foreign workmen ' may very well be figments
of the imagination of later writers for the only really contem-
porary authority for the details of his life says nothing about
such an importation, but even if he had brought over crafts-
men from Gaul, as was done by his contemporary and friend
Benedict Biscop, how can they have carved the Ruthwell and
Bewcastle crosses ? The peculiar ornamentation on these does
not occur on Gallic monuments. M. Enlart, whose know-
ledge of early French sculpture is unrivalled, finds in them
nothing that reminds him of contemporary work in France.
They have inscriptions on them in Northumbrian runes which
Gallic or Italian workmen could not even read. The ques-
tion of the provenance of the Ormside bowl is a difficult
one, but the design and certain details of the technique
are not antique but Teutonic. The name of the Anglo-
Saxon abbot who wrote the Gospels of Lindisfarne about
700 a.d. has been preserved in a later but well-attested in-
scription in the volume itself. The fine Kentish brooches
of a century earlier are strikingly different in certain marked
characteristics of material, technique, and style from those
of Merovingian Gaul, and the leading French archaeolo-
gists agree with our own that the two are quite distinct and
independent though of course based on a common tradition.
The famous 'Alfred ' jewel in the Ashmolean at Oxford, when
minutely examined, reveals an inexperienced hand in the
fashioning of the cloisons for the enamel that was certainly
ORIGINALITY IN TEUTONIC ART 7
not the hand of a Byzantine goldsmith, and as for the Durham
embroideries, there are inscriptions worked on the very pieces
themselves which give the names of the Queen of Edward
the Elder who caused them to be made, and of the Bishop of
Winchester to whom they were a royal gift ; and not only are
these inscriptions like all the rest of the wording on the vest-
ments in Latin and not in Greek, but the name of the bishop,
Frithestan, is written with the characteristic Saxonized half-
runic capital TH(D) which no foreign workman would have
used.
These objects, which we can be practically certain are of
Anglo-Saxon and not of continental provenance, are in qualities
of design and execution of very high merit. When we come
to examine them in a later volume of this work we shall find
them above the average of the best things of the kind made at
the time elsewhere in Europe, and worthy to be selected for
any choice collection of masterpieces that might be formed by
a committee of connoisseurs.
Apart from these exceptional pieces there is a very large
body of work of a less distinguished kind that on the one
hand can be proved to be Anglo-Saxon, and on the other hand
must be accepted by all impartial judges as reaching a fairly
high standard of artistic and technical merit. This may be
tested in the matter ( 1 ) of originality, (2) of intrinsic qualities
of design, and (3) of workmanlike execution.
As regards the first question, that of originality, it must
be asked first of all about Teutonic art as a whole in relation
to other earlier or contemporary artistic developments, and
next about Anglo-Saxon art viewed as one among several local
manifestations of the artistic activity of the various branches of
the Germanic race.
It must be understood at the outset that none of the
German decorative art of the migration period is in the strict
sense original, for of no motive which appears therein can it
be said that it is really new. It must be remembered however
8 INTRODUCTORY
that absolute originality in art, though it does exist, is far
rarer than we might at first sight suppose. One example is
the use of decorative motives drawn from the life of the sea in
the old Aegean or Mycenaean art now so popular. Another is
the acanthus ornament of the Greeks ; a third the naturalistic
foliage ornament on the early Gothic churches. These are
clear instances of invention, not of the development of pre-
existing traditions. In the vast majority of cases however an
individual artist or an artistic people or school builds to a
greater or less extent upon what has gone before, and how-
ever fresh and striking may be the resultant product, it cannot
be called in the severe and literal sense original. Looked at
from this point of view neither the art of Greece nor that of
Japan is strictly original, nor again is the accomplished decora-
tive art of the Late-Celtic period. The Greeks took over
from older peoples the elements on which they worked to
produce the most beautiful art the world has yet seen. Every
fresh investigation into the questions of origin in oriental art
extends our view of the debt owed by the arts of Japan to
those of China, of which they are now regarded as a pallid
reflex ! On Celtic originality the late Mr. Romilly Allen,
who would do full justice to the artists of his choice, has tjie
following remarks : ' Although the Celts never seem to have
invented any new ideas, they possessed an extraordinary apti-
tude for picking up ideas from the different peoples with
whom war or commerce brought them into contact. And
once the Celt had borrowed an idea from his neighbour, he
was able to give it such a strong Celtic tinge that it soon
became something so different from what it was originally as
to be almost unrecognizable.' He speaks too of c the tendency
of the Celt to copy rather than invent.' Originality in art
accordingly, in the ordinary work-a-day sense, does not neces-
sarily depend on first-hand invention, but on the extent to
which the borrowed or inherited suggestion can be developed
into some new and striking contribution to the aesthetic
FOREIGN ELEMENTS IN GERMANIC ART 9
treasures of mankind. The Greeks, the Japanese, the Celts,
have all made such contributions. What they accomplished is
something which had never been done before and can never
be repeated. The individuality of creative genius is stamped
upon the product, and when we call it by the name of the
people that gave it birth and by no other name we are assert-
ing that it is, in the broad and rational sense here contended
for, an original product.
Applying this test to Germanic art, of which Anglo-Saxon
art is a subdivision, we find that it fulfils it. Though com-
pacted of many elements drawn from different sources, the art
possesses a specific character that is not Celtic and not classical
but Germanic. Throughout the period a native taste was
actively at work modifying the imported elements and impart-
ing to everything a Teutonic colour, so that the result stands
out as a distinct contribution to the sum of our aesthetic
possessions.
The foreign elements here spoken of may for the present
purpose be regarded in a broad view as Celtic, classical, and
oriental. The word Celtic may be permitted here to denote
the cultures known to archaeologists as those of Hallstatt and
La Tene. They belong to the Early Iron Age but naturally
embody certain elements surviving from the earlier Bronze
Age culture, and they may be regarded as predominant in
central Europe during the centuries immediately prior to
the Christian era. When Rome began her conquests to the
north and west in the last fifty years B.C., there opened a
period during which for two or three centuries the influence
of Roman art was predominant in the Gauls and in Romanized
Britain, and made itself felt in force as far north as southern
Scandinavia. So overmastering was it that in Gaul Roman
fashions in ornament and technique superseded the older ones
of the La Tene tradition, and the Late-Celtic art which
flourished in those regions at the time of Caesar's conquests
was driven across the Channel and took refuge in the north
io INTRODUCTORY
and west of the British Isles, where, after a comparatively un-
fruitful period, it blossomed out in VII and VIII a.d. into a
wonderful aesthetic activity in carving, in metal work, and in
the illumination of manuscripts. At the same time we must
remember that in pre-Christian as well as in Early Christian
times the way was always open for oriental, Iranian, Greco-
Scythian, and perhaps Siberian influence to stream inwards
towards the north-west. Open plains stretch continuously
from the Caucasus and Ural Mountains to the North Sea, and
some antiquaries believe that this vast superficies formed a
single archaeological area, so that this fact would suffice to
account for the Greco-Scythian gold find at Vettersfeld in the
Nieder Lausitz, without the hypothesis of any merely for-
tuitous importation. The antiquities found in the Isle of
Gotland, in the Baltic to the east of the southern part of
Sweden, are a striking testimony to the ancient intercourse
between the East and the Baltic lands.
The Teutonic art of the migration period, covering
chronologically four or five centuries from the third onwards,
may have been affected by classical, by oriental, and by Celtic
traditions before it took form and substance of its own. Of
these influences the classical presents itself at once as for
obvious reasons the most important. There was considerable
intercourse between the Romans and the Teutons before the
movements of migration began, and some of the latter had
lived for a long time on the very borders of the Empire. Into
the remoter parts of Germany, as we have just seen, Roman
culture penetrated, and as an illustration of this it may be
mentioned that in Denmark alone about a hundred Roman
bronze vessels have been found that were imported during the
first centuries of the Christian era. An art that is known as
* provincial-Roman ' flourished on the borders of the Empire
on the side where the northern barbarians lived, and the pro-
ductions of the workshops thus established permeated all the
regions from the Rhine to the Baltic. This being the case,
THE ROMAN INFLUENCE u
we can easily understand the view of those who would credit
Roman influence with the creation of the Teutonic art with
which these pages have to deal. There are some who, like the
late Alois Riegl of Vienna, see Rome everywhere, and would
regard all the artistic development of the migration period as
merely a phase of late classical art, blossoming out perhaps
into new forms but only into such forms as were prepared for
in provincial-Roman workshops. On Riegl's general theory
something was said in the writer's previous essay on Teutonic
art,1 and there is no occasion to repeat this here, so that it is
only necessary to say in this place that Roman models and
examples certainly count for much in the art with which we
are concerned. It would be absurd to deny Roman influence
in the art of the Teutonic migrations, or to attempt to reduce
it below a reasonable level. Roman influence not only existed
but it bulked largely in the completed result. We might
almost call it,
' Gross as a mountain, open, palpable,'
yet at the same time it was not an overpowering influence ;
it certainly did not preclude initiative on the part of the
Teutonic craftsmen themselves, nor bar the way to the recep-
tion of other streams of influence setting in from non-classical
regions, and it does not make it inaccurate to characterize the
art as a whole in the terms used to describe it here as an
essentially Germanic art marked throughout by a common
Teutonic stamp.
Of the influences other than Roman just spoken of, by far
the most important is that coming from the south-east. This
may be regarded as a stream fed from several different sources,
but starting on its course towards north-western Europe from
the lands in southern Russia north of the Black Sea. Later
on, especially in Chapter x dealing with inlaid gold jewellery,
we shall see how oriental elements appear from the very first
1 Arts and Crafts of our Teutonic Forefathers, Ch. ix.
i2 INTRODUCTORY
in Teutonic art and are as much in evidence as Roman, and
did space allow an attempt might be made to distinguish the
different runlets of influence that unite to form the stream
just spoken of. Here it is enough to indicate the view,
opposed to that of Alois Riegl and his school, that we have
from the first to reckon with this oriental element in early
Teutonic art and must regard it as on the whole wellnigh as
important as the elements derived from the classical world.
In the case of the Celtic tradition spoken of a couple of
pages back, Celtic art of the La Tene period was as we have
just seen in Europe generally put almost out of existence by
the provincial-Roman art which followed the conquest of the
legions. Hence in the continental examples of Germanic art
Celtic influence is very hard to trace, though in our own
country the case is somewhat different. This it will be re-
membered was the home of the after developments of the Late-
Celtic art in which it blossomed out into its most elaborate
and beautiful forms, and that the Romans appreciated the
tasteful productions in this style which their residence here
brought within their reach is shown by the discovery in the
Roman station of Aesica on the Hadrianic Wall of a gilded
bronze fibula which Sir Arthur Evans holds to be one of the
finest existing examples of the style. It is figured later on
PL lii, 3 (p. 293). Specimens of Late-Celtic ornamental work
are found sparingly in Anglo-Saxon graves, notably in the
form of certain enamelled plaques that were attached to a
special class of bronze bowls, duly discussed in the sequel
(Chapter ix), and there are evidences also of a Celtic influence
on particular classes of Anglo-Saxon work which it is interest-
ing to trace. This of course applies only to the pagan period
with which the present two volumes are concerned. When
the Christian period of Anglo-Saxon culture opens, the rela-
tions between the Germanic art of the immigrants and the
Late-Celtic art of the indigenous inhabitants of the western
and northern parts of the British Isles become very intimate
GERMANIC ANIMAL ORNAMENT 13
and complex, and will furnish material for discussion in the
subsequent portion of this work.
It is clear therefore that Germanic art as a whole is not an
absolutely original product, but at the same time the non-
Teutonic elements were so modified by the racial genius that
they took on a Germanic character, and the resulting art stands
out as a distinct aesthetic entity. In connection with this
question of originality a word must be said about Germanic
animal ornament, on which Bernhard Salin has written that it
1 will always remain for all time a most characteristic expres-
sion of the German imagination,' while Dr. Sophus Miiller
calls it * the only really original form of art created by the
prehistoric peoples north of the Alps.' The reference of
course is to the extraordinary treatment of the animal form
in which it is broken up into a congeries of curious shapes the
resemblance of which to parts of living creatures is hard to
discern. On these designs a good deal will have to be said in
the chapter on Ornamentation, but it may be noticed here that
distinctively Teutonic as these motives become, they are in
their origin based on animal forms occurring in classical art.
These Roman forms are at first copied by the Germanic
craftsman in more or less naturalistic fashion, and it is only
subsequently that they become Teutonized. Of this char-
acteristic animal ornament accordingly it must be said that,
original as it is, it is only original in its development and not
in its inception, and does not furnish any real exception to
what has been said about Germanic art as a whole.
There are other forms of animal ornament on which this
same question of origin may be raised. The specially
' Germanic ' style is not the only style in which throughout
the period this theme is handled. In every case for example
in which the craftsman, be he pagan or Christian, has been
influenced by examples of Early Christian art, we obtain fairly
orthodox work in the delineation of animals. For example
there are certain ornamented buckles, not found in this country
i4 INTRODUCTORY
but of common appearance in Burgundian graves,1 on which
there are figure designs ultimately derived from representations
on Early Christian carved sarcophagi of Daniel in the den of
lions. The animals here are grotesque enough, but they are
intelligible creatures who ' wear their backbones,' possess the
proper number of limbs, and could stand or move without
falling to pieces. These are undoubtedly influenced by the
art encouraged by the Church, that everywhere save in Celtic
lands rested on Roman civilization, and are quite different
from the animals of the pagan tradition just referred to.
Another form of animal art that springs from its own
sources and obeys its own laws is that which we shall find
exemplified on the early Anglo-Saxon coins. This does not
follow the sequence of typological changes the canons of
which Dr. Salin has established in his well-known work,2 but
is in such striking disaccord with these that it is clear that the
designers of the coins were quite different people from the
makers of the fibulae and buckles on which this conventional
Germanic beast ornament is in evidence. Birds for example
we find treated on the coins with a grace and liveliness that
leave nothing to be desired, while the quadrupeds though at
times grotesque or maimed are in other cases quite natural,
well composed, and spirited. These are perhaps more original
than any other motives used in the art, though here again their
ultimate source may be the devices on Roman coins.
The curious fact here emerges that some of these well-
designed animals were being cut upon the coin dies at the very
time when the contemporary goldsmith was dotting the field
of his design with the * disjecta membra ' of creatures which
were in doubt whether they were mammals or lizards ; or
twisting together elongated bodies in ingenious patterns
1 A characteristic example is figured PI. lii, 6 (p. 293), and M. Besson
illustrates many of the pieces in his work V Art Barbare dans V Ancien
'Diocese de Lausanne, Lausanne, 1909.
2 Altgermanische Tbierornamentik.
VARIETIES IN CONTEMPORARY WORK 15
wherein all reference to nature had been dismissed from
among the artist's obligations. In view of this the theory-
may be hazarded that in those days sets of workmen carried
on their operations in water-tight compartments, or, to im-
prove the metaphor, ran in strings, so that each followed his
own special course without impinging on the line of progress
of the others. As a very striking illustration of what is meant
reference may be made to what happened at Lindisfarne at the
close of VII. Two important works of art were there at that
time in progress, executed by members of the same com-
munity, for the same purpose of honouring the deceased
hero-saint Cuthbert, but in different materials and on distinct
artistic traditions. One work was the enriched wooden coffin
that was to hold the body of the saint, the other the Book of
Gospels that was written and illuminated for his glorification.
On the first there is incised [figure work almost childish in its
homely crudity, in the latter linear and conventional ornament
drawn and painted with a skill and finish in design and execu-
tion that have never been surpassed. Were not these two
works both authentically dated and fixed to a known locality
it would never have occurred to anyone to imagine any con-
nection between them, and even in face of the known facts of
the situation it is hard to realize that they were practically
contemporary and were carried out within the same walls.
These facts convey a very useful lesson that all students of
the art of this period should take to heart. It is quite true that
as a general rule to each epoch and each region there belongs
a particular kind of work, and that the style of the work pro-
duced varies in general character and in detail from period to
period. Typological science has reduced these variations to
an orderly sequence, and observation and criticism have estab-
lished the general truth of the laws thus laid down. What it
behoves us to remember is that it is perfectly possible for work
of very different kinds to be going on at the same time, and
that the general law is not a law of rigid application. Bernhard
16 INTRODUCTORY
Salin himself points out that there were other ways of treating
the animal form in the period apart from the specially
1 Germanic ' style which he analyses.1
On the subject of origins in Germanic art as a whole
enough has now been said. Within the wide area thus
defined there are distinct artistic provinces in which the
common forms and motives are worked out into products each
of which has its local ' cachet.' One of these provinces is
Anglo-Saxon England, and here we find quite as much that is
* original ' as appears in any other province, Gothic, Frankish,
or Alamannic. It is just as important to vindicate the inde-
pendence of the Anglo-Saxon craftsman in face of his conti-
nental brethren as it is to establish the distinctive position of
Germanic art in general in face of the art of the classical and
Celtic peoples. A good part of what follows has for one of
its main objects the establishment of our national autonomy in
art in the early mediaeval period, and here it only needs to be
said that the insular craftsman is no mere copyist or dependent,
no ape of Merovingian fashions, but has his own ways of
laying out and of accomplishing his work, so that when he is
following his own vein he achieves results that are not only
characteristically distinct from those found in other Teutonic
districts but in the qualities of design and execution can more
than hold their own.
In the course of the following chapters there will be
opportunities for comparing the products of Anglo-Saxon
craftsmanship with continental work of the same kind and
period, and to aid the reader in this a certain number of
selected specimens of Germanic work from different European
regions have been reproduced on the plates. The purpose
here however is not to make these local comparisons, but to
envisage for a moment from another point of view Germanic
art as a whole, and to apply an aesthetic standard to its intrinsic
qualities of design.
1 Thierornamentik, p. 290.
AESTHETIC VALUE OF GERMANIC ART 17
It would of course be unfair to measure this art by the
canons that befit the art of Greece or of old Egypt or of
China. It is all along barbaric art, making no pretence to
ascend heights or sound depths in expressiveness, nor to present
forms of abstract beauty or of elusive charm. The standard
to apply is rather that of Celtic art, between which and
Teutonic art a comparison is readily drawn.
Amongst others who have essayed this is Mr. Romilly
Allen, whose judgement is recorded in his book on Celtic art.
He finds Germanic, or rather Anglo-Saxon, work as com-
pared with Celtic weak in its design, which is wanting in
imagination and in flexible quality. As concerns the mass of
the tomb furniture this is no doubt true, but we must not lose
sight of the fact that in the devices on Anglo-Saxon coins there
is evidence of an alertness in fancy, of a tact in display and
composition, that are quite up to the Celtic standard of what
is bright and effective. Where the Celtic artist shows his
superiority is in his feeling for line, and in his use of the
contrast between plain and enriched passages on an ornamental
surface. A feeling for line is a very high aesthetic quality, and
the contriver of those splendid flamboyant curves that sweep
through Late-Celtic designs possessed the quality in very
ample measure. There is a reserve moreover in his schemes
of enrichment, and he will employ plain spaces to rest the eye
and to add by their contrast richness to those parts where the
detail is complex and varied.
When compared with work of this order the contours and
masses of the Germanic artist's conventional beast ornament
have no claim to be regarded as artistic expression in line or
form, but only as the enrichment of a surface by a sort of
uncertain dappling. It should be said on the other side that
the surfaces of the inlaid jewels exhibit no such uncertainty,
but are clear and crisp in their working ; striking is the con-
trast of the bright gold and the deep crimson of the garnet,
relieved with flashing gleams from the polished, foil below ;
III B
18 INTRODUCTORY
the touches of blue and green are tactfully introduced on the
field of gold and red. It is however at best an ' all over '
effect that is compassed, of a type common everywhere in
barbaric design, where there is no room for the vacant space.
In certain of the brooches in cast bronze, such as the example
shown on PI. xliv (p. 268), there is a reserve in the treat-
ment that makes for nobility ; bronze bowls like the fine
example at Wilton House, Wilts, PI. cxviii (p. 474), have a
simple dignity that is quite Roman, and other specimens will
come before us on which the aesthetic critic may pass a
favourable judgement. When all is said however, it must be
admitted that while the design of the Anglo-Saxon craftsman
maintains a very fair artistic standard it can claim no super-
lative degree of merit.
The strongest side of the Anglo-Saxon art of the pagan
period is its technique. This may be surprising to those who
cannot dissociate from the gentile name some idea of the
uncouth. It is known to all that there is a noble early
Anglo-Saxon literature, and the artist of the period might
easily be credited with design in which vigour and thought
were wedded to a certain rudeness of execution. As a matter
of fact the design is as a rule inexpressive, but the technical
finish is beyond cavil. A workmanlike handling of the various
processes of casting, chasing, soldering, gem-cutting, and the
rest, is almost everywhere in evidence, and minute finish, in
which there is at the same time nothing meticulous, proves
that eyes were precise and fingers delicate. So much attention
will be paid in what follows to questions of technique that
nothing more need here be added. Examples in abundance
will show as we proceed that the technical qualities in Anglo-
Saxon work confer on it an unquestioned patent of distinction.
These propositions, that Anglo-Saxon artistic work is
really of native provenance, that it exhibits an independent
treatment of the motives common to Germanic art as a whole,
and that in qualities of design and execution it is in the main
DIVISION OF THE MATERIAL 19
equal to the best achievements of the period, may be brought
to the test if we take one special form of art that can be proved
to be of insular growth if not of insular invention, and which
affords an opportunity for a critique of the native artist's
capacity both in design and execution. The form of art in
question is one that has already been signalized for its excep-
tional interest — the art of coinage. Coinage as we shall
presently see represents both the earlier and the later periods
of Anglo-Saxon culture, and it displays at all epochs that
originality and that aesthetic merit which have just been claimed
for our insular art as a whole. In the second Chapter of this
volume accordingly a place is made for a full treatment of the
early Anglo-Saxon coinage, and it is hoped that this will avail
to vindicate in the reader's mind at the outset the artistic
character of the Anglo-Saxon from the popular misconception
on which the necessary caution has now been given.
Attention has already been called to the somewhat embar-
rassing abundance of the material with which we have to deal.
A fortunate circumstance simplifies the task before us, for
speaking generally the whole material divides itself naturally
into two main groups, the one belonging to the earlier pagan
the other to the later Christian period. This general state-
ment is however subject to two qualifications. There is in
the first place one particular form of Anglo-Saxon art that
runs through both periods alike and that makes a unity of the
whole. The art referred to is this of coinage, which, begin-
ning amidst pagan associations, is represented by copious
productions through all the successive Christian periods until
the Norman Conquest. Even here however there is a natural
division between the earlier coins corresponding broadly to the
pagan period, and those of later date which are of a different
form and denomination.
In the second place the two phases of Anglo-Saxon art,
pagan and Christian, cannot be absolutely separated in point
20 INTRODUCTORY
of time, because during the best part of a century they over-
lap. The former phase is represented by tomb furniture con-
sisting in objects placed according to pagan practice beside the
body or its ashes in the sepulchre. This custom was opposed
to the principles and practice of the Church, and after the
conversion in VII it gradually passed out of use ; it was
however so inveterate a custom that it lasted on for a con-
siderable time even among peoples indoctrinated in the new
faith. As a matter of strict logic Christians should have been
interred without grave furniture, but as a fact the habit of
clothing and equipping the corpse was only by very slow stages
relinquished. A saint so austere in his religiosity as St.
Cuthbert was yet buried in rich vestments with his jewelled
reliquary cross at his breast and his portable altar, and this
was at the end of VII when Christianity had for a hundred
years been preached in the land. More than a century later
the body of Charles the Great was accompanied in the tomb
by a collection of precious objects that maintained the ancient
tradition. Indeed in the case of the chalice interred with the
priest and the arms of the warrior hung up over his sarcophagus •
the practice survived into the later middle ages. Hence it
follows that while a good many of the objects dealt with in
these chapters do not in strictness belong to the pagan period,
they represent this period just as well as those actually of
pagan date. Upon some may be observed Christian designs
or symbols, but to comparatively few even of these objects
can be attributed any distinctively religious use or significance.
In most cases the forms are traditional and the cross or other
Christian suggestion is decoratively or perhaps superstitiously
employed without serious theological import. In other words,
so long as tomb furniture in general survives as a custom, the
objects composing it belong essentially to the pagan period
and are of a character distinct in the main from those of the
succeeding epoch.
The most important by far of these later objects are essen-
THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY 21
tially and avowedly Christian in origin, form, and use. The
two chief classes are carved crosses or sepulchral stones and
illuminated manuscripts, and both of these are creatures of
the ecclesiastical system and were in the pagan period entirely
unknown. It is true that Danish paganism is represented by
characteristic forms of arms and a few other objects, while
personal ornaments such as rings and bracelets are a good deal
in evidence in the centuries from IX to XL Coins too con-
tinue to the end to represent Anglo-Saxon art on the secular
side, but most surviving objects from the later centuries could
claim benefit of clergy through the presence in them of the
religious element. Hence it follows that the whole material
embracing the decorative and industrial arts of the Anglo-
Saxons falls of itself into the two main groups here indicated,
the one representing the earlier pagan the other the later
Christian period, and in correspondence with this division the
two volumes now issued embrace the treatment of the tomb
furniture on the same lines as those followed with the archi-
tecture, while the carved stones and manuscripts with the later
objects of a more secular kind are left for a subsequent and
final instalment of the work.
The review in the second Chapter of the early coinage will
it is hoped set in its true light the question of the artistic
merit of Anglo-Saxon craftsmanship, and will prepare the way
for the treatment of the main theme of the present volumes,
the tomb furniture found in the early pagan cemeteries.
These cemeteries are in themselves objects of extraordinary
attractiveness, and the third Chapter is devoted to a discussion
of the many points of interest which they offer to the
student.
It is an outstanding fact, as interesting in its way to the
peasant in the fields as to the scientific antiquary, that through
almost all the districts of England where in the pagan period
the Teutons established themselves, the bones, the ashes, the
personal belongings of the conquerors may come to light
22 INTRODUCTORY
almost anywhere a foot or two beneath the ground. The
labouring man,
'That binds the sheaf,
Or builds the house, or digs the grave,'
may light at hazard on the sepulchral urn or other relic of
his fellow villager of fourteen centuries ago, while these same
remains may have a significance for the archaeologist that
creates a new link in the chain of social happenings which
makes the history of Teutonic England after all a unity.
There are parts of England where Anglo-Saxon cemeteries are
so abundant that they seem to lie in wait for us on every side,
and in many cases there is about these the additional interest
that they occupy the site of previous burying-places of the
British period, and suggest a closer continuity between Celtic
and Saxon civilization than has generally been assumed. The
following happened only three or four years ago.
In 1 910 the proprietrix of a modern mansion situated in
the pleasant southern ' residential suburb ' attached to the
old-world Broadstairs in the Isle of Thanet, was altering the
line of the carriage drive up to her house, when there came to
light, only a foot or so beneath the present surface, about a
score of graves in which were skeletons accompanied by tomb
furniture of an unmistakably Anglo-Saxon type. There had
been nothing above ground to give the faintest hint of what
lay beneath. The carriage drive skirted a grassy space in
front of the house used as a playing-ground, and during the
summer of 1 9 1 1 the gardener noticed that on certain spots in
this the grass was not growing satisfactorily, and that these
spots seemed to form part of a large circle. On one of the
patches being opened black earth and bones made their appear-
ance, and a thorough exploration the details of which are given
later on (p. 132) revealed the fact that the Anglo-Saxon
cemetery was in this part underlaid by a far earlier burial-
ground that had been appropriated by the new-comers. The
Anglo-Saxon or, more properly, Jutish graves were of the
TOMB FURNITURE 23
pagan period and the underlying ones arranged in circular
trenches were of the Bronze Age, dating perhaps from as long
before the Teutonic conquest as the Teutonic conquest dates
from before our own time.
In the summer of 1912 a lady started to build a small
country house near the picturesque village of Alfriston on the
Cuckmere, Sussex. The spot is on a knoll about a quarter of
a mile above the village, and here as soon as the upper soil
was removed there came to view skeletons buried with a rich
assortment of arms and ornaments. Here again there had
been no sign of the existence of a cemetery and the discovery-
was quite fortuitous, yet there to the number of nearly a
hundred and twenty had been laid to rest, armed, equipped,
and adorned, the men and women who represented the first
English community of Alfriston ; and there, not many inches
below the surface of the soil ploughed over yearly by genera-
tion after generation of their descendants, they had held the
ground, happily undisturbed until a day when their significance
for the country's history would be duly understood.
The Anglo-Saxon cemetery revealing beneath English
greensward or tilth relics of the first days of our island
Teutonism — this is in itself a national asset of no small value.
Linking as it does the present to the remoter past of the land,
it touches the historic sense and enlarges the mental vision.
Man, remarked Samuel Johnson, rises in the scale of being
when the past and the future claim an importance in his mind
above that of the passing hour, and these remains of the
ancestors of our race witness to the continuity of our civiliza-
tion and make our English citizenship a nobler possession for
ourselves and our descendants.
After the discussion of the cemetery itself which occupies
the third Chapter, there follows a necessarily long disquisition
on the objects composing the tomb furniture which the
cemetery has preserved for us. Six chapters are not sufficient
to exhaust the subject, and certain classes of objects found in
24 INTRODUCTORY .
the graves are reserved for treatment in special connections.
The objects embraced in the tomb inventories are of numerous
types and the aim has been to figure in the plates and to discuss
examples of all the principal types and sub-types, as well as
individual objects of special interest or artistic worth. A
certain number of exceptional or enigmatical objects have also
received attention, and room has been found for characteristic
specimens of the continental work of the same order and
epoch that will be found useful for comparison with our native
products. More than a hundred plates figuring some 900
objects or groups illustrate these six chapters on the tomb
furniture, and not only are the objects themselves very
numerous, but they have necessarily to be regarded from more
than one point of view. The points of view of the general
reader, the archaeologist, and the historical student were in-
dicated at the outset as demanding consideration, and an
explanation must now be given of the method of treatment
that has in consequence been adopted.
To the general reader tomb furniture is primarily of value
as helping him to visualize the past. The bones themselves
of the occupant of the grave may have decayed away, but the
golden ornament or vessel of glass or bronze is well preserved,
and of the iron implement or weapon enough remains to show
its shape and purpose. From this movable apparatus of life
of our Teutonic forefathers we guess their appearance, their
habit and equipment, their personal and social goings-on. A
closer examination of the objects suggests further questions
and hypotheses. The value of their materials, the elaboration
of their execution, at once indicate the social status and grade
of culture of owner and of maker, and if haply the design and
details evince not only care and refinement but a sense of
beauty and marked inventiveness, our general idea of Anglo-
Saxon culture is proportionately raised.
On the other hand the archaeologist in the severest sense
THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL STANDPOINT 25
of the term cares for none of these things. The nature of the
object affects him in so far as his knowledge of this enables
him to group it with others of the same class, but his chief
interest in it does not concern the probable conditions under
which it was made and used so much as its relations to the
other objects of its group. His primary desire, as the ex-
pression goes, is to ' place ' the new specimen in an ascending
or descending series, and he will effect his purpose through the
so-called science of typology. This science, on the principles
of which modern archaeological work is largely carried on, is
based on the fact that the forms, the details, the enrichment,
of productions such as the sword-hilt or the fibula not only
vary but observe in their changes a certain consistency and
order, which makes it possible to arrange them in a chrono-
logical series. Allowing of course a proper margin for possible
error, it is theoretically within the competence of the archaeo-
logist to determine, or at any rate to announce, the comparative
dates of examples of any class of objects represented at all
numerously in the inventories of finds. It needs hardly to be
said that to arrive at anything like assurance in matters of the
kind is an affair of time and labour, and many accomplished
antiquaries have written volumes on special groups of objects
without exhausting all the material that each group affords.
The comparative method, as its name implies, means this
analytical treatment of numerous examples in juxtaposition, as
well as the marshalling of a great deal of subsidiary material
bearing on the life history of forms and patterns, for these can
often be traced back to earlier and exotic phases of art, just as
we find in the Roman currency the prototypes of devices on
Saxon coin and Scandinavian bracteate. The point is that
this kind of study concerns the objects as things in themselves
apart from their personal, social, and historical relations. One
of the most sagacious antiquaries of to-day, Dr. Joseph
Anderson, has insisted even with a note of austerity that the
archaeologist has properly speaking nothing to do with history
26 INTRODUCTORY
as a matter of absolute dates B.C. or Anno Domini, but only with
comparative dates arrived at by placing objects in an ascending
or descending series.
The historical student accepts the scientific data furnished
by archaeology but employs them as the starting-point of a
wider survey. He is not satisfied with regarding the weapon
or the jewel as just one of a row of specimens in a museum,
but in fancy sees it flash in the sea rover's hand or sparkle on
the shoulder of some stately Rowen or Lioba of the heroic
age. Warrior and lady were people of flesh and blood with a
time and a place of their own in the Western world, and to
determine these he interrogates the objects thus wielded or
worn. The step, often a hazardous one, from the relative to
the absolute date he must boldly essay. As a basis for this
historical location of the objects it is of the utmost importance
to know where these various objects came to light and especi-
ally the associations in which they were found. For this
would be required what the Germans call a * Statistik,' in the
form of a tabular conspectus of the whole material, indicating
the localities where each class of productions is represented
and noting how the specimens were grouped and connected
among themselves. In the case in view such a ' Statistik '
would furnish data for comparison with the statements of the
ancients and conjectures of the moderns as to the detailed
history of the Anglo-Saxon settlements.
Some idea of the scope of a work that should fulfil the
requirements here indicated may be gained from a monumental
treatise on an important continental province of early Teutonic
art, the late Professor Hampel's Alterthumer des fruhen Mittel-
alters in Ungarn. Hungary indeed is more than twice the
size of that part of England that forms our Anglo-Saxon
province, but at the same time our finds have been very
numerous and varied, and the available material found in the
one district is fairly comparable with that in the other. Now
Professor Hampel's work is in three volumes. The first,
PROGRAM OF THE WORK 27
running to 850 pages, contains in its earlier half a description
of the various types of objects found in Hungarian cemeteries
of the period from the point of view of their nature and use as
weapons, implements, ornaments, and the like ; and in the last
half a discussion of the different kinds of ornament found on
these objects, followed by a hundred pages in which the
chronology of the different types is within certain limits fixed.
There are more than 2000 text illustrations. Volume two of
more than 1000 pages with numerous illustrations contains a
systematic * Statistik ' of all the finds in the kingdom, while
the third volume consists in 540 plates, each as a rule figuring
a number of objects the description of which has been given in
the statistical volume. In this work, large as is its scope, there
is one heading hardly represented — the objects are not speci-
ally envisaged from the point of view of the particular Teutonic
people to which each may have belonged. The fact is that in
Hungary, after the one definite fact of the residence in that
region for about a century prior to 376 a.d. of the Visigoths,
there was such a coming and going of peoples that it is impos-
sible to say with any assurance to which particular tribe any
cemetery or part of a cemetery belonged. In the case of
England considerable historical data of this kind exist, and
historical questions of the sort just indicated force themselves
very much on the attention, introducing a new element of
interest and of difficulty over and above those present in the
discussion of the contemporary antiquities of Hungary.
For an unsubsidized work produced under British condi-
tions a far more modest program is indicated, and in the
chapters on the tomb furniture, while the points of view above
noticed have been held in regard, the treatment has been single
and continuous. The following is the main scheme of the
inventory. A single typical cemetery is taken as the starting-
point, the one chosen being that of Bifrons near Canterbury
opened in 1867. It is a cemetery remarkable for the number
of types represented in it and this is especially the case with
28 INTRODUCTORY
the fibulae. Most of the objects recovered are in the Museum
of the Kent Archaeological Society at Maidstone but a large
number remain the private possession of the proprietor of the
estate,1 at Bifrons House. Here are presented specimens of a
large number of the objects the Anglo-Saxons in general buried
with their dead, and this inventory will be supplemented by a
notice of all the other chief classes of objects in the archaeo-
logical repertory of the period that do not happen to occur in
the Bifrons hoards. The first main heading is that of arms,
under which are enumerated the mail coat, the helmet, and the
shield represented by its central boss and handle of iron and by
sundry appliques and ornaments. The weapons of offence are
headed by the sword in its different forms, including the large
two-edged kind, and the smaller single-edged sword the size of
which can be so reduced that it becomes only a knife. In
connection with the sword the points of chief archaeological
importance are its historical position in the development of the
weapon generally, and also more specially its hilt, for this
passes through a series of morphological changes that are
interesting and instructive to trace. The axe comes next, and
then the spear the weapon par excellence of the Anglo-Saxon
man-at-arms, with the rare barbed throwing-javelin called
* angon.' Lastly come the bow and arrow, though these are
hardly represented in the finds. The descriptions are intended
to give a general idea of the form, dimensions, material, orna-
mentation, and manner of use of each kind of object, with the
localities and connections in which each is found, and such
archaeological facts about it as may help to fix approximate
dates and connect it with one or other of the sections of our
Teutonic settlers.
The plates reproduce original photographs by the writer
from specimens in public and private collections the adminis-
trators or owners of which have been good enough to grant
1 Through whose kind permission the writer has been enabled to photo-
graph and reproduce some interesting examples.
CHARACTER OF THE ILLUSTRATIONS 29
the needful permission. As a rule a number of objects appear
on each plate and acknowledgement is due to the engravers for
their success in overcoming difficulties incident to the work of
reproduction. The photographs necessarily varied in tone and
sometimes in colour as well as in the nature of their back-
grounds, and it was by no means easy to secure an even effect,
such as comes naturally when line engraving is employed. The
value of the faithfulness of the record conveyed by the photo-
graph must be set against the unevenness in the matter of
backgrounds, as well as against another characteristic which the
archaeologist may regard as a defect. This is the absence of
exactness of scale in the dimensions. In the case of an
engraving, each piece can be worked to scale, and the object
appear in the figure on the scale of ^, |r, and so on according
to its actual size. It is possible of course to secure exactitude
of size in a photographic print and in the process block pre-
pared from it, but in the case of a large number of negatives
taken separately in museum surroundings as best they could,
of varying sizes, and grouped together for reproduction upon
a single block, the conditions made such a result practically
unattainable. It stands to reason that the exact dimensions of
an object is an archaeological fact about it that should be
scrupulously recorded, and in the text as well as in the ex-
tended list of illustrations at the beginning of this volume
these dimensions are as far as possible given, whereas from the
actual reproduction on the plate such information is not always
to be derived. The group on each plate is not a set of objects
all taken together on one negative, and the scale of different
items in the group may vary, though an endeavour has been
made to keep the scale on each plate as even as possible.
Another consideration also has here been operative. The
primary object of the book being an artistic one it was neces-
sary to exhibit objects and details of objects on such a scale
that the qualities of the work in design and execution should
be readily apparent. It frequently happens that the scale of
3o INTRODUCTORY
an original is so small that no one could satisfactorily judge of
it without the aid of a magnifying glass. It is impossible to
use a glass upon a process reproduction, so that the necessary
enlargement must be effected in the photograph. The early
Saxon coins furnish a case in point. The originals have a
diameter only about two-thirds that of a threepenny piece and
on some there is a good deal of detail. As shown in the
plates these are all magnified from one and a half to two
diameters, as without such enlargement they could not be
properly appreciated. The same applies to many of the
objects on the other plates, but in each case indications of
scale are given at the foot of the plate, and as mentioned
before the real dimensions are readily accessible.
Following on the treatment of the arms in Chapter iv
comes that of costume, and under this main heading the first
place is taken by the fastenings of dress, the brooch, the
buckle, the clasp, and the pin. Of these objects by far the
most important is the brooch or fibula, and to this in its many
forms and under its various aspects are devoted Chapters v
and vi. These chapters are respectively concerned with
fibula morphology and fibula ornamentation, and they are
made the opportunity for discussing several points of archaeo-
logical as well as artistic interest. Fibulae are of many
different kinds, and most of the sub-types pass through typo-
logical changes which render it possible to arrange each set
archaeologically in a series. Absolute dates can in some cases
be fixed with reasonable certainty and in virtue of these we
can distribute specimens along the whole tract of time during
which this tomb furniture was being made and used. The
locality in which each specimen was discovered gives an
indication of the particular branch of the Teutonic settlers
among whom this particular form was in vogue, and it
receives in this way its historical setting as well as its place in
an archaeological series.
The subject of fibula ornamentation introduces us to
ORDER OF THE INVENTORY 31
questions of technique and of the derivation and use of
motives, that apply to other objects as well as the brooches.
An analysis of the different processes of enrichment applied to
metal and other materials will be found at the opening of
Chapter vi, and this is followed by a similar analysis of the
decorative motives of a linear, conventional, floral, zoomorphic,
and anthropomorphic kind of which the fibulae furnish a rich
variety of illustrations, but which occur also in other connec-
tions. In each case the derivation of the motive and the
typological changes through which it passes are made the
subject of inquiry, the evidence bearing on questions of date
receiving special consideration.
From this discussion of the fibula, extended as it is, there
is omitted the treatment of one very important class of
brooches, the jewelled fibulae in gold and garnet work
characteristic of the Kentish cemeteries. These introduce
the subject of inlaid jewellery in general, but this subject
cannot be treated without a reference to the previous history
of the technique among the oriental and the Germanic peoples,
and the circumstances in which it came in to take up its abode
among ourselves. Hence the treatment of inlaid jewellery is
reserved for the subsequent Chapter x.
A more succinct treatment is applied in Chapters vn, vm,
and ix to a large number of other items of the tomb furniture
arranged on the following scheme. A discussion of the buckle
and the pin completes the subject of the fastenings of the
dress and this is followed by some notice of the costume in
itself, its forms, materials and textile enrichment. Subsequently
to this it is necessary to embark on a disquisition, that may
tend at times to become wearisome, on sundry adjuncts of the
toilette such as combs, tweezers, and the like, and on other
personal belongings carried habitually on a chatelaine or in a
pouch, or suspended singly from the belt. Spoons with per-
forated bowls, amulets of rock crystal and other substances,
strike-a-lights, keys, spindle-whorls and spindles, work boxes,
32 INTRODUCTORY
tools, counters, weights and scales, bells, are specimens of
these, and a place is found in this connection for various
implements, odds-and-ends, fittings, and enigmatical objects,
not in themselves of great importance but for various reasons
worth illustrating, and this section of the tomb inventory
concludes with a notice of horse trappings.
The next main heading is that of objects of personal
adornment not connected with the clothing, such as necklets,
pendants, bracelets, ear-drops, and finger rings, and in this
category the principal place is taken by the coloured glass
beads so abundant and highly esteemed at the period. Finally,
the last group is collected under the heading '. Vessels,' and
special attention is given to those in bronze and in glass, one
important class of vessel, the sepulchral urn of baked clay
being left over for subsequent treatment in Chapter x.
The object of these six chapters is to provide the reader
with suitable information about (i) the nature and use of the
various objects found in the Anglo-Saxon graves, (2) their
characteristics as specimens of craftsmanship and works of art,
and (3) the points of archaeological interest which they present
or illustrate. The historical standpoint has in the meantime
been comparatively neglected. The appearance of certain
classes of objects in particular districts of Teutonized Britain,
and their absence from others, is of course of historical signifi-
cance so far as it bears upon tribal or racial differences among
the settlers, but these facts though noted in passing are not in
these chapters made the basis of any extended survey. Such
a survey occupies the latter part of the second volume now
published, and in connection therewith those items of the
tomb furniture omitted in the previous chapters will be
brought forward for discussion. Before however we go on
to give a general idea of the method pursued in these later
chapters a pause may be made here for the consideration of
one or two general questions suggested by the description of
the grave-goods now before the reader.
THE QUESTION OF ORIGIN 33
That these goods are in the main of native manufacture,
and that this applies to those of delicate make and artistic
design as well as to the coarser objects, may as well be
accepted at once. Any prejudice of the kind referred to a
few pages back that may linger in the mind of a reader will
assuredly be removed by a perusal of the chapter on coins and
those on the tomb furniture. The number of items in the
latter that show forms common in this country but non-
existent or of extreme rarity abroad remove all doubt as to
this. This does not of course mean that there are no imported
goods in our cemeteries. There are some classes of objects
notably vessels of glass that are certainly of foreign origin,
and this is proved by the fact that in other regions of Europe
such as Scandinavia the very counterparts are found of pieces
that our own graves have yielded up. The inference forced
on the mind is that there was some common centre, say the
Rhineland or northern Gaul, from which these attractive objects
were exported to all the lands around. In the case of other
objects very common abroad but among ourselves of con-
spicuous rarity, importation may be held to explain the
phenomena, though at the same time it is always possible that
an Anglo-Saxon craftsman had been copying some continental
model. The same applies to objects that bear a resemblance
not to contemporary products from across the sea but to
works of Roman or of Celtic provenance such as were made
in our own country before the Teutonic inroads. The
question sometimes arises whether a particular piece is a
Romano-British survival or a piece of Saxon workmanship
that has been influenced in design or technique by some
earlier model. A decision in such a case is often very
difficult, but it should be borne in mind that cases of the kind
are exceptional and do not in the least invalidate the general
principle enunciated above, that in the main the objects found
in Anglo-Saxon graves are of native origin.
This being established, further questions arise as to where,
in c
34 INTRODUCTORY
by whom, and under what conditions the native manufacture
was carried on. It is disappointing to have to state that there
is practically no evidence, and very little that even amounts to
a hint, upon this interesting and important subject. Con-
jecture may be aided to some small extent by analogies drawn
from other countries or periods, but of direct information as
to the processes and conditions of Anglo-Saxon craftsmanship
there is an almost total dearth. In the case of the coinage,
the names of a great many Anglo-Saxon moneyers are known,
though almost all belong to a time when tomb furniture was
no longer in fashion, and the suggestion has found much
favour that the coin artist was also the goldsmith who made
the inlaid jewellery and worked the twists and filigrees. It
will however be shown that the designs on the coins and on
the grave-goods are so utterly unlike that this theory is not
very plausible. The existence among our Saxon forefathers
of the weapon smith and the goldsmith is attested in literature,
but we are ignorant as to the diffusion of superior craftsmen
among the scattered communities. Would every sizable vil-
lage have its smith, and would such a one be as a rule capable
of forging a socketed spear head or a shield boss ? Was the
admirable Kentish jewellery, attested as a native product by
its unlikeness to what is found abroad, made here and there
locally in the rural communities, or did it proceed from a few
of the larger centres such as the revived Roman cities like
Canterbury or Rochester ; or again was it turned out where
required by peripatetic craftsmen who moved up and down
the country ? Analogy seems to show that all these hypo-
theses are plausible. That fine metal work could be carried on
in small communities very simply equipped was rendered
strikingly evident the other day through the exploration by
Mr. A. O. Curie of an early fort in Galloway. Among the finds
here were a number of moulds in terra-cotta for casting delicately
ornamented horse trappings and trinkets of various kinds in
bronze. The communit v was limited in numbers and isolated far
CONDITIONS OF FABRICATION 35
from any important centres of population, yet this fine artistic
work of Celtic type seemed in quite a flourishing condition.1
That the Teutonic chieftains kept goldsmiths for royal
work at their capitals or at any rate residences may be argued
from a passage, § viii, in a Life of St. Severinus,2 referring to
events of the latter part of V among the Teutonic people called
the Rugians who dwelt at the time north of the Danube near
Linz. The king had goldsmiths of the barbarian race — not
provincial-Romans — who were kept close prisoners in the
palace and obliged to work all day upon ornaments for
members of the royal house.
In the Museum at Budapest there is a curious and indeed
unique find illustrating the procedure of the peripatetic crafts-
man. It consists in a number of moulds in bronze over
which sheet silver or gold was intended to be beaten. They are
with one exception positive, not negative, moulds, so that the
sheet metal was beaten over, not into, them. They were
found to the number of about two score in a gravel bed that
had once formed a bank of the river Maros in Hungary, and
with them were the bones of a horse. It is supposed that a
travelling goldsmith with his stock-in-trade was drowned
when crossing a ford of the river on horseback, and that we
have before us the implements with which he would go round
the country, like the modern tinker, tempting the country-
women to invest in a bit of gold or silver finery which he
would fabricate under their eyes.3
Whether or not the travelling craftsman was in evidence
in Anglo-Saxon England, the travelling merchant may be
safely assumed as a familiar figure. It is however a question
over how wide an extent of territory the operations of such a
one would range. The merchant from overseas had known
1 Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot.,xLViu, 125 f. 2 Mon. Germ. Hist., Auct. Ant., 1.
3 The moulds, with silver ornaments (modern) beaten to shape over
them to show the technique, are figured in Jrts and Crafts of our Teutonic
Forefathers, PI. xxvi.
36 INTRODUCTORY
his way into south-eastern Britain from a period long before
Julius Caesar, and intercourse with the mainland was of course
in the Roman period of the closest. What difference was
made by the Teutonic inroads cannot exactly be said, and
there is a well-known passage of a weird significance in Pro-
copius which might be interpreted as meaning that our island
was for a season entirely cut off from any continental inter-
course. But, as we shall see, the evidence both of history
and of archaeology seems to show that the Saxons and the
Jutes, if not the main body of the Angles also, were in touch
with the Rhineland and with northern Gaul at the time
they became possessed of their new insular seats, and it is
hardly likely that they would designedly isolate themselves in
these. The ' mercator ' is at all times and places a privileged
person, and goods were probably ferried across to Richborough
haven or to Dover as soon as the sea-rovers were masters of
Thanet. It is certain at any rate than in VI objects such as
delicate glass vessels requiring considerable care in transit
were conveyed from overseas and distributed not only through
Kent but far inland. Hence there can be no doubt of the
possibility at any rate of the importation of foreign goods and
of their conveyance to the interior of the island, but it has
already been made sufficiently clear that Anglo-Saxon grave-
goods are not to be explained on such a hypothesis. Sporadic
finds prove the possibility just indicated, but the bulk of the
objects found in the cemeteries are not only of insular make
but were evidently fashioned locally and distributed not far
afield but within some tribal area. Archaeological facts agree
with what appears the common-sense of the situation. Ordin-
ary objects might be made anywhere, while those of valuable
materials and elaborate workmanship issued from one or two
centres in each tribal area and were sold or bartered for within
the area, a few only finding their way farther afield. The
Kentish inlaid disc-shaped brooch, one of the most distinctive
of the various items of the tomb furniture, is represented by
LOCAL DISTRIBUTION OF FINDS 37
very numerous examples within the ancient kingdom, and by
one or two specimens exported beyond the area, such as the
inlaid fibulae found at Abingdon, PL cxlv, i, 2. The technique
of the garnet inlays represented by these brooches belongs
evidently to Kent, but we find objects that exhibit it distributed
though very sparingly in the areas north of the Thames. As
the date of these objects is comparatively late there is great
plausibility in the suggestion which has been made x that a
political reason can be found for this diffusion of Kentish
fashions in the extension of the authority of iEthelberht of
Kent when his primacy or Bretwaldaship was recognized
through the country at large as far as the Humber.
Other classes of objects are still more strictly confined
within spacial limits. Clasps for fastening sleeves at the wrist
are only found very sporadically outside a limited area of
which the centre is Cambridgeshire, while the so-called ' girdle
hanger,' a curious and indeed enigmatical adjunct to the
costume, has hardly made its appearance south of the Thames.
Another object the distribution of which invites comment is
the so-called * saucer ' brooch (p. 275 f.). The area of its occur-
rence is fairly wide but is limited with some rigidness, and in
respect to it we have the interesting fact that many specimens
are evidently of early date. Now this is an object that is
specifically Anglo-Saxon and that is so rare abroad that only
two or three continental specimens are known. One of these
is almost certainly of English origin, though at least one pair
of finished specimens was made in northern Germany about
the time of the invasions of England. Apart from this, the
prototypes or embryo forms of the object are found occurring
in those parts of the Continent whence our forefathers came
or with which at the time they were in touch, and this shows
that the immigrants brought with them the elements or sug-
gestions of the form and developed it in their new seats. The
system of fabrication and of distribution must therefore have
1 Victoria History, Norfolk, i, 345 ; Archaeologia, lxiii, 192.
38 INTRODUCTORY
been established at quite an early period of the settlement,
and the craftsmen have been busy as soon as the shield and
spear were laid aside.
There are other classes and sub-classes of objects the dis-
tribution of which is similarly circumscribed, and these
phenomena at once assume historical importance when we ask
ourselves how far these limits of distribution correspond to
tribal or regnal boundaries.
We are introduced here to the question of a ' Statistik ' of
Anglo-Saxon finds all over the country, to which reference
has already been made (p. 26). A tabular conspectus of the
whole material showing where and in what associations each
kind of object has come to light formed part of the original
scheme of these volumes, but it would have been too volu-
minous to publish in this form. A survey district by district
or county by county giving a notice of each cemetery with
information about the objects it furnished was also a part of
the preliminary labours upon which the present chapters are
based, and upon this a word must be said. As every student
of our national history is well aware, the volumes already
published of the Victoria History of the Counties of England
embrace chapters on Anglo-Saxon antiquities for the most
part from the pen of Mr. Reginald Smith, and these chapters
supply a conspectus of the discoveries made in different parts
of Teutonized Britain with information as to the particular
branch of the new settlers to whom each cemetery should be
assigned. This work involved very considerable labour and
has been carried out with conspicuous thoroughness and
accuracy. The records of discoveries where these have been
printed are widely scattered among the volumes of local and
general archaeological publications, while the objects them-
selves are distributed among a large riumber of public and
private collections only to a very small extent catalogued, and
in very many instances there is a tantalizing absence of any
record of the facts needed to make a particular discovery of
THE VICTORIA HISTORY 39
scientific value. Hence what has been done in the Victoria
History is of the highest value, and at one time the present
writer had resolved to abandon the work he had himself
essayed on the same lines and simply to refer to the chapters
of the County History. Other considerations however came
in. The ground has only been partially covered in the History
and a good many counties have not yet been included in the
scope of the colossal publication. In the case of several
counties the Anglo-Saxon notes were published a good many
years ago and fresh discoveries some of much importance
have intervened. In the county-by-county scheme compara-
tively small areas receive separate treatment and there is little
opportunity for wider and more comprehensive surveys. The
Anglo-Saxon part of the History is thus as it stands a torso,
but it would form the foundation for a complete conspectus
which Mr. Reginald Smith may it is hoped find himself able
to bring into being. The writer, who has gone over a good
deal of the ground examining independently the literary and
monumental materials, can bear emphatic and most grateful
testimony to the excellence of the work so far accomplished
and looks forward to seeing some day the isolated articles
co-ordinated and the whole country subjected to a systematic
and even treatment.
In the meantime the present book cannot dispense with
its statistical section. In the chapters on tomb furniture
reference is continually being made to this or that cemetery
as a place of discovery, and the reader naturally requires
information as to the location and character of the graveyard
and the general nature of the objects that it has yielded up.
The list of illustrations at the beginning of the present
volume is followed by a list of cemeteries with a reference to
the page where in each case this information is to be found.
Such cross references are facilitated by the continuous pagina-
tion that runs through the two volumes. Again, the historical
considerations which are regarded here as equally important
4o INTRODUCTORY
with those of an artistic and archaeological import demand
a proper basis of statistical material. This material has
accordingly been furnished, but it has been worked up with
a general treatment of the raids, invasions, and settlements
of the English that occupies the larger part of the second
of these two volumes.
The treatment here is an amplification of a paper entitled
' Archaeological Evidence connected with the Teutonic
Settlement of Britain ' which the writer read at the Inter-
national Congress of Historical Studies in London in April,
19 1 3. This evidence concerns in the first place the course
of the original inroads and migrations and deals with the
continental seats of our future settlers or their forefathers
and the routes direct or roundabout by which they ultimately
reached our shores ; and in the second place it is concerned
with the time, the topography, and the conditions of the actual
settlements, and incidentally with the relations in matters of
craftsmanship and art between the new-comers and the
Romano-British population. Dealing for the moment with
the first points only, we find that, briefly summarized, the
evidence seems to show that in general the future conquerors
of Britain did not migrate directly or en masse from their
northern seats but had been busy for a long time previously
along the continental shores of the North Sea and English
Channel. They seem in fact to have descended by land
through what is now Hanover to Drenthe and Friesland and
the other Dutch provinces as far as the Rhine and the Meuse,
as well as by sea to the outlet of the Channel into the
Atlantic, before the actual settlements in England began.
The proofs of this are partly literary and partly monumental,
and the monumental proofs are furnished very largely by
pottery, one of the items of tomb furniture omitted from
consideration in the chapters dedicated to the inventory, and
now dealt with separately in connection with the history of
the migrations.
OBJECTS OF SPECIAL INTEREST 41
It will accordingly be understood that the matter con-
tained in Chapters x and following is envisaged mainly in its
historical aspect. Chapter x contains a notice of three classes
of objects found in Anglo-Saxon graves which are shown there
or subsequently to possess special historical significance,
pottery, inlaid jewellery, and certain early works in bronze,
while the later chapters in the volume use the archaeological
evidence thus acquired. Pottery of a certain special kind,
Germanic in origin but possessing features that come from
Romanized lands, is found in the supposed original northern
seats of the Teutonic invaders of England and throughout all
the regions to the west and south as far as Belgium, which
there is reason to believe that they occupied before and at the
date of the inroads upon Britain. Pottery of exactly the
same kind is found over a considerable part of Teutonized
England, but is more characteristic of the north, the northern
midlands, and East Anglia, than of the regions of the Thames
Valley and the southern counties. This pottery is found on
the Continent, as well in Schleswig the supposed home of
the ' Angles ' as in the regions from the Elbe southwards
and westwards appropriated by the ' Saxons ' ; and in our own
country while it is specially abundant and shows best its
characteristic qualities in ' Anglian ' regions, it is also found
in * Saxon ' surroundings. There is monumental evidence
here not only of the diffusion west and south of the con-
tinental Saxons and of the Teutonic migration across the
North Sea, but of the fact that there can have been no strongly
marked differences between the Saxons and the Angles.
Incidentally moreover this pottery leads to a consideration of
the relation in the migration period of the two methods of
disposing of the bodies of the dead, by burning and by burial.
Beside the pottery another important class of objects
found in the cemeteries was withdrawn from discussion in the
inventory, and this was done because the objects in question
possess connections ithat carry them far beyond the strictly
42 INTRODUCTORY
Anglo-Saxon sphere, and cast a light upon ethnographical
questions that concern the Teutonic migrations at large, as
well as on the special position occupied by Kent among our
Anglo-Saxon districts.
The student of the antiquities of Kent soon comes to the
same conclusion that is forced on the investigator into its
social customs and its legal and monetary system, the con-
clusion that its Teutonic settlers were different from those
who occupied other parts of the island. As will be seen in
the case of Bifrons, the tomb furniture recovered from
Kentish cemeteries is abundant in quantity and on the whole
rich, elaborate, and artistically beautiful, and it is in many
ways strikingly unlike what is found in Saxon and Anglian
districts. This is all in favour of Bede's ascription of the
conquest and settlement to the Jutes. The continental
affinities of this tomb furniture afford support to the hypo-
thesis that the Jutish invasion did not start directly from their
northern seats but from intermediate regions opposite our
south-eastern coasts. Kentish tomb furniture does not remind
us of what we find in northern Germany and Scandinavia but
of Rhineland work, and to some extent of the tomb furniture
of the Franks, though it would be a mistake to assume that
Frankish work in general is the prototype of what we find in
Kent. Resemblances exist but differences are much more
marked, and the English work is quite independent and at the
same time is of special interest and beauty. Its most charac-
teristic form, inlaid gold jewellery, is of central European
origin and is not characteristic of the North. The tradition of
it probably reached the Jutes from the direction of the Rhine
to which region it had been imported up the Danube valley
from seats of culture further to the east. The same tradition
had been introduced into Gaul by its Frankish conquerors in
V, and the earliest work of the kind found in Kent is of
Frankish origin or closely copied from Frankish models.
Later on however this particular kind of work develops in
INFLUENCE OF FRANKISH ART 43
Kent to forms that are quite distinct from those characteristic
of Merovingian Gaul. The relations in this matter between
the two countries are typical of the position they occupy
towards each other in connection with cultural forms in
general, and upon this a word may profitably be said.
The Franks were the nearest neighbours of our Anglo-
Saxon forefathers, and from their comparatively early accept-
ance of Christianity and their occupation of a land far more
thoroughly Romanized than had ever been the case with
Britain they were in VI considerably in advance of them in
culture. This would make it probable that Gallic influence
would affect the artistic and industrial products of the Anglo-
Saxons, and it is true that this influence is sufficiently dis-
cernible, though the extent of it is very commonly over-
estimated. In architecture this influence is to be detected in
some of our earliest Christian churches,1 and in coinage as we
shall see Merovingian example was at first very potent, but
in both these forms of art Anglo-Saxon independence soon
asserted itself, and it will be noted presently how full of
individual character are the early sceattas. In the matter of
tomb furniture in general the surprising thing is, not that
Frankish imported objects and objects fashioned at home on
Frankish models should come to light in our cemeteries, but
that these occurrences should be as rare as in fact they are.
In objects that are of the same kind on the two sides of the
Channel Anglo-Saxon work has its own character and can
easily be distinguished from Merovingian, while there are
whole classes of objects common in Frankish cemeteries that
make no appearance at all in our own. A chronological reason
for this is suggested in the chapter on the cemetery (p. 174 f.).
Passing now to the archaeological evidence concerning the
actual settlement of the Teutons in England, we find our-
selves confronted by a considerable array of facts on which
1 The Arts in Early England, 11, 322 f.
44 INTRODUCTORY
some very solid inferences can be based, as well as by phenomena
of a less definite, if not of an illusive, kind, that offer dangerous
temptations in the way of the weaving of hypotheses. It is no
part of the scheme of this book altogether to eschew hypotheses,
for these are part of the legitimate machinery for increasing
the fabric of knowledge, but a conjecture should bear its
character on its face and not masquerade as a self-evident
truth or a logical inference from sufficient premises. In the
systematic though brief survey of the Anglo-Saxon cemeteries
which occupies Chapters xi and following, there will be a
place for noticing what is possible or probable as well as what
is reasonably certain as a deduction from the appearances that
the spade has revealed. In this connection reference must be
made to a small book of great usefulness published at the
close of 1 9 13 by Mr. E. Thurlow Leeds of the Ashmolean
Museum at Oxford. It is entitled The Archaeology of the Anglo-
Saxon Settlements1 and in the compass of its 140 pages it
contains a wealth of accurate and well-digested information
as to the amount and character of the archaeological evidence
available in regard to the Anglo-Saxon conquest of England.
Mr Leeds has pursued his researches into North Germany
and Schleswig-Holstein, and taken up after a long interval the
inquiry set on foot by Kemble as to the bearing of antiquarian
discoveries in these regions on Anglo-Saxon questions. The
writer takes this early opportunity of expressing his sense of
the value of Mr Leeds's work, to which reference will re-
peatedly be made in the latter portions of the present study.
In this place opportunity may be taken to put into a few
words one or two outstanding results of the comparative
study of the phenomena in question.
I. There are objects of a certain class that have been omitted
from consideration in the inventory, owing to the fact that
historical inferences of some importance can be drawn from
them, and that this gives them a claim to special treatment.
1 Oxford, at the Clarendon Press, 191 3.
SIGNIFICANCE OF SPECIAL FINDS 45
They are objects in cast bronze, for the most part in the form
of buckles, that are of special interest on two grounds. One
ground is their obviously close connection with Roman work
which is always their ultimate source of origin, though they
vary in their degree of adherence to their prototypes. The
other ground is their early date which gives significance to
their appearance in the localities where they are found. Other
articles found in association with these are thereby proved to
be of contemporary date, and we are thus furnished with
a set of objects of known early date and of Anglo-Saxon
provenance, the appearance of which in any locality carries
with it chronological significance. Now in various parts of
England there have come to light objects of this kind that
seem to antedate the historically attested settlements. These
settlements are supposed to have begun in the second quarter
of V and to have been in progress during the next hundred
years, but some scattered archaeological finds of the sort here
noticed appear to attest the presence in the island of Teutonic
immigrants or raiders at an earlier date. Objects not so
specially early but belonging at any rate to V are not
uncommon, and where they make their appearance we can
assume a corresponding period for the settlement of those
particular portions of the country. Many years ago Dr.
Bernhard Salin called attention to the significance of these
early finds,1 and he laid down the general rule that early
objects found in the northern parts of the island have
affinities with Scandinavian and North German products,
whereas similar articles that come to light south of the
Thames find their prototypes in the Romanized lands along
the Rhine and in Gaul. This division we shall see to hold
in the main though it is not so absolute as it is sometimes
made out to be.
II. The location of the early objects in question conveys a
significant indication of the manner of the Teutonic immigra-
1 Kon. Vitterhets Hist, och Ant. Akademiens Manadsblad, for 1 894.
46 INTRODUCTORY
tion. They are almost always discovered in riparian cemeteries,
in localities easily reached by ascending the rivers which
discharge their waters into the German Ocean. The most
important of these waterways is the Thames, and it is a fact
of much significance that on the banks of the Thames, and of
its tributaries near where they join it, a fair number of these
early objects have come to light. The bearing of these dis-
coveries on the question of the position at the time of London
is obvious. Some antiquaries, who base their opinions on
some very remarkable and quite pertinent phenomena of
London life and history, credit the future metropolis with a
quasi-independence maintained at a time when other parts of
the country had passed under the power of the invaders. Such
a London would be expected to offer a serious if not insur-
mountable barrier to the ascent of the river by a hostile force,
yet archaeological evidence seems to show that the keels of the
sea-rovers made an early appearance along its upper reaches.
These early finds begin on the northern coast of Kent near
the mouth of the Medway and continue into Surrey, especially
up the lateral valley of the Wandle, and into Middlesex as at
Shepperton, while the most remarkable discovery in the whole
country for its apparently early indications came to light at
Dorchester-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, and objects from
riparian cemeteries up almost to the source of the stream
convey the same sort of impression. It should be said that
the riverside burying-grounds in the north-west part of Kent
cannot be regarded as of the same class as the normal cemeteries
of the Jutish population in the inland and more easterly parts
of the county. For one thing they are in part cremation
cemeteries, whereas no example of cremation in Kent generally
is known to be of Jutish date and origin, and these cremated
burials seem to belong to the folk that made their way into
the interior up the Thames Valley and founded there the
kingdom of the West Saxons.
The streams that empty themselves into the Wash appear
JUTES, SAXONS, AND ANGLES 47
also to have attracted betimes the invading galleys, for finds
of a very early character are reported from the upper part of
the valley of the Bedfordshire Ouse, at Kempston above the
county town, and the same may be said about the valley of the
Nene that intersects Northamptonshire.
It is worthy of notice that these early finds as often as not
indicate the presence of women. In the case of the Teutonic
migrations in general the moving mass was made up of families
not individual men-at-arms, and the women accompanied their
husbands and fathers along the march and to the verge of the
battlefield. So in the English settlement, the invaders, when
they came in mass determined to remain, brought their families
with them, but on raiding expeditions that presumably preceded
the actual migrations we should expect the warriors to move
? without encumbrances.' The finds however as indicated
above seem to attest the presence of women even in the earlier
stages of the westward movement. Possibly these were ladies
of the Amazonian temper.
III. The question of the ethnic relationships of the
Teutonic settlers in England has been recently discussed in
Professor Chadwick's Origin of the English Nation. While
emphasizing the separate position of the Jutes he doubts
whether any real distinction can be made, so far as our own
country is concerned, between Saxons and Angles, and is dis-
posed to see evidence of only two races among our conquerors
— Jutes and Anglo-Saxons. Many considerations have here
to be taken into account, considerations of language, customs,
national traditions, and the like, all of which are noticed in the
work just mentioned. Archaeological facts have also a place
and an important one in the discussion, and one of the objects
kept in view in the historical portions of these volumes is the
marshalling of these facts so as to bear on the ethnic question.
It may be noticed here that Professor Chadwick singles out
the East Saxons of Essex as the people whose national traditions
seem to give them the best claim to a distinctively Saxon, or
48 INTRODUCTORY
non-Anglian, origin, and the evidence of archaeological dis-
coveries in Essex appears to mark this territory off somewhat
sharply from the Anglian regions to the west and north.
IV. One of the most remarkable archaeological facts con-
nected with the Germanic invasion of this country is the
complete absence from the most northerly parts of Teutonized
Britain of any monumental remains of the pagan period of
Anglian civilization. This part of the country is particularly
rich in monuments of the Early Christian period, when in VII
and the first part of VIII Northumbria was a centre and source
of learning and art for the whole country. The Teutonic
cemeteries of the pagan period however, so numerous and so pro-
ductive in the midland and southern districts of England,
practically cease at the Tees, north of which there have been
very few evidences of their existence, while in Northumbria
north of the Roman Wall, and in southern Scotland that was
at one time Anglian as far as the Forth, not a single relic of
early Anglian civilization of the pagan period has come to
light.1 There is one urn of Anglian type in the Museum of
Antiquities at Edinburgh that has not escaped the vigilant
eyes of Mr. Reginald Smith who called the writer's attention
to it. This is supposed to have been found at Buchan in
Aberdeenshire, but unfortunately there is no distinct record of
the discovery, and it would be unsafe to build anything upon it.
This complete dearth of monumental evidence for an
Anglian occupation of the Lothians in the pagan period is a
striking fact when it is brought into contrast with the
abundant but more or less legendary material of a literary
kind that points to considerable activity on the part of the
invaders at an early date in these particular regions of the
north. The contradiction will be noticed later on (p. 760).
The archaeological evidence thus briefly summarized con-
cerns, first, the pre- history of the English conquest of Britain,
if the expression be allowed, and, next, the date, conditions,
1 See however for a very recent discovery (p. 812 f.).
CONTRAST OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND 49
and direction of the actual invasions ; on a third point, the
circumstances of the ultimate settling down, archaeological
discoveries may be found to shed some light.
The labours of three generations of historians from
' Saxon ' Kemble through E. A. Freeman and his followers to
the writers of the present day have not fully elucidated the
conditions of the Teutonic settlement of England, nor ex-
plained why the ethnic results of it have been so different
from those following the Frankish conquest of Gaul.
Romanized Gaul was invaded by land from the north-east by
two divisions of a powerful Teutonic race made up of course
of varied elements, and the first division, that of the Salian
Franks, under a leader of some genius, made itself undisputed
master of the whole country save the Visigothic corner to the
south-west. The Frankish race contained sufficient elements
of power to raise it after a couple of centuries to a position of
supremacy in western Europe and to evolve as its representa-
tive and head the greatest ruler that the Teutonic stock has
ever produced. But is France at the present day a Frankish
or even a Teutonic land ? In language, in national character,
and to an overmastering extent in appearance, the Gallo-
Roman elements in the population immeasurably preponderate,
and the most distinctive intellectual quality of the cultured
Frenchman, his love of lucidity and sense of form, is an
essentially southern characteristic. In England on the other
hand, though there is here and there a recrudescence of some
very old elements in the population, the Romano-British
element is really hardly in evidence. It is true that we
experience in England a periodically recurring phase of feeling
that works for the rehabilitation of ancient stocks, and seeks
to establish a substantial Celtic (or even neolithic) element in our
existing civilization, but the results are practically negligible.
In every characteristic that can be adduced, physical, intel-
lectual, or moral, we are preponderatingly Teutonic, the non-
Teutonic hardly counting at all. It is curious too how the
III D
50 INTRODUCTORY
supposed normal type of the Anglo-Saxon, already referred tc
as * rather stolid and heavy,' is just the type that to this day ir
popular estimation represents the average Englishman, for the
figure of c John Bull ' made classic in the cartoons of Punch is
just the figure of the supposed Anglo-Saxon farmer of the
days before the Norman Conquest. What differences, we maj
ask, in the conditions of the Germanic conquest of the twc
countries account for a Gallo-Roman France and a Teutonic
England ? The indigenous population of the former countr)
survived, we must assume, and has gradually reasserted itself
but in the case of our own country of such a survival there ij
little evidence.
What became of the Romano-British population after the
Germanic Conquest is a question that has never been satis-
factorily settled. Few people at the present day find thinkable
the old theory of the extermination by the conquerors of the
British race over all the eastern and central parts of England.
That the country was turned into one vast Anderida while the
Saxons and Angles * slew all that dwelt therein ' so that * nol
even one Briton was there left ' does not commend itself to the
humane descendent of the sea-rovers in question, but then on
the other hand what did become of the Britons ? They were
presumably more numerous than the invaders and certainly
more civilized, while the defence they set up proves them by
no means devoid of spirit. The extermination of such a
population by a smaller number of hardier and more savage
assailants is of course possible, but even if such a fate overtook
the British men the women might have been to a considerable
extent saved alive. If the result of the conquest were
expatriation rather than massacre then the British women
would doubtless accompany their menkind into exile. Sup-
posing on the other hand there had ensued a peaceable settling
down side by side of the two races, one would imagine the
fair British maiden, with attractions enhanced by a refining
touch of classical culture and perhaps by Christian graces,
CONTINUITY OF BRITISH AND SAXON 51
exercising considerable influence over the minds of the hardy
immigrants. In such circumstances, as on the other alterna-
tive of a cutting off of the British male population, inter-
marriages between the two races might be expected to follow,
and such unions would leave some material traces in the
cemeteries.
A certain amount of material evidence bearing on this
historical problem receives notice in the following pages and
it will be convenient here briefly to summarize it. In the
Chapter on the Anglo-Saxon cemetery it is pointed out that
there is a certain amount of continuity between Celtic and
Germanic civilization in the common use of cemeteries though
there is no proof of continuity in the matter of places of
residence. Exploration of the cemeteries might be expected
to produce evidence of two kinds bearing on this subject,
ostiological evidence and that derived from tomb furniture.
If the victorious Anglo-Saxon warrior wooed or appropriated
the British maiden as his bride, in that case the lady's bones
would rest with her lord's in the local cemetery, and there the
modern craniologist might now conceivably sort them apart,
while the antiquary was finding a racial difference in their
grave-goods. On the craniological evidence, which is against
intermarriage, a word is said in the Chapter on the cemetery
(p. 1 84 f.), but on the latter possibility the following may here
find a place. It must be borne in mind that the Romano-
British population was in matters of art more advanced than
the Teutonic immigrants, and if British ladies had exercised rule
in the new homesteads they would certainly have introduced
therein their own style in trinkets and in ornaments. Anglo-
Saxon art would in this manner have taken on a decided Roman
or Late-Celtic tinge, and had any appreciable number of the
women sprung from the British race their personal belongings
would certainly have been of a less pronounced Germanic type
than those of the men. As a matter of fact this difference is
not apparent. Here and there some isolated object comes to
52 INTRODUCTORY
light in an Anglo-Saxon grave that is recognized as Roman or
Celtic, and this is so natural a phenomenon that one wonders it
is not far more in evidence than is actually the case. Such
casual appearances can in no way support the hypothesis of
intermarriage, and it may be affirmed without hesitation that
no distinction between Teutonic and Celtic elements in the
Anglo-Saxon population is normally to be observed in the
tomb furniture of the cemeteries.
This saving word has been introduced because, not nor-
mally but by way of exception, appearances present themselves
in connection with the cemeteries that have a direct bearing
on the relation between the two races. Continuity in the use
of burying-grounds is dealt with in Chapter in (p. 130 f.)
where it will be seen that this is not as a rule direct continuity
so much as a return to conditions prior to the Romano-
British period. It was not the urban cemeteries attached to
the Romanized towns that the Anglo-Saxons sometimes used,
but rather the earlier Celtic cemeteries of the Bronze Age
which suited the immigrants in that they were country ones.
Anglo-Saxon burying-grounds are independent of the Romano-
British town cemeteries, but at the same time early Anglo-
Saxon cemeteries are sometimes found in curiously close
contiguity with a known site where a British population
remained in force, and this is another fact of which to take
account. The connection of Harnham Hill cemetery south
of Salisbury and the settlement which it must have served,
with the ancient Sorbiodunum, Old Sarum, five miles to the
north, or with the nearer British community supposed to be
attested by the name c Britford,' is a matter quite of specula-
tion, but the case of Fairford in Gloucestershire gives us
something far more definite.
There is an explicit statement in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,
ad ann. 577, that in this year the West Saxon king Ceawlin
after a great victory over the British forces at Deorham * took
three cities from them, Gloucester, and Cirencester, and Bath.'
THE PROBLEM OF FAIRFORD 53
It is quite in accordance with what we know of this part of
England at the time to find these old Roman towns still held
in force by the Britons. The pressure of the invading
Teutons towards the west had been checked sixty years
earlier by the great British victory of the Mons Badonicus,
and Gildas, who writes about the middle of the interval
between Mons Badonicus and Deorham gives us a picture of
an England the western parts of which were still held by his
own British countrymen. If this were the case until the
eventful year 577 can we picture to ourselves a peaceable
Saxon community settled at Fairford for at least a genera-
tion before that time ? Fairford is only some eight or nine
miles from Cirencester one of the British centres of power
prior to Ceawlin's victory, and one would imagine that an
actively hostile Cirencester would make the position at Fair-
ford untenable, yet the archaeological evidence of the finds on
the site points to the use of the Fairford cemetery by an
Anglo-Saxon community for a good many years before 577.
Either the indications of an early date for some of the Fair-
ford grave-goods are fallacious and the place was not really
settled till after 577, or else the relations between the neigh-
bouring Saxon and British communities were not actively
hostile. This last hypothesis, that a certain modus vivendi
existed or might exist at various times and places between the
two antagonistic populations, is one worthy of some considera-
tion. It is enough here for the moment to envisage it from
the archaeological side.
Apart from those sporadic appearances of objects of
Romano-British character in this or that Anglo-Saxon
cemetery to which reference has been made, there are certain
classes of objects of more frequent occurrence in tomb
inventories that do suggest some relations between British and
Anglo-Saxon craftsmanship the nature of which is at present
concealed from us. In the chapters on tomb furniture, in
connection with necklets (Ch. ix), with pendants (ibid.), and
54 INTRODUCTORY
with the mountings of bronze bowls (ibid.), we are brought
into contact with processes and ornamental motives that are
not Anglo-Saxon but Celtic, and the appearance of which in
the midst of so much that is purely Teutonic is an interesting
but enigmatical fact, of which the historical student may be
glad to take account.
This Introductory Chapter can hardly be allowed to close
without one word of a personal kind relating to the long space
of time that has intervened between the publication of the
first two volumes of this work and the issue of the present
continuation. The delay was due in the first place to the
fact that before the actual appearance of those first two
volumes, with a certain optimistic underrating of the time it
takes to write a book, the writer had pledged himself to carry
out certain literary tasks in other fields of study. The
invitations thus with a light heart accepted were not of a kind
which the writer in the position he holds could have suitably
declined ; or which, to take another ground, his circumstances
justified him in refusing. As a fact it has meant the prepara-
tion of more than half a dozen volumes, or Encyclopaedia
articles as long as a volume, on different subjects within the
writer's province as the holder of a Chair of Fine Art, and
with limited leisure such volumes are not written in a day.
Hence it was made inevitable that even the commencement of
this continuation of the Arts in Early England should be
delayed. When the task moreover was actually taken up it
had assumed a different form from that originally contem-
plated. The original purpose of the writer was to follow the
volume on Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastical architecture with one
merely concerned with the church fittings, the carved stones,
the manuscripts, etc., of the Christian period. Reflection
showed however that such a treatment would leave out of
sight that very considerable development of Anglo-Saxon art
which was independent of church matters and belonged on the
A PERSONAL EXPLANATION 55
whole to the earlier pagan period. At this juncture the
writer was invited by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland to
prepare a set of Rhind Lectures on the Art of the Period of
the Teutonic Migrations, a subject embracing that of Anglo-
Saxon art in the pagan period but of far broader scope. The
collection of materials for this task involved extended travel
and study in the chief Museums of Europe with a correspond-
ing expenditure of time, but it had the advantage of placing
the writer in a position to envisage the subject of Anglo-
Saxon art from the standpoint of a wide survey of the artistic
activities of the whole Germanic race. Hence when, after the
lapse of years that had passed rapidly away though they were
by no means wasted, the writer came back to the suspended
labours, it was with an enlarged view of the work to be done
and with a considerable increase of apparatus. This has made
the book a longer one than was contemplated, but has also, it
may be hoped, materially increased its value. The scope of
the present two volumes has been explained in this Chapter.
Full of matter as they are, the scheme of treatment is after all
only the same as that adopted in the volume on Anglo-Saxon
architecture. A reasonable completeness of treatment was
there aimed at, and the present instalment of the work attempts
the same both in the matter of illustrations and in that of text.
How far the labour and time devoted to these have been well
spent it will be for the reader to say.
CHAPTER II
THE ARTISTIC ASPECTS OF THE EARLY
ANGLO-SAXON COINAGE
Anglo-Saxon coinage is represented by abundant examples
dating from VI or VII to the Norman Conquest, and these
examples offer a varied selection of designs that are in many
cases of considerable artistic interest. The branch of numis-
matics concerned with these issues, both in the kingdoms of
the so-called Heptarchy and in the united Anglo-Saxon realm,
has been cultivated with some ardour from the days of
Lelewel to our own, but it still offers not a few unsolved
problems to the inquirer. It is undoubtedly presumptuous in
one who is not a numismatist even to touch a subject that in
some respects puzzles even the specialist in the science, but on
the other hand in connection with the present study the coins
possess an artistic and historical importance that forces them
into view, and to ignore them through motives of diffidence
would be to betray in a somewhat pusillanimous fashion the
interest of the inquiry in prospect.
Anglo-Saxon coins may be divided into two main classes,
distinct in artistic character as well as in their historical con-
nections, while a third class of smaller extent forms in a sense
a link between the two. The larger class, which is also the
later in point of time, consists in the c penny ' series, dating
from the time of Offa of Mercia to the Norman Conquest
(and also far beyond it), and embracing specimens of the
currency issued by, or in the reigns of, nearly all the known
kings of the intervening period. The pennies are almost
always inscribed with the name, and often stamped with the
CLASSES OF ANGLO-SAXON COINS 57
effigy, of the sovereign or the ecclesiastical dignitary by whom
they were issued, and there appears frequently on the reverse
the name of the moneyer who struck them, with, less com-
monly, their place of origin. Hence the members of the
series can be fixed with a high degree of certainty both as
regards time and locality.
The other class of coins is of earlier date and while prob-
ably originating VI belongs in the main to VII and VIII.
The pieces are known as * Sceattas,' * a word connected with
the German ' Schatz,' treasure, though not, as was formerly
believed, with the Old English 'scot' and 'shot.' They are
of great artistic interest but are very rarely inscribed, so that
in dealing with them conjecture has to be largely employed.
One thing which is certain about them is that their production
ceased on the appearance of the penny series, but how long this
production had been going on and where it was located are
matters of question. The third class of smaller extent consists
in coins belonging to the ancient Northumbria and known as
' stycas ' (German ' Stuck,' piece). They are closely connected
at one end with the sceatta series, but they possess the charac-
teristic of the later pennies in that they are very often inscribed,
and this gives them a great historical value. They are also
current to a later date than the sceattas proper and overlap
with the pennies, remaining indeed in use in the north till the
Danish invasions of IX.
For the present purpose the sceattas, the earlier enigmatical
pieces, are of more importance than the better defined later
pennies, though these have also, as will subsequently be seen,
useful lessons for the student of Saxon art in general. This
importance and this usefulness reside in the fact that the coins
as a whole exhibit a high degree of technical and artistic merit.
The reader will be able to judge of this from examples which
1 According to the Oxford English Dictionary the ' sc ' should be pro-
nounced soft like <sh' and the *e' not sounded, so that the word should be
spoken ' shattas.'
58 EARLY ANGLO-SAXON COINAGE
will presently be shown, but some opinions of experts may here
be adduced. In the British Museum Catalogue of the Anglo-
Saxon series1 Mr. Keary stated that the sceattas were 'rich, as
few coinages of the world are rich, in the variety of designs
by which they are adorned,' and notes ' the varied and artistic
designs of Offa's pennies,' that ' have always been celebrated
for their artistic excellence, which is far greater than that dis-
played by any other Western series for some centuries,' and
whereon the busts l are distinctly original in character and are
really fine examples of Anglo-Saxon art,' while to a special
East Anglian series kfiown as ' St. Edmund's pennies ' is
ascribed ' extremely neat workmanship, the special character-
istics of which are scarcely to be matched in any contemporary
series of coins, English or continental.' If this praise be
discounted as proceeding from native sources, the following
sentences from Lelewel may be found more convincing.
Lelewel,2 who may be called the father of modern numis-
matic study at any rate in its mediaeval branch, expresses
with due critical discernment a judgement highly favourable
to the early Mercian pennies both as regards design and
execution, while of the Anglo-Saxon pieces in general he
says * l'empreinte etait distinctement imprimee. Si le temps
n'en a pas efface ou enleve quelques parties, il est presque
impossible de trouver sur la monnaye Anglo-Saxonne des
lacunes provenant du defaut des ouvriers imprimeurs : comme
cela est commun aux monnayeurs du continent. La gravure
du type a aussi son merite particulier ; plus soignee, plus
expressive, elle etait plus correcte et observait plus le dessin et
les ornemens.'
1 A Catalogue of English Coins in the British Museum, Anglo-Saxon Series,
London, 1887-93, *> xxii> xxvii, xxix, lxxvi.
2 1786-186 1, 'Polish historian, geographer, and numismatist' (Enc. Brit.).
He lived in exile in Brussels for the last thirty years of his life, an ardent
student and writer. The work quoted from is his Numismatique du Moyen
Age, Paris, 1835, pt. 11, p. 7.
ROMAN AND GERMANIC COINS
All enlarged about two diameters
IMPERIAL ROMAN 'SOLIDI' 59
Premising that the subject is here approached from the
artistic side, we may now go on to give some account of the
sceat series, reserving for a future volume a similar notice of
the stycas and the pennies. The reason for this separation is
that the sceattas are connected both in time and place with the
first group of objects representing Anglo-Saxon art which form
the subject of the present volumes, whereas the stycas and later
pennies are connected, the one by place the other by time,
with the carved stones, manuscripts, and later objects generally,
to which a subsequent volume will be devoted.
The early Anglo-Saxon coinage is only one of many issued
by the Teutonic conquerors of the western Roman empire.
These are all based on the Roman imperial coinage which was
at first imitated as closely as possible. ' Tous les barbares,'
write Engel and Serrure,1 ' debuterent dans leur monnayage
par la copie litterale des types romains.' The most important
of the imperial coins were the gold pieces known as ' solidi
aurei,' or simply as ' solidi ' or ' aurei,' the first issue of which
is ascribed to Constantine. They are handsome pieces, rather
larger than a half-sovereign, and, as struck at Byzantium,
remained through the early middle ages the chief gold coins
of the West, the famous ' bezants.' The imperial gold coins
included also halves and thirds of the solidus, the latter under
the name ' trientes ' of much importance in connection with
the barbarian currencies. The solidus exhibited on the
obverse the portrait of an imperial personage either of the
western or the eastern part of the Empire ; the representation
was at first in profile, but from the time of Justinian, VI,
onwards the full face supersedes it. An inscription indicating
the name and titles of the personage accompanies the head or
bust ; the reverse devices are multiform. These obverse
types, with head facing or profile, and many of the numerous
reverse types appear in a more or less degraded form on the
barbarian coinages, and we shall meet with abundant examples
1 Traite de Numismatique du Moyen Age, Paris, 1891, 1, 16.
60 EARLY ANGLO-SAXON COINAGE
as we proceed. On PI. i,1 Nos. i and 2 show two Roman
obverses with profile heads, one helmed, the other bound with
a fillet, and No. 1 on PI. 11 gives — in a barbarian copy — a
Roman full-faced head of the Emperor Maurice Tiberius.
The reverses of the coins with profile heads show in one
case, PI. 1, 2', two seated imperial personages side by side
with the upper part of a figure of Victory above, in the other,
No. i7, two captives between whom is a standard with the
letters VOT and other marks, while another Roman reverse
on the same plate, No. 3, exhibits the same three letters, with
others below, inscribed upon an altar. These are all common
types that reappear on early Anglo-Saxon and other Teutonic
coins. The other pieces on PI. 1 are not Roman but of bar-
barian origin and will be referred to later on.
The barbarian issues are numerous. We possess coins
issued by the Vandals in Africa, by the Suevi and the Visigoths
in Spain, by the Ostrogoths and the Lombards in Italy, and
by the Burgundians and Franks in Gaul. The only one of
these coinages that need be noticed here is that of the Mero-
vingian Franks, for the reason that it is much more closely
connected with that of the Anglo-Saxons than is the case with
the other continental issues. Anglo-Saxon coinage owes
much to that of the Franks, but taking the latter as its start-
ing point it develops on lines so independent that it furnishes
a striking proof of vigour and originality on the part of our
native craftsmen. Coinage, it needs hardly to be said, is a
form of art wherein absolute originality on the part of the
barbarian craftsman is in the nature of things impossible. It
is an institution of comparatively advanced civilization, and
just as the Teutonic invaders of the Empire as a whole were
indebted for their coinages to the Romans, so the compara-
tively barbarous Anglo-Saxons depended for this part of the
apparatus of civilization on their neighbours the semi-Romanized
1 The coins on this and on succeeding plates are as a rule enlarged in
order more effectively to show the devices. See note 1 (p. 65).
THE FRANKISH CURRENCY 61
Franks. It does not of course follow that either the Teutons
in general as opposed to the Romans, or the Anglo-Saxons in
comparison with the Franks, were similarly dependent as
regards other products and forms of art. The barbarian may
dispose of weapons and objects of personal adornment that are
purely native alike in form and in technique, while for other
objects such as coins, connected with a state of civilization at
which he has not arrived, he may adopt the productions of
more advanced peoples.
Numismatic history among the Franks begins with the
coins found in the grave of Childeric, the chief of the Salian
Franks, who was buried at Tournay in 481 a.d. When this
tomb was accidentally discovered in the year 1653 there were
found therein more than three hundred coins, of which about
a hundred were golden solidi and had been contained in a
purse or pouch worn at the belt, while the rest, of silver, had
probably been placed at the feet of the dead in some kind of
casket.1 These coins were all either in an official sense Roman
or had been carefully copied from Roman examples. Clovis,
the son of Childeric, and the kings of the Franks that suc-
ceeded him struck similar aurei with Roman types and inscrip-
tions, but with certain distinctive marks, such as the * C '
which appears on coins of Clovis himself. It was reckoned a
striking innovation when, about the year 540, Theodebert 1,
grandson of Clovis, a young prince of brilliant promise and
boundless ambition, issued a fine coinage of gold solidi, on
the obverse of which the Roman type, a conventional full-face
bust, was retained but was understood to represent himself,
while the Roman legend around it was replaced by his own
designation reading in full DOMINUS NOSTER THEO-
DEBERTUS VICTOR. PL i, 4, 4' and 5 give an obverse
and two reverses of Theodebert, who in No. 5 is represented
as treading down an enemy. In an often-quoted passage
Procopius2 tells us that the Franks in southern Gaul at the
1 Cochet, Le Tombeau de Childeric I", p. 409 f. 2 De Bella Goth'ico, m, 33.
62 EARLY ANGLO-SAXON COINAGE
time he was writing had struck gold money from native
Gallic metal and had substituted their own effigy for the
customary imperial device, a thing that neither the Persian
monarch nor any barbarian ruler had ventured to do. It must
be observed that barbarian princes had long before this put
their names on their coins,1 and had even added their effigies,
as for example an Ostrogothic prince, Theodahad, who, prob-
ably in $2>6 * nad issued a fine bronze piece with a distinct
and individualized portrait of himself upon it which can be
seen PI. i, 6. The moustache is here characteristically
Teutonic, and it is noteworthy that the head is surmounted
by a closed crown ornamented by jewels. This is a non-
classical feature and prefigures the employment of the crown
which becomes common on later regal heads. He wears a
cross on the breast and his robe is richly jewelled. The point
of the remark by Procopius is that these named and iconic
barbarian coins of V and VI had been in the less precious
metals, and constituted no invasion of the jealously guarded
imperial privilege of issuing pieces in gold. This privilege
the young Frankish monarch now boldly challenged. So
excellent in technique, so even in intrinsic quality, were the
numerous aurei of Theodebert, that M. Deloche believed they
were struck under his own eye at a single royal mint in his
capital at Metz.2 They represent at any rate a centralization
in the matter of the currency that was entirely Roman, and
that contrasts markedly with the state of affairs which pre-
vailed under his successors of the Merovingian house.
It is well known that among the Franks in VII the royal
authority suffered eclipse, and its weakness is reflected in the
numismatic history of the period. The issue of the large and
1 Keary, ' Coinages of Western Europe,' in Numismatic Chronicle, N.S.,
xvm and xix.
2 Revue Numismatique, 1 889 ; see however Prou, Catalogue des Monnaies
Francoises de la Bibliotheque Nationale, Les Monnaies Mdrovingiennes, Paris,
1892, Introduction, Ch. 3.
MEROVINGIAN TRIENTES 63
handsome aurei practically ceased, and the fractional piece, the
gold triens, or third of the solidus, already issued by the
earlier kings, became the characteristic Merovingian coin.1
The Frankish triens of VI and VII became the parent of the
earliest "Anglo-Saxon coin, the above-mentioned sceat, but
between the trientes and the sceattas there exist differences
that are for the purpose in view of the utmost importance.
The first difference is that the sceattas are of silver while
the Merovingian triental currency was one of gold. To dis-
cuss the reason of this would involve too long a digression,
and it is only necessary to note the fact.
Another striking difference resides in the fact that the
Frankish trientes are lavishly inscribed while on the sceattas
lettering is infrequent. Unlike the earlier Roman coins
however the trientes very rarely bear the name of a sovereign.
The legend in nearly every case contains the indication of a
place of origin and of the name of the moneyer who struck
the coin. These places and names are extraordinarily numer-
ous. M. Babelon2 reckons the number of the former at
nearly a thousand, that of the moneyers at fourteen or fifteen
hundred, and the question has naturally arisen in what
circumstances and under what authority the trientes were
struck. Into this discussion it is not necessary to enter. The
practical disappearance of the royal designation is not easy to
explain, and it is held by some authorities, such as M. Babelon
and M. Prou,3 that the issue of the trientes was in private
hands, and that the moneyers would coin their own gold, and
that brought to them by clients, without the active supervision
of any central authority.4
1 ' Les triens ou tiers de sou constituaient le numeraire courant a l'epoque
me"rovingienne,' Prou, I.e., p. lxii.
2 La Theorie Feodale de la Monnaie, Paris, 1908, p. 8.
3 Catalogue, etc., Les Monnaies Carolingiennes, Paris, 1896, p. xlvi.
4 For another theory, that explains on an attractive hypothesis the same
curious phenomena, see Engel & Serrure, Trait'e de Numismatique du Moyeu
Age, 1, 86 f.
64 EARLY ANGLO-SAXON COINAGE
To what extent the economic conditions of sceat production
in Britain resembled or differed from those that obtained in
Gaul is uncertain, but we do find upon the former occasionally
the royal name, while names of moneyers and of places, with
the exception of one locality, are hardly known. The North-
umbrian stycas, which, as we have seen, resemble and carry on
the tradition of the sceattas, were certainly issued by royal
authority, and the names of numerous kings appear upon
them, with several moneyers, but no names of places. On
the whole there is no ground for believing that the peculiar
conditions under which the trientes must have been struck
prevailed also on this side of the Channel, though the actual
part played by the royal authority in the production of sceattas
and the centres of their fabrication are only very slightly
known to us.
The remarkable number of Merovingian mints and
moneyers, however we may account for it, is of great significance
when we come to the question of designs. The third point
of difference between the trientes and the sceattas concerns
their designs. The multiplicity just noticed might have been
expected to result in a similar variety of types, but this is not
the case. The designs on the gold trientes, though sometimes
of much interest, are wanting in the variety and inventiveness
that are so characteristic of the sceat types. The obverse of
the Merovingian coins, inherited from the earlier Roman
trientes, is almost always a profile bust, though the full face
also occurs, and occasionally other devices. The reverse
types are naturally more varied, and in most cases can be
referred to Roman originals. The earliest in point of time is
the figure of a Victory but from about 600 this is replaced by
the cross, which in the words of M. Prou1 ' constitue le type
du revers de la plupart des monnaies emises en Gaule depuis
la fin du VIe siecle jusqu'au milieu du VIIIe siecle.' This
cross appears in diverse forms and the variations may stand to
1 Les Monnaies Merovingiennes, p. lxxxvi.
MEROVINGIAN AND GALLO-BRITISH PIECES
Enlarged less than i^ diameters
CELTIC AND FRANKISH COIN TYPES 65
the credit of the Gallic designers. It occurs on a globe, on
steps, in a Latin shape or a Greek, with pendants from the
extremities of its arms, and with these * gammees,' ' potencees,'
1 ancrees,' or treated in some other of the decorative fashions
distinguished by heraldic terms, that are said to number
several score. It always however remains the cross, and this
fact suggests a remark on the general subject of the treatment
by the barbarian artist of ornamental motives derived from
classical sources.
The illustrations on PL 11 comprise, first. No. 1, a fine
gold coin of the solidus class that is a very careful reproduction
by a Gallic moneyer of Marseilles of an aureus of the Emperor
Maurice Tiberius, 582-602 a.d. ; second, a number of Mero-
vingian trientes, generally in gold but in the case of certain
later issues in silver, which give a fair idea of triental types,
while there are added below for purposes of comparison a few
examples of the interesting and well-known Gallo-British coins
of pre-Roman times that show the treatment by the Celtic
moneyer of classical types introduced into Gaul from Greece.
With this plate should be compared those which follow,
PH. iv to viii, on which are numerous representations of
sceat types from various collections at home and in Holland.1
A glance at the material thus presented will show that
practically every device is a degradation of some classical type
or of the representation of some animal or object in nature.
The monogram types such as those in PI. 11, Nos. 11, 15', or
devices like Nos. 10, 13, on PI. 11, and Nos. 14 to 17 on PI. vi
(p. 85), are exceptional. In the case of the Celtic pieces the
1 In the interests of the general reader the coins have been reproduced
on an enlarged scale. The sceattas and the trientes are minute coins, not
more than three-quarters the size of a threepenny piece, and the designs
can only be appreciated on the scale of the original by a reader who is either
a practised numismatist or takes the pains to look very closely. Even numis-
matists now sometimes reproduce these little pieces double their natural size.
On the plates which follow the enlargement varies from one and a half to
two diameters.
Ill E
66 EARLY ANGLO-SAXON COINAGE
prototype is the noble Hellenic coins, the ' regale nomisma
Philippos ' of Horace,1 which formed a sort of international
currency under the Macedonian hegemony of Greece, and was
freely introduced through central Europe or through Massilia
and other Greek colonies into Gaul and Britain. Upon the
trientes and the sceattas the obverse type generally reproduces
in a more or less barbarized semblance the full face or profile
imperial bust or head, while reverses like the Victories of
PI. ii, 8, PI. iv, 13, the crosses, and numerous others, go back
also to Roman prototypes, though there are very many devices
especially among the sceattas for which no Roman original can
be produced. The treatment of these classical prototypes
varies in the three classes of coins under review. The Celtic
start with the best example but not only reproduce it in
degraded fashion but modify it altogether out of existence as
an intelligible representation, reducing it to a meaningless
jumble of irregular marks. In juxtaposition with the Greek
originals, PI. 11, 16, are placed the obverse and reverse of two
Celtic coins, PI. 11, 17, which show this degradation carried to
extremest limits. The intermediate stages, Nos. 18 to 20,
show what has happened. The face of the obverse No. 17 has
preserved reminiscences of the wreath and some of the front
curls, though the features, still recognizable in No. 20, have in
No. 1 8 already disappeared. On the reverses, in the wreck of
the representation as a whole, the single horse of No. 18'
preserves his anatomy and the use of his limbs but in No. 19
he has stiffened to lifelessness and in No. 17 he has disappeared
leaving only recognizable by the aid of No. 1 9 two legs, and
by that of No. 1 8' the detached wheel of the original chariot.
In the case of the trientes and the sceattas this solution of
a type into a mere congeries of disjecta membra does not
occur. In the trientes the head, the cross, the bird, always
retain their form, though reduced to such shapes as Nos. 4, 12'
on PI. 11. The same may be said of the sceattas, but they
1 Epist., 11, i. 232.
< DEGRADATION ' IN ORNAMENT 67
possess a characteristic in which their artistic superiority over
the trientes comes into prominence. The designers of the
sceat types possessed the power, which is not in evidence across
the Channel, of constituting new types out of the wrecks of
older representations, and a word may here be in place about
the meaning of the term so often used in the present connection
— 'degradation.' The word carries with it a certain ethical
suggestion which in matters of art is out of place. Just as it
is a mistake to demand on ethical grounds prosaic truthfulness
in the works of the formative art, so in ornamental design we
are wrong to complain of a so-termed c degraded ' motive on
the ground that it is lacking in exact correspondence with its
prototype. The question is not whether it keeps true to the
original form that happened to be its starting point, but whether
the resultant shape appears a consistent unity with some feeling
of structure and is disposed with decorative tact in the space it
adorns. This structure need not be organically possible from
the point of view of physiology or botany. The Greek
Centaur is not anatomically justifiable but is a consistent and
even convincing creation of the highest artistic value. Hence
the term ' degradation ' is used here in a purely technical sense
without any depreciatory suggestion. We shall be able to
follow the life history of several sceat types and see that each
changes not only by the loss of features of the original, or by
an arbitrary shifting of these, but by the perpetual creation of
new devices that may have the very slightest resemblance to
the original type but possess in themselves independence
and artistic value. In other words there is a certain activity
in creation in the Anglo-Saxon designer that is lacking in his
more prosaic predecessor and contemporary among the Franks.
He is not so good a copyist as the latter, and the sceattas do
not show such well-modelled heads as those in PI. 11, 2, 3,
nor, except very rarely, such neat execution as on their reverses,
but in point of fancy and of artistic composition he is
immeasurably the superior designer.
68 EARLY ANGLO-SAXON COINAGE
We return here to what is after all, from the present point
of view, the most important difference between the sceattas
and the trientes, the far greater variety and interest in the
types which the former exhibit. As we shall see in examining
the sceattas there is a large field of design, well within the com-
pass of Teutonic artistic powers, into which the Merovingian
moneyer does not trouble himself to enter, but in which
the insular artist revels with the most delightful freedom.
This is the field of animal design. There are animals on
Roman coins that furnish starting points, and either from
these or from his own imagination the Anglo-Saxon designer
has evolved a whole menagerie of quaint and often pleasing
shapes that are without parallel in numismatic history, of
course putting out of account the incomparable ' Thierwelt '
of the Greek coin designer. In France there are two delight-
ful reverses among the gold trientes of Cahors in M. Prou's
catalogue, given in Nos. 6, 7, of PI. 11, and these birds pecking
at grapes will meet us again on the sceattas. There are one
or two other birds in triental designs, but the quadrupeds and
other wingless creatures that riot on the sceattas are only
represented in France by PI. 11, 14' and a pair of others, so
that in his discussion of types M. Prou only says 'a Neaufles
(see No. 14) et a Nantes, nous trouvons un quadrupede ; a
Loci Velacorum, une tete de loup.'1
It was noticed above that the Anglo-Saxons had an early
currency in gold though they settled down in the sceat period
to silver. The British Museum possesses one exceptional
piece, given, enlarged to nearly two diameters, in No. 1 on
PI. in, in the form of a gold solidus with types imitated from
those of a coin of Honorius, that bears a runic inscription
which from the form of one of the characters locates the coin
either in this country or in Frisia. When the British Museum
catalogue was drawn up about 1887, Dr. Wimmer dated the
piece on the evidence of the runes about 600, but quite
1 Les Monnaies, p. xcv.
Ill
facing p. 69
THE CRONDALL HOARD, ETC.
No. 1, enlarged 1^ diameters; the other coins about 2 diameters. The coins are gold
THE CRONDALL HOARD 69
recently Professor von Friesen of Upsala has given an
authoritative opinion that there is nothing in the nature of the
runes that would prevent its origin being put back for another
century. Its provenance is not exactly known but it ' is
believed to have been found in this country,' ' though, as was
said above, it might conceivably be of Frisian origin, for it is
now recognized that the Frisians employed the runic characters
which used to be claimed as exclusively British. If we may
regard it as of English provenance it becomes a document of the
utmost importance in its bearing on the history of the Anglo-
Saxon coinage. The inscription is blundered and unintelligible,
but the representation of the profile head and of the figure
treading down an opponent on the reverse compare favourably
in point of art with the famous Theodebert coins of about 540
shown PI. 1, 4, 5, and even with the excellent Massiliote copy
of the aureus PL 11, 1. The Roman prototype would date
from about the first decade of V and this copy so far as the
runic inscription is concerned may have been made not much
more than a century later. The piece may of course have
been fashioned as an ornament rather than a unit of a regular
currency, but it is not pierced for suspension. There is no
doubt however that gold coins proper were minted in England
in VII if not in VI, and the proof of this is the well-known
Crondall hoard.
In the year 1828 a labourer cutting turf on what was a
portion of Bagshott Heath, near Crondall in Hants not far
from Farnham, disclosed under a sod he had raised some
glittering objects. These proved to be one hundred small
gold coins together with three ' blanks ' or ' flans,' that is plain
discs of gold punched out of a plate and ready to receive the
impress from the dies, and two characteristic Anglo-Saxon
jewelled objects of gold inlaid with garnets attached to
delicately wrought chains, that may have served as the
fastenings of a pouch or purse. A word is necessary on
1 British Museum Catalogue, 1, i.
70 EARLY ANGLO-SAXON COINAGE
these adjuncts of the find as they are of some significance.
The jewelled objects, shown with two * blanks' PL in, 2,1
exhibit in design and technique a marked similarity with
fibulae, pendants, and buckles, that occur in the more richly
furnished Anglo-Saxon graves of about VII. This conjunction
bears upon the question of the date of the hoard and will be
returned to later. Another point of importance is the sur-
mise which the conjunction suggests that goldsmith and
moneyer were one person. The presence of the ' blanks ' seems
to show that the owner, and loser, of the hoard was a moneyer.
There is no proof that he was also the fabricant of the jewelled
fastenings, but it seems at first sight unlikely that a person in
his position would possess choice * objets de luxe* of the kind
unless he had made them for sale. There is however an
exhibit in the museum at Leeuwarden in Friesland that
suggests another explanation. This region it will be seen is
of special importance in connection with sceat study, and a
reference to it is quite to the point.
At the present moment no hunting-ground offers more
attractions to the student of early mediaeval antiquities than
the Frisian 'Terpen.' These are artificial mounds of no great
height but of considerable area, common in Friesland where
some four hundred are known 2 and occurring also in the pro-
vince of Groningen, which served as platforms to keep houses
and villages above the level of the floods. Since XIX many
of these mounds have been wholly or partially levelled on
account of the value as manure of the material of which they
are composed. This material is earth containing animal and
vegetable remains in successive strata, thickly sown with the
relics of human occupation that provide archaeological treasures
dating from pre-Roman times to our own. The museum at
Leeuwarden contains objects from more than a hundred
1 The coins and other objects are in the collection of Lord Grantley,
who has kindly permitted the writer to take some photographs of them.
2 Boeles, De Friescbe Terpen, Leeuwarden, 1906.
WERE MONEYERS GOLDSMITHS? 71
terpen. The cutting down of these mounds is now carefully
watched on behalf of the Frisian Society for History and
Antiquities, and No. 3 on PI. in gives a view of one in pro-
cess of being partially removed. The church on the summit
dates back to about XII. In a terp at Dronrijp near Leeu-
warden there came to light in 1876 a small find of gold
objects,1 including (1) an ingot of gold about three inches long
and three-eighths of an inch thick, (2) thirty little bean-shaped
trientes with imitations of Merovingian types, (3) a couple of
blanks apparently partly struck and suitable for similar coins,
and (4) in a crumpled condition the broken-up goldwork of
a buckle closely resembling a well-preserved buckle from a
similar terp at Wieuwerd, also near Leeuwarden, now in the
museum at Leiden. Some of these Dronrijp objects are
shown PI. in, 4. Both finds can be dated VII. The Dron-
rijp find is evidence that the moneyer might obtain his metal
by breaking up and melting down disused gold ornaments,
but is no proof that he manufactured them. The Crondall
gold trinkets may in the same way have been merely prospec-
tive material for the mint. In the nature of things, it is true,
it would be probable that those who struck coins in the
precious metals also worked these same materials for other
purposes. In early mediaeval days technical processes were not
so specialized as has been the case in more modern times, and
the worker in a particular material would manipulate it to all
the recognized ends for which it was employed. In the Life
of St. Eloi, the famous ecclesiastical craftsman of Merovingian
days, we learn that he acquired the art of fine work in gold
from Abbon, who exercised at Limoges the public function of
a moneyer,2 and St. Eloi himself is most likely the ' Eligius '
1 J. Dirks in Tie Vrije Fries, Deel xvn, Leeuwarden, 1887, published the
find. See also the Catalogue of the Frisian Museum at Leeuwarden, by
Mr. Boeles, 1909, p. 70.
2 . . . 'pater tradidit eum ad imbuendum honorabili viro, Abboni voca-
bulo, fabro aurifici probatissimo, qui eo tempore in urbe Lemovicina publicam
fiscalis monetae officinam gerebat,' Audoenus, Vita S. Eligii, 1, 3.
72 EARLY ANGLO-SAXON COINAGE
who signs as moneyer the coins of Dagobert i and other
sovereigns of the time. On this hypothesis it will be inter-
esting to compare the workmanship and designs on Anglo-
Saxon coins with those of the gold ornaments which would
proceed from the same source, and it may be said at the
outset that in these respects there is very little resemblance
between the coins and the tomb furniture. In the matter of
the rendering of animal forms, to take one point only, the
coin designer is far ahead of the goldsmith, who is satisfied to
adorn a magnificent piece like the Kingston brooch (see
frontispiece) with shapes that not only as animal representa-
tions exhibit degradation in its extremist form but have no
quaintness or interest in themselves. The relations between
the coin designs and those on other objects of the same period
must be dealt with later on at more length, but here it is suffi-
cient to say that the evidence of these designs taken alone
would not bear out the orthodox view that moneyer and gold-
smith were one and the same person.
The owner of the Crondall hoard was therefore certainly a
moneyer and, very problematically, also a goldsmith, and was
dealing with and striking coins for use in this country. The
pieces are of different dates and kinds. Some are Merovingian
trientes struck abroad and imported to this country while
others are of insular origin. These again are of two kinds,
some being obviously imitations of trientes in the same
material gold, while a few specimens show types which do not
appear on the trientes and seem to have been copied directly
from Roman originals. If the insular pieces were all of early
date the Crondall hoard might be used as evidence of a gold
currency preceding the silver, but this is not the case. There
may be instanced the remarkable coin given PI. in, 5.1 This
is shown by the inscription LONDUNI(U) to be a product
of the London mint, and it would seem to follow from the
appearance on the same side of the cross that it is subsequent
1 British Museum Catalogue, 1, xiv.
AN ECCLESIASTICAL TYPE 73
to the conversion of south-eastern England about 600. It
may be said here at once that the mere use of the cross as part
of an early Saxon coin device need not necessarily prove that
the piece is of the Christian period. The Franks were
Christians long before the Anglo-Saxons, and a Christian
symbol may often have been copied as a mere device by a
pagan Saxon from an object wrought by a Christian workman
of Gaul. It is to be noted however that in the special case of
coin devices the cross did not come into vogue in Gaul till
rather late. Mr. Keary said not ' until nearly the end of the
sixth century,' and M. Prou1 is in agreement with this. Of
the piece now under notice, PI. in, 5, the ecclesiastical character
is evident, and it is of insular origin. On the obverse is a
rudely delineated full face apparently of a priest with a half-
circle round his neck terminating in crosses. This was
interpreted in the notice publishing the coins in the Numis-
matic Chronicle 2 as a stole, but this is very improbable, for the
ends of a stole as normally worn hang far away down by the
feet, and there is the further difficulty that if it were a stole
it would be by far the earliest known representation of this
vestment, which Father Braun cannot trace further back in
art than the altar front at Cividale of King Rachis, 744~749.3
It is surely much more likely to be the pall, the importance of
which at the period is obvious from the correspondence of
Roman bishops reported by Bede. Early palls, as for in-
stance in the VI mosaic picture of Justinian and his retinue in
S. Vitale, Ravenna,4 are thrown round the neck and have the
cross conspicuous on the ends as on the coin. Now if struck
in London with ecclesiastical significance the piece might
1 Les Monnaies, p. lxxxv f.
2 N.S.,x, 174.
3 Dr. Joseph Braun, S.J., Die Liturgische Gezvandung, Freiburg i. B., 1907,
P- 577-
4 The upper part of the figures of ecclesiastics on the right of the Emperor
are original. The lower portions, in which the ends of a long stole appear,
are now recognized to be restorations of XII. J. Braun, I.e., p. 576.
74 EARLY ANGLO-SAXON COINAGE
conceivably be the work of Mellitus during his tenure of the
see, 604-c. 617, and the head that of an archbishop, either
Augustine or Laurentius. The next effective bishop of
London was Earconuald, consecrated 675, and if he put on
his coin the head of the contemporary archbishop who con-
secrated him this would be the head of Theodore.
A much better wrought head in profile occurs on an
interesting gold piece, No. 6, like the rest on PI. in in the
Grantley collection, that was once in the Advocates' Library,
Edinburgh. This bears on the reverse the legible inscription
WITMEN MONITA. The same obverse with the head
degenerate, and the same reverse with the inscription
blundered, are seen on the Crondall piece, No. 7, and as this
type in various modifications occurs twenty-one times among
the Crondall coins while another example was found near
Canterbury in 1844, they are accepted as Anglo-Saxon.1 The
heads which have a curiously shaped object in front of them
are connected in general appearance and by this feature with
a ruder example in gold, No. 8, the reverse of which bears an
inscription that has been brought into connection with Win-
chester (Winton). Here the inscription is not so clear as in
the British Museum example, figured, Catalogue, PI. 1, 3.
We find accordingly on the Crondall gold coins and their
affinities indications of two English mints and the name of a
moneyer, characteristics that connect the issues with the trientes
while they at the same time vindicate them as of insular origin.
In style no doubt these pieces are transitional between the
trientes and the sceattas, but they are by no means necessarily
so in time. There may be really early English pieces in the
Crondall find and among other examples in gold, but those
that have been noticed seem to proclaim by the appearance of
the cross that they are of VII origin.2 The question now to
be asked is : What is the probable date of the earliest silver
1 Vte de Ponton d'Amecourt in Num. Chron., N.S., xn, 80.
2 The caution given on the last page may however be borne in mind.
DATE OF THE FIRST SCEATTAS 75
sceattas, and how do they compare in point of time with these
gold pieces ?
There seems now to be no reason to doubt that real coins
intended for circulation were issued from Anglo-Saxon mints
in the course of VI. The old view that we cannot have
possessed a coinage before the advent of Augustine, or at
least the marriage of iEthelberht of Kent with the Frankish
Princess Berchta, has now been seriously impugned,1 and we
are enabled in this way to accord a natural meaning to an
important ancient document which has been subjected to a
rather forced interpretation. In the Laws of iEthelberht of
Kent, issued after his conversion, the amounts of fines payable
in connection with various offences are reckoned in ' shillings '
and ' sceattas.' These terms have been held to represent
mere ' money of account,' that is to express values but not to
imply the existence of actual coins. It has been suggested
more recently however that * shilling ' may have meant a real
solidus of gold and not merely its value, while Professor
Chad wick in his recent discussion of the Anglo-Saxon monetary
system states that ' there can be little doubt that in iEthelberht's
Laws at all events sceatt is used to denote a silver coin, in all
probability coins of the small and comparatively thick type to
which the name has been applied by numismatists.' 2 If the
silver sceattas were being coined VI while many at any rate
of the gold pieces just noticed were VII productions, a gold
coinage can hardly be said to have preceded in England a
silver one, though the gold coins may be nearer the ultimate
prototype of all our earliest coins, the Frankish trientes.
The study of the sceattas, in any case difficult owing to
their anonymous character, is complicated by the fact that
they are not only found in our own country but also in
considerable numbers in what is now Holland. In England,
1 H. M. Chadwick, Studies in Anglo-Saxon Institutions, Cambridge, 1905,
p. 60.
2 I.e., p. 8.
76 EARLY ANGLO-SAXON COINAGE
so far as the provenance of specimens is known, the currency
in question belonged to the southern and eastern parts of the
country, extending into the Mercian midlands and penetrat-
ing into Northumbria, where it was superseded by the
so-called ' styca ' series. The facts about the discovery of
sceattas in Holland have some significance.1 Three localities
have furnished them. One is the ancient Frisia, where on
three sites compact hoards of sceattas and sceattas alone have
come to light. In 1863 at Terwispel, a commune of Opster-
land in Friesland, 161 sceattas all of one single type were
found accompanied by an ingot of silver, one or two flat
pieces, and the silver mount of a jewel. At Hallum, north
of Leeuwarden, in 1866, 250 coins, seven-ninths of which
were of one type, were found in an urn and had all evidently
been freshly minted. At Franeker, two years later, 410
pieces also just fresh from the dies, and to the extent of
seven-eighths all of one type, were discovered lying together
as if they had been contained in some receptacle. The circum-
stances of these finds, the freshness of the pieces, and the fact
that so few types were represented, are all points of interest.
The other two localities are Wijk bij Duurstede, on a
branch of the Rhine near Utrecht, and the old seaport in
Zeeland, Domburg, on the north-west coast of Walcheren.
These were both localities of commercial importance and the
sceattas found there were accompanied by earlier Roman, by
Frankish, and by later Carolingian pieces. At Duurstede the
finds have been sporadic. At Domburg,2 where the sea has
encroached upon the land, there existed a large ancient ceme-
tery long ago submerged, and objects washed from the wooden
coffins, that seem to have been in habitual use, have come to
1 J. Dirks, 'De Angel-Sakscn en hunne oudste Munten (sceattas),' in
De Vrije Fries, xn, Leeuwarden, 1872.
2 Mejuffr. Marie de Man, ' Que sait-on de la plage de Domburg ? ' in
Tijdscbrift van bet Nederlandscb Genootscbap voor Munt- en Penningkunde,
Amsterdam, 1889.
ARE SCEATTAS OF ENGLISH ORIGIN ? 77
light at different dates from XVII to our own day. Among
these are numerous coins Roman and Frankish and also sceattas
in number as many as the Frankish pieces, which last were of
the silver mintage as well as of gold. The Domburg coins,
which exhibit great variety in types, are chiefly to be studied
in the collection of Mejuffr. de Man at Middelburg and in
the Museum there of the Zeeland Society, while the compact
hoards found in Friesland may be seen displayed in the fine
Museum of the Frisian Society at Leeuwarden. The pieces
discovered at Duurstede are scattered, but several are in the
Cabinet at the Hague.
The question at once arises whether the sceattas in general
are of British or continental origin, or were minted contem-
poraneously in both regions. In the case of the pennies and also
of the stycas no doubt as to their provenance is possible, for
they have on them the names of known English kings and of
moneyers whose appellations are with few exceptions Anglo-
Saxon in sound and spelling, while the accidental fact that the
pennies have been found in great numbers abroad, as in
Scandinavia and in Rome, is susceptible of easy explanation.
The sceattas on the other hand are mostly anonymous and
the devices on some of those found abroad seem to suggest
a continental origin rather than importation from England.
That specimens of the same currency should be found on both
sides of the North Sea is not in itself surprising, for good
harbours face each other on the opposite coasts, and Bede1
tells us of a Frisian engaged in buying and selling in London.
A close connection between the two regions, the historical
significance of which will be discussed later on, is attested by
the occurrence in Frisia, though not elsewhere on the Con-
tinent, of runic characters of a supposed specifically English
kind, a fact that has led runic scholars of to-day to make one
common Anglo-Frisian runic province. It is therefore a
simple and plausible hypothesis that both countries minted
1 Hist. Ecci., iv, 22.
78 EARLY ANGLO-SAXON COINAGE
contemporaneously these small pieces of silver and that their
commercial intercourse led to the adoption of a large number
of common types. Mr. Dirks imagined the owner of the
Terwispel hoard a trader who had recently supplied himself
with a stock of coins intended for use in trading between
Frisia and Britain, but he naively confessed his inability to
determine which country had actually supplied the money.
More recent investigations have however led to the general
conviction that, though there were doubtless Frisian mints,
yet the sceattas are essentially an Anglo-Saxon product, and in
the official catalogue 1 of the Frisian Museum all the finds at
Hallum, Franeker, and Terwispel are grouped under the single
heading ' In England gestagen munten. Sceattas (omstreks
600-760 n. C.).' The find-places of the English sceattas are
fairly distributed over the extensive region in which they
occur, while in Holland they are limited to one or two
spots favourably placed for commerce. The English coins
again exhibit more varied types and on the whole types that
are earlier in morphological development. They are also
more interesting artistically, and it is noteworthy that the one
particular type that is frequent in Holland while it hardly
makes its appearance among ourselves is a conventional device
of no artistic value. This is the so-called ' Sigillum Davidis,'
a device of two interlocked triangles, for a specimen of which
see the Frankish silver coin of triental form No. 13 on PI. 11.
This occurs on Dutch sceattas, as at Hallum and Franeker,
and is later on taken up and perpetuated in the Carolingian
penny series which everywhere superseded the sceattas. The
device occurred on an object in the famous Gallo- or, rather,
Franco-Roman tomb of about 400 opened at Vermand in the
Aisne district of France and described by M. Eck of
St. Quentin,2 and is found on a fine Carolingian gold ring in
1 Leeuwarden, 1909, p. 77.
2 Les deux Cimetieres gallo-romains de Vermand et de Saint-^uentin,
Paris, 1 89 1.
SCEATTAS ENGLISH AND DUTCH
All silver; enlarged about 2 diameters
VALUE OF INSCRIBED SCEATTAS 79
the museum at Zurich. It belongs apparently to this part
of Europe, but it does not occur in Anglo-Saxon ornamenta-
tion on the tomb furniture and only in one or two instances
on coins, as on a sceat that was a late addition to Mr. Carlyon-
Britton's collection and on a penny of Offa in the British
Museum. Its occurrence in Holland gives sceat fabrication
a local habitat in that country, for the sceattas found there
cannot in their entirety be an import from England as we do
not seem to have had any ' Sigillum Davidis ' coins to send
away.
There is a certain treatment of the animal form very
common in Holland and comparatively rare in Britain that
also seems a product of Frisian mints. This is noticed later
on (p. 91). On the other hand the occurrence on certain
sceattas of the name of London as a place of mintage, and on
certain others the names of known English kings such as
iEthelred of Mercia, establish without a question sceat pro-
duction in our own country, while the fact that ' London,'
* -ZEthelred,' and other certainly English coins are found on
the Dutch sites shows that importation from England did
actually take place. On the whole it will probably be quite
safe to postulate England as the real home of the sceat
currency while at the same time we allow a certain independ-
ence to Holland. In a letter to the writer a few months
before his death, Mr. Wigersma, the late custodian of the
coin cabinet at Leeuwarden, expressed his belief that many
sceattas with degraded types found in Holland had been
manufactured at Duurstede. PI. v, 10 shows an extraordin-
ary profile head that is of Dutch and not English character.
Illustrations of the inscribed sceattas may here be given as
some of them are valuable for dating. This is the case with
those sceattas, of which a fair number have been found both in
this country and in Holland, that bear in runic characters the
royal name ' iEthelred,' PI. iv, 1, 2. The known dates of
this Mercian king fix the mintage of the coins to the last
80 EARLY ANGLO-SAXON COINAGE
quarter of VII. Other sceattas are marked with the runic
letters equivalent to PADA, and these are claimed for Peada
son of the famous Penda of Mercia, whose date would be
about 656, see PI. iv, 3, 4. There are other inscriptions in
runic and in Latin characters on the sceattas that cannot be
connected with known persons and need not be enumerated
here, though the study of them possesses much fascination
for the numismatist. Among the inscribed coins those
marked with a form of the Latin name for London, PI. iv,
5, 6, 7, 8, are some of the first in the sceat series to which
attention is naturally directed. These coins possess the
remarkable technical peculiarity that nominally silver their
metal is so debased as to be little better than bronze. The
Hunterian specimen, PI. iv, 7, shows this clearly. This
same characteristic reappears in the later Northumbrian stycas
and in both cases it has been explained as a survival of a
Roman tradition. The Romans of the later empire coined
chiefly in gold and bronze, and the predilection for bronze
rather than the silver of old Teutonic tradition is supposed to
have lingered in highly Romanized centres such as London
and York. The significance of this numismatic fact in con-
nection with the position of London in early Anglo-Saxon
days will be noticed on a later page (p. 605). The London
coins cannot as a whole be placed very early, for the reverses
of the majority of them show a figure that holds two crosses
in his hands, PI. iv, 5, 7, 8. The example found at Hallum
in Friesland, PI. iv, 6, has a reverse that presents a very
' degraded,' and hence presumably late, form of its type, and
can hardly be an early coin. This question of date is further
discussed later on in this chapter (p. 1 10).
The criterion of comparative date here indicated is one
on which reliance is generally placed. A classical original
being assumed, it seems natural to regard copies which repro-
duce it with fair completeness as earlier in date than those in
which it appears in a very imperfect and blundered condition.
V
facing p. 8 1
THE FULL-FACED HEAD 81
This mode of argument from typology has been doubtless a
little overpressed, for it takes no account of the possibility of
variations due to differences in skill and practice among crafts-
men, and to their location at places near or remote from the
centres where art and learning were at each epoch chiefly
flourishing. It must also be remembered that Roman coins
might come freshly to light at any time and might be imitated
at quite a late period as well as at an early one. Bearing in
mind these cautions we may discuss from this point of view
some characteristic sceat types.
There has already been shown an excellent full face on a
Merovingian triens of Chalon, PL n, 3. One or two English
sceattas exhibit heads not very far below this standard. The
best is perhaps one in Lord Grantley's possession but the
one reproduced here in an enlarged form, PL v, 7, from
Mr. Carlyon-Britton's collection now dispersed, makes a good
second. The reverse, it will be noted, has a fairly consistent
quadruped. This head may be regarded as the parent of a
very large number of full faces on the sceattas at home and in
Holland, while the creature on the reverse may be adjudged,
though not without caveats, progenitor of a still more numer-
ous brood of vertebrates. There is a form of the full-faced
head represented on PI. v, 3, 5, in which we discern a bearded
countenance somewhat wild of aspect and with hair that some-
times starts up from the head. There is so much distinctive
character here that attempts have been made to see in it an
embodiment of the Teutonic conception of the national
deity Woden. The moustache is certainly a barbarian rather
than a classical feature and we may regard the device as a
Teutonizing in the bold original sceat fashion of the classical
Head of PI. v, 7. The treatment of the hair at the sides of
the head shows the connection of the pieces and the more far-
etched derivations may be set aside.1 The head in question
1 e.g. those of Mejuffr. de Man, and Mr. Wigersma, in Tijdscbrift van het
Ion. Ned. Genootschap voor Munt- en Penningkunde, Amsterdam, 1903 and 1907.
Ill F
82 EARLY ANGLO-SAXON COINAGE
is a stage in the evolution of a degraded type that occurs with
great frequency in Holland, PI. v, 9. Almost all these vary-
ing full-faced heads have reverses that are similarly related
and that in Holland consist in a spidery-looking creature of
which several examples are shown on the plates, see PL iv, 9,
PI. v, 9, PI. vii, 1,2. This animal, a degraded quadruped,
seems to be in its rendering rather Frisian than Anglo-Saxon,
for with us the treatment of similar types is artistically
different. This may be judged later on from examples that
will be subsequently discussed.
On PI. v in No. 7, the reverse of the good full-faced head,
it will be noted how very effectively as a matter of composi-
tion the crest of the creature sweeps round to cut the line of
the legs below, and do away with their one, two, three, four,
appearance, while the far hind-leg for the same motive but in
contradiction to what is natural is brought in front of the
curl. We may search the trientes and the Gallo-British coins
in vain for an artistic device so tactful. In Nos. 3, 5, the
quadruped has become decidedly thin and 'leggy,' and his
paws begin to resemble the claws of a bird.1 In No. 9 the
quadruped form is still discernible, but the creature is aptly
described by the name ' monster ' by which it is known in
Holland, where all the 161 sceattas found at Terwispel and
seven-ninths of the Hallum hoard of 250 were like No. 9.
There is no reason to seek for a Scandinavian or a Celtic
origin for this type from bracteates or coins. It descends
clearly enough from No. 7, and still keeps a portion of the
long curved crest. It is another question what can be the
origin of PI. v, No. 7. No Roman coin which is obviously
its prototype is known and it may be an original creation of
the Anglo-Saxon designer. Too narrow a search into external
sources for the varying animal devices on the sceattas is a
1 There may be some doubt as to the kinship of the animals which have
the heads down with those with the heads turned back, but the obverses are
the same, and serve to connect them.
THE FANTASTIC ANIMAL 83
waste of time. Given the quickness of fancy of which sceat
designers must certainly have been possessed these bewildering
changes are quite natural. The creature turns his head over
his back, in Nos. 7, 9, not through imitation of a bracteate,
but because his forebears have been taught to do so ever since
an engraver of a gem or a coin-die in the ancient world first
made them stand within a circular field. It is a clear case of
Darwinian adaptation of an organism to its environment.
He is fantastic, not because he apes similar weird beings on
Gallic coins, but because he represents in his own person the
same artistic process that went on in the case of the earlier
pieces where we find his counterparts. He begins as they
began with being a rational quadruped with four legs and tail
and other members of modest proportions and normal adjust-
ment. If in the course of time he is reduced to such
anatomical disarray that only Dr. Bernhard Salin can tell
whether a leg is an ear or a tongue a tail, this is due to the
waywardness of the artist's creative fancy and not to any
prosaic tutelage from without.
The same fanciful creature still more degraded appears in
PI. iv, 9, a Hallum piece at Leeuwarden, where the single
foreleg, which is still a leg in PI. v, 9, is now lifted up and
used like an arm. The obverse type here is no longer the
full-face head but a rather bold though rude profile, with an
indication of a front view of the shoulders. This introduces
us to the profile type which we have already seen in a debased
form on the ' London ' coins, and more classically designed on
1 the Crondall pieces, PL in, 6, 7, 8. No sceat profile is so
: well executed as the Chalon obverse in the triens series shown
PI. 11, 2, and it is not often that we find one equal to the
Crondall example, PI. in, 6. This however, as the cross on
the reverse suggests, may be after 600, and sceattas of VI
would on the principle of the gradual degradation of designs be
more classical still. Fairly wrought profiles occur with reverse
types that may be early. One in the Hunterian collection
84 EARLY ANGLO-SAXON COINAGE
at Glasgow, PI. iv, 10, similar to No. 5 on PI. 1 of the
British Museum Catalogue, carries in front of the face the enig-
matical letters TIC and bears on the reverse in an early form
the very familiar ' standard ' type. This may be derived from
such a Roman coin as that given No. i' on PI. 1, where a
military standard exhibits the letters VOT with two crosses
below. Among the Crondall pieces are one or two which show
this device apparently (from the obverse) imitated from a
copper coin of Licinius.1 These, which are independent of
the Frankish trientes, may be VI productions, and the sceat
PI. iv, 10, might be equally early. There are coins like this
in several collections, with a neat and well-formed ' standard '
reverse, the style and execution of which would point to VI.
On the other hand this same ' standard ' type occurs in such
blundered forms and with such late obverses that in itself it
cannot be held a mark of early date. Fairly wrought profile
heads occur on coins of various epochs and these too cannot
in themselves be taken as evidence of date. Mejuffr. de Man
has a particularly good one, PI. iv, 11, that occurs with the
Merovingian reverse of a bird on the top of a cross, reckoned
as later than 600, and it is an interesting fact that only the
other day a coin, so like this that one would think it must have
been struck by the same moneyer, came to light in the grave
of an Anglo-Saxon at Broadstairs, PI. iv, 12. The conjunction
is a striking proof of the commercial intercourse across the
North Sea. The well-designed head on PL iv, 3 occurs with
a reverse with the PADA legend in runes which is fixed to
about 656. The profile heads on the earliest pennies are of
course still later, and are of special merit, though they must
have been executed by the same class of Anglo-Saxon workmen
that were busy on the later sceattas.
Without entering further into questions of chronology a
word may be said about an interesting series of profiles in
which the figure is holding something in his hand. This is
1 British Museum Catalogue, 1, xiii.
SCEATTAS ENGLISH AND DUTCH
All silver, enlarged from i^ to z\ diameters
PROFILE HEADS 85
sometimes a cross, but is also commonly a cup, and occasion-
ally a bird. PI. vi, Nos. 1 to 7 give specimens. Noteworthy
in several of these is the arrangement of the hair. The
starting point is no doubt the Roman fillet, as in PI. 1, 2, and
this is still apparent in PI. vi, 3. In the other examples
shown, PI. vi, 1, 4, 6, the artist has played with the ends of
the band and tied them in picturesque knots, so that the pieces
are said by Mr. Keary to have 'hair and dress of Saxon
character.'1 There is undoubtedly an originality about the
treatment that makes these heads easily distinguishable from
anything in the Frankish series, and the feeling for knot-work
is significant of the Anglo-Saxon artistic tendencies at the
time. Their reverses are in some respects of much interest.
Some particularly spirited animal designs, given on PI. viii
(p. 99), occur with these heads, and if the heads seem speci-
ally Anglo-Saxon so, as we shall see, do the animals. Other
reverses however occur with these same heads, as for example
PI. vi, 1. Some of these reverses may be taken in connection
with those of the ' London ' coins on the former plate, and
with some other obverse and reverse types given in the lowest
line of this same PI. iv. In the ' Londons ' a standing figure 2
holding a long-stemmed cross in each hand is supported on
some object of curved form, while in the case of several of the
heads now under notice, PI. vi, 1, 2, the same figure holds on
the reverse a cross in one hand and a bird in the other. The
latter, a good specimen from Domburg in the de Man collec-
tion, shows the curved object very distinctly in a form
resembling a boat, while this resemblance appears still more
clearly in Lord Grantley's fine coin PI. vi, 7, where one seems
to have a view in perspective into the boat. This makes more
reasonable than would appear at first the suggestion which was
once made that the figure represented the earliest Christian
1 British Museum Catalogue, 1, 12.
2 Described in the British Museum Catalogue, 1, iof., as * helmeted,' but
on this see postea p. 88.
86 EARLY ANGLO-SAXON COINAGE
missionary sailing over the North Sea to convert the pagans !
One reverse, PI. iv, 16, offers this same figure equipped with
a very aggressive pair of moustaches. No. 1 5 on PL iv, with
the cross and bird, has the peculiarity that he is seated in a
chair, on which he turns with a gesture reminiscent of the
antique. No. 14, next to this, shows two standing figures
holding one long cross between them, a type somewhat
resembling one on a Frankish silver coin shown PL 11, 11.
Lastly No. 13 on PL iv gives a device resembling the * Victory '
common on the Merovingian trientes of VI. About some of
these reverses, e.g. No. 1 5, PL iv, there is a certain delicacy
of execution worthy of notice. The bird in No. 1, PL vi is
charmingly wrought.
Some attention has now been paid to various types of heads
that appear on the sceattas, and with these have been noticed
some of the reverse types that accompany them. The relations
between obverse and reverse types on the sceattas are irregular.
A large number of examples may agree in showing the same
devices, but then another example may come to light that with
a similar obverse or reverse to all the others has a totally
different type upon the other side. This is the case for
example with the moustached figure with the two crosses,
PL iv, 16, the obverse of which is quite different from the pro-
file heads, with which the standing figure is generally associated.
In sceat study the relations of obverse and reverse must always
be taken account of, and the possession of a common reverse
may furnish an argument for the connection of two obverse
types which otherwise might be treated as distinct. To
exhibit a different reverse on the other hand does not remove
one of a set of obverses out of its apparent relation to its
fellows.
A notice of a particularly interesting sceat type that
stands somewhat apart may here be introduced. This is the
female centaur, which occurs twice in the British Museum, at
the Hague, in the Hunterian collection and in the former
THE FEMALE CENTAUR 87
collection of Mr. Carlyon-Britton, and no doubt elsewhere.
In all these five cases it is associated with the same fanciful
reverse, belonging to a series of devices on which something
will have to be said, and this fact may suggest that it was the
product of a single mint. This device on the other side is
shown in connection with the Hague example PI. vi, 9. It
represents its original motive in an advanced stage of morpho-
logical change (p. 100 f.), whether we envisage such change as
degradation or evolution, and may accordingly be so late in
the sceat period as to show the influence of the Carolingian
Renaissance. The type of the female centaur is of course
familiar in classical art. Introduced it seems by the painter
Zeuxis, the motive occurs in Pompeian wall decoration, and it
is interesting also to find it on a piece of Roman silver work
in the form of a cup ornamented with repousse designs found
at Bernay in Normandy and now in the Louvre. This shows
that the type was known in this part of Europe, and the
Bernay cup may actually have furnished the model. From
the Carolingian epoch we possess a poem by the famous
Theodulf, made bishop of Orleans in 78 1,1 the ' Pindar ' of
the Aachen literary coterie, in which he describes an antique
silver cup on which was represented the Centaur Nessus,
though not necessarily any lady relative. In the British
Museum Catalogue the creature is described as winged, but a
comparison of examples seems to show that it brandishes in
both hands branches of trees, a favourite occupation of the
Centaurs, though not perhaps of the female members of their
community. The head is always shown in profile to the
right, the hair appears to be long and flowing, and there is a
magnificent tail. The Hunterian specimen is on the whole
the best and is given in No. 1 1 on PI. vi, Mr. Carlyon-
Britton's, which gives the head and arms, is No. 10, while
one of those in the national collection is added for comparison
in No. 8, and the Hague specimen in No. 9, with obverse
1 Carm. 28, v. 179 f.
88 EARLY ANGLO-SAXON COINAGE
and reverse. It should be noted that this reverse type occurs
in all the examples.
It was noted above x that the standing figure with the two
crosses or cross and bird is described as ' helmeted.' The
head-piece in the centaur coin looks very like this same
helmet of the standing figures, but the artist of PI. vi, 8, who
is fully convinced of the femininity of his model, would not
have crowned her with a casque. A comparison of Nos. i to 6
on PL vi will probably convince the observer that this is
only a conventional rendering of the nose and the hair which,
distinct in No. 3, are run together in No. 4 and are reduced
to a single conventionalized feature in the reverse of No. 1
and the rest of the series.
It will be convenient to notice here one or two types of a
miscellaneous kind which serve to show the great variety that
exists in sceat devices, and which in some cases will be useful
later on in connection with the designs on other artistic
objects of the period. The remainder of PL vi is occupied
with these, and they may have a passing word before we go on
to examine the treatment of certain special animal forms on
the sceattas wherein as we shall see their chief interest and
value consist. The coin given in No. 12 passed from the
Montague collection to the British Museum since the publica-
tion of the Catalogue to which reference has so often been
made. The obverse shows a profile head with uplifted hand
rendered in a remarkable fashion with a tall cross apparently
lying across the palm. The hand appears on Merovingian
trientes at Clermont and elsewhere. The reverse is sui generis
in so far as no similar device is known. At first sight it
looks like a rather careful representation of some definite
object triangular in plan, but this appearance is probably
deceptive and the type may be simply a result of degradation.
The two crosses below appear in the same position in some
versions of the well-known * standard ' type, and the three
1 ante, p. 85, note.
SCEATTAS, AND A ROMAN PROTOTYPE
Silver, enlarged 2 to 2^ diameters
SOME SPECIAL DEVICES 89
dots in the angle formed by two sweeping lines above can be
seen on the particularly good example of the device in the
British Museum given PI. vi, 21. The three pellets in the
design under review have been brought into connection with
the three heads, of two Emperors with a Victory above, on a
familiar Roman reverse shown PI. 1, 1' . In any case how-
ever, the motive may be taken as evidence that the Anglo-
Saxon designer liked to work towards some more or less
definite form, and was not satisfied, like his Gallic predecessor,
with the mere 'disjecta membra' of older types. No. 13
gives us a minute full face in the centre of the field surrounded
with ten little bosses each within a ring. This reminds us a
little of designs that occur in the tomb furniture of the period
(p. 324). No. 14 shows on the obverse a full-face bust with
hair on both sides treated after the fashion of the profiles
higher up on the same plate, and on the reverse a device of
interlacing lines not unlike what we have already seen on one
of the Merovingian pieces, PL n, 10. On No. 15 are four
Latin crosses, each in a quadrant of a square. No. 16 shows
a motive which occurs far more often on the Continent than
among ourselves, and resembles in this the kindred pattern
already noticed under the name * Sigillum Davidis ' and shown
in No. 13 on PI. 11. In No. 17 we are disposed to see a
modification of the ' step pattern,' so familiar in the design of
the cloisons in inlaid Kentish jewellery, as seen for example on
the frontispiece and occurring also on a unique ornament at
Devizes (p. 425). No. 1 8 is regarded as a cross of the so-called
1 Maltese ' type with the spaces between the arms filled in
with rosettes. No. 1 9 shows on the obverse two profile heads
facing, with between them a cross that ends below in three
prongs like a trident. This suggests a portable wooden cross
that might be carried in procession and set up where required.
Readers of Bede will recognize such an object as one well
known at the time. There is a Hunterian specimen of the
same type that shows the continuous stem quite distinctly.
9o EARLY ANGLO-SAXON COINAGE
The reverse has something of the appearance of an open rose,
but is made up of four birds each perched on the end of one
arm of a central Greek cross. Lastly, No. 20, formerly in the
Carlyon-Britton collection (see also British Museum Catalogue,
PL iv, No. 1), shows in the centre a bird standing on and
surrounded by objects the interpretation of which is not clear.
There is something which resembles a bent pin with a round
head and a point that is enclosed in a double row of pellets.
A torque or bracelet of some kind has been suggested.
The most important branch of sceat study from the
artistic standpoint is that on which we now enter, as we pro-
ceed to examine the varied and interesting types in which the
animal form, naturalistically treated or disguised, is the pre-
dominant feature.
One animal form has already been noticed, the quadruped
of PL v, 3, 5, 7, which we see on the plate changing from
a more or less normal creature to the monster of No. 9,
that appears on numberless examples especially in Holland.
The two similar reverses, PL vn, 1, 2, were aptly cited by
Mr. Wigersma as illustrating the degradation of a type.
He believed that No. 2 was a blundered copy of No. 1 . The
latter is sharp and clear in its delineation, with the eye well
made out and tail, crest, and dewlap finished off with round
knobs. In No. 2 the beast looks the other way, to the right
instead of the left, and this is just what would happen if a coin
like No. 1 were being copied in intaglio to make a new die.
When the die was used for stamping, the impression would of
course be in relief and would be reversed. The copy was
evidently made by a comparatively inexpert artist. It is pro-
posed here to regard all the fantastic creatures of the so-called
' Wodan-Monster ' type x so common in Holland as descended
through forms like PL v, 3, 5, from PL v, 7, a creature that
from the form of his jaws appears to represent a wolf.
1 This is the type with a full-face head on one side and a debased animal
form on the other, see PI. v, 9.
THE BIRD FORM 91
These jaws and the general form of the beast affiliate with
the reverses of the c Wodan- Monster ' type some English
pieces of which the British Museum coin, PI. vn, 4, may
serve as a specimen. He has the turned back head and the
single leg of the monster on the Dutch coin, PI. iv, 9, but the
jaws carry him back nearer to the original of PI. v, 7. Is it
going too far to see in this rendering, PI. vn, 4, and similar
pieces, English work, while the * monsters ' generally, as in
PI. iv, 9, PI. v, 9, PI. vn, 1, 2, are of Frisian fabrication?
The British Museum pieces, for there are several there, and
similar coins such as were in Mr. Carlyon-Britton's collection,
seem more massive in their forms and modelled with more
plastic feeling than the thin and scraggy atomies that spread
their spidery limbs over the coins with the full-faced c Wodan '
head, of which more than 350 examples were found at
Terwispel and Hallum alone. The full-faced head, PI. v, 9,
in the form in which it occurs with these reverses in Holland,
is not common in our native collections, and it is quite
possible that these coins were made on the other side of the
North Sea.
As in a way intermediate between the quadruped proper
and the bird, there may be noticed one or two griffins as sceat
types. The best is on an unpublished ' Montague ' coin in
Lord Grantley's collection, and the two shown in PI. vn, 3, 5,
are in the British Museum. The obverse of one gives us a
bird in an upright perky attitude and of a slender build, a
type which will meet us again later on in another connection
(p. 105). The bird type generally on the sceattas may have a
word. A bird perched on the top of a cross has already
occurred as the reverse of coins with well-designed heads in
Nos. 1 1, 12 on PI. iv. The type occurs on a triens of Laon,
Prou, Catalogue, PI. xvn, No. 19, see PI. 11, 9 (p. 65), and on
this M. Prou asks the question 1 : ' Serait-ce a une monnaie de
Marc-Antoine qu'un monetaire de Laon aurait emprunte une
1 I.e., p. xcv.
92 EARLY ANGLO-SAXON COINAGE
aigle legionnaire,' implying in his opinion a possible early-
date for the piece. The bird thus used does not seem to
suffer any transformations on the sceattas. It is the same
creature which multiplied by four makes the rose-like pattern
on the reverse of No. 19 on PI. vi. A natural bird, often
very happily treated, is held falcon-like on the wrist of the
standing or seated figure with the long cross, and appears in
front of some of the Anglo-Saxon profile heads, of which there
has been question on a previous page, see PI. vi, I, 5.1
A far more important bird form, for which the proto-
type is also to be found among the trientes, has been already
given in Nos. 1, 4, 8, on PI. v and is shown here in another
example from the Evans collection, PI. vn, 6'.
A bird is seen pecking at a bunch of grapes, for it is
certainly the vine which is represented not, as Mr. Keary
suggested, an ear of corn. No normal corn stem gives off
branches. The suggestion for the design may very well have
been furnished by the beautiful trientes of Cahors, by far the
most artistically pleasing of all those figured in M. Prou's
Catalogue, where they are numbered 1921 and 1922 ; these
were given PI. 11, 6, 7 (p. 65). Here in one case a single bird
and in the other a pair of them is shown contemplating, but
not actually biting at, a vine. The birds are seen from the
back and turn their heads to the side. The bird on the second
Cahors coin, PI. 11, 7, is very well made out and serves to
explain the less naturalistic Anglo-Saxon rendering, where, as
in the unpublished British Museum example, PI. v, 8, the
upper parts of the two wings are seen like shoulders, while
there is some pretence at feathering along the tail. In some
of our native examples however, as is well seen in the
Evans specimen, PI. vn, 6', the creature is opening its beak
to the extreme limit as if to take in a whole bunch of
1 This is of some importance in relation to the question of the history of
falconry in England that emerges in connection with the ' falconer ' on the
Bewcastle Cross.
THE BIRD PECKING AT GRAPES 93
grapes at a mouthful, a significant mark of the Anglo-Saxon
artist's vigour in design. On the other hand, as showing the
feeling for variety in the treatment of these common types
in individual renderings, we note that Lord Grantley's bird,
No. 1, PL v, seems to have delicately picked off a single
grape in the dainty avian fashion.
Let us consider the pieces first of all from the artistic
side. Note how effectively the two vine stems with their
curved lines enclose the long oval of the bird and give it a
just relation to the circular field of the coin, and how boldly
the firm straight legs of the animal cross and oppose these
curves, and end in the three emphatic talons, which in PI. v,
1, 8, have an indication of the joint where the actual claw
issues from its sheath. In its style and distinction the
design will compare favourably with the best coin types
known to numismatists, though of course the work is very
sketchy. As regards the motive, the bird pecking at the
vine is a familiar Early Christian device and has a distinctly
religious significance. We shall meet with it often on the
carved stones of the Anglo-Saxon period. It is however in
its origin pre-Christian, as will be seen when the motive is
discussed on a later page, and it might quite easily be adopted
by a pagan designer in this country from a Frankish coin or
other object, without any other than an artistic significance.
Hence the pieces with this type might well be of VI origin.
They are not common, and the writer has met with no
example on the Continent. Lord Grantley has several, there
are two in the British Museum, a well-preserved one in Sir
Arthur Evans' collection at Youlbury, PI. vu, 6, and one in
the Hunterian collection.
The reverse1 though not so interesting as a piece of art is
1 In the British Museum Catalogue the wolf and twins are regarded as
the obverse type, but on the Roman coins from which this device comes it is
always a reverse, and appears later on in the Anglo-Saxon penny series, as a
reverse type, PI. vm, 18,
94 EARLY ANGLO-SAXON COINAGE
historically of greater importance than the beautiful main
type. It gives us the twins Romulus and Remus suckled by
the she-wolf, a device that occurs elsewhere in Anglo-Saxon
art as on the ' Franks ' casket in the British Museum. Roman
coins often show it, and one of the best of these, a fine coin of
Carausius, found at Bampton in Oxfordshire and in Sir Arthur
Evans' possession at Youlbury, is given PI. vil, 7. (The
original is perfect, the photograph is defective on one side.)
When compared with the Youlbury sceat reverse, No. 6, the
likeness is unmistakable. The thighs, tail, udder, forelegs,
and head with pronounced ears turned round towards the
children, are easily to be recognized, and the legs though not
the arms of the twins are in evidence. The body of the beast
however has lost substance and becomes little more than a
series of parallel strokes that imitate the fell, which is clearly
indicated on the Roman examples of the type, such as that
shown, PI. vii r, 2 1 (p. 99). The twins on PL v are not so well
made out, but in all cases the rendering of the Roman original
is close enough for us to regard the pieces as typologically
early. It may be objected to this that a much later rendering
of the same classical original, on a coin of iEthelberht of East
Anglia who was killed by OfFa of Mercia in 794, see PL viii, 1 8,
is far more exact and workmanlike than any of these sceat
reverses. This may be seen by comparing it with a Roman
original as they both appear on PL viii, 18, 21. There is
however a good reason for the excellence of this remarkable
penny. It is to be regarded as a striking proof of the influence
on the England of that day of the Carolingian renaissance,
and as representing a careful and conscientious study of the
antique, such as we find evidenced in other works of the time.
In VI or VII Roman models were taken unconsciously as a
matter of course, and while the first reproductions would be
fairly close there would be no scholarly esprit de corps, such as
existed at periods of classical renaissance, which would call the
artist back to his duty when he began to deviate fancifully
THE LIFE HISTORY OF A TYPE 95
from his pattern. Hence a process of * degradation ' in the
handling of the type would go on unchecked, and it might
either be broken up into meaningless elements as in the case of
the Gallic coins on PI. 11, or manipulated to new and unex-
pected results as by the constructive fancy of the Anglo-Saxon
artists. Hence we may safely assume that the typological
changes which transformed the original wolf and twins to
something quite different follow each other on the whole in
order of time, and there was no temporary recovery which
might result in a rendering near to the original occurring at a
comparatively advanced date. Hence the reverse as well as
the obverse of these coins may very well be VI work.
Sundry later or ' degraded ' devices may be affiliated to the
wolf and twins along at least two lines. In the one case the
descent can be traced with practical certainty but in the other
we have to take a decided jump and be as satisfied as we can
with a plausible hypothesis in place of demonstration. The
latter case may be taken first.
No sceat type is more common, especially in Holland, than
the one already shown PI. iv, 1, 2, 6. It exhibits disposed
across the field — whether horizontally or vertically depends
on the theory we take of its origin — a curved form, that in
many examples is more plump and cushion-like than in the
examples just quoted, from the extrados of which a series of
spines start up like the quills of a porcupine. Within the
curve are commonly certain strokes or dots or nondescript
forms dotted irregularly over the space. Sir John Evans took
the view that the device was a degradation of the profile head
so common on the coins and this is also the view of Mr. Keary
in the British Museum Catalogue1 of the Anglo-Saxon coins.
On this theory the curved form should of course be disposed
vertically. The chief objection to this, probably now the
general English theory, is that it is difficult to see how the
earlier stages in this complete transformation were accom-
1 Vol. 1, p. 7.
96 EARLY ANGLO-SAXON COINAGE
plished in view of the constant production during all the time
of real profile heads, the tradition of which never dies out.
One can hardly imagine one moneyer or one set of moneyers
gradually effacing in their heads all resemblance to the human
profile while the face was being intelligibly rendered by their
colleagues all about them. A certain restraining force must
one would think have been at work which would militate
against the supposed process. Indeed the coin which to the
eyes of the writer seems most like a degenerate head, see
PI. vn, 1 6, a Middelburg specimen, has actually on the other
side of it a real though clumsily rendered head in profile.
Some Dutch numismatists think that such examples tell fatally
against the * head ' derivation, on the ground that no moneyer
would use on the same coin a degraded and a naturalistic form
of the same type.
The other theory was enunciated by Mr. Dirks in his
epoch-making paper on the Frisian finds,1 and has been
generally held in Holland. It derives the device in question
from the she-wolf of the reverse now before us, and in agree-
ment with this the Dutch numismatist published these coins
with the curved form horizontally disposed and called the
type * Wolvin.' In favour of this view are the facts (i) that
the she-wolf in its proper shape is rare on the sceattas and
would not have acted with the restraining force just accredited
to the profile heads, (2) that the erect spines do occur as we
shall see on the backs of creatures that certainly descend from
a she-wolf mother, and (3) that at least one intermediate piece
can be produced which seems to show the process of degradation
actually going on. Reserving the second point for future
elucidation, we may enforce the third by the example shown
in No. 9 on PL vn, a sceat in the Museum at Middelburg,
whereon, unless the forms have come together by some curious
accident, we seem to see the wolf and twins actually in process
of disintegration. The body of the creature and the bristles
1 De Vrije Fries, twaalfde deel, Leeuwardcn, 1872.
TRANSFORMATION OF A TYPE
97
on her back, which can be seen in examples of the genuine
type such as PI. v, 8, appear in PI. vn, 9, though the bristles
are more accentuated and start from round dots instead of only
ending in these as in No. 8 on PI. v. The two dots joined by
short lines meeting at an angle seen at the right in PI. vn, 9,
may be explained by the similar dots indicating the head of
the beast, as in No. 4 on PI. v. The children's heads and
arms seem unmistakable, and if it be objected that arms do
not appear on the four sceat reverses, they may be seen fully
in evidence on the Roman prototype, PI. vu, 7. There are
enough bent lines below in PI. vu, 9 to stand for the legs
of the twins and to leave some over for those of their foster
mother.
This question however of the ultimate origin of the con-
ventional device under analysis may be left uncertain while
attention is now paid to the curious modifications which the
device suffers, in the course of which it is carried further and
further away from its primal shape whether that were profile
head or she- wolf body.
These modifications are illustrated on the lower part of
PI. vu, Nos. 10 to 20. They are grouped, it must be ex-
plained, in an arbitrary order and the simplest, No. 10,
from the de Man collection, has been taken as the starting
point. Here the curved piece is almost perfectly symmetrical
but in No. 1 1 it has as it were a head and tail. The former
in Nos. 12, 13 is cut off from the body by a sort of neck
ornament. In the last piece on this line the strokes within the
curve, so regular in the first three, are now tumbled about
anyhow, and soon, in No. 14, they are coming together in the
form of a triangle, and this triangle, in No. 15, is attached to
the end of the curved form like a head, while in No. 16 it is
provided with an eye, which appears in the form of a circle.
This is the Middelburg example already noticed for its
resemblance to a degraded form of the profile head. To
bring this out more clearly the curved form is placed in a
HI G
98 EARLY ANGLO-SAXON COINAGE
vertical position. The significance of the type on the other side
of the coin has just been noted (p. 96). No. 1 on PI. iv (p. 79)
shows a variation in that there is no triangle, but the plain
head of PI. vu, 12, 13, is forked as if to suggest open jaws.
PI. vu, 17, gives a coin at Middelburg that is too much
damaged to admit of an assured reading, but, if at the end
opposite to the triangular head we can discern a leg like that
of a bird ending in a claw, we see the beginning of a feature
that in other examples comes fully into evidence. No. 18
presents us with a fully formed bird with head up, the spines
being treated like the feathers of a wing, and finally Nos. 19,
20, give us a completely formed bird with all its parts, a new
type that has been evolved before our eyes from the wrecks
of some former representation.
The scheme here followed has been already acknowledged
to be an arbitrary one, and it may be regarded at best as a
harmless play of fancy for the reason that it can legitimately
be argued that No. 10 may just as well be a simplification of
an earlier form, say Nos. 14 or 15, as a stage in its evolution.
To set against this is the fact that the triangle, and also the
forked end, are late and are found with obverses of iEthelred
dating from the last quarter of VII, PI. iv, 1, 2. The other
side of No. 17, at Middelburg, exhibits an utterly inchoate
reminiscence of the ' standard ' type that must be very late.
On the whole perhaps a derivation from the she-wolf is the
more probable, and it may be claimed as a point in favour of
this that No. 9 on PI. vu, which has been adduced as an inter-
mediate stage, possesses the ' standard ' for its reverse, which
is normal for the numerous Frisian examples of this group,
PI. vu, 10 to 20. One obverse in the Hunterian, PI. vu, 8,
has also a reveise with the 'standard' type, and gives us a
design that has a bearing on this question of derivation.
There is no doubt that we have here a degraded form of a
wolf or other quadruped similar to No. 7 on PI. v. The jaws
show this, and the loss of the legs will not surprise us when
ENGLISH SCEAT COINS WITH ARTISTIC TYPES
Silver, enlarged about 2 diameters
CHANGES IN THE SHE-WOLF TYPE 99
we have gone over the next series of types presently to be
examined. The body of this creature gives us the curved
form already discussed and the spines upon its back start from
round dots as the spines do in PI. vn, 10 to 20. If the head
were dropped off the remainder would correspond with the
curved form and spines of PI. vn, 10 to 15.
There now offers itself for consideration an interesting
series of devices derived from the she-wolf through gradations
that can clearly be traced, in the course of which the animal
form passes through extraordinary morphological changes.
On following these one is astonished and delighted at the
exuberant fancy of the designer, and the decision with which
he gives accent to the picturesque features that evolve them-
selves successively through the transformations. To vindicate
for the Anglo-Saxon artist of VII and VIII a reputation for
vigour and originality nothing is needed but a study of these
sceat types in which the wolf starts with his normal anatomy
and proportions but ends as a mere elongated ' Wurm,' still
armed however as a rule with a head of full vulpine ferocity.
The affiliation of the types is in this case not an arbitrary
matter for we possess here, what is lacking to the set of types
last considered, an assured starting point.
This starting point is found in a rendering of the she-wolf
represented by such an example as No. 6 on PI. vu, where the
animal has an elongated body with hardly any substance in it
and a head bent down and looking inwards. No. 1 on PI. vin
is clearly derived from a quadruped of this kind, though it is
open to question whether there is a direct derivation from
any of the she-wolves with twins that we happen to possess.
In the examples of the latter that have been before us the
creature's head is seen from above, not in profile as in
PI. vin, 1, and the latter head with its pronounced front
teeth and long tongue is a novelty. Nevertheless the deriva-
tion from a vulpine quadruped with head bent down is quite
unmistakable, and the hind-legs of PI. vin, 1, are very like
ioo EARLY ANGLO-SAXON COINAGE
those of the wolf in PI. vn, 6. The design of PL vm, I, is an
excellent one, with the masses well distributed, and character-
istic points of the model boldly emphasized, and it is one of
the best of the sceat series. In No. 2, a worn example in the
British Museum, where the collection is particularly strong in
these types, the hind-legs have practically disappeared, and in
Mr. Carlyon-Britton's coin, No. 3, both sets of legs have
gone, though the body with upright spines still endures. It
may be noted as differentiating these coins from the series in
the lower half of PL vu that here the spines end in round
knobs while there, on PI. vu, they begin with them. In
PL vm, 4, from the same collection as the last, the body is
reduced to a series of round pellets, the head being all the
time carefully preserved and even improved. No. 5, another
admirable device very crisply and daintily executed, has added
to the main type of No. 4 a second lacertine animal curl-
ing round the first with a head of its own kind, which is
of special interest because it resembles one on a piece of
remarkably excellent gold work noticed later on (p. 311). In
No. 6, a clumsier piece of work, two creatures like the last
but with heads not so definitely wolfish are coiled together
in the midst. No. 8 gives us the head alone and may be
regarded as one of the chefs-d'oeuvre of the Anglo-Saxon
designer. It has some of the qualities of a fine early Baby-
lonian seal in its force and accent, and is masterly in composi-
tion. The two devices on each side of this on the plate
illustrate a tendency which is to be observed in other groups
of sceattas, that towards a rotary effect. PI. vm shows us
three motives treated in this revolving fashion, one, the wolf-
head motive with the protruding tongue ; two, the bird
motive, and three, a foliage motive which is of the highest
interest. In No. 7 three wolf heads, and in No. 9 four,
are arranged like a wheel around a central boss, the type
of countenance closely resembling that in No. 1. Between
No. 9 and the following types there is a lacuna. A gradual
FOLIAGE ORNAMENT 101
degeneration of the vulpine whorl to a mere play of radiating
lines is conceivable, and from this might be gradually evolved
a bird, somewhat after the fashion of the types in the lower
part of PI. vn, but the writer has not found any sceattas
which bear this out. At any rate Nos. n and 12 are nonde-
script radiating forms with birds' legs attached, while in No. 10
the bird form is more or less clearly made out, the rotary
feeling still being in evidence. No. 10 exhibits a motive,
carried further in No. 14, that combines with the bird form
foliage, of which we have already seen examples in the bird
pecking at the grapes and the Cahors trientes. The fifth line
of PI. viii gives us in No. 14 a rather elegant bird, built on
rotary lines and far less naturalistic than the bird with the
grapes of Plates v and vn, but agreeing with the latter in
pecking at berries or fruit. There is no suggestion of the
vine, but the waving bough is treated with a good deal of
natural feeling. In Nos. 13 and 15 the animal form is absent
and a foliage scroll occupies the field. This is treated in a
fresh and original fashion and is of much interest, especially in
connection with the use of foliage on carved stones of the
Anglo-Saxon period, such as the Bewcastle Cross. It has no
resemblance to any form of the classical acanthus nor to the
vine scrolls so common in Early Christian art, but may be
compared with the foliage sprays that occur here and there in
the Book of Kells, which will be noticed in a forthcoming
volume. In both cases the floral scrolls are not naturalistic,
in that no special flower or leaf seems to have been copied,
but the grace and waywardness of growing tendrils have
been noticed by the artist and are rendered with a dainty
touch.
This quality is still more apparent in a set of sceattas, best
represented in the Hunterian collection at Glasgow, in which
foliage is introduced in a very artistic manner in connection
with the human figure and quadrupeds. No. 16 on PI. vm
is a very remarkable Youlbury coin in which the standing
102 EARLY ANGLO-SAXON COINAGE
figure in the boat has dropped his two crosses and taken up
instead a couple of tall stems of some flowering plant. This
makes a much prettier device than the orthodox arrangement,
and we may credit the Anglo-Saxon designer with some bold-
ness in discarding the well-established Christian symbol in
favour of a natural object that struck his fancy, and Lelewel
might have quoted the piece in support of his contention that
relics of paganism cling to the sceattas all through their
history.1 The Hunterian pieces PI. vm, 17, 19 and that in
the Bodleian, No. 20, exhibit quadrupeds with which the same
flowering stems are effectively composed.
There remain two questions on which a word must be
said. One is that of the chronology of the sceat issues, and
the other is the question of the relation of sceat designs to the
ornamental work on other contemporary objects of Anglo-
Saxon manufacture. These two questions are so far connected
that the tomb furniture, which can in so many cases be
approximately dated, might be expected to throw a welcome
light on the chronology of the sceattas. It happens however
that the relation between the tomb furniture and the coins is
such a distant one that this expectation can only be fulfilled in
the most partial manner. Points of contact between the two
sets of designs are as a matter of fact very hard to find, and
it is as much as we can do to believe that the creators of the
two sets were contemporaries and fellow-countrymen, the old
idea that they were the same people being obviously no longer
tenable. For example, in the tomb furniture it is the rarest
thing to find a trace of floral ornament, whereas the sceattas
on the lower half of PI. vm exhibit foliage treated with no
little freedom and grace. The human figure, or portions of
it, can be just recognized on some pieces of decorative work
from the cemeteries that are however so few in number that
1 'Les sceattas jusqu'au dernier jour de leur existence ne se sont pas
debarrasses de marques singulieres provenant du paganisme.'
IX
facing p. 103
MOTIVES CONNECTED WITH SCEAT DESIGNS
NATURALISTIC ANIMALS 103
they can be counted on the fingers, whereas the whole form,
quaintly rendered no doubt but complete and in reasonable
proportions, is not uncommon on the coins. The human
head in profile or full face is the commonest of all devices on
the coins, and here the difference is not so great, for while the
profile human head hardly ever occurs on the tomb furniture
the full-face head is rather a favourite motive. In regard to
animal ornament a distinction must be made. There does
exist within the area of Anglo-Saxon tomb furniture animal
enrichment of a normal kind, such animal ornament as is
found on the best of the sceattas, like those on the two
lowest lines on PI. vni, or. the bird pecking at the grapes.
This animal ornament is distinctly founded on classical
models, and, save in the case of a very few exceptional pieces
presently to be considered, it is confined to the earliest Anglo-
Saxon period when Roman works of art that would serve as
examples were abundantly in evidence. One or two instances
may be noticed. PI. ix, 2, shows the outline of part of a
leopard stamped on a bronze pail, PI. cxix, 6, in the British
Museum, found in the cemetery at Chessell Down in the
Isle of Wight. This is clearly copied from part of an animal
frieze such as is found on ' Castor ware ' pottery and some-
times on Roman glass vessels. PI. ix, 3, may serve as a
specimen of work that is either debased Roman or a barbaric
copy of a Roman original. It is a cast bronze medallion,
1 1 in. across, found at Princethorpe, Warwickshire, probably
with Anglo-Saxon relics, and is part of the Bloxam collection
in the Art Museum at Rugby. At High Down, Sussex, there
was found in an Anglo-Saxon grave a small cast bronze head
of a faun, which may be a barbaric copy of a Roman original.
Another piece with a classical lion's head came to light at
Harnham Hill, Wilts. Later on, in Chapter x, there will be
found figured and noticed a number of early examples of
animal design of pronounced Roman character.
These examples date from before the end of V, and to judge
104 EARLY ANGLO-SAXON COINAGE
from the analogy of the sceattas they might have been the
starting point of a development of animal design such as we
find on the coins. As a matter of fact however, after about
the year 500, the animal form in Anglo-Saxon tomb furniture
is as a rule treated in so wayward a fashion that it soon loses
all resemblance to nature. It is true that in the animal designs
on the coins also we have to deal with very arbitrary render-
ings of the quadruped, as in the ' monster ' of the Frisian
reverses or the wolf forms on the upper part of PI. viii, but
the point is that the conventions of the coin types are totally
different from those we find on fibulae or buckles. The dis-
membered animal whose acquaintance we shall make in con-
nection with the tomb furniture never presents himself upon
the sceattas, while conversely the wolves and birds of the coins
make no appearance in the cemeteries. Furthermore the
forms of geometrical ornament which we shall find fairly
common on some classes of funereal objects, such for example
as the l saucer ' fibulae, are not to be found in the monetary
artist's repertory, the only exception being the pearl border,
formed by a succession of little knobs or bosses. This occurs
frequently on both classes of objects, but it is, we must re-
member, a very simple and widely diffused motive of enrich-
ment that may be met with almost anywhere.
The foregoing has been put in absolute terms for about
the general rule here enunciated there is no doubt at all, the
one or two exceptions that may be adduced being so few that
they serve only to establish it. To these exceptional cases of
correspondence between the two sets of objects attention may
now be given.
It was noticed in passing (p. 89) that the step pattern
common in the cloisons of Kentish inlaid jewels occurs on
one at any rate of the sceattas. The ring of heads of
PL vi, 13 will be found as an occasional motive in Germanic
metal-work, PH. lxi ; G, in ; the serpent's head of PI. viii, 5,
appears again on the exceptional piece PL lvi. PL ix, 10, 11,
COIN DEVICES ON OTHER OBJECTS 105
are worth a moment's attention. No. 10 is a Merovin-
gian silver coin with a cross, near the ends of three arms
of which there appear rings. On No. n, a sceat in the
Hunterian collection, these rings appear attached to the ends
of all four arms of a similar cross. This constitutes a special
form of ornamented cross and we find this used as a motive
of enrichment on a bracteate probably made in this country
that is figured PI. E, iv. It makes its appearance also in another
connection, and this renders it necessary to bring within the
present survey another class of Anglo-Saxon monuments that
otherwise would not be noticed till they receive regular
treatment in a subsequent volume. The reference is to the
sculptured stones that are such conspicuous monuments of the
Christian Anglo-Saxon period. If some of the sceat devices
appear on the tomb furniture they may be detected here and
there also on the stones, though these are in most cases later
in date than the sceat series. The cross with rings at the end
of the arms is a case in point for this is found occasionally
on stones in the north. PI. ix, 5, shows a wolf's head on
a X stone in Stanwick Church, Yorkshire, that perpetuates
the type of the wolves' heads on the upper part of PI. vin.
One or two of the exceptional pieces of tomb furniture
signalized above seem to be connected alike with the sceat
coins and with the earliest of the carved stones, and these
must obtain their share of notice.
They are Nos. 11, 12, on PL v, and 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, on
PL ix. PL ix, 1, 4, in the Cambridge Museum, of cast
bronze gilded, are called £ hinged handles ' and were found
at Wangford and Lakenheath in Suffolk, though there is
unfortunately no record of the circumstances of their dis-
covery. On both parts of No. 1 there are birds with long
ostrich-like necks and broad wings that readily offer them-
selves for comparison with some of the birds on the sceattas.
PL vin, 10, 14, for example show the creature with the two
legs, wing, tail, and upright neck and open beak of the birds
io6 EARLY ANGLO-SAXON COINAGE
of the hinged handle, PI. ix, I, and there may be brought
into comparison also PI. v, 2, 6, where similar creatures are
represented. On another piece of tomb furniture figured
PI. ix, 7, there is a similar bird. This is a cast bronze
pendant ornament that was found at Saxonbury, outside
Lewes, Sussex, and is now in the Museum there. The
shape of the plate is that of a square superimposed on a
quatrefoil, and the right-hand upper corner is mutilated so
that the fashion of the bird's head and neck cannot be clearly
made out.1 Legs, tail, and wing are however quite sufficiently
distinct. This piece may be dated in VI. PI. ix, 8, is part
of the bronze mounting of a bucket from Bidford, Warwick-
shire, in the form of a quadruped, cut out in thin sheet
bronze. It is quite an exceptional piece, and the ornamental
treatment of the surface is of a kind suggesting an early
date.
On the other hand the remarkable object, PI. v, II, was
discovered in association with other items of a rather advanced
date. It is an embossed plate of thin silver that formed the
face of a brooch of the ' applied ' type (p. 275), if in. across,
and is published in Archaeologia, lxiii, 191. It was found
in St. John's College cricket ground at Cambridge, and is
now in the Museum there. For the present purpose we are
only concerned with the frieze of quadrupeds which are
treated with a naturalism quite unprecedented on tomb
furniture of the period, that may be early VII. In detail it is
not like any of the animals on the sceattas, but is on about
the same grade of art as some of the animals in the lower part
of PL viii, and has been adduced here for the sake of com-
parison.
The very interesting piece, PL ix, 6, exhibits a union of
animal and foliage motives that makes it of especial value for
1 For a careful report on the piece the writer has to thank Mr F.
Bentham Stevens, Honorary Curator of the Museum at Lewes, who kindly
examined it on his behalf.
ANGLO-SAXON LEAF ORNAMENT 107
comparison with the coins. It came to light in a Jutish grave
at Gilton, Kent, and was published in Inventorium Sepulchrale,
pi. viii, 7, and p. 16. The material is silver, once heavily
gilded, and it appears to be the half of a clasp. It is 1 in.
long. The ornament is in open work, and gives us a fantastic
creature with two forelegs and a curling tail that divides into
three, each branch ending with what looks like a flower bud.
In the case of this piece we have Faussett's note of the objects
found with it, and these give indications of a late date that
would however almost certainly fall within VII. It is dis-
cussed in a subsequent chapter in association with clasps
(p. 362), and is noticed here and (p. in) on account of its
connection both with the coins and with the early carved
stones. The terminations of the tripartite tail are curiously
like what we find on PL viii, 19, while the creature itself
occurs almost in propria persona on the eastern face of the
Bewcastle Cross, shown PL ix, 9.
The two objects, Pll. v, 12 ; ix, 4, present to us the most
marked examples of a floral motive that the tomb furniture as
a whole can furnish. The leaf form in both cases is unmis-
takable, but it is very noteworthy that the structure of the leaf
and its relation to the stem are not understood, and it is only
a blundered presentment, the production of a designer who
was trying to copy a bit of Roman foliage ornament without
understanding it. PL v, 12, was found at Royston Heath,
not far from Cambridge, in company with a skeleton, but that
is all the information available. It is a bronze buckle, 1^ in.
across, and still has in it part of the leathern strap which it
fastened. The bow ends on the side where the tongue is
hinged in two animals' heads, and the exposed surface of the
bow is decorated with what is meant to be a floral scroll with
leaves given off" alternately on the two sides of an undulating
stem. PL ix, 4, shows a single leaf, and it is noteworthy that
Bernhard Salin in his Thierornamentik, fig. 408, gives a draw-
ing of a bronze fragment at Hanover with exactly the same
108 EARLY ANGLO-SAXON COINAGE
pattern upon it, and considers the piece of early date, that is
about V. Foliage forms of this kind do not show themselves
on the sceattas, but a leaf of the same shape makes its appear-
ance on the Bewcastle Cross, PL ix, 9, where we see it under
and to the right of the creature resembling PL ix, 6, in which
we have already noticed traits that connect it on the other side
with the sceattas at the bottom of PI. viii.
These details may seem of somewhat trivial importance,
but the fact is that there is so little evidence for the chronology
alike of the sceattas and of the carved stones that any indica-
tions even of an indirect kind are of value. Employing now
the scanty evidence to be derived from the side of tomb
furniture as well as arguments drawn from the sceat designs
themselves and the circumstances of the discoveries of the
coins, we may essay a chronological distribution of some of
the principal types within the general limits of the sceat
period.
Comparatively few sceattas have been found in tombs
where associated objects might afford indications of date, or
have appeared anywhere in conjunction with datable objects
such as foreign coins of known origin. The find of sceattas
in one of the recently explored graves at Broadstairs, Kent, is
as important chronologically as any discovery of the kind, for
the Broadstairs cemetery is on the whole an early one though
approaching 600 a.d. quite as near as 500 a.d., a date which
has been suggested for it. For one thing the clobed' glass
vessel which will be found figured later, PI. cxxiii, 1 (p. 483),
probably dates at the earliest from the latter part of VI. Of
the eight sceattas in question half had the ' standard ' reverse,
half that in which a bird hovers over a cross, PL iv, 12, the
obverses being in all cases fairly executed heads. For reasons
given above (p. 84) the ' standard' coins may date in VI while
the bird and cross is evidence of a date after 600 a.d. The
indications of an early date, even within VI, for the Broad-
stairs coins is a little discounted by the fact that some other
DATING OF THE SCEATTAS 109
sceattas with these self-same types came to light in 1843 in
association with a distinctively Christian object, at earliest of
the first half of VII. The place was Breach Down, Kent, and
the object the pin for the hair with head in the form of a
cross, shown PL x, 5 (p. 1 1 5). At Ozengell, Thanet, a cemetery
that yielded up objects of early date, three sceattas with the
bird on the cross were found, but the particular grave that
furnished them is not known. The cemetery, though an
early one, produced an imitated coin of Justinian that cannot
be earlier than the last part of VI. Two coins, found in a
grave, no. ccxxvi, at Sarre that contained only a broken
knife, can be accurately dated by the occurrence on them of
the name ' Pada,' indicating, as we have seen (p. 80), a date
about the middle of VII. A sceat with the type of two
figures holding between them a cross, like PL iv, 14, was
found at Saxby, Leicestershire, in a cemetery of the end of
VI or early part of VII.
Apart from a very few * Fundberichte ' such as these just
given, and of course the inscribed and dated ' iEthelred ' and
* Pada ' coins, we are compelled to use for the dating of the
sceattas either the internal evidence of their designs or else
such indirect indications as those derived from comparisons
with the tomb furniture. The profile head and standard
type may be accepted as early, the last half of VI, and a
corresponding nearness to Roman or Early Christian proto-
types may be used in favour of an equally early date for the
wolf with twins and bird and grapes. Charles Roach Smith
published two sceattas found at Richborough,1 one of which is
of this type the other of the ' standard ' type, but unfortun-
ately he does not tell us whether or not they were found
together. If we may date the wolf and twins in the latter
part of VI we have a long period of time during which,
throughout VII, the gradual transformations of the type that
have been followed (p. 94 f.) can have worked themselves out.
1 Richborough, Re culver and Lymne, Lond., 1850, p. 157.
no EARLY ANGLO-SAXON COINAGE
The introduction of the interlacing motive in the long hair of
the bust on the obverse of many of the coins with degraded
wolf types on the other side, as PI. viii, i, 4, is a chrono-
logical indication, for this motive does not appear in the tomb
furniture till VII and greatly flourishes as time goes on. The
evolution of the 'whorl' motive, PI. vm, 7, 9, etc., carries
us on through VII. It may be conjectured that the whorl
motive on the coins is due to the same revival of a Late-Celtic
design which produced in VII those extraordinary ' scutcheons '
of bronze bowls ornamented with flamboyant Celtic scrolls
of which there is question in a later chapter (p. 475 f.), see
PL cxix. The whorl motive does not occur in the designs of
early Teutonic coins on the Continent and may be due in our
own country to the cause just mentioned. The whorl of four
wolves' heads is connected, PL viii, 9, with the female centaur
type with which it is always conjoined, and we have seen
reason to regard the female centaur in spite of its classicism
as not an early type, but one inspired by the coming Caro-
lingian renaissance, like the wolf and twins of iEthelberht,
PL viii, 18 (p. 94). It would in this case fall within VIII.
A similar whorl of three wolves' heads, PL vm, 7, carries
with it on its reverse the rosette motive in a cruciform
scheme, which is thus established as late. A similar rosette
device forms the reverse of the whorl-like bird PI. viii, 11,
while Nos. 10 and 12, obviously related to No. 11, have
on their other sides the standing figure with two crosses
in the boat, a type that is thereby shown to occur at a com-
paratively advanced epoch. This figure in the boat is rather
closely associated with the head with the inscription 'Londonia,'
PL iv, 5, 7, 8, and the 'Londonia' coins are not likely to be
very early, see the reverse of PI. iv, 6. In spite of his crosses
the figure in the boat is far more likely to be a merchant than
a missionary, and we may take it that his conjunction with the
' Londonia ' inscription testifies to the activity of London
commerce when people were resorting thither as Bede tells us,
CHRONOLOGICAL INDICATIONS in
• by sea and land.' This same standing figure in PI. vm, 16,
has we have seen dropped his crosses and assumed instead two
flowering stems, and this brings with it the foliage motive to
the use of which we owe the charming designs on the lower
part of PI. vm, while the foliage motive again is inseparably-
connected with the excellent animal designs illustrated in the
same place.
We see accordingly various decorative motives joining
hands as it were and drawing each other in till they gather
together at an epoch that may be set down as the last half of
VII, from which time onwards till the sceat issue ceases we
may regard them as flourishing. Of the various pieces of
tomb furniture on PH. v and ix there is really only one that
can give us direct support for this chronological argument,
the others standing as it were neutral. This piece is the clasp
in pierced work, PI. ix, 6. On tomb-furniture evidence the
piece would find its habitat in VII and probably in the last
part of VII. It was found with a coin imitated from one
of Justinian (527-565 a.d.), the piece showing considerable
evidence of usage, and the open work technique suggests a
date decidedly advanced. The floral terminations to the
creature's tail point to the same period, and the appearance of
its counterpart on the Bewcastle Cross would agree with this,
if the Cross be rightly dated VII. The connection with coins
or stones of the other pieces, PI. v, II, 12, and PI. ix, 1, 4,
7, 8, is not quite so clear. The quadrupeds PI. v, 11, and
PI. ix, 8, have no great significance for the purpose. On the
probable date of PI. v, 12, and PI. ix, 1, 4, a word may be
said. The heads on the buckle bow, its leafage, and the single
leaf on PI. ix, 4, probably have a Roman connection and date
before 500 a.d. The appearance of the same leaf on the
Bewcastle Cross so long afterwards may be easily explained.
The Cross, whatever its actual date, is certainly one of the
earliest examples of stone carving of the kind in the period,
and the sculptor takes the Roman vine scroll for his model
ii2 EARLY ANGLO-SAXON COINAGE
just as it had been taken at an earlier date by the maker of
the cast bronze buckle and hinged handle. The date, and special
connection with sceat designs, of the birds on PL ix, i and 7
are not easy to fix, but the parallelism in the work is undoubted,
and in the case of a few objects of the kind the old theory
that the moneyer and the metal worker were one and the same
still has its plausibility.
In leaving now the subject of the sceat coin types we may
notice in a word of summary, first, the place they hold in the
general history of Anglo-Saxon art, and, second, their aesthetic
value. As regards the former, as the sceattas extend in point
of duration not only through VII but through a great part of
VIII they provide us with specimens of our native art at a
period when datable examples are very hard to find. We shall
see reason for believing (p. 173) that the use of the pagan
cemeteries, and with it the interment and consequent preserva-
tion of tomb furniture, ceases before the beginning of VIII,1
though on the Continent this use may have lasted on till a
later epoch. Hence the last part of VII and VIII are barely,
if at all, represented in tomb furniture, and it is of all the more
importance to note that throughout this period the art of the
moneyer flourished in full vigour. The sceattas moreover
represent the art of the southern districts of the country,
whereas what examples we have of the productions of the
time in MS. illuminations, carvings, etc., belong to North-
umbria. Were there no sceattas we should not possess any
documents to give us an idea of VIII art in the regions of the
country where in VI and VII the crafts connected with objects
of tomb furniture had been specially active.
On the aesthetic question the text for a few concluding
words may be taken from the sentences in which Mr. Keary
sums up the points of interest in our Anglo-Saxon coinage in
1 In a few exceptional cases this use may have extended into VIII. The
King's Road cemetery at Reading, Berks, is a case in point, and so is Saffron
Walden, Essex.
AN AESTHETIC ESTIMATE 113
the conclusion of his Introduction to the second volume of
the British Museum Catalogue of the Anglo-Saxon series. In
the sceat series, he says, c we have a number and variety of
designs which in proportion to the extent of the issue is
perhaps without precedent in any other coinage of the world.
The designs on the sceattas are not themselves for the most
part artistically beautiful, but in any history of the develop-
ment of ornament they ought to take a conspicuous place.
They present . . . some striking examples of the degradation
of types, and, through degradation, of the evolution of fresh
types.' The points here indicated have been illustrated in
some detail on the plates, 1 to vin, on which appear nearly
two hundred coin devices. To some of these the quality of
beauty cannot reasonably be denied. In numismatic history
as a whole, beauty in the highest sense is perhaps only repre-
sented in the coins of the classic and the Gothic periods and
in some Renaissance pieces, but beauty that is a matter more
of feeling and suggestion than of perfection of form certainly
belongs to sceattas such as PI. iv, 15, PI. vn, 5, PI. vin, 14,
15, 16, 19, or the bird pecking at the grapes on PI. v. The
artistic merit of good disposition of masses and composition of
line belongs to very many of the designs that perhaps strike
us first by their quaintness. PI. vin shows good examples of
this. The highest merit of the coins however resides in the
freshness and variety of the devices, which represent the
Anglo-Saxon artist of VII in a most favourable light, and make
us long for a little of his animation and fancy to enliven the
inane and spiritless devices of our modern British coins and
postage stamps. The execution of the sceat designs we may
characterize if we will as ' rude,' but this is really a term of
praise when we compare the boldness and accent in their
handling with the thin machine-like regularity of the orthodox
productions of to-day.
in
CHAPTER III
THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY OF THE PAGAN PERIOD
The tombs that have furnished practically all the objects, save
the coins, noticed in these chapters are grouped in cemeteries
which served the needs of different bodies of Teutonic settlers.
With these cemeteries various topics connect themselves, of
which the following are the most important : — (1) the Anglo-
Saxon cemetery in VI and to-day ; its supersession by the
churchyard and consequent disappearance from view ; its re-
discovery and exploration in mediaeval and more modern
times : (II) the number and extent of the cemeteries : (III)
the location of the cemeteries in relation to the distribution of
the Teutonic population, the natural features of the country,
and the social and sepulchral arrangements of the earlier in-
habitants whom the invaders dispossessed : (IV) the treatment
of the body before burial, and the disposal of it or its ashes in
the receptacle prepared for it : (V) the arrangement and the
forms of the graves : (VI) orientation and tomb furniture :
(VII) the mark or monument, if any, that indicated at the
time and to posterity the place of interment : (VIII) the indica-
tions, if any, in connection with the above of social customs,
or of class or other distinctions among the interred.
I. It is a curious reflection that there are two periods in
the history of this country at which the pagan Anglo-Saxon
cemetery has been a conspicuous monumental or social fact,
and these periods are separated by about a thousand years.
From the first settlement down to about 700 a.d. these
cemeteries were in use and honour, but from that date till
114
X
facing p. 1 1 5
CHRISTIAN OBJECTS IN CEMETERIES
115
about 1700 they passed not only out of use but out of
memory almost as completely as did the Roman catacombs,
while within the last century and a half they have resumed a
place of importance among our national institutions. The
cause of their passing out of use was the establishment of the
churchyard, within which, if not within the church itself, the
clergy gradually brought the faithful to lay their dead. The
early history of the churchyard is obscure and nothing needs
here to be added to what was written in the first volume of
this work,1 where it was noticed that the first Christian bury-
ing grounds were apparently attached to monastic churches
and that these may have been used for the burial of faithful
persons not in monastic orders. It was only gradually that
the temenos or enclosed area around the country church was
made the effective place of burial for the local population, and
it would be very interesting to know exactly when and under
what conditions this change worked itself out. Some archaeo-
logical evidence will be adduced later on (p. 172 f.) tending to
show that this change was accomplished sooner in this country
than on the Continent, for late objects are less often found in
our own non-ecclesiastical ceme-
teries than in foreign ones.
Pagan cemeteries were cer-
tainly in use even for the burial of
Christians during VII. One or two
examples that bear on this may here
be introduced. What are at first
sight the most striking cases occur
at Strood by Rochester in Kent
and at Long Wittenham, Berks, at
both of which places were found
bronze plates, that had mounted
or covered, in the one case a drinking horn, in the other a pail
or stoup, and on which figure subjects from scripture had been
1 The Arts in Early England, 1, 256 f.
Fig. 1. — Outline of Design on
the Strood Mount.
n6 THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
represented in repousse work in relief. The Strood piece is
shown PL x, i, and the design which is repeated six times
round the mouth of the horn is given more clearly in Fig. i }
The subject is probably Christ as Teacher. This is un-
doubtedly Christian, but whether the owner of it was an
adherent of the new faith is another question. It was found
in the grave of a warrior buried with sword, spear, shield
and knife on a site contiguous with the old Roman cemetery
that lay along the course of the Watling Street on the
western side of the Medway opposite Strood church. Now
Rochester received a Christian church at the very beginning
of VII,2 and as this was monastic it may have supplied grave-
yard accommodation for the faithful,8 yet we find a body
buried with distinctly Christian grave furniture close to the
pagan Roman cemetery across the river. It is quite possible
that as the weapons suggest rather an early date for the inter-
ment the warrior was not himself a Christian and had acquired
the bronze-mounted horn by foray or traffic from France.
Bronze plates of a similar kind with Christian figure subjects
on them may be seen in the Museum at Worms and were
found also at Vermand in northern France.4
In the last case an early date, not later than 400 a.d., is
indicated by the nature of the cemetery, and the piece in
question must be the work not of a Frank but of a Christian
Gallo-Roman craftsman. This is rendered practically certain
by the fact that at Vermand and other cemeteries of the same
class embossed bronze plates of the same kind have been found
with figure subjects from classical mythology, that obviously
proceed from Gallo-Roman workshops.5 A similar proven-
1 From Collectanea Antiqua, 11, pi. xxxvi.
2 The Arts in Early England, 11, 119.
3 ibid., 1, 258.
4 Pilloy, Etudes, it, pi. 13 and p. 216. For the important Franco-Roman
cemetery at Vermand see postea (p. 549 f.).
5 ibid., 1, 169, 176 ; 11, pi. 12.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CROSS 117
ance may be confidently assumed for the examples at Strood
and Long Wittenham, and the Strood warrior may not have
been a Jute of Kent but one of the raiders of the valleys of
the Thames and its tributaries, about whom there is question
in a later chapter. The Long Wittenham stoup was found in
the grave of a boy together with a beaten bronze bowl of a
kind represented at Croydon in a probably pagan grave, and
the occupants of the Long Wittenham graves may belong to
the same section of the invaders as the warrior buried at
Strood. The Wilton pendant discovered in Norfolk1 is
certainly Christian though it is not proved that it came from
a grave. On the other hand in the Kentish cemeteries at
Kingston and Chartham Down, Kent, and in a barrow on
Winster Moor, Derbyshire,2 crosses obviously and professedly
Christian and worn as pendants came to light, PI. x, 2, 2, 3, 4.
On Breach Down, Kent, there was found a pin for the hair,
now in the British Museum, PI. x, 5, the head of which is a
cross in the Christian form. In the Gibbs collection from
Faversham, now in the British Museum, two bronze mounts
for bowls, PI. x, 6, 6, of a kind discussed later on (p. 474),
show the motive of the Latin cross standing between two
fantastic creatures, that occurs on Burgundian buckles where
its derivation can be traced from Daniel between two lions.3
The above are all avowedly and beyond all question
Christian, but there are other appearances about which we •
cannot be so certain. It is not infrequent to find the patterns
on inlaid jewels and bracteate-like pendants in gold worked
into a cruciform shape, but these are not always convincing,
for the arrangement of a design in fours may very well pro-
duce this appearance without any religious intent, and the
well-known shape of the equal-armed cross, in which the arms
1 Norfolk Archaeology, in, 375, see Chapter x (p. 510).
2 Catalogue of Sheffield Museum, 1899, p. 222.
3 M. Besson, V Art Barbare dans P Ancien Diocese de Lausanne, Lausanne,
1909, p. 64 f. (Cycle des monstres affrontes.)
n8 THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
increase in width as they diverge, will necessarily form itself
if any one divide a round disc like a pendant into eight
spaces by radiating lines. There is no reason
to suspect the Roman enamelled brooch at
Chesters, Fig. 2, of Christian leanings because
the spaces are so partitioned. It is an acci-
dent that they are here divided into fours
while on the similar brooch shown PL e, i
FIG. 2. Part of a (p« 5X9) tne urut IS nve- As we saw in the
Roman Brooch. case of the sceat coins a pagan Saxon work-
man might copy the cross merely as a decorative or as a prophy-
lactic motive (p. 73) from some Gallo-Roman or Merovingian
Christian piece. The cross appears on the two inlaid pendants,
PL xi, 1, 2, of which the first, at Liverpool, comes from
Sibertswold, Kent, and the other, No. 2, from a barrow at
Uncelby, Yorks (in York Museum). These are very doubt-
fully Christian. On the other hand the damaged pendant
from Sibertswold, Kent, PL x, 7, and that from Suffolk in
Mr. S. Fenton's collection, PL xi, 5, give the cross in a pro-
nounced form that may well be Christian. Unmistakably
Christian is a pewter chalice found in a grave in the King's
Road cemetery at Reading. This cemetery is apparently a
late one as no arms were found, and its use is conjectured to
have extended to the exceptionally late date of about the
middle of VIII. The chalice, PL xi, 3, which approaches the
Romanesque form is not only Christian but sacerdotal, and its
appearance in a cemetery not attached to any church is signi-
ficant. It may be held attested as a local product through
the discovery in the same cemetery of another object in pewter,
this time a large fibula. The use of pewter by the Anglo-
Saxon craftsman need not surprise us, as the Romans freely
employed the material.
Enough has been said to show that in VII and probably in
exceptional cases in the first part of VIII there was in the use
of cemeteries an overlap, Christians still continuing to be
EARLY FINDS IN CHURCHYARDS 119
buried even with the insignia of their religion in the pagan
cemeteries though country churchyards were ready to offer
them accommodation. It is a question whether or to what
extent the converse holds good and early burials in the church-
yards were accompanied by the ' Beigaben ' customary in
pagan interments. Thus it is stated on the excellent authority
of Charles Roach Smith that in the burying ground attached
to the very ancient church of St. Martin outside Canterbury
were found a garnet inlaid pendant, a Roman gem, and some
gold coins furnished with attachments for suspension, probably
the necklet of an Anglo-Saxon lady of distinction.1 It is true
that these objects are sometimes described as having been
found ' near St. Augustine's, Canterbury,' but the statements
of Roach Smith are very explicit, and in the Numismatic
Chronicle he comments on the discovery of the pendants in
the early burial ground, where he thinks they may have been
interred as part of the belongings of one of Queen Berchta's
ladies of honour. This seems a genuine case of pagan
' Beigaben ' in a grave in a consecrated churchyard. Other
instances are more doubtful. For example, in the beautiful
churchyard at Minster in Thanet, a site full of memories of
early Saxon Christianity, about 1786, parts of a skeleton were
found at a depth of 7 ft. and by the skull was a ribbed glass
vessel in the form of a bell.2 In 1853 a tumbler of green
glass together with a portion of a skull are said to have been
found in a churchyard at Faversham.3 At Wing and at
Mentmore, Bucks, skeletons, some of which were unmistak-
ably Saxon, were found quite close to the churchyards,4 and
within the churchyard at Wyre Piddle, Worcestershire,
skeletons were found accompanied by iron shield bosses of
1 Coll. Ant., 1, 176 ; Num. Cbron., 1st Ser., vn, p. 187, and Proceedings,
p. 28. The coins are figured later on, PI. cvii, 3 (p. 449).
2 Archaeologia, vm, 449.
3 V.C.H., Kent, 1, 385 ; Ass., xm, 313.
4 Archaeologia, xxxv, 379 f.
120 THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
Anglo-Saxon type.1 The coffined skeleton, a part of which
is shown PI. xviri, 2 (p. 177), was an intrusive burial in a
Bronze Age tumulus in the churchyard of Ogbourne St.
Andrew, Wilts. All these interments however, save the one
at St. Martin's, may be of older date than the respective
churches. On the other hand at Reading there are some
churchyard burials in consecrated ground that are held to go
back to the later Anglo-Saxon period but are unaccompanied
by tomb furniture. As a general rule there can be no doubt
that the practice of furnishing the tomb was pagan but sur-
vived by a sort of overlap into the Christian period, so that
tomb furniture might find a place in a Christian burial in a
pagan cemetery. On the other hand even while the older
cemeteries were in use the practice of grave-gifts would be
gradually declining under the influence of the new faith, and
it would only make its appearance in very exceptional cases
when the burials were in the later consecrated graveyards.
In the case of cemeteries where the interments were marked
by burial mounds or tumuli the site of them would still be
known even after they had passed wholly out of use, and these
mounds figure as landmarks in the indication of the boundaries
of estates in Anglo-Saxon land charters.2 Kemble writes that
the burial mounds of the heathen are mentioned in this con-
nection 1 50 times in his Codex Diplomatics . The same phrase,
1 tumuli paganorum,' is applied to the old burying grounds
that are contrasted with * cimiteria ecclesiae ' in an ordinance
of Charles the Great.3 In other cases movable memorials
that might have been erected above new-made graves would
in time be levelled or destroyed and the place pass entirely
out of remembrance, though accidental discoveries, often
through agricultural or mining operations, might at any time
be made. A very curious narrative of events that occurred
near St. Albans in 1177, preserved to us by Roger of
1 Ass. Soc. Reports, 1888, 427.
2 The Arts, etc., vol. 1, p. 85 f. 8 ibid., p. 260.
SIR THOMAS BROWNE 121
Wendover,1 shows that at any rate at that time and place
burial mounds were no longer recognized as pagan sepulchres.
In some open ground at Redbourne three miles north of
St. Albans there were two eminences called ' hills of the
banners ' because they were gathering places for religious
processions. In some way it must have come to be known
that they enshrined human remains, for in that year the
mounds were solemnly opened and bodies supposed to be
those of early martyrs were discovered and borne in ecclesi-
astical state to the Abbey Church. These were really of
course the skeletons of Anglo-Saxons of the pagan period
buried in or under tumuli, and we learn that one of the
' martyrs ' had two ' large knives ' by him, one in his skull
and the other in his breast — obviously the usual spear head
which is generally close to the skull, and the knife worn at
the waist.
There is evidence on the Continent that old Teutonic
sepulchres were invaded in the middle ages in search of
treasure,2 and the laws against the rifling of graves occurring
in the early Teutonic codes show that this practice began
betimes, but the writer knows of no special evidence to prove
this in our own country. In XVII cremation urns found in
Anglo-Saxon cemeteries in Norfolk gave the text on which Sir
Thomas Browne framed his famous discourse entitled Uydrio-
taphia, Urne Buriall? In this the eloquent stylist moralizes
at large on the subject of mortality, and introduces some
interesting paragraphs on the special objects that had attracted
his attention — the * sad and sepulchral Pitchers, . . . silently
expressing old mortality, the ruines of forgotten times.' Some
of his observations are acute and accurate, but his point of
view was of course literary rather than archaeological, and the
1 Rolls Series, No. 84/j, p. no.
2 Boulanger, Marcbelepot, p. 3.
3 The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, ed. Charles Sayle, Edinburgh, 1907,
in, 104. f.
122 THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
modern scientific era of exploration does not begin till the first
half of XVIII when in 1730 Dr. Mortimer, secretary to the
Royal Society, opened some barrows on Chartham Down in
Kent and reported to the Society on their contents. The
extensive operations carried on in that county in the last half
of the century are a credit to British archaeology, and a word
or two about them will not be out of place.
In the year just mentioned Bryan Faussett, who had been
born and reared in ' an old castellated mansion of the reign of
Stephen,'1 watched as a boy of ten this opening of sepulchral
tumuli on Chartham Down, and the antiquarian tastes which
this experience and all his early surroundings at Heppington
had fostered2 were given full play in the extensive series of
excavations he carried on in the ancient cemeteries of his
county from 1757 to 1773. The results of his discoveries as
they proceeded he wrote down in what has been well called a
c plain, clear narrative of facts, daily recorded with cautious
attention to the most minute circumstances,' 3 but as a fact
neither these records nor the objects that were their subject
matter ever saw the light till more than three-quarters of a
century had elapsed since his operations were concluded. In
1854 the collections and manuscripts passed into the hands of
Mr. Joseph Mayer of Liverpool and both were soon made
accessible to the public, the first by their public exhibition in
what is known as the Mayer-Faussett collection in the Liver-
pool Museum, the latter by their publication in the well-
known Inventorium Sepulchrale, ably edited by Charles Roach
Smith. Meanwhile, still in XVIII, a younger contemporary
and compatriot of Faussett, the Rev. James Douglas, had pub-
lished in 1793 under the title Nenia Britannica the results of
similar researches to those of the Squire of Heppington. The
work was remarkable not only for the facts it adduced but for
the sagacious and thoroughly scientific view that the author
1 Inventorium Sepulchrale, Appendix, p. 203.
2 I.e. 3 ibid., p. 1.
BRYAN FAUSSETT AND JAMES DOUGLAS 123
took of the antiquarian questions which these facts suggested.
Here the contrast between Faussett and Douglas is very
marked. The former has earned the gratitude of all students
of our early antiquities, not only for what he brought to light,
but for the precise information he gave of the contents of
every tomb he opened, though even here in one respect his
information is defective in that he did not furnish plans of the
cemeteries, by which the place of any single grave or group of
graves in relation to others could be fixed. With all his
accuracy however in recording details he never succeeded in
forming for himself a true idea of the nature of the pheno-
mena investigated. To the end of his life he believed that the
tombs which by the hundred he was opening enclosed the
remains of people he called * Romans Britonized or Britons
Romanized,' and that they dated as a rule early in the fifth
century. Exceptionally, he thinks, burials of such people may
have gone on till long after the Romans properly so called had
left the isle, and even till after the arrival of the Saxons.1 He
is always careful nevertheless to guard himself from drawing
the obvious inference that the graves may in part at any rate
be Saxon ones, and insists more than once that nothing he had
found in any one of them suggests such a provenance.2
There is nothing very remarkable in such a misunder-
standing of newly revealed antiquarian phenomena. There
were competent archaeologists who thought at first that
Schliemann's citadel tombs at Mycenae contained the bodies
of Gothic warriors. Faussett's error brings out however into
clearer light the perspicacity of his fellow-worker, Douglas.
There are instances, to be afterwards particularized, in which
1 Inv. Sep., 38.
2 He writes of the Beakesbourne cemetery, one of his latest fields of
exploration, p. 146, ' I am persuaded, that the persons here deposited were
not Saxons ; nothing which I have hitherto met with, either here or in any
other place where I have dug, having the least appearance of the remains of
that people.'
124 THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
an earlier cremated interment makes its appearance among a
number of graves tenanted by the unburnt skeletons of the
Teutonic settlers. Faussett as a rule recognizes the former as
survivals but draws no chronological or racial inferences from
the facts. Douglas on the contrary regards these and other
allied phenomena with the eyes of an enlightened archaeologist
of to-day. The occurrence of a coin of Justinian (527-565),
in grave 41 at Gilton only leads Faussett to infer that his
supposed • Romans ' of Richborough continued to bury here
' even to the very dregs of the empire/1 but Douglas fastens
at once on this very fact as a clue to the date of objects found
with the coin, and inferentially to that of the whole cemetery
or group of cemeteries. These he conjectures may date from
between the earliest possible year for the coin, that of
Justinian's accession in 527, to 742 when the decree went
forth that the suburban cemeteries were no longer to be used.
If pagan the graves would date from Justinian's accession to
the conversion of Kent by Augustine, if Christian between that
time and the middle of VIII. In one passage he regards the
cemeteries as belonging in the main to c the Christians of the
sixth and perhaps beginning of the seventh century' though in
another he extends the time to the first part of the eighth,2
while for their owners he looks to the inhabitants of the * small
burgs or stations within their vicinity,' and in the case of the
barrows on Sibertswold Down he enumerates Sibertswold
itself, Waldershare, Eythorn and Barfreston, all as ' Saxon
places.' This is of course all in general accord with the pre-
vailing opinions of to-day, and his summary of the whole
matter needs no correction from the present point of view.
" The discovery of coins,' he writes,3 ' the workmanship of the
relics, arms, and nature of the burial places, either considered
externally or internally, show them to belong to a people in a
state of peace, and in general possession of the country. Their
1 Inv. Sep., 19.
8 Nenia Britannica,^. 97, 131. 3 ibid., p. 177.
PERSPICACITY OF DOUGLAS 125
situation near villages of Saxon names, their numbers propor-
tioned to a small clan of people existing at a particular aera,
afford the critical evidence of their owners. They are scattered
all over Britain in places which the Saxons occupied, and are
not discovered in the parts of Wales which they had not
subdued.'
In matters of detail also Douglas is refreshingly modern.
He is as puzzled as we are as to the exact significance of the
orientation of graves and of the presence or absence of tomb
furniture.1 The occasional traces of cremation he notes as
• attesting that a succeeding people had buried near one of a
more ancient date, when cremation had been used,' 2 and he is
quite alive to the difference between cremation urns, or, as
they used to be called, c ossuaries,' and those placed, for what
exact reason it is difficult to say, with the inhumed skeletons.3
He notes that the swords in his collection had no guards,4
and understands, what puzzled Faussett, the use of the handle-
bar of the shield crossing the hollow of the umbo.6
On the question of the provenance of the coloured beads
which figure so largely in Anglo-Saxon finds he is almost
startlingly up to date with his remark that * they were in all
probability introduced into this country by barter from
Marseilles.' 6 About the origin and affinities of the tomb
furniture in general he lays it down that ' the nature of the
arms, the most convincing proof of a parity of custom, found
in the barrows, affix them to their Saxon owners,'7 and the
plausible theory, that has so often found expression, according
to which this tomb furniture is proximately, or in ultimate
origin, Roman, he cannot away with. ' The Roman claim to
these sepulchres, notwithstanding their coins have been found,
must be totally out of the question,' he writes,8 and he suggests
1 Nenia Britannica, p. 63 note. 2 ibid., p. 125.
3 ibid., p. 114. 4 ibid., p. 121.
5 ibid., p. 113, cf. Inv. Sep., pp. 10, 63.
6 Nenia Britannica, p. 177. 7 ibid., p. 128. 8 ibid., p. 127.
126 THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
what not a few in these days would hear with some sympathy,
that much of the tomb furniture might have an Eastern origin.
To see, as he does,1 ' Gothic art ' in the fashion of the fibulae
(radiated and square headed) is for the time almost an act of
divination. The fact that he doubts the power of the native
Anglo-Saxon craftsman, in the early days of the settlement,
to execute fine work need not count against him, for this view
has been held by many excellent authorities and still survives
among us. John Yonge Akerman, writing in 1847,2 gives
it as his opinion that ' the more costly articles of personal
ornament were generally imported,' and the same supposition
is, we have already seen, not uncommon among our fellow-
countrymen even of to-day.
The main point in which Douglas's explanations are
markedly of a bygone type is his insistence on a superstitious
or magical origin for many objects and arrangements of which
a more prosaic account would now be given. With this
reserve one may treat him as one would treat a modern
authority, and it is a fact to be duly noted that the first book
published on this important branch of our national antiquities
is of such great and permanent value.
In his illustrations also Douglas adopts modern methods.
For example his first plate gives in business-like fashion a
view of the skeleton in its tumulus showing the position of
the tomb furniture, and adds representations of the different
objects on a larger scale. This is reproduced on PL xm in
this Volume (p. 153).
Since the days of Faussett and Douglas explorations of
Anglo-Saxon cemeteries have been constantly in progress, and
in many instances have been watched and reported on in
accordance with the standards observed in the scientific age in
which we live. This has not however always been the case,
and many cemeteries accidentally discovered have been pillaged
1 Nenia Britannic a, p. 130.
2 An Archaeological Index, Lond., 184.7, P« l2&-
CEMETERY EXPLORATION 127
at hazard and the contents of the graves dispersed without
any proper record having been kept. The earlier investiga-
tors had the advantage that they worked on sites known as
those of ancient cemeteries through the presence on them of
burial mounds, and they proceeded with deliberation and
system. Where there is no external mark the discovery is
generally a chance one, and the results noticed above have too
often followed. Even the best of the old explorers however
and many of the moderns have paid far more attention to the
single graves than to their connection and to their place in
the cemetery as a whole, and in this way a good deal of
valuable evidence has been lost. Almost all the larger
cemeteries had clearly been in use for a considerable period of
years, and the digging of the graves for successive generations
must have proceeded according to a certain system. Either
the burial ground was extended in concentric fashion round
an original centre, or it was enlarged progressively in one
direction or in two. In any case if the system pursued were
known we should have a valuable indication of chronology.
To work out the scheme is of course a matter of inference,
based on the appearance in this part or in that of the area of
objects the approximate date of which is otherwise known.
If a number of graves in one part contain early tomb furniture
and a group of others in another part late objects, while
transitional pieces occur in between, there is already a basis
for a hypothesis of the history of the cemetery, and if this can
be established there is acquired a means for arriving at the date
of things the chronology of which has been hitherto uncertain.
It is very seldom indeed that graves have been divided up in
this way by their explorers into groups in their chronological
aspects. Careful investigators like Faussett and very many of
his successors have numbered their graves in correspondence
with their inventory, but about the topographical relations of
these graves we are too often left in doubt.
128 THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
II. The number and extent of the cemeteries.
The term ' cemetery ' is clear enough in its meaning but
exactly how much it must be taken to denote is uncertain.
One burial can hardly constitute in ordinary parlance a
cemetery, yet there are interments in which only a single
body has been found but which in respect of tomb furniture
are of the utmost importance. Such for example are the
single burials at Taplow, Bucks, and Broomfield, Essex. As
a rule however where one body comes to light others are
found near it, and the Teutonic cemetery seems on the whole
to testify to a strong social instinct among the people that
in death drew the units of the population together. Whether
each Anglo-Saxon village community had its cemetery or several
villages took their dead to some one central burying ground
is hard to say, but no cemetery that has been properly examined
appears to have been divided up into portions such as might be
expected if the latter arrangement prevailed. On the other
hand the village communities in Saxon times seem on the whole
to have been isolated and self-contained,1 just as they were in
the later middle ages when each village had its own special
church and graveyard, and it is most probable that each early
Teutonic community possessed its own little necropolis.
If this be the case, only an infinitesimal proportion of the
whilom country cemeteries has been recovered, for in most of
the English districts they are few and far between as compared
with the villages. At the same time in exceptional regions the
known cemeteries are proportionately plentiful and this pro-
portion may have been general throughout the country. The
case is probably the same with the cemeteries as with the
churches of the period, upon which it was remarked in a
previous volume that the known Saxon churches in the country
tend to fall into groups while pretty wide regions are on the
other hand left blank. The explanation partly is that when
one example in a certain district is brought to light and com-
1 Vol. i, p. 81.
DISTRIBUTION OF CEMETERIES 129
merited on, the interest thereby excited leads to the recognition
of other examples of a similar style of work in the neighbour-
hood. So with the cemeteries. A fortunate discovery in one
part sharpens people's eyes, and indications in other spots in
the vicinity are more quickly noted and followed up. It was
noticed in the Victoria History l in connection with East Anglia
that cremated burials are much more likely to pass unnoticed
than those in which the skeleton remains, for cinerary urns,
which seldom contain any conspicuous object that would strike
a casual finder, must have been destroyed unnotified by farm
labourers in a countless number of cases. Hence in the
cremation area of Teutonic England many cemeteries may
have been actually discovered but passed unrecorded. In parts
of Kent, about Cambridge, along the valley of the Lark in
north-western Suffolk, and perhaps elsewhere, the known
cemeteries seem almost as numerous as the local villages.
For example, about what was formerly the haven of Rich-
borough, on the comparatively elevated ground from Ramsgate
round to Walmer, there were extensive cemeteries at Ozengell,
Sarre, and Gilton, and lesser ones at Ramsgate, at Goldston-
under-Ash, near Woodnesborough, at Eastry, and at some
places on the downs between this and the coast by Kingsdown,
a number that corresponds fairly with that of the known early
settlements on the same circuit. This agrees with what Linden-
schmit2 says about the cemeteries in the middle Rhine district
where they ' are so surprisingly abundant that almost all the
villages which, with slight exceptions, can be recognized as
very ancient settlements also possess their Frankish cemeteries,
so that a district some eight or nine miles across may contain
from eight to ten of these.' Of course the whole number of
identified graves is very small indeed in relation to the prob-
able Anglo-Saxon population. Bede tells us that the South
Saxon kingdom contained 7000 ' familiae,' which might imply
1 Norfolk, vol. 1, p. 344.
2 Handbuch, p. 90.
Ill I
1 3o THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
a population of some 35,000, but less than 500 Sussex graves
of the period are known.
None of our English cemeteries compares in extent with
the largest ones abroad, but Mr. G. W. Thomas, the explorer
of Sleaford cemetery, Lincolnshire, estimated the whole con-
tents of it at about 600 bodies,1 its area at |- acre. That of
Kingston in Kent where Faussett in XVIII opened 308 tombs
is one of the most extensive of those fully inventorized,
though the one at the King's Field, Faversham, may have sur-
passed it. At Sarre nearly 300 graves were found. These
are very small when compared with a cemetery like Keszthely
in Hungary where three or four thousand graves were exca-
vated,2 or that of Marchelepot near Peronne in northern
France, with its 4000 graves in a space of about 4 acres of
ground.3 The total at Eprave in Belgium is reckoned at
about iooo.4 At Herpes on the Charente in western France
M. Delamain opened 900 tombs. Alamannic cemeteries and
those of the Marcomanni from whom the Bavarians descend are
large. Lindenschmit gave the contents of that at Fridolfing
at 3000 to 4000 bodies,5 and the recently explored field at
Reichenhall near Salzburg furnished evidence that at least
1000 bodies had been interred in it.6 This difference in
populousness between English and foreign graveyards will be
noticed from another point of view under heading VI (p. 172).
III. The location of the cemeteries in relation to the dis-
tribution of the Teutonic population, the natural features of
the country, and the social and sepulchral arrangements of the
earlier inhabitants whom the invaders dispossessed.
1 Archaeologia, l, 385.
2 Hampel, Alterthiimer in Ungarn, 1, 18.
3 Boulanger, Marchelepot, p. 3.
4 Annales de la Societe Arch'eologique de Namur, xix, 43 5 f.
5 Handbuch, p. 91.
6 Max von Chlingensperg-Berg, Das Gr'dberfeld von Reichenhall, p. 39.
CONTINUITY IN BURIALS 131
It is, we have just seen, more in accordance with likelihood
that each village community possessed its own graveyard than
that big cemeteries provided for the needs of whole districts.
These burying grounds differed from the later churchyards in
that they were not in the centre of or even within the circum-
ference of the village but at some distance from it, on ground
that would be called technically in modern parlance ' the waste
of the manor.' The inclusion of the c mounds of the heathen '
in the boundaries of estates (p. 120) shows that these were not
away in the wild in a sort of ' no man's land ' but on the
perimeter of the property, though it does not follow that all
cemeteries had just this kind of location. There are cases in
which they seem to have been much nearer to the centres of
habitation than the indication just given would imply. For
example, at Sleaford in Lincolnshire, the extensive cemetery
was found in a field only 100 yards south of the town,1 and
that at Filkins in Oxfordshire is described as c obviously within
the ancient limits ' of the village.2
Furthermore the situation of the graveyard must have
been at times determined by the existence of earlier cemeteries
near the places of settlement. In ancient days the cemetery
was £ religiosum,' and the sacred places of a people were often
viewed with respect and even reverence by later immigrants
who came in to occupy that people's lands. Old oriental and
classical examples of this are numerous, for example Bethel in
Palestine, and the site of the temple of Artemis at Ephesus in
Ionia. The Teutonic conquerors of Britain, who held at any
rate sufficient intercourse with the older inhabitants to learn
from them the Celtic names of the rivers, may well have
accepted as a local institution, not to be lightly ignored, the
traditional place for the disposal of the dead. It bears upon
this to find it noticed at times by explorers that when an
earlier cremation burial has been disturbed by a later Anglo-
Saxon interment the previous remains were treated with
1 Archafologia, l, 383. 2 ibid., xxxvn, 145.
132
THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
reverent care. This was observed by Faussett at Gilton and
by Akerman at Long Wittenham.
It is the case at any rate that in many parts of the country
the new comers continued to use older burying places. This
is to be observed for example on the chalk downs of Kent,
Sussex, the Isle of Wight, and Wiltshire ; the wolds of the East
Riding of Yorkshire, the heaths of East Anglia, the hills of
North Derbyshire,1 the shores of the Thames and its affluents.
In Kent in the case of 10 sepulchral areas out of the 25 analysed
in a later chapter there was this evidence of preoccupation, and
the striking instance at Broadstairs (p. 22) will be remembered.
VALETTA
HOUSE
BRONZE AGE 0R.AVEJ ABCDEPGHJKU
ANGLO-SAXON GRAVES Qt (3 y S £.£ * 6 C
eiscovE-n.eo 1S11
s
T
°m
W //
9 l'"'
A HGLQ'SAytON ,3MvKi
em
-^
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Fig. 3. — Recently discovered Burying Ground at Broadstairs.
Accidental discoveries here in 1910-11 revealed the fact
that an Anglo-Saxon burying ground underlay the carriage
drive and lawn of a modern villa. A thorough exploration
was conducted and recorded with scientific completeness and
accuracy by Mr. Howard Hurd, the Borough Surveyor of
Broadstairs, who has kindly furnished the accompanying plan,
Fig. 3. Below the level of the Jutish graves there were dis-
1 Bateman, Ten Years' Diggings, Introduction, p, xiii.
BURIALS IN EARLIER BARROWS 133
closed two concentric circular trenches, the outer ring being 70
or 80 ft. in diameter and the two trenches averaging in width
about 4 ft. at the bottom by 8 ft. at the top with a depth of
about 4 ft. Within the inner trench which formed a circle of
46 ft. diameter or close to the edge of it were nine human
skeletons for the most part in a crouching position (p. 153),
and a careful examination of the skulls coupled with other
indications pointed to a date for the interments in the Later
Bronze Age. Quite distinct from these were the later Jutish
graves in which the bodies were laid at full length. The plan,
Fig. 3, will show the positions and relations of the two sets of
interments.
On the high ground above Glynde to the east of Lewes in
Sussex in close conjunction with Saxon graves were found
earlier cinerary urns containing cremated bones.1 A large
barrow on Bowcombe Down in the Isle of Wight contained
in the centre a primary interment of Celtic date and in the
outlying portions several Saxon inhumed bodies.2 Intrusive
Anglo-Saxon burials in earlier barrows in Wiltshire have been
noted, as in the Wiltshire Magazine, vi, 332 ; x, 91 ; xxn,
345 ; and by General Pitt Rivers in the case of Winklebury
Hill s ; another Wiltshire case has been noticed above (p. 120).
At Avening in Gloucestershire a tumulus showed clear traces
of cremation burials in its centre and in the outer area were
seven or eight skeletons buried with Saxon tomb furniture.4
At Oldbury near Atherstone, Warwickshire, a secondary
Anglo-Saxon interment was found in a prehistoric barrow.5
The riparian cemetery at Frilford in the Thames valley, three
or four miles from Abingdon on the tributary stream of the
Ock, presented a remarkable example of the use of a single
1 Victoria History, Sussex, 1, 388.
2 Ass., xvi, 254 f.
3 Excavations in Cranbourne Chase, 11, 257,
4 Proc. Soc. Ant., 1st Sen, 1, 241.
5 Coll. Ant., 1, p. 38.
i34 THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
burying ground by successive peoples and by the same peoples
at different epochs of their culture. It was systematically
explored by Professor Rolleston who communicated an ela-
borate report on his researches to vol. xlii of Archaeologia.
He divides the burials into no fewer than five classes of which
two were British and three Saxon.
The burials on the Wolds of East Yorkshire have been
carefully described by Canon Greenwell in his British Bar-
rows? and by Mr. J. R. Mortimer in a work entitled Forty
Tears Researches in British and Saxon Burial Mounds of East
Yorkshire.2 In both cases the writers were primarily con-
cerned with Celtic burials in round barrows of the Bronze Age
but intrusive interments of Anglo-Saxon date are not infre-
quently noticed, and while Canon Greenwell only signalizes
these without describing them, the work of Mr. Mortimer
contains full records as well as illustrations of the Teutonic
tomb furniture thus brought to light.
The group of burials here in question is instructive enough
to merit some special notice. It is situated on the chalk
uplands that sweep in a great curve from near the Humber a
few miles west of Hull, by Market Weighton and Malton,
and then round eastward to near Flamborough Head, and
that rise, especially between the towns just mentioned, to
heights of 600 to 800 ft. Here, generally on marked eleva-
tions overlooking the low ground to the north and westwards
towards York, are numerous clusters of barrows each con-
taining in the centre one primary burial in the inhumed or
cremated form and also very commonly in other parts of the
mound later or secondary interments. These are very often
almost contemporary with the original burials, or at any rate,
so far as can be judged, of the same people who furnished the
1 Oxford, 1877.
2 Edited by Mr. T. Sheppard, Curator of the Hull Museum, whither
the Mortimer collections from the Driffield Museum are now being
transferred.
YORKSHIRE WOLD BURIALS 135
primary body,1 but Anglian interments of a much later date
are also fairly numerous. These, it must be remarked, are in
the majority of cases inhumed interments, cremation being
comparatively rare. For example on one of the highest parts
of these uplands, on Garrowby Wold near Kirby Underdale
in the so-called ' Beacon Barrow,' 2 there was found a circular
hole excavated in the chalk below the barrow and filled with
the calcined human bones of an adult. This was probably a
British cremated burial, while near it were some inhumed
bones accompanied by iron weapons of an unmistakably
Anglian type. Not far from this on Painsthorpe Wold Canon
Greenwell opened a large barrow at Uncleby 3 which contained
evidences of cremated primary interments, some pottery of
the British type, a small polished greenstone axe and other
early objects, and which * had, at a time long subsequent to its
original construction, been made use of for burial purposes
by a community of Angles, . . . who had placed in it the
bodies of above seventy men, women and children. . . . Quite
a small museum of warlike, domestic and personal relics was
furnished by the results of a fortnight's digging.'4 In another
district, in Airedale, near Ferrybridge, Canon Greenwell ex-
plored a barrow that had been opened before, wherein were
interments of almost every possible kind, including a case of
an unburnt and a cremated body evidently interred at the
same time. The latest burials were those of some half dozen
inhumed bodies laid at full length with feet to the east and
very scanty tomb furniture — probably Angles of VII.5
1 ' Many of the secondary interments must have taken place either at no
great interval after the erection of the mound, or, at all events, before any
change had taken place in burial customs or in the manufacture of pottery,
implements, and ornaments,' etc. Greenwell, British Barrows, p. 17.
2 Mortimer, Forty Tears'1 Researches, etc., p. 144.
3 British Barrows, p. 135.
4 These Uncleby finds, the record of which had never seen the light,
form the subject of a recent communication by Mr. Reginald Smith to
Proc. Soc. Ant., xxiv. 5 British Barrows, 371 f.
136 THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
Apart from these instances where the previous use of the
burying ground is made evident by recognizable earlier inter-
ments, there have been noticed again and again in Anglo-
Saxon cemeteries curious pits and trenches the date and the
purpose of which are obscure. The questions whether these
are part of the arrangement of the cemetery by the Anglo-
Saxons, or are of older date than the Anglo-Saxon use ; and
what purpose they had originally served, or were made to serve
by the Teutonic immigrants who took over the sites, have
never been systematically examined. The appearances are of
the following kind. At Barrington, Cambs, Mr. W. K. Foster
reported x ' numerous pits of various dimensions, whose posi-
tions appeared to bear no relation to those of the graves . . .
they were filled with a black greasy earth interspersed with
occasional shards of pottery, bones, and teeth of animals . . .
that they are not of Saxon origin is clear.' Running from
several of the pits were ditches or drains. Exactly the same
combination of pit and ditch was observed quite recently in
the Alfriston cemetery, Sussex, and similar phenomena were
reported at Standlake, Oxfordshire. At Stapenhill, Stafford-
shire,2 there was ' a large circular hole, some three feet in
depth, containing fragments of pottery and bones, and at the
bottom of it a dark, unctuous-looking kind of clay.' Near
this was a ditch containing * several hundreds of animals' bones,
such as those of the ox, horse, pig, goat, hare, and dog, also
numerous fragments of pottery of Saxon, Romano-British, and
Roman origin, and a few probably even of Celtic'
It is clear accordingly that intrusive interments in burying
places of the earlier population were not uncommon in the
various parts of Teutonized England, and it may be noted
that not only was the practice of secondary interment in vogue
already among the earlier population whose were the original
1 Cambridge Antiquarian Society's Communications, vol. v, Nov. 5, 1880.
2 Transactions of Burton-on-Trent Archaeological Society, 1., Lond., 1889,
p. 160 f.
BURIALS IN ROMAN CEMETERIES 137
barrows, but it lasted beyond the era of Anglo-Saxon
paganism, for it is observed that in the later Viking age the
intrusive burial of a sea-rover in a Bronze Age barrow is not
uncommon.1
This use by the Teutonic immigrants of earlier cemeteries
is chiefly observable in connection with the barrows with
cremated interments that are often of the Bronze Age and
may date from a millennium before the migration, and not
with the burying grounds in use by the Romano-British
population at the actual period of the conquest. In the case
of these the continuity in sepulchral usage is only to a very
slight extent in evidence. If we take the known Roman or
Romano-British cemeteries attached to Roman towns we have
to note the following. The Roman cities in the south-west
and west of England do not come into question because these
regions did not pass into the hands of the invaders till the
pagan period was over, but of those towns in the midland and
eastern districts where the old Roman cemeteries have been
explored only York seems to offer unmistakable evidence of a
continuity in use. There, upon the * Mount,' a raised bank of
gravel of glacial origin across which the Roman road from
Tadcaster enters the city, cremation urns of Anglian type have
been found and with them Roman urns and coffins of stone,
proving the common use of a burying ground. At Lincoln
though Roman remains frequently come to light no Saxon
ones have been found with them, and the same is the case with
London and with Canterbury, in both of which places such
Saxon finds as have been noted are either accidental and non-
sepulchral or else belong to the Danish period. At Colchester
opinions seem to differ as to whether there was continuity in
the use of cemeteries, but Mr. Arthur Wright, Curator of the
Museum, does not believe that the collections there afford any
evidence of it. It stands to reason that casual finds may come
to light almost anywhere, but these must not be charged with
1 Sophus Miiller, Nordiiche Jltertumskunde, 11, 254.
138 THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
more significance than they can reasonably bear. Thus at
Corbridge in Northumberland early Anglian fibulae and beads
were found together with fragments of an urn hinting at the
interment of a Germanic lady within the limits of Roman
Corstopitum, but this is quite an isolated phenomenon, and
the burial, if it were one, was not in the cemetery of the place
but in the ruins of the inhabited town. The neighbourhood
of the Roman cemetery at Strood, Kent, across the river
Medway from Rochester, furnished we have seen at least one
early Anglo-Saxon burial, but probably that of a wandering
rover rather than of a regular settler, and in any case the
interment, or interments for another warrior's grave had pre-
viously been found, was only contiguous with and not in the
Roman cemetery. At Flixborough in North Lincolnshire,
Mr. Arthur Smith of the Lincoln Museum identified a Roman
site and found with the remains of Roman pottery a couple
of Saxon brooches. Saxon urns and weapons were found with
Roman burials at Hassocks, Sussex. At Frilford, Berks, there
was distinct evidence of continuity from Roman to pagan, and
apparently to Christian, Saxon times,1 but Frilford and Flix-
borough are country sites not in the vicinity of a walled
Romano-British town. Leicester was such a walled town and
it is interesting to note that in the main Roman cemetery
south-west of the city no Saxon remains have come to light,
though in other parts outside the walls a certain mixture of
Roman and Anglo-Saxon funereal relics has been observed.2
At Roman Ancaster a Saxon cinerary urn was discovered.
On the whole the evidence seems clearly to show that the
use of the Roman cemeteries by the immigrant Teutons was
like their employment for residence of the Roman towns,
occurring perhaps here and there, but quite casual and sporadic.
At Canterbury, where if anywhere continuity of residence as
well as burial might have been looked for, the mediaeval and
modern streets do not correspond to the Roman ones, and all
1 Archaeologia, xlii, 419. 2 Victoria History, Leicestershire, 1, 199 f.
INTERMENTS IN ROMAN ROADS 139
the evidence goes to show that after the Jutish conquest it was
abandoned, ' and for a long time its ruins remained uninhabited
and desolate.' * It is certain that the Saxons did not fix upon
these walled towns as their places of abode, but, like their
kinsfolk on the Continent whom Ammianus Marcellinus de-
scribes as averse from the life of towns, settled in the country
districts, avoiding even as was noticed before2 the proximity
of the Roman roads. In regard to these there is to be
noted the curious fact that there are well-attested instances
where Anglo-Saxon interments have been effected beneath the
actual surface of a Roman road. This undoubtedly was the
case on the Watling Street not far from High Cross where the
Fosse Way crosses the great north-western thoroughfare,3 and
on the Fosse Way itself at Cotgrave in Nottinghamshire.*
A burial of the Viking age is recorded in the centre of the
great northern thoroughfare that passes Catterick in Yorkshire
in its way to Corbridge and Scotland.5 On the other hand
near Daventry in Northants Anglo-Saxon burials were found
in a long narrow mound that ran for 40 or 50 yards parallel
to the Watling Street and just outside its original embank-
ment.6 This last arrangement is quite intelligible and would
imply a recognition of the Roman tradition of burial alongside
1 Sir Henry Hovvarth, Saint Augustine of Canterbury , Lond., 191 3, p. 53.
2 Vol. 1, p. 58 f.
8 The well-known antiquary, M. H. Bloxam, is the authority for this
somewhat surprising fact, and he was a resident in the neighbourhood so that
there is every reason to trust what he says. His account is contained in a
small book published in London in 1834 and entitled A Glimpse at the
Monumental Architecture and Sculpture of Great Britain, p. 44, and begins
'In the summer of 1824, some labourers employed to repair the Watling-
street road, near Bensford Bridge . . . disturbed a number of human
skeletons, which lay buried in the centre and on the sides of the road,' etc.
This site is referred to later on (p. 774) under the name ' Cestersover.'
4 Ass., in, 297. The bodies were ' interred in the line of road, at full
length, in graves cut through the gravel and rubble of which it is composed,
down to the rock, which is met with about two feet from the surface.'
5 Arch. Journ., v, 220. 6 Vict. Hist., Notts, 1, p. 197.
140 THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
a highway. Actually to break up the surface of a road for the
purposes of interment is a very different matter, and hard to
understand. Mr. Reginald Smith considers the Watling Street
and Fosse Way burials early ones of V or VI, but such a use
or rather misuse of the thoroughfare can hardly be reconciled
with the view which he and others have favoured, that the
Teutonic immigrants employed the Roman roads for their
own movements and traffic.1 The burials would show that
the purpose of the roads was at the time forgotten or at any
rate ignored.
The fact that the Saxons did not employ the Roman
cemeteries agrees entirely with their avoidance of the Roman
towns, but conversely it invites us to ask whether their penchant
for interment in the British barrows does not imply a similar
appropriation of British country dwelling places. In the rural
districts there existed Romano-British villages such as those
described by General Pitt Rivers on the borders of Wilts and
Dorset, or even in some parts Celtic ones of the type of Meere
by Glastonbury. How far did the invaders take these over for
their habitations ?
Professor Maitland in his Doomsday Book and Beyond?
while emphasizing the Teutonic character of the Anglo-Saxon
settlements, adds that there can be little doubt that ' very often
in the west and south-west of Britain German kings and eorls
took to themselves integral estates the boundaries and agrarian
arrangements whereof had been drawn by Romans or rather by
Celts.' The special conditions of settlement in the West
cannot here be discussed, but taking the country as a whole
continuity of habitation must be denied. Two chapters of a
recent work on our national antiquities 3 are devoted to the
evidences all over the land of such continuity, but the instances
1 Vict. Hist., Warwick, i, 251.
2 Cambridge, 1897, p. 351.
8 Byways in British Archaeology, by Walter Johnson, F.G.S., Cambridge,
1912.
SITES OF THE SETTLEMENTS 141
of this where they occur strike one as accidents or coincidences
inevitable in a small and well-peopled country rather than as
illustrations of a general rule. On the whole the impression
left on the mind of any one who with antiquarian predilections
passes up and down through rural England is that the first
founders of the { ings ' and * hams ' and * tons ' had settled
Fig. 4. — Site of Cemetery on Down above Folkestone, Kent.
down, as Tacitus phrases it,1 in detached bodies apart from each
other, just as spring or field or grove offered attractions, and
that it was only by some chance contingency that they pitched
on the site either of a Roman villa or a British hamlet.
This independence would not of course preclude the
appropriation of older burying grounds where the site of these
was convenient. The barrows were themselves generally at
some distance from the habitations of the living, and they also
1 T>e Mor. Germ., xvi.
142
THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
frequently possessed the characteristic of being on compara-
tively elevated ground. This is the case with Bronze Age
barrows on the Sussex Downs by Lewes, with the Wiltshire
mounds, the Bronze Age barrows on the Yorkshire Wolds,
and the Early Iron Age tumuli at Arras near Market
Weighton, Yorks. Now a predilection for an elevated site
for the cemetery has been ascribed not only to the Anglo-
Saxons of our own country but, as by Lindenschmit,1
Fig. 5. — Site of High Down Cemetery, Sussex, from the South.
Barriere-Flavy 2 and others, to the Teutons in general. So far
as English cemeteries are concerned this principle does apply
in certain regions, and there are conspicuous instances in which
a site of commanding elevation has been selected for the inter-
ment, though the bodies must have been carried up by a long
way and a steep one from the settlements. The illustrations,
Figs. 4 to 6, exhibit one instance in Kent, another in Sussex.
Fig. 4 is a view up from Folkestone towards the chalk down
which is climbed by the road to Dover. Here at a height of
1 Handbuch, p. 128. 2 Les Arts Industries, etc., 1, 3.
ELEVATED SITES FOR CEMETERIES
H3
about 500 ft. above the sea, just below the white patch that
marks a chalk quarry, there existed a cemetery that must, one
would think, have served for the Teutonic settlers on the lower
ground towards the sea, for there is no trace of an early
Teutonic population any nearer, and the very conspicuous and
lofty situation is a striking fact in support of the principle
under examination. The other illustrations, Figs. 5, 6, show
a site for a cemetery more remarkable perhaps than that of any
other of our Teutonic graveyards. The site called High
Down is on an isolated projecting point of the South Downs
that rises to the height of some 270 ft. and dominates the
Fig. 6. — Site of High Down Cemetery, Sussex, from the East.
alluvial plain about two to three miles in width on which are
grouped the Saxon settlements Angmering, Ferring, Goring,
Tarring, Worthing, and others. The highest point of the hill
has been taken advantage of and the cemetery occupies part of
the enclosure of an ancient British camp, the site of which is
marked in the sketches by a plantation of bushy trees. If Fig. 5
give the aspect of the height from the south, Fig. 6, taken at
right angles to the other view from the east, shows how it
towers also above the undulating down country at its back.
The view is taken from the top of the hill out of Worthing on
the road to Arundel just where the thoroughfare makes a
sharp bend to the west, and exhibits the site of the cemetery as
the culminating point of the whole district. As far as situation
i44 THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
goes it would have served well as a federal cemetery for several
associated communities, but its extent is only about ioo graves.
A second conspicuous Kentish example may be found at
Chatham, where in XVIII Douglas opened many graves upon
the commanding heights facing the town of Rochester. At
Farthingdown near Colsdon in Surrey there is a cemetery on a
breezy ridge of the chalk down 400 ft. above the sea.
Taking the Anglo-Saxon cemeteries over the country
generally, it is certainly the rule that wherever, as in the
chalk-down country in different parts of England, high
ground is accessible there the cemeteries are elevated, but
to this rule there are plenty of exceptions. The important
Faversham cemetery on the site known as the ' King's Field '
is near the town and borders the Roman road, though higher
ground could easily have been reached. In Sussex the burial
ground sometimes called ' Saxonbury ' at Kingston by Lewes
is by no means elevated, though in the immediate vicinity the
downs rise sharply to 400 or 500 ft. Some of the cemeteries
in Wilts are up on the downs, but in contrast to the elevation
of these the important site of Harnham Hill opposite
Salisbury is at the foot of their escarpment. The Harnham
site is an example worth noting. The wayfarer who stands
on Harnham Bridge just out of Salisbury to the south and
looks in a south-westerly direction towards the spire of Harnham
church will have his eyes turned in the direction of the Anglo-
Saxon cemetery about half a mile away. This lies at the top
of a gentle slope upwards from the Avon, but at the same
time just at the foot of a very steep scarp of the chalk down
which rises abruptly from the summit of the gentle slope, and
above which again the hill ascends to a considerable height.
Hence it is clear that in this case at any rate the makers of
the cemetery did not seek for any special elevation, but buried
distinctly under the hill and not on the top of it, though on
a site well above the marshy river meadows. In Yorkshire
the wold burials of the East Riding are at considerable
RIPARIAN CEMETERIES 145
elevations, but nearer York the urn cemetery at Heworth
a mile or so from the centre of the city is in the flat country,
though itself on a slight rise similar to the * Mount ' (p. 137)
on the other side of the city. At Saltburn-on-Sea in the
north of the county a commanding site was chosen, but over
the border in Durham for the cemetery at Darlington no
special elevation was sought. At Sleaford, Lincolnshire, in
the extreme south of the same Northumbrian region, it was
noted that there was ' but little elevation in the ground
occupied by the cemetery.'1 The cemetery at Little Wil-
braham, Cambs, is on a hill of about 100 ft. in height, but
the low-lying site of Cambridge itself has furnished a
considerable number of burials, some of which are on gravel
spits, though one cemetery, that in St. John's College cricket
field, is in the alluvial clay of the river. Marston St.
Lawrence, Northants, is on an elevated ridge overlooking the
valley of the Cherwell, and North Luffenham, Rutland, is on
high ground, 350 ft. above the sea.
There are on the other hand a whole class of cemeteries,
represented especially in the Thames Valley and in those of
the Trent, the Warwickshire Avon, the Nene, the Bedford-
shire Ouse, that may be called riparian, in that they keep to
the neighbourhood of the waterways and are satisfied with
sites only high enough to be clear of marshy land or that
subject to floods. The course of the Thames and those of its
tributaries are lined with cemeteries such as these. Sitting-
bourne, Northfleet by Gravesend, Greenwich, Mitcham,
Shepperton, Reading, Long Wittenham, Frilford, Bright-
hampton and Standlake, Fairford, are examples, to the general
situation of which parallels could be found in the other river
valleys named above. The Trent Valley cemetery at
Stapenhill near Burton is however quite on high ground,
120 ft. above the stream, while those at Holme Pierrepont,
King's Newton, and Newark are more on the flat. The
1 Archueologia, l, 385.
Ill K
146 THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
cemetery at Longbridge near Warwick is down by the Avon
on a slightly sloping bank of river gravel ; Kempston is
in a somewhat similar position in relation to the Ouse near
Bedford.
A reason explaining a penchant for an elevated situation
for a cemetery may be found in the traditions of a marsh-
land people, who in their original low-lying home had been
forced to this precaution in order to secure a safe resting
place for their dead. The lands from which the Teutonic
invaders of Britain originally came are not by any means
all marshy or even flat, but the reason suggested may in
some cases have validity.1
IV. The treatment of the body before burial, and the
disposal of it or its ashes in the receptacle prepared for it.
This topic introduces the question of the two methods
in use for the disposal of the body in Teutonic cemeteries,
cremation and inhumation, and this is a subject that could
only be fully discussed in connection with historical and
ethnic considerations that cannot here be introduced. The
theme is dealt with in a later chapter (Ch. x). Here it is
only necessary to notice that both customs are in evidence
in English cemeteries, but that during all the time of the
settlement and the pagan period generally the custom of
burning the body was gradually giving way before that of
committing it entire to the ground. There are cemeteries
such as Heworth near York ; Kingston-on-Soar and Newark,
Notts ; Pitsford, Northants, and one of the cemeteries at
Sancton, Yorks, where only cremation has been observed,
but more common is the mixed cemetery in which urns
containing ashes and extended bodies are found in juxta-
position, and this may be regarded as a transition to the
inhumation cemetery proper, which is the rule south of
1 The article ' Bestattungswesen ' in the new Real-Lexicon der Germa-
niscben Altertumskunde may on this point be consulted.
TREATMENT OF CREMATED REMAINS 147
the Thames. Such a cemetery is at first equipped with
tomb furniture but gives place after a time to the burial
place in which the institution of the ' Beigaben ' is dying
out, and the way is thus being prepared for the normal
churchyard burial of the advanced Christian period.
The remarkable fact must at the same time be emphasized
that in spite of the general change that was going on there are
curious cases that seem to furnish exceptions to its operation.
Cremation urns have been found to contain late objects
betokening VII, while in the case of two contiguous and
closely allied Cambridgeshire cemeteries, at Linton Heath
and Little Wilbraham, the earlier of the two is a purely
inhumation cemetery, while at the later one, that last
mentioned, cremation was in full employment.
When the body was burned fragments of the calcined bones
were collected, to all appearance with considerable care, and
when broken up, as was the rule, into small pieces they were
placed either in a little heap in a hollow made in the ground,
or else in a receptacle which in Anglo-Saxon cemeteries was
almost invariably of burnt clay.1 When the bones were laid
on the ground an urn was sometimes reversed over them, and
occasionally as at King's Newton, Derbyshire, the calcined
remains were placed on a flat stone over which the urn was
turned mouth downwards. A flat stone is exceptionally
used to cover the mouth of a cinerary urn when placed in
its normal position, and an urn might stand with a flat stone
under it. There are examples at King's Newton and
elsewhere. PI. xi, 4 shows a small urn of 3^ in. diameter,
that was not however a cinerary urn, at Colchester, from
Kelvedon, Essex, with the stone that was found covering
it. The urns and the bones are of course always committed
1 At Combe, near Sandwich, Kent, an exceptional discovery was made
of burnt bones within a bronze bowl standing on short legs, that from the
accompanying objects seemed to be of Anglo-Saxon date and provenance,
but some of these objects were decidedly late (p. 2*2).
148 THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
to the*ground. In the case of the inhumed burial there were
various ways of treating the body before interment.
In this connection a word must be said on the subject
of partial cremation, or a ceremonial, some would say
sacramental, use of fire in the preparation of a body for burial
or in the act of burial itself. Some writers, for example
K. Koenen,1 have held that the practice of cremation gradually
grew up out of a partial use of fire for the purpose of
separating the flesh from the bones so that the latter
alone might be preserved, and others have believed that fire
was often or always applied as a kind of symbolic puri-
fication even when no attempt was made to consume the
corpse. No discussion of the general subject is possible
here, and the reader is referred to the brief but admirable
treatment of it in Dr. Sophus Muller's Nordische Altertums-
kunde, i, 360 f. See also Canon Greenwell's British Barrows,
p. 28 and note. It must however be recorded that accounts
of discoveries in Anglo-Saxon cemeteries give some colour
to the idea that partial burning was in use. Thus Faussett,
in reporting on his discoveries in the Kentish cemeteries in
his Inventorium Sepulchrale noticed what he regarded as
marks of burning on about half of the whole number of
nearly 400 coffins of which he signalizes the presence. He
does not however fully explain what he means, and his
' marks of burning ' may be only the result of decay. A
better attested case is that of the important isolated burial
at Broomfield, Essex, where distinct marks of combustion
appeared coexistent with the remains of a wooden coffin.
The use of a wooden coffin and the practice of consuming
the body on a funeral pyre are mutually exclusive. With
ourselves to-day a coffin is always de rigueur, but when
cremation is contemplated this is only a light shell of deal.
In Anglo-Saxon days the use of a coffin was neither universal
1 Gefdsskunde der vorr'6miscbeny romischen und frankiscben Zeit in den
Rbeinldndern, Bonn, 1895, p. 36.
SARCOPHAGI 149
nor even general, and it certainly would be omitted in
any case of cremation. Hence marks of burning in con-
junction with remains of a coffin are something abnormal.
A case of cremation within a grave, necessarily only partial
cremation, is thus described in the contemporary account of
the exploration of the cemetery at Kempston, Beds, in 1863.1
'Nov. 16. . . . We found that we had come upon a pit,
which exceeded seven feet in length. ... It proved to be
a place where an entire body, stretched at full length,
had been consumed by fire. As far as I could judge, the pit
must have been occupied with live embers up to a certain
height, the body placed carefully thereon, and then more
material for burning heaped upon it. Large branches of
thoroughly charred wood, retaining their form, and exhibiting
their concentric layers, were discovered in connection with
this cremation, above the human remains. The head and
upper part of the frame were more completely burnt than
the lower extremities.' It may be noticed that partial
cremation was observed by Lipp in ten instances in the very
large inhumation cemetery at Keszthely in Hungary,2 and
once at Reichenhall, where inhumation was almost universal,
the same thing was noted.
The sarcophagus of stone, such as M. Pilloy found in a
sepulchre of about 400 a.d. at Homblieres near St. Quentin,
and in one of about VI at Jardin Dieu de Cugny, Aisne,3 or of
plaster like the later Merovingian sarcophagi of the Musee
Carnavalet at Paris,4 is not a feature of our Anglo-Saxon
cemeteries, though in VII such things as the first were well
known. The body of St. Cuthbert and the body of Sebbi,
king of the East Saxons, were placed in stone coffins, and that
of the famous iEthelthryth, abbess of Ely, after being first
1 Associated Societies' Reports, 1864, p. 288.
2 Hampe], Altertbumer in Ungarn, 1, 76.
3 Etudes, 1, 150, 51.
4 Arts and Crafts of our Teutonic Forefathers, p. 108.
150 THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
buried in a wooden coffin was reinterred in an ancient Roman
one of white marble found at Grantchester near Cambridge.1
One instance of a stone coffin found in a pagan Anglo-Saxon
cemetery is recorded at West Stow Heath, Suffolk, a place
not very far from Ely.2 The use of a wooden coffin was
however in some districts quite frequent, though in others
unknown.3 Out of about 700 Kentish interments Faussett
believed that he detected the presence of coffins in nearly 400
graves, while in 280 cases he definitely asserts their absence.
On the other hand no coffins are mentioned in the inventories
of the cemeteries of Sussex, though they occur again in Wilts.
Planks, perhaps not put together in coffin form, were reported
from North LufFenham, Rutland.
For proof of the presence of coffins we are not left to often
doubtful indications in the traces of decayed wood, for iron
bolts and corner pieces that must have belonged to coffins at
times make their appearance. At Sibertswold, Kent, such
iron fittings were found and indicated that the wood had been
some 3 in. thick. A group of iron coffin bolts and mounts
from Bifrons in the Kent Archaeological Society's collection at
Maidstone is shown No. 6 on PL xi. A thickness of planking
of at least 2^ in. is indicated by the longest of the pieces.
PL xviii, 2 (p. 177) gives a partial view of a Wiltshire burial
where the iron coffin mounts are seen in situ on each side
of the skeleton, which came from the earlier Bronze Age
barrow in Ogborne St. Andrew churchyard. They can be dis-
tinguished by their darker colour from the bones. The
interesting exhibit is in the Museum at Devizes. Owing
to the absence of relics it is not absolutely certain that the
interment is Saxon. No such artistic smithing has been found
attached to Anglo-Saxon coffins as came to light in the grave
1 Bede, Hist. Eccl., iv, 11.
2 Victoria History, Suffolk, 1, 339,
3 ' Coffins are not common at this period except in Kent.' Mr. Reginald
Smith in Vict. Hist., Yorks, 11, 95.
SKELETON OF ANGLO-SAXON LADY AT FOLKESTONE
Foreshortened view
COFFINS AND CISTS 151
of a Lombard chieftain at Civezzano in North Italy and is in
evidence in the Museum at Innsbruck.1 The custom some-
times observed abroad 2 of forming receptacles for the body
by hollowing out the two halves of split tree trunks, a practice
of the Bronze Age3 surviving in England to a much later
period, may have been used in Saxon burials in Yorkshire,4
but is very uncommon. In York Museum are some recept-
acles of the kind from Selby that are possibly Anglian. The
example shown on PI. xix (p. 1 80) is more regularly shaped.
As a substitute for a coffin or a sarcophagus slabs or
nodules of stone are sometimes used. At Ozengell in Thanet
and in the neighbouring cemetery at Goldston by Richborough,
Kent, the bodies had been covered with slabs of laminated
sandstone, from a bed of the stone on the shore of Pegwell
Bay, and Professor Rolleston noticed that certain of the
Anglo-Saxon graves at Frilford were lined with upright
stones, suggesting in both cases some attempt at a cist. The
same thing is reported from Chessell Down in the Isle of
Wight.5 Faussett, and also Hillier, I.e., speak of large flint
stones ranged on each side of bodies as if to protect them
from the superincumbent earth. In the important and well-
described cemetery at Sleaford in Lincolnshire a large number
of the bodies were enclosed in stone cists of rude construction.
At Kempston, Beds, 'in certain graves were rough, unhewn
pieces of limestone which had apparently been placed with
care over the body.' 6
It is the belief of the writer that these more elaborate
arrangements, the coffin, the partial cist, the ceremonial
1 Arts and Crafts, etc., pi. iv, fig. 15, pi. xxiv, fig. 95.
2 Especially in Alamannic regions, as at Oberflacht, cf. Lindenschmit,
Handbucb, p. 121 f.
3 Sophus Muller, Nordiscbe Alter tumskunde, i, 341.
4 Greenwell, British Barrows, p. 376 note.
5 Hillier, Isle of Wight, p. 29.
6 C. Roach Smith in Coll. Ant., vi, 2 1 8.
152 THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
cremation if such existed, were all quite exceptional and that in
the vast majority of cases all over the country the inhumation
of the body was a simple affair. The corpse was certainly
dressed in the clothes worn in life, for the occurrence of
buckles, girdle ornaments, brooches, pins, clasps, to which at
times fragments of clothing still adhere, leave no doubt of this.
The use of a shroud with the vesture, such as was found when
the coffin of St. Cuthbert was opened at Durham in 1827,1 is
attested by occasional remains. For example, in the collection
of Mr. Samuel Fenton in London there is some decayed cloth
in which three fibulae are embedded. These were found at
the side of a skull in Warren Hill cemetery, in north-west
Suffolk, and to the explorers they had evidently served to
fasten the cloth where it was wrapped round the head as a
winding sheet. Bronze pins have been found in situations
which made the explorer think they had been used to join
together the edges of a cerecloth,2 and the former presence of
an outer wrapping is made evident in cases where the remains
of some fabric are found on arms buried with the body or on
the upper surface of a fibula. Traces on the under surface
would be those of the vestment fastened by the brooch, but
only an overwrap would leave its impression on the usually
exposed face of the brooch. An example from Kempston
cemetery, Beds, is shown, PI. xiii, 3. The words of Ophelia
1 They bore him barefac'd on the bier,'
may possibly indicate what was the custom among our Teutonic
forefathers, and the winding sheet like the coffin may have
been the exception, but there is not enough evidence on which
to base a decided opinion. On the whole the probabilities are
that the winding sheet was in pretty general use. There are
very clear traces of it on a spear head at Lewes, which must
either have been enclosed in the same sheet with the body, or
1 Raine, Saint Cutbbert, etc., Durham, 1829, p. 33.
2 e.g. at Harnham Hill, Wilts, Arch., xxxv, 477.
XIII
facing p. 153
CROUCHING SKELETON, ETC.
POSITION OF BODIES IN THE GRAVE 153
placed in a separate wrapping, which presupposes a similar
treatment for the corpse. The weapon was found in 1 9 1 2 at
Alfriston in Sussex. As a result of his long experience in
excavating cemeteries, M. Pilloy believed that as a rule the
body was borne to the grave side on an open bier,1 perhaps
covered with a shroud, and that this display of the corpse
made a special reason for furnishing it forth with all its
habiliments and jewels.
The usual position of a body on the bier, on its back in an
extended position, as shown for example in Egyptian and
Greek funereal pictures, was as a general rule retained in the
final interment, and the vast majority of skeletons that have
come to light in our Anglo-Saxon cemeteries are lying in this
position with the arms down by the sides. PI. xn gives a
view, necessarily foreshortened and so somewhat untrue in
proportion, of one of the very few Anglo-Saxon skeletons
which can be seen in English Museums. It is a female skeleton
from the recently discovered cemetery on the down above
Folkestone and is in the Museum of that town. The age of
the lady is pronounced to have been about forty years. The
teeth are wonderfully perfect and the skull, better seen PI. xv, 2,
is well formed and very dolichocephalic. There were amber
beads round the neck and an iron knife is by the side, while
under the left hand lies a key of which there will be question
on a later page (p. 396).
To this supine and extended position there are however
noteworthy exceptions. The most frequent of these is the
so-called crouching position, PI. xiii, 1, in which the body lies
on its side with the knees drawn up and the arms bent so that
the cheek would be pillowed on the hands. In times earlier
than the Anglo-Saxon this was a very common method for the
disposal of the inhumed corpse, and to account for it all sorts
of ingenious suggestions have been put forward. In connec-
tion with such burials among the so-called ' pre-dynastic ' race
1 Etudes, 1, 52.
154 THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
in Egypt the question has recently been discussed anew, and
the very reasonable and simple explanation has been offered
that the position is really the familiar oriental one of squatting
on the ground or sitting on the heels, a pose exhibited by many
of the smaller figures of retainers and domestics found in the
Egyptian tombs of the Old Empire. If a figure sitting up in
this position were pushed over on to its side the body would
assume the attitude of the f crouching ' skeletons. This expla-
nation of the pose applies well enough to oriental regions, but
the practice of * sitting on the heels ' is not one characteristic of
the West, where the ground is as a rule too damp and cold.
There remains the view which sees in it a copy of the attitude
of a sleeper, and this is certainly preferable to the very far-
fetched one that it reproduces the disposition of the human
embryo in the womb.
As a general rule the crouching position when it occurs in
a cemetery is quite exceptional among the interments, but it is
most remarkable to find that at Sleaford, Lincolnshire, among
about 240 burials reported on, with only about a dozen excep-
tions of which most were burials of children, the bodies were
in the doubled up position.1 There are exceptional cases also
in which the body has been found in the normally extended
position but prone on its face and not as is almost always the
case on its back. Dismembered skulls have been found several
times either detached from the vertebral column of skeletons
to which they appear to belong and placed between the thigh
bones, as in some graves at White Horse Hill, Berks, or else
placed in a grave as an adjunct to a complete skeleton, of
which the head is in the normal position. Plural interments,
where two or more bodies are laid in the same receptacle, are
not uncommon, but the systematic disposal of corpses in a
cemetery in two or more layers one above the other is perhaps
more frequent abroad than in our own country, though
instances of it occur in the Anglo-Saxon region. This * super-
1 Archaeologia, l, 385.
XIV
facing p. 155
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ARRANGEMENT OF THE GRAVES 155
inhumation,' as it is called, is inevitable in the case of secondary-
interments in earlier barrows, but it is noticed also when both
layers are Teutonic of the migration period. The possible
significance from the social point of view of all these phe-
nomena will be noticed in the sequel (p. 188 f.) but these
are fascinating by-paths into which it is not advisable to
wander far.
V. The arrangement and the forms of the graves.
In cremation cemeteries the urns are generally found regu-
larly placed in rows, as was the case at Sancton and Heworth,
Yorks ; Newark and Kingston-on-Soar, Notts ; Saltburn-on-
Sea, Yorks, where they were arranged in parallel lines that ran
north and south and were about 6 yards apart ; and Ipswich,
where five urns were in a single line about 1 ft. from each
other. This was not however always the case, for at Kettering
* no order had apparently been maintained,' l though the urns
were sometimes in groups ; and at Brighthampton, Oxford-
shire, Akerman found the cremation urns scattered promiscu-
ously among the graves.2 The urns as we have seen were
sometimes covered with flat stones.
The arrangement of the typical Anglo-Saxon inhumation
cemetery is curiously like that of a modern graveyard without
its tombstones. As a rule the denizens of it were interred
singly and the receptacle for the body was cut so as to take it
at full length, some arrangement being often made for giving
a slight elevation to the head as if on a couch, a small pro-
tuberance of the material of the bed of the grave being left, or
a pillow-like stone introduced. Two illustrations are given on
Plates xiv and xv exhibiting the aspect of skeletons when the
superincumbent earth has been removed. As a rule, though
not always, the graves are arranged in parallel rows, as is indi-
cated by the German term ' Reihengraber,' but there are always
1 Journal of Northamptonshire Natural History Society, xu, 123.
2 Archaeologia, xxxvm, 85.
156 THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
irregularities, and in most cemeteries there are parts in which
the disposition of the bodies is less formal than in others. At
Sleaford, Lincolnshire, the explorer noted the arrangement of
the graves in rows parallel to the southern limit of the ceme-
tery, the graves being about 10 ft. apart. This held good
for about two-thirds of the whole space, beyond which the
interments were very irregular. When the rows are regular
the distances between them may range from about 18 in. to
4 or 5 ft. In cases where each grave is under a tumulus, the
intervals must necessarily be of some substantial width. The
graves vary in depth, as a rule from about ij ft. to 3 ft., and
it is most usual to find that the supersoil has been removed
and the body laid either on the upper surface of the underlying
stratum or in a slight excavation made in this. The plan of
the single grave is generally rectangular and the rhomboidal
shape in which greater width is given where the shoulders
come has been but little noticed by explorers in this country.
One example occurred in grave 4 at Sarre, Kent. PL xiv shows
the aspect of the central and most regular portion of the
cemetery at Saffron Walden, Essex. It is thus described in
the Report by Mr. H. Ecroyd Smith.1 'Over the area named
the graves are distributed most diversely. To the N.E.' (the
portion shown on the plate) l there has been an evident inten-
tion of interment in line, but the rows, four in number, are
neither straight nor of equal length ; their direction is pretty
nearly N.W. and S.E. Each of the graves here being fairly
and distinctly cut for a single body, one may regard this
portion as the cemetery proper.' The view, PI. xiv, makes
this plain.2 Mr. Ecroyd Smith goes on, * To the southward
the skeletons mostly were found in isolated spots, with or
without a grave. At the extreme southern corner, still greater
1 An Ancient Cemetery at Saffron Walden, by H. Ecroyd Smith, Col-
chester, W. Wiles, n.d.
2 For permission to reproduce this view thanks are due to the authorities
of the Saffron Walden Museum, through Mr. Guy Maynard, Curator.
XV
facing p. 157
PORTION OF ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY, DOVER HILL, FOLKESTONE
'PILLOW UNDER HEAD OF THE FOLKESTONE SKELETON
SHAPES AND SIZES OF GRAVES 157
want of order, in fact extreme confusion, was apparent. One
large rectangular pit or cist contained the remains of several
bodies which seemed to have been hastily or carelessly de-
posited ; smaller ones contained one or more skeletons in
similar condition.'
PI. xv, 1, shows a portion of the recently excavated
cemetery on Dover Hill, Folkestone.1 Whereas at Saffron
Walden, PL xiv, the bodies are laid in distinct excavations in
the chalk subsoil, here at Folkestone the supersoil has been
removed and the bodies merely laid on the surface of the
chalk. In this case a small projection of the chalk has been
left to serve as a pillow for the skull, and PI. xv, 2 shows this
in the case of the skeleton in the Folkestone Museum of
which a view was given on PI. xn.
The regular rock-cut tomb holding the corpse as in a
sarcophagus, as in the example at Wittislingen in Suabia
(p. 541), can hardly be said to occur, but there was one instance
at Barlaston in Staffordshire, where a grave 7 ft. long by 2 ft.
wide ' was cut in the solid red sandstone rock.' 2 The objects
in the grave proved it to be Anglo-Saxon. Large sepulchral
cavities have sometimes been found excavated in the chalk.
Grave No. 4 at Sarre, very richly furnished, measured 10 ft.
by about 4 and was 4 ft. 6 in. deep. At Bourne Park, Kent,
were large excavations. The cavities (p. 720) mentioned may
be taken as examples of graves far too large for a single skeleton,
for they measured about 14 ft. in length by a width of 6 or 7
and a depth of 3. They do not seem to have been actually
used as might be expected for multiform burials but for single
interments, and this agrees with what has been noticed
about the burials in the earlier British barrows where a huge
1 This photograph was very kindly furnished by Mr. A. E. Nichols,
Borough Engineer of Folkestone, who carefully supervised the excavations
of the cemetery accidentally laid bare in connection with operations for
the widening of the Dover road.
2 Jewitt, Grave-mounds and their Contents, Lond., 1870, p. 258.
158 THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
mound may contain a single interment.1 As a rule however
such large graves have contained several bodies. The ' large
rectangular pit ' with remains of several bodies, at Saffron
Walden, has just been mentioned. The most remarkable case
that has been recorded of plural entombments occurred at
Stowting in Kent, where in a sort of vault or pot of circular
form, nearly 9 ft. in diameter and 4 ft. 7 in. in depth, six
female skeletons were found that had been apparently all
deposited at the same time. At Shoeburyness in Essex, at
Newport Pagnell, Bucks, at Cuddesdon, Oxfordshire, skeletons,
in the last two cases with Anglo-Saxon tomb furniture, have
been found arranged in a circle with the heads pointing out-
wards. This disposition of bodies in a ring reminds us of
the arrangement of the Bronze Age burials at Broadstairs,
previously noticed (p. 132).
VI. Orientation and tomb furniture.
It is convenient to take these together as they both involve
the question of Pagan and Christian. Tomb furniture has
already been noticed as an essentially pagan institution, based
on traditional ideas about the living and the dead or the life
beyond the grave that have no place in the scheme of the
Christian who brought nothing into the world and will carry
nothing out. Its appearance in Christian sepulchres is
abnormal and only to be explained on the ground of survival
or overlap. The case of orientation may appear quite different
as the custom is ingrained in Christian societies, but in
principle there is little to choose between the two institutions.
If in practice orientation be of established Christian use, it is
none the less distinctly opposed to the spirit of a religion that
refuses to apply the categories of time and space to the divine.
4 Neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem,' but c in spirit
1 Canon Greenwell remarks {British Barrows^ p. 118) 'in the largest
barrow I have opened on the Wolds, the primary burial, over which the
whole mound had been raised, was that of an infant.'
THE ORIGIN OF ORIENTATION 159
and truth,' ' the true worshippers shall worship.' To turn
churches or graves in one direction rather than in another was
never an obligation upon Christians, and was merely taken
over by them as part of the traditional apparatus of the older
religions, both Jewish and pagan. This taking over was cer-
tainly not very early, for in the Roman catacombs the bodies
are disposed in accordance with the direction of the ambula-
crum in the walls of which are cut the niches that hold them,
or depend for their position on the accident of their location
in the side or end walls of a cubiculum. The direction of
the ambulacrum depends for the most part on its alignment
by the course of some Roman 'road, which may run in any
direction, and the ambulacrum fixes the place of the cubiculum
that opens out of it.
Orientation undoubtedly had its first origin in the respect
paid to the sun in ancient cults. The Greek temple and the
Egyptian tomb have as a rule their disposition determined by
the rising and setting of the great celestial luminary. The
Jews of the Dispersion gave a more rational turn to the
traditional custom and it was considered orthodox to set the
synagogues with their long axis not towards the rising sun but
towards Jerusalem, so that a synagogue in northern Palestine
would be turned to the south, one in Mesopotamia towards
the west, an Alexandrian house of prayer to the east. Daniel
prayed with his windows open towards the holy city. What
principle determines or should determine the orientation of
Christian churches is not an easy question to answer. In our
own country it makes no practical difference whether Jerusalem
or the sunrise be supposed to prescribe the axial line, but early
in XIX in the case of a church in India it was disputed
whether it should affect in its direction Palestine or the east.1
In the matter of burials, so far as graves in churchyards are
1 Notes and Queries, 5th Ser., 11, p. 352. This reference is taken from
an interesting chapter on ' The Orientation of Churches ' in Mr. Walter
Johnson's Byways in British Archaeology, Camb., 191 2.
160 THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
concerned, their alignment is in practice governed by that
of the walls of the church, but if the question were asked why
in principle should the axis of the grave take one direction
rather than another, the answer would be as uncertain as when
the same query has been suggested about the church. In
the ancient solar religions the east is the home of life because
the sun rises there, and Durandus of Mende in XIII ' pre-
scribes orientation in Christian burials on this same traditional
ground. £ So ought a man to be buried,' he writes, ' that his
head may be to the west and that he direct his feet to the east,
wherewith even in his very position he may be as one that
prayeth, and may give sign that he is in readiness to hasten
from the setting to the rising, from the world to eternity.'
Some ecclesiastical authorities strove to disguise the paganism
of this idea by the explanation that at His second coming
Christ would appear in the east, and that the dead should be
so placed that they would rise with their faces towards Him,
but it is obvious that this is the same old idea under another
form. Christ is to appear in the east only because that is the
home of life or more prosaically the place of sunrise. It is
clear therefore that, play with the notion as we may, orienta-
tion is just as pagan an institution as tomb furniture, and only
differs from it in that the Christians took it to themselves and
made it a piece of ritual orthodoxy. So effectively has this
been accomplished that it is really looked upon as something
specially Christian, and writers on our early Teutonic ceme-
teries commonly so regard it.
If the east be the sacred quarter to Christians at any rate
in western Europe, there is some ground for the belief that the
north was similarly holy in the eyes of the Teutonic invaders
of the Empire. The classical passage in mediaeval literature
relied on as evidence for this occurs in Reineke Fuchs, and is
appealed to by Jacob Grimm in support of his assertion that
in prayer and penitence Christians turned to the east, while in
1 Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, vn, xxxv, 38.
ORIENTATION AT HARTLEPOOL 161
prayer and sacrifice pagans looked towards the north.1 In the
romance in question the fox is represented as turning in the
Christian direction while the wolf is content with the heathen
orientation towards the north. It would be an interesting
trait in the early Teutonic character if we could be assured
that the people sought instinctively their sacred region in the
North whence came their spirit of adventure, their romance,
and all that marked them off from the clear-sighted self-
centred classicists of the South, but this item in the creed of
Teutonic paganism is certainly not a very prominent one or it
would have left a more decided mark in literature. It may
be said here once for all that we must not expect consistency in
beliefs of the kind or in the practices dependent on them.
This applies both to orientation and to tomb furniture. In
each case there is some reason of a religious kind for the
observance, and this reason, if strong enough to determine a
general practice, might be expected to operate universally, so
that superstitious dread of the consequences of breaking a
sacred tradition would keep performance uniform. This is not
however the case with either institution.
In the matter of the Christian graveyard it is a curious
fact that in this country its history begins with a flagrant
example of the breach of the supposed inviolable rule. We
saw previously that the earliest regular Christian cemeteries of
the Saxon period were monastic. Such an early conventual
cemetery of VII or the first half of VIII was laid bare in 1833
and subsequent years at Hartlepool, the first monastic seat of
the famous Hild of Whitby. About a dozen bodies were
found accompanied with memorial slabs on which crosses and
Christian inscriptions were carefully incised.2 These bodies
were however laid in the direction north and south instead
of in the orthodox fashion with their feet to the east. This
1 Deuticbe Mythologie, Gottingen, 1854, 1, 30.
2 The discoveries have been often described, e.g., by C. C. Hodges in
The Reliquary, Jan. 1894, and again in the Victoria History, Durham, 1.
Ill L
162 THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
curious anomaly is a reminder that the caution given above
should always be borne in mind.
In determining heathen interments ideas connected with
the sun as well as those haunting the sacred North played their
part, and it must be remembered that though sun-worship is
not so much in evidence in northern religions as it is for
example in that of Egypt, yet there exists at Copenhagen a
striking monument of the Early Bronze Age in Denmark
evincing a cultus of the sun, in the form of a gold-plated disc
representing that luminary upon a car drawn by a horse,
PI. xvi, i (p. 171). It need not surprise us therefore to find
pre-Christian graves disposed like the orthodox Christian ones
with the axis running east and west. In the Later Stone Age
the long barrows were constantly placed with their major axis
approximately in this direction.1 Early Bronze Age inhuma-
tion burials in round barrows in which the body is laid in
a crouching position afford evidence that it was disposed
with reference to the sun, for Canon Greenwell has noticed
that ' the habit was generally to place the body in the grave
facing the sun,' 2 and with this end, as the crouching body
was always laid on its side, it was placed on the right side
when the head pointed west, on the left side when it pointed
east, so that in each case the face would be turned to the
sunny southern quarter. Burials of the Later Bronze Age
were as we have already seen as a rule cremated burials in
connection with which the question of orientation does not
arise. In the Early Iron Age again the numerous inhumation
burials in the Marne district of Gaul, where the body is laid at
full length, are very commonly oriented so that the feet are to
the east.3 In the Later Iron Age, that of the Teutonic migra-
1 Guide to the Antiquities of the Bronze Age, British Museum, 1904,
p. 16 ; Greenwell, British Barrows, Oxford, 1877, p. 480.
2 ibid., p. 26.
3 Guide to the Antiquities of the Early Iron Age, British Museum, 1905,
p. 58 f.
ORIENTATION ON THE CONTINENT 163
tions, the burials found to the north and east of the Rhine
that are certainly of pagan date are to a' great extent by crema-
tion and furnish no evidence as to the practice of orientation.
A number of Teutonic inhumation cemeteries however have
been explored within the limits of the Empire, about which it
is antecedently probable that they were at any rate at first laid
out by people uninfluenced by Christianity, and it is interesting
to examine from this point of view the disposition within them
of the bodies. It is not safe to go for illustrative cases to the
well-described cemeteries of Hungary, for the Goths in the
ancient Moesia received Christianity at a very early date,
and Christian influence may everywhere have been at work.1
Alamannic cemeteries offer more promising material, for in
this region Christianity was established comparatively late, and
early in VII St. Gall found the people round the Lake of
Constance still heathen. In these cemeteries the east and
west direction is almost universal, and certain of them are
regarded as of pagan date. Some of the 260 graves explored
at Gammertingen north of the Boden See about 19002 had
Christian objects in them and the cemetery is comparatively
late, but the explorers in 1 845 of Oberflacht in Wiirtemberg 3
argued from the carved serpents on the tree-trunk coffins that
the cemetery was a heathen one, and the eastward orientation
was there generally observed. Another example is the cemetery
explored near Ulm in the middle of XIX,4 where the skeletons
to the number of more than 1 50 all had their feet to the east,
while as proof of the pagan character of the interments the
explorer pointed to the fact that there was positive evidence
in the case of a good proportion, one eighth, of the interments
1 ' As well in monuments as in historical traditions the traces of
Christianity can be followed in Hungary during this whole period,' Hampel,
Alterthiimer in Ungarn, 1, 68.
2 Groebels, Der Reihengr'dberfund von Gammertingen.
3 Menzel, Die Heidengrdber am Lupfen bei Oberjlacbt, Stuttgart, 1 847.
4 Hassler, Das Alemann'ucbe Todtenfeld bei Ulm, Ulm, 1 860.
164 THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
that the body had been burned. Cremation is so rare in the
south German cemeteries that its appearance is very significant
of an early period ; it must be admitted however in the case of
Ulm, that one object found, an enriched spear head now at
Berlin,1 was ornamented in a late fashion and was marked with
the device of a cross in a distinctively Christian form, so that
the date must be considered doubtful.
Among Frankish cemeteries the famous Ripuarian grave-
yard at Selzen in Rhine-Hesse is of little avail for in two of
the graves coins of Justinian of the middle third of VI made
their appearance, and we can have more confidence in the early
date of a group of cemeteries of the Salian Franks in Belgium
and north-eastern France, of which Samson, Furfooz, and in part
Pry and Eprave in the former country, Vermand and Abbeville
(Homblieres) in the latter, may be taken as typical. These date
before the incursion in force of the Franks into Gaul under
Clovis, and may be regarded as entirely pagan in their laying
out. It is true that in the two last-named burying grounds
reliefs illustrating Christian subjects and glass vessels with
similar devices came to light, but there is good reason to
ascribe these to the Christianized Gallo-Roman population, and
to date the burials not later than about the year 400 when the
Franks were still pagan. Now at Abbeville and Vermand
M. Pilloy states2 that the usual direction of the bodies was
north and south. At Pry in the province of Namur in
Belgium M. Becquet reported3 that in the older part, of V,
called ' Tombois,' where there was no sign of Christianity,
though there was no regular rule of orientation yet the
direction north and south was most usual. In the early part
at Eprave where cremated burials were mixed with inhumed
ones the same authority reports4 that in V and VI no very
fixed rule was followed, but the later graves lay all from east
1 Figured by Lindenschmit, Handbuch, p. 167. 2 Etudes, 1, 279.
3 Annates de la Societe Arch'eologique de Namur, xix, 311.
4 ibid., p. 447.
SUMMARY ON ORIENTATION 165
to west. Later graves at Pry of VI or the beginning of VII
lay east and west, but it was believed that they were pagan.1
At Spontin, another early Belgic cemetery, where 162 graves
were examined in i860 and earlier, they were nearly all in the
direction just indicated, but it is also noted that many bodies
lay with the feet not to the east but to the west,2 which looks
like a misunderstanding on the part of new converts of the
Christian scheme. Later continental cemeteries of Christian
date have the regular east and west orientation. Such are the
Lombard cemetery of Castel Trosino near Ascoli of about
600 a.d., and those of Charnay (Burgundian), and Herpes on
the Charente of Frankish origin. M. Boulanger claims the
east and west position as universal among the Franks and
believes that it obtained long before their conversion,3 while
on the other hand W. M. Wylie, the explorer of Fairford ceme-
tery, was of the opinion that feet to the north ' would seem to
have been the prevailing pagan practice of Teutons in general,'4
and this it will be noted is the view of the present writer.
On the basis of these facts and other evidence which it
would be tedious to cite the following conclusions may be
formulated. Among pagan Teutons who practised inhumation
the traditional solar orientation of the body in the grave was
in some cases still maintained, while at the same time the idea
of facing the north was among some communities a deter-
mining factor. Among converted Teutons the eastward
orientation may be regarded as almost universal though there
are some curious instances of a breach of the general rule.
The caution already given against assuming too great a
consistency in these burial practices may be again emphasized
by reference to the important Bavarian cemetery at Reichenhall
with its 525 investigated graves dating from the beginning
of VI to about the beginning of VIII, and exhibiting Christian
1 Annales de la Societe Archeologique de Namur, xvn, 482.
2 ibid., viii, 327 f. 3 Le Mobilier Funeraire, Introduction, p. xxxii.
4 Arcbaeologia, xxxiv, 224.
1 66 THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
influence only in the later interments. Here Herr von
Chlingensperg-Berg's elaborate plan of the graves bears out
his statement that ' the dead were disposed in all sorts of
different directions.' * There are not only north-south and
east-west interments but the whole compass is boxed in the
various alignments.
Corresponding facts meet us in Anglo-Saxon England, and
it may be noted that just as the phenomena under review agree
generally over the whole Teutonic area of the Continent, so in
our own country they are Anglo-Saxon phenomena in the most
general sense, and there is little difference in principle in what
we find in inhumation cemeteries in Jutish Kent, in Saxon
Berkshire, in East Anglia, the Midlands, or the North. To
correspond with Reichenhall we have the very important
cemetery at Kempston, Beds, in which there was * no direct
attempt at orientation ' but bodies were ' deposited at all angles
with one another, directed to almost every point of the
compass.' 8 In Britain the easterly orientation is particularly
common, especially in the south, and it is impossible to ascribe
this always to the influence of Christianity. Take the example
of the extensive cemetery at Sarre, in Thanet, Kent. In all
but a few cases out of the 272 interments described the feet
pointed to the east, but in a considerable number of the graves
very early objects made their appearance and these graves must
have been laid out in pre-Christian times. It is curious that in
one of the earliest, No. 148, though it ranged east and west,
the body was placed with the feet pointing westward and not
to the orthodox quarter. In Sussex the east and west orienta-
tion with feet to the east is almost universal but, especially in
view of the late conversion of this region, we must regard the
cemeteries in general as pagan. The northward position is
nowhere carried out so consistently as it is for example at
Abbeville (Homblieres), but over our whole area it is at times
1 Das Gr'dberfeld von Reichenhall, p. 43.
2 Associated Societies* Reports, 1864, p. 271.
THE NORTHWARD POSITION 167
strikingly in evidence, and seems to bear out the explanation
offered of it in what has gone before. In Sussex, and also in
Surrey where the majority of the burials appear to be pre-
Christian, the feet are generally to the east, but where this is
not the case they almost invariably point to the north. At
Brighton half a dozen skeletons that from the abundance of
the arms buried with them must have been early were found on
the hill above the railway station, and these old warriors all
faced the north. An isolated interment at Long Wittenham,
Berks, found ten years before the systematic exploration of the
cemetery, revealed a warrior equipped with sword, spear, and
shield, and of him as of Macaulay's Roman it might be said
' North looked he long and hard.'
At Stowting, Kent, though the majority of the bodies lay
approximately east and west, some pointed to the north, and
these, we learn, were from their abundant tomb furniture the
most interesting, but lest we attach too much importance to
this it may be added that at Gilton, where the prevailing
orientation was east and west and exceptional graves ran north
and south, these last were as a rule very poorly and not richly
furnished. To return to Stowting, that wonderful group of
six female skeletons in a single grave were there found lying
north and south, and with them there was rich and copious
tomb furniture of a pronounced early type. At Glen Parva
south of Leicester a woman's skeleton accompanied by rich
tomb furniture lay with feet to the north. Here the long
brooches with detached knobs betoken the first half of VI.
Feet to the north was the almost universal rule in the
Gloucestershire cemetery at Fairford about which Mr. Wylie
who explored it uses the words ' these Fairford graves . . .
would seem to bear a very early date.' 1 Equally remarkable
are the phenomena of orientation at the great Lincolnshire
cemetery at Sleaford. Here as was noticed above (p. 154)
1 Fairford Graves, by William Michael Wylie, B.A., Oxford, 1852, p. 22.
168 THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
the bodies were laid in the crouching position and on their
sides. It was noted by the careful explorer, Mr. G. W.
Thomas,1 that they rested on the left side with heads to the
west so that the face would be turned towards the north, but
there was one exception in which the head was turned east-
wards and in this case the body rested on the right side and
accordingly still faced the supposed sacred quarter.
A phenomenon observed at Bifrons, Kent, casts a light on
the orientation question. The cemetery is on the whole an
early one and it differs markedly from the many somewhat
later Kentish graveyards of its class in that the rule for orienta-
tion is not east and west but north and south. There is how-
ever a topographical reason for this in the fact that the graves
are dug on an incline the slope of which is from east to west,
so that excavation was easier in a direction at right angles to
the fall of the ground where each grave would lie level in the
direction of its length. If this were the determining cause it
shows that the obligation to turn graves in any particular
direction was not rigidly observed, and prepares us to meet
with many cases where neither of the orthodox orientations
prevails. Thus at Marston St. Lawrence in Northants the feet
were to the north-east and the same was the case at Long
Wittenham, Berks, at Barrington, Cambs, and also at Ipswich,
and at Chessell Down in the Isle of Wight, while at Duston,
Northants, they pointed south-east.
The question has been raised whether these partial
deviations on either side from the true east are due to
the taking of observations at one season of the year or at one
hour of the day more than at another, but upon questions of
this kind there is no space to enter. The casual occurrence of
feet to the south in a north and south grave, or feet to the west
in one with Christian orientation, may be merely accidental.
The grave diggers were no doubt responsible people, probably
in charge of the whole cemetery, and would dig to rule, but
1 Archaeologia, l, 385.
TOMB FURNITURE 169
the circumstances of the actual interment may have been such
as to explain an accidental error. There is at any rate evidence
enough that the north and south orientation was pagan, the east
and west distinctly though not exclusively Christian, and
Mr. Reginald Smith does well to emphasize the crucial case at
Garton Slack among the Wold cemeteries of the East Riding
of Yorkshire,1 where there are two parts to the cemetery, one
in which bodies were oriented north-west and south-east and
irregularly disposed but with plenty of tomb furniture, and
another in which the feet of the bodies are with one exception
towards the east and tomb furniture is of the most meagre
description. At Bifrons there were certain exceptional graves
which ignored the lie of the ground and were set east and west.
With one exception these were unfurnished and the case bears
out the inference that can be drawn from the Yorkshire site,
i.e., that east and west burials with little or no tomb furniture
are most probably late and Christian.
In the matter of tomb furniture there rules the same
inconsistency as in orientation, and this is more remarkable
because, while the latter is a mere matter of sentiment, with
the former were connected possibilities of a very practical
kind. If the possessions of the dead were really wanted by
him in his new state of existence, or if they were through
some obscure connection of ideas dangerous to his surviving
relatives, the practice of placing them in the tomb or consum-
ing them on the funeral pyre would, one might think, have
been universally observed, for offended ghosts are a peril, and
so is a violated taboo. It is a fact however that the remarks
of Canon Greenwell about the capricious or grudging
observance of the custom of thus furnishing the tomb among
the Britons of the Bronze Age2 would apply, though in a
lesser degree, to the pagan Teutons. On the whole abundance
of tomb furniture has come to light but it is by no means
evenly distributed among the interments examined. The
1 Vict. Hist., Yorkshire, 11, 80. 2 British Barrows, pp. 57 f., 287.
1 7o THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
influence of Christianity in limiting and finally almost abolish-
ing tomb furniture must of course be taken for granted, but
apart from this the custom wanes or waxes in an apparently
capricious manner. The ' Kingston ' brooch figured on the
Frontispiece, that is perhaps the finest of all Germanic jewels
in north-western Europe, was found in Kent on a day in
1 77 1 on which twenty-seven neighbouring tumuli were also
opened. Of these, twelve contained no tomb furniture at all,
and only six furnished any article of the least importance.
Tombs destitute of all furniture, or containing only the most
common of all items — a knife, occur in practically all ceme-
teries and sometimes make up a fair proportion of the total
number of graves. It was reported at the time of the recent
discovery of the cemetery at Alfriston, Sussex, that out of
115 graves more than forty contained nothing beside the
bones. It does not always follow therefore that the poorly
equipped grave is a late one, though at any rate in our own
country this may be a general rule.
It has been noticed already (p. 115 f.) that the custom of
burying these objects with the dead lasts on into Christian
times, and in some districts of England a fairly rich grave
may be of Christian date. If the archaeologists of northern
France be right in their chronology this was more markedly
the case abroad than in this country. Messrs. Eck,1 Pilloy,
Boulanger, and others ascribe part of the tomb furniture of
the cemeteries they describe to the Carolingian epoch, that is
to the latter part of VIII. In his Etudes, Vol. 1, p. 123 f.,
M. Pilloy gives actual dates for the three periods among which
he apportions the tomb furniture of the cemeteries of the
Aisne. The first period embraces V and VI, the second VII
and VIII, the third part of VIII with an extension into IX
and even perhaps into X. M. Boulanger adopts the same
system in his Mobilier Funeraire and his book on Marchelepot.
1 e.g. ' Le Cimetiere Franc de Lucy-Ribemont/ in Bulletin Arch'eo-
logique, 1893.
XVI
facing p. 171
SUN DISC AND LATE TOMB FURNITURE
2 is 3 natural size ; 3, about half-size
!■> 3> 4> are Continental pieces
RARITY OF LATE FINDS 171
M. Pilloy compares buckles like that at Rouen shown PI. xvi, 3,
with the grotesque carved capitals of early Romanesque
churches.1 A definite justification for this late dating is
furnished by the Burgundian cemetery of Bel-Air near
Lausanne in Switzerland where in one of the later graves
M. Troyon found ten coins of Charles the Great.2 In our
own country the case is somewhat different. Movable
objects of late date make their appearance, though not in any
abundance, and are often found in tombs, but with the rarest
exceptions these are not graves in the regular cemeteries which
supply the tomb furniture of the pagan period, but isolated
interments of the Viking epoch, such as that discovered near
Bedale in Yorkshire in the centre of the great Roman road to
the north.3 It is almost without precedent to find objects in
the regular cemeteries that exhibit any sign either of the
Carolingian renaissance or of the characteristic linear and
zoomorphic ornament of the Scandinavian Viking age. The
object figured PI. ix, 6 (p. 103) is one of the ftw that might
fall under the first category but we have seen reason to believe
that its date would fall within VII (p. 106 f.).
Almost unique again as occurring in a cemetery of some
extent, embracing 200 interments, and containing early tomb
furniture,4 is a find in a woman's grave at Saffron Walden,
Essex, shown PI. xvi, 2. In the midst of a short string of
cornelian, rock crystal, and other beads there hangs a round
disc with a cruciform pattern, above which are two silver beads
one with a pattern of spirals and the other encircled with rows
of pearls. On each side of the centre are two discs of bronze
enriched with ornament to which Anglo-Saxon tomb furniture
1 Etudes, 1, 47.
2 Description des Tombeaux de Bel- Air, Lausanne, 1841, note added in
1856.
3 Arch. Journ, v. 220 ; Vict. Hist., Yorks, 11, 97.
4 Notably a fine collection of bronze bangles of a pronounced Roman
type, found on a different body from that which wore the necklet described
in the text, see PI. cix, 3 (p. 457).
172 THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
offers no parallel. It has been described as ' foliated,' but
there is really no imitation of vegetable forms. A kind of
framework seems to be represented as made with cords
knotted, doubled, and perhaps fastened in places by pins.
Round this is then twisted a band formed of three parallel
strands, and spaces are filled up with ornamental ends attached
rather awkwardly as tangents to the loops. A close parallel
to this design will be found on two beautiful golden brooches
in the Museum at Copenhagen from Hornelund near Varde
in Jutland, dating from the Viking period VIII to X. One
of them is illustrated PI. xvi, 4. Again, the silver bead with
the spirals is closely paralleled by a hollow sphere of bronze,
PI. xvi, 5, ornamented in the same fashion and used for the
head of a pin, that was found in 191 2 at Talnotrie near
Newton Stewart in Scotland, together with coins of Burghtred
of Mercia that date the find to the middle of IX. The other
bead is like some figured as of VII or VIII in M. Boulanger's
Marchekpot, pi. xxiii.
Hence there is no doubt at all about the late date of the
Saffron Walden pendants, and the point of interest is that
finds of the class are in our regular Anglo-Saxon cemeteries
of such exceptional rarity that no parallel to the case just
signalized is known. The conclusion indicated would be that
our country cemeteries went out of use at an earlier date than
those across the Channel, and that the custom of burying on
the old pagan sites was maintained among our neighbours
longer than among ourselves. This would to some extent
explain the facts noted above (p. 130) that in the number of
interments our British cemeteries are so limited as compared
with the foreign graveyards, where additional accommodation
has often been secured by superinhumation.1 We may bring
this comparatively prompt abandonment of the original ceme-
teries in English country districts into connection with the
1 At Bel-Air near Lausanne M. Troyon distinguished three separate
' couches ' or layers of interments.
DATE OF ENGLISH CEMETERIES 173
early establishment of the village churches. In the first
volume of this work an attempt was made to exhibit the life
of the mediaeval village as centering in the church and to
carry the evidence for this position of the church as far back
into Saxon times as was possible. The number of existing
Saxon churches, and the extraordinary abundance in parts of
Britain of carved memorial and sepulchral stones attesting the
early existence of such village churches, produce the impression
that the church bulked pretty largely in the general life of the
people of Anglo-Saxon Britain, and it may very well be that
the villagers were not so much driven from their original
cemeteries by ecclesiastical proscriptions as attracted from
them to the parish graveyard because the church around
which it lay had grown to them familiar and dear. The
winning character of the Celtic missioners who accomplished
the conversion of the greater part of England may have had
something to do with the early popularity of the churches.
It would be dangerous to urge too strongly that English
mediaeval village life was a pleasanter thing on the whole than
rural existence abroad, but the history and the archaeology
of the English country church may justify some suggestion
of the kind, and it is all in favour of this to find that,
as noted in connection with cemeteries in Kent, the people
of wealth and standing seem to have lived on their country
manors and were laid in death in the midst of their rustic
neighbours.
However this may be, it seems pretty clear that our ceme-
teries do not as a rule come down to so late a date as those across
the Channel, while on the other side they are not so early as
the German cemeteries on the Lower Elbe, or as some Frankish
ones that belong to the time prior to the invasion of Gaul in
force under Clovis. Hence the bulk of the objects contained
in Anglo-Saxon graves belong to VI and the early part of VII.
A fair proportion may be dated in the latter part of V, the
tendency of the moment being rather to exaggerate the
174 THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
number of these, and comparatively few can be assigned to a
later time than about the middle of VII. It would be rash to
set any definite limit to the use of the pagan cemeteries, but
so far as tomb furniture is concerned the evidence for it can
hardly be carried further than VII.
The comparatively early cessation among the Anglo-Saxons
of the practice of furnishing the tomb may in some degree
account for the fact that certain classes of objects, characteristic
abroad of the later Merovingian period, make no appearance
in our insular tomb inventories. Our repertory of grave
goods is of course as we have seen quite independent, but at
the same time any class of objects and any technical process
largely represented across the Channel would certainly be
expected to make at any rate an appearance in Anglo-Saxon
surroundings. Now later Frankish and Burgundian graves
both of men and women contain, perhaps as their most
characteristic item, handsome but very ponderous buckles of
iron with complementary parts to complete the parure. A
specimen from Fetigny in the Museum at Fribourg, Switzer-
land, is shown PI. xvn, i. The whole length is 15 in. and
the plate is 3^ in. wide. The wearing of such enormous
ornaments, especially by women, is a matter only to be
explained by the constraint of fashion, and as fashions spread
we should expect the Saxon lords and ladies to have at any
rate coquetted with the vagary. They may quite well have
done so, but the evidence may not have been preserved owing
to the disuse among them of the practice of tomb furniture.
Only one or two large iron buckles, and these very poor
specimens, have come to light in our cemeteries, one at
Harnham Hill, Wilts, another at Folkestone, while a third,
the largest of all but quite unadorned, is at Maidstone and
measures 6 in. in length. It is figured PI. lxxiii, 2 (p. 355).
The continental buckles in question are ornamented with
silver plating in different techniques, and when these processes
came into vogue abroad it is almost inconceivable that the
XVII
acingp. 175
CONTINENTAL OBJECTS AND PROCESSES
1, about £ natural size; 2, much enlarged ; 4, 5, about natural size
All but 3 are Continental
RARITY OF SILVER PLATING 175
Anglo-Saxon craftsman would not try his hand at them.
Evidence that he did so is however almost non-existent. The
Fetigny buckle is plated with a sheet of silver of appreciable
thickness on which a design has been produced by punched or
incised lines. The fish and cross show that the piece is
Christian and late. More original, and specially characteristic
of the class of work under review, is another process in which
the silver is laid on to the iron in a very thin sheet, and the
pattern is made by cutting it away in parts so that the metal
beneath is brought into view. PI. xvu, 2, illustrates this ;
it is an enlargement of a small piece of this work at Namur.
Sometimes, but much more rarely, the process is one of inlay-
ing, and sinkings are cut in the iron into which the silver,
or silver alternating with brass, is hammered, see PI. xvu, 4.
This technique is Roman, as the inlaid sword sheath at Mainz
will show, PI. xvu, 3. It is a notable fact that no single
piece of true silver inlaid work on iron, and no specimen
of the thin plating cut out into patterns, has been identified
in Anglo-Saxon tomb furniture, while examples in other
plating techniques are very few indeed.1 One piece of iron
plated like the Fetigny buckle was found in the King's Field,
Faversham, and is now in the British Museum, PI. xvn, 5.
The design on the plating is embossed by the repousse process.
There are some much corroded fragments in the same style at
Bifrons House, but otherwise the specimen is unique and may
very likely be an importation. There should be noticed here
a ' unicum ' in the shape of an iron fibula partly plated with
silver that was probably found at Hoxne, Suffolk, and is now
in the British Museum. It is shown later on in connection
with some other curious iron objects PI. ex, 3 (p. 459). The
large size of this piece, it was 8 in. long, and its technique
bring it into a certain connection with the huge iron silver-
plated buckles of the Franks and Burgundians. If our
1 The Abbe Cochet, Tombeau de Cbilderic, p. 271, notices the absence of
these objects from Anglo-Saxon graves.
176 THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
cemeteries had continued for a longer time in use there might
have been more of the kind to show.
Seeing that the tomb furniture of Anglo-Saxon cemeteries
is the mai.n subject of this volume it will be unnecessary here
to elaborate any general statements as to its character. As is
natural, certain groups of objects, such as arms, are found only
in the graves of men ; other groups, consisting partly in orna-
ments such as strings of variegated glass beads and partly in
feminine implements, occur only in women's graves ; while
objects of a third class, such as the brooch, the buckle, and the
knife, may be found accompanying the bones of either sex
indifferently. Many of the objects of course are of a kind not
specially Teutonic, but like the mounted wooden buckets, the
bronze bowls, the beads, the vessels of glass, are found in Celtic
or in Roman cemeteries, though as a rule in each genus there
is a distinctively Teutonic species so that the products have
really a Germanic impress. Other classes of objects are more
exclusively Germanic, in kind as well as in style.
The positions in relation to the body in which these various
objects are found are of the same importance as the relative
locations of the bodies themselves in the cemetery, and scien-
tific explorers should be careful in both cases to give the
requisite information. These indications of position will be
noticed in what follows in connection with the separate items
of tomb furniture presently to be discussed, but it should be
borne in mind that the actual position in the grave of an
object at the moment of discovery is not always a secure
indication of its original place. Accidental shiftings due to
various causes have not seldom taken place. For example at
Barrington, Cambs, it was reported that the following objects
were found i all together under the head of a skeleton ' : — a
cruciform fibula — normally found at the shoulder or on the
body, two pairs of clasps — used generally for wrist fastenings,
and a necklet of beads.1 Here it will be sufficient to illustrate
1 Cambridge Antiquarian Society's Communications, x, 437.
EXTERNAL MARKS OF GRAVES 177
the relation of tomb furniture to the skeleton by the photo-
graphs reproduced on PI. xvin, of which No. 3 shows a body
of a female equipped with abundant belongings that was found
at Stapenhill near Burton-on-Trent. Many of the objects are
clearly visible as they occupy their original positions among
the bones to which the corpse has been reduced. No. 1 is the
reproduction of a drawing of a skeleton found at Shepperton
in Middlesex. The shield boss here lies over the face, the
sword is held in both hands over the front of the body and the
spear lies by the side. No. 2 has been noticed above (p. 150).
With regard to the condition of preservation of the bones and
relics there are great differences the reasons for which have
never been made the subject of scientific inquiry. The skeleton
often remains pretty well entire, but there are cases in which
we are told that every trace of it had disappeared except the
enamel crowns of the teeth ! In the case of objects of wood
and iron the state of preservation greatly varies, and there is a
good deal of difference in the condition of the glass. Bronze
objects are generally well preserved and silver fairly so, while
the golden ornament issues from the grave quite uninjured by
time, a testimony to the purity of the metal.
VII. The mark or monument, if any, that indicated at the
time and to posterity the place of interment.
In the case of an extensive cemetery like that at Sarre,
Kent, where some 280 graves were found neatly cut and
regularly arranged, or at High Down, Sussex, where the
graves were often close together yet never impinged one on
the other, it is difficult to believe that there were no external
marks to locate the several interments. The only kind of
mark that has remained at all in evidence on these cemeteries
are the tumuli, and though these seem to have been common
in some parts in XVIII there are not now many original
Anglo-Saxon ones to be seen. Bronze Age barrows that have
received secondary Anglo-Saxon interments are in certain
in M
178 THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
parts abundant enough, but the question here is of monuments
specially raised to mark Teutonic graves. It has been noticed
that, at any rate on the Sussex Downs, the Saxon tumuli are
nearer to the settlements than the Bronze Age barrows and
are therefore more in danger of disturbance. Owing to the
operations of the plough tumuli tend to disappear wherever
agricultural activity extends, and this cause accounts for the
levelling of many that Faussett and others noticed in XVIII.
At Sleaford, Lincolnshire, the explorer remarked 'my impres-
sion is that in this part of the ground there was originally a
series of tumuli . . . and that such tumuli have been ploughed
down.'1 Sometimes a local appellation preserves the memory
of the earlier aspect of a cemetery of the kind. This was the
case at Harnham Hill near Salisbury, where the site bore the
name of the { Low field' which suggested to Akerman the
previous existence of ' the hlawes or tumuli which once covered
the ground'2 but had long been levelled. In Essex a field
near Kelvedon south of Colchester in which many interments
were discovered about 1888 bore no external marks of their
presence but had been known in the middle of XVIII as
'Barrow field.'3 J. Y. Akerman4 suggested in connection
with the cemetery at Filkins, Oxon, that where burials are
very shallow, in this case only about 6 in., we may infer the
previous existence of tumuli. Tumuli appear to have been
most common in Kent especially in the eastern part where, it
has been noticed, Celtic tumuli are particularly rare,5 so that
the surviving mounds in that region represented primary
Jutish interments not secondary ones in earlier barrows. One
of the best still existing groups of such tumuli are some on a
commanding site on the edge of Breach Down about half a
mile south-east of Barham Station, Kent. Their present
appearance is not a little impressive and in the drawing,
1 Archaeologia, l, 385. 2 ibid., xxxv, 259.
3 Essex Naturalist, 11, 124.
4 Archaeologia, xxxvn, 140. 5 ibid., xlv, 53.
TUMULI
179
Fig. 7, the artist, Mr. Robert T. Rose, has rendered justice
to it.
Tumuli of this kind can never be less than about 7 or 8 ft.
in diameter and it is only in rare cases that there is more than
one grave under a single mound. Hence it is obvious that
where graves are found placed fairly close together tumuli
cannot have been used to mark them.1 It is possible that in
this case each grave was surmounted by a small heap of ground
formed by the earth excavated for the sepulchre beneath,
' 'ft Ufa
Fig. 7. — Anglo-Saxon Tumuli on Breach Down, Kent.
exactly after the pattern of the grave mounds of our modern
churchyards. That small barrows of this modern kind were
in use in the earliest Christian cemeteries can be inferred from
the mention in VIII of burials under the floors of churches
that by reason of the * tumuli ' made the surface too uneven
to walk over.2 These must of course have been small hum-
mocks not tumuli in the larger sense, and the fashion of them
was most likely taken over from the earlier heathen ceme-
teries. Such little mounds would disappear in the course of
centuries wherever the site of a cemetery had been cultivated,
1 This was noticed at Barrington, Cambs, Coll. dnt., vi, 162.
2 Wilkins, Concilia, 1, 270.
180 THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
though they might be expected to remain on the open downs.
This was the case at Marston St. Lawrence, Northants, where
in his first report1 Sir Henry Dryden writes of the bodies as
' placed in graves under small hillocks, as ours are now,' and
at Farthingdown near Coulsdon in Surrey, where Anglo-Saxon
graves were marked by ' slight hillocks seldom rising two feet
from the ground and resembling those to be seen in village
churchyards.'2 On the whole, if the arrangement of the
graves in Anglo-Saxon cemeteries seem to make the hypo-
thesis of some external mark a necessary one, the churchyard
mound appears the most simple and hence the most likely
device for the end in view, though it must still be surprising
that on an apparently untouched surface like that of the ceme-
tery at High Down, or again on the down above Folkestone,
no sign of such an arrangement should now be visible.
The hypothesis that there was some memorial placed over
each grave in a perishable material such as wood is a plausible
one. In the Museum at York there are sundry coffins hewn
out of solid tree trunks some of which at any rate are supposed
to be of Anglian origin and date, though the period to which
they should be ascribed is doubtful. In the one of which the
head end is shown PI. xix, i, were found the bones of a woman
accompanied by some beads that have unfortunately not been
preserved. There were also in the coffins fragments of hazel
rods, some portions of which are seen at the foot of the post
in the photograph. This post is 2 ft. 8 in. high and 9 in.
square at the base and is placed in the Museum in the position
it occupied at the head of the coffin, as if to serve as a mark
or memorial. In the dearth of such memorials in Anglo-
Saxon cemeteries it is an exhibit of importance.
There is a difference here between England and the
Continent that is of some significance. Lindenschmit in his
Handbuch figures a number of tombstones in the Rhineland
with German names upon them apparently of Merovingian
1 Arcbaeologia, xlviii, 327. 2 Surrey Archaeological Collections, vi, 108.
XIX
facing p. 181
WOODEN COFFIN AND HEADPOST, AND TOMBSTONE
INSCRIBED TOMBSTONES 181
date, that bear Christian symbols but were found marking
graves supplied in pagan fashion with tomb furniture. The
inscriptions on these are in Latin. Many of these Rhineland
cemeteries are in the neighbourhood of Worms, where the
continuity of Latin and Teutonic civilization is evidenced by
the free use on the part of the conquerors of the older Roman
graveyards. In England early inscribed Germanic tombstones
do occur, as at Hartlepool and Monkwearmouth, but they are
in monastic cemeteries not in those of Roman or of pagan
origin and associations. In general the use of the Latin
language in Anglo-Saxon England is due to the direct agency
of the Church, whereas in the Rhineland and Gaul Latin is
more freely used in secular connections and must have been
more commonly understood. In connection with the early
Anglo-Saxon coins attention has been called to the fact that
while the art upon them is fresher and more full of life than
on contemporary Gallic pieces, yet the Latin of the inscriptions
is far more correct abroad than on this side of the Channel.
The Latin inscription on the famous Alamannic inlaid brooch
from Wittislingen will be noticed later on (p. 542) as some-
thing to which this country offers no parallel. It goes with
this to find that what appear to be the only specimens of stone
monuments connected with Anglo-Saxon graves of a non-
ecclesiastical kind bear inscriptions in runic characters. The
subject of Anglo-Saxon runes connects itself chiefly with the
inscribed stones of Christian origin, such as the Bewcastle
Cross, which are reserved for subsequent treatment, and the
runic inscriptions on the gravestones in question need not
here be discussed.
The stones in question are two in number ; they were
found near Sandwich and are now in the Museum at Canter-
bury. Their dimensions are in the one case about 17 in. by
5 in. by 5 in., in the other 16 in. in height by 6 in. square
above and 4 in. square below, and while on the first the char-
acters are too worn to be legible, on the second or smaller one
l82
THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
has been read the single word RiEHiEBUL. They appear to
have been set up, perhaps as headstones, and certainly to mark
the site of interments, and the fact that they are practically
unique is one that must be signalized. PI. xix, 2 shows the
smaller stone. The characters run from the top of the stone
downwards and some of them are to be made out in the illus-
tration, but even on the stone they are very faint. Stephens'
reading, very kindly verified and where necessary corrected
from the original by Mr. Henry Meade of the Beaney
Institute and Museum, Canterbury, is given in Fig. 8. The
only character of importance chronologically is the H (N).
This has only a single cross-stroke, whereas all the early
K
Fig. 8. — Runic Tombstone from Sandwich.
datable Anglo-Frisian inscriptions in which the character
occurs give it two parallel cross-strokes, as Fig. 8, a. On the
other hand the single cross-stroke is normal in Scandinavia,
and this would favour a Viking origin for the stones. They
cannot at any rate be safely employed as evidence for the
use of tombstones in the cemeteries in the earlier period.
In the later Scandinavian runes the second and fourth characters
would be *C not iJE.y Whereas wooden headposts may all
have perished by decay this cannot apply to the case of stone
ones, and the fact that these have not survived is conclusive
evidence that their use can only have been very occasional.
How the Anglo-Saxon graves were marked or distinguished is
still an unsolved problem.
ABNORMAL APPEARANCES 183
VIII. Indications in the cemeteries of social customs, and
of racial or other distinctions among the persons therein
interred.
In the case of most of the cemeteries some one or one or two
of the graves has been signalled out from the rest by some
rare or puzzling appearance that at once invites inquiry. We
have seen that as a rule, tomb furniture apart, the funeral
arrangements of the pagan Saxons were singularly like our
own, but every now and then something comes to light which
suggests practices of a quite abnormal kind. Some have even
discerned traces of the immolation of captives, retainers, or
relatives, or the self-devotion to death of a survivor intimately
associated with the deceased, in phenomena which the spade
of the explorer has revealed. For example in one grave
opened at Mitcham, Surrey, there was found the body of ' a
small woman who had been carelessly thrown in on her face
between two warriors,' * giving rise to the suggestion of
human sacrifice or ' suttee.' What does it imply when we
find, as at White Horse Hill, Berks, decapitated skeletons
with the skulls placed between the thigh bones, or, as at
Mitcham, the complete skeleton of a warrior with another
skull between his hands or beside his feet ?
To inquirers of an anthropological turn of mind it would
be an interesting task to follow out the suggestions offered by
these abnormal appearances, but the very fact that they are
exceptional puts them out of the range of the present treat-
ment, and in order to keep this book within reasonable limits
of size no exploration of these bypaths can be indulged in.
The normal phenomena of the cemeteries however enable us
to draw inferences of a general kind which possess racial and
social significance, and to these some attention must be paid.
1. The evidence of the cemeteries seems to show an
essential unity of race among the denizens of them in all the
Teutonized regions of the land, though this need not preclude
1 Arcbaeologia, lx, 58.
184 THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
such tribal distinctions as history would suggest among Jutes,
Saxons, and Angles, nor differences among smaller bodies,
septs, clans, or whatever we choose to call them, which may-
have survived within the larger aggregates.
2. The communities using the several cemeteries were on
the whole socially homogeneous though varieties in wealth
and station may be inferred from a comparative study of tomb
furniture.
3. Family and personal relations of a somewhat close kind
can occasionally be inferred from appearances in the graves.
1 . Under this heading we have to inquire (a) whether the
racial distinction of Teuton and Celt is to be observed in the
cemeteries, and (b) what differences, if any, in funeral customs or
bodily characteristics appear to separate Jute, Saxon, and Angle.
(a) There is an almost unbroken consensus of opinion among
explorers of these cemeteries, and experts who have reported
on the outcome of them, that the skeletons found are of the
Teutonic race and that this applies to male and female alike.
At the same time suggestions have been made that traces of the
older British population are to be looked for, especially among
the skeletons of females, the inference being that the Teutonic
warriors took to themselves wives from the older inhabitants of
the land. In connection with one of the most recent explora-
tions of a cemetery, that at East Shefford, Berks, it was urged
that there was cranial evidence that the older females were for
the most part at any rate of British race. This meant re-
opening a question that anthropologists considered practically
settled in favour of community of race between the sexes. In
connection with another of the more recent discoveries, that of
the cemetery on Dover Hill above Folkestone, Kent, Professor
F. G. Parsons reported in 1 9 1 1 1 that ' the female skulls and
bones showed no points of difference from those of the males
except in the normal sexual signs,' and this agrees with the
tenor of most previous reports of the kind by craniologists.
1 Journal of Royal Anthropological Institute, xli, 128.
ANGLO-SAXON SKULLS
CRANIOLOGICAL EVIDENCE 185
Writing in the Wilts Magazine about 1890 General Pitt
Rivers drew a comparison from the anthropometric point of
view among three classes of skeletons found in prehistoric
tombs in England. The biggest and strongest men were
those of the Early Bronze Age, the smallest and most delicate
belonged to our Early Iron Age and the Romano-British
period, while the Anglo-Saxon skeletons male and female came
in between, and were notably those of larger people than the
Romano-Britons. Craniologically the Anglo-Saxons are dolicho-
cephalic, that is their skulls are long from front to back in
proportion to their width — ' long and fairly high but distinctly
deficient in width ' Professor Parsons describes them1 — whereas
the Celts were round-headed or brachycephalic, with a width
of head from side to side more nearly approaching its length.
The dolichocephalic character of Anglo-Saxon skulls generally
has been almost universally recognized though some female
skulls from East Shefford have been claimed as approaching
the Celtic form. The present writer lacks the scientific know-
ledge without which these anthropometrical questions cannot
be usefully discussed, and it must suffice here to note that the
possibility of British female skeletons being associated with
those of Anglo-Saxon males has recently been at any rate
adduced.
The evidence other than craniological bearing on this
question of a possible mixture of races in the early Teutonic
settlements has been already referred to in the Introductory
Chapter (p. 50 f.) and the net result so far as our present know-
ledge extends is that the distinction between Celt and Saxon
has left no appreciable mark in the cemeteries.
The other question (b) is whether the population of the
cemeteries, exhibiting everywhere a distinct Germanic character,
shows at the same time local differences that may distinguish
the three main groups of the invaders, and within these groups
may indicate smaller aggregates of a tribal or gentile order.
1 ibid., p. 1 10.
186 THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
Such expressions as 'an Anglian skull,' 'the Jutish type'
are sufficiently familiar, and when used by acknowledged
authorities on craniology they are not to be neglected, but
they are at best obiter dicta, and a much more serious and
systematic study is required before we can be satisfied that
there were specific differences in bony structure among Saxons,
Jutes, and Angles. This part of the subject may at any rate
be left in the meantime with the words recently penned by
Dr. W. L. H. Duckworth,1 ' it is very desirable that an ex-
tensive investigation should be made of the skulls from all
the Saxon cemeteries of which descriptions exist.' On PI. xx
there are reproduced one or two skulls as specimens of the
material available for study. They are mostly from photographs
which the authorities of the Cambridge Anatomical Museum
kindly allowed the writer to take. No. I is an Anglian skull
from Londesborough in the East Riding of Yorkshire in the
York Museum. No. 2, at Cambridge, is from Hauxton,
Cambs. No. 3 is in the Art Museum at Rugby and was
found at Street Ash ton, near the Fosse Way, Warwickshire,
with the open-socketed spear head figured beside it which
shows it to be Anglo-Saxon. No. 4 is a West Saxon skull
from Harnham Hill, Wilts, and No. 5 a Jutish skull, minus
the lower jaw, from Ozengell cemetery, Thanet, Kent.
Differences of the kind suggested may be discerned in
funeral customs and in the character of tomb furniture as well
as in the physical peculiarities of skeletons. There are obvious
differences between cemetery and cemetery in the manner of
treating the body and arranging the grave but there seems no
evidence that these differences are really racial ones. The
most striking of these differences is that between cremation
and inhumation, but it is the view taken in this book and
developed later on (Ch. x) that this difference depends on
time and locality rather than race. Then there is the common
use made of coffins in Kentish interments while coffins else-
1 Cambridge Antiquarian Society's Communications, vol. xvi, 191 2, p. 128.
CONTRASTS AMONG CEMETERIES 187
where are rare, and there is the difference between the custom
of laying the body flat on the surface of the subsoil or the
stratum below the alluvial deposit, or excavating in this a
distinct grave.
It is clear that differences of this kind are not sufficiently
far-reaching or consistent to serve as indications of race, but
on the other hand they are often sufficiently marked to dis-
tinguish smaller social aggregates. Let us take for example
the cemetery at Sleaford in Lincolnshire, where we find in
general use the custom of burial in a crouching position which
elsewhere is only sporadic. Does not this seem to indicate the
existence of a community with its own customs and traditions
differing from other Anglo-Saxon communities, just as one
Roman gens differed in its sacra gentilicia from another ? In
the neighbouring cemeteries, about 8 miles apart, of Linton
Heath and Little Wilbraham, Cambs, where the tomb furni-
ture is of just the same kind and the only difference seems to
be that the first named is rather the earlier, there was in the
first case no sign of cremation and in the second abundant
cremation. Why this contrast? Many cemeteries in East
Anglia and the northern Midlands present evidence of the co-
existence, certainly in place and in all probability also in time,
of the rites of cremation and inhumation. Did the people
who practised the latter form a social aggregate differing from
those who held to the earlier tradition, or was the change
merely due to an influence that was affecting the whole com-
munity but which happened to become effective in some
families or groups earlier than in others ? It must be confessed
that about these assumed smaller aggregates within the larger
political divisions we know practically nothing, and even their
existence is problematical. In the older days of Kemble and
Isaac Taylor place-names ending in or containing the syllable
• ing ' were held to indicate the existence at each township of
a community united by ties of relationship, that might be
credited with different beliefs and customs from those of
188 THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
neighbouring communities, but the ' ing ' theory in its earlier
form is now quite given up, see Vol. i, p. 68 f. In our
present state of knowledge, if it were not for these exceptional
appearances in some of the graveyards we should certainly take
for granted the homogeneity of the population over tolerably
wide areas, and should expect one South Saxon or Kentish
village to be very like another. It is doubtful whether these
archaeological discrepancies, interesting as they are, are marked
enough or well enough understood to shake us out of our
present prepossessions.
When we deal with the single cemeteries each for itself
this impression of homogeneity is confirmed. Save in the one
matter of cremation and inhumation, which as we have just
seen may not really involve any marked social differences, this
homogeneity is almost absolute, and nowhere has the levelling
power of death made itself more apparent than in the Teutonic
graveyard of pagan times. There are of course marked con-
trasts between the richly equipped graves and those almost or
entirely bare of furniture, and these may be an index to com-
parative wealth or social station, but it has been expressly
noticed by explorers that in the latter cases the graves have
been prepared and the bodies have been laid in them with the
same care that has been shown in the most sumptuously
supplied interment. No special part of the cemetery seems to
have been regarded as an aristocratic preserve, and, as in the
case of the Kingston cemetery already referred to (p. 170),
rich and poor seem to have slept their long sleep side by side.
In the case of some foreign cemeteries, such as that of Reichen-
hall in Bavaria, an endeavour has been made to identify groups
of graves as belonging to sections of the community connected
by ties of relationship. It has been already noticed that the
weak point of cemetery exploration in this country has been
the neglect of a survey of the graves as a whole in their dis-
tribution and local arrangements so that there are no recorded
observations bearing on this question. Family burials however
ASSOCIATED BURIALS 189
to all appearance occur, and they are among those interments,
represented in every larger cemetery, where more than one
body has been laid in a single tomb. Such burials are not
always family ones, and in many, perhaps in the majority of
instances, the bodies are disposed in a rather careless fashion as
if the desire only was to get rid of them somehow. Explorers
have noticed that in the case of these plural burials tomb
furniture is for the most part wanting. On the other hand
there are instances in which the plural interment was both
careful and richly supplied, and there are appearances about
some of these which set the imagination at work. Of two
warriors found in a single grave at Long VVittenham, Berks,
one had his left arm within the right arm of the other,
suggesting to the explorer, J. Y. Akerman, the relation of
father and son.1 Two warriors of advanced age at Sarre, Kent,
were found buried together, and the abundance of the tomb
furniture seemed to show that a sort of heroic honour had been
done to the deceased who may have battled side by side and in
their deaths were not divided. The plural burial at Stowting,
Kent, already referred to (pp. 158, 167) was a most striking one.
It occurs not infrequently in the accounts of cemeteries
that the bodies of children appear to have been disposed of in
an exceptional manner, and one that is more archaic than the
prevailing fashion of the particular burying ground. General
Pitt Rivers noticed that at Winklebury Hill, Wilts, while
twenty-six skeletons had their feet to the east two had theirs to
the west and these were both children, ' which,' he says, ' seems
perhaps to mark a distinction in the mode of burial for young
people.'2 At Filkins, Oxon, and Long Wittenham, Berks,
children had their feet to the north while the other bodies had
theirs to the east. At Fairford, Gloucestershire, and Hassocks,
Sussex, exceptional cases of cremation were those of children.
Whether these little ones were regarded by semi-Christianized
parents as * unregenerate ' may be left uncertain.
1 Archaeologia, xxxix, 141. 2 Excavations in Cranborne Chase, 11, 259.
190 THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY
When two bodies in a plural interment are of opposite
sexes, and especially when that of a child accompanies them, a
family relationship is suggested, though to the critical mind
the question will present itself how it came about that the
two or the three deaths were to all appearance simultaneous.
The appearance of the male and the female skeletons together
suggesting a tender association cannot fail to remind us of an
incident referred to in a previous volume of this work,Vol. i, 1 1 5,
when St. Boniface expressed the wish that his bones might be
laid in the same grave with those of his beloved kinswoman
and fellow-worker, the saintly Saxon lady Lioba. This idea
of the joining of bones in death has about it more than a
touch of northern romance, and a thousand years "after the
day of Boniface the poignant utterance of this same desire is
the climax of the tragedy of ' Wuthering Heights.'
Here are some reflections which offered themselves to the
antiquary Charles Roach Smith on the opening of a grave at
Ozengell in the Isle of Thanet, Kent. ' In another grave, of
unusual width, were three skeletons ; two were of adults, a
male and a female, the third a child. The former lay close
together ; their faces had been inclined towards each other ;
and time, which in other instances had almost consumed the
last vestiges of the human fabric, had dealt more leniently
with the inmates of this family tomb, and had brought the
skulls of husband and wife (for such we may consider their
relationship to have been) into close contact, face to face,
separated only by the spear head of the man. Beads of amber
surrounded the necks of the female and child, and the dress
of the former appeared to have been fastened in front by a
long metal pin. By the side of the skeleton of the child was
also a small knife.' Two adults and a child were found to-
gether in a single grave at the recent opening of a Jutish
burying place at Broadstairs in Kent, and many similar
instances might be quoted.1 There are not a few cases where
1 A case at Chessell Down, Isle of Wight, was noticed (p. 747).
THE FUNERAL FEAST 191
an infant seems to have been buried with its mother. This
was the case for example in grave 205 at Kingston, Kent,
which produced the famous Kingston brooch represented on
the Frontispiece to this volume. The tomb measured 10 ft.
by 8 ft. and was 6 ft. deep.
The funeral feast is a social custom attested by numerous
discoveries in cemeteries in all parts of Teutonized England.
The bones of animals commonly utilized for food frequently
occur and are sometimes found heaped together in those pits
and ditches already referred to (p. 136) as somewhat enigma-
tical features in the cemeteries. Collections of these bones may
be seen in the Museum of the Burton-on-Trent Archaeological
Society, in the Reading Museum, and elsewhere. The sacri-
ficial feasts of the Anglo-Saxons with which such funeral feasts
would have much in common are referred to in a well-known
passage of Bede's Ecclesiastical History,1 and also in the
writings of St. Boniface. In his sixth discourse the latter says
' omnia autem sacrificia et auguria paganorum sacrilegia sunt,
quemadmodum sunt sacrificia mortuorum super defuncta
corpora, vel super sepulchra illorum,' and a letter from Pope
Zacharias quotes him as saying ' tauros et hircos diis paganorum
immolabant, manducantes sacrificia mortuorum.'2
1 1, 3°-
2 Migne, Patrolog. Curs. Compl. Ser. Lat., lxxxix, pp. 855, 944.
CHAPTER IV
TOMB FURNITURE : (I) ARMS
The reader who has access to the Associated Societies' Reports
would do well to peruse the account given of the exploration
in 1863 of the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Kempston on the
Ouse a mile or two above Bedford.1 The Rev. S. Edward
Fitch, M.D., describes how in the spring of that year workers
in the Kempston gravel pit laid bare, only two feet below
the surface and resting on the upper stratum of gravel, a
human skeleton, and how from that time through the summer
he superintended the opening of grave after grave wherein the
bodies of Anglo-Saxons, or the burnt bones of these, had been
laid to rest with their funeral furniture about them. It is a
model report, because the writer, observing and recording in
a scientific spirit, was not so severely archaeological as to
repress those reflections which occurred to him as a man of
thought and feeling when in contact with these buried relics
of the first Teutonic inhabitants of the place.
This Kempston Report will accordingly assist the reader
to form an idea of the impression produced on those to whom
for the first time the earth of their own fields has revealed
these long-kept secrets of the oldest local history. The
interest here is of a human and historical kind. We will now
go on to interrogate the cemeteries with a purpose more dis-
tinctly antiquarian. One cemetery may be selected as typical.
The one chosen is that of Bifrons near Canterbury, specially
remarkable for the number of different types of fibulae found
1 Associated Societies'' Reports, 1864, p. 269 f.
192
BIFRONS CEMETERY 193
in it as well as for the variety of its yieldings as a whole. It
is one of a class of cemeteries well represented in that region,
and lies on a slope above a Kentish stream, in absolutely rural
surroundings where gentle and simple seem to have lived
together generation after generation in those pleasant relations
which we are fond of regarding as characteristically English.
Necessary details about the site will be given in the following
Volume, and notes on the orientation of the graves and on
the evidence for the use of coffins in the burials have been
brought before the reader (pp. 168, 150), so that we proceed
at once to the inventory, taking as explained above first the
arms of the warrior ; next the ornaments which are mostly
though of course not exclusively feminine ; then the miscel-
laneous finds ; and lastly the vessels. It will be understood
that the objects actually found at Bifrons are not only
described in themselves but in most cases made the starting
point of a more extended survey, embracing other specimens
of the same class not represented in this particular locality, so
that by following this system something like a complete
inventory of the impedimenta of Anglo-Saxon life will it is
hoped be secured. In the matter of arms for example Bifrons
is not particularly rich, and these will be largely illustrated
from other sources. On this one site however there were
found six or seven swords, fourteen shield bosses, and forty-
six spear heads, together with one or two abnormal pieces.
THE COAT OF MAIL AND THE HELMET
No Anglo-Saxon warrior has yet been found equipped
with so complete a panoply as that of the Alamannic champion
whose grave was disinterred at Gammertingen in southern
Germany on December 15, 1902,1 nor so rich a one as was
found in 1886 at Vermand in northern France in the grave
1 Grobbels, Der Reibengraberfund von Gammertingen, Miinchen, 1905.
Ill N
194 THE COAT OF MAIL
of a Germanic chieftain in the service of Rome.1 The former
possessed a shirt of mail and a noble helmet as well as the
almost universal shield, and for weapons of offence a broad-
sword, a cutlass, a battleaxe, a spear, and a quiver full of
arrows. The weapons of the latter, so far as they had been
spared by earlier riflers of the tomb, were sumptuously adorned
with gilding and niello work.
The coat of mail is of the most extreme rarity in Germanic
cemeteries of this period and in our own country there is
hardly a trace of it except in the Derbyshire tumulus at Benty
Grange, where some iron chainwork was found which the
explorer suggested might have been * sewn up within or upon
a doublet of strong cloth ' so as to form a sort of quilted
cuirass.2 In view of the part which the coat of mail or
* byrnie ' plays in the heroic literature of the period, as in
Beowulf^ the absence of it from the tomb inventories is
remarkable, but it must be remarked that among the armed
figures in the representations on the * Franks Casket ' in the
British Museum (p. 205 note 1) some are shown with coats of
mail, PL lxxxi, 7 (p. 377). It must be remembered also
that the heroic poems as we have them are later than the finds,
and the Germanic warrior of the early migration period pre-
ferred to have his limbs free, caring more for weapons of
offence than for protective ones. The Benty Grange inter-
ment is late (p. 772). Coats of mail were worn by the Roman
soldiers who may have borrowed the equipment from the
East, but Dr. Grobbels thinks the Gammertingen mail
German work.3
Much the same may be said about the helmet. It is
extremely rare in Germanic finds, less than a dozen examples
1 Now in the Pierpont Morgan Collection, New York. Seymour de Ricci,
Catalogue of a Collection of Merovingian Antiquities belonging to J. Tierpont
Morgan, Paris, 19 10. Plates x and xi.
2 Bateman, Ten Tears' Diggings, 1861, p. 32.
3 Grobbels, p. 35.
HELMET AND SHIELDS
2, J, are Continental pieces
THE HELMET 195
being known,1 and is generally of a conical shape perhaps
adopted from oriental sources ; it is constructed in a system of
framework and filling that we shall see illustrated in a remark-
able shield boss found at Farthingdown, Surrey, PI. xxni, 3.
The one helmet found in England is of this character but is
in some respects unique. It was found in the Benty Grange
tumulus just referred to and is now in the Museum at Sheffield,
PI. xxi, 1. It is composed of a framework of iron bands,
which is all that is seen in the photograph, and Mr. Bateman
says ' from the impression on the metal it is evident that the
outside was covered with plates of horn disposed diagonally
so as to produce a herring-bone pattern,' 2 whence we can
gather that it looked like a Roman * Schuppenpanzer ' or
' lorica squamata ' that was coated with protective scales.
Now Ammianus Marcellinus 3 tells his readers that the Quadi
wore breastplates made of horn scraped and polished affixed to
doublets of linen, so that the scales of horn were like a bird's
feathers, and Sarmatian horsemen appear to be equipped in
this fashion on the Trajan Column. The Benty Grange
helmet is an Anglo-Saxon example of this technique. It has
another very interesting peculiarity that the figure of an animal,
evidently a boar, wrought in iron and standing on a plate of
bronze is affixed to the summit in the form of a crest. Charles
Roach Smith in a notice of the Benty Grange find4 quotes
some apposite passages from northern heroic literature in which
the boar figures as a charm upon a helmet. For example,
when Beowulf arms for the raid upon the mother of Grendel
he dons a casque which a weapon smith had ' set round with
boar figures so that never might brand nor war-blades make
any impression upon it.' 5
1 Grobbels, pp. 7-33. The most recent find was made in Belgium and
is described by Baron de Loe, D'ecouverte (Tun Casque dans une tombe franque a
Trivieres, Trovince de Hainault, Brussels, 19 10.
2 Ten Years' Diggings, p. 30. 3 Hist Rom., xvn, xii. 2.
4 Coll Ant., 11, 238 f.
6 The Deeds of Beowulj, by John Earle, Oxford, 1892, p. 47, line 1453.
196 THE SHIELD
But the Benty Grange helmet bears another device. On
the front of it over the forehead, on the extreme left in the
photograph, is a silver cross, and the form of this is given in
the inset drawing above. Now on one of the few Germanic
helmets preserved on the Continent, that in the Library at
Grenoble found at Vezeronce near Vienne on the Rhone and
supposed to have been lost at the battle there between the
Franks and Burgundians in 524, there occurs in the same
position and also elsewhere in the ornamentation a cross that
is recognized as being a charm or apotropaion.1 Hence it is
clear that the wearer of the Benty Grange helmet, which may
be dated to VII, was making the best of the two religions
available at the time and uniting a pagan with the Christian
prophylactic. On a leathern drinking cup found in the same
tumulus there were also two silver crosses. On Leckhampton
Hill, near Cheltenham, there were found on the skull of a
skeleton the remains of what may have been the framework of
a similar headpiece.2 These two discoveries seem to exhaust
the subject of the Anglo-Saxon helmet.
THE SHIELD
The only weapon of defence represented at Bifrons, and
as a rule in Anglo-Saxon cemeteries as a whole, is the shield.
The shield was apparently very commonly borne by the
Germanic man-at-arms. The Franks who descended into
Italy in 539 a.d., 100,000 strong, had each a shield,3 and so
had their Alamannic allies who fought with them against
Narses at Capua.4 That these might be of a rough and ready
order is shown by the fact that, when Theodoric was leading
his Ostrogoths on the eventful march into Italy in 488, his
soldiers could only oppose shields of wicker work to the lance
thrusts of enemies who met them on the way.5 Hence it is
1 Grobbels, p. 15. 2 Coll. Ant., 11, 238.
3 Dr. Thomas Hodgkin, Italy andber Invaders, Oxford, 1 895, etc., iv, 309.
4 ibid., v. 40. 5 ibid., m, 187.
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FORM AND SIZE OF SHIELDS 197
possible that the rank and file of the Anglo-Saxons were
always supplied with shields, but when these were wholly of
perishable materials they may have decayed away. In the
cemeteries with which we are concerned the presence of the
shield is only attested by the metal mounts, which have sur-
vived while the wooden orb of the buckler has passed out of
existence. These mounts may have belonged only to the
shields of the well-to-do, but in any case they are fairly
numerous and occur at Bifrons as in every other large
cemetery.
These surviving parts of the shield present practically the
same shapes all over the Anglo-Saxon area, but there are some
significant differences of detail in the forms that are of chrono-
logical import. The Anglo-Saxon shield appears to have been
an orb of light wood, generally circular, though in the cemetery
at Bifrons and also at Long Wittenham, Berks,1 traces showed
that there it was oblong or oval,2 varying in diameter from
about 18 3 to 30 4 in., by a thickness of as little as J- in.6 to
f in.6 The shield was held not by passing the arm through
loops but in one hand, and for this purpose a round hole,
about 2^ or 4 in. across, is cut in the centre of the orb and
crossed by a bar that was grasped by the fingers of the left
hand. In two cases, at Brighton Museum and in an umbo
found at Brighthampton, Oxon,7 a portion of the skeleton of
the hand still adhered to the rusted iron of the handle. For
the protection of the hand the aperture in the shield orb is
covered with a hollow boss of iron projecting some 3^- in. to 6 in.
and called generally by its Latin name ' umbo.' This umbo
1 Archaeologia, xxxvin, 136.
2 As also at Reichenhall in Bavaria, Rekbenball, p. 81.
3 At Chessell Down, Isle of Wight, Hants, and Sarre, Kent.
4 At Ringmer above Lewes, Sussex, and Folkestone, Kent.
5 Marston St. Lawrence, Arcbaeologia, xlviii, 334; Kempston, Coll. Ant.,
vi, 205.
6 Inventorium Sepulchrale, pp. 5, 10, 116, also Brighton Museum.
7 Arcbaeologia, xxxvn, 391.
198 THE UMBO
was attached to the woodwork by means of rivets run through
holes in a horizontal rim like the brim of a hat at its base, and
similar rivets fastened the handle bar, which was extended
sometimes on each side so as to obtain a firm grip of the wood.
An extended handle of the kind is shown PJ. xxu, i, and one
at Colchester that crossed the hollow of the umbo and branched
out on to the wood beyond its rim on the same Plate, No. 3.
Other rivets were occasionally disposed round the outer margin
of the orb, as at Folkestone, Kent. These rivets are often
preserved and may, as in the case just mentioned, give the
size of the orb, while by measuring the length of their shank
an estimate can be made of the thickness of the wood of the
shield. This is often curiously thin, but not so thin in this
country as in the case of the numerous shields from the finds
of about IV in the moors of Schleswig, preserved now in the
Museum at Kiel. The boards of these Thorsberg and Nydam
shields vary in thickness from about \ in. to ^ in.,1 and they
are not in any effective way braced or strengthened by metal.
They have evidently seen service as may be judged by the
dints in the umbos and the holes in the woodwork, but what
protection they can have afforded against a severe blow or
thrust it is difficult to see. A restored example of a Thorsberg
shield in the Museum at Copenhagen is given PI. xxi, 2, and
conveys an idea of the general aspect of an Anglo-Saxon piece
of the kind.
The umbo is here of a plain hemispherical form that
Dr. Salin rightly notes is derived from the usual Roman type,
but the Germanic umbos proper are of more elaborate and vary-
ing shapes. The most common shape, found in all parts of the
country, is called c mammiform ' from a certain resemblance to
the female breast.2 From the inner edge of the horizontal rim
there rises an erect cylindrical piece that is sometimes worked
1 Engelhardt, Denmark in the Early Iron Age, Lond., 1866, p. 48, and
Thorsberg, pi. 8.
2 Fourteen examples were found at Bifrons.
XXIII
tacing p. 199
UMBOS
5, 6, are Continental ; y, British
FORMS OF THE UMBO 199
into a concave profile. This carries a hemispherical cover,
varying in section but most often rather depressed, that
commonly rises in the centre to a narrow stem surmounted by
a flat button of the shape of the rivet heads already mentioned.
This flat button and the rivet heads are sometimes plated with
silver, as at Folkestone and other places in Kent, and there are
two instances, from Cottesmore, Rutland, and Barton Seagrave,
Northants, where the button is worked with ornament in relief
and gilded. This sort of ornamentation is most common
abroad on the shield bosses of the Lombards. An example
from the Rhineland at Mainz is given No. 3 on PI. xxi.
The specimens from Stowting and from Buttsole, Kent,
PI. xxii, 4 and 2 (c) show two varieties of the type. No. 4
has been pierced by two formidable lance thrusts.
The other examples in PI. xxii, No. 2 show different forms
of which the centre one, (b), introduces us to a distinct variety.
Here the form is conical and ends above with a point. Umbos
of this kind are not very common and appear less often on the
Continent than in this country. They have been found here
in Kent (Sibertswold, now at Liverpool), Surrey (Farthing-
down, in Ashmolean), Essex (Colchester, in Museum), Beds
(Kempston, in British Museum), Wilts (Rodmead Down, at
Devizes), Derbyshire (Tissington, in British Museum) and
other places. One of the best examples was found at Sitting-
bourne, Kent, and is now in the Museum at Dover. It is
*l\ in. high by an external diameter of 4J in., PI. xxin, 1.
The horizontal rim, as is the case with other examples, is com-
paratively narrow. These pointed terminations suggest the
inquiry whether the umbo of such a shield can have been used
at close quarters as a weapon of offence. That this is possible
can be inferred from a passage in Tacitus, Agricola, xxxvi,
where the expression i ferire umbonibus ' is used of Batavian
auxiliaries in hand-to-hand battle against the Britons or rather
Caledonians. It is a curious fact that umbos with long spikes
inserted into their summits have been found on the Late- Celtic
200 , THE UMBO
site of Hunsbury and are now in the Northampton Museum.
These evidently have a warlike purpose, see PL xxin, 7, but
with regard to the Saxon examples, if it had been found that
use could be made of them for fighting one cannot understand
why the overwhelming majority of Anglo-Saxon shield bosses
should have been furnished with a button that made any such
employment impossible.
The chronological point connected with the umbos is the
following. Nearly all the mammiform umbos found in this
country are dome-shaped with a convex outline, but on the
Continent there is represented an earlier form of which the
upward curve of the dome is a concave one. It is a Late-
Celtic form that Professor Bela Posta notes x was diffused later
on over northern and western Europe, and typical examples
are the gilded umbo found in the chieftain's tomb at Vermand
and dating from before 400 a.d.,2 and that from Herpaly
at Budapest, figured later on, PI. lii'i, 10 (p. 305). This
same form is constantly represented in the cemeteries in the
region of the Lower Elbe that are an archaeological generation
earlier than those in our own country. Two at Liineburg,
from the cemeteries of Nienbiittel and Boltersen, are shown
PI. xxin, 5, 6. The derivation from that region of some
of the forms met with in English cemeteries of the first
period of the Teutonic occupation is a fundamental fact in
Anglo-Saxon archaeology to which reference will often have
to be made. It so happens that in one particular British
region, the valley of the Thames in its upper part, umbos of
this abnormal form are met with, see for example the specimen
PI. xxin, 4, from Fairford, Gloucestershire. This agrees with
other indications of a very early Teutonic colonization of this
region which will be dealt with in a later chapter.
The technique of the umbos must not be passed over
1 Arckeologische Studien auf Russiscbem Bodert, Budapest, 1905, 1, 29.
2 de Ricci, Catalogue, I.e.
ANGLO-SAXON SMITHING 201
without a word. They are very good examples of the
Anglo-Saxon weapon smith's craft. He was a personage of
some consequence for his weregild was a high one, and he
knew how to secure good material and to manipulate it in
effective fashion. It must be remembered that he did not
dispose of the rolled iron or mild steel plates prepared in
modern times by machinery, but had to hammer everything out
or up from the lump. The process was all to the advantage
of the work for it rendered the metal far more compact and
tough, and explains what J. Y. Akerman observed at Frilford,
Berks, when a workman's pick was driven right through an
umbo without breaking it up.1 Save in one remarkable case
presently to be considered these umbos are all in one piece and
the forging of them was an affair of judgement and skill. A
broken umbo in the Grange Wood Museum near Croydon,
PI. xxm, 2, will illustrate the technique. The thickness of
the metal varies in the Croydon piece from ^ in. at the top
to -j^ in. below, and this shows that it was beaten from the
centre downwards. The blows of the hammer drive the metal
before them and thicken it, while it is thinned where the
strokes actually fall. The craftsman starting with a flat lump
of iron of roughly circular shape and of the thickness his ex-
perience had shown necessary would beat it over the rounded
head of a slender stake till he had forced the central part up
into a knob. Heating this up again and again he would strike
into the knob from the side with the rounded edge of a suit-
able hammer till he had worked it into a narrow stem with a
lump at the top that would form the terminal stud or button.
Transferring the piece then to a rounded block of broader
mass he would commence to beat the iron out from the centre
towards the circumference thinning and shaping it in obedience
to his will, and securing the exact profile desired, with a suit-
able horizontal rim the outer circumference of which would be
trimmed with the chisel. The result would be a hollow dome
1 Proc. Soc. Ant.y 2nd Ser., m, 136.
202 THE UMBO
carrying at the apex a solid stem crowned by the button, no
welding or other join being required.
The exceptional umbo referred to above is constructed in
quite a different fashion. It was found with a similar piece
at Farthingdown, Surrey, and is now in the Ashmolean at
Oxford, PI. xxiii, 3. Here the form is the conical one already
illustrated but the piece is put together with a framework and
filling after the pattern of the conical helmets. There are six
ribs fashioned with the section of T iron, and the plates are
carefully fitted in between these with strengthening pieces
cunningly adapted.1
On the question of the external finish of the shield we
have practically no information. From the fact that in the
Laws of iEthelstan the shieldwright who used inferior leather
was to be fined we may infer that a covering of hide was
usual, but this covering if it existed seems to have left no
trace in the graves. Whether colour or painted devices
diversified the surface, as was common in classical and also
in mediaeval times, we can only conjecture. Certain small flat
appliques have been found from time to time in the graves
which are supposed to have been attached to the face of the
shield, and these must not be passed over. The most in-
teresting are some sketchy representations of the form of a
fish of which examples have been found at Kempston, Beds ;
Warren Hill, Suffolk, and other places ; and these there is
little doubt were Christian symbols applied to the shield
like the cross on the Benty Grange helmet with prophylactic
intent. PL xxiv, 1, shows the Suffolk example in the
collection of Mr. Samuel Fenton in London. No. 4 on the
same Plate is an interesting object in the Museum at Canter-
bury,2 consisting in an applique in gilded bronze with three
rivets at the back not pierced with holes, by means of which
1 Surrey Archaeological Collections, vi, 108.
2 J. Brent, Antiquities in the Museum, Canterbury, Canterbury, 1875,
p. 46, no. 355.
fa
o
fa
&
fa
fa
<
APPLIQUES 203
it can have been fixed on to some surface, the rivets being
beaten out at the back when the piece was in position. This
surface need not of course have been that of a shield. The
form and ornamentation of the applique are worth a moment's
attention. The former is derived from the fibulae in the shape
of birds with curved beak which originally Gothic were
much in favour with the Franks in V and VI. Here the
curved beak though much conventionalized is clearly in
evidence curling round the hole in the top of the piece.
Below the beak and between it and the body, which is separated
from the head by a band like a ruff round the neck, there is
introduced a very characteristic bit of conventionalized animal
ornament, which from the beginning of VI becomes extremely
common in Teutonic tomb furniture. It is best seen when
turned flat with the beak to the spectator's right. Nearest the
beak appears the eye of the creature with the brow curving
round it, and the rest of the dismembered animal consists only
in two legs, a larger one the joint of which forms the sharp
projection below to the left while the claws of the foot
terminate the limb underneath in the direction of the beak.
A smaller leg and claw find room above, under and to the
left of the eye. This subject of conventionalized animal
ornament will of course be fully treated in the sequel, see
Chapter vi (p. 325 f.).
In connection with appliques a notice may be introduced
here of a unique set of objects of the kind preserved in the
Maidstone Museum. They were found at Buttsole a little
inland from Eastry in Kent, on the Roman road from Rich-
borough to Dover. An inlet of the sea ran in old time nearly
to Eastry, and the place was a very natural one for a settlement.
The character of this find is so uncommon that the suggestion
has been made that a small body of people of a different stock
from the general population of the region had fixed their
habitation on the spot, and that this would account for the
peculiar character of these objects and of others afterwards
204 THE SWORD
to be noticed from the same find. They are discussed by-
Mr. George Payne in the Proceedings of the Society of Anti-
quaries, Vol. xv, p. 178 f., though he indicates erroneously
their provenance as Dover.1 He considers the appliques,
which are without a parallel in Kentish graves, as ornaments
of a belt or of horse trappings. They have at the back tangs
for fixing them that are in some cases pierced, while in others
they are evidently meant to be beaten out rivet-fashion when
in place. PI. xxiv, 5 shows, enlaj^ged twice linear, the back
of one of the pieces with the rivets and their ' washers.' The
surface to which they were fixed must have been | in. thick.
The fish form it will be seen is represented, see No. 3, slightly
enlarged, also the equal armed cross, No. 5, and the bird with
hooked beak. An ornament made up of two such birds with
bodies joined, in the corner close to the number ' 3,' has
parallels abroad and also occasionally at home, PI. xlviii, 7.
The objects are beautifully made in cast bronze, chased, and
parcel gilt. The largest piece in the centre and that above it
to the left have a zoomorphic aspect. No. 6 is an enlarged
view of a stud with a perforated tongue at the back, after the
fashion of some of the Buttsole appliques. It will be noticed
later on in connection with the subject of the buckle (p. 359).
THE SWORD
Of arms of offence the most important though by no means
the most common was the sword, and the weapon possesses
a dignity as well as an archaeological interest that justifies an
extended treatment. On the position of the sword in early
times Kemble remarks 2 that it is the alter ego of the man, his
most trusty and constant companion. ' His arrow he shoots
1 Mr. Hubert Elgar, of the Kent Archaeological Society's Museum at
Maidstone, has recently discovered documents which show that Buttsole was
as a fact the locality of the find. See postea (p. 708).
2 Horae Ferales, Lond. 1863, 47.
AN ARISTOCRATIC WEAPON 205
away ; spears and javelins are only useful at a distance, but on
his sword he can rely in hand to hand conflict, face to face
with his enemy : his sword is with him always ; in life and in
death it is the sacred emblem of his freedom and his dignity,
and therefore as the sword is so are the people and the age.'
The last phrase may convey the false impression that the sword
is the common arm of the fighting men of a nation. This is
however not the case. It is as a rule an aristocratic weapon
the appanage of the few,1 and this partly explains the romantic
associations that have gathered round it. The democratic
weapon is the spear, and the old phrase, that occurs in King
Alfred's Will, 'the spear half and the spindle half,' may be
quoted in illustration. In the modern army the sword dis-
tinguishes the officer, and the bayonet, the representative of
the older spear, is the weapon of close fighting for the rank
and file. So apparently it has been among most military
peoples, the Romans forming an exception. In the German
Heldenbuch it is noted that * as old writings say, the sword
should no man bear save he be noble or noble's child,' and
the name of the chief for whom the blade is forged may be
inscribed upon it, as on the hilt of the sword that Beowulf
1 In the interesting series of representations on the so-called ' Franks
Casket' in the British Museum, almost certainly a Northumbrian work of
VII, an attacking force, that of the Romans upon Jerusalem, embraces five
men whose arms are shown, and of these the two foremost carry swords the
other three only spears. Among the assailants of the House of Egil — who
it may be remarked is defending himself with a bow and arrows — of five men
with arms of offence four carry swords and only one a spear alone. Three
hold round shields of the pattern already discussed, and two (with one in
the Jerusalem scene) wear coats of mail. In the Romulus and Remus scene
there are four armed figures and they all carry spears only. This important
object though falling within the present limits of date is, with its figures,
runic inscriptions, and animal and other ornament, so much more significant
in connection with the carved stones than with the tomb furniture that, like
the Ormside Bowl, it can be treated more suitably in a future volume. Some
of the figures in question are however shown later on, PI. lxxxi (p. 371).
206 THE SWORD
finds in the abode of Grendel beneath the mere.1 The sword
itself is individualized and bears its name like the war horse.
Siegfrid's ' Balmung,' Beowulf's c Nasgling,' Arthur's ' Ex-
calibur,' are as well known as Gran or Bucephalus. It claims
a sort of personal distinction, and for the making of it the
finest craftsmanship, for the adornment of it the most elaborate
enrichment, have been demanded. One knows how in northern
fable the swordsmith becomes a personage of superhuman gifts,
and in civilized days Professor Hampel has remarked 2 c to
produce really good sword-blades there is needed not only
excellent material, but also a traditional practice of established
repute bound to the locality and carried on through many
generations/ Hence the manufacture of swords has connected
itself with special localities and families, and ( it is an interesting
fact that the peculiar skill of the swordsmith is in England so
far hereditary that it can be traced back in the same families
for several generations.'3 The hilt of the sword Beowulf finds
is banded and inlaid with purest gold and wrought with lacertine
ornament. Of Excalibur ' the pommel and haft were all of
precious stones.' Literature has in every age exalted the sword
and flung round it the halo of romance. Othello's words thrill
with emotion when he holds up to view his sheathed blade,
1 1 have a weapon . . .
It is a sword of Spain, the ice-brook's temper . . .
A better never did itself sustain
Upon a soldier's thigh.'
In these considerations an explanation has been sought for
1 Earle's Beowulf, p. 55, line 1695. 'On the mounting of sheer gold
there was with rune-staves rightly inscribed, set down and said, for whom
that sword had erst been wrought.' It is worthy of remark that on a sword
pommel from Gilton in the Museum of Liverpool there is an inscription in
(illegible) runes that may conceivably give the name of the possessor. See
Akerman's Pagan Saxondom, pi. xxiv.
2 A It ert biimer in Vngarn, 1, 210.
3 Enc. Brit, nth Ed., xxvi, 272, art. ' Sword.'
STATISTICS OF SWORDS 207
the fact that while some splendid sword hilts and scabbard
mounts like those found in the tomb of Childeric,1 at Pouan,2
or at Flonheim,8 have come to light in Teutonic graves, the
total number of swords excavated in proportion to other
weapons is very small. When Lindenschmit wrote his
Handbuch in the '8o's of the last century he could say that at
any rate in Germany nearly every man's grave contained a
spear head, whereas, except along the middle Rhine, where
swords are more numerous, the aristocratic weapon was rarely
met with.4 It has been calculated that in the graveyards of
the Ripuarian Franks on the middle Rhine, dating from the
middle of VI, from 8 to 10 per cent, of the tombs have
furnished swords, but only two long swords are mentioned by
the explorer of the large Bavarian cemetery at Reichenhall
further to the east, and Hampel only reckons three as
belonging to the Germanic section of the graves he has
explored in Hungary.5 In Italy the recently excavated
Lombard cemetery at Castel Trosino near the Adriatic coast
furnished eight sword blades from about 358 tombs. Many
hundreds of Burgundian graves at Charnay produced only 14
swords, while there were none at all in the graves of the same
people at Bel-Air by Lausanne. In Normandy more than
1000 tombs opened by the Abbe Cochet yielded up half a
dozen blades, and M. Pilloy writing quite recently6 about
Frankish cemeteries uses the expression ' les rares tombes ou
Ton recueille une epee a deux tranchants.' At Oyer in the
Marne district 2000 tombs only furnished three swords.7
In England Faussett found only two in the 308 tumuli he
opened on Kingston Down, though he secured five in the 106
graves at Gilton and six in the 181 at Sibertswold. Later
1 Now in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.
2 Now at Troyes. 3 In the Museum at Worms.
4 Altertbumer der Merovingischen Zeit, pp. 163, 220.
5 Altertbumer in Ungarn, i, 187. 6 Etudes, m, 13.
7 de Baye, Industrie Longobarde, Paris, 1 888, p. 12.
208 THE SWORD
excavations at Sarre in Thanet showed that one grave in ten
out of the 272 reported contained a sword, and at Bifrons six
or seven were the outcome of the exploration of some 150
graves. At Long Wittenham, Berks, and Little Wilbraham
in Cambridgeshire, in each case in from 180 to 190 graves,
two and four swords were found ; there were two at
Kempston, Beds, and three in the 77 graves opened at
Mitcham, Surrey. On the other hand no swords at all were
found in the important cemeteries of Harnham Hill, Wilts ;
Frilford, Berks ; Sleaford, Lincolnshire ; and Marston St. L.,
Northants. The proportion of swords to interments is gener-
ally held to be greatest at Sarre, one in ten, and Brighthampton,
Oxon, with four swords in less than 60 graves, has come
second, but the recent excavation of a presumably Jutish
cemetery at Droxford, Hants, produced six swords from
graves which though pronounced ' numerous ' cannot have
made up a very large graveyard. It is remarkable that this
cemetery was a poor one in its tomb furniture generally, and
this is contrary to the view which makes the wearer of the
sword always a man of substance, and which is supported by
the case of Derbyshire, where though three swords only have
been found they were all associated with objects denoting
an owner of rank.1 In the recently excavated cemetery at
Alfriston, Sussex, swords were comparatively numerous, six
having come from the 115 graves first excavated. This
cemetery was a decidedly rich one, as the chapter on fibulae
will show.
If the sword were the weapon of the eorl this would account
for its comparative rarity, but it has been also suggested 2 that
these arms were excluded from grave deposits because they
were heirlooms handed down from father to son. In Beowulf
1 Victoria County History, Derbyshire, 1, 268.
2 By Charles Roach Smith in Inventorium Sepulchrale, p. xxxvi, and more
recently by Professor Hampel, Alterthi'imer in Ungarn, 1, 186.
XXV
facing p. 209
ANGLO-SAXON AND OTHER SWORDS
xxy
6, 7> o-fe Continental specimens 5 8 is Roman j 10, Piking
PRESTIGE OF THE SWORD 209
the chiefs1 ancestral swords are mentioned,1 and his own sword
he describes as l the ancient heirloom,' 2 while the weapon
with the wondrous hilt that he finds in Grendel's lair was an
antique trophy.3 We may remember also the numerous
bequests of swords in the wills of later Anglo-Saxon times
printed by Thorpe in his Diplomatorium, and the place that
the sword holds in the lists of Heriots in early Teutonic legis-
lation. It must not at the same time be forgotten that such
documents are of much later date than the pagan sepulchres,
though the parts of Beowulf cited may seem to carry us back
to the older heroic age. The principle of reserving the heir-
loom if it were really an old-established one might be expected
to result in the almost total exclusion of swords from grave
inventories, whereas as a matter of fact their rarity is by no
means so great. Again if the sword of the chief were reserved
as something too precious to be surrendered to the tomb,4 a
feeling of a like kind might well have operated to save the
costly jewels of his lady, which were however, like the Kingston
brooch, duly consigned to the darkness. Another way of
accounting for the scarcity of the sword is to suppose it the
weapon exclusively of the mounted warrior,5 and it has been
said that it was too heavy to be used by a man on foot. But
the Gauls who fought the Romans with still longer and heavier
arms were infantry soldiers. The discovery in a number of
instances of spear heads in the same grave with swords pre-
cludes the supposition just noticed, for the spear which was not
a long lance, see below, is pre-eminently the footman's weapon.
The weapon under consideration, as found in Anglo-Saxon
1 ' There did many an eorl of Beowulf's unsheath his old heirloom,'
Earle's Beotvulf, p. 26, line 800.
2 ibid., p. 48, line 1490. 3 ibid., p. 51, line 1558.
* Professor Ham pel says, I.e., 'wenn es besonders werthvoll war, legte
man es nicht ins Grab.'
5 See Lorange, Den Yngre Jernaldcrs $v<erd, Bergen, 1889, p. 79, for
the use of the later Viking sword by cavalry.
in o
210 THE SWORD
graves, possessed a broad straight two-edged blade, about
two feet six inches long ending in a hilt that gave it four or five
inches more,1 about two-and-a-quarter inches wide at the hilt
and tapering very slightly if at all till it ended abruptly in a
rather blunt point. The blade had no central groove nor
median rib. The hilt, and the scabbard which was generally
of thin wood, might be mounted, covered, and artistically
enriched in different fashions, the latter having an ornamental
band round the mouth and a binding of metal, also often
enriched, round the bottom of the sheath forming what is
known as the ' chape.' The examples from Croydon shown
PH. xxv, 3; xxvn, 9, are as complete specimens as could
easily be found. The first is 2 ft. 9 in. long over all, and pos-
sesses the metal bands round the opening of the scabbard and
the bronze chape for the protection of the point. PI. xxvn, 9,
shows the blade and hilt alone. It measures over all 36^- in.
in length, 5 in. going to the hilt, and tapers slightly in width
from i\ in. just below the hilt to 2 in. near the point. The
sword is commonly found in the grave lying by the right
side of the skeleton with the hilt uppermost and has nearly
always in this country come down to us very badly corroded.
The upper part of PI. xxv shows a group of these swords
from different localities which will make apparent their general
likeness wherever they occur. Continental examples are of
exactly the same character. The specimen, PI. xxv, 5,
recently found at Broadstairs, Kent, though much corroded is
useful as giving a well-preserved point.
The technical name of the long two-edged sword was
1 spatha ' and this word, of Greek origin and adopted into
Latin through which it became the modern Italian ' spada,'
suggests the query whether the object as well as the appella-
1 The Brighthampton sword in the Ashmolean, Oxford (p. 223), is of
exceptional length and measures 3 ft. 2 in. over all. As to the question of
weight, some experiments indicate an average of something under 2 lbs.
(pp. 633, 685).
ROMAN AND GERMANIC ARMS 211
tion was not of classical derivation. This introduces us to
a question that underlies the whole subject with which we
have to deal, the question of the true relation of classical and
barbaric elements in the civilization of the whole period and
region. There is hardly a product or an appearance that will
come before us which has not been claimed at one time as
Roman at another time as barbaric, while in the case of very
many of these there is undoubtedly a mixture, in proportions
often very hard to fix, of classic and northern elements. In
the matter of military equipment the connection of Roman
and Teuton would be particularly close for it was by serving
in the auxiliary forces attached to the legions that the Germans
became acquainted with the Roman civilization. Now as the
Roman soldier carried a broad two-edged pointed sword it is
natural that some writers such as Lindenschmit should have
derived the Germanic spatha from the 'gladius' of the
legionary. The former indeed excelled the latter in length,
but the barbarians were noted for their large physique and
the Roman sword in their grasp might easily have taken on
weight of metal. The difference between the two weapons
is however one of shape and mode of use as well as of size
and the derivation of the Teutonic spatha is probably inde-
pendent of Rome.
The fact is that, in spite of the a priori likelihood that
Germanic auxiliaries would borrow and transmit to their
kinsfolk the Roman panoply, the weapons of the two peoples
were markedly different. The Roman writers themselves
recognized this, and in a passage referring to the time of
Tiberius the historian Tacitus1 contrasts the sword (gladius)
and pilum of the legionary with the German shield and spear.
This difference runs through the two equipments. The
Roman helmet was globular, that of the Germans, when they
wore it, was of the conical form traditional since the days of
Assyria in the East. The Roman shield boss was hemi-
1 Ann., 11, 14.
212 THE SWORD
spherical, that of the Teutons of a pointed and conical shape
that can be traced back to Late-Celtic times. The shield of
the legionary was commonly oblong, though various shapes
are met with on the monuments, while that of the Germans
is almost invariably circular. The second or smaller cutting
weapon carried by the soldier as well as his sword was with
the Romans a two-edged dagger, with the Teutons a very
characteristic and unclassical single-edged cutlass. So too
with the weapon now under question, the Roman arm called
1 gladius Hispanus ' was essentially a short sword, and unlike
the spatha it was designed for the thrust rather than the
blow, for which purpose it was furnished with a sharper
point. It was specially effective at close quarters. * Hispano
cingitur gladio ad propiorem habili pugnam ' 1 writes Livy
of T. Manlius about to engage the Gaulish champion. The
Roman swords lastly were carried by all, the spatha was the
weapon of the chief.
The real progenitor of the spatha was the long iron
sword of the Celtic peoples. The earliest iron swords of
the ' Hallstatt ' period were influenced by the former ones of
bronze, but in the Late-Celtic period they were straightened
out and elongated to the proportions of the great Gallic
swords, some of which in the Museum at St. Germain have
a total length of a metre, or about 3 ft. 3 in. Swords of a
similar kind were found at the station of La Tene near the
Lake of Neuchatel in a singularly good state of preservation.
They have long narrow thin blades of hammered iron of
good quality, but are very pliable. They are the swords that
Polybius in a well-known passage describes as buckling after
a hard stroke, and needing to be straightened out under the
foot before the impatient warrior could deliver a second blow.
Long straight two-edged blades of the same kind are
conspicuous in one of the earliest finds of the period of the
migrations, that in the moss of Nydam in Schleswig dating
1 Hist., vii, x.
NYDAM AND VIKING BLADES 213
from about IV a.d., PI. xxv, 6. Though Nydam is in the
far north some of the objects found there were of provincial-
Roman character, and on several of these blades there are
names, stamped in good Roman characters but sometimes of
a semi-barbarous sound. In one case also runic letters occur.
They are moreover stamped with fabric marks as products of
an established industry, and are excellently forged, as many
as 90 per cent, being ' damascened ' by a process explained
below. Their place of fabrication was probably in the partly
Romanized districts of Germany on the middle and lower
Rhine, where at a later date under the Frankish empire the
manufacture and export of sword blades was a staple industry.
These swords of the Schleswig moss-finds are much better
weapons than the spathas of the Teutonic graves, and bear
in some respects a remarkable resemblance to the later Viking
brands of IX and X that made themselves a terror in all
western lands. The resemblance suggests that the Nydam
swords were the direct progenitors of the Viking ones, but the
truth seems to be that they both proceeded at different epochs
from the same source. This question has been discussed in the
monograph by A. L. Lorange of the Bergen Museum referred
to above (p. 209 note 5). He makes two staple manufactories
of sword blades both within what afterwards became the
dominions of the Franks, one, the Pyrenean region where
the old Celtiberian iron industry the parent of the * gladius
Hispanus* had so long flourished, the other the ancient
Noricum on the upper Danube the centre of activity in iron
working that spread to the Rhineland and gave to Solingen
near Cologne its later fame. From these two centres he
believes proceeded the Viking swords, which were carried
off" as booty or in other ways imported into the North,
furnishing to the Scandinavian sea-rovers the weapons with
which they harried the western peoples. The Rhineland
centre, we have just suggested, sent up at an earlier epoch the
Nydam blades, and these are no doubt the real originals of
214 THE SWORD
the heroic brands referred to in Beowulf and the other
northern epics, where we find them invested with a mystic
glory through their rarity and outland origin. That the
first and best swords of the class were of provincial-Roman
make does not of course preclude excellence in the armourer's
craft on the part of Teutonic smiths in the North, who may
have built up their technique on imported models and yet
have carried it to a fair pitch of perfection on their native
anvils. The story of Sigurd's sword in the Niblung cycle
is instructive. It was first given to his father Sigmund by
Odin, which means that it was an outland product of mystical
virtues. The blade was afterwards broken against Odin's
spear, but the pieces were carefully preserved to be ultimately
reforged in a local smithy, and the reconstituted weapon
became the incomparable ' Gram.'
Underlying this story is the recognition of inherent virtue
in the material of a blade of worth, and this calls attention to
the similarity in material as well as shape between the Nydam
and the Viking swords. Both were long, straight, two-edged,
and slightly tapering. Both were marked with median hollows
along the blade which would strengthen them by introducing
a touch of tubular construction, but both were also treated in
the middle of the blade by the process known as ' damascening.'
This word is popularly applied to work in textiles and in
metals in which a variegated surface pattern is produced.
The weavers and metal workers of mediaeval Damascus were
specially cunning in such crafts and this explains the name.
The kind of damascening here in question is not inlaying but
the production by skilful forging of wavy devices within the
texture of steel and iron. Wires or strips of these metals
differing in quality and degrees of hardness are laid side by
side in a certain order and then at white heat welded together
on the anvil. With a little ingenuity, by twisting the hammered
piece and again forging it, or by similar artifices, all kinds
of mottlings and curly patterns may be produced, and these
DAMASCENED SWORD BLADES 215
come out more strongly when the metal has been corroded
by time and the softer strands have been eaten away. The
Nydam swords show this, and PI. xxv, 7, gives a character-
istic specimen. Blades of the Danish period in this country
and Viking weapons generally exhibit the same technique. A
' scramasax ' or short single-edged sword of comparatively late
date in the British Museum from Little Bealings, Suffolk, has
an unmistakable band of damascening along the blade, and
the same appears on certain arms of the Danish epoch in the
national collection from Hurbuck in County Durham.
In the period intermediate between that of the Nydam
deposits and the age of the sea-rovers this same practice of
damascening is referred to, about the beginning of VI, in a
letter from Theodoric the Great, then lord of Italy, to a king
of the Vandals who had sent him from North Africa a present
of sword blades * more precious than gold.' They had the
hollow median groove and within it there was the appearance
as of twisted worms that gave an effect of changing light and
shade as if the steel were of many colours.1 These blades,
wherever they were forged, clearly represent the same tradition
of sword making that we have just been following, but they
are not the spatha blades that are found in the cemeteries of
the migration period. These spathas of V to VII, whether we
find them at home or on the Continent are not damascened
and have no median hollows, and seem to stand apart alike
from the earlier Nydam pieces and those of the later Viking
period.2 If in both these cases we are dealing with a pro-
duction based on provincial-Roman traditions which may
also have been operative in the case of the Vandal blades,
the ordinary spatha of the cemeteries of our period may re-
present an independent Germanic effort at sword making.
1 Cassiodorus, Variae Epistolae, w, I. The translation in Dr. Hodgkin's
Letters of Cassiodorus, Lond., 1886, p. 264, is faulty for there is no question
of 'enamel' in the original.
2 Den Yngre Jernalders Svesrd, p. 73.
216 THE SWORD
Mr. Lorange admits that the Germans and Scandinavians had
their weapon smiths, expert enough in such tasks as forging
umbos and spear heads but not competent for the more exalted
achievements. In this way perhaps we may explain both the
inferior character as a weapon of the spatha and its unlikeness
to the Nydam and the Viking swords.
The spatha is deficient in quality as a blade, and also as we
shall see in a moment in the character of its hilt, and it has
even been suggested that it was not really an effective weapon
of war but was carried by the man of rank as a kind of badge
of office. Such a theory would require strong evidence to
support it. It implies that in the whole long and illustrious
history of the sword there is interpolated a chapter in which
for some three centuries a vigorous fighting people ceased to
use the weapon in traditional wise and turned it into an otiose
utensil of ceremony. Why, we may ask, should the sword
have been not a sword just at this particular epoch in its
history ? It seems safer to assume that it was then as ever a
death-dealing implement though not one of any great efficiency.
Archaeologically speaking the most important part of the
spatha is its hilt, for this exhibits changes that can be arranged
in morphological order so as to supply indications of compara-
tive dates. In the normal sword of all times and countries
the blade ends at the upper part in a ' tang ' or * strig ' round
which is placed some material arranged to accommodate the
grip of the hand. To prevent this material slipping off the
stem of metal the latter has to be beaten out at the end, and
this is generally done over some button or plate or block that
acts as a ' washer ' and by projecting laterally as far as the
handle or beyond it keeps this from being drawn out of the
grasp. In this way is evolved that part of the normal sword
called the 'pommel.' Another important part of the fully
developed hilt is what is known as the { guard,' consisting in
projections of metal between the lower part of the grip and
the blade, so as to protect the hand from a blow which though
MORPHOLOGY OF THE SWORD HILT 217
turned off" by the blade might slide up it and reach the fingers,
and also to keep the hand from slipping on to the blade. The
guard in some comparatively modern swords becomes the
c basket hilt ' that encloses the hand in a hemisphere of steel
open-work which corresponds to the umbo of the shield.
It is a remarkable fact about the Teutonic sword of the
migration period, and one that brings into light its comparative
independence of older traditions, that it seems to exhibit the
development of the hilt from its very beginnings, as if no
effective swords had ever previously been known. The far
earlier swords of the Hallstatt and La Tene periods had hilts
that sometimes assumed elaborate and fanciful forms. The
Roman sword had a serviceable handle with a pommel gener-
ally of a spherical shape, as may be seen in an example in
the Edinburgh Museum of Antiquities from Newstead,
PI. xxv, 8. Here the blade is 17 in. long while the length of
the grip, which with the pommel appears to be of bone, is not
much over 3 in. The end of the strig is carried through the
pommel and beaten out to keep this from slipping off. Some
of the Nydam hilts resemble the Roman, and it is a curious
fact that an enriched wooden hilt found in Cumberland and
now in the British Museum, PI. xxv, 9, is of very much the
same form and make. The garnet inlays and the poor type
of filigree work suggest a late date in VII, but it is quite
possible that earlier hilts of which the woodwork has now
entirely disappeared were finished in the same way. Other
Nydam hilts have the grip of a pronounced concave outline as
shown PI. xxv, 6. None of the types of hilt here mentioned
however has anything substantial in the way of a guard, and
as a fact the development of an effective guard dates only from
the Viking period. To the Viking period also belongs a new
conception of the pommel. Besides its function of securing
the hold of the wielder on his weapon, it is now made very
heavy so as to act as a counterpoise to the weight of the blade
and give the whole arm a suitable balance. With the Viking
218 THE SWORD
sword however, a remarkably effective and well-considered
implement, we are not at present concerned though No. 10
on PL xxv may be introduced as explaining what has just been
said. It is a Danish sword at York, and has the straight
guard and heavy pommel with the median hollow along the
blade.
The peculiarity of the early sword of the Teutonic
migrations is that it has not only no guard but at first no
pommel. Some device to prevent the handle slipping off of
course existed, but the earliest or at any rate the simplest
swords have the end of the iron tang beaten out into a button
form that only takes the middle part of the wooden grip or at
any rate does not project beyond its circumference. The
handle of a short cutlass or ' scramasax,' see below, found at
Lussy in Switzerland in 1908 and now in the Museum at
Fribourg, has retained its wooden grip though this may have
shrunk a little through time, see PI. xxvi, 1. The Folkestone
specimen PI. xxvur, 6, evidently had a hilt of the same kind,
with the button beaten out of the metal of the tang. When
an ornamental head is desired for the hilt this also need not
project, and here we can say with certainty that this applies to
the earliest swords in point of time. That found in the tomb
of Childeric, who died in 481, possesses a grip straight and not
concave in outline, but there is no trustworthy evidence of a
pommel.1 The swords from Pouan in the Museum at Troyes
are adorned with admirable garnet inlays of a somewhat
simpler kind, and are obviously of the same style and date as
the Childeric sword or swords, though we need not necessarily
believe the former to have been carried in the battle against
Attila in 45 1 . This is happily preserved complete and shows
1 The way the pieces of the sword or swords with their scabbard
mounts are put together in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris is not to be
trusted. M. Pilloy has had no difficulty in showing this, see his Etudes,
in, 5 f. The hilt as at present arranged will be found figured later on,
PI. H. 11 (p. 533).
XXVI
facing p. 219
SWORD HILTS
1 is about J natural size
I is Continental
EVOLUTION OF THE POMMEL
219
Fig. 9.— The Pouan Hilts.
an ornamental head without any projection beyond the gold-
plated wooden grip.1 A sketch of the two hilts from the
Pouan find is given in Fig. 9,
reduced to one half linear.
This will justify us in regard-
ing the hilt of the spatha as
starting without any effective
pommel, and the development
of this to the somewhat elaborate
forms which we find represented
in the cemeteries is a matter
of time. On this showing the
simpler the arrangement the earlier the sword, and this is a
good working hypothesis that we can test as we go on. Many
tangs of swords from Anglo-Saxon cemeteries end like the
Croydon example PI. xxv, 3, with a slight beating out of the
extremity. Between this and the beginning of the blade there
is a space of about \\ in. and there would be just room in this
length for some thickening of the wooden grip to serve as a
pommel, for the space allowed for the hand in these early
swords is very small, on an average about 3^- in. It is a
step in advance when a separate piece is used as a sort of cap
or ' washer,' the end of the tang perforating it, and this cap
may very well have taken a form like that on the sword
from Shepperton, Middlesex, in the Museum at Guildford,
PI. xxvi, 2, where the end of the tang passes up through a
hole in the iron cap and is fixed by being beaten out. As the
tang is about 4^ in. long there is room here too for a wooden
knob below the cap. This little iron cap is really the begin-
ning of the pommel. It soon assumes a more definite shape,
is fashioned in bronze, and becomes what is known as the
' cocked hat ' pommel, a simple form of which is seen at the
bottom of PI. xxvi, Nos. 8, 9. It comes from Bowcombe
1 Peigne-Delacourt, Reckerctes sur le Lieu de la Batailk a" Attila en 451,
Paris, i860, pi. 11, from which the sketch is taken.
220 THE SWORD
Down, Isle of Wight, and is in Carisbrooke Castle Museum.
No. 8 is a view from above and shows the pyramidal form
with the hole at the apex to let through the end of the tang,
and No. 9 is a view up into it from beneath. A similar piece,
but with the tang actually in it, from Alfriston, Sussex, in the
Lewes Museum, is shown in two views in Nos. 6, 7. The
end of the tang is seen appearing through the hole in the top
in No. 7, and the internal construction in No. 6. The hollow
of the pommel would probably be filled up by the wood of the
grip which would certainly spread out laterally as far as the
bronze in a sort of cushion to protect the hand. In PI. xxvi, 4,
a small bronze ' cocked hat ' pommel from near Droxford,
Hants, in the Winchester Museum, there is an advance in
that the ends of the pommel are pierced, and rivets have been
passed through the holes to attach it to something beneath.
This introduces us to more elaborate arrangements which
will be seen illustrated in an advanced example in bronze from
the Bifrons cemetery in the Museum of the Kent Archaeo-
logical Society at Maidstone, PL xxvi, 3, and a more complete
one of silver gilt found at Gilton, Kent, in the Faussett
collection at Liverpool, PI. xxvi, 5, where the lower part of
the hilt is also shown. The ' cocked hat ' part of the pommel
has lost here its original constructive purpose as a ' washer '
through which the end of the tang is passed to be there
4 clinched,' and is becoming a mere ornamental finish, for in
these enriched specimens, which are sometimes of gilded
bronze set with garnets, the iron tang does not come through
at the top. This of course entirely alters the construction,
and some other contrivance has to be adopted to prevent the
whole pommel arrangement slipping ofF from the end of the
tang. It is not easy to see how this was done. In these more
elaborate hilts a bronze plate comes under the cocked hat
pommel to which this is riveted. To pass the end of the
tang through this plate and beat it out is a very simple and
practical arrangement which would certainly occur to the
XXVII
facing p. 221
SWORD HILTS
Will
I, 2, are Continental
ADJUNCTS TO THE HILT 221
craftsman, and the cocked hat would be finally riveted down
over the top for a finish.
Elaboration in this part of the hilt is however carried still
further. A little distance, say § in., below this first plate there
comes another of equal size, and the two are riveted together
through a disc of hard wood that is introduced between.
PI. xxvi, 3, shows this still in situ. Furthermore, in 3 and 5
on PI. xxvi and 4 on PI. xxvn, one of the rivets, shown best
in the last-mentioned example, terminates above the upper
surface of the end of the cocked hat pommel in a ring, and in
this fixed ring a second ring is made loosely to play. The
purpose of this seems to be to afford means for the attachment
of a cord to the hilt that could be tied round the wrist, so that
the weapon might be temporarily dropped from the grasp and
easily recovered again. For the sake of securing a solid
attachment for this fixed ring the rivet which is in one piece
with it is carried down below the lower plate and there
clinched.
This ring arrangement is to all appearance an Anglo-Saxon
invention, and when anything like it is found on the Continent
it is either an importation from our island as M. Pilloy
believes,1 or more probably is an imitation of our forms. The
proof is as follows. In Sweden sword hilts of this general
pattern have long been known, and more recently at Kastel by
Mainz in southern Germany,2 and at Concevreux near Laon in
France,3 specimens have been found that in both cases are
unique in the countries named. In all these continental
examples however the ring and its attachment do not act, but
occur only as survivals in the form of solid lumps neither
useful nor particularly ornamental. PI. xxvn, 1, shows a
group in the Museum at Stockholm where the cocked hat
pommels are showily adorned with garnet inlays in gold, but
1 ttudes, in, 217 f.
2 Lindenschmit, Altertumer unserer beidniscben Vorzeit, v, p. 165, pi. 30.
3 Pilloy, I.e.
222 THE SWORD
are quite hollow and obviously mere decorative finishes to the
hilt. To the left is a golden ornament that originated in
the ring and attachment of a hilt such as PI. xxvi, 3 and 5,
but is a mere dummy and has no longer any significance.
PI. xxvn, 2, shows the use of the 'cocked hat ' as a decora-
tive finish on a well-preserved sword handle of about VII in
the Museum of Copenhagen.
The ring arrangement is by no means common, and does
not occur for example in the elaborate sword hilt found at
Combe, Kent, and now at Saffron Walden,1 PI. xxvu, 3. This
however shows a further development in the hilt portion of the
sword of importance for the future. The two plates and inter-
mediate layer are reproduced in the same form at the bottom
as at the top of the hilt, and the lower plates soon extend
laterally to a greater width than the upper and so prepare the
way for the effective guard of the Viking sword. In the
Combe example the two plates nearest the centre at each end
of the hilt have interlacing ornament which is not an early
feature. This hilt from Combe is clearly of an advanced type
both in form and enrichment, and may be held to date the
burial in which it occurred late in VII or even in VIII. It is
at any rate not a V form and the bronze vessel containing
burnt human bones that was found with it cannot represent an
early Jutish cremation burial, that is to say it cannot be quoted
as evidence of Kentish cremation in the pagan period.
We thus obtain a fairly complete morphological series," and
if we assume the usual progress from the simpler to the more
complex it becomes of chronological value. An obiter dictum of
Dr. Bernhard Salin must be noticed here.2 After dealing with
the more ornate cocked hat pommels he refers to some much
smaller and quite simple ones as more probably after-simplifica-
tions of the elaborate ones than stages in their evolution. But
here in our English series we have first iron caps, PI. xxvi, 2 ;
1 Figured in colours in Akerman's Tagan Saxondom, pi. xxiv.
2 Altgermanische Tierornamentik> p. 10 1.
THE BRIGHTHAMPTON SWORD 223
then bronze ones cast pretty solid and plain and employed
purely as things of use ; and later on ornamental objects made
in the same similitude but used only for show and in connec-
tion with elaborate arrangements of which there is no hint in
the simpler specimens. It is quite clear that we have here a
progress in time from the simpler to the more complicated and
not the reverse. The most advanced specimens we have been
considering both in our own country and in Scandinavia must
be of VII, the simplest ones, like the specimen from the
Thames-side grave at Shepperton PI. xxvi, 2, and the Lewes
and Bowcombe Down bronze pommels, might belong to the
end of V or beginning of VI. A VI date would suit an im-
portant example of intermediate form, the famous sword from
Brighthampton, Oxon, in the Ashmolean Museum, PL xxvn,
5 to 8. It has always passed for very early on the ground of its
ornamentation, but there was found with it, apparently as part
of the fittings of the scabbard,1 a small cross of silver of
distinctively Christian form. We have already seen the cross
used with a prophylactic purpose on implements of war (p. 196),
and it is quite possible that this sword may have been borne by
a pagan Saxon chief who had obtained it in the Rhineland or
Gaul where there were Christianized workmen (p. 1 16). This
suggestion is made more plausible by the technique employed
in some of the ornament which is practically unknown else-
where in this country. On the other hand the sword may be
of pagan Saxon fabrication and the cross may have been added
from motives of superstition on account of its prophylactic
qualities which had been reported from the Continent. This
hypothesis is favoured by the fact that in its form the sword
hilt falls into line with other Anglo-Saxon examples in our
morphological series. This sword has a cocked hat pommel,
PL xxvii, 6, hollow, with a hole in the top like the pommel
1 J. Y. Akerman in Archaeologia, xxxvm, 87. Akerman had no doubt
that it belonged to the sword. His drawing of it is reproduced in the corner
of 7, on PI. xxvii.
224 THE SWORD
from Bowcombe Down PL xxvi, 8, 9, and with a rivet that is
undoubtedly original passing through one of the holes at the
ends of the base of it. It is very noteworthy however that the
rivet has not been clinched as it would have been had it passed
through a metal plate and been fixed in position by being
beaten out at the end. On the contrary the point is preserved,
and it is such a point as might be used to drive into wood.
Hence we should probably be right in supposing that in the
Brighthampton hilt the wooden grip ended above in a rounded
cushion of the same material that was inserted into the hollow
of the bronze cap and kept firm and prevented from twisting
by the two nails. The iron strig no doubt originally passed
up through the hole in the top of the bronze cap and was there
clinched. It is true that there are no marks of it in the
aperture nor traces of the rust which one would expect to find
where it had once been, but such a conjecture seems forced
upon one by the existence of the hole and the fact that in other
examples such as PI. xxvi, 6, 7, the strig is actually seen in the
position indicated, as well as by the apparent absence of any
plate where the strig could have been fixed by clinching. How
the remainder of the hilt was treated we cannot exactly tell, but
there is no indication of plates or anything to form a guard
at the lower part of the grip. This is shown No. 7 on
PL xxvii, and we have to note that the ornamental transverse
plate which is here seen has nothing to do with the sword itself
but only with the scabbard, round the mouth of which it forms
a band. No. 8 on PL xxvii shows the bottom of the scabbard
which is bound with silver forming what is technically known
as the * chape.' On the silver will be seen representations of
animals apparently plated in gold within incised outlines,
though this cannot be very clearly distinguished. The animal
forms are well made out and with the S-shaped scrolls on the
mouthpiece suggest a very early date, even in V, but the
pommel, not to speak of the cross, can hardly be so early.
Finally, PL xxvii, 5, shows a large bead that was found with
SCRAMASAX, KNIFE, AND DAGGER 225
the hilt, and is supposed to have served as a sort of button to
fasten the thong when looped round the wrist in order to
prevent the loss of the weapon if the fingers for any reason
relaxed their grip upon the hilt. To other beads or studs,
some in the form of dainty jewels, that appear in the cemeteries
a similar function has been assigned.
THE SCRAMASAX, KNIFE, AND DAGGER
It is now known that in the grave of Childeric there was
contained not only the royal spatha but likewise a second
and shorter sword that was also supplied with garnet inlaid
mountings in the finest style of the craft. The shape of the
mountings that enclosed the scabbard shows that this sword
was a single-edged weapon thick at the back and about
i|- inches in width. In the Pouan find at Troyes besides the
large double-edged spatha there was also a similar single-edged
blade 22 in. in length by a width of 1^ in.1 These are early
specimens of an arm that at a considerably later date became
the most common and indeed almost the only weapon carried
by the Franks or at any rate placed in their tombs. It was a
specially Germanic product quite unlike anything Roman, and
when at its best and largest it was a very heavy single-edged
straight-bladed cutlass, broad, and thick at the back which
curved forward at the top to meet the cutting edge at a point.
Along the blade near the back there almost always ran two or
three longitudinal grooves that are sometimes filled in with
some differently coloured metal, and were perhaps always
intended to be so treated. The old notion, founded on a
passage in Gregory of Tours, that they were intended to hold
poison is now quite given up. The name * scramasax ' is
commonly applied to the arm on the strength of this passage
in the Frankish historian,2 part of which runs ' . . . pueri cum
1 Peign^-Delacourt, I.e., p. 4 and pi. 11.
2 Historia Francorum, iv, 52.
Ill P
226 THE SCRAMASAX, ETC.
cultris validis, quos vulgo scramasaxos vocant.' The fact that
the term * culter,' ' knife,' is thus used as equivalent to scra-
masax may give a key to its history. It began as a knife and
later on was enlarged into a sword. The knife is found early
and is the most common of all implements in Germanic graves
both of men and women, being found also with children, and
the knife is nearly always in form a small scramasax. The
one indeed runs into the other through a series of intermediate
sizes about some of which it is difficult to say whether they
are knives or cutlasses. In his account of the exploration of
the cemetery at Herpes in western France M. Delamain l says
that the abundant knives were of all sizes, some were utensils,
others poniard-like, while a third class were veritable scrama-
saxes. The connection of knife and scramasax is also indicated
by terminology. The meaning of the first part of the compound
word is uncertain, but the last part is the familiar Anglo-Saxon
4 seax,' supposed to be associated in some way with the ethnic
name ' Saxon.' This word occurs in Beowulf in connections
which have suggested to Professor Earle the translation
1 knife ' and ' dirk,' to Benjamin Thorpe ' knife ' and * poniard.'
It was worn by her side by Grendel's mother, line 1 545, and
by Beowulf himself attached to his coat of mail, line 2703, but
it was at the same time an effective weapon of war, strong and
deadly though of manageable size. This might be regarded
as a knife-scramasax, and the mediaeval dirk or dagger em-
ployed at meals as well as in fight would give a good idea of
its use though not of its form, for the dagger is essentially a
two-edged pointed weapon meant for the thrust. The matter
has been somewhat complicated by the endeavour of some
writers to give a special name to a class of weapons very
like the scramasax but a little more slender. This is called
' Langsax ' by the Germans, and ' coutelas ' by M. Pilloy, who
insists that Childeric's weapon cannot be called a scramasax
1 Soci£te Archeologique et Historiquc de la Charente, Bulletin, 1890-91,
p. 186.
XXVIII
facing p. 227
SCRAMAS^
2, 6, 7, 19, 20, are about J natural size
, KNIVES. ETC.
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rest about ^ natural size ; 20 is 31 in. long
THE KNIFE 227
because this particular arm ' only makes its appearance towards
the end of the 6th century.' * We have therefore to distin-
guish four different species of the same genus.
1. The knife pure and simple which was perhaps called
1 seax ' by our forefathers and of which innumerable examples
have come to light in graves apparently of all periods. The
form of this is pretty constant. Its special characteristic is its
straightness, in which it differs from the curved knives of the
Bronze Age and of Romano-British times, specimens of which
are shown PI. xxvin, 5 and 9. A tang is always present, and
the length of blade and tang together ranges from some 3 in.
upwards, while the blade varies considerably in width in rela-
tion to the length. The handle was no doubt generally of
wood 2 but some plates of bone have been found, as at Glen
Parva, Leicestershire, which may have formed knife hilts.
PI. xxvin gives a number of these knives from different
cemeteries, and the lady of PL xn (p. 151) has a broad-bladed
one by her side. It should be noted that in Kent several
instances have been found in which a knife was contained in a
small sheath attached to the scabbard of a sword. Thus at
Sarre a scramasax 12 in. long was carried in the same sheath
with a knife, and in two graves at Bifrons the same thing was
observed. PL xxvin, 11 to 18 gives a selection of these knives
from different localities. They vary in length from 3^- in. to
6 in. and as reproduced on the plate are approximately to
\ scale. Nos. 16, 18 are from the cemetery at Bifrons and
are about 5 in. long ; 14 and 17 are from Saffron Walden ;
13 and 15 from Saxby, Leicestershire, now at Derby; 12 a
couple from Uncleby, Yorks ; 8 and 1 1 from a barrow near
Welton, Staffordshire. The longest, No. 13, measures 6 in.
1 Etudes, in, 63.
2 Ornamented knife hilts on which in open work are figures of a dog
pursuing a hare have more than once been found in our own country and
abroad. They are in their origin Roman but seem to have been copied by
the barbaric craftsman, see examples figured later on, PI. clv (p. 563). These
are in bronre, but there is an example in bone in the Museum at Pe'ronne.
228 THE SCRAMASAX, ETC.
2. The knife which suggests service as a weapon. Some
good examples are in the British Museum. The one shown
PI. xxvin, 10 is 13 in. long, and has the broad scramasax
blade with the characteristic grooves near the back that in this
case are filled in with bronze, as is another in the Museum at
Mainz. No. 10 was found in the City of London together
with coins of JEthelred 11, 979-1016 a.d. The late date of
the object is significant and agrees with the chronology of the
fully developed weapon on the Continent. Another important
point about the piece is its outline. It will be noticed that the
back slopes off towards the point in a straight line, and this
form is very common in our own country though exceedingly
rare abroad, where a curved line is almost universal. This
is one of many minor details in which the independence of
the Saxon craftsman is proclaimed. The Kentish example at
Maidstone, PL xxvm, 4, may be regarded as a small scra-
masax for though it is only about 9 in. long the form and
proportions are those of the latter and the blade is 1^ in.
wide, while there are traces of the wooden sheath. The
sheath of continental scramasaxes is very often more or less
well preserved and is adorned along the back with a series of
large studs.
3, 4. We have thirdly the complete scramasax, and in the
fourth place the so-called ' Langsax,' or slender version of the
scramasax, which is however so closely connected with it that
the two must be taken together.
The scramasax in its fully developed form as we find it in
Frankish, Burgundian, and Alamannic graves is of very rare
occurrence in England, though perhaps this may be due in part
to the earlier cessation among ourselves of the practice of tomb
furniture. In the form referred to it may attain the length of
2 ft. 6 in. by a breadth of blade of i\ in. and a thickness at
the back of nearly J in. A weapon of the kind stoutly
wielded would deliver a blow as weighty as that of an axe,
with the advantage that it was convenient for parry and could
THE SCRAMASAX 229
be used for a thrust, though as a matter of fact it has been
noticed that the uncivilized swordsman seldom avails himself
of the point. Scramasaxes of these dimensions, and others
also where the size is much less, have often hilts of such a
length that they must have been wielded with both hands.
At a later date in the middle ages, at the famous battle of
Bouvines in 12 14 a.d., a weapon of the kind was tremen-
dously effective in the hands of the Emperor Otho, who we
are told 1 brandished with both hands a sword with a single
edge like a knife, and was striking down man and horse with
a single blow. In our own country scramasaxes when they
occur are as a rule comparatively small. One very fine scra-
masax however of the continental size and shape was found at
Kidlington, Oxfordshire, in 1892 with human remains, and is
now in the Museum at Bristol. Its length is no less than
31 in., and the tang which, is 6^ in. long may be incomplete.
The width where it is broadest is 2^ in., and the thickness at
the back was at least -^ in. if not ^ in., and the weight of it is
now just three pounds. This, which is shown PI. xxvni, 20,
would be an exceptionally fine piece anywhere. Lindenschmit
in his Handbuch gives the length of the full-sized scramasax at
from 44 to 76 cm., equivalent roughly to 17^ in. to 30 in. At
Reichenhall in Bavaria, where the arm was well represented, the
dimensions varied between 18 in. and 30^- in., and M. Baudot
reported of the Burgundian cemetery at Charnay that he found
scramasaxes up to 70 cm. (28 in.) in length. The Bristol scra-
masax is accordingly a possession of which we may be proud.
Some long but very slender scramasaxes found in the Thames
are in the national collection. These will be noticed sub-
sequently in connection with the Danish period. The weapons
have come to light sporadically in the south as at Ozengell,
Gilton, Sarre, Sibertswold (20 in. long), Kent ; Chessell Down,
Isle of Wight, Hants ; Long Wittenham and East ShefTord,
Berks ; in East Anglia at Offton, Hoxne, and Little Bealings,
1 Roger of Wendover, ad ann. 1214, Rolls Series, No. 84/1.
230 THE SCRAMASAX, ETC.
Suffolk x ; in London 2 ; in Wilts, from Purton, at Devizes,
PI. xxvni, 19 ; etc., etc., but they are especially in evidence
in Yorkshire where several have been found, as in barrows
at Driffield,3 and Uncleby, in York Museum, PI. xxvni, 7.
The barrow burials in Yorkshire are of a late date though still
within the period with which we are dealing. The London
finds on the other hand belong for the most part to the Viking
or Danish period subsequent to the practical refoundation of
the City by Alfred the Great. The most important London
scramasax is a long and slender one that was found in the
Thames and bears incised upon it a document of the highest
interest in the form of a runic alphabet. This piece with its
inscription will be dealt with subsequently.
The tangs of these English examples are for the most part
comparatively short, but a notable example of the two-handed
hilt was found near Snodland in Kent and is now in the
Museum at Rochester, PI. xxvni, 2. The total length here
is nearly 20 in., of which 8 in. go to the handle. It is curious
however that the blade is of no great weight being only about
1 in. broad, and the arm could easily have been wielded with
one hand. It may be regarded as a fancy piece forged by a
Saxon smith in imitation of the effective two-handed swords
known on the Continent. In its slenderness it may illustrate the
variety already referred to under the German name ' Langsax.'
This is represented by a somewhat exceptional find in the
cemetery above Folkestone, PI. xxvni, 6. It is 15 in. long
with a handle 4^- in. in length and a well-preserved simple
pommel in the same piece with the tang. It is single-edged
and the blade is about 1^ in. broad. A still more abnormal
piece is shown PI. xxvni, 1. It is 10J in. long, and was found
at Saffron Walden, Essex, where it is preserved. The scimitar-
like shape is very remarkable, and as the cemetery contained
1 Victoria History, York, n, 92.
2 Catalogue of Guildhall Museum, 1908, p. 123, and Collectanea Antiqua,
11, 243. 3 Akerman, Pag. Sax., pi. ix.
AXE HEADS, ANGLO-SAXON AND CONTINENTAL
The scale applies approximately to all but 3, the length of which is 17 in.
/, 2, g, 11, are Continental
THE AXE 231
relics earlier than the Anglo-Saxon times it may not be
Germanic, but it was included by the explorers in the Anglo-
Saxon series. Another long-handled example comes from
Purton, Wilts, and is shown PI. xxviii, 19.
A possibly unique piece was found at Cookham by the
Thames and is preserved at Reading, PI. xxviii, 3. It is
a genuine two-edged dagger with central rib and a tang for
a [hilt. The blade is 9 in. long, and as it was found with
other undoubtedly Anglo-Saxon arms it belongs to our period
though it would be hard to find its fellow. All other so-called
£ daggers ' in our collections appear to be single-edged weapons
of the scramasax type.
THE AXE
In the use of the scramasax we seem to obtain a differentia
between the Frankish and the Saxon warrior and the same is
true of the axe. A particular kind of axe suitable for employ-
ment as a missile was as characteristic of the Frank at the early
period of his invasion of Gaul as the scramasax became during
his later history, and specimens of the former arm occur
sporadically like examples of the latter in our island cemeteries.
The Frankish axe was known by the name ' Francisca ' and
a specimen occurred in the tomb of Childeric, PL xxix, n.1
This is 7^ in. long from butt to edge and the cutting edge
itself is 4 in. broad. The peculiarity of the head of the
francisca is that when hafted the axial line along the middle
of the blade from butt to edge is not at right angles to the
haft, but runs down towards it at an angle, so that the head
is tilted upwards. This setting of the head seems designed
to facilitate the flight of the object when used as a missile,
and it is evident that the Frankish weapon smith exercised
considerable taste in working out the free and swinging curves
he gave to the outline. PL xxix, 2, in the Museum at Rouen,
1 The reproductions on this plate are approximately to scale.
232 THE AXE
is a good example and No. i shows one in the same collection
with the wooden haft still partly preserved. No. 2 has a
pronounced upward tilt.
Axe heads of this type occur as has been said in this
country, and are pretty evenly distributed through our different
provinces though they are most common in Kent. This
would seem to imply that they were imported, but on the
other hand our examples present simpler forms than we
find abroad and are quite possibly reproductions by our native
smiths of the known continental type. PI. xxix, 4, 5, 6, 7,
are English examples, from Saltburn-on-Sea, Yorks ; Col-
chester, Essex ; Croydon, Surrey ; and Kent, in Maidstone
Museum, respectively. No. 8 is an example of a type that
occurs abroad and is well represented in the Museum at
St. Germain ; it is on a minute scale, only 3 in. long, and
is evidently a toy axe suitable for a boy. It is in the Museum
at Aylesbury and is of local provenance. There is a similar
toy axe head at Colchester. Nos. 3, and 12, are almost unica.
The first is an axe with a long iron handle, 17 in. in length
over all, and a split socket after the Anglo-Saxon fashion.
It was found with two iron spear heads in a Roman villa at
Alresford, and was presented by Dr. Laver to the Museum
at Colchester. The Abbe Cochet mentions two examples of
such iron handles attached to Frankish axes.1
The other, No. 12, is a product of the cemetery at Bifrons,
and is an iron axe head meant to be hafted after the fashion
of a prehistoric socketed axe of the Bronze Age ; that is to
say the handle is inserted in a socket that runs in the direction
of the axis of the head. There is no doubt of the Anglo-
Saxon origin of this curious piece, and a parallel to it is among
the Layard finds at Ipswich. Nos. 9 and 10 introduce us to
an altogether different shape of axe head and one that used
to be called specially Anglo-Saxon, but, as No. 9 from the
Museum at Rouen shows, it is also a continental form, and
1 Le Tombeau de Cbilderic, p. 1 27.
XXX
facing p. 233
AXE HEADS, AND PIN HEADS IN AXE FORM
I, 4, 5, are Continental
EXCEPTIONAL AXE HEADS 233
there are numerous examples at St. Germain, and in other
Frankish collections. Here the cutting edge is very long,
measuring in the specimen No. 10, from Aldworth, Berks,
in the Reading Museum, more than 9 in. A specimen of
similar form in the Hurbuck hoard from County Durham,
in the British Museum, has the edge not less than 10 in. in
length, but these arms belong to the later, or Danish, period.
It is interesting to note that the form is also represented in
those North German collections the importance of which in
connection with our own archaeology is now fully recognized
(Ch. x). One example of several in the Museum at Olden-
burg is given PI. xxx, 1. A modification of this form with
an extension at the back in the form of a sort of hammer,
of which a beginning is seen in No. 9 on PI. xxix, is
shown PI. xxx, 2 in a piece from the North Kent site of
Horton Kirby.
One or two axe heads of curious forms have been dredged
out of the Thames and Kennet and are in the Museum at
Reading, but the date of them is not fixed by any accom-
panying finds. One of these, PI. xxx, 3, is worth illustrating
because it agrees somewhat closely with one of the types
noticed and figured by M. Delamain1 from the cemetery at
Herpes in western France and with specimens in the plates
of M. Barriere-Flavy's work.2 The form occurs also in
Hungary.3 The presumption is accordingly in favour of an
Anglo-Saxon date. It is not of a Viking type, but might
conceivably of course be mediaeval, though such a close
accordance with a recognized continental type of the period
is practically sufficient to settle the question, and we should
thus have three distinct types of axe head to include in an
Anglo-Saxon inventory, the francisca, or tilted-blade form,
1 Societe Archeologique, etc., dc la Charente, Bulletin, 1890-91, p. 185
and planche 1.
2 Les Arts Industriels, etc., pll. xvi, 1 ; xvn, 1 ; xix, 5.
3 e.g. Hampel, m, Taf. no.
234 THE SPEAR
PI. xxix, 4, etc., the broad-bladed type PI. xxix, 10, and
the drop-bladed type, if the name may be used, PI. xxx, 3.
It is important to distinguish the earlier forms of the
axe head, which have here been illustrated, from the axe head
of the Danish or Viking period. No better example of this
could be found than the fine iron axe head with inlaid silver
and gilt ornaments found at Mammen near Viborg in
Denmark and preserved in the Museum at Copenhagen.
It is 7 in. long and has the projecting spurs on both sides
of the opening for the handle characteristic of the Viking
type, PI. xxx, 4. As a last illustration attention may be
called to a group of pins for the hair, of the Frankish period,
in the Museum at Namur, PI. xxx, 5, where (a) shows the
pure * francisca ' form and (b) the form erroneously called
' Anglo-Saxon,' (d) unites the two forms in one, while in
(c) we have an example of the Cross in a distinctively Chris-
tian shape, with which may be compared the cross-headed
pin from Breach Down, Kent, figured PL x, 5 (p. 11 5).
(a) (b) (d) are ascribed to V and VI, (c) to VII.
THE SPEAR
The Spatha, the Scramasax, and the Axe we have seen
to be comparatively rare weapons among the Anglo-Saxon
warriors, but these seem to have been universally armed with
the Spear. Spear heads are by far the commonest of all the
weapons found in Germanic cemeteries and appear in all parts
in varied forms and sizes, the differences in which seem to be
without any distinct racial or local significance.
The Abbe Cochet remarks * ' avec cette physionomie com-
mune que presentent partout les armes de la grande famille
teutonique, qu'on l'appelle franque, saxonne, burgonde, etc.,
il y a aussi partout tant de nuances dans les types et une telle
variete dans les individus, qu'il serait vrai de dire, qu'a la
rigueur, aucune arme ne ressemble parfaitement a l'autre.'
1 Le Tombeau de Cbi/deric, p. 140.
SPEAR HEADS
d
The scales apply approximately
5 is Continental
OPEN AND CLOSED SOCKETS 235
With very few exceptions — the writer has only come
across two of these — the Anglo-Saxon spear heads, which
are all of hammered iron, have the sockets open all the way
up along one side. It is easy to see that when the weapon
smith had fashioned the effective part of the head of solid iron
he would beat out thin the portion destined for the socket and
bring it round into a tube-like form. The two edges could
then be made to overlap and be welded together so that a
complete funnel-shaped cylinder was formed, or they might
be merely brought together and made nearly to meet but not
to overlap so that a narrow slit was still left open. The
method of welding up the join so that a complete cylinder
was formed was Roman, and it is universal also in the very
numerous spear heads found in the Nydam moss in Schleswig.1
Exact statistics as to the use of the two methods by all the
peoples of the migration period are wanting, and vague state-
ments are of no service in such a matter. Frankish spear heads
however have split ferules 2 like ours, and Baron de Baye
finds this also the case in Germany, though at Reichenhall
in Bavaria most of the sockets were closed.3 De Baye, who
examined the finds from the Lombard cemetery at Testona
near Turin reports closed sockets,4 and the sockets shown by
Hampel in the plates of his Alterthumer are closed. The
writer's own continental notes on the subject are not suffici-
ently full to be of much value. PI. xxxn, 2, 3, illustrate the
two methods in lance heads found at Saxby, Leicestershire.
No. 4, found at Brighton and in the Museum there, is the
only other English closed socket the writer knows from an
undoubted Anglo-Saxon grave. Agreeing in this technical
peculiarity of the split socket, the Anglo-Saxon spear heads
show the most remarkable differences in size and shape, and
1 Engelhardt, 'Denmark in the Early Iron Age, pll. x, xi.
2 Pilloy, Etudes, 1, 232; Boulanger, Marchelepot, p. 45.
3 Gr'dberfeld von Reichenhall, p. 8 1 .
* The Industrial Arts of the Anglo-Saxons, p. 20.
236 THE SPEAR
it is evident that the weapon smith delighted to exercise his
fancy in the form and structure of the arms. It should be
noticed however that for pure beauty of outline and justness
of proportions these forged iron spear heads of the Germans
cannot compare with the beautiful cast bronze specimens of
the Celtic era. In dimensions the lance heads vary from a
few inches to a couple of feet, which would have been about the
length of No. 2a on PI. xxxi had the socket been complete. It
measures now 1 ft. 6 in., and comes from Sarre.
PI. xxxi exhibits several groups from different regions.
No. 1 is a South Saxon group from High Down cemetery,
Sussex, preserved at Ferring Grange, where Mr. Edwin Benty
has kindly allowed the writer to photograph it ; No. 2 gives
a few from Kent, from Sarre and Kingston ; No. 3 are
Anglian from Little Wilbraham, Cambs, etc., at Audley End,
where they have been photographed by the kind permission of
Lord Braybroke, and No. 4 is a group from the cemetery at
Darlington, Durham, in the collection of Mr. Edward Wooler,
representing Northumbrian examples. Lastly, No. 5 is the
spear head from the tomb of Childeric, the earliest datable
example from the regions with which we are chiefly concerned.
This is long and narrow and possesses no median rib. In its
present condition it measures about 9 in. by 1^ in., and may be
taken as typical of a simple type that is perpetuated through
the succeeding periods. Other forms, as is seen on PI. xxxi,
are broader and more leaf-shaped, while the elongated lozenge
appears as a variant of this. The most distinctive form is that
of the lance head at Maidstone found at Sarre, 2a. This de
Baye claims as specially Anglo-Saxon, but it does occur some-
times abroad, see Lindenschmit, Handbuch^ p. 173. It may
however be regarded provisionally as a south of England
fashion though the cemetery at Little Wilbraham, Cambs,
produced it, PL xxxi, 3. The Darlington spear heads are of
the more primitive elongated shape. The representations on
PL xxxi are approximately to scale.
XXXII
facing p. 237
THE ANGON, ARROW HEADS, ETC.
12 is Continental
DETAILS OF SPEAR HEADS 237
The development of the median rib, a pronounced feature
in the earlier cast-bronze spear heads, represents an additional
effort on the part of the weapon smith. Some of the
specimens on PI. xxxi exhibit it, but when it is more accen-
tuated it passes through a singular phase illustrated by
an example from Fairford, Gloucestershire, 16 in. long,
in the Ashmolean Museum, PI. xxxn, 10. Here one wing
of the blade is depressed below the other and the process on
the other side is reversed so that the section is approximately
a zigzag. This is characteristically Anglo-Saxon, although
it is occasionally found abroad, as at Bessungen by Darmstadt,1
and in an example figured by M. Pilloy,2 who gives the
probably correct explanation that it is due to a desire on the
part of the hammerer to give the impression of a pronounced
central rib. The older notion was that the arrangement
gave a rotary motion to the spear in its flight, but this
would not be the effect of it, for the depressions are not
set obliquely but in straight lines from point to butt and
there is nothing to give a twist. Furthermore, the rotation
of a blade of appreciable width would be resisted by the air
and the course of the flight proportionately checked, while
the entry of the point into the body would be sensibly
hindered, as in the case of the spinning cricket ball which
does not glide sweetly into the fielder's hands but has a
provoking tendency to resist entry. That the explanation
given above is the correct one may be seen from a curious
example from Suffolk in the Pitt Rivers Museum at Farnham,
Dorset, shown PI. xxxn, 9. Here the finished blade has
been deeply scored on one side of the centre, though only by
a groove running part of the way along its length, and there
is a corresponding groove on the other side of the blade.
It is curious to find this crude attempt to simulate the central
rib, generally so marked a feature on the noble British bronze
spear heads of the earlier epoch, for in forging a spear head
1 Lindcnschmit, Hanabucb, p. 174. - Etudes, i, 232.
238 THE SPEAR
it is comparatively easy to make the median rib, and a weapon
smith who could fashion an umbo would have thought little
of the task. Possibly the spear head, an object in very
common use, was made at times by an unskilled village
craftsman, while the umbos were the work of the more
practised weapon smith.
THE ANGON
No self-respecting writer on Teutonic antiquities can
help referring to the description by Agathias of the weapon
known as the ' angon,' a barbed spear of peculiar construction
and use. Agathias, a Byzantine historian of VI, wrote in
Greek an account of the wars waged by the generals of
Justinian against the Teutonic invaders of Italy. In Chapter 5
of the second book of his History he describes the manner
of fighting of the Franks and Alamanni whom Butilinus had
led across the Alps and who were now opposed by Narses.
Their chief weapon he says was the ' angon.' ' These angons,'
he goes on, * are spears, not very small but at the same time
of no considerable size, suitable for use as javelins, if need
arise, and also serving for a charge against opponents fighting
hand to hand.' He also tells us that the javelin was barbed,
and when it had pierced a shield or entered a body it could
not be withdrawn, while the shaft of it was for the most part
plated with iron. From this last it followed that the head
could not be cut off so as to free the stricken man from the
encumbrance. It is natural to think here of the Roman
pilum, which Vegetius1 describes as a missile weapon that
' could not be cut away when fixed in a shield,' and which has
come down to us in actual examples as well as in represen-
tations on Roman military tombstones.2 The pilum was a
1 De Re Militari, i, xx.
2 Lindenschmit, Tracbt und Bewaffnung des Romiscben Heeres, p. 12 and
Taf. iv, xi.
ANGON AND PILUM 239
very heavy javelin, with point and iron shaft about 2 ft. 6 in.
long, that was fixed at the butt end to a shaft of wood
so as to make the whole length, as may be judged from
tombstones, between six and seven feet.
That the ' angon ' of the Germans was derived from the
pilum Lindenschmit considered ' unstreitbar,' and the give-
and-take between the Roman and barbarian equipments for
war that went on during the early centuries of the Empire *
would render this not unlikely, but other archaeologists
have expressed a doubtful opinion.2 Whether the pilum
was barbed is uncertain, for existing pilum heads are not so
treated, and there is no doubt that it was a missile and not
suitable, as Agathias says was the case with the angon, for
hand-to-hand combat. Barbed javelins of a lighter make
than the pilum seem to have been used by the Roman
legionaries or auxiliaries and an interesting specimen was
found in 1833 at the station Magna (Carvoran) on the
Roman Wall between Tyne and Solway, in a well 36 ft. deep.
It is now preserved in the Black Gate Museum at Newcastle
and is figured by permission of the Society of Antiquaries of
Newcastle, PI. xxxn, 11. It is 1 ft. 9 in. in length. A piece
exactly similar is preserved in the Musee d'Artillerie at Paris,
under the number 690, and long slender barbed spear heads
of a form almost the same occurred in the Nydam find of
IV in Schleswig and are figured on pi. xi of the work
of Engelhardt. These it may be urged are not properly
speaking angons but barbed spears of a lighter make, and we
may associate with them the Bifrons piece figured PI. xxxn, 8,
the uppermost of the three indicated by that number. This
is a barbed spear head 9^ in. long with open socket, and is
1 Arts and Crafts of our Teutonic Forefathers, ch. hi.
2 e.g. W. M. Wylie in Archaeologia, xxxvi, p. 82, 'historic evidence
seems rather opposed to the opinion that the angon was merely an imitation
of the pilum.' De Baye, in Industrie Longobarde, Paris, 1888, p. 31, ' le role,
l'usage de l'angon n'e"tait pas celui du pilum.'
240 THE SPEAR
a rare and interesting object. Another of much the same
size but in poor condition was found at Beddington, Surrey,
and is preserved in the Public Library at Croydon.
The angon proper Lindenschmit has shown to possess as
its special characteristic a solid point square in section with
barbs that, at any rate in the present condition of the weapons,
lie close to the shaft.1 Typical pieces of the kind are preserved
in the Museums at Mainz and Wiesbaden, but perhaps the
most perfect specimen is that from the Belgian cemetery of
Harmignies now displayed in the Musee du Cinquantenaire at
Brussels and figured here PI. xxxn, 12. The photograph in
the middle shows the whole weapon the length of which is
3 ft. 6 in., and those above and below give on a larger scale
the butt end where a wooden shaft was inserted, and the point,
the length of which with the barbs is 3 in. Nothing has been
found in our own country so well preserved as this, but the
specimen from Croydon, PI. xxxn, 15, 3 ft. 2|- in. long, has
an unmistakable square head, though the barbs in the present
condition of the piece make no show. Angons, as a rule in a
somewhat mutilated condition, have been found several times
in Kent, and may be seen in the Museum of the Kent Archaeo-
logical Society at Maidstone, at the Gravesend Free Library,
in the British Museum, and at Ferring Grange, Sussex. A
barbed spear head 26 in. long was found in the barrow at
Taplow.
SPEAR SHAFTS
The subject of the spear cannot be left without a word as
to the wooden shaft. Fragments of the wood remain in many
cases adhering to the socket, and the rivet or rivets that held
the head to the shaft often remains as in the example figured
PI. xxxi 1, 2. Analysis has shown in many cases that this wood
was ash. The length of the shaft can be judged from the fact
1 Handbucb, 178 f.
THE BOW AND ARROW ±41
that the weapon was often furnished at the butt end with a
ferule or conical point by which it could be fixed firmly in the
ground. This, being of iron, has like the point been preserved,
and as the two lie in a freshly opened grave the distance be-
tween them gives the length of the shaft. This seems to have
been a little longer than the warrior's own height and the
weapon could accordingly be laid by his side in the grave, as
was the case in the Shepperton burial figured PI. xviii, 1.
Faussett gave the lengths of 6 ft. and 7 ft. for two Gilton
specimens.
The diameter of the shaft can also be estimated from the
data furnished by the head and the ferule. Faussett found
that a spear in grave 12 at Gilton tapered from a diameter of
1 in. at the head to £■ in. at the ferule. The closed spear
socket at Derby, PL xxxn, 3, measures |- in. in internal
diameter. About f in. to 1 in. may be assumed as the
average diameter of the Anglo-Saxon spear shaft.
Of the two ferules shown, one, PI. xxxn, 13, of conical
form, is in the Guildhall Museum at London and another such
is seen in the middle of the group of spear heads at Audley
End, PI. xxxi, 3. PI. xxxii, 14, is a ferule of a more elaborate
kind in the Rochester Museum, and here the bottom of the
shaft was bound with an iron band below which projected a
point that was embedded at its other end in the wood. Similar
ferules exist in other collections.
THE BOW AND ARROW
The last of the implements of war to be dealt with here is
the bow and arrow. The Anglo-Saxons like the rest of the
Teutonic peoples understood archery and we have bowmen
represented on the Franks Casket of about 700 a.d. (p. 205)
and on a stone at Hexham that Commendatore Rivoira admits
may be of the time of Wilfrid. Nothing is rarer however in
tomb furniture than the arrow head or than traces of the bow
III Q
242 THE BOW AND ARROW
and its appertainances. In one grave at Chessell Down in the
Isle of Wight and in one at Bifrons traces have been found
that seemed to indicate the presence of a bow. Arrow heads
were found at Chessell Down, and a few have come to light in
different finds. PI. xxxn, 5, shows a good specimen in the
Douglas collection in the Ashmolean, 6 and 7 are in Warwick
Museum, and No. 7, which was found in the churchyard at
Radford Semele near Warwick, may be mediaeval. The set
figured under No. 1 on PI. xxxn are part of the interesting
finds at Buttsole, near Eastry, Kent, already referred to (p. 203).
They are in the Museum at Maidstone and vary in length
from 4^- in. to i\ in. It is open to any one to argue that
these are the points of small javelins rather than of arrows.
Faussett believed that light missiles of the kind were often
placed in the Kentish graves (p. 706).
XXXIII
facing p. 243
FIBULAE AS WORN
All Continental
CHAPTER V
TOMB FURNITURE : (II) THE MORPHOLOGY OF
THE FIBULA
For the fastenings of dress the Teutonic peoples of the
migration period used the brooch, the buckle, the clasp, the
pin, and to each of them they applied all the taste and cunning
craftsmanship available. The clasp and the pin are, as objects,
comparatively unimportant, though the presence or absence of
the former in Anglo-Saxon graves will be seen to possess
much archaeological significance. The brooch and the buckle
on the other hand are not only archaeologically important in
relation to questions of date and ethnology, but in themselves
offer specimens of the most elaborate and artistically pleasing
work that our Teutonic craftsmen have left to us.
Historically speaking there is a marked difference between
the buckle and the fibula, the former being much more dis-
tinctively Teutonic. c Rien de plus inevitable que la boucle,'
wrote the Abbe Cochet,1 ' dans la sepulture franque, burgonde,
saxonne ou allemanique : elle est dans la tombe le caractere
inherent de la race teutonique. On ne signale pas de boucles
dans la sepulture des Gaulois, si riche de colliers, de bracelets
et d'armilles. Je ne Tai jamais rencontree dans l'urne du
Romain du Haut-Empire d'ou la fibule est si souvent sortie.
Je ne sais meme si Ton en a tire une seule des sarcophages du
Bas-Empire, ou pourtant les broches et les fibules abondent.
C'est que si l'armille est gauloise, si la fibule est romaine, la
boucle a son tour est essentiellement teutonique.' As regards
the historical position of the buckle and the relation between
1 Le Tombe au de Childeric, p. 233.
243
244 FORMS OF THE FIBULA
it and the brooch as objects of use there are some good
remarks in Alois Riegl's much discussed work on the art of
the period.1 Their comparative importance depends upon the
styles of dress of which they form the complement. The
classical vesture was free and flowing ; the edges of the stuff
were brought together in places and fastened by a pin or a
brooch, and the robe thus constituted was confined by a slight
girdle round the form. In the early centuries of the Christian
era costume underwent two changes of importance for the
present subject. Among the classical peoples in both the
eastern and the western half of the Roman Empire there came
in a taste for a profusion of jewels and jewelled appendages
of robes, in which we may see oriental fashions breaking in
upon the older classical simplicity. A good example of this
orientalized dress can be seen in PI. xxxiii, 4, which repro-
duces an ivory in the Museum at Vienna representing one of
the later Emperors enthroned in his robes of state. This
change of fashion prepares us for the sumptuous display of
jewels favoured by the Germanic noble and his lady. The
other alteration noticed above is the coming into vogue among
the new denizens of the lands of the Western Empire of a
style of dress less free and flowing than the loose classical
tunic and mantle, and needing to be bound more closely about
the figure.
The girdle, as Riegl points out, now becomes the stiff
belt, and for this is required a firm fastening in the form of a
buckle. It is a notable feature of this period in the history
of western costume that the buckle now makes its appearance
as a fastening side by side with the brooch, which it ultimately
almost displaces. At the beginning of the migration period
the brooch, or, to use its classical name, the fibula, was in full
possession of the field ; it had behind it a history in classical
lands of more than a thousand years, and had already passed
through a whole series of typological changes. The buckle
1 Die Spdtromische Kunstindustrie.
XXXIV
lacing p. 245
SQUARE HEADED FIBULAE FROM BIFRONS
XXXIV
XXXV
facing p. 245
ROUND HEADED, CRUCIFORM, AND BIRD FIBULAE FROM BIFRONS
XXXVi
XXXVI
facing p. 245
PLATE AND RING FIBULAE FROM BIFRONS
000
x
THE FIBULA AND THE BUCKLE 245
on the other hand only seems to have come into use in imperial
Roman times. It appears at Pompeii for example in the
simplest possible shapes, though an ornate example was found
at Herculaneum. The somewhat enigmatical object figured
in Faussett's Inventorium Sepulchrale, pi. vin, 1 1, is a buckle
of Roman (not barbaric) workmanship, and one of similar
shape but in the similitude of the head of a cat or leopard has
recently passed with the Trinity College Library Collection to
the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology. Some archaeologists
have held that the buckle was independently invented in
northern Europe at the beginning of the migration period, but
whether this was the case or whether the Germans took it
over from the Romans, it was used at first in a comparatively
undeveloped form. Its history is accordingly traceable in
Teutonic tombs from its very beginnings, and we see it
assuming increased importance as time goes on till it becomes
in point of intrinsic value and artistic elaboration a rival of the
old established and popular fibula. There is however always
this difference between the buckle and the fibula, that the
former preserves to the end its original character of a thing of
strength, intended in its primary use to gird the warrior's belt
tightly round his frame, and it is accordingly nearly always
solidly constructed of bronze or iron, and in form keeps always
pretty closely to a normal pattern. The fibula is a slighter
piece, more ornate, and admitting of a far greater variety in
shape. In the graves of the central Teutonic period, about VI,
the buckle and the fibula are found side by side, but later on,
especially among the Alamanni, the buckle almost comes to
supersede the fibula, and among the Franks, the Alamanni,
and the Burgundians the piece develops to new and elaborate
forms, which, perhaps for the reasons already given (p. 1 74 f.),
are not represented in our own Anglo-Saxon cemeteries. The
fibula, it needs hardly to be said, never really goes out of use,
as there are few styles of dress in which such an ornamental
appendage cannot find ready employment, and there is no real
246 FORMS OF THE FIBULA
break of tradition between the ancient and the modern brooch,
though special forms of the object, such as the safety pin, may
for centuries have passed out of vogue.
The subject of the Germanic fibula, a somewhat large and
complicated one, may be suitably introduced by a survey of the
different types that have been collected from the one repre-
sentative cemetery of Bifrons that we have been keeping
specially in view. On Plates xxxiv to xxxvi are shown more
than thirty-five different fibulae from this one locality,
representing at least ten distinct types. On PI. xxxiv all the
examples fall under the category ' square headed ' for in every
case a rectangular plate broader than it is high, adorned in
various fashions, terminates the piece at the top. On PI. xxxv
there are three types or rather sub-types. Nos. i to 4, 6 to 8
are called £ round headed ' because the terminal plate above is
of semicircular outline, and Nos. 1 and 4 are often termed
• radiating ' or ' digitated ' on account of the projecting knobs.
Nos. 5, 10 and 12 are c cruciform' because from the
rectangular upper plate three knobs, at the top and the two
sides, convey the idea of this shape, while Nos. 9 and 13 are
probably derived from the cruciform ones. Lastly, No. 1 1 is
a so-called * bird ' fibula, the whole piece taking the aspect of a
parrot-like creature with a pronounced hooked beak. The
fibulae on PI. xxxvi are of quite different types, affecting the
shape of a round flat disc that may be ornamented in several
different ways ; a saucer-shaped disc with the edges turned up
all round ; a circular ring ; and a broad flat ring, or, if we like
to call it so, a disc with the centre pierced out. The first kind,
Nos. 6, 10, is best called a ' disc ' fibula ; the second, Nos. 1, 5,
a saucer fibula, while No. 7 of which only the back is visible is
a variation of this type called an * applied ' fibula (p. 275) ; the
third kind, Nos. 2, 3, 4, 9, 11, 13, are 'ring' or 'annular*
fibulae ; and the best name for the fourth kind, No. 8, is
' quoit ' fibula. These distinctive terms it is well to retain, as
the vague words * round ' or * circular,' too often employed in
XXXVII
facing p. 247
TYPES NOT REPRESENTED AT BIFRONS
/, .?, are Continental
FIBULAE AT BIFRONS N247
descriptions, are of uncertain significance, and would apply-
equally well to all the sub-types on this plate.
No. 12 on PI. xxxvi shows two fibulae of the ' saucer ' kind
united by a light chain. The brooches would be fixed one on
each shoulder and the chain would hang across the breast,
possibly with some light pendant attached to it. This is a
fashion more in vogue among the Celtic peoples * than among
the Germans, though there are several instances in which
Teutonic fibulae show traces of attachments of the kind. The
specially precious one, the ' Kingston ' fibula, see Frontispiece,
has a loop by which a protective chain can be fastened to it, and
some c long ' fibulae presently to be discussed have similar
loops at the end, while the sumptuous * ibis ' fibula in the
treasure of Petrossa, PI. xlviii, i (p. 279), has a golden chain
attached. A particular form of brooch found in the Alpine
regions north of Italy and probably Lombard has a transverse
arm projecting below the bow to which a chain can be fastened,
and fibulae are sometimes linked by chains fixed round the
bow. See PI. xxxvn, 1,2.
There are very few of the recognized fibula types found in
Anglo-Saxon Britain that are not represented at Bifrons, but
for the sake of completeness these omitted ones may be illus-
trated here before any discussion of the different forms and
ornaments is begun. PI. xxxvn therefore gives us in Nos.
3 and 4 two * penannular ' brooches,2 of which No. 3, from
Higham, Kent, is in the Museum at Rochester, and No. 4,
from Duston, Northants, is at Northampton ; this is a form of
brooch not so common in Germanic graves as it is among
Celtic ■ finds' and in the later Viking period : in Nos. 5, 6, 7
some ' equal armed ' fibulae, of which No. 5 is a pair recently
found at Alfriston, Sussex, and now in the Museum at Lewes,
1 Romilly Allen, Celtic Jrt, p. 103.
2 Later on, PI. cix, 2 (p. 457), will be shown an object from Bifrons
which is there taken as a bracelet, though very good judges think that it is
really a penannular brooch that has lost its pin.
248 FORMS OF THE FIBULA
No. 6 is at Burton-on-Trent, and No. 7, from Kempston,
Beds, is in the British Museum ; while Nos. 8, 9, 10 are
so-called ' trefoil headed ' fibulae, of which No. 10 is one found
in the Roman station of Birdoswald in Cumberland and now at
Newcastle, No. 8 is a pair from Stapenhill by Burton-on-Trent
where they are preserved, and No. 9 is at Ferring Grange from
the South Saxon cemetery at High Down above Worthing, the
scattered localities showing the wide distribution of the form.
The above may be held to exhaust the chief types of fibula
with which we are concerned, though under each main heading
there are of course numerous varieties, and single specimens of
each variety bear the true impress of individual handwork in
that even where the intention has been to turn out a pair no
two are exactly alike.1 So numerous and so diverse are these
fibulae, and so much ingenuity did the craftsman exhibit in the
enrichment he lavished on them, that there is no class of objects
more suitable for furnishing a conspectus of Anglo-Saxon
ornament during the period with which we have to deal.
The subject falls naturally into two parts, (1) the typo-
logical development of the form of the fibula in its different
species, and, (2) the character and history of fibula ornamenta-
tion. These species may be grouped under three main types,
the safety pin type, including the sub-types * square headed,'
'round headed,' 'cruciform,' 'trefoil headed,' and 'equal
armed,' all sometimes grouped under the name ' long ' fibulae ;
the plate type, embracing 'disc,' 'applied,' 'saucer,' 'button,'
and ' bird ' fibulae, with a few abnormal forms ; and the ring
type, including ' annular,' ' penannular ' and ' quoit ' fibulae,
and of these the first is from the typological point of view by
far the most important. A discussion of these types from the
point of view of the forms evolved in the course of their
development will now follow, a beginning being made with the
safety pin type.
This owes its name to the fact of its reintroduction quite
1 For an example of this see later on (p. 315).
THE SAFETY PIN TYPE
249
in our own time for the sake of securing the young of the
human species from its natural enemy the insistent pin-point.
The invention is quite three thousand years old, and the
evolution of the type can be traced from the very earliest
beginnings, while all through its long history we find primitive
forms from time to time recurring. If we turn over to-day a
heap of the common safety pins of modern commerce we shall
soon find one that consists in nothing but a single length of
wire that can be straightened out till it becomes again what
it was at first, a long pin with a point but with no head. Such
pins are represented in finds from the earliest ages of metal and
Fig. 10. — Below, early fibula of the Pesciera type, natural size ;
above, fibula from Kingston, Kent, enlarged.
are substitutes for the neolithic pins of bone, or the still more
primitive thorn, with which Tacitus, who was possibly theoriz-
ing, tells us the Germans of the Hinterland fastened their
clothing.1 To prevent such a pin from slipping out there
would at some time or another present itself the device of
bending or doubling over the upper part of it and giving it a
catch round the point where this projected through the stuff.
Such a catch could be undone when the pin was to be with-
drawn, and remain as a sort of loop to take the point again
when it had been reinserted. A recognition of the elastic
1 De Mor. Germ., xvn, ' Tegumen omnibus sagum fibula aut, si desit,
spina consertum.'
250 FORMS OF THE FIBULA
properties of hammered metal wire would suggest giving a
spiral turn to the shank of the pin where it was doubled over,
and this would secure a spring which would keep the catch
always pressed against the pin just at the point. The simplest
of modern safety pins referred to above illustrates this arrange-
ment, but it is interesting to note that one of the very earliest
of all fibula types, that named from the place of discovery
Pesciera on Lake Garda, is of almost exactly the same form,
and the same may be said of a specimen found in an Anglo-
Saxon tomb in Kent, in conjunction with one of the most
ornate fibulae, of quite another type, ever discovered.1 The
sketches, Fig. 10, illustrate this.
What we are concerned with now is the development of
this type of fibula from the Pesciera stage, and this may be
sketched very briefly up to -the point when the distinctive
forms of the period of the Teutonic migrations make their
appearance. In the matter of nomenclature it is usual to call
the half of the original pin that is doubled over and shows
above the stuff, the bow, because, if it be in some degree
arched, it gives room for the bunch of stuff beneath it. The
part where the bend or spiral turn comes is called the head, and
the point and the catch come together at the foot. Alike in
its bow, its head, and its foot, the early fibula passes through
many modifications, that have been worked out from the typo-
logical point of view by writers such as Otto Tischler, Riksan-
tikvar Hildebrand, Professor Montelius, and O. Almgren.
All we are concerned with here are those modifications
which, occurring before the migration period, brought into
existence the forms with which the Teutonic craftsman had to
deal. From the present point of view the changes effected in
the head are of the chief importance and will be dealt with
first. An epoch-making innovation had been introduced in
the La Tene period before the Christian era, according to
which the turns in the spiral were multiplied, and instead of
1 See Frontispiece.
XXXVIII
facing p. 251
EARLY FIBULAE AND FIBULAE FROM SACKRAU
3, considerably reduced ; 4, 5, somewhat enlarged
All Continental
EVOLUTION OF THE LONG FIBULA 251
being coiled on one side only of the bow, as in the modern
safety pin, were repeated with the same number of turns on
the other side. The coils were started on one side and when
they had been carried out sufficiently far the wire was taken
back across to a corresponding distance on the other side of
the axis of the bow and other turns made from without inwards,
till, when the wire was brought back to the middle, it was
sent straight down towards the foot to form the pin. An
example of this type in bronze in the Museum at Innsbruck
is shown PI. xxxviii, 1. This arrangement induces lateral
breadth in the fibula head which becomes an important element
in the subsequent developments. The coils were sometimes
carried out on either side to a considerable distance and they
then needed a support in the form of a central axis round
which they were twisted, while to finish this central axis and
to prevent the coils slipping off" it, it was terminated at both
ends by projecting knobs. Another important change was
now made, when the fibula was no longer fashioned in one
piece, like the Innsbruck example, but the pin with the spiral
coils on their axis was separated from the bow and fastened to
it afterwards by attachments. There now arises the necessity
for fixing the spiral coil so that it shall not rotate bodily when
the pin is moved but merely yield so far as the elasticity
of the spring allows. The fixing is
secured by means of that part of the
wire which crosses from one end of the
coil to the other, and this is sometimes
caught by a sort of hook that projects
from the top part of the bow where
the coil is attached to it. Fig. 11,
which is a view end-on of a fibula thus
constituted, will explain what is meant. Fig. 11.— Head of a Fibula.
Here the wire is coiled round an axis
which ends in two small knobs and this axis is passed through
an aperture in a tongue, which projects from the under side of
252 FORMS OF THE FIBULA
the head of the bow, and revolves in this as in a hinge.1 The
coil starts from the centre at a point somewhere about A and
is coiled round the axis till it reaches the point B from which
it is returned across the centre to a point C, from which it is
coiled inwards till it reaches the centre again whence it projects
downwards to form the pin. D is a sort of hook at the
termination of the bow and this is caught round the wire as it
crosses laterally along the upper surface of the coil, so that
when the pin is pressed downwards the whole coil is prevented
from revolving and the spring is through this resistance
brought into action. It can easily be understood that the
hook D, so conspicuously placed, may be treated decoratively
and become a sort of third knob.
In the hands of the Roman provincial craftsmen of the
pre-migration period this construction was simplified and the
spiral spring was omitted, the pin being simply hinged below
the head of the bow like the pin of a modern brooch. The
influence of the development of the coil just noticed still how-
ever remains in the form of a cross bar giving a T shape to
the whole piece, and also in that of a projection at the end of
the bow that owes its origin to the hook the use of which has
just been explained. In this way was produced the familiar
late-Roman ' cross-bow ' fibula, that comes to light at times
in Germanic as well as in Roman graves. One was found at
Crundale, Kent, that is Roman but was associated with Jutish
burials, and PI. xxxviii, 2, a characteristic specimen, is from
Trieste. Fine examples in gold have been discovered in
Germanic graves abroad, the most notable one, now lost,
making its appearance in the tomb of Childeric, but our Anglo-
Saxon tombs have not yielded anything of the kind.
This plan of dispensing with the spiral did not however
commend itself to the Teutonic craftsman, who now in IV a.d.
appears upon the scene. It must be understood that by this
time the primitive technique in which the whole piece was
1 The arrangement is shown in No. 5 on PI. xxxvm.
LONG FIBULAE IN SHEET METAL 253
hammered out of a single length of wire had been given up,
and the fibula was generally made by the process of casting,
though the old tradition still affects the form, and both the
Innsbruck fibula, PL xxxvin, 1, and the Roman cross-bow
one, No. 2, still retain a bar-like form which is reminiscent of
the shape produced by the earlier method. The characteristic
early Germanic fibula however is no longer bar-shaped but
treats the head, the bow, and the foot in a fashion quite inde-
pendent of their traditional origin. There is indeed a type
belonging to the early period of the migrations and common
in southern Russia, but not represented in Anglo-Saxon graves,
in which the whole piece, in one or in several parts, is cut out
in sheet silver, the bow being suitably strengthened or added
in another piece, and the mechanism of pin, hinge, catch, etc.,.
being attached to the under side. Silver fibulae of this kind or
imitations in bronze have been found so near our own shores
as Marchelepot (Somme) and Envermeu in Normandy, and a
specimen from the latter place in Rouen Museum is added for
purposes of comparison, PI. xxxix, 5. We note that for the
sake of strength the foot is sloped on each side of a median
line. Two groups of early Germanic fibulae of the safety pin
type but quite freely treated are (1) those found at Sackrau
near Breslau and preserved at the Museum of the latter place,
that may date from the early part of IV a.d., and (2) the
fibulae from the second find at Szilagy Somlyo in Hungary,
in the Museum at Budapest. The latter, which are of special
importance as representing inlaid gold jewellery, are discussed
in that connection on a later page and are figured on PI. cxliv
(p. 529). They date from the latter part of IV or, as Pro-
fessor Hampel thought, from early in V. The beautiful gilded
silver fibulae from Sackrau are shown on PI. xxxvin, 3 to 5.
Here we see the Teutonic craftsman, perhaps of the Vandal
stock, not only retaining the spirals but making two and even
three rows of them. As these, or at any rate the two of them,1
1 The third rows in PI. xxxvin, 3, are purely decorative.
4
254 FORMS OF THE FIBULA
are genuine spirals connected together and both coiled out of
the same length of wire, they naturally needed a sort of frame-
work for their support, the projecting bars of which were
furnished at their ends with knobs. At Sackrau this com-
plicated arrangement is allowed to be pretty well in evidence
from the front view, but contemporary Germanic craftsmen
seem to have preferred it hidden, and this led to the device so
well represented on Pll. xxxiv and cxliv of covering plates,
behind which the spiral coils were concealed, though the pro-
jecting knobs might be allowed to peep out beyond the edges
of the plate. Normally this plate took either a rectangular
form or a semicircular one, though the pair in the middle of
the uppermost row on PL cxliv exhibit a compromise in the
form of a step-like outline.
As regards the forms of the head plate, if this were devised
merely for the covering of the coils a rectangular shape would
be the natural one, and the semicircular outline would seem
to demand some special explanation. This has been provided
in the suggestion that previous provincial-Roman forms may
here have exercised an influence. Dr. Salin1 has noted the
appearance of a round head of modest development on some
fibulae of this kind, of III, and it is noteworthy that there was
found at Basset Down, Wilts, together with some Anglo-Saxon
objects of fairly early date and a spoon of Roman style, a small
bronze gilt fibula with a round head of a type earlier than the
characteristic Teutonic forms. This is an example of what
Dr. Salin refers to, and the reader will find it figured later on
PI. clv, 12, 14 (p. 563). Pieces of this kind may be ulti-
mately responsible for the round head of the Germanic fibula.
This difference in the shape of the heads assumes consider-
able importance when it is observed that as a rule the square
head belongs to the north of Europe,2 whereas the semi-
1 Tbierornamentik, p. 10.
2 'Bci den nordgermanischen Volkern . . . entstanden die spater allgemein
beliebten Fibeln mit rechteckiger Kopfplatte.' Salin, Tbierornamentik, p. 77.
XXXIX
MISCELLANEOUS ROUND AND SQUARE HEADED FIBULAE
Approximately the natural sizes
j, 6, y, are Continental
THE RADIATING FIBULA 255
circular one is rather Gothic, South German and Frankish in
its affinities.
We have now at any rate come to understand the origin
and original significance of the knobs which project beyond
the outline of the semicircular and rectangular plates that form
the heads of so many of our Anglo-Saxon fibulae. On the
Bifrons plates the semicircular head is represented by PI. xxxv,
Nos. 1 to 4 and 6 to 8. There are three knobs in Nos. 3, 6, 7
and 8, five in Nos. 1 and 4, while there were only two in No. 2,
and these are no longer mere knobs but have been turned into
the heads of birds with hooked beaks. Reasons will be given
(p. 526) for regarding this bird-beak motive as of Gothic
origin, and examples will be given showing the decorative use
of the projecting head on various objects especially of South
German and Gothic provenance. The remarkable piece
PI. xxxix, 1, found in 1906 at Market Overton, Rutland, is
of a pronounced South German type l and its appearance in the
English Midlands is a phenomenon. Here the eye and the
beak are quite unmistakable and serve to explain the Bifrons
fibula PI. xxxv, 2, where the degradation of the motive has
gone so far that the eye is out of its proper place. This piece,
PI. xxxv, 2, is accordingly a degenerate example of a Gothic
and South German type, and it is a stranger in Kent, though
not so strange there as in the Midlands.
The Bifrons fibulae, PI. xxxv, 3, 6, 7, 8, are of the three-
knobbed type which as Dr. Salin remarks2 is on the whole
comparatively rare but is represented sporadically by examples
all over the Teutonic region. No. 7 is of importance because
of its resemblance to a similar fibula found at Chessell Down
in the Isle of Wight,3 which is one link of connection between
the Jutes of Kent and the supposed Jutish population of the
1 For South German parallels see Hampel, Alterth'utner in Ungarn, in,
Taf. 56, 58. He ascribes Taf. 56, 8 with a head like the Market Overton
piece to VI ; Taf. 58, 1, where the foot wears the likeness, to VII or VIII.
2 Tbierornamentik, p. 24. 3 Hillier, Isle of Wight, p. 26.
256 FORMS OF THE FIBULA
Isle, while a third was found at Harnham Hill, Wilts.1 The
f radiating ' or digitated fibulae with five knobs and a straight
foot, Nos. i, 4, belong to a class very numerously represented
among the Franks and in southern Germany, sparingly in
Italy, Austria-Hungary and southern Russia, and very slighdy
in northern Germany and Scandinavia.2 In England about
thirty examples are known, four at Bifrons and about ten others
in different parts of Kent, one in Essex, a head at Chessell
Down in the Isle of Wight and a foot end near Droxford,
Hants, two or three in Warwickshire, one in Cambridgeshire,
one in Suffolk, one at Searby in Lincolnshire,3 two at Sleaford,
Lincolnshire,4 three at Woodstone, Hunts,5 and one furthest
north of all at Kilham in East Yorkshire. The probability is
that these are all importations from the Continent, as they are
very common in France, where they occur in the same forms as
with ourselves, especially with the characteristic square end which
is there almost though not altogether universal.6 They represent
an early type dating about V. Some of ours, like PI. xxxv, 1 , 4,
are neat and sharply cut and may be V work. Others are coarser
and more florid, such as the Kentish specimen in Lord Grantley's
collection, PL xxxix, 3, where the clumsy knobs have been
increased in number to seven, and these are probably later.
It will be convenient to take next the square headed fibula,
the Bifrons examples of which are on PI. xxxiv, and for the
moment only the ornate kind Nos. 1 to 5 and 7 need be noticed.
The square head-plate as we have seen already was de-
veloped, probably directly, for the purpose of hiding the
apparatus of the coiled spirals, and as a fact the knobs or
1 Archaeologia, xxxv, pi. xn, 5. The three are shown Fig. 21 (p. 620).
2 There is one in the Museum at Leeuwarden in Friesland, PI. xxxix, 7,
and a portion of one in the Museum at Kiel is shown PI. xxxix, 6. Dr. Salin
figures some in his Ch. 11.
8 Coll. Ant., v, 137. 4 Archaeologia, l, 400.
5 Ass., N.S., v, 1899, p. 346.
6 Boulanger, Marchelepot, 57.
THE SQUARE HEADED FIBULA 257
degenerate offsprings of them often make their appearance as
projections from the plate. PI. xxxix, 2, a coarsely wrought
piece from Kent in Lord Grantley's collection, is a good
example. More commonly the original knobs have coalesced
into a sort of border, either formed of separate units that are
reminiscent of the knobs, as in the example from Barrington,
Cambs, in the Evans collection at Oxford PI. xxxix, 4, or of
continuous patterns like that round the head of the fine Bifrons
example PI. xxxiv, 7. In many examples, as in some on
PI. xxxiv, the plate has no ornamental border. PI. xxxiv, 5, 7,
exhibit a peculiarity observable in many Scandinavian examples
in the adornment of the bow by an ornamental plaque, in these
cases representing a human full-face. Dr. Salin considers this
a kind of freak of fancy without typological significance.
See his Thierornamenlik, p. 44.
With regard to the form of the feet, in the case of
PI. xxxiv, 1, 2, 4, a sort of cross in relief is the prominent
feature, occurring in England, especially in Kent, and also in
France whence came specimens to the Pierpont Morgan
collection.1 This cross is certainly devoid of Christian sig-
nificance, for PI. xxxiv, 1, is quite an early piece, that from
associated finds may be dated about 500 a.d. No. 2 will be
rather later as it has garnet inlays which become more common
on still later specimens, such as No. 4, that may belong to
the middle of VI, for it was found with No. 7 to which this
date is assigned (p. 325 f). Another form of foot, Nos. 5, 7,
exhibits a diamond-shaped motive, and the lowest and two
lateral corners of the diamond are marked with plaques, which
in some examples to be shown on subsequent plates are very
considerably developed. A noteworthy feature occurs where
the diamond-shaped foot joins the bow. Here we observe
animals' heads projecting from the base of the bow and
directed downwards to join the bow to the foot by the ad-
ditional material required by the construction in this place.
1 Gallo-Roman Antiquities, plate iv.
Ill R
258 FORMS OF THE FIBULA
The small round-headed fibula, PL xxxv, 3, shows these heads
very clearly. The morphology of the square headed fibula is
however not so interesting as is its ornamentation, and any
further discussion of it must be deferred till the next chapter.
These small but ornate and well-executed pieces, like PL xxxiv,
1, 2, 5, belong specially to Kent and the Isle of Wight.
Attention must be given now to another class of the Bifrons
fibulae, those called ' cruciform,' PL xxxv, 5, 10, 12, and
Pll. xl to xlv. This class is one of great importance both in
relation to chronology and through the fact that it establishes
a close link of connection between our own country and parts
of those northern regions that were the cradle of the Anglo-
Saxon race.
The genesis of this form of fibula has been a good deal
discussed, some writers affiliating it to the Roman ' cross-bow '
fibula of IV, see PL xxxvin, 2, and others giving it a derivation
of its own from a kind of fibula represented in southern Russia
about 11 a.d. In discussing a few pages back the history of
the safety pin type in pre-Teutonic days attention was only
given to the head. The formation of the catch for the pin at
the foot of the fibula offers a study in typological development
similar to that presented by the head. In fibulae of which
PL xxxvin, 1, is an example, the end of the foot beyond where
the actual catch was formed is carried further forward and ends
in a kind of decorative flourish that carries it up to the bow to
which it is attached. This is an arrangement common in the
La Tene period prior to the Christian era. At a later time,
about 1 1 a.d., it became the fashion to turn this loose end of the
foot beyond the catch not forward but towards the back and to
bring it up underneath the bow to which it was then as in the
former arrangement attached. This constitutes the type of
fibula with ' returned foot ' or as the German writers say f mit
umgeschlagenem Fuss.' A simple example of the type, from
S. Russia in the Antiquarium, Berlin, is shown PL xl, i. In
later fibulae traces of this primitive arrangement are often
XL
facing p. 259
EARLY CRUCIFORM FIBULAE
/, 2, J, 7, are Continental
THE CRUCIFORM FIBULA 259
visible in the form of an ornamental collar round the bottom
of the bow where it runs off into the foot, reminiscent of the
coil which attaches the returned end of the foot to the
bow. This is seen for instance in the fibulae from Sackrau,
PL xxxviii, 3 to 5. In the primitive examples, like PI. xl, i,
there is an open space between the upper line of the foot and
the lower part of it where it has been turned back, and traces
of this opening remain in later fibulae where most of it has
been closed up.
This construction of the foot might of course co-exist with
any kind of formation of the head, but as a matter of fact in
IV and early V a kind of fibula was in use over part of the
Fig. 12. — Fibula from Borgstedt, Schleswig.
v
Germanic area that combined this arrangement with a slender
body and narrow head, and this kind of brooch was well in
evidence in Schleswig-Holstein and on the Lower Elbe in the
period before the migrations from those regions to England.
It is the prevailing theory that it was from fibulae of this kind,
which seem to have been carried up to this region from
southern Russia, rather than from the Roman cross-bow type,
that the cruciform fibula was evolved. The fact that early
cruciform fibulae are narrow at the head while the Roman ones
run pronouncedly to width is in favour of the prevailing view.
Fig. 12 is a sketch of a fibula of this kind from Borgstedt in
Schleswig,1 where will be seen the ' returned foot,' and a narrow
bow of full curve ending at the top with a knob, below which
1 Mestorf, Vorgeschichtliche Alterthiimer aus Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg,
1885, No. 584.
260 FORMS OF THE FIBULA
originally worked the pin hinged with the usual spiral coil that
terminated at each end with a lateral knob. The construction
of the returned foot still in evidence here becomes less apparent
when the whole piece comes to be cast, and a catch is merely
adjusted under the foot now cast solid. The result is a fibula
like that on PI. xl, 2, from a Holstein cemetery of about
400 a.d. in the Museum at Kiel, showing the three knobs
forming the termination above of a long slender piece, quite
different in aspect from the sturdy Roman cross-bow fibula
though possessing elements in common with this.
The next stage in the development of this form of fibula
is seen in the piece beside it, No. 3, also at Kiel. The most
important change is in the foot which now ends in an animal's
head, but this will be noticed later. In the matter of the head
the change is in the direction of the evolution of a distinct
head plate covering the middle part of the coil and intervening
between the top of the bow and the knob which terminates
the whole piece. By being marked with a St. Andrew's Cross
the plate already proclaims itself a constituent portion of the
whole. The further history of the type is concerned chiefly
with the enlargement and treatment of this square head-plate
and the relations between it and the coil with its knobs below.
This history has been worked out in an elaborate little treatise
by Dr. Haakon Schetelig of the Bergen Museum in Norway,1
which has established for our present state of knowledge the
chronology of the various forms involved. The origin of the
special type is claimed for the Lower Elbe region and Schleswig,
but the development is worked out in Denmark, Norway and
Sweden, and England, and the relations among the forms
found in the three countries are set forth with great lucidity
and convincingness in the treatise. To put the matter briefly,
when the head-plate has assumed a certain size the knobs at
the ends of the coil become in different ways attached to it,
and at a later stage, having become in this way intimately
1 The Cruciform Brooches of Norway, Bergens Museums Aarbog, 1906.
XLI
facing p. 261
CONSTRUCTION OF ENGLISH CRUCIFORM FIBULAE
1, 2, 4, 6, a little reduced ; 5, considerably reduced
EARLY CRUCIFORM FIBULAE 261
associated with the plate, they end by losing their connection
with the coil altogether and are cast in one piece with the plate
to which they become merely ornamental appendages. The
type originated in IV for specimens like Fig. 12 were found
in the Nydam moss in Schleswig. It was carried through its
main typological changes in the course of V and lasted on in
use at any rate in England to the latter part of VI and even
into VII. It is noteworthy that all through V in Denmark
and in England it was usual for the side knobs still to belong
essentially to the coil and only to be attached as separate
pieces to the head plate as is the case with all the fibulae on
PI. xli, while in Norway and Sweden they were already cast in
the same piece with the head plate. In VI this casting in one
piece was universal and an example is seen on PL xliv. It
follows that cruciform fibulae found in England with detached
side knobs may as a rule be put down to a date somewhere
about 500 a.d., while those with side knobs cast on to the plate,
and, a fortiori, later developments that proceed with decorative
manipulations of the side knobs, must be of VI or even later.
PH. xl, xli give some specimens from England and the
Continent, the former being designed to show the distribution
of specimens throughout the country as well as to give a
chronological series of examples. For Scandinavian parallels
the illustrations in Dr. Schetelig's treatise may be referred
to. There has been found in our country, at Dorchester in
Oxfordshire, PI. xl, 6, one isolated example of the prototype
of the cruciform fibulae of the pattern of Fig. 12 though
representing a stage in advance. The length of it is 2-| in.
and on the Plate it is somewhat enlarged. The terminal knob
is well preserved but the part between the knob and the bow
is not very clear. There was certainly however no appreciable
width in the head plate. The bow has the ample sweep of
the early examples like Fig. 12. There is no collar round
the bow at the foot end of it according to the ' returned foot '
tradition, but the catch for the pin runs as in early examples
262 * FORMS OF THE FIBULA
the whole length of the foot. A detail on which there may-
be some difference of opinion is seen in PI. xl, 6. There is
a slit-like opening in the metal which suggests the space left
when the foot is actually turned back as in PI. xl, i, but it
might be argued that this is only due to corrosion. The end
of the slit nearest the foot seems however so neatly finished
off that the writer is convinced that the slit is part of the
design, and would of course indicate an early date. The
piece could not be put later than about 400 a.d. Among
the true cruciform fibulae in this country one of the earliest
must be the small specimen found in Suffolk and now in the
Norwich Museum, Fitch Collection No. 624, PI. xl, 4. It
is marked by the slenderness and elongation of the foot
observable in the early example from Kiel PL xl, 2, but in
this case there is a distinct indication of what becomes later
on the well-known c horse's head.' A similar example No. 5
comes from early burials near Holme Pierrepont or Cotgrave,
Notts. Though the piece is broader in the upper part, the
horse's head is still small and uncertain. It is 3^ in. long.
As an ornamental motive this head will have presently to be
discussed ; here we are only concerned with its typological
changes. In PL xl, 7, at Hanover, from Midlum, Kreis
Lehe, a Lower Elbe piece, the horse's head is modelled in very
definite fashion while the catch occupies the whole length of
the extended foot, and the head is very narrow. The earliest
specimen Dr. Schetelig figured among English finds is the ex-
ample in Rugby Museum, 3^ in. long, shown in front and back
view PI. xli, 1. This is not yet of that broader and stouter
build which becomes characteristic of English examples but
attention is already being paid to the horse's nostrils, which
our craftsmen mishandled later on in somewhat weird fashion.
In this particular detail there is a difference between English
and Scandinavian examples. With us the nostrils are, in
these early specimens with the detached knobs, represented
by depressed hemispheres attached like wings on each side of
LATER CRUCIFORM FIBULAE 263
the animal's muzzle, as in No. 6 on PI. xli. In Norway on
the other hand they are as a rule fashioned like distinct pro-
jecting buttons. The beautiful brooch, PL xli, 2, nearly
4 in. long and finely chased, from Malton Farm, Cambs, in
the Ashmolean Museum, is regarded by Mr. Thurlow Leeds
who published it in Archaeologia, Vol. lxiii, as probably an
importation from Denmark. It has the peculiarity that the
knob at the top which is generally cast on one piece with
the head is here split and the head is inserted into it. The
grooves across the split tang are by some considered reminis-
cent of the worm of a screw that occurs on the knobs of some
Roman brooches which are fixed by this method in their places.
The method by which the side knobs are attached to the
plate can be seen in No. 3 from Sancton, Yorks, where the
groove in the knob into which the edge of the plate enters
is visible in the front view, and the arrangement at the back
where the rusted remains of the coil are commonly apparent is
given in No. 4, which shows the back and front view of a
fibula 3§ in. long found recently at Corbridge, Northumber-
land. In almost all these examples it will be noticed that the
edges of the sides of the plate are sharpened so as to enter
into the notches in the lateral knobs. There is thus a thicker
middle part to the plate and thinner sides, and this is apparent in
the front view of most of the examples on the Plate. We note
that in the example from East ShefFord, Berks, PL xli, 6, 3^ in.
long, the side knobs have no grooves and merely abut on the
edges of the plate. This is quite exceptional. Furthermore, in
order to give room behind for the coil, the whole plate is bent
into a curve from side to side so that a concavity is formed at
the back. The Corbridge example, No. 4, shows this.
Plates xliii, xliv and xlv are arranged to show the later
development in England of this form of brooch, in the course
of which it will be seen to blend in some of its details with
the square headed type, and to blossom out into some very
characteristic pieces of a florid kind that are practically without
264 FORMS OF THE FIBULA
parallel in continental collections. The head is in all these
later examples cast with the side knobs as well as the top
one in the same piece, and in other respects it exhibits modi-
fications which have begun in the earlier examples. Already
in some of these early examples, dating from not later than
about 500 a.d., such as those from Corbridge, PI. xli, 4,
the head plate is getting very broad and the further develop-
ment proceeds in this direction, so that the later and more florid
specimens have a flat spread-out look which Haakon Schetelig
notes as characteristically English, and as offering a contrast
with the Norwegian brooches in which a plastic feeling for relief
and boldly accented forms are specially to be remarked.
Before following however the main line of this later
development, it will be well to introduce a notice of some
minor modifications of the head which will explain the
genesis of sundry small brooches with ' trefoil ' heads, heads
curiously indented, and heads which are perfectly square and
plain, some of which are illustrated on the Bifrons Plates
xxxiv and xxxv and on PI. xxxvn, Nos. 8, 9, 10. It will
be noticed that in these the horse's head no longer appears,
and in many cases the foot is spread out at the end into
a fan-like form, which is specially characteristic of fibulae
found in East Prussia but which Dr. Schetelig thinks 1 may
be simply 'a Teutonic transformation of the rather broad
foot seen on Roman brooches ' of the cross-bow type, as
PI. xxxviii, 2. In this connection it may be noted that in
some French examples of the ' radiating ' brooch the square-
ended shank of Roman derivation broadens out, though
only slightly, as it descends. These pieces are instructive
as showing that besides development in a main line through
a long series of comparatively slight typological changes
there might exist as it were short cuts by which a great
extent of ground was covered at a single leap. The class
of small brooches now under consideration, for which the
1 Cruciform Brooches of Norway, p. 91.
XLII
facing p. 265
FORMS DERIVED FROM CRUCIFORM FIBULAE
4 is slightly below natural size
2, 3, are Continental
SMALL LONG BROOCHES 265
name ' small long brooches ' may be found suitable, is specially
characteristic of England, but the origin of them seems to
be sought in Schleswig, where they occur in the cemetery
of Borgstedt the date of which is rather earlier than that of
the Teutonic settlement in England. PI. xlii, 2, 3, are two
Schleswig specimens, and references have just been given
to the illustrations of some English ones. The trefoil headed
fibula, a specially English form represented as we have seen
in all parts of our country, is considered by Dr. Salin * to be de-
rived from a three-knobbed cruciform brooch by the summary
process of flattening out the knobs, and in like manner the
Schleswig specimens, PI. xlii, 2, 3, may have come from
a cruciform fibula with — what occurs very exceptionally —
square knobs. On the other hand, an example like that
from near Blaby, Leicestershire, in the Museum at Leicester,
PI. xli, 5, would suggest that the simple omission of the
knobs, and a fanciful manipulation of the side plates which
seems to be here in progress, might lead to the same result.
Dr. Schetelig is disposed to develop these types in comparative
independence of the cruciform brooches, though he admits
that the histories of the two are parallel.2 How closely con-
nected however they are we can see from the case of Kempston,
Beds, where a large number of small brooches of the kind
were found, and are shown, as exhibited in the British
Museum, PI. xlii, i. One of these, in the middle of the
lowest row, is of the normal cruciform type with a debased
horse's head foot, a second, above it to the left, has a three-
knobbed head but a triangular foot. Two trefoil headed
examples come in the first row and at the end of the second
row from the top, while at the left hand of the lowest row
are two brooches with square head-plates curiously indented in
a way that reminds us of the Kiel examples PL xlii, 2, 3, and
the third from the left in the top row of the Kempston series
would come into line with these but has preserved a degenerate
1 Tbierornamentik, p. 74. 2 Cruciform Brooches, I.e.
266 FORMS OF THE FIBULA
form of the horse's head foot. On the Bifrons Plate xxxv,
Nos. 9 and 13 are similar. These Salin derives from the
Schleswig example PI. xlii, 3, through a gradual closing up
of the spaces between the three flattened-out heads. Lastly,
the examples with plain square head-plates, so largely repre-
sented at Kempston, and also at Bifrons, PI. xxxiv, 12, he
considers to show the final extinction of the openings. One
might be more inclined to derive the plain square head directly
from the cruciform one by the simple omission of the knobs,
and this is rendered likely by the fact that some of these
plain square heads, e.g., the first from the left in the top
and second rows of the Kempston group, and the one to
the right of the three-knobbed specimen in the lowest row,
shown on a larger scale PI. xlii, 4, have the plate divided into
three, with the wings a little set back from the centre, and
this detail is hardly likely to have survived through the
longer process of derivation favoured by Dr. Salin. The
specimen at the right-hand end of the bottom row is a very
remarkable piece, and this with the one to the left of the three-
knobbed one in the bottom row possesses special features to
which attention will presently be directed.
It is clear at any rate that the insignificant-looking little
brooches of this class need not be dismissed as of trivial
importance. From their occurrence in Schleswig and also,
as is the case, in Hanover, they may be claimed as early
forms brought over to this country and developed here to
numerous varieties, all of which however are affiliated to the
cruciform type. It is a noteworthy fact that in the case of
the two plain square-headed brooches, Nos. 10 and 11 on
PI. xxxiv, we have distinct evidence of early date, for they
came to light in a grave at Bifrons the other objects in
which must be placed about the year 500.1 The form of
these head plates may easily have been arrived at by the
summary process suggested in the text. No one however
1 Arcb. Cant., x, 303, cf. Victoria History, Leicester, 1, 228.
XLIII
facing p. 267
FEET OF CRUCIFORM FIBULAE
All but 6 are about natural size ; 6 is f natural size
WINGS AND HORSE'S-HEAD FEET 267
has yet made a complete analysis of the forms of these
smaller and simpler fibulae of the ' long ' type, and whether
specimens like PI. xxxiv, 10, 11, belong to the sub-type
1 cruciform ' or ' square headed ' might be a matter of
controversy. In what follows they will be called ' small
long brooches,' by the name suggested above.
The derail in the two Kempston brooches in the lowest
row above referred to is the appearance on each side just
below the bow of projecting wings, and this brings us back to
the rather extensive subject of the later development of the
cruciform brooch into varied and on the whole florid forms
that are specially characteristic of England. The outcome
of this development is a set of large brooches handsome in
a superficial aspect but ornamented in a somewhat debased
fashion, that at first sight resemble the more ornate square-
headed pieces, such as some on PI. xxxiv and PH. lxiv to lxvii,
but generally preserve enough of the traditional structure to
make their genesis unmistakable. The wing appears at first
quite plain, as in the fibula from Suffolk in the Norwich
Museum, PI. xliii, 2, where only one side is preserved, but
we soon see the wing taking the form of an animal's head as
in the example at Hull from Hornsea, PI. xliii, i, where the
sides of the head plate show marks where they were inserted
in the grooves in the knobs, and its after development is a
matter of ornament rather than of morphology. Changes in
the horse's head proceed in conjunction with this development
of the wings. The early examples such as PI. xli, i, 4, 6,
dating from V or early VI, show the nostrils treated simply in
the conventional fashion already indicated, and the heads on
the feet of later brooches, PI. xliii, 4, 5, show that this com-
paratively severe treatment remains sometimes in use even in
fibulae of the more advanced kind with the fixed knobs, such
as is No. 5, from Saxby, Leicestershire. In the Hornsea brooch
at Hull, 4! in. long, PL xliii, 3, there are additions to the
hemispheres above and a prolongation between them in the
268 FORMS OF THE FIBULA
form of a little tongue which in some examples is pierced with
a hole for the attachment of a chain or other fastening. The
example No. 7 on PI. xli, a Suffolk brooch in Mr. Fenton's
collection in London, has such a perforated prolongation. It
is to be noted also that like some other East Anglian speci-
mens it is ornamented with enamel. In the last-named
Hornsea brooch, PI. xliii, 3, the forehead of the beast above
the eyes is divided in the centre by a median line that is an
English peculiarity. Later brooches exhibit an enormous
outgrowth from the lower part of the muzzle which is treated
in a purely decorative fashion and becomes of greater import-
ance than the head itself. No. 6 on PI. xliii, at Audley End,
from Little Wilbraham, Cambs, is remarkable because the
extensions below the nostrils take the form of the birds' heads
we have come to know in connection with PH. xxxv, 2 and
xxxix, 1. A fibula found at Londesborough, in the Hull
Museum, is an excellent specimen of the advanced form of
the piece in our own country. It is figured on PL xliv to its
full size, 5T5F in. in length, and is remarkable for its look of
newness and extraordinary preservation, as well as for its just
proportions and tactful distribution of details. It is almost as
perfect as when the cast left the hands of the chaser. The
knobs, of a chaste and severe form that occurs on early
examples as on the Malton Farm piece PI. xli, 2, have an
additional feature, which becomes developed later on, of a sort
of extra growth out of the head of them. The head plate
with the three divisions is no longer strictly rectangular but
its outline expands towards the sides. It has a pattern of
diamonds stamped on the edges of the centre division. The
wings below the bow show the animal's head, and all this region
is sharply faceted and finished in a most workmanlike style.
The forehead of the ' horse ' has the median groove and the
lower part of the muzzle is treated in the later convention.
The flatness which Schetelig notices as distinguishing English
from Scandinavian examples is very apparent, and we have
XLIV
facing p. 268
CRUCIFORM FIBULA FROM LONDESBOROUGH, YORKS
Natural size
XLV
facing p. 269
FLORID CRUCIFORM BROOCHES 269
before us a fine and very characteristic piece of Anglian
bronze work of about the middle of VI.
It would be tedious to describe any of the more florid
examples that exhibit the further elaboration of the motives
treated with some severity and reserve in the Londesborough
piece. The specimens on PI. xlv speak for themselves, for in
each case there is represented a growth outwards of features
which in their origin and simpler forms we have already come
to know. With the ornamental motives employed we are not
at the moment concerned, and these will be returned to and
examined in connection with the more ornate forms of the
square headed fibula, which we shall see developing on similar
lines. It may be briefly noted that Nos. 1 and 4, the first at
Bury St. Edmunds from West Stow Heath, Suffolk, 6 in.
long, and the second at Worcester from Upton Snodsbury,
Worcestershire, 4J in. long, are specimens of the later kind of
cruciform brooch found in this country, and Dr. Schetelig,
who figures two other similar examples under his nos. 131
and 132, reckons them to belong to the latter half of VI. A
good deal of time one would imagine must have elapsed
between the making of the severe and noble Londesborough
brooch and that of a florid amorphous piece like No. 4, and this
more probably belongs to VII. No. 2 at Audley End from
Little Wilbraham, Cambs, 5 in. long, Schetelig figures as his
no. 130 and gives it approximately the same date in VI, while
No. 3, in Hull Museum from the recent find at Hornsea,
4^- in. long, is a contemporary piece in which the three knobs,
still quite distinct in Nos. 1 and 4, have almost coalesced into
a continuous border. The two eyes of the three human faces
of 1 and 4 are still however to be made out. The horse's
head, still recognizable in 4 and in 2, has become a human
head in 1 and 3. No. 6 is the foot of a very late fibula of
debased type similar to No. 3 though still more degenerate, in
the Black Gate Museum at Newcastle-on-Tyne from White-
hill, Tynemouth, 5f in. long. Lastly Nos. 5 and 7 are two
270 FORMS OF THE FIBULA
very similar pieces of which 5, in the Evans Collection at
Oxford, comes from Barrington, Cambs, and 7, in the Mayer-
Faussett Collection at Liverpool, was found at Chesterford in
Essex. The stiff square forms are noteworthy, and the square
pieces projecting beyond the knobs are to be signalized x as a
further development of what we see beginning in the Londes-
borough brooch of PI. xliv. The occurrence of such closely
related pieces, one in Essex and one in Cambridgeshire, will
be noticed later on in its historical significance (p. 597).
A word must be said about the manner of wearing these
so-called ' long ' brooches, whether of the square headed or
the cruciform type. It was a very common though not a
universal practice to wear them with what has been called the
* foot ' uppermost, so that the pin must have been inserted in
the garment from below upwards. It is a curious fact that on
Greek vases, where the tunics of female figures are fastened on
the shoulders with long pins, these are often, though not always,
shown with their points sticking up in somewhat aggressive
fashion. This tradition may conceivably have exercised an
influence that lasted till the evolution of the long fibula.
On a late Roman ivory at Vienna PI. xxxm, 3 (p. 243), a
figure of ' Roma ' is shown wearing a square headed fibula
foot upwards, and male figures on the famous ivory diptych at
Halberstadt (p. 375 f.) fasten their cloaks in the same fashion.
At Bifrons cemetery the explorers reported that the position
of the long brooches showed that they had been worn in this
way. The bird brooch, PI. xxxv, n, has the pin hinged at
the foot so that when worn with the head of the creature in its
natural position the pin would point upwards. It stands to
reason of course that this cannot always have been the case,
for the design would not admit of it in instances where the
human face, for example, was exhibited. PI. xxxiv, 7, must,
one would think, have been meant to be worn head upwards.
The fact here noticed as to the placing of the brooches has
1 H. Schetelig, Cruciform Brooches, p. 107.
XLVI
facing p. 271
PLATE AND EQUAL ARMED FIBULAE
/, 2, 7, 8, Q, 10, are Continental
EQUAL ARMED FIBULAE 271
been taken account of in arranging the plates, which show the
objects in both the possible positions.
This problem of the relations in position of the * head ' and
the ' foot ' of the fibulae, when worn on the figure, leads us by
an easy transition to the so-called equal armed fibula, about
which no such question can arise. Some examples of this
were shown PL xxxvn, 5, 6, 7, while two or three continental
ones have been added to PL xlvi as Nos. 7, 8, 9, and of a
group from Stockholm a perspective view is given PL xlvi, 10.
These are called by the French c fibules ansees ' because they
resemble box handles that could be screwed down through the
two plates on each side of the central bow. In the example
PI. xxxvn, 7 (p. 247), the two plates are set at right angles to
the bow instead of in a line with it. This actual piece, from
Kempston, Bedfordshire, is a comparatively degenerate example
of a limited class of fibulae practically confined to one or two
localities in our own country and in the region about the
Elbe Mouth in Germany, one home of our Teutonic fore-
fathers. The type is in this way an important historical link
of connection between earlier and later seats of the English,
and was evidently brought over to this country fully evolved
in the form in which we find it in the Hanoverian province.
Earlier specimens to be noticed later on (p. 561 f.) probably
belong to V, and the archaeological evidence of their ornamenta-
tion corresponds, for this is of a kind that belongs to IV and V,
when classical forms were dominant in much of the art of the
time. Few objects indeed among those with which we are
now dealing rejoice in a date so well attested and so early.
The significance of this fact will be seen when we examine the
general form of the object, taking for the moment the example
No. 7 on PL xxxvn. Other examples of the type are far more
interesting and will occupy attention on a subsequent page
from the point of view of their enrichment.
The first thing to notice is that this kind of equal armed
fibula, in which the head and foot are set at right angles to the
272 FORMS OF THE FIBULA
bow, differs markedly from those in which all three are in a
line in the fact that while this as we have just seen is very
early the others are correspondingly late. The ' fibule ansee '
is so reckoned by the French archaeologists, and M. Boulanger
goes so far as to say that ' les fibules ansees sont les dernieres
qui figurent dans les tombes a la fin du VIIIe siecle et au
commencement du IXe.' 1 This is from the point of view of
morphology quite regular. The safety pin type of fibula we
have seen passing through a long series of modifications
affecting both the head and the foot, and it is in accordance
with the laws which govern these changes that after a long
period of time invention should grow cold, and both head and
foot losing their special significance should ultimately settle
down into characterless shapes each of which is a copy of the
other. In this way the late ' fibule ansee ', 7, 8, 9, may easily be
explained, but the puzzle is that the same sort of phenomenon
should occur at a date that is comparatively very early, when
invention was in full swing and head and foot were being
treated in a fresh and living fashion. The explanation seems
to be that the wide equal-armed fibula does not find its place
in the normal scheme of development, but is a copy of a
special though rare form of provincial- Roman fibula that bears
to it a superficial resemblance. This point is illustrated later
on (p. 552 f.) in connection with the important early examples
of the class that have just been mentioned.
It should at the same time be borne in mind that out-of-
the-way forms of the brooch are possible at any time, for they
may come under the category i plate fibula ' to which attention
will presently be directed. This heading ' plate fibula,' it will
be seen, covers an extremely wide range, for it was in accord-
ance with the rules of the game to make almost anything of
suitable size and shape into a fibula. No morphological laws
seem here to have been in force. At a very early date in the
Teutonic period we see this evidenced in the fibulae from the
1 Marcbe/epot, p. 170.
FIBULAE OF THE PLATE TYPE 273
Treasure of Petrossa, of IV, at Bucharest, where fanciful forms
such as those that will be found on PI. xlviii, 1, 2 (p. 279),
make their appearance. No. 1 on that plate is supposed to
represent an ibis, and may be regarded as the prototype of the
' bird ' fibulae in general. It is of outrageous size, nearly
10 in. in height, but the pin at the back shows clearly that it
was a brooch. Another piece, No. 2, has no specific form but
presents a fanciful composition freely invented. It is imprac-
ticable however to regard the equal armed fibulae with which
we are dealing as an invention of the kind, for the distinctive
bow in the middle links them unmistakably to the fibulae of
the safety pin type. Dr. Salin notes that these equal armed
brooches have as yet received but little attention on the part
of archaeologists, and he claims them as rather a northern
speciality.
The next group of fibulae to be noticed embraces all those
of the 'plate' type, subdivided into 'disc,' 'applied,' 'saucer,'
' button,' and * bird ' brooches, with one or two miscellaneous
forms that may come under this heading. The most im-
portant class of disc fibulae is that known as ' Kentish ' in
which ornamentation by means of garnet inlays is the chief
feature. This inlaid work is a subject of the first importance
and a discussion of it would carry us at once beyond the field
of the fibula. It is therefore omitted in this place and a full
treatment of it in its larger aspects will be given in Chapter x.
It will be sufficient here to establish the character of the sub-
type independently of the special ornamentation connected
with it. It so happens that it is a fibula type that is very
sparingly represented at Bifrons so that a summary treatment
of it in this place is only natural. There are one or two
Bifrons examples that are of special value as representing an
early form of the inlaid jewel, and these will be found figured
on PL cxlv, 5 to 8 (p. S33)- ^- xxxvr> IO> gives an example
of a later and more common form, consisting in a round plate
of bronze with pin attachment at the back, the ornamentation
III s
274 FORMS OF THE FIBULA
being partly composed of inlaid garnets. This is a very modest
specimen of a class sometimes represented by magnificent
examples of the craft of the goldsmith and jewel setter. The
genesis of the round disc form is easy to trace. It is a familiar
classical product in use among the Greeks, Etruscans, and
Romans, and it is from this source that it was introduced into
the Teutonic world, where the Franks and the Jutes of Kent
made it specially their own. The Etruscan ladies used these
round brooches to fasten their raiment, and specimens have
been found in their tombs. Greek ladies no doubt followed
the same fashion, though it is a curious fact that Greek tombs
have yielded up the scantiest possible supply of objects of the
kind. Greek sculpture shows representations of brooches
fastening on the shoulder the military cloak or chlamys of the
youths, as on the Parthenon frieze, but the tombs disappoint
us when we search them for the originals. The Romans also
made great use for similar purposes of fastenings of the kind,
and the famous mosaic pictures of Justinian and his consort
Theodora in S. Vitale at Ravenna, PI. xxxiii, i, 2 (p. 243),
exhibit the Emperor with his cloak fastened on the right
shoulder by a jewelled disc of the sort under review, from
which, it will be seen, hang down three pendants. Theodora
as will be noticed wears a pair of such brooches, one on each
side, and this corresponds with the habit of the German ladies
as evidenced in the cemeteries. Upon this fashion in connec-
tion with the general question of the Germanic costume of the
times something will be said on a later page (p. 374 f.).
Among disc fibulae of Teutonic make though of classical
pattern the first place is taken by a pair of golden ones in the
second treasure of Szilagy Somlyo at Budapest shown on the
lowest line on PL cxliv (p. 529). They measure nearly 4 in.
in diameter and rise in the form of truncated cones to a height
of about 1% in. The ornament is in repousse work in gold
and inlays. The loops to which pendants were attached are
seen at their edge.
XLVII
facing p. 275
SAUCER AND APPLIED BRIOCHES
1, considerably reduced ; 2, about natural size
DISC AND SAUCER FIBULAE 275
A much more modest form of the disc fibula consists in
simple bronze plates, ij- in. or 2 in. in diameter, furnished
underneath with pins, and ornamented on the front with
stamped or incised patterns of an unpretentious linear kind.
The form is very widely distributed, and occurs from a very
early period. A very good example is the early Bifrons piece
PI. xxxvi, 6. There is no question in these of typology or
evolution, and they remain throughout strong serviceable
adjuncts to the toilette, whose only interest from the aesthetic
side is their ornament, with which we are not for the moment
concerned. It happens not infrequently that bronze circular
plates are found with no trace of ornament on the face, but
provided with pins at the back or perhaps without pins but
with indications that these had once been attached. There is
always a chance here that an ornamented plate in thin gilded
bronze or even in gilded silver or gold had once been cemented
to the front of the brooch forming its artistic finish. Brooches
with thin plates of the kind still in position are fairly numerous
and constitute the important class known as 'applied' brooches.
The Bifrons specimen PI. xxxvi, 7, of which the back with
broken pin attachment is shown in the photograph, was almost
certainly a piece of this kind. To complete such a brooch
there was required not only the embossed plate but also a
narrow upright rim that was soldered on round the edge and
served to protect the applied plate, which was always very thin,
from damage. This rim is often broken away even when the
plate or part of it is preserved, and this is not to be wondered
at as the construction is far from strong.
It was experience of this weakness which in all probability
led to the invention of the * saucer ' brooch represented at
Bifrons by some quite unimportant specimens PI. xxxvi, 5, 12.
In dimensions and general character the two agree but the
saucer brooch is a thoroughly sound piece of work. It is
made in one piece of cast bronze, the ornament on the face
being afterwards sharpened up with the chasing tool and
276 FORMS OF THE FIBULA
gilded, and the rim, of a piece with the rest, is set at an
obtuse angle to the plate, the surface of which it effectually
protects. A large number of brooches of both kinds came
to light at Kempston and are shown PL xlvii, I.
Both the saucer and applied kinds are represented here,
the former above, the latter in the lower rows. It will be
seen that two embossed plates of applied brooches are wholly
detached from their base, and in other instances the protective
ring originally soldered on round the edge has come away,
whereas the saucer specimens are as sound as the day on which
they were turned out, and this sustains Mr. Thurlow Leeds's
contention that the latter represent a technical improvement
on a type that had grown up in somewhat uncertain fashion.
A curious intermediate form seems to be represented by the
lowest piece on the plate, No. 2, which gives the front and
back views of a saucer brooch, 2§ in. in diameter, from Duston,
Northants, in the Northampton Museum. Here the fibula is
cast with the rim in one piece, but the embossed gilded front
plate is separate, as the photograph shows in the lower part.
In the centre of the Kempston group is a saucer brooch of
minute dimensions, of a type represented at Bifrons, PL xxxvi, 1.
Specimens of this type measure about |- in. in diameter, and are
called commonly ' button ' brooches. This variety is interest-
ing both from its distribution and from the kind of ornament
applied to it, and will be further discussed on a subsequent
page (p. 321 f.).
The typological interest of these applied and saucer
brooches resides mainly in the character of their ornamenta-
tion, for the form is constant and the difference in this respect
between brooch and brooch, apart from size, depends chiefly
on the presence in some examples, especially common in the
Cambridgeshire district, of a central boss or stud that sometimes
carries an inlay of garnet. PI. lx, 6 (p. 319), is an example.
The diameter of saucer brooches varies from about 1^ to cl-
inches. With the ornament we are not at the moment con-
FOREIGN APPLIED BROOCHES 277
cerned but on the origin and pre-history of the sub-type a
word or two must be said.
These were discussed in a valuable paper in a recent
volume of Archaeologia^ vol. lxiii, by Mr. Thurlow Leeds of
the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. Like some other char-
acteristic English products they may be traced back to earlier
forms which occur in Romanized lands and also in the regions
of northern Europe from which our Teutonic forefathers
drew their origin, but they are only seen there, so to say, in
embryo, and their case is like that of the small long fibulae
just discussed in connection with the Kempston finds, in that
while they may originate abroad their development is a specially
English affair. The saucer brooch cast in one piece seems
only to be represented abroad by two small specimens in the
Museum at Hamburg, and one stray piece, found in the
cemetery of Harmignies in Belgium and now in the Museum
at Brussels. These are figured later on, PI. cxlix, 8, 4
(p. 553). The Harmignies specimen, No. 4, is i-| in. across
and the two Hamburg ones, No. 8, from a cremation cemetery
in the Hanoverian province at Alten Buls, are less than 1 in.
The Belgian piece seems late and may very likely be an import
from England, but the Alten Buls burial contained early objects
associated with these saucer fibulae and this find seems to prove
that the saucer brooch was actually being made by the con-
tinental kinsmen of our English settlers about the time that
the migration took place.
The complete applied brooch is also abroad of great rarity
though more examples are known than of the saucer brooch.
One from Maroeuil, Pas de Calais, in the Museum at Brussels,
is shown later, PL cxlix, i (p. $53). It is 1 j- in. in diameter
and has the pin at the back in working order. Another from
Sigy, Seine Inferieure, at Rouen, PI. cxlix, 2, 2 in. across, is
specially interesting because the ornament on the applied plate
closely resembles that on an applied brooch found at East
Sheffbrd, Berks, PI. cxlix, 5. A curious trident shape is
278 FORMS OF THE FIBULA
common to both. Detached plates are more common abroad
than the complete brooches. There is one in the Ashmolean
from Waben, Pas de Calais, and some other Franco-Roman
ones of earlier date are shown on PL cxlviii. Such plates
also occur in the Elbe Mouth region, and one of the most
interesting in the Museum at Hanover will be found figured
PI. cxlix, 3. There are two appliques probably for brooches
in the Museum at Stade, PI. cxlix, 7. In this Hanoverian
region the bronze plate which carries the pin makes its
appearance not infrequently, devoid of any applied disc, and
of any protecting rim. Specimens from the Museums at
Hanover and Geestemiinde are shown PL xlvi, i to 3. It may
be noticed that No. 3, at Hanover, shows the peculiarity that
a flat rim has been soldered round the outer circumference of
the face of the brooch, which has a hole in the centre of it.
A precisely similar piece was found at Little Wilbraham,
Cambridgeshire, and is figured under no. 22 on pi. 3 of
Neville's Saxon Obsequies.
Some of these continental specimens, e.g. that from
Hanover shown PL xlvi, i, possess the significant character-
istic that the face shows traces of enamel, and it is evident
that the enrichment was in these cases in the form of coloured
vitreous pastes and not in that of a thin ' applied ' plate with
embossed ornaments. This use of enamel which is not
uncommon in these continental plate brooches found in the
North gives a clue to their origin. They are probably Ger-
manic imitations of the provincial-Roman enamelled bronze
brooches which were in very common use at the beginning of
the migration period. These brooches were turned out in
great numbers and exported to all parts of the Roman Empire
so that they come to light almost everywhere, from the north-
western frontier posts of the Empire in the Scottish lowlands
to the south-eastern limit by the Euphrates. There is evidence
that they were manufactured in considerable abundance II and
III a.d. in the neighbourhood of Namur, from which locality
XLVIII
facing p. 279
PLATE FIBULAE OF SPECIAL FORMS
/, 2, are Continental
USE OF ENAMELLING 279
comes the example shown in its natural colours PI. E, 1 (p. 519),
but there must have been many active centres of fabrication.
There is great variety in their shapes, animal forms being
much in evidence, but the round disc bulks very largely in
every collection of examples, and not uncommonly carries in
the centre a projecting stud. The enamel on these is of the
champleve kind and the bronze out of which the cells are
hollowed is of substantial thickness. The plate brooches or
1 Scheibenfibeln,' to give them their German name, with which
we are at the moment concerned, are as a rule enamelled in
the encrusting technique by means of thin films of the vitreous
pastes floated on the surface, though there is one very fine,
and as yet unpublished, piece in a northern Museum where
the enamel is fused into cloisons of bronze. The art of
enamelling was known among the Germans of the migration
period and was practised even by the Anglo-Saxons (p. 519 f.)
but it was never a craft that any of the Teutonic peoples
favoured, and was only, so to say, kept alive ready to be
revived in the Carolingian and later periods. It was quite
natural that the process should soon be dropped in the orna-
mentation of the ' Scheibenfibeln,' and that its place should
be taken by the thin embossed plates of gilded bronze which
had been in use from late Roman times (PL cxlviii), while
the projecting central stud may conceivably be a Roman
reminiscence.
The above is a possible and even a plausible theory of the
origin of the applied and saucer brooches. The probable
history of the brooches in this country, which has practically
a monopoly of them, can only be surmised on the basis of a
comparative study of their ornamentation, and this will pre-
sently be undertaken.
A disc form of the plate fibula that must not be passed
over is that shown PL xlvi, 5, 6. ■No. 6 is a silver brooch at
York from the Croft collection, enclosing in a series of con-
centric circles formed of beading a copy of a silver coin of the
280 FORMS OF THE FIBULA
Emperor Valentinian. This would suggest rather an early
date for the piece, and this is borne out to some extent by the
occurrence of a very similar fibula with a copy of a Byzantine
coin set in concentric rings of granulated work in gold in the
Museum at Leeuwarden, where it is ascribed to VI or VII.
At the same time also it resembles closely in its style a class
of disc brooches made of pewter, of which No. 5, from the
Guildhall Museum, London, is a specimen. These appear all
to be late, in the Danish period, and if this be the case the
type must have been fairly persistent — though the material
degenerated from gold and silver to pewter.
The form of the plate fibula reserved to the last is seen in
PI. xxxv, 11. It is a summary representation of a bird with a
pronounced hooked beak, and is generally small and compara-
tively rude in execution. It is probably Gothic in its ultimate
origin, and we may recognize a monumental form of it in the
immense ' ibis ' fibula in the Treasure of Petrossa, PL xlviii, i.
The f bird ' fibulae with which we are now dealing are very
ignoble satellites of such a lordly ancestor, but the descent is
none the less probable. Such bird fibulae occur in finds in
Hungary but are especially common in the Merovingian
cemeteries of France. On the question of the significance of
the bird form something will be said later on (p. 526 f.) in
connection with Gothic art generally. Another bird form
which sometimes makes its appearance is that of the duck, of
which an example from Chessell Down in the Isle of Wight is
shown PI. xlvi, 4.
There is a kind of brooch formed of the bodies of two
birds arranged back to back in such a way as to suggest the
letter ' S,' whence the name ' S '-shaped fibulae sometimes given
to examples. The type is represented, though not exactly, in
one of the remarkable appliques from Buttsole, Eastry, Kent,
at Maidstone, PL xxiv, 2 (p. 203), bottom line to the right.
One or two specimens have been found in this country but
they are of extreme rarity. The national collection embraces
DECORATED QUOIT FIBULAE
i, 2, 3, enlarged by about one-half
ABNORMAL < PLATE' FIBULAE 281
two, one from Chessell Down, and the other from Iffley,
Oxon. This example is figured PL xlviii, 7. One was found
in the cemetery at Sleaford, Lincolnshire.1
Under the heading ' plate fibulae ' may be grouped one or
two abnormal pieces, for this name as we have seen is used
with a very extensive denotation. The example of which a
view is given in No. 3 on PL xlviii was found near Milden-
hall in Suffolk and belongs to Mr. S. G. Fenton of London.
It consists in four birds' heads arranged in a • swastika ' pattern.
In the centre there is a square sinking filled with red enamel
of the transparent kind, the ' Blut-Email ' of Otto Tischler,
and the eyes of the creatures were also enamelled. The
material is bronze and the size of each side of the square is
a little under 2 in. Mr. Reginald Smith signalizes this as one
of the earliest pieces of Teutonic work in the country but like
the bird fibulae generally it comes from the Gothic east by way of
Hungary, where prototypes of it occur. The one which most
nearly resembles it was found at Fenek, and Professor Hampel
dates it in the second half of VI,2 so that the Mildenhall piece
need not be placed at a very remote epoch.
The recent discovery of a very richly furnished South
Saxon burial place at Alfriston in Sussex supplies us with a
specimen pair of so-called ' swastika ' brooches, a form occa-
sionally found before in this country especially in the Midlands.
The piece, PL xlviii, 5, measures 1 in. across and has the pin
attachment behind.
Another * swastika ' brooch with the device in open-work is
shown PL xlviii, 6. It is from Market Overton, Rutland, and
is now at Tickencote Hall. The triangular plate brooch, No. 4,
is at Cambridge and was found at Lakenheath Warren, Suffolk.
It would not be difficult to find other abnormal forms of
the fibula to place by the side of those here shown, but in the
interests of space it will be best to proceed to the next heading.
1 Archaeologia, l, 388.
2 Alttrtk'umer in Ungarn, 1, 780, and in, Taf. 177, I.
282 FORMS OF THE FIBULA
Under the c ring ' type the ' quoit ' fibula may be first con-
sidered, as in appearance it bears a considerable resemblance
to the simple form of the disc fibula already noticed (p. 275),
though its manner of use in relation to the fabric it fastens
is quite different, while it is often ornamented in the same
simple fashion with incised or, rather, stamped linear patterns.
Examples are however met with of far greater aesthetic pre-
tensions than the modest specimen in bronze on the Bifrons
Plate xxxvi, No. 8. The finest of these was found at Sarre,
Kent, and is shown on an enlarged scale PL xlix, i. The
original measures 3^ in. in diameter and is of silver parcel
gilt, with cast ornaments added in the form of birds. The
plaque is ornamented in a technique that may be partly punched
and partly incised work, but is more probably only the former.
An examination of the back shows that the plate has been laid
on some unyielding surface and operated upon from the front
with punches and tracing tools driven by the hammer. There
are indications of the design at the back but the process is not
repousse work proper, for the metal is not forced out at the
back where it is indented on the front, as would be the case
were the plate laid on a yielding ground such as the pitch and
plaster composition now in use. A touch of human interest is
added to the piece when we note that an error has been made
in setting out the design and a naive device adopted for con-
cealing it from the eye. The two bands of ornament are
filled with figures of animals in pairs, on which a word will be
said later on (p. 562 f.). On the outer band there are nine pairs
and it was evidently intended to have the same on the inner
band where the animals are so disposed as to take less space.
By some miscalculation however there are only eight pairs and
a half, so that there is one odd animal. To conceal this error
one of the cast silver doves, that which points its head towards
the centre, is riveted over the place and prevents the casual
glance apprehending that anything is wrong. There are few
more interesting or beautiful pieces of early Anglo-Saxon art
THE QUOIT BROOCH 283
in existence. It will be noted that a third dove is perched
upon the hinge end of the pin.
Another interesting but smaller specimen, i-| in. in dia-
meter, also of silver, has quite recently come to light at
Alfriston in Sussex, PI. xlix, 2, and is of especial value owing to
the occurrence in its traced enrichment of a floral pattern that
is in Teutonic work of extreme rarity. We are only concerned
here with the question of form, and from this point of view it
must be noted that there are three makes of the ' quoit ' brooches
two of which answer to the two kinds of f ring ' brooches, those
completely annular and the penannular ones. The Bifrons
quoit brooch, PI. xxxvi, 8, has an unbroken circumference
within and without, and the pin, which is hinged by means of
a small hole near the margin of the inner circle, rests on the
top of the flat ring on the opposite side of this inner circle.
When it was used, the fabric, or the two portions of it which
had to be joined together, was forced up in a little bunch
through the central aperture and the pin was passed through
it or the two adjacent portions of it. The drag of the stuff
then brought the point of the pin down against the plate and
kept it there. On the other hand, in the Sarre brooch, in an
example from Alfriston, Sussex, PL xlix, 3 (not the one
referred to above) and other specimens, the outer circuit of
the band is complete but its inner circumference is broken by
a deep notch which allows the point of the hinged pin to pass
through. When the brooch was in use the pin would be
dropped through this opening and passed through the two pieces
of fabric it was desired to hold together. The point, project-
ing out of the fabric, would now be passed up again through
the notch and to prevent it slipping back it was moved a little
to one side where it would be caught against one of two studs
that stand out from the band and serve as guards to the
opening. In Nos. 1 and 2 on PI. xlix the pin is hinged
round, and allowed to move laterally upon, a separate ring
attached to the plate. In No. 3 it is hinged in a hole in the
284 FORMS OF THE FIBULA
plate and such lateral movement is not possible, except so far
as the looseness of the hinge enables the point to be diverted
to the outer side of one of the small knobs. Most often,
instead of the knobs, there are slightly elevated ridges on the
sides of the opening to prevent the pin slipping back. The
Bifrons quoit brooch, PI. xxxvi, 8, shows these, though here
there is no actual opening, and it is probable that their appear-
ance here is a case of survival and serves to indicate the
presence in a former state of existence of the brooch of a real
slit, such as we see in PI. li, i , a piece from the Bloxam collection
in the School Museum, Rugby. This we know to be an early
piece as it was found in conjunction with the Watling Street
cruciform brooch PI. xli, i (p. 261) and other objects of
a date about 500 a.d. In the third kind of quoit brooch the
band is completely severed and becomes penannular as in
PL xlix, 2. The three pieces on PI. xlix are shown enlarged
by one half, such enlargement being really necessary in order
to exhibit the design and technique, especially on the Sarre
brooch, No. 1. No. 3, it should be noted, is of silvered bronze
not like the others of silver. It measures in diameter i-^ in.
and is ornamented with simple linear punched designs.
Penannular and annular brooches are comprised in the
last set of fibulae with which we have to deal. Only the
second kind is represented in the Bifrons collection,1 see
PI. xxxvi, 2, 3, 4, 9, 11, 13. The archaeology of them
opens up some interesting questions into which it is not
possible to enter at any length in this place, and as the pen-
annular brooch belongs rather to the Viking age than to that
of the pagan tomb furniture there will be a suitable opportunity
for discussing it afterwards in this connection. These
brooches correspond in their manner of use to the two kinds
of quoit brooch, the closed and the open, just passed in review,
1 See however the remark made previously (p. 247 note2) about a
possible penannular example, that is figured and discussed later on under
the rubric 'bracelet' (p. 445 f.).
L
facing p. 285
NON-SAXON RING FIBULAE
PENANNULAR BROOCHES 285
and the construction of PL xlix, i and 2 seems to show that
the ring brooches are prior to those in the quoit form, for we
see in both the Sarre and the Alfriston examples a penannular
ring brooch added to the quoit-shaped plate in order to secure
the easy lateral movement of the pin. In the various species
of fibulae we see constantly at work the desire to secure
additional space for the display of ornament, and it is probable
that the quoit form is merely a ring flattened out with this
end in view. Its pin arrangement connects it with the ring
rather than with the disc type of fibula, though as we have
seen its ornamentation resembles that of some of the discs.
Some ring brooches are partly flattened out and seem to re-
present a transitional stage. This is the case with PL li, 4,1 7.
Both penannular and annular brooches are prior to the
migration period and the Teutons took them over from the
Romans and the Celts. A Romano-British example of the
former kind from Ham Hill, Somerset, in the Museum at
Taunton is shown PL l, i, and beside it, No. 2, is a pen-
annular brooch found at High Down, Sussex, which the ex-
plorer of the cemetery, Sir Hercules Read, pronounced ' very
Celtic in type,' and for which an almost exact parallel can be
produced from Leicester. It is figured in the first Leicester
volume of the Victoria History.
The Celtic brooch PL l, i, has been chosen because in the
turned-back ends of the ring it furnishes the prototype for the
similar treatment of the terminals of the Alfriston quoit brooch,
PL xlix, 2, and this is, of course, evidence favouring an early
date for the latter. The development of these two inherited
forms in the migration period is a little curious. The pen-
annular brooch is so convenient in its arrangements for
fastening, which have just been explained in connection with
the quoit brooch, that it might have been expected to prevail
over the clumsier ring, and we should expect to find the latter
opening out in order to let the pin come through. As a fact
1 Hull Scientific and Naturalists' Club Transactions, vol. iv, pt. v, p. 266.
286 FORMS OF THE FIBULA
the process is a contrary one, for the penannular brooch closes
up and becomes an unbroken ring allowing no passage for the
pin. The change is a puzzling one, and Mr. Romilly Allen
comments on it as follows.1 He is dealing with the Celtic
examples so common across St. George's Channel. * In the
final stage of the development of the penannular brooch in
Ireland,' he writes, ' it ceased to be penannular, if we may be
permitted to use such an Irish expression. The break in the
ring was entirely filled up, although its position can still be
traced by the method of arranging the pattern, which survived
in its old form long after the split had disappeared. The
celebrated Tara brooch in the Museum of the Royal Irish
Academy affords a striking example of this. The doing away
of the break in the ring,' he continues, ' must have entirely
defeated the original purpose the brooch was intended to
serve, and it would, therefore, appear that these highly decor-
ated brooches were made rather for ceremonial use, than to be
of any practical value as dress fasteners.' This last sugges-
tion would carry more weight if it were not for the existence
of the annular brooches which must always have been things
of use and which overlap in point of time the penannular
ones. The closed penannular brooch is therefore not an
aberration but a return to an early and a persistent type that
remains in vogue from Roman times till the middle ages.
The reason for this absorption of the penannular into the
annular form is hard to see. Possibly the great popularity
of the buckle in this period may have had something to do
with it. As we shall see later on, the simplest form of the
buckle is almost the same thing as the annular brooch, and
the resemblance of the latter to the former may have contri-
buted to its popularity.
In many cases these annular fibulae are so simple and
unpretentious that it is really impossible to tell by mere inspec-
tion whether a particular piece is Roman, pagan Saxon, later
1 Celtic Art, p. 229.
ANGLO-SAXON RING FIBULAE
i, 2, 4, 7, about natural size; 8, § natural size; 3, 5, 6, a little reduced ;
10, 11, somewhat enlarged
12 is Continental
ANNULAR BROOCHES 287
Saxon, or mediaeval. PL l, 3 shows a pair found in the
garden at Audley End, Essex, and probably mediaeval.
PL l, 4, was unearthed on Coquet Island off the coast of
Northumberland, and is now in the Museum at Alnwick
Castle. In conjunction with it was found an enamelled plaque
PL l, 5, that so far as its make goes might be late Saxon but
has the vitreous pastes distributed round the outer circle in
spaces that are so like the form of the mediaeval heater-shaped
shield, that the two must probably be referred to XII, when
the island was the seat of a small religious establishment. On
the other hand there is no reason to doubt the Anglo-Saxon
origin of the plain ring brooches shown on the Bifrons
Plate xxxvi (p. 245), nor that of the examples from Stapen-
hill, PL li, 2 ; from Hornsea, at Hull, PL li, 4 ; from West
Stow Heath, Suffolk, in the Museum at Bury St. Edmunds,
PL li, 3, and from Uncleby, Yorkshire, PL li, 6. The Hull
Museum contains a remarkable example found at Londes-
borough that is shown PL li, 5. It is made of the tine of a
stag's horn and is 2^ in. in its widest diameter. It is not
absolutely certain that this was a brooch. A similar piece was
found at Sleaford. The pin here would be detached and
would be run through the bunch of stuff pushed up through
the central opening. It has been suggested that sundry
bronze rings the purpose of which is not very clear may
have been used in the same way with detached pins as
brooches.
The Hornsea and West Stow Heath pieces, and one or
the two from Uncleby, have their rings not plain but orna-
mented, and this introduces some fresh considerations.
Ornament shows itself on the fibulae of the kinds now under
notice in two forms, on the annular kind in a moulding,
ribbing, or faceting of the ring ; on the penannular kind in
the decorative treatment of the terminals at the opening,
sometimes by moulding them into animals' heads. In both
kinds the part where the pin turns and the head of the pin
288 FORMS OF THE FIBULA
itself may receive some enrichment. In the case of the ring
a bossy treatment is generally held to indicate an early date
for this is characteristic of the Early Iron Age, where it is
found on bracelets of the Hallstatt period,1 and also on Late-
Celtic horse trappings which will be noticed on a subsequent
page, PI. c (p. 423). Faceting, such as is seen in the Suffolk
specimen PI. li, 3, is commonly held to betoken a Roman
connection and hence an early date, for Roman objects of a
similar kind in bronze are sharply filed and chased in patterns
that correspond. The fibulae in which animals' heads occur
as terminals of the ring or of sections of it, might also claim
a very early date, for on classical bracelets of Greek and
Roman origin it is quite normal to find animals or animals'
heads so employed as terminals of the open ring. In early
Scandinavian art of about 400 a.d. there are similar though
barbaric animals' heads on the ends of golden necklets and
armlets of which the Museum at Stockholm has a fine collec-
tion. One of the best and earliest, found in Finland, is
shown PI. li, 12.
It would be a mistake however to argue from these facts
in favour of an early date for the pseudo-penannular brooches
with heads of animals on them, PI. li, 8 and 10. No. 8 is a
Bifrons piece already illustrated on PI. xxxvi, and 10 is a
silver brooch found at Faversham, iT^ in. in diameter, now in
the British Museum. The Bifrons example has a knobby ring
and two pairs of confronted heads, one where the pin is hinged
and the other opposite to this point, and the Faversham one
has a banded ring and one pair of heads by the point of the
pin. It will be noticed however that in both cases we are deal-
ing with a brooch that should be penannular but has become
closed up, the ornament however still showing, as Mr. Romilly
Allen pointed out, the place where the division should be.
This suggests rather an advanced date, and such a date is
1 British Museum, Guide to the Antiquities of the Early Iron Jge, p. 38
and fig. 33.
A QUESTION OF DATE 289
rendered a practical certainty by the occurrence at Uncleby in
Yorkshire, PL li, ii, of a small silver pseudo-penannular
brooch, ijf in. across, with one pair of heads like the Bifrons
pair and another pair of heads like those on the Faversham
example. Now the Uncleby finds, like those in other Anglo-
Saxon burials on the Yorkshire Wolds, are on the whole of a
latish date, and at Uncleby Mr. Reginald Smith has pointed
out1 a remarkable resemblance in much of the tomb furniture
to that found in Kent. This applies to garnet inlays, and these
occur on an interesting annular brooch, with reminiscences of
a previous state of penannular existence, from Uncleby in the
York Museum, shown PI. li, 7. Here there are two animals'
heads with open jaws and aggressive garnet eyes at the hinge
side of the brooch which is completely annular and of a
flattened quoit-like section. The extension of this Kentish
inlaid work to the north probably comes about the year 600,
and the type of the heads themselves on Nos. 10, 11 agrees
with this.2 Hence li, 8 and 10, with the kindred Uncleby
piece may be of early VII date.
PI. li, 9, is a rather clumsy piece that is probably barbaric,
from the Bloxam collection in the School Museum at Rugby.
It is genuinely penannular, that is to say there is an opening
between the knobs, though they have been forced into contact
through some accidental pressure that has bent the brooch out
of shape. It comes from the Watling Street find of about
500 a.d. (p. 774), as does also the quoit brooch PI. li, i.
1 Proc. Soc. Ant., 2 Ser., xxiv, 146 f, and Victoria History , Yorkshire, 11.
2 They accord with the heads of Salin's ' Style 11,' see Thierornamentik,
p. 245 f. and especially p. 326. Compare also the head in the Taplow
clasp, PI. lxxvii, 2 (p. 361) that dates early in VII.
Ill
CHAPTER VI
TOMB FURNITURE: (III) ORNAMENTATION ON FIBULAE
AND OTHER OBJECTS
In the foregoing discussion of the fibula account has been
taken of the forms only and not of the enrichment. The
object however is one that offers itself especially for ornamental
treatment and it is hardly too much to say that the whole
subject of Teutonic decorative art can be illustrated from what
appears on the fibulae. It is proposed accordingly to deal in
this connection with the theme of decoration, and in close
association therewith with the theme of the technical processes
by which enrichment is produced, so that the subject now
before us is Anglo-Saxon ornamentation of the pagan period
especially as it is illustrated on the fibulae.
The familiar main headings, under which motives are
grouped as linear, floral, zoomorphic, and anthropomorphic,
will serve the present purpose as a convenient division of the
theme, but to * linear ' should be added ' conventional.'
Linear ornament proper consists in dots, lines, chevrons, circles,
close- coiled spirals, and the like.1 The ornamental motives
called here ' conventional ' differ from these in that they are
obviously, or at any rate certainly, derived from representa-
1 In distinguishing linear or geometrical ornament from what is here
called 'conventional ' there is no intention of ignoring the fact that it is now
recognized that very many patterns used especially among savage races, which
seemed to the eye a mere play of lines, are in reality degenerate representa-
tions of natural objects. For practical purposes the distinction made above
holds good. The word ' linear ' or ' geometrical ' when applied to ornament
conveys on the whole a clear idea of a certain class of motives, and this is all
that for the present purpose is required of it.
290
TECHNICAL PROCESSES 291
tions of natural or artificial objects, though the forms are often
as the Germans say ' stylized ' out of all recognition. Examples
are the familiar * guilloche,' originating in a plait or twist ; the
' astragal,' a string of objects ; the maeander, of textile deriva-
tion ; the continuous scroll, some forms of which certainly
spring from tendrils ; the so-called egg-and-dart, of floral
provenance, etc., etc. These are important and much
employed motives and should have a separate heading, so
that the divisions will be linear, conventional, floral, zoo-
morphic, anthropomorphic.
The chief technical processes involved are the follow-
ing : 1—
1, engraving, incising or * tracing ' lines in clay, bone or
ivory, wood or metal ; when in a metal plate these
lines being sometimes filled in with a black com-
position producing what is known as niello work :
2, stamping on metal certain patterns or devices or
impressing such on clay :
3, beating up or punching down patterns or designs in a
thin plate of metal by the use of moulds or dies or
free-hand by the repousse process, or pressing these
out in moist clay :
4, casting in metal, with the use of the chasing tool or file
as a finish, the process resulting at times in what is
known as c faceting ' :
5, inlaying one metal in another, or plating one metal
over another :
6, producing devices or patterns by soldering portions of
one metal on to another in the form (a) of convo-
luted wires (filigree work), or (b) of small globules
of metal juxtaposed (granulated work), or (c) of
moulded or embossed wires or strips to imitate
these :
1 In the Index references will be found to passages in the text in which
objects illustrating these technical processes are described.
292 ANGLO-SAXON ORNAMENT
7, overlaying or encrusting metal with coloured vitreous
pastes, or fusing these into cloisons or cavities on
or in metal (encrusted, cloisonne and champleve
enamel work) ; and
8, inserting white or coloured stones or similar sub-
stances, or coloured vitreous pastes, in pierced
apertures in metal plates or in cavities or compart-
ments formed in or on the surface of the metal.
It will conduce to clearness if there be introduced here
a brief note on the probable sources of some of the chief
motives of ornament with which we shall have to deal.
The simple linear patterns, dots, chevrons, and the like
are too common for it to be worth while to trace them to
any particular source. Many conventional motives such as
the guilloche or the egg-and-dart wear their origin on their
sleeve and are obviously derived from Roman sources. The
close-coiled spiral, which is not Greco-Roman, may have a
more remote ancestry. This must be distinguished from the
well-known Late- Celtic device of the divergent spiral with
expanding ends, sometimes called the { trumpet pattern,' or
referred to as * flamboyant scrolls,' that has an independent
origin and is a highly conventionalized rendering of the foliage
ornament of advanced classical times. This appears in Anglo-
Saxon surroundings (p. 475 f.) but is of course in origin purely
Celtic. A splendid example of the ornament will be seen on
the Late-Celtic fibula from Aesica, PI. lii, 3. The close-
coiled spiral does not, to the writer's knowledge, occur in its
distinctive form in purely Anglo-Saxon art of the Pagan
period, but PI. lii, 5, shows it worked in silver and brass on
iron on a strap end in the Museum at Worms. It appears in
the Early Bronze Age in Denmark, PI. cxli, 1,2 (p. 515), and
is found about the same period in Ireland, as on the stone
with incised spirals at the mouth of the entrance to the tumulus
at Newgrange by the Boyne, PI. lii, i. There is now a very
LII
facing p. 293
ILLUSTRATIONS OF ORNAMENT AND TECHNIQUE
fj 6, 7, p, are Continental ; I is Iris h
SPIRAL MOTIVES 293
general consensus of opinion that the spiral motive was first
brought into common use in Egypt and in the homes of the
early so-called Aegean culture, and that it spread from there
to the north-west of Europe either by the land route along
the valleys of the Danube, Moldau, and Elbe, or round by
the ocean ways past Spain and Britain.1 It was accordingly
domesticated in our own part of the world before the
Romans or perhaps even the Celts appeared conspicuously
on the scene.
It is worth noting here that a very common motive of the
migration period, concentric circles, may very likely be a
degenerate descendant of a series of spirals. An intermediate
stage in the descent is represented by a set of circles with
tangential lines joining them, a motive that occurs commonly
on the so-called ' geometrical ' or c Dipylon ' vases found in
Greece and especially in Attica and representing the next stage
in the history of vase decoration after the Mycenaean. In
Mycenaean art the true spiral is freely used, but on these
geometrical vases lines of circles joined by straight lines
tangential to them take the place of the spirals. An example
of this design on ivory found in Kent but of Romano-British
provenance is shown PI. lii, 2. The next step is to leave
out the tangential lines, and we obtain then the mere pattern
of circles disposed over the field, sometimes with smaller con-
centric circles and sometimes only with dots within them,
that is so common in the migration period. The single circle
with the dot is represented, PI. lii, 4, in a bone buckle,
probably Anglo-Saxon, in the Collection of the Duke of
Northumberland at Alnwick Castle, and concentric circles in
an interesting little plaque of the same material from Croydon
in the Grange Wood Museum, Thornton Heath, PI. lii, 8.
1 There is an excellent resume of the discussions on this subject in
Mr. George Coffey's New Grange and other Incised Tumuli in Ireland ; the
Influence of Crete and the Aegean in the extreme West of Europe in early times ;
Dublin, 1912.
294 ANGLO-SAXON ORNAMENT
Interlacing work, which it is natural to connect with the
spiral as the two occur together so often on stones and in
MS. illuminations, is most probably of Roman origin and
finds its source in the interlacing patterns derived from the
guilloche that are found on Roman mosaic pavements.1 This
motive however, though employed occasionally at rather a late
date on the tomb furniture,2 becomes of infinitely greater
importance in the Christian period, and any discussion of
the origin and history of the motive will find a more suitable
place in a subsequent volume.
A motive which may make a third with the spiral
and the entrelac is the so-called £ chip-carving ' ornament,
familiar to the modern world on Scandinavian wood-work
and other simply adorned industrial products. In this style
of enrichment geometrical forms are produced and combined
into patterns, the forms being such as are naturally created
by cuts into a flat surface of wood when the knife is sloped
at an angle with the plane operated on. The forms, as the
German terms ' Keilschnitt ' or ' Kerbschnitt ' imply, are
wedge-shaped, or notch-like, for small prisms of wood are
in each operation cut out and generally leave triangular
sinkings that by their shape and combinations are made to
produce a decorative effect. Ornament of this kind occurs
on certain important objects of bronze of the late Roman and
early migration period,3 and it is held by many archaeologists
that it is merely a transference from wood, and that as the
peoples of the North used wood for their buildings as well as
for numerous other purposes of life, so they would develop
1 See Mr. George Coffey's Guide to the Celtic Antiquities . . . in the
National Museum, Dublin, p. 8 f., and Mr. Romilly Allen's Celtic Art,
p. 242 f.
2 e.g. on a series of bronze buckles specially well represented in northern
France and Belgium but occurring also in our own country, see Pll. lxxiii,
lxxiv (p. 357), and also in animal designs (p. 329 f.).
3 For these objects and their historical position see Chapter x (p. 548 f.).
< CHIP CARVING' PATTERNS 295
characteristic forms of wood ornamentation. It is a recognized
fact that the Runic characters were expressly shaped to be cut
in timber, and this proves the familiar use among the ancient
Germans of the knife on wood. We must remember too that
the wooden buildings of Attila's headquarters in Hungary,
in the middle of V, were partly constructed 4k cravihoiv
iyyXv^cov,1 'of beams ornamented with incised sculpture,'
and were probably German work. Hence we may be inclined
to claim these patterns as native Teutonic products, which
were in due course adopted by the classical peoples and
transferred to other material such as the bronze objects just
referred to, some of which are certainly of provincial-Roman
provenance. On the other hand it may be pointed out that
these same * Keilschnitt ' patterns, in the form of triangles,
chevrons, sunk stars, and the like, are found on Roman sculp-
tured altars of a fairly early imperial date, and specimens of
the kind are to be seen in our own country at Chester, New-
castle-on-Tyne, etc., and especially in the church porch at
Lanchester, County Durham, on a very fine late Roman altar
found in the vicinity. This fact has led Riegl and others
to deny to the motives any origin in wood-carving or any
northern provenance, and to claim them as purely classical.
We must remember however that from an early period of
the Empire there was an interpenetration of Germanic and
classical culture which rendered possible an influence from
north to south as well as one in a northerly direction.
Germans fought in the Roman army even under Julius Caesar,
and it is quite conceivable that these motives as used by the
Romans are really of northern origin, for they are certainly
alien to the spirit of classical art as a whole. Dr. Bernhard
Salin is disposed to hold to an origin for them in wood,
while Riegl's judgement was necessarily somewhat warped by
his obsession with the idea of a classical origin for all the
manifestations of art in the migration epoch.
1 Priscus, De Legatione, 63, in M tiller's Fragmenla Hist. Graec, iv, 89.
296 ANGLO-SAXON ORNAMENT
Passing now to the more advanced motives, we may for
the moment consider in conjunction floral and zoomorphic
ornament. Each is derived from the forms of one of the
two great ' kingdoms ' of animate nature, and these two
aspects of nature appeal to men in different stages of civiliza-
tion. Man in the hunter stage is interested almost exclusively
in animals, which he studies minutely with a view to their
apprehension or slaughter. Phenomena that have come to
light from almost the very earliest periods of human history
show that the primitive hunter of the Older Stone Age not
only pursued the beasts of the field but also drew and carved
them in representations of remarkable spirit and accuracy. In
the present connection it does not matter whether he did this
for some purpose associated with magic or religion or from
a purely artistic impulse — the fact remains that zoomorphic
art is the natural domain of the hunter. The Esquimaux,
the Bushmen, are hunters and also artists, though not so good
at animal drawing as the cave dweller of old. In unsophisti-
cated Switzerland it was the chamois hunter who wrought in
the winter evenings those delicate and spirited carvings which
travellers of the last generation used to bring home from the
Oberland. The hunter does not care so much for plants,
but these are the special province of the agriculturalist. It
has been suggested that as animal art begins in the hunter
stage so foliage ornament is the invention of the men who
had passed from the sphere of venery to that of farming.
The fact is however that the regular life of the tiller of the
fields with its constant round of recurring occupations is
not nearly so favourable to the development of the artistic
instincts as the more stirring and varied existence of the
hunter, who enjoys moreover when his larder is full unbroken
intervals of leisure. Hence the early agriculturalist of the
neolithic period of culture does not seem to have invented
either floral ornament or any other artistic device of any
moment, and it is probable that floral ornament, though
ABSENCE OF FOLIAGE MOTIVES 297
there are distinct traces of it in the palaeolithic epoch of
hunter life, is really the product of a condition of society when
people were able to take their ease in their surroundings, and
in indulging the very primitive and ever-present instinct for
personal adornment used for the crown or necklet the leaves
and flowers of the woods and fields.
In their daily life the Teutonic invaders of the Empire had
all passed out of the hunter stage and practised agriculture.
They may have followed the chase to keep down the numbers
of noxious beasts or for the pleasure of the sport which still
attracts their remote descendants, but it is obvious from the
nature of the Anglo-Saxon settlements that farming was all
along the main occupation that conditioned all social arrange-
ments. In the matter of art however they were particularly
addicted to zoomorphic ornament and showed scarcely a
particle of interest in that drawn from the vegetable kingdom.
These facts, by themselves or in co-ordination one set with the
other, are of some significance. The one last mentioned, that
floral ornament claims little or no part in early Teutonic
artistic activity in the pagan period, is almost sufficient in
itself to vindicate the individuality and independence of
Germanic art. Classical decoration both among the Greeks
and Romans made abundant use of floral motives and under
the early Roman Empire there was a fresh development in
this particular, of which the Ara Pacis Augusti and kindred
monuments are evidence. Early Christian art, founded on
classical, also availed itself freely of these motives, and on the
Bewcastle Cross there is exquisite foliage enrichment based on
a graceful re-presentation of the vine scrolls on the ' Samian '
pottery and Roman funeral monuments. If the Germanic
art of the pagan period had been so thoroughly Roman as
some archaeologists would have us believe, it is inconceivable
that no place should be found in it for the characteristic
classical foliage motives. As a fact there is hardly any trace
at all of the classical acanthus leafage on objects of Teutonic
298 ANGLO-SAXON ORNAMENT
tomb furniture any more than there is on the Bewcastle and
Ruthwell Crosses, the only approaches to it being the one or
two pieces figured on PI. ix and discussed in the Chapter on
Coins (p. 107), while the acanthus is the most common of all
Roman ornamental motives, and any art growing directly out
of Roman would infallibly by its use of this motive have
betrayed its origin. We can see the truth of this by a glance
at the monuments of Carolingian art, where in work inspired
by a deliberate return to the antique the acanthus is every-
where in evidence. This absence of floral ornament from the
enrichment of the objects with which we are. concerned is one
very cogent argument in favour of the view of the inde-
pendence of Germanic art which is here maintained.
The other fact, the Teutonic penchant for zoomorphic
ornament, is also in its way significant. As the people were
not hunters by profession but farmers, there is no ground for
ascribing this predilection to the same natural instinct which
turned the* palaeolithic follower of the mammoth and the
reindeer into a clever artist. Nor again can we base this
penchant on the sort of fellow feeling for animals so common
in children, and natural too in people who live an open-air
life among the beasts and birds. A feeling of this kind, if it
led to artistic expression, would result in na'ive attempts at
naturalistic delineation that would gradually improve and
grow more lifelike as time went on, as is the case with the
efforts of children educated under the Drawing Society. Now
this is distinctly what we do not find in the animal work on the
normal tomb furniture of the migration period.
As a fact, the earliest representations of animals in Teutonic
art, at any rate in north-western Europe, exhibit a conventional
not a naturalistic treatment, and the conventions had clearly
not been established among the Teutons themselves but had
been taken over ready made from a more advanced people.
The most conspicuous form is that of a crouching or extended
quadruped seen in profile on the edge of some surface of which
ANIMAL FORMS 299
it forms a sort of cresting, or else on the flat surface itself, and
a comparison of examples shows clearly that this was adopted
from provincial- Roman art. The form however appears to
be that of an elongated lion or a leopard — in later heraldry
the two do not seem to be distinguished — and it can only be
Roman in a mediate sense, for it is obvious that creatures of
the lion type were not indigenous in classical art but importa-
tions from the East. The history of the earliest Greek art
shows this clearly. Now this same motive of the crouching
lionine creature occurs in Caucasian art that must have been
quite independent of Rome, and at the London Congress of
Historical Studies in 1 913 a Russian scholar exhibited some
new discoveries of the kind that cast a fresh light on this
familiar motive. The leopards which, treated in the round,
form the handles of the open-work golden basket from the
treasure of Petrossa are certainly of oriental and not Roman
origin. See PI. cxlii, 5 (p. 523). It is accordingly arguable
that as the classical peoples derived motives of this kind
from the East, so the East may have sent them up to the
North- West by the open route at the back of the Carpathians.
So far as can be seen however, the assimilation of this motive
by the Germanic craftsmen worked itself out rather along the
"line of the Rhine and the Danube than further north, and as
stated above it may be accepted as a direct classical derivation.
Another early animal motive of a conventional kind is the
creature's head seen in profile projecting from some edge or
end after the fashion of the TrpoKpocrcros in early works of
Greek industrial art.1 This creature's head is very often
though not always that of a bird, and it appears early and is
abundantly used in the art of the Goths who inhabited the
northern shores of the Black Sea during the first Christian
centuries. This is the habitat of the griffin, and it is quite a
1 On the famous Samian bronze bowl of VII b.c. we are told irkpi^ 8e
avrov ypvjrwv Ke<f>aXal TvpoKpoaa-oi eian, ' there were heads of griffins pro-
jecting from it all round.' Herodotus, iv, 152.
300 ANGLO-SAXON ORNAMENT
plausible theory that it is the griffin's eagle beak that is the
irpoKpoo-cros of the early Gothic fibulae and buckles. This
point is connected with the whole question of the place of the
culture of southern Russia in the scheme of development of
Teutonic art, and like the point last mentioned this will form
the subject of separate treatment in the chapter concerned
with the history of inlaid gold jewellery (p. 518 f.).
A third early animal motive we have already come to
know in the so-called ' horse's head ' at the foot of the early
cruciform fibulae. This is so markedly at home in the North
that many would regard it as a Scandinavian invention. This
question Dr. Salin discusses.1 He points out that in the
objects from Nydam Moss in the Museums at Kiel and
Flensburg dating from about IV the horse's head often occurs,
though not on the ends of fibulae but on other objects from
which it was afterwards transferred to the feet of the long
brooches. Where it first originated cannot be clearly made
out, but its early, and in early times exclusive, appearance in
the North makes a northern origin very probable.2
We have accordingly as early animal forms in Germanic
art (1) a complete quadruped seen in profile, (2) a head like
that of a horse seen from above, and (3) a bird-like head seen
in profile, and of these the first seems to come from the Roman
side, the second from the Germanic North, the third from
southern Russia. It is not the origin but the after develop-
ment of these motives that makes them really Teutonic. In
the case of the ' horse's head ' we have followed this after-
development in Anglo-Saxon art to some very quaint and
extraordinary forms. The bird-like head is fairly constant,
1 Thierornamentik, p. 186 f.
2 'Da wir bisjetzt keine Spur dieses Thierkopfes auf sudgermanischem
Gebiet haben entdecken konnen und da derselbe erst um die Mitte des
4 Jahrhunderts und alsdann sofort in voller Entwicklung zuerst auftritt,
bleibt wohl keine andere Moglichkeir, als dass er eine Neugestaltung ist,
die im Laufe des 4 Jahrhunderts irgendwo auf nordgermanischen Gebiet
sich entwickelt hat.' ibid., p. 188.
TEUTONIC ANIMAL ORNAMENT 301
but the first motive, the quadruped in profile, lends itself to an
extraordinary series of changes in following which we under-
stand how writers like Drs. Salin * and Sophus Miiller claim
this animal ornament as something of outstanding interest
and as specially Teutonic. The reference is not to the more
or less completely formed and consistent quadruped which
appears on many objects of early Anglo-Saxon art as a deriva-
tion from the profile leopard, but to this creature contorted,
broken up, summarized into a feature here and a limb there,
and then later on complicated into an intricate interlacing
pattern. These creatures, as Sophus Miiller remarks, ceasing
to have any relation to nature, c become ornaments and are
treated as such. They are stretched out and are bent, are
elongated and shortened, refashioned, transmogrified, just as
was demanded by the space they had to fill. . . . There
resulted the grossest disproportion between body and members,
and the most impossible shapes and positions of head and
limbs. The jaws were drawn out like ribbons, or the front
part of the head was dropped altogether ; one or more of the
limbs of the animal was bent upwards or downwards, just as
the space required. Location and room conditioned the form
and details of the beast, for it had no other function than to
fill and to decorate these.'2
This specially Germanic treatment of the animal form does
not show itself very early but comes into vogue at any rate in
our own country somewhere about the year 500 a.d., and
from that epoch until the Carolingian age it passes through
various phases of which there is a full treatment in the classic
work by Dr. Salin whereto reference is so often made in these
chapters. The previous treatment of the whole animal during
V had been if not exactly naturalistic yet in a conventional
style which preserved the dignity and specific character of the
creature as well as a true or at any rate a plausible anatomical
1 Thierornamentik, p. 358.
2 Nordische Altertkumskunde, 11, 209.
302 ANGLO-SAXON ORNAMENT
structure. The provincial-Roman prototypes from which
these representations are descended date from IV.
Anthropomorphic ornament, the strongest point of the
classical designer, can hardly be said to exist, save in one
modified form, among the motives found on the tomb furni-
ture ; and this again, as was the case with floral ornament, is
a proof of the essential independence of the form of art on
which we are engaged. The one form referred to is the full-
faced human head, of which the Teutonic artist was rather
fond. This is specially in evidence on the small saucer fibulae
called commonly ' button brooches,' and the motive will be
discussed in connection with these. So far as the human
figure is concerned we have of course a reasonably adequate
treatment of it on the sceat coins, just as we have a noble
rendering of the theme on some of the carved stones of the
Christian period. There however in both instances the artist
was working from excellent classical models (p. 13), in the
one case with Roman coins before him, in the other possibly
under the inspiration of imported Greco-Christian ivories.
Here in the matter of the tomb furniture models were
apparently not to hand, and the motive is almost entirely
ignored. Known examples through the whole range of strictly
Germanic art might almost be counted on the fingers. In the
Anglo-Saxon phase of that art which is our chief concern one
or two instances will presently be signalized, but they are of
extreme rarity.
Returning now from this dissertation on the origin of the
ornamental motives in Anglo-Saxon tomb furniture, we will
proceed to consider these motives from the artistic and
technical rather than from the historical side.
The first and simplest form of Teutonic ornamentation has
been held to be the impressed chevrons or zigzags such as
appear very commonly on the edges of the straight feet of radi-
ating fibulae like PI. xxxv, 1, 4 (p. 245). This pattern filled in
TECHNIQUE OF LINEAR PATTERNS 303
with ' niello ' composition occurs very often round the borders
of inlaid disc fibulae of the ' Kentish ' kind, PL cxlvi (p. 535).
The technique of niello is Roman. Another simple linear
pattern is the small circle with or without a dot in the centre.
Its origin has been already discussed (p. 293), but it has little
chronological significance because it was in occasional use
from Roman times to the Carolingian age. It is especially
in place incised in bone as the decoration of combs, which
were treated in this way by the Romans who handed on the
practice to their Germanic successors. Quoit fibulae and plain
bronze disc fibulae often show it, and so also do the plainer
sort of cruciform brooches.
The technique of these linear patterns varies with the
material. When this is bronze, the patterns that are in
intaglio — the reverse of relief — are generally cast with the
piece not incised nor chiselled out afterwards, but in good
work the cast is commonly gone over with the chasing tools
to sharpen it up and secure a more even surface. The
technique of the figured bronze buckle plate, PI. lii, 6, of
Burgundian origin, is not a little remarkable. How much
was done in the casting is difficult to say. There is certainly
no modelling of the forms as would inevitably have been the
case had the design been worked out in wax or clay before it
was moulded. The edges of the forms are cut down straight
to the ground and not rounded off* and the texture of the
worked parts is such that one would imagine it all wrought
by a powerful hand armed with a heavy graving tool that cut
the bronze bodily away. There is a sort of l burr ' that
suggests this. It is not silver plated, as Lindenschmit says,1 but
tinned, and M. Tauxe of the Musee Rumine, Lausanne, who
kindly examined the piece with the writer, told him that he
had tried the tinning process and found it work quite easily.
The surface must be absolutely clean and heated. Water is
poured over and when this evaporates melted tin is applied
1 Handbucb, p. 364.
304 ANGLO-SAXON ORNAMENT
and dabbed where necessary with a piece of rag. Wherever
plating keeps bright it is more likely to be tin than silver.
When however the material is silver, a softer metal than
bronze, the line commonly appears to be not incised but
* traced ' after a fashion familiar to the amateur brass worker
of the present day, that is, it is impressed on the metal by the
impact of a blunt chisel, called a ' tracer,' driven along by the
taps of a hammer. The pattern on the silver penannular quoit
fibula from Alfriston, PI. xlix, 2, is not incised but traced.
The difference between the two techniques is easily seen when
we note that the traced line is always, accidents apart, of one
even breadth, whereas the incised line varies in width as well
as in depth according to the amount of pressure applied to the
graver by the hand. The difference is the same as that
between the etched line which is lightly drawn and of even
thickness, and the line beginning and ending thin but broader
in the middle that has been ploughed by main force in the
copper by the dry point. The distinction can be easily
detected by the eye if we compare the lines on the enlarged
portion of the Alfriston brooch PL lii, ii, with those on
PL lii, 9, 7, the one a Roman silver plaque at Mainz that bears
a pattern engraved in incised lines which in their irregularity
and varying widths differ markedly from the broad even lines
of the Sussex example ; the other part of the Roman fibula
foot, PL xxxviii, 2, also incised with irregular lines. In both
cases, and also in the Alfriston piece, the lines are filled in
with a black composition, i.e. nielloed, the material used being
according to the recipes given by Theophilus 1 and Cellini 2
a mixture of silver, lead, and copper with sulphur. Such
lines are not always filled in in this fashion. There is no niello
for instance on the Sarre brooch, PL xlix, i.
The method by which the circles, dots, and connecting
lines were produced in ivory or bone, as on the combs, may
1 Schedula Diversarum Artium, in, xxviii.
2 Trattato delP Oreficeria, cap. 1.
LIII
facing p. 305
ILLUSTRATIONS OF TECHNIQUE
/, J, g, to, are Continental
STAMPING AND EMBOSSING 305
have a word. The plaque PI. lii, 2, was found near Rochester,
Kent, lying between an urn full of burnt bones and some
Roman coins of 1 1 1 a.d., so that its Roman provenance is
beyond question. The concentric circles upon it are cut with
a truth and sharpness which suggests the employment of a
cylindrical saw of the pattern surgeons use for trepanning.
The walls of the cuts do not however go straight down, nor
are the incisions, carefully measured, exactly cylindrical. They
give in any case a good idea of the skill of the provincial-
Roman workmen. There is very good work too on PI. liii, 4,
a portion of an ivory box in the Museum at Dover, found in
the Old Park where undoubted Anglo-Saxon objects have
come to light. Here compasses, of which one leg was
furnished with a cutting edge must have been used. In other
cases, such as the curious bone buckle in the Museum at
Alnwick, PI. lii, 4, the circles are not quite so regular.
The technique of stamping or punching is greatly employed
in the metal work of the migration period, and the late
Professor Hampel of Budapest claimed it as a Germanic
speciality under the title ' Opus Barbaricum.' We have to
deal here with various techniques which have to be dis-
tinguished, though the artistic results produced by them may
often be the same. The blow of a round headed punch driven
down upon soft metal produces a corresponding round hollow
and when the metal is a solid mass or sheet of substantial
thickness this is all, but when the sheet is thin a round boss
answering to the hollow is forced out on the other side ; and
if the sheet be very thin and the metal soft, pressure will pro-
duce the required effect without the force of a blow. The
work is best called ' stamped ' or ' punched ' when the design is
shown in depression or ' intaglio ' ; ' embossed ' or * in repousse '
when the relief side of the sheet is made to show. In the
simplest form of the stamping or punching technique half
circles, dots, triangles, and similar devices are used singly or
combined into designs after the fashion in which the modern
III u
3o6 TECHNICAL PROCESSES
bookbinder employs his stamps, and ' matting ' tools of iron
or wood with triangular or square ends scored across in a sort
of lattice-work pattern are used, on metal, to give a diaper-like
effect to little discs of gold foil placed at the bottom of the
cloisons in which transparent garnets are set in the inlaid gold
jewellery (p. 513), and on clay to make the patterns on the
funereal vases (p. 503).
The most interesting of these simple linear devices is that
formed by a triangle with a dot at its summit, and produced
by the stamping or embossing process with one or with two
punches. It occurs on the base of the Herpaly shield boss, a
notable example of early Germanic metal work at Budapest,
PL liii, 9, 10, and its diffusion is curiously wide, wider than
is admitted by Dr. Salin in the paragraph he has given to the
motive.1 He notes its common use in the North especially on
the Scandinavian gold bracteates, and in western Europe as in
Lorraine, Belgium, France and England, but he denies it to
the Goths and to Hungary. Now it is found not only on the
Herpaly boss but on a most notable Gothic piece discovered
in Hungary, the gold medallion of the Emperor Gratian from
the first treasure of Szilagy Somlyo, PI. G, 111 (p. 527). Here
the barbarian goldsmith has stamped this pattern round the
Roman medallion though in so doing he has partly defaced the
imperial name, where it comes just at the back of the head.
The occurrence of this device in the stone carving of the tomb
of Theodoric at Ravenna we are inclined to regard as a coin-
cidence, as this seems a case of direct derivation by the process
of degradation from the classical ornament known as the
Lesbian Kymation. The Gratian medal dates more than a
century before the tomb. In Anglo-Saxon art the motive,
rather carelessly executed, occurs on a gold bracteate-like
pendant in the Maclean collection in the Fitzwilliam Museum,
Cambridge, PI. liii, 6, and more carefully wrought on a gold
buckle from the King's Field, Faversham, in the British
1 Thierornamentik, p. 158.
ANGLO-SAXON REPOUSSE WORK 307
Museum, PI. B, iv (p. 353), middle. There are of course many
other simple punched patterns, as for example on the early
bronze disc fibula from Bifrons, PI. xxxvi, 6 (p. 245), and on
many buckles, brooches, and girdle hangers on the plates. The
embossed patterns showing in relief may now receive notice.
The relief effect is produced by various means. One set
of processes is to employ ready-made moulds, dies, or stamps,
over which, or into which, or between which, the thin pliable
sheet metal is pressed till it take the shape prescribed, while
a different and more artistic process is to carry out the work
free hand, laying down the sheet of metal on some ground
sufficiently firm and at the same time yielding though not re-
silient, and then beating up the design from the back by
punches of suitable shapes driven by the mallet or hammer.
Under the blows the metal becomes more compact and hard
and has from time to time to be ' annealed ' or softened by
heat. This process is a very familiar one amongst amateurs
and the nature of it with the effects produced are matters of
general knowledge. Designs of the most elaborate and highly
artistic kind can be carried out in it.
It is a noticeable fact that repousse work on sheet metal
in its more advanced forms was only practised by the Anglo-
Saxons to a very limited extent. The figure subjects executed
in repousse on the Long Wittenham stoup (p. 1 1 5), and the
mount of the drinking horn found at Strood, Kent, PI. x, 1
(p. 115), we have seen reason to regard as of Gallo-Roman
origin. By far the finest example of repousse work of the
whole period found in this country is the famous Ormside
bowl, the pride of the Museum at York. This is in its way
one of the most beautiful examples of the technique in exist-
ence, and has been referred with some plausibility to an origin
in Alexandria or some other flourishing centre of late antique
and early Christian art. The non-classical feature of inlaid
stones for the eyes of the birds, and the appearance in the
design of jewels set Teutonic fashion, en cabochon, in circular
308 TECHNICAL PROCESSES
medallions must on the other hand be taken into account.
In any case the bowl, a composite piece, may be passed over in
this place. Later mountings have been added to the original
silver bowl with its embossed ornament and its lining of
gilded copper, while the exquisite animal and floral designs on
the silver have much more affinity with the fine work on
some of the Anglian crosses of the Christian period than with
anything in Anglo-Saxon tomb furniture. Hence considera-
tion of this exceptional artistic treasure may suitably be
deferred.
In the case of not a little of the finer Anglo-Saxon work,
where the classical and the more modern workman would
probably have employed the repousse process the Anglo-Saxon
preferred to cast, and in this craft he showed himself a master,
being able to cast quite thin and to avoid flaws in a very
creditable manner. This we see in the saucer fibulae, in long
brooches, and in the bronze bowls some of which are cast so
thin that it is difficult to tell them from the beaten ones. The
mounts of the drinking horn from Taplow, Pll. lx, i ; cxi, I
(pp. 319, 461), are cast, but on the other hand the portion
of the rim of a vessel in the Dover Museum, from the Old
Park, Dover, is worked in repousse. This is figured in con-
nection with its ornamentation, PL lxviii, i (p. 341), and it
seems to be an example of free-hand embossing. The soft
forms produced by beating always differ from the sharp ones
of metal cast and chased.
On the other hand a good deal that passes muster as
beaten work is really effected by the medium of stamps or
moulds. The Hungarian silver ornaments noticed in the
Introductory Chapter (p. 3$) were beaten over previously
formed positive moulds of hard metal. The Devizes
Museum x contains a pair of terra-cotta moulds positive and
negative between which Romano-British workmen pressed
thin sheets of soft metal to the required shape. What was
1 Catalogue of the Devizes Museum, Part 11, Devizes, 191 1, plate xxn, no. 8.
LIV
facing p. 309
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GRANULATED WORK 309
the exact process used by the Anglo-Saxons we cannot tell,
but the making of moulds must have come easy to them as
they turned out coin dies in great profusion. The thin,
circular pendants of gold called c bracteates,' which occur in
Kent and are distributed very sparingly over a good part of
the Anglo-Saxon area, were struck from moulds, for two
pieces are sometimes found that have been stamped from the
same die. The same is the case with the ornamented plates
of gilded bronze used for the face of the * applied ' brooches.
An examination of these shows that they were not beaten up
free hand but produced by a more mechanical process. Take
for example the set from Kempston, PI. xlvii, i (p. 275).
The second row from the bottom, the two detached plates at
the extremities of the next row above, and the left hand end
piece in the lowest row, all show the motive of the cross with
a full-faced human head on each arm of it. Five of them are
struck from the same mould, and the other two, those on the
left of rows one and two from the bottom, though agreeing
with the others in the general design, are together struck from
a different mould. On the whole it seems clear that the
Anglo-Saxon craftsman had no great penchant for the re-
pousse process.
Round pearls of gold soldered down one beside the other
in a line or disposed ornamentally over a surface, in what is
known as granulated work, are much employed in his finer
operations by the barbarian as by the classical and oriental
goldsmith, and the same may be said of gold wire bent into
patterns or plaited in three strands and soldered down in the
fashion of filigree work, on to a ground. The border of the
Gratian medallion PI. G, in, shows examples of both. It was
very common however even in productions of a fine quality to
simulate pure granulated work either by the repousse process,
a narrow strip of gold being beaten from the back into a row
of projecting bosses touching each other so as to imitate a row
of round globules, or else by moulding a solid wire into a
3io TECHNICAL PROCESSES
continuous beading, as is the case in the small pendant from
the Maclean collection in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge,
PL Liu, 7. It is useless to quote this as if it were specially
' barbarian ' and to employ it to disparage the craftsmanship of
the northern peoples in comparison with the finer work of the
Greeks and Etruscans, for the cheaper processes occur side by
side with the more recherche one in some of the finest wrought
gold jewellery from southern Russia in the Hermitage. The
beautiful Greek ear pendant PI. liii, i, has a necklet of
separate grains each soldered down, but the band at the bottom
of the tiara is moulded wire and that which finishes the piece
below is in the repousse technique. These and other methods
of manipulating gold to decorative purposes were used by the
Etruscans and Romans as well as by the Greeks, and it is
probable that imported examples from Etruria, which were well
enough known on the trade routes through central Europe in
the pre-Christian centuries, taught the Celtic and Germanic
peoples the technique even before the Roman period. When
Roman wares were freely introduced into the far north, as was
the case in the first Christian centuries, examples would be
multiplied, and PI. liii, 3, shows a piece of Roman gold work
found in Sweden in the form of an eagle, where the soldering
down of grains is carried out in a somewhat coarse fashion.
In V the Scandinavian peoples developed on these models
an extraordinary skill in fine gold work, illustrated especially
by the splendid neck ornaments of gold in the Museum at
Stockholm, of V, shown on PH. liv, lv, in which every con-
ceivable process of fine goldsmithing is employed to carry out
ornamental motives of the quaintest and most varied kind.1
Even earlier than this, in IV, the gilded silver fibulae from
Sackrau, PI. xxxviii (p. 251), exhibit a technique quite equal
to the classical standard. On PI. xxxviii, 4, the separate grains
are soldered down with the utmost precision and neatness, and
the finish of the pieces is admirable. We shall not be surprised
1 Montelius, Kulturgeschichte Scbwedens, p. 222.
LVI
facing p. 3 1 1
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FILIGREE WORK 311
accordingly to find the Anglo-Saxon goldsmith achieving
excellent results in these processes of fine metal work and
some further demonstration of his skill will be given later on
in connection with his work in inlays to which special attention
will have to be devoted (p. 512 f.). Here it may be noted that
the soldering down of the separate grains does not often
occur, but we see it represented in one of the best pieces of
Anglo-Saxon gold work known, an ornamented dagger
pommel of VII work found near Windsor, one of the gems
of the collection of the late Sir John Evans that Sir Arthur
Evans has presented to the Ashmolean. It is shown on a
greatly enlarged scale on PI. lvi. The design consists in
two intertwined serpents, the heads of which it is interesting
to compare with similar heads which we find on the sceattas,
e.g., PI. viii, 5, (p. 99). Their tails disappear down each
other's throats. A thin twisted cable of gold is twined in
and out between them and carries bunches of berries, the
grains representing these being each soldered down separately
into its place.
In general the pearl borders which occur so often in Anglo-
Saxon gold work are made with moulded wires, not by means
of the separate grains. A central strip with larger grains and
two side strips with smaller grains that border it is found
on the best specimens of the Kentish disc fibulae and else-
where, forming conventional animals or scrolls. PI. liii, 2,
shows an enlarged piece where the central strip has partly
come away, showing the technique. Plaits formed of gold
wires twined together and soldered down on a ground often
appear, and the effect of them in cheaper work is imitated by
casting or the repousse process. The genuine technique is
well shown on a pretty pendant in gold found at Twickenham
and recently presented by Sir Hercules Read to the British
Museum collection, PL liii, 8, and the imitated technique on
a late gold ring from Bossington, Stockbridge, Hants, in the
Ashmolean, PI. liii, 5.
312 STYLES OF ORNAMENT
What we are concerned with in this place is not only the
techniques, but also the styles of ornament for which they were
used and the chronology of these. Enough has been said of
this fine gold work to show that we might expect to find it
employed early, but as a matter of fact, like the garnet inlays,
it produces its chief monuments in the latter part of VI and in
VII, and a somewhat empty and straggling kind of filigree
work both here and in France is a sign of a quite late date,
in the latter part of VII, if not in VIII. For example the sword
handle from Cumberland PI. xxv, 9 (p. 209), is ornamented
with loose curls of filigree that are of late character, and such
filigree is a constant feature of the later Merovingian incrusted
gold work where the stones or pastes are mounted ' en cabochon'
and widely spaced over a field covered with convolutions of
filigree work. For illustrations of this later filigree work at home
and abroad see PH. xxv, 9 ; cxlvii, i, 2 (p. 537).
Next to the cast, traced, stamped or embossed linear
devices and the granulated and filigree work may be taken
the conventional patterns of classical origin. The use of
these is a distinctly early symptom and they are of greater
chronological value than the motives hitherto discussed. A
class of objects on which these motives are specially in evidence
is that of the saucer and applied fibulae the origin and mor-
phology of which have already been discussed (p. 275 f.).
This particular product we have seen to be essentially English
(p. 277). Its distribution in England is a matter of much
interest. It used to be considered specially West Saxon, but
Mr. Leeds in the paper already referred to (ibid.) found no
difficulty in widening greatly the limits of its provenance, and
in showing that it was as much at home in Anglian surround-
ings in Cambridgeshire as in its supposed native haunts in the
upper valley of the Thames. It can even be found wider
afield than was admitted in his paper of 1912. He notes
examples from the West Saxon counties of Berks, Bucks,
Oxon, Hants, Wilts, Gloster, Worcester ; from Surrey, Kent,
LVII
facing p. 3 1 3
APPLIED AND SAUCER BROOCHES
i, 2, 6, natural size ; 5, 7, somewhat reduced ; 3, 4, much reduced
DISTRIBUTION OF SAUCER BROOCHES 313
and Sussex ; from Bedfordshire, Warwickshire, Cambridgeshire,
Leicestershire, Hunts, Northants, Rutland, Lincolnshire ; from
Yorkshire and from Suffolk. To these counties may be added
Essex, for two good examples of the applied kind were found
in Barrow Field, Kelvedon, near Colchester, and are now, with
others that have lost their plates, in the Museum of that City.
Though not an exclusive West Saxon speciality the saucer and
applied brooch is yet in the main confined to the southern
Midland districts, with the addition of Sussex the inhabitants
of which seem to have had a liking for it. The Yorkshire
example, apparently the base of an applied brooch that has
lost its plate,1 is not very certain. Only one occurred in
Lincolnshire, and that at the south-western extremity of the
county nearest the Midlands, while there are none noted from
Notts, Stafford, and Derby. East Anglia only furnishes one,
from Icklingham in Suffolk close to the border of Cambridge-
shire. The facts in Kent are remarkable. One or two very
poor specimens of the saucer form and a couple of bases of
applied brooches were found at Bifrons, PI. xxxvi, but the
richly endowed cemeteries of eastern Kent, Ozengell, Sarre,
Gilton, Kingston, Sibertswold, save in one case, were entirely
destitute of this piece of furniture, and except three from
Faversham almost all the few specimens from the county
came to light in the northern and western parts, where the
cemeteries as we shall see reason to believe are Thames valley
cemeteries which probably have a different origin and history
from the regular Jutish settlements. Hence though we
cannot now say, as it used to be said, that the presence or
absence of the saucer brooch marks the difference between
Saxon and Anglian regions there is some ethnical significance
in the dearth of examples in Jutish Kent. It should be added
that all this does not apply to the particular form called the
1 button ' brooch, which is pretty widely distributed among the
southern counties including Kent.
1 Akerman, Pagan Saxondom, p. 17 and pi. vm, 2, 3.
3H MOTIVES OF ORNAMENT
The comparatively wide, though at the same time limited,
distribution of the saucer brooch, as well as its character which
invited to it enrichment, makes it a very suitable form in
which to study the different kinds of Anglo-Saxon ornament
that is the subject now before us. Great assistance in this
matter has been received from the paper by Mr. Thurlow
Leeds already referred to.
Conventional ornament, as already observed, is well re-
presented here. In almost every case it is a modification of
classical forms as these were presented to the eyes of the
Teutonic invader in Roman mosaic pavements, the enrichment
of Roman altars, and the details of Roman buildings.
The guilloche, a very familiar pattern in the mosaics, occurs
as the border of an important applied brooch in the British
Museum from Fairford, Gloucestershire, PI. lvii, i, the inner
ornament of which is certainly quite early. It also occurs
wrought in cast and chased bronze on a buckle of early date
found at Broadstairs and now preserved there, and on some of the
gilded bronze appliques from Buttsole near Eastry, PI. xxiv, 2
(p. 203). Lest however we should assume that the guilloche
may be always trusted as a mark of early date we may see it
PI. lvii, 2, on a pair of brooches found in 191 2 at Frilford,
Berks, where it is combined with the disjointed members of
animals that betoken a period late in VI.
Mr. Leeds refers in his paper to a ' starlike or catherine-
wheel motive with recurved points or arms ' as an example of
which he quotes the Upton Snodsbury brooch at Worcester
shown here PI. lvii, 3. This is probably a degeneration of
the guilloche, and this origin is betrayed by the brooches
shown PI. lvii, 4, a pair from Mildenhall, Wilts, in the
Museum at Devizes. The ornament round the circle here
is obviously a disintegrated guilloche and it might easily lead
on to a treatment such as that in the neighbouring piece.
The star is a conventional motive common in Roman work
as on the carved altars, that occurs often on the saucer brooches,
SAUCER AND BUTTON BROOCHES
i, natural size j 3, 4, 6, 7, approximately natural size ; 5, slightly reduced
ORNAMENT ON SAUCER BROOCHES 315
and when it is treated in sharp decided fashion it is evidence
of early date, but this evidence is of course rendered nugatory
when on the same piece occur motives that are notoriously of
a later epoch. Thus of the two examples on PI. lvii, 6, 7,
the first from Mitcham, Surrey, may be quite early, even
about 500 a.d. a date which agrees with the general char-
acter of the finds on the site, whereas No. 7, from Fairford,
Gloucestershire, though more crisply wrought, proclaims itself
as at least of the latter part of VI owing to the disjointed
animal forms in the outer circle.
A conventional motive of common occurrence on the
brooches . consists in a series of horizontal lines crossed at
intervals by a set of vertical ones and the idea of this has
probably been taken from the sacrificial fillet of the Romans
which may be seen carved on Roman altars. PI. lvii, 5,
shows it associated with early motives on a pair of saucer
brooches, 2 in. in diameter, from Horton Kirby in North
Kent now in the K. A. S. collection at Maidstone. Still better
is it seen, especially in the centre, on a large example 3^ in. in
diameter from Ashendon, Bucks, at Audley End, where the
introduction of the Kentish fashion of garnet inlays betokens
a date somewhere near 600 a.d., PL lviii, i.
The alternation of circular or oval forms with groups of
vertical lines is probably a reminiscence of the classical egg-
and-dart. We shall find it on an early example at Reading,
PI. lviii, 5, and it may be recognized also on two of the
Kempston applied fibulae in the lowest line of No. 1 on
PI. xlvii (p. 275). Moreover it may be surmised that the
ornament consisting only in a repetition of the verticals has
ultimately the same origin. This occurs on an interesting pair
of brooches at Audley End, PI. lviii, 2, from Linton Heath,
Cambridgeshire, (?), presenting another delightful illustration of
the Anglo-Saxon craftsman's method of work. The two form
a pair and are evidently meant to correspond, but the designer
cannot repeat himself, and in the circle next within that filled
3i6 MOTIVES OF ORNAMENT
by the vertical lines there are rather unusual scroll patterns, in
one of which the free ends of the curls point inwards while in
the other they are directed towards the exterior. This pattern
introduces us to an important motive specially in evidence on
the saucer brooches, the spiral scroll, of which a good example,
ringed with the vertical lines, from the recent finds at Alfriston,
Sussex, is shown PI. lix, i. The piece is at Lewes. A similar
brooch from Mitcham, Surrey, is on PL lix, No. 6, and
examples are to be found wherever the brooches occur. What
is the explanation of this motive ?
We shall probably be right in referring it back to the
classical acanthus scroll and in treating it as in its origin a plant
motive, though as we see it on the brooches it has been so
conventionalized as to lose all floral character. So long as the
motive is reminiscent of its source, as it is when used by the
classical artist, we always find little twigs or tendrils given off
at intervals from the main scrolls. A good example is seen
on PI. xxxiii (p. 243) in the ornament above the figure of
Roma on No. 3. In the scroll as employed by the Teutonic
craftsman these occur very seldom but the fact of their occa-
sional appearance is sufficient to indicate the floral origin of
the ornament. In Anglo-Saxon art such exceptional treatment
of the motive occurs on the highly important equal armed
fibulae already noticed (p. 271). The Kempston example
PI. xxxvii, 7 (p. 247) does not show it, but a large and hand-
some piece now at Audley End, a product of the Little
Wilbraham explorations in Cambridgeshire,1 exhibits it to full
advantage. As used on the bow, see PI. cliv, 4 (p. 561), the
ornament shows no plant character but on the head and foot,
if the parts are so to be termed, the tendrils are freely dis-
played in true classical fashion.
Till the other day it would have been hard to find parallels
to this distinctively floral ornament on any objects of Anglo-
1 Described in Neville's Saxon Obsequies. The piece in question will be
found figured PI. cliv, 4 (p. 561).
LIX
facing p. 317
SAUCER BROOCHES, ETC., WITH SCROLL PATTERNS
1, 7, enlarged about one-half
THE SPIRAL SCROLL 317
Saxon tomb furniture, though a curious quoit fibula of square
form from High Down, Sussex, gives indication of it, but the
finds of 1 91 2 at Alfriston in Sussex included a piece of rare
interest and beauty on which delicate tendrils curl about in
graceful fashion. It has been figured PI. xlix, 2 (p. 281) and
noticed from the points of view of form and technique. It
has a pierced and vandycked edge and an ' S ' shaped pattern
stamped on the band next the outer border, but the chief
ornament is the foliage scroll with the characteristic offshoots.
For floral ornament proper with indication of the shape of
leaves we have to go to one or two quite exceptional pieces
already figured and discussed in connection with similar
motives on the coins, Pll. v, 12 ; ix, 4, 6 (p. 103). The writer
really knows of very little else of the kind found in any of the
presumably pagan cemeteries, and the significance of the absence
of these motives from the tomb furniture has been already
noticed (p. 297).
To return to the spiral scroll, used without indication of
its floral character, as is the case on the saucer fibulae, it forms
the characteristic adornment of a class of objects of great
historical importance represented in this country though far
more abundantly abroad. These objects are bronze buckles that
appear to have been commonly worn as part of a military equip-
ment and are found in the graves of soldiers who, whether Roman
or barbarian in origin, served in the imperial armies of IV.
The archaeological interest of these objects is very great and they
will be dealt with at length in another connection (p. 548 f.).
Here we are only concerned with their enrichment, in which
spiral scrolls are used to cover a surface. The relation between
the single scroll and the scroll employed to cover a surface
extending in breadth as well as in length is the same as that
between the guilloche proper, as a long narrow plaited band,
and the panel of interlacing work where the plaits are multi-
plied so as to cover an extended area. In classical art proper,
e.g., in Roman mosaics, these panels of interlacing work occur
3i8 MOTIVES OF ORNAMENT
at home as well as abroad, but the use of the spiral scroll for
a similar purpose is not classical and belongs to that style
compounded of Roman and barbarian elements that is called
' provincial-Roman.' A notable bronze buckle found in Smith-
field, London, PI. cli, i (p. 557) exhibits the motive, but for
the moment we must content ourselves with the illustration of
it on an object already noticed, the scabbard mount of the
sword found at Brighthampton, Oxfordshire, PI. xxvn, 7
(p. 221). PI. lix, 7, shows the ornament on a larger scale.
The work here, as on the saucer fibulae with the same
pattern, is cast work with a certain finish and sharpness added
by the chasing tool. The fibulae are strongly gilded and
some of those found quite recently at Alfriston, Sussex, are
brilliantly fresh and show not a trace of surface corrosion.
PI. lix, 1, is an example. Sir Arthur Evans notes that the
gilding on Teutonic fibulae is of sterling quality, whereas ' the
gilding of the Roman fibulae is generally of the most cheap
and perishable nature.'1 The process is thus described by a
first-rate technical authority Professor W. Gowland. It was
' water gilding, a process of great antiquity as shown by dis-
coveries in the Japanese dolmens. The object was first care-
fully polished and rubbed with mercury ; thin gold was then
laid on and pressed down, the mercury being subsequently volati-
lized, and the gold fixed by heating to redness.' 2 It may be
noticed here that besides gold and silver tin was largely used
for the coating of other metals. Gilding is found commonly
applied to both bronze and silver and occasionally to iron.3
Abroad, silver, it is curious to note, is comparatively rarely
found plated over bronze,* but, in Germanic work generally,
1 Archaeologia, lv, 190. 2 Troc. Soc. Ant., 2 Ser, xxi, 37.
3 There is an iron spear head found at Durham and preserved in the cathe-
dral library that has traces of gilding on it, but it is of the Danish period.
4 fLes Francs incrustaient quelquefois, mais le plus souvent ils pla-
quaient l'argent, non sur le cuivre ou le bronze, mais sur le fer, et il n'est
pas a ma connaissance qu'on ait jamais trouvd une boucle de bronze incrustee
on damasquinee d'argent dans un cimetiere Franc,' Pilloy, Etudes, \, 277.
LX
facing p. 319
HUMAN FORM AND FACE IN ORNAMENT
J, 4, J, 8, g, are Continental
ANTHROPOMORPHIC ORNAMENT 319
very frequently over iron. In Anglo-Saxon England we have
seen that the large iron buckles on which the Franks and
Burgundians displayed their skill in plating are conspicuous
by their absence, so that there is not so much silver plating
on iron here as on the Continent. On bronze, both at home
and abroad, what appears to be silver is as often as not in
effect tin, but silver plating on bronze undoubtedly occurs
among Anglo-Saxon technical processes, and instances will be
noticed later on.
The technique by which were produced the figures of
animals round the chape of the Brighthampton sword,
PL xxvii, 8 (p. 221), is not easy to determine. The animals
are apparently in gold, the ground is silver, but the one
metal is not inlaid in the other. The process seems to have
been one of plating, and there is some indication that the
outlines were reinforced by an incised line. The style of
work is in this country of the rarest possible kind, but it
occurs abroad and is always an early indication.
While under the heading floral ornament there is as we
have seen little enough to be said, the contrary is the case with
the ornament known as zoomorphic. Animal forms play a
great part in the styles of enrichment with which the student
of Anglo-Saxon antiquities has to deal, and upon this subject
there has been much discussion and controversy. The human
form and face naturally take precedence.
It was pointed out (p. 302) that the human figure hardly
makes its appearance at all on the objects found in Anglo-
Saxon graves, but that the human head is much in evidence.
One or two curious examples of the use of the whole figure,
treated of course in the most summary fashion, may here be
introduced.
The mounting round the rim of the Taplow horn has
just been mentioned as an example of cast work where em-
bossed sheet metal might have been expected. PI. cxi, 1
(p. 461) gives a view of it and PI. lx, 1, a portion on a larger
320 MOTIVES OF ORNAMENT
scale. The human heads in relief dividing the continuous
band of ornament are of course obvious. An examination of
the work on the continuous band to the right of the head in
the detailed photograph will show that we have here to deal
with an attempt at the representation of the human bust, and
the same motive has been employed to fill the triangular
spaces on the projecting points below this band. The clou
of the design is the human hand represented four times in
these two spaces with unmistakable four fingers and a thumb.
The arm is also quite clearly shown. With this as a guide
we can recognize, by its very conspicuous eye, close up against
the projecting full-faced head, a face in profile, perhaps
bearded, surmounted by a helmet which has at the back of it
a sort of crest or plume. A similar representation comes at
the broad end of the triangular piece, and the pointed end
of this is filled with a second bent arm and hand. A hand
comes also beside the central rosette on the continuous band,
but the rest of the forms here do not lend themselves readily
to explanation, and some of them are apparently the same
forms that are used elsewhere in animal ornament. Such
forms would be specially familiar to the designer, and might
easily be used to eke out his slender stock of anthropomorphic
motives. An example of a somewhat similar kind on a saucer
brooch from Barrington, Cambs, was noticed by Mr. Leeds
in Archaeologia, lxiii, p. 176 and pi. xxvn, 2. It was dated
by him in the first half of VI, but in view of the established
date for the Taplow burial of about 600 a.d., and of the late
character of the zoomorphic ornament in the centre of the
Barrington brooch it should be placed half a century later.
A portion is shown PI. lx, 6.
A more ambitious attempt embracing the whole of the
form may with a little imagination be discerned on the foot
of one of the handsome ornate square-headed fibulae found in
1 91 2 at Alfriston, Sussex, PI. lx, 2. The whole fibula will
be found represented, PI. lxvii, 2 (p. 339). Here there is
THE HUMAN FULL-FACED HEAD 321
no doubt that the two eyes in the upper part, just above the
wire, mean a human face in front view, for such a face clearly
made out is a common feature in such a position ; what
underlies the representation between this head and the end of
the foot of the fibula may be held by many quite uncertain,
but to the present writer there is great significance in the
vertical division into two corresponding halves which occurs
in the lower portion of the space occupied and suggests the
two legs, while in the upper portion there are two armlike
pendant shapes at the end of one of which there appears a
rudimentary hand. Save at the left-hand side at the bottom
where there is something like the hind leg of a quadruped,
there is nothing in the various forms within the space under
consideration that reminds one of the parts of animals so
familiar on other objects of the period.
We pass on now to the subject of the human head. Pre-
sented in front view it is a very characteristic motive, especially
on the so-called button brooches, on the saucer brooches, and
on the square headed brooches of the more ornate kind.
The button brooch claims precedence because the human
face is here the constant and indeed practically the sole motive
employed. The distribution of these little objects, it is curious
to note, does not follow that of the ordinary saucer brooches
of which they form a sub-class. If the saucer brooches in
general belong to the southern Midlands, with the addition of
Sussex, the button brooches are a south country type appearing
in the Jutish regions of Kent and Hampshire, in Sussex, and
sporadically in Wilts, Beds, Berks, Oxon, Surrey. A few from
different regions are illustrated on Plates lviii, lix, lx. A
comparison of these examples will show that there is consider-
able variety in the degrees of excellence with which the full-faced
head is represented, and this may be taken as a proof that the
objects are of local manufacture, not exported from any single
centre either in this country or abroad (p. 33). If the latter
had been the case there would have been far more uniformity
III x
322 MOTIVES OF ORNAMENT
in design and execution. The best is undoubtedly the Alfris-
ton, Sussex, example, PL lix, 5, which may be compared with
the head on the round button on the bow of the Bifrons square
headed fibula, PI. lxii. The examples on the lower part of
PI. lviii are comparatively rude, and No. 3 would by itself be
unintelligible.
The origin and history of the motive are interesting to
trace. There is no question of course that the full face is
ultimately derived from classical art, and there is a good deal
to be said for the suggestion of Dr. Salin that the well-known
type of the Medusa head is the true source. The Alfriston
and Bifrons heads, PH. lix, 5, and lxii, with the puffed cheeks
are very Medusa-like. There are one or two examples, not in
this country, in which the tongue is made to protrude, and
this is a most significant indication. On PI. lx, No. 8 shows
a small ornamented buckle from Blekinge in Sweden in the
Museum at Stockholm, on which is a boldly modelled face
with outstretched tongue,1 that we can hardly avoid connecting
with the familiar classical apotropaion. To find this in the
North need cause no surprise for, as is well known, during the
early centuries of the Empire the importation of Roman works
of industrial art into Scandinavia was very abundant and the
models thus brought before the native craftsmen of the North
were not neglected. PI. lx, 3, shows a classical full face on
a Roman cauldron found in Denmark and No. 4 a native
reproduction of the type. The full face is in evidence in the
ornamentation of the splendid Scandinavian gold necklets of V
shown on Plates liv and lv and two of the heads from the
three-strand necklet on these plates are shown enlarged about
4 diameters, PI. lx, 5. Other full-faced heads occur on the
triangular plate serving as mounting to the bracteate furthest
to the left on PI. lv. When we remember that the saucer
brooch is probably of northern derivation we may have
good reason to surmise that the full face on the English button
1 Salin gives an engraving of it in his fig. 498.
LXI
facing p. 323
ROMAN AND BARBARIC ORNAMENT
1, 2, are a little reduced
/, 2, are Continental
HEADS ON BUTTON BROOCHES 323
brooches of saucer type came to us from the north. It is a
confirmation of this to find in many examples, such as PI. lx, 7,
two button brooches from Bifrons, the moustache emphasized,
for in connection with the full face on the sceat coins the
northern character of the moustache has been noticed (p. 81).
It stands to reason of course that this motive, as a classical
one, was known and used in the South, and full-faced heads
of this type occur, though not very frequently, in southern
German art. A very quaint example in the Museum at
Regensburg is shown, PI. lx, 9, where the introduction of the
upraised hands on each side of the face is a notable feature.
It was found in a Teutonic grave at Alten Elsing with a sword,
etc., and is not cast but embossed after the fashion of a
bracteate. On the whole it seems most likely that the heads
on the button brooches are of Scandinavian provenance, and
not direct adaptations of classical models. This does not mean
of course that the objects themselves are imported. If
they were of northern make they would have come in by the
Humber and the Wash rather than by the Kentish ports, or
again if they had been conveyed to the ports of the English
Channel by the ubiquitous ' mercatores,' who already in Caesar's
time were busy in these seas and lands, they would be found
on the other side of the Sleeve as well as on ours, but as a fact
the French and Belgian collections are almost bare of them,
though M. Boulanger has a stray example among his treasures
at Peronne, and a couple from Herpes in western France are
in the British Museum. Like the larger saucer and applied
brooches they were evidently made in this country, and their
limited distribution may be a matter in the main of fashion.
Their occurrence in both Kent and Sussex, the tomb furniture
of which shows differences rather than similarities, may be due
to the influence of fashion affecting two contiguous though
not connected areas, which might be visited successively by
( mercatores ' bringing round trinkets for sale.
The full-face motive is sometimes used repeated so as to
324 MOTIVES OF ORNAMENT
form a continuous border. A sceat coin type has been figured,
PI. vi, 13 (p. 85), which shows a head of the kind in the
centre with a continuous ring of roundels as a border. On
a larger scale this arrangement occurs in the tomb furniture
and here the roundels are themselves distinctly full-faced heads.
The most striking instance is the Roman gold medallion at
Vienna, already noticed (p. 306, see p. 529), that has been set
by a barbaric goldsmith in a border ornamented with a ring of
these heads, PI. G, 1 1 1 (p. 527), and it is highly interesting to
find in our own country a parallel to this Gothic piece of IV
a.d., in the shape of a curious metal disc in the Museum at
Rochester, Kent, where a border seems to be formed of similar
flatly treated heads arranged in like manner. It is figured
PI. lxi, 3. It should be added that this use of the full-faced
head, or mask, in the migration period is discussed by Pro-
fessor Bela Posta of Kolozsvar, Hungary, in his Archeologische
Studien auf Russischem Boden,1 1, 55 f.
Some remarkable examples of the full-faced human head
in the North will furnish an introduction to the subject of
animal ornament. The reference is to the well-known circular
plaques, probably ornaments for the breast, found in the
Thorsberg Moss in Schleswig and now in the Museum at
Kiel, PL lxi, 1, 2. The material is bronze, with plating of
silver parcel-gilt, on which figures and animals are represented
in the repousse technique. The style is provincial-Roman of
IV, but there are barbaric additions which make for us the
interest of the work, as they are early examples of Teutonic
animal ornament. As the plaque is represented on the Plate,
the reader will notice near the inner circumference of the
outer band of ornament at the top and below and to the left
barbaric animals on small separate silver plates that without
any intelligible reason have been riveted on over parts of the
classical figure design. To the right rivet holes show where
similar plates had once been fixed. PI. lxi, 2, shows a portion
1 Budapest, 1905.
TEUTONIC ANIMAL ORNAMENT 325
of the fellow plaque where the original silver embossed band
has been stripped entirely from the bronze ground and plates
with barbaric animal figures have been substituted in their
place. The contrast is very marked between the classically
treated Hermes-like heads which are beautifully wrought, and
the goats on the outer band which betray the hand of the
northern craftsman.
These barbaric animals on both the Plates, it will be seen,
are quite intelligible and reasonably proportioned and articu-
lated, though in the profile views the four legs are represented
as two. In Anglo-Saxon and in Germanic art generally
animals of the kind occur though rarely, and may be found
appearing sporadically at almost any period. The relations
among the animal motives on the sceat coins, on the Early
Christian carved stones, etc., and on objects of tomb furniture,
have been briefly noticed in the Introductory (p. 13) and the
second chapter (p. 103). Here we are concerned only with
tomb furniture, in which the natural or at any rate logically
treated animal form makes its appearance at an early date still
in V, but rapidly ' degenerates.' It is with the different stages of
this ' degeneration' that we are concerned, and for the moment
the creatures that are the starting point for the successive
changes must be taken for granted. They are* of late Roman
origin, and in their Roman connections they will be dealt with
on a later page (p. 548 f.). Here it is enough to note their
existence in the two forms already noticed (p. 298 f.), those of
the couchant leopard-like beast along the edges of an object,
and the creature represented as a whole in profile for the
filling of a space. We proceed therefore now to trace the
later history of these creatures as they are found on the square
headed and the saucer and applied fibulae with which we are
at present specially concerned. The leopard-like couchant
beast occurs very commonly on the feet of square headed
fibulae, and the Bifrons piece already shown PI. xxxiv, 7,
may be referred to in detail as represented on an enlarged
326 MOTIVES OF ORNAMENT
scale on PI. lxii. The piece is a very instructive one in con-
nection with the after history of animal ornamentation the
characteristic style of which appears here in an intermediate
stage of development. It may be noted that the fibula has
been cast in three pieces, the head and the foot being riveted
on to prolongations of the bow. The full-faced head, in
evidence on the round button attached to the bow, is repeated
twice on the sides of the foot and once on the head. The
central ornament of the lozenge in the middle of the foot is
probably conventionalized from the eyes and nose of a human
face, while at the top and at the bottom of the foot occur
heads which remind us distantly of the horse's head of the
cruciform brooches. The crouching leopard occurs four times
on the edges of the foot. He has a pronounced head with
open jaws, a foreleg, a miserably attenuated body and a hinder
leg that stretches out behind like a tail. In contrast with his
intelligible forms we find on both the head and the foot other
animals that are already broken up and mutilated after the
fashion described in the quotation from Sophus Miiller
(p. 301). Above, to right and left of the upper plate,
are creatures almost all head, and two rather better propor-
tioned ones are confronted on the upper line of the head plate.
In the case of all these four beasts the jaws are open. On
each side of the full face upside down in the middle part of
the head plate, is a creature of the same type doubled up into
the side space. In the upper corners of these spaces to right
and left are the heads with round eyes, two lines for the eye-
brow and a beak like that of a parrot. Slanting down from
this towards the centre comes the neck and what is evidently
meant for the foreleg fills the two bottom corners, though it
does not articulate as it should at the bottom of the neck.
From what ought to be the articulation of this foreleg below
the neck the trunk of the creature ascends perpendicularly and
terminates in a well-rendered hind leg with its double claw.
Below, on the foot, on each side of the bow can be discerned
LXII
facing p. 326
SILVER FIBULA FROM BIFRONS
i*:«ii
Enlarged to k more than natural size
DR. SALIN'S SCHEME 327
the projecting heads apparently of birds, almost confused with
the front paws of the couchant leopard. The clearest is to
the left. Finally round the central lozenge runs a band with
animals in low relief more confused and inchoate than any of
the others, but, as examination shows, of much the same breed.
Four human heads accordingly, two of the horse's head type,
two birds' heads below the bow, four crouching beasts on the
margin of the foot treated more or less in the round, and
about a dozen figured in relief make up the ornamental forms
distributed over the piece, the date of which may be fixed
about the middle of VI.
The often quoted work of Dr. Bernhard Salin contains a
minute analysis of the different forms assumed by this Germanic
animal ornament from the time when in dealing with the
crouching animal taken over from provincial-Roman art it
begins to modify this in its own spirit, a time he fixes at the
close of V, down to the period of the Carolingian renaissance.
He makes three stages in this development, distinguishing
three styles, 1, 11 and in. In this part of his work he illus-
trates at the outset these three styles from the decorative human
and animal forms that occur on the three splendid Swedish
necklets in gold which have been figured on PH. liv, lv.
These forms show a gradual degeneration and empoverish-
ment, the best, most varied, and most animated occurring on
the necklet with three strands,1 inferior models on that with
five strands, while on the necklet with seven strands they are
still more monotonous and lifeless. In the detailed treatment
however that follows, this general scheme is not strictly
adhered to, but it is shown how the animals of Style 1 are
gradually broken up till they are reduced to a few scattered
members or to a confused medley of uncertain forms. This
goes on through VI but at the beginning of VII there is
something like a temporary renaissance, and a respectable
consistency of structure is again to be observed in the creatures,
1 Shown best on PI. lv (p. 309).
328 MOTIVES OF ORNAMENT
which soon however show a tendency once more to be resolved
into something like a mere play of lines. This goes on through
VII at the end of which appears in Scandinavia Style in
which lasts to IX, and this Style in so far from representing
a further decline on Style n produces work that is pronounced
to attain the highest pitch of refinement and delicacy, so that
the best which the North now produces equals anything of the
kind ever done in the world.1 It only remains however for a
brief time and a final decline soon sets in. It is clear accordingly
that we have really to deal in northern art not with a pro-
gressive empoverishment but with successive epochs of decline
and revival, and this is a rather different matter. Dr. Salin's
work was epoch-making and has become a classic, so that every
worker in this field must acknowledge his deep obligations to
it. At the same time it would be a pity to exalt ' Style i '
and * Style n ' into a fetish. As the author himself admits,
these styles pass into each other, and even if the expression be
allowed pass in and out of each other, in a way that makes
any rigid separation inexpedient. The truth is that these
demarcations are of the utmost value to a worker when he is
sorting out a heterogeneous mass of examples. They cannot
be dispensed with at the time, and moreover they always retain
considerable worth, that should not however be exaggerated.
The styles of Minoan vase decoration are reckoned in Knossian
circles as equal in number to the Muses, but some archaeo-
logists of repute doubt whether such minute subdivision can
really be carried out in practice.
So far as our Anglo-Saxon work is concerned, we may read
the history of Dr. Salin's Style i writ clearly on our own
saucer, applied, and square headed brooches, which show the
classical couchant beast and beast in profile gradually deformed
and broken up through the lustres of VI, till at the beginning
of VII the animal is reduced to the summary presentment
illustrated in the panels of the Kingston fibula on the
1 Tbierornamentik, p. 270.
LXIII
facing p. 329
INTERLACING ANIMAL ORNAMENT
i, slightly reduced ; 3, 5, 6, somewhat enlarged
ANIMAL FORMS AND INTERLACING 329
Frontispiece to this volume. There is one characteristic
however that belongs to all these creatures whether coherent
or fragmentary. They are confronted or turned back to
back, they follow each other round a circle or are distributed
piecemeal over a field, but however crowded the arrangement
they do not as a rule impinge on each other or intertwine.
It is not meant that the forms never interlace, but it is
certainly not their habit so to do, and it will be shown in
the sequel (p. 340 f.) that a specious appearance of interlacing
is produced by the juxtaposition of forms that appear at
first sight to go under and over each other but are really
separate and on the same plane. The examples which will
be presently shown on Pll. lxv to lxviii broadly viewed will
be seen to bear out what is here said, and we may take it
that during VI the animal forms corresponding to Dr. Salin's
Style 1 do not to any marked extent interlace. Now with
us animal ornament continues to flourish through the Christian
period represented in art by the carved stones and the
manuscripts, and during the whole of this time interlacing
is its special characteristic. Indeed so conspicuous is this
phenomenon that it has given birth to two erroneous theories,
one of the origin of animal ornament another of that of
the centrelacs.' The former, some have thought, began in
the addition of heads and tails to interlaced ribbons, the
latter in the prolongation and smoothing out of the bodies
of convoluted lacertine creatures. Of course neither of these
theories is true, for interlacing and animal ornament have
totally different origins and early histories, but the existence
of the theories is a proof how much in evidence is the
combination of animal forms with interlacing patterns. This
combination is however a phenomenon of somewhat late
appearance. In Teutonic ornamentation ' entrelacs ' do not
come into vogue till VII when as before noticed (p. 294) they
make their appearance on the handsome buckles that are in
fashion at the time. Specimens of such buckles will be found
330 MOTIVES OF ORNAMENT
Pll. lxxiii, lxxiv (p. 357). It is significant that the pendant
cross of VII from Chartham Down, Kent, PL x, 3 (p. 115)
has interlacing ornament upon it. In the early part of that
century the already existing animal ornament that had pre-
viously been coquetting with the interlacing principle entered
with it into an intimate alliance, and in a large number of
the forms of zoomorphic enrichment in the subsequent periods
of Anglo-Saxon art the two are inseparable. There is of
course on the coins and certain carved stones such as the
Bewcastle and Ruthwell Crosses animal work in which there
is no interlacing, but in the manuscripts and the stones
generally the relation indicated holds, and may be illustrated
by the creatures that are half-beast half-ribbon on the interest-
ing carved stone from Gloucester in the Museum of that
town, PI. lxiii, 2.
The example chosen by Dr. Salin for the beginning in
England of his Style n x is a characteristic illustration of this
relation. It is an enriched sword pommel in the British
Museum, PI. lxiii, 4, on which are seen two animals which
have sorted out their various members from the confused
heap into which the later Style 1 had cast them and recon-
stituted their anatomy. It is a renaissance, but also the
introduction of the new form of creatures biting each other
and plaiting together their legs and tails. The jaws of each
creature embrace the body of its fellow midway between the
articulations of the two limbs, the hinder one of which is
doubled up under the body, while the foreleg elongated into
a ribbon ascends twining over and under the two bodies
and ends at the top in a regulation claw. Below the pommel
PL lxiii, 4, is an enriched mount from the same sword hilt
which shows an interlacing ribbon with hardly a trace of any
zoomorphic character. For our own country therefore it
would be perhaps preferable to drop the threefold division
and to make two styles of animal ornament, one in which the
1 Tbierornamentik, p. 328.
INTERLACING ANIMALS 331
single or confronted or sequent creatures change from con-
sistent entities of classical derivation to a collection of dis-
jointed fragments sometimes but not often interpenetrating,
and a second in which from the beginning of VII onwards
to XI interlacing animals, at first properly anatomized and
later on reduced almost to elongated bands, fill the spaces of
ornamental schemes with their ingeniously devised convolutions.
One or two other examples of this VII interlacing zoo-
morphic ornament may for the sake of convenience be here
introduced. The round bronze gold-plated plaque, 3 in.
across, from Alton Hill, Bottisham, Cambs, in the Ashmolean,
PI. lxiii, i, intended apparently to be attached to leather or
some fabric by a stud at the back so as to serve like the Kiel
plaques, PI. lxi, as a breast ornament ; and a silver plaque
l£ in. in diameter, PI. lxiii, 3, found with other objects of
interest in a tumulus at Caenby, Lincolnshire, have both of
them animal ornament in repousse in which beasts are
biting each other's bodies, and in both cases this is accom-
panied on the same or on associated objects1 with almost
pure interlacing ribbon work, which makes the VII date
unmistakable. A third example, figured by Salin on his
p. 327, is a gilded bronze pendant from Gilton, Kent, at
Liverpool, PI. lxiii, 6, very neatly wrought, on which are
four animals each with eye, brows, jaws, body, and hind leg,
considerably interlaced ; while a fourth is to be found on
a gilded clasp from the Taplow Barrow, where animals are
twined together on the two triangular plates in close inter-
lacing. The approximate date of this object is fixed on
Dr. Salin's generally accepted chronology a little after 600,
for on the ring which forms the eye of the clasp are animals
with the characteristic heads of his Style 11 which was coming
in at that epoch. The clasps are shown in colour PI. B, iv
(p. 353), to the left, and also, PI. lxxvii, 2 (p. 361).
1 See for these, in the case of the Caenby plaque, Akerman's Tagan
Saxondom, pi. xv.
332 MOTIVES OF ORNAMENT
It has been necessary to establish the general course of
the history in this country of animal ornament before dealing
with the square headed fibulae, for these objects can only
be classified and dated on the basis of their ornamentation.
Their morphology, like that of the * saucer ' fibulae, is a
comparatively simple matter, but both these types of the
brooch are distinguished by the variety and richness of the
decorative motives with which they are adorned, and these
motives are largely of a zoomorphic character. The discussion
which follows must therefore be taken in connection with
what has already been said about these two types in the
chapter on fibula morphology, where for the reason just given
the treatment of them was necessarily imperfect.
If the reader will refer back to that chapter (p. 256 f.) he
will note the paragraphs about the origin of the square head
plate and its history after losing the projecting knobs, and
about the chief forms assumed by the foot, with the animals'
heads below the bow. The appearance on the bow of that
curious adjunct, confined to the North and to England,1 of a
round disc sometimes ornamented with a human face was
also noticed. Nothing more was there said about the square
headed fibula and the sub-type may accordingly be taken up
here afresh.
Its distribution in Europe generally and in our own
country is pretty wide, though in Europe it may be safely
described as on the whole a northern form that flourished
specially in Scandinavia but is found also very commonly in
S. Germany and occurs often enough in Frankish collections.
In Austria-Hungary, southern Russia, and Italy it is hardly
represented, and considering its abundance in Scandinavia its
absence from the North German cemeteries is a curious fact
and is commented on by Mr. Leeds in his recent book.2 In
1 Pilloy, Etudes, m, 134, writes ' le disque qui recouvre la partie ansee
ne se voit nuile part ailleurs que dans le Nord.'
2 Archaeology of the Anglo-Saxon Settlements, p. 98.
SQUARE HEADED AND CRUCIFORM FIBULAE 333
England its distribution is so wide that Dr. Salin believes it
came in from two distinct sources, the Midlands being supplied
from the Scandinavian side, the southern counties from the
Rhineland.1 The square headed fibula should as far as possible
be kept distinct from the cruciform which has been already
discussed, though the following relations exist between them.
(1) In the florid forms which each assumes in the later stages
of development there is a superficial resemblance. (2) The
' horse's head ' in its elaborated later shape is sometimes trans-
ferred to the foot of a square headed brooch, as PI. xxxix, 2
(p. 255). (3) The development of the wings below the bow
in the cruciform fibula gives its foot some resemblance to the
rhomboidal termination customary in the square headed kind.
(4) In the distribution of the two there is the difference that
while both are common in the Midlands the square headed
brooch does not extend so far north as the other, and on the
other hand it is common south of the Thames where the
appearance of the cruciform brooch is very rare and sporadic,
while a small but ornate form of it, illustrated PI. xxxiv, 1 to 5,
is specially characteristic of Kent. The square headed fibula
is common in the Midland counties such as Leicester,
Warwick, Rutland, Northants, Cambridgeshire, and occurs in
these latitudes to the east in Norfolk and Suffolk and also to
the south-west in Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire. It is rare
in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire and has not been found north
of the Tees. South of the Thames it occurs in Surrey, Berks,
the Isle of Wight, and pretty abundantly in Kent and in Sussex
where it has recently been well represented in the finds at
Alfriston.
The examples of the sub-type are very numerous and hard
to classify, though it is possible to distinguish certain groups.
Our own country has not produced the finest examples of the
class which are to be sought in Scandinavia, where there is a
noble series of cast and chased silver and bronze brooches of
1 Tbierornamentik, p. 145.
334 MOTIVES OF ORNAMENT
V date, figured in the works of Salin and Haakon Schetelig.
In these the animal form where it occurs is treated in a more
or less naturalistic fashion and the ornamentation is chiefly of
a linear kind, a large use being made of spiral scrolls treated
like the Brighthampton scabbard mount, PI. lix, 7 (p. 317).
The English examples of V are certain small brooches found
in Kent of which PI. xxxiv, 1, is a specimen. The ornament
here is almost purely linear and the form is simple and severe.
Later on the Kentish brooches are distinguished by the use
of garnet settings which begin in the sober fashion of PL xxxiv,
2, and grow more profuse in the latter part of VI. A parti-
cularly interesting example from this period, shown by its
debased zoomorphic ornament to be a late production, is one
that will be found figured on a subsequent plate, PI. clv, 5
(p. 563). It is from Sarre, and is celebrated through the fact
that a fibula almost its exact counterpart came to light in the
Frankish cemetery of Herpes on the Charente in western
France and can be compared with it on the plate.
Another group of square headed fibulae we may call the
Midland group. There are a fair number of cast bronze
fibulae found in the Midland counties and in East Anglia that
are characterized by simplicity of outline and ornament and by
the exclusion of animal forms from the enrichment which
consists almost entirely in geometrical or conventional patterns.
They are not nearly so handsome as the V Scandinavian pieces
just noticed, but they have been claimed as equally early on
the ground of their scheme of ornamentation. One of their
peculiarities, which occurs also on some of these Scandinavian
examples, is the addition, at the three lower angles of the
diamond-shaped foot, of flat discs of metal that were originally
tinned or silvered.
The problem of the date of these English brooches,
specimens of which are figured PH. lxiv, 1, 2, 3 ; lxv, i, 4,
opens up a rather interesting question. On the strength of
the linear character of its ornamentation an example from
'MIDLAND' SQUARE HEADED FIBULAE 335
Holme Pierrepont (or Cotgrave), Notts, is dated in the
Victoria History , Notts, 1, 196, in the first half of V, and is
compared with a similar piece from Kenninghall, Norfolk,
6^ in. long, in the British Museum. This Norfolk specimen,
shown PI. lxiv, 2, might so far as its ornamentation and
workmanship are concerned belong to V for these are early
and good, but the Kenninghall cemetery is a purely inhumation
one which in East Anglia, where cremation is so common,
suggests though it does not necessitate a rather advanced date.
Furthermore the square or diamond shaped projecting patches
at the corners of the head look suspiciously like imitations of
the garnets set in these positions in Kentish specimens of VI,
such as the piece from Sarre just mentioned that is figured
PI. clv. Garnets occur set in these positions on square headed
fibulae other than Kentish, as on a fine piece from Cambridge-
shire at Audley End, and imitations of garnet settings also occur,
a projecting disc of bronze giving the similitude. This
phenomenon is by no means confined to square headed brooches,
for it occurs also on saucer brooches as succeeding plates will
show, and it is not exclusively English, for the same thing was
observed in certain Gothic buckles from the Crimea x some of
which have real incrustations and others the imitation of these
by projecting discs of metal. Now there is a good deal of
force in the contention 2 that such garnet inlays outside Kent,
and especially the imitations of them, were due to Kentish
influence spreading with the extension of the political power
of iEthelberht of Kent in the last part of VI. If this criterion
be a valid one it would bring the date of the Kenninghall
brooch much lower down than 500 a.d.
Viewing this group as a whole we should be inclined to
see in it a case of the perpetuation of a certain special style of
work through a considerable period, while similar work in
other styles might be going on at the same time and in the
1 Gotze, Gotiscbe Schnallen, Berlin, n.d., p. 16.
2 Victoria History, Norfolk, 1, 345 ; Jrcbaeologia, lxiii, 192.
336 MOTIVES OF ORNAMENT
same regions. Normally throughout VI zoomorphic ornament
in its various stages, be they of evolution or degradation, is
the predominant ornamental motive, but we need not as was
suggested before (p. 13 f.) assume that it was ubiquitous and
all powerful. Hence though it is quite possible that some of
the group of square headed fibulae now under notice may
belong to V others of the same general character might bring
us to the end of VI. PI. lxiv, 1, 6 in. long, has a very early
appearance, but it comes from Market Overton cemetery that
was dated by the reporter of its exploration in the last half of
VI.1 A severely treated example is PI. lxv, 4, from Ipswich,
where the cemetery is put down to VI. It has good linear
and conventional ornament of classical type, but the ornament
on each side just below the bow looks like a conventionalized
animal's head of an advanced stage of c Style 1/ The bow
moreover is furnished with a round button disc a feature of
VI rather than V. The well-known Billesdon brooch at
Leicester, PL lxv, i, 6 in. long, resembles the Kenninghall
piece very closely, but is dated in the Victoria History2 to the
middle of VI. The example, PI. lxiv, 3, 5^ in. long, from
High Dyke, the old Roman road near Welbourn, Lincoln-
shire,3 is in a diffuse style suggesting a date far nearer 600
than 500 a.d., and the enrichment that surrounds the early
looking guilloche and quatrefoil panels in the middle of the
head and the foot is probably debased zoomorphic ornament
of quite a late period. It may be added that on Taf. 148 of
Hampel's Alterthumer in Ungarn is a coarsely wrought fibula
which he dates in VII but which has nothing on it but classical
linear ornament.
Another group may be formed of late square headed
1 Mr. V. B. Crowther-Beynon, F.S.A., in Archaeologia, lxii, 489.
2 Leicester, 1, 238.
3 This specimen is in the Alnwick Castle Museum and thanks are due
to the Duke of Northumberland for his permission to reproduce it, as well as
two pieces on PI. l, and one each on PI. lii and PI. lxxviii.
LXV
facing p. 336
LXVI
facing p. 337
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LATE FLORID LONG BROOCHES 337
fibulae of a florid kind that are an English speciality, and that
carry us as regards date no small distance through VII. One
reason why we have these handsome but overladen pieces
practically to ourselves is to be found in the fact that the
form survived longer in use in this country than abroad.
M. Pilloy notes that in France the handsome long brooches
cease about 600 a.d., ' l'epoque ou la grande fibule de manteau
disparait a tout jamais,' * to be replaced by the disc fibulae
with stones set ' en cabochon,' and H. Schetelig makes his long
fibulae disappear in the North after VI. With us these late
and debased pieces were flaunted in VII, and we find on them
the last wrecks of the characteristic animal ornament of VI.
There is no sign here of a renaissance nor of the introduction
of the new schemes of interlacing. The fragments of what
once were animal forms are planted closely over the field
filling up the spaces but suggesting to the eye neither design
nor distribution. Contemporary with these are the latest and
equally florid cruciform brooches, and the example figured PI.
lxix, 3 (p. 343) may be taken to represent the final degenera-
tion of ornament alike on the square headed and the cruciform
fibulae. Saucer brooches must be joined with the c long '
ones as they are equally good as illustrations of the point in
view, and Pll. lxviii, lxix show some characteristic specimens.
See especially PL lxix, i.
Returning now to the historical development of this
Germanic beast ornament in VI, if we look first for some-
thing that comes next in order to the Bifrons fibula, PL lxii,
we shall find it in a brooch from Rothley Temple, Leicester-
shire, PL lxvi, 1, where between the side knobs and the lower
terminal of the foot are on both sides crouching beasts nearly
as good as the Bifrons ones with the additional peculiarity that
the artist has contrived to give the creature two hind legs
instead of one. There is also a forepaw with as many toes as
1 ttudes, in, 132, 134.
Ill Y
338 MOTIVES OF ORNAMENT
the legs of a centipede, and a head that comes close up under
the side knob. The full-faced heads at the corners of the foot
may be contrasted with the flat discs of the Billesdon and
other examples on PI. lxiv, lxv. On the head plate there is
the curious contrast of a central panel like the Billesdon one sur-
rounded with a border of quite debased animal ornament which
justifies though it hardly necessitates the ascription of the piece
to a later date than that fibula, though the crouching beast is far
too good to be relegated as in the Victoria History x to VII. We
must remember that even the Bifrons fibula, PL lxii, of the
middle of VI has some very shaky animal design upon it.
The large and handsome brooch PI. lxvi, 2, unfortun-
ately damaged below, was found on the site of St. Andrew's
Hospital, Northampton, and is in the Museum there. It is
noteworthy for two reasons. In the first place the beast
ornament on the head and on the foot shows a creature still
continuous though in the process of dissolution. The border
of the head plate is made up of a series of full-faced human
heads with moustaches, after the fashion of that in the middle
of the upper border of the head plate in the Duston fibula
PI. lxvi, 3. The middle part of the plate just above the bow,
in No. 2, has a panel of scroll work, and between this and the
border there is the characteristic beast ornament. Starting from
the left hand bottom corner we see the round dot marking
the creature's eye and above it lines indicating the brow. The
three vertical strokes above and at right angles to these stand
for the neck, and just to the right of these there are other three
lines that probably should mark the junction of the foreleg
with the body, while the foreleg with its double knee brings
the foot up close under the chin. Horizontal lines further
up seem to indicate the junction of the hind leg that fills up
the corner. The space in the horizontal part of the panel
between the forms just indicated and the middle of the head
plate shows us, apparently unconnected, an eye with two jaws
1 Leicester, i, 238.
LXVII
facing p. 339
P
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ORNATE SQUARE-HEADED FIBULAE 339
pointing towards the middle, an eye alone, and a bent leg and
claw. With a little ingenuity the animals on the foot of the
brooch can be more or less made out.
The second point of interest about the piece is a certain
plastic feeling of which it gives evidence. Studs project from
the side discs of the foot and from the two upper corners of
the head nondescript creatures like couchant lions. This is
important in view of the remark, a perfectly true one, by
Haakon Schetelig * to the effect that the Anglo-Saxon crafts-
man worked for an effect of flatness, whereas his Norwegian
contemporary showed a predilection for boldness of relief.
Most of the florid square headed and cruciform fibulae are
markedly flat, but on the other hand some latish, if not late,
pieces are effective in their relief. This is true not only of
the Northampton specimen but of the three interesting
Alfriston square headed brooches shown PI. lxvii, which
may be dated in the latter part of VI.
When we analyse the enrichment upon these Alfriston
fibulae we see that consistency in the animal forms is nowhere
apparent, yet on the other hand the decorative effect is
excellent and the pieces would pass everywhere as the work
of a vigorous craftsman who had the sense of an ensemble
though he was not fastidiously concerned about his details.
He is certainly not without plastic feeling, as we see in the
boldly projecting ribs and above all in the heads in relief on
the feet of the fibulae PI. lxvii, i, 3, to right and left of the
plate, that shows the three a little under the natural size. The
heads on the right hand specimen stand out \ in. from the
ground. There are three heads also, though less effectively
treated, on the fine Northamptonshire fibula from Duston,
5f in. in length, PI. lxvi, 3, and it is interesting to note the
close resemblance, save for the garnet settings, between this piece
and the Kentish brooch before referred to (p. 334) as a pair to
one found at Herpes on the Charente, PI. clv, 5, 6 (p. $63).
1 Cruciform Brooches of Norway, p. 106.
340 MOTIVES OF ORNAMENT
As illustrating another tendency in the later development
of the square headed fibula notice may be taken of a rather
famous piece the ' Myton ' or ' St. Nicholas ' brooch in the
Warwick Museum, PI. lxviii, 6. The photograph shows it
considerably foreshortened. It is a large and handsome fibula
5|- in. long, covered with ornament of a kind hard to describe,
but its chief interest for our purpose lies in the shape of the
head plate, that is of a curved outline with projecting corners.
Several of the brooches already illustrated show this feature
which is most pronounced in the case of PI. lxiv, 3, where
plated silver discs have been added at all four angles. At the
two upper corners of the Warwick brooch and at the bottom
of the foot there are settings of elongated form that were
filled with violet-coloured vitreous pastes intended to imitate
garnets, and there is a similar round incrustation in the middle
of the foot. The piece probably dates in the first half of VII.
Turning now to some examples of animal ornament on
saucer brooches we must bear in mind a remark previously
made (p. 329) about the absence of interlacing in this work
in VI. No. 8 on PI. lxviii is one of the applied fibulae from
Kempston, Beds, and has a band of animal ornament sur-
rounding a central medallion marked out into eight spaces by
what looks like a Maltese cross but has probably no Christian
significance (p. 117 f.). On the band we should say at first
sight was a play of interlacing triple ribbons x but the impres-
sion would be erroneous. Conspicuous above and slightly to
the left is a bent leg with its claws. The three strands below
this mark its junction with the body, and they do not as it
might appear plunge under the forms next to them. The
strands which partly surround the dots that indicate eyes do
not go on any further but just represent the brows, and other
1 These 'ribbons' are really degenerate versions of a form bounded on
each side by contour lines, upon which Dr. Salin's book, p. 242, may be con-
sulted. The middle part of the body between the contour lines has shrunk
to a similar line making a third with the other two.
LXVIII
facing p. 341
LATER ANIMAL ORNAMENT
2, 3, 4, slightly reduced ; 7, 9, somewhat enlarged
LATE ANIMAL ORNAMENT 341
ribbons that come between the feet and the eyes stand in each
case by themselves for a creature's body. The only two dis-
tinctive parts of the animal that can here be identified are the
legs and the eyes, and it is curious to find these features surviv-
ing when all else has become an unintelligible medley of lines.
On this piece in the triangular spaces between the arms of the
cross are legs pure and simple, and the leg by itself becomes
a familiar motive in the later examples of this style, while the
appearance of a round dot standing for an eye in unintelligible
surroundings means the survival of this one feature in the
shipwreck of a creature's anatomy. These dots occur on the
Kingston fibula, see Frontispiece, in the panels which other-
wise seem to be filled only with meaningless filigree. Legs
by themselves as ornamental motives may be illustrated by
PI. lxviii, 3, a saucer brooch from Filkins, Oxfordshire, if in.
in diameter, where they are well made out, and by the two
smaller brooches which flank it in the photograph, PI. lxviii,
2, 4, from Broughton Poggs in the same county, if in. across,
where the motive is hardly intelligible except when interpreted
by the better specimens. It is worthy of remark here, as
illustrating what was said previously (p. 314 f.), that the orna-
ment round the borders of the two brooches last mentioned
resembles the classical ' egg and dart,' though the brooches
must belong to quite a late period. Four legs set whorl-
fashion, after a style which we have seen represented on some
of the sceat coins, PI. vin (p. 99), adorn the Alfriston
saucer brooch at Lewes, 1^ in. in diameter, PI. lxviii, 7, and
as a triquetra the same forms fill the centre of PI. lxviii, 5,
from near Droxford, Hants, in the Museum at Winchester.
The outer circle here brings the head into evidence as the
main motive, several times repeated. Lastly on this plate,
No. 9, also an Alfriston piece at Lewes, 1^ in. across, shows
boldly designed animal motives, with some of the plastic feeling
of the square headed brooches of PL lxvii, motives that
are however, so far as one can see, quite disconnected and
342 MOTIVES OF ORNAMENT
have more of the appearance of interlacing than the other
examples we have been examining. This Alfriston fibula has
the peculiarity that its pin catch is singularly long, standing
out ^ in. from the plate at the back. This is a characteristic
of many early brooches, and is sometimes taken as a criterion
of date. We find it here on a specimen that is certainly not
an early one. With this can be taken No. i on the same
plate, a portion of the metal rim of a wooden bowl found at
the Old Park, Dover, and now in the Museum of that town.
It has on it in repousse work a collection of heterogeneous
forms amongst which a leg or an eye can in most parts be
discerned. The forms do not interlace, for when one triple
ribbon seems to plunge under its neighbour this is merely delu-
sive and the arrangement is the same as that on PI. lxviii, 8,
only far looser.
In some parts of this instructive piece, PI. lxviii, i, there
are distinct indications of a spiral at the end of a leg where it
ought to articulate with the body. This is extremely signi-
ficant, for as Dr. Salin has shown x the spiral in this part is a
feature of animal ornament which only comes into use in his
Style in at the end of VII, where we find it on the beast forms
so wonderfully designed in the Gospels of Lindisfarne. Now
if the reader will refer back to PL lxv, he will find in Nos.
2 and 3 a couple of showy square-headed fibulae in silver, the
one, No. 2, found at Richborough in Kent, the other, No. 3,
4 in. long, from a warrior's grave at Gilton, Kent. They are
handsome pieces, and are instructive as combining some early
motives, such as the quatrefoil in the centre of the foot of
No. 3, with very late ones as in the debased animal ornament
on the head of No. 2. Of special significance as indicating an
advanced period are the * S ' shaped patterns of filigree sur-
rounding a set stone on the disc adorning the bow of No. 2,
in a late Kentish style of the latter half of VII, and, more
especially, the spirals that make their appearance in the animals
1 Thierornamentik, p. 273.
7,
x
o
I — I
u
&
U
o
w
o
DEGRADED ANIMAL ORNAMENT 343
on each side of the head of No. 3. These spirals are evidently
intended to mark the articulation of the leg with the body and
for the reasons given above they look towards the end of that
century. There are similar spirals also in the lower corners of
the central panel of the head plate, the animals in which are
analysed by Dr. Salin though from a faulty drawing as belong-
ing to the latest period of his Style 1. See his fig. 704. Of
these two fibulae No. 3 is the best, and it is interesting to note
that the full-faced heads on the side rounds of the foot in
No. 3 are degraded in No. 2 to meaningless geometrical forms,
while the cross at the bottom of No. 2 has probably Christian
significance. It would be dangerous at the same time to
relegate No. 3 to a very late date on the strength of the
spirals for the piece was found in a grave at Gilton with a
complete warrior's equipment of sword, shield, and spear, and
in that part of the country such a burial would hardly fall later
than the first half or perhaps the middle of VII. There was
also found with it part of a silver ornament, shown in the
inset at the bottom of the plate, on which, to the left, is a
bird fairly well designed. No. 2 may belong to the latter half
of VII, as it seems distinctly later than No. 3.
To complete this subject there have been brought together
on PI. lxix one or two examples illustrating the last stage of
degeneration in the motives which have occupied attention for
the last score of pages. In the centre, No. 3, is a cruciform
brooch from Longbridge, Warwickshire, in the British Museum
collection, that is about as flat in effect and debased in design
and workmanship as any piece that could be adduced. There
are square headed fibulae quite equally degraded, and a large
florid example in the Bede House Museum at Melton
Mowbray may be referred to as an example, but PI. lxix, 3
is sufficient to show the style. It should not be overlooked
that the hammer-head projection at the top is very like what
appears in the same place at Kenninghall, PI. lxiv, 2. Flank-
ing this on the plate are No. 1, an Ashmolean specimen of
344 MOTIVES OF ORNAMENT
the saucer fibula from Wheatley, Oxon, where forms that
are or are meant to be the disjecta membra of quadrupeds
are simply packed together anyhow in the field around a
central garnet, and No. 2, a specimen at Worcester from
Bidford, Warwickshire, i\ in. in diameter, where purely
linear ornament is so carelessly designed that at the top two
of the plain triangles run into each other, while on the other
side No. 5 shows relics of animals' heads alternating with
triangular spaces in which the setting of stones is indicated by
lines, and No. 4, a crisply wrought piece, gives in the centre
an intelligible face but round the border forms that seem
purely arbitrary and have lost any resemblance they may once
have possessed to parts of the animal organization.1
The foregoing analysis may have appeared in parts tediously
minute, but it is needful to examine somewhat narrowly into
details as a very small indication sometimes justifies an im-
portant deduction. It will have been seen however that an
analysis of the kind may result in disappointingly negative
conclusions for it often happens that a composite piece, such
as the Bifrons fibula, PI. lxii, or the two silver fibulae just
analysed, has on one part of it early on another part compara-
tively late indications, and our judgement of the date will
depend upon which of these is most prominent in our mind.
In a sub-class again like that of the square headed fibulae
without animal ornament, some members of the class may
exhibit nothing inconsistent with an early date while other
specimens betray very suspicious symptoms. In such cases
decisions as to date must be made with some reserve. With
this proviso however we can with some confidence distribute
the enriched fibulae which have been passed in review over the
1 No. 4 is from East Shefford, Berks, in the British Museum ; No. 5
was found in a cinerary urn in a tumulus at Marton near Rugby, and is
now in the School Museum, Rugby. The find has been already adduced
(p. 147) as a proof of the late survival in England of the practice of cremation.
DATE OF LATEST EXAMPLES 345
space of time between about 500 and 650 a.d. Some may
belong to the last half of V and this would apply to saucer or
applied or square headed fibulae with linear classical motives,
or to pieces in which the animal form is represented in a
consistent anatomical structure. Others in which the effect
is very flat, the work careless, and the motives hopelessly
blundered and scattered aimlessly over the field, may be later
than the middle of VII, but the vast majority of pieces in
which animal ornament occurs in the various stages of dis-
memberment belong to the latter half of VI and the first part
of VII while the appearance of the interlacing motive betokens
the first half or middle of the latter century.
CHAPTER VII
TOMB FURNITURE : (IV) BUCKLES AND OTHER
ADJUNCTS OF THE DRESS
We now resume the main subject of this part of the present
work, the detailed inventory of Anglo-Saxon tomb furniture
especially as it is represented in the Kentish cemetery of
Bifrons. The next item is the buckle, which we saw possesses
a near affinity with the annular form of fibula, the last noticed
under that heading prior to the long but necessary digression
on ornamentation and technique.
No repetition is needed of what was said (p. 244 f.) about the
relation between the fibula and the buckle and the question
of the latter's origin. It was noted in connection with the
last that buckles both in the simplest and in an enriched
form have been found at Pompeii and Herculaneum, so
the type is Roman though it was not developed amongst
the classical peoples.
For the history of the buckle in its Teutonic form Bifrons
supplies us with an excellent starting point. PI. lxx shows a
portion of one of the cards on which half a century ago the
gamekeeper's daughter neatly sewed down the smaller objects
recovered from the teeming cemetery on the outskirts of the
park. There are two enriched buckles here of special interest,
Nos. 6, 9, which will be noticed in connection with certain
romanizing pieces discussed in Chapter x. There are others
of the distinct buckle form, Nos. 1, 5, 7, 8, to which the belt
or band was attached after the manner of a modern strap, and
a third kind in which the attachment is made by means of a
thin metal plate folded over the end of the band and riveted
346
LXX
facing p. 347
BUCKLES OF SIMPLE TYPES AT BIFRONS HOUSE
LXX
BUCKLES OF SIMPLE FORM 347
to it, Nos. 10, 11. This is technically termed the 'chape'
but is more often called ' buckle plate.' Differences in size
will be noticed, as for example between Nos. 5 and 1 1 , sug-
gesting use in connection with more than one article of attire.
Furthermore there are also three pieces, Nos. 2, 3, 4, about
which a question might be raised whether they are buckles or
annular fibulae. The shape of the ring in Nos. 2, 3 suggests
the former, in No. 4 it suggests the latter, and nothing could
better illustrate the close relation between the two types of
fastening. The simple buckles without any plate for attach-
ment are generally considered early, but it must be remembered
that such pieces would probably remain always in use even at
a time when the buckle had developed to very showy forms.
In the neolithic period stone axes were elaborately polished,
but every polished axe must first have been a chipped one and
chipped axes that never succeeded in getting polished may be
of neolithic date. So simple buckles may be comparatively
late, for it was not every one who could afford them in the
fashionable enriched form. The cemetery at King's Field,
Faversham, is not a particularly early site, but a large number
of simple buckles were found in it. Still the criterion of date
in question is not a negligible one.
Examples of the simple buckles might easily be multiplied
but those on PI. lxx are sufficient. The difference between
these and the vast iron buckles of the Burgundians and Franks
measuring like the one on PI. xvn, 1 (p. 175), some 15 in.
by 3^- in., is no doubt enormous, but though the quantitative
change is so great morphological complications are absent.
The essential parts of the piece, the ring, the pin, and the
hinges which admit of the necessary movements, remain
practically the same, and the chief variation is in the methods
of securing mobility in tongue or ring and of attaching behind
the ring the strap or band. Various adjuncts partly for use
but chiefly for show also come to be added before the equip-
ment is complete. Lindenschmit in his Handbuch, p. 358 f.,
348 THE BUCKLE
analyses the methods in question comparing Germanic with
Roman, and to his demonstration the reader may be referred.
One point should be noticed and this is that the small pro-
longation of the tongue at the back, as in PI. lxx, i, is
Teutonic rather than classical.
For the beginning of the development of the enriched
buckle we may go to the northern shores of the Black Sea
where have been found a large number of small but massive
buckles of silver and gold, set at the back of the pin with inlays
of garnet. No. i on PL lxxi shows three examples from the
Museum fur Volkerkunde at Berlin, and there are two others
from the British Museum on PI. cxliii (p. 525) of which
No. 5 is from Hungary. PI. lxxi, 2, shows an example of
later date, with garnet inlays, from Crundale, Kent. The
earliest of these may go back to about IV. These plates at
the back of the pin are primarily for use, as they are double
and between the two surfaces the end of the strap or band
is introduced and held fast by rivets the heads of which are
in evidence. They also become things of art, varying in
shape and adorned in every technique and style represented in
the period. The back plates at first belong to the pin with
which they sometimes form a single piece, as in PI. lxxi, 2,
but those in specimens like PL lxx, 10, 11, belong to the
ring round which they are bent, and it may be noted here as
a matter of construction that the back plate and the ring may
be in one piece, in which case the tongue is hinged so as to
lift for the admission of the strap ; or the tongue and the back
plate may be inseparable, when the ring is hinged so as to
drop when the strap is to be inserted ; or else there may be
two hinges and all three parts may be mutually accommodat-
ing. Buckles are usually of metal but there are bone ones,
of which PL lii, 4 (p. 293), and PL lxxiv, 3 are examples, and
buckle rings are also found occasionally of rock crystal, ivory
and meerschaum.
A simple example of ornament applied to a buckle plate is
LXXI
facing p. 349
EARLY GOTHIC AND OTHER BUCKLES
i, 4, 6, about natural size ; 5, considerably enlarged
/, 3, are Continental
DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHAPE 349
seen PI. lxxi, 5. It is an interesting little buckle found at
East Boldon in County Durham and now in the Museum of
the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-on-Tyne, and is figured
on an enlarged scale as it is rather a valuable object-lesson
in the matter of dating. The back of the plate is, or was for
one is lost, adorned with three garnets set ' en cabochon,' or,
as they would be popularly termed, three carbuncles, with a
little frill round each made of a beading worked in thin
metal in repousse. Now it so happens that this particular
kind of work used for setting rounded gems occurs in southern
Russia at a very early date indeed in the migration period, and
Professor Posta in his valuable work on antiquities in that
district proves that the piece from the Crimea in the Museum
at Odessa, PL lxxi, 3, cannot date later than about 111 a.d.
The likeness in technique of the Odessa trinket to the Boldon
buckle is unmistakable yet it would be a mistake to ascribe
to the latter on this ground an early date. The incrusted
garnets are no doubt an importation from Kent just like
those which furnish eyes to the animals forming the ring
of the annular brooch from Uncleby, Yorkshire, given on
PI. li, 7 (p. 287), which we saw reason to date early in VII
(p. 289). The beading beaten up in a thin strip of metal may
be used very early, but it is also familiar in the borders of the
applied fibulae of VI, and is no sound criterion of date.
The development of the back plate or chape of the buckle
is the first point of importance in its morphology. The chief
forms it takes are those of the round or oval, the rectangle, and
the triangle, while there is a form of much archaeological
importance that has the ring with its pin inserted into the
central part of a single large square plate. The variation is
described and illustrated later on (p. 557). The round or oval
plate is common in western France but so rare among our-
selves that the few specimens known pass generally for
importations. One was found near Lymne, Kent, and was
figured by C. Roach Smith, in his Richborough, Reculver
350 THE BUCKLE
and Lymne, p. 264. Of another in the Canterbury Museum
the provenance is unfortunately unknown, but there is at
Maidstone a portion of one that was found in the cemetery
at Sarre. The discoveries at Ipswich in 1 906 produced a good
specimen which will be found PL lxxi, 6. The extreme
rarity here of a type so common across the Channel is another
proof of the independence of the different provinces of this
early Teutonic art.
Rectangular plates are fairly common all over the Germanic
area and are sometimes magnificently adorned with inlays. A
specimen in the Maclean collection in the Fitzwilliam Museum,
Cambridge, is a fine piece but is without question of foreign
provenance. Rectangular buckles are in no form specially
characteristic features in Anglo-Saxon tomb furniture, but we
have some interesting examples. One from Alfriston, Sussex,
will be found PL cliv, i (p. 561). One of the best is figured
PL lxxi, 4. It is a late piece found at Gilton, Kent, and is
now at Liverpool. It is of silver gilt richly incrusted with
garnets and is 3^ in. long. A small though sumptuously
enriched rectangular buckle of gold in the Ashmolean, found
near Ixworth, Suffolk, is notable as containing the largest
garnet known in this country, more than an inch in length by
a breadth of 4 in. It is figured in colours by Akerman on
the first plate of his Pagan Saxondom. The bronze specimen
PL lxxii, 1, from Barfriston, Kent, at Liverpool, is of similar
shape but has lost its jewel. PL lxxii, 2, is at Rochester,
Kent, and is of unusual construction. It must have once
had a pin though there is no trace of this. The plate is a
specimen of open work, on which a word may be said. Open
or pierced work in bronze is common in Roman and Late-
Celtic productions1 and its appearance in Teutonic tomb
furniture might be regarded as symptomatic of early date.
There are however different kinds of open work and some of
1 Professor Bela Posta believes that the Romans adopted this style of
work from the Celtic peoples, Arch'dologische Studien, p. 485.
LXXII
facing p. 351
BUCKLES WITH OPEN-WORK PLATES
4. is Roman ; J, Celtic
OPEN WORK BUCKLE PLATES 351
these are significant of a quite advanced period. A beautiful
piece of Roman pierced work in bronze at Bonn is shown
PI. lxxii, 4, and a Late-Celtic piece from the famous Marne
burials in France in the British Museum PL lxxii, 5. The
Anglo-Saxon craftsman did not emulate this kind of work, and
a piece of it that came to light in the form of a buckle plate
in the cemetery at Sarre, PI. clv, 13 (p. 563), is of Romano-
British make. Open work of a coarser kind occurs in
Teutonic tomb furniture at all periods, and comes specially
into vogue at any rate on the Continent in the later epoch
called by French antiquaries { Carolingian.' Such a specimen
in the form of a belt clasp in the Grantley collection will be
seen on PL lxxvii, i (p. 361) and open work 'swastika'
fibulae, PL xlviii, 6 (p. 279) and similar pierced ornaments
such as some from Winklebury Hill, Dorset, at Farnham
(p. 654 f.), occur not infrequently in England. The plates to
Faussett's Inventorium Sepulchrale exhibit several open work
buckle plates found in the Kentish cemeteries, though his
' Fundberichte ' do not give any distinct indications of date.
One of these from Kingston, i\ in. long, is shown PL lxxii, 3,
and a similar piece occurred in the rather late cemetery at
Uncleby in Yorkshire, illustrating like so many of the finds on
that site the likeness to Kentish tomb furniture. It is shown
PL lxxii, 6, and the shape of the openings, recalling that of the
inlaid garnets on so many Kentish brooches of about 600 a.d.,
is a striking point of resemblance. It may be remarked in
passing that one kind of open work buckle plate that often
occurs in Frankish and Burgundian cemeteries of the later
epoch has not yet made its appearance in Anglo-Saxon graves ;
this is the well-known creature, sometimes like a horse at
other times like a griffin, represented as drinking from a vase.
It is clear therefore that open work is not in itself a criterion
of early date, but only open work of the delicate and refined
character of the Roman and Celtic pieces, PL lxxii, 4, 5, or of
the Kentish fragment PL clv, i 3
352 THE BUCKLE
The characteristic form of the buckle plate in England is
the triangular, and it is so specially well represented in Kent
that it may be regarded as a Jutish production. Kent shares
it however with the country of the Franks across the Channel,
where it is also common. In the rest of England it occurs
sporadically and its appearance there may be due to Kentish
influence. Some specimens may be considered here from the
artistic standpoint, as they are often very handsome and
ornate pieces though they do not run to the exaggerated size
of some of the later buckles across the Channel. Points of
morphology may be considered later on.
No specimen is more showy than that given PI. lxxiii, i.
It was found at Crundale, Kent, and is now in the British
Museum. The fish upon it reminds us of a similar feature
on the beautiful jewelled fibulae from Jouy le Comte in the
Museum of St. Germain and would suggest a Prankish
provenance, but any one wishing to vindicate for it a native
origin may point to the garnet inlays just at the back of the
pin, the stones in which are small and interpenetrate in exactly
the same fashion as those on the brooches of the ' Abingdon '
type in the British Museum, the Fitzwilliam Museum,
Cambridge, and elsewhere, which are without doubt objects of
Kentish manufacture. For specimens see PI. cxlv (p. S3 3)-
The buckle is of VII date. Other ornate examples from Kent
are shown on the coloured plate B, iv (p. 353).
The distribution of the buckle in Anglo-Saxon graves has
aroused comment. On a priori grounds we should expect
buckles to be numerous everywhere. The knife is the most
common article of tomb furniture, and though it is only a
hypothesis it is a plausible one, that knives were commonly
carried in a belt and that belts were as a rule fastened by
buckles. As a fact, although buckles are found all over the
Anglo-Saxon region they are in many cemeteries curiously
rare, while they may occur elsewhere in proportionately large
numbers. The Abbe Cochet committed himself to a general
PL B
facing p. 353
PENDANTS, BEADS, BUCKLES, ETC.
II
III
IV
I, iv, about half-size; III, | natural size;
II, much reduced
11 is Continental
DISTRIBUTION OF BUCKLES 353
statement about Britain at large,1 according to which the
maritime counties and those on the great rivers were much
better equipped with buckles than the inland districts, and
Baron de Baye2 quotes the opinion with favour. There would
be no possible significance in this unless the buckle were
supposed to be an imported article, and this has never been
suggested. The generalization is not of real value, and the
Abbe mentions Northamptonshire as well supplied though
this is quite an inland county, whereas the riparian Berkshire
showed in its chief cemeteries Long Wittenham and Frilford
a remarkable dearth. A more promising explanation may be
found in chronology. Kent, it has been noticed, is in general
better supplied than the rest of the kingdom, and in the
normal abundance of Kentish tomb furniture this need not
surprise us. Now within the county itself, in those cemeteries
the contents of which are summarized in Faussett's Inventorium
Sepulchrale, buckles were many times more numerous than
fibulae, and at Uncleby in Yorkshire, a cemetery the objects
in which resembled Kentish tomb furniture, there were in
more than 70 graves 26 buckles to 8 brooches.8 At Bifrons
however this proportion seems to have been reversed, for
among about 200 small objects from this cemetery sewn upon
cards there are about ^ fibulae and 25 buckles, while 47
fibulae to 38 buckles is the proportion in the official inventory
of the other Bifrons graves given in Archaeologia Cantiana?
At Ozengell again, not one of Faussett's cemeteries, the Abbe
Cochet remarks on the very scanty supply of the objects.5 Is
it without significance that while the Faussett cemeteries are
as a rule late ones, Bifrons is on the whole comparatively
early, and the same is true of Ozengell ? The Bifrons buckles,
it may be noted, shown on PI. lxx are of simple and pre-
1 Le Tombeau de Cbilderic, p. 268.
2 The Industrial Arts of the Anglo-Saxons, p. 90.
3 Proc. Soc. Ant., xxiv, 146 f. 4 Vols, x and xm.
5 Le Tombeau de Cbilderic, p. 272.
Ill z
354 THE BUCKLE
sumably early types. How far, we may ask, does the evidence
from cemeteries in other parts bear out the presumption
thus suggested, that buckles are less common in the earlier
cemeteries than in later ones because the object was in itself in
the migration period of comparatively recent introduction ?
The absence of buckles is certainly in several Midland
cemeteries not a little surprising. Little Wilbraham, Cambs,
with its wealth of fibulae, 125 in number, only furnished to
the careful explorer 13 buckles from 188 skeletons.1 At
Barrington, Cambridgeshire, with 114 graves, 31 of which
contained no furniture, there were 24 buckles to 55 fibulae,
and while Little Wilbraham in general supplied fairly early
objects those from the latter cemetery seem decidedly later.
Again at Kempston, Beds, where very early things were found,
only one buckle or object suggesting the buckle form is
included in the inventory,2 and at Fairford, Gloucestershire,
Mr. Wylie 3 only notes one, perhaps two, buckles, whereas the
fibulae, mostly of the saucer or applied type which is of early
appearance, were numerous. In his two years' exploration of
Frilford cemetery, Berks, where he reported on 123 skeletons,
Professor Rolleston only found a single buckle,4 and Frilford,
like Long Wittenham a partly cremation cemetery, is an early
one.
Apart from these chronological considerations there is
another reason why buckles in general are less frequently
found than we should expect. At Fairford and at Kempston
the explorers noticed that there was a knife in nearly every
grave, and this would make the absence of the normal belt
fastenings somewhat surprising, but it may be partly accounted
for on the following grounds. While the fibula was normally
of bronze and was in most cases ornamented, the buckle was
1 Neville, Saxon Obsequies, Lond., 1852, graves 26, 28, 35, 46, 73, 151,
160, 168, 169.
2 Associated Societies' Reports, 1864, p. 293.
3 Fairford Graves, Oxford, 1852. 4 Archaeologia, xlii, 483.
LXXIII
facing p. 355
BRONZE AND IRON BUCKLES
LAX IN
i, 2, are |- natural size
J, 4, are Continental
IRON AND BRONZE BUCKLES 355
very commonly of iron, and, as was noticed above (p. 245),
was plainer and more utilitarian. Buckles made of iron must
very commonly have perished, or, lying, as they would, not
conspicuously by the head but about the middle of the body,
have escaped notice owing to their reduction by rust to an
indistinct mass. On PI. lxxv No. 3 shows a rusted iron
buckle of the kind from the early cemetery at Mitcham,
Surrey, and one or two in the same sort of condition from
Bifrons are in the K. A. S. Museum at Maidstone. A more
ornate specimen in the same metal PI. lxxv, 4, comes from
Croydon, Surrey. Kent was undoubtedly one of the richest
parts of the country, and buckles were more likely to be made
of bronze there than in other districts. If iron elsewhere were
the normal material for the buckle we should obtain a reason
for its very partial survival, and should at the same time find
the key to a curious morphological problem connected with it.
This problem arises from the presence in bronze buckles
of features that have no present significance and wear the
appearance of survivals. Iron buckles it must be remembered
were forged while the bronze ones were cast. The large iron
buckle plates of Burgundian and Frankish type were fastened
to the belt by means of studs generally of bronze, the shanks
of which passed through apertures in the plate and through
the leather or linen of the belt, on the under side of which they
were fixed by pins which traversed them, or in some other
fashion. The Faversham buckle plate at Maidstone shown
PI. lxxiii, 2, that measures 6 in. in length and is one of the
few large iron buckles found in this country, shows distinctly
the heads of bronze studs of the kind. In the case of the
bronze buckle plate which was always cast, it was easy to make
in the same piece projecting tangs at the back that were
inserted through holes in the belt and fixed with pins through
them. PI. lxxiii, 3, shows this arrangement in the case of
a cast bronze buckle at Brussels. Notwithstanding this, the
buckle was supplied on the front with the projecting round
356 THE BUCKLE
heads of studs like those which fix the iron buckle plates, and
such rounded projections appear almost universally on the
triangular plates of the bronze buckles both at home and
abroad. It is true that there are cases in which such studs are
used in the cast bronze buckle as effective fastenings, as for
example PL lxxiii, 4, a piece dating about VII, from Wan-
cennes, in the Museum at Namur, but this is exceptional, and
the studs are in the vast majority of cases purely decorative.
No. 5 on PL lxxiii, a cast bronze buckle in the Canterbury
Museum, exhibits them as cast in one piece with the plate.
Of this the provenance is unknown and it may be of con-
tinental origin. It is figured here partly for its ornament
which consists in the rather rare and always late interlacing
work. Arguing according to the recognized canons of typo-
logy, we should conclude that iron buckle plates with effective
studs had preceded the bronze ones in which the studs have
become purely decorative, an order of things we have seen
paralleled in the case of the sword pommels. Now this could
not apply to the very large plated iron buckles already referred
to (p. 174) because these are later in date than the bronze
buckles in question, but it is quite possible that smaller and
simpler iron buckles, such as PL lxxv, 3, were commonly worn
at an earlier period and set the fashion for the bronze ones,
while being of a corrosible material they may have perished in
large numbers and so may partly explain the curious gaps in
the inventories of tomb furniture to which attention has been
called.
Certain adjuncts of the buckle have been referred to (p. 347).
The most important of these is termed sometimes the com-
plementary plate. It consists in an addition on the other
side of the buckle ring of a second plate corresponding
in size and shape to the buckle plate proper. This was
fastened to the belt quite independently of the buckle, and
fastened too by the same sort of permanent attachments, but
in such a position that when the free end of the belt was
LXXIV
facing p. 357
ADJUNCTS OF THE BUCKLE 357
passed through the buckle ring and drawn up tight, the com-
plementary plate would come close up to the latter. Indeed
as will be seen by reference to the large buckle at Fribourg
PI. xviii, 1 (p. 177), or the Brussels buckle PI. lxxiii, 3, the
edge of this plate is indented so as to allow the end of the
tongue of the buckle that projects beyond the ring to fit into
it. It is rather puzzling to see how this arrangement would
work in practice, as it precludes any temporary adjustment
of the fastening of the belt with a view to loosening or
tightening it. The lady could never have taken in her
waistband when she smartened herself up to receive callers,
nor could her lord have let his out a hole or two after one
of those huge meals, which the more delicately bred Roman
provincials like Sidonius Apollinaris could not stomach. This
complementary plate might have been made to slide backwards
and forwards on the belt to allow for such adjustments, but
as we have just seen it was fixed in its place.
With the buckle proper and its own plate and the com-
plementary one there is sometimes found a square plaque of
the same material and pattern. Dr. Lindenschmit * claimed
to have proved from the position in which this has been found
that it was fastened at the back of the belt.
The cemeteries of Gaul have furnished examples of the
complete parure consisting of buckle with buckle plate, com-
plementary plate and square piece of corresponding design.2
The writer has met with no example of the kind in this
country, and even complementary plates are very rare. A
well preserved bronze buckle with such a plate from Barfriston,
Kent, measuring together nearly 7 in. in length, is given
PI. lxxiv, 1, and one with the square back plate from
Sibertswold, Kent, PI. lxxiv, 2. Both suites are in the
Mayer-Faussett collection at Liverpool, and Nos. 5 and 4
on the plate show the backs of Nos. 1 and 2 with the original
1 Handbuch, p. 355.
2 See for example Pilloy, Etudes, 1, pi. A, opposite p. 136.
358 THE BUCKLE
labels in the writing of the Rev. Bryan Faussett still attached
to them.
A series of square plates was sometimes attached along
the belt to add to its handsome appearance. At Mitcham
such a series was found and it is now in the Vestry Hall
at that place, PI. lxxv, i. These plates were intended to
be riveted on, and the length of the small rivets at the four
corners of the plate shows that the belt was of the thickness
of about -£% in., but there are others in the case of which
there is a double thickness of the bronze, and the belt or
strap passes between them. That from Stowting, PL lxxv, 6,
at Stowting Rectory, Kent, was for riveting on. It is
illustrated partly as an example of the somewhat clumsy kind
of ornamentation applied at times by the Saxon artificer to
bronze, where the marks seem to have been scored by main
force in the metal. On the other hand the piece from
our Bifrons cemetery in the Maidstone K. A. S. Museum,
PL lxxv, 2, are double and the band passed between the two
plates, being riveted through at the top and bottom. Only
the corner rivets are really effective, the four intermediate
ones being imitation rivet heads. The two smaller plates at
the ends of the row of five are made to double over the
strap and are only riveted along the upper edges. The
surfaces are tinned, and the swastika ornament is in evidence
on the three larger plates.
Another adjunct to the belt or strap used in connection
with the buckle is the well-known tag or strap end with which
the termination of the band was equipped in order to facilitate
the passing of it through the ring of the buckle and at the
same time to give it a finished look as it hung down loose in
front. In the tomb inventories of some Teutonic districts, as
for example Hungary, these strap ends bulk very largely and
were the recipients of the special attention of the ornamental-
ist. Among ourselves they are neither numerous nor elabor-
ately adorned, but it is worth noting that there is a class of
LXXV
facing p. 358
LXXVI
facing p. 359
STRAP ENDS, SPIRAL WIRE CLASPS, ETC.
i»>:4hi
All approximately natural size
'SHOE SHAPED' STUDS 359
them enriched in an interesting fashion that can be dated on
sure evidence to about IX. These as specimens of later
Anglo-Saxon art will be considered on a subsequent occasion.
The strap ends of the pagan period have mostly been found in
Kent, where as we have seen buckles are specially numerous,
and PI. lxxvi gives a few, No. 1 from Ozengell, Kent, and the
rest, No. 2, from the King's Field, Faversham, and from
Bifrons. They vary in length from about i\ to \\ in. The
butt end is usually split and the end of the strap is secured
between the two thicknesses of the metal. Another form of
the strap end, of some archaeological importance, will be
noticed later on in another connection (p. 558).
A final word must be said about an interesting little adjunct
to the buckle illustrated PI. lxxv, 7 and also on the previous
Plate xxiv, 6 (p. 203). This is the so-called ' shoe shaped '
stud, which is one of the objects that are as common on the
Gallic side of the Channel as on ours. They are supposed to
have been used to fasten the strap or belt round the back of
the buckle ring when this had no chape attached to it, the
band being doubled round the bar at the back of the ring,
just as is the case with our ordinary leather straps, and the two
thicknesses, instead of being sewn together by the cobbler,
were pierced by the tang underneath the shoe-shaped surface
of the stud through the hole in which a pin was passed to
keep all firm. At Barrington, Cambs, a buckle seems to have
been found with part of a band adhering to it still pierced by
a stud of the kind,1 which seems to certify the presumed
arrangement. An interesting little exhibit in the Cambridge
Museum is shown PI. lxxv, 5. It is a bronze buckle from
Royston Heath, Cambridgeshire, and still has adhering to it
part of the leathern band that was doubled round the bar at
the back of the ring, and also part of the free end of the strap
1 Cambridge Antiquarian Society's Communications, vol. v, No. 1 1 ,
pi. 11, 5. M. Boulanger, Mobilier Funeraire, p. 77, notices two other similar
discoveries.
360 THE CLASP
passed through the ring and fixed by the penetration of it by
the tongue of the buckle. Another view of the same piece has
been given PI. v, 12 (p. 81).
Due notice should be taken of the great diversities in size
among the buckles and their adjuncts that have now been
passed in review. The aperture for the band or strap in Ger-
manic buckles generally varies in width between the extremes
of about 4 in. and less than \ in., and though Anglo-Saxon
England furnishes none of the very large ones yet the range
of sizes is even here a pretty wide one, and betokens the use
of the buckle in connection with more than one part of the
clothing. This however raises at once the rather obscure
question of the clothing of our forefathers and foremothers of
the migration period, and it will be best to defer any discussion
of this till all the tomb furniture connected with the wardrobe
and toilette has been passed in review.
Other appliances for fastening the parts of clothing used
in Anglo-Saxon times were hooks and eyes of different kinds,
clasps, and pins. A simple form of the hook and eye arrange-
ment was made of twisted wire, the part intended to be sewn
on to the garment being coiled round in a spiral. PI. lxxvi, 5,
shows a pair from Twyford, Leicestershire, in Leicester
Museum. Other such objects are recorded from Market
Overton, Rutland ; Kenninghall, Norfolk ; Sleaford, Lincoln-
shire, and Beeby, Leicestershire, see Archaeologia^ lxii, 484.
Spiral wire attachments of the kind occur in the early finds in
Nydam Moss in Schleswig, see Engelhardt, Denmark in the
Early Iron Age, Nydam, pi. v. A far more elaborate and
technically very interesting set is that figured PI. lxxvi, 4.
It is one of two clasps found about 19 10 at Market Overton,
Rutland, and now at Tickencote Hall in that county. It will
easily be seen that what appear on the face as round discs are
merely the ends of the spirally coiled wires beaten out flat in a
manner that betokens good metal and a knowing hammerer.
LXXVII
facing p. 361
CLASPS OF THE LARGER KIND
4, natural size; 2, 5, slightly enlarged ; 3, enlarged to double size; 1, half natural size
LARGE BELT CLASPS 361
The silver wires themselves are in parts worked into a beading
and elsewhere left plain, which is also instructive from the
technical standpoint. The craftsman must have had a steel
tool with the pattern cut in intaglio in a half cylinder and have
worked this round and round the wire as a screw plate is
worked to produce the thread of a male screw. The circles
that ornament the face of the discs seem to have been worked
free-hand for they are not concentric and not always complete.
A curious clasp in the Museum at Leicester, PI. lxxvi, 3, was
found between Twyford and Borough Hill in the county, and
consists in two narrow strips of silver, about 6 in. long, one of
which ends in a hook the other in an eye. This leads us on to the
subject of the clasp proper on which a word or two must be said.
The clasp proper appears in two forms. There are one or
two examples of substantial size such as would serve for the
fastening of a waistbelt, but the vast majority of the specimens
are quite small and evidently, from the position in which they
have been found, served to close a wristlet or a sleeve at the
wrist. Save in a few cases they are not of great moment as
works of art, but are exceedingly important from the point of
view of their distribution, and in this aspect they must receive
due attention. PL lxxvii, i, shows a large ornate cast bronze
clasp, 8 in. long over all and 3 in. in width, and evidently
intended for the belt. An animal in open work forms the
centre of each square plate, and through some blunder in pre-
paring the moulds for the cast one of the creatures is standing
on his head. The borders of the square plates are apparently
treated for enamel. The object, which is in the possession of
Lord Grantley, comes from the Forman collection and its
provenance is unknown, but the pierced work belongs to a
type well known in the north of France where it is reckoned
as Carolingian.1 It is quite possible that the clasp is an \
imported piece though the blunder in the casting looks more
1 J. Pilloy, Les Tlaques Ajourees Carolingiennes, Paris, 1893, and Les
Tlaques Ajourees des Boris de la Somme, Paris, 1888.
362 THE CLASP
like one of our native artificers trying his hand at an unfamiliar
kind of work. Its late date may be accepted as certain. Of
native provenance, though not certainly a clasp, is the beautiful
little object from the cemetery at Gilton, Kent, grave 41,
already figured PL ix, 6 (p. 103) as an almost unique example of
definitely floral ornament in the tomb furniture, and as a piece
of comparatively advanced date. It is given here, PL lxxvii, 3
on an enlarged scale as it is an object of rare interest. The
actual longest dimension is about 1 in. On the edge of the
plate near the quaint little animal's head two pieces of the
metal, each about T3^ in. wide, have been broken off leaving
between them about -§- in. of the original edge. The appear-
ance is best explained by supposing that the loop side of a
clasp has been broken off, and if this be the case it would be
another example, this time of Kentish provenance, of the
' plaque ajouree ' of a somewhat late epoch. Of earlier origin
and of great beauty is the gilded bronze clasp found in the
extremely rich interment within the Taplow Barrow. This is
one of a pair, and from the size and shape of the two and their
position in the grave they appear to have fastened the belt.
The colour plate, PI. B, iv (p. 353), on the left, gives the object
as it appears in the British Museum and PL lxxvii, 2, shows
the ornament nearly of the natural size. The heads of the
creatures on the loop of the clasp are of a characteristic type
which is also represented on the exquisite little golden buckle
from Faversham, also in the national collection illustrated in
its natural colour, PL B, iv, above in the middle. Dr. Salin
signalizes this head as characteristic of his Style 11 and would
date it not far from the year 600 which is the official date
given for the Taplow find. It will be observed, as according
with what was said before (p. 329 f.), that the interlacing motive
<t is highly developed both on the ring and in the triangular
spaces of the plates. See also (p. 289).
We come now to the smaller clasps so often found at the
LXXVIII
facing p. 363
CLASPS OF THE SMALLER KIND
All approximately natural size
SMALL CLASPS FOR THE WRIST 363
wrists of skeletons. These occur abundantly in the eastern
Midlands in the counties of Lincolnshire, Rutland, Northants,
Huntingdon, Cambridge, and north-western Suffolk ; and have
come to light also in Norfolk, Leicestershire, the north-east
corner of Warwickshire, Hunts, and probably Bedfordshire,
and also in Yorkshire. Two clasps from Bifrons, Kent, and
one part of one at Lewes from Sussex are sporadic. The
clasps vary from very plain examples in beaten work to
specimens cast, chased, and gilded in the best style of the
times. PI. lxxviii, 1 to 9, and PI. lxxvii, 4, 5, give a fair idea
of the different kinds. PI. lxxviii, 1, is a very plain one from
near Welbourn, Lincolnshire ; No. 2, in tinned bronze, i-f in.
high, is from Holdenby, Northants, in Northampton Museum ;
No. 3 is from Rothley Temple, Leicestershire, in the School
Museum, Rugby. More ornate and of cast bronze is the pair
from Londesborough, Yorks, in the Museum at Hull, if in.
broad, PL lxxviii, 4, and that from West Stow Heath, Suffolk,
at Bury St. Edmunds, No. 5. These are all about 1^ to if in.
in the longest dimension, and are suitable for use at the wrist.
The most artistic form of the sleeve clasp of cast bronze
is one that is found in places as far apart as Lewes in Sussex
and Londesborough in the East Riding of Yorkshire. PL
lxxvii, 4, 5 ; PL lxxviii, 6 to 9, illustrate six clasps from the
regions in each case indicated. PL lxxviii, 9, at York is from
Londesborough ; No. 7, at Normanton, Rutland, was found
at North Luffenham, Rutland ; No. 6, from Mildenhall,
Suffolk, is at Bury St. Edmunds ; Lewes Museum,; Sussex,
preserves one part of a similar clasp, PL lxxvii, 5, from Saxon-
bury just outside the town ; and finally at Bifrons House are
the clasp PL lxxviii, 8, and the fine example PL lxxvii, 4.
This measures about 2 in. in the longest dimension, the others
are about i|- or if in. It is also the best in execution and
preserves in their most definite form the motives of ornament
which occur regularly in all the other examples in this series.
The design is seen most clearly when the clasp is turned at
364 THE CLASP
right angles to its usual position when in wear. From the
centre where are the hook and the loop of the fastening there
branches out in each plate a sort of volute in the eye of which
may be discerned some of the ' disjecta membra ' of a Ger-
manic beast of the last half of VI. Above, outside the volutes,
there are crouching quadrupeds similar to those which we have
seen on the feet of the square headed fibulae, and each of these
is springing forward towards the centre. Those at the top as
the object appears on the plate possess hind and forelegs,
eyebrows that look at first sight like open jaws, eyes, and
muzzles like a bird's beak, and might quite well date the
object about the middle of VI. The Lewes piece, PI. lxxvii, 5,
has the same features not quite so well made out.
These attractive little objects, the small wrist clasps, are
certainly of native origin for the type does not occur on the
Continent, save sporadically in Scandinavia, and though some
specimens of unusual excellence have made their appearance in
the south of England the habitat of the type seems to be the
Midlands, especially the district of which Cambridgeshire is
the centre. Here we may assume that they were made, and
their popularity in this region may possibly be due to certain
special fashions in dress affected by the people of those parts
of Britain. The position in which so many of the clasps have
been found, especially in the cemetery at Sleaford, Lincoln-
shire, shows that they were habitually worn at the wrist, pre-
sumably though of course not certainly for the fastening of
sleeves. Mr. Thomas, the explorer of Sleaford, seemed to
think that they were for the closing of wristlets of leather or
some such material, but, as Mr. Leeds has pointed out,1 such
appliques if used on leather would be attached by rivets, and
no signs of rivets seem to have appeared ; while on the other
hand clasps actually exist, in the Ashmolean and in Mr. S. G.
Fenton's collection in London, with woven fabric still adhering
to them, even with the marks of stitches still apparent.
1 Northamptonshire Natural History Society's Journal, vol. xv, Sept. 1909, p. 93.
LXXIX
facing p. 365
CLASP SUITES
2, natural size ; 1, § natural size
ADJUNCTS TO CLASPS 365
In the district indicated, not only are the known examples
numerous, but the clasp develops forms more elaborate though
artistically less meritorious than the specimens just illustrated
from Kent and Sussex. The example PL lxxix, 2, from the
cemetery at Barrington, Cambs, now in the Cambridge
Museum, exhibits a clasp to one half of which is appended, all
in the same piece, a triangular projection the purpose of which
appears to have been the covering of the part slit up where the
sleeve opens to let the hand through. The back view of the
piece on the left proves the continuity of the triangular exten-
sion with the clasp proper. The existence of this complete
arrangement explains the appearance in graves in other ceme-
teries of these ornate triangular pieces apart from the clasp.
Such objects occur in this district as at North Luffenham,
Rutland, PL lxxix, 3. Whether these pieces were in most
cases separate or were originally united to the actual clasps as
in the instance PL lxxix, 2, may be doubted, but the appear-
ance of the edges of those that can be examined seems to show
that they were fashioned apart. The crouching beasts on the
edges of the Bifrons clasp PL lxxvii, 4, and those like it,
make it impossible that any such adjunct was cast in one piece
with the clasp plates. The interesting suite from Barrington,
the various pieces in which are now united in the Cambridge
Museum, shown PL lxxix, i, gives us a fine late VI square
headed fibula, 6 in. long, of the English type, flanked by clasps
of the volute kind already illustrated, above which in separate
pieces are the triangular extensions. This shows incidentally
that the cast bronze volute clasps were used for the wrist, and
were not as might be surmised in the case of the large
specimen from Bifrons, PL lxxvii, 4, girdle fastenings. Ornate
triangular pieces of this kind might also be parts of the
mounting of wooden pails or of horns, as Pll. lx, i ; cxiii, 5
(pp. 3 1 9, 464). The Taplow Barrow produced a large number
of them. The occurrence in such pieces of holes along the sides,
as in PL lxxix, 3, might be held to show that they were sewn
366 THE CLASP
on to a garment and used with clasps, but unfortunately the
triangular bucket mounts might also have rivet holes in the
same places, as in the case with the interesting bucket mounts
at Worcester shown PL cxiii, 5, 6 (p. 464).
The pin is the last of the appliances for fastening the attire
of which notice needs to be taken.
Casting a general glance at these four methods of dress
attachment, we may note that the fibula belongs practically to
all the European peoples from the Early Iron Age onwards,
while the buckle is a specifically Teutonic object. The range
of the clasp is still narrower for it is an Anglo-Saxon speciality
only appearing sporadically in a few examples on the Continent.
It does not even possess abroad such a distinctive name as
among ourselves. Every one knows at once what the word
1 clasp ' means, but the German ' Heftel ' and ' Schliesse,' the
French ' agrafe ' and * fermoir ' are used more vaguely. It is
an additional proof how independent our Anglo-Saxon work is
of that of the Franks that whereas clasps are with ourselves
fully in evidence they take so small a place in inventories of
tomb furniture across the Channel that it is difficult to find
any reference to them at all. There is no mention even of
the object in the comprehensive works on Merovingian art
by MM. Boulanger and Barriere-Flavy, and on the 38 plates
devoted by the latter to 'Agrafes' no single clasp is represented.
M. Pilloy1 appears to describe clasps as found at Samson in
Belgium, but no specimen is figured on the plates in the Re-
port,2 though something of the kind seems to be mentioned on
p. 349. Under the heading ' Agrafes de Manteau ' M. Pilloy
publishes some objects with hooks in the first volume of
his Etudes, pp. 243, 245, but there is no complementary
' eye ' and one does not see how the attachment could be
effected. The clasp is not recognized at Selzen or Reichenhall
1 Etudes, 1, 103, 'agrafes doubles avec crochet d'attache.'
2 Annales de la Soctete Arcbeologique de Namur, vi, 345 f.
RARITY OF CLASPS ABROAD 367
or Gammertingen, nor, to the writer's knowledge, in any of
the Rhineland and Swabian cemeteries, though occasionally
what passes in the inventories as part of a buckle without its
pin has rather the appearance of the loop end of a clasp.
Further east in Hungary examples are found, but of them
Professor Hampel reports1 that ' clasps in two corresponding
portions are among the greatest rarities in the tomb furni-
ture of the epoch.' There is one big clasp at Budapest with
interesting figure subjects and Christian emblems upon it that
is a * unicum ' to be placed beside our unique Taplow clasp,
and there are also a number of clasps consisting in two round
discs connected with a hook and eye arrangement, but there is
nothing resembling the wrist clasps of our own country. In
the North one or two examples are figured by Engelhardt on
his Thorsberg plates 6 and 18, but they do not occur in
Professor Mestorf's Urnenfriedhofe in Schleswig Holstein nor in
her Vorgeschichtliche Alterthumer dealing with the same district,
nor again in J. H. Miiller's Vor- und fruhgeschichtliche Alter-
thiimer der Provinz Hannover, Hannover, 1893. In the earlier
LaTene period the object was represented, but not in forms that
in any way look towards our own. We may therefore fairly
claim the clasp especially in the forms already illustrated as an
essentially English, and so far as distribution goes a specially
mid-Anglian product.
The pin on the other hand is only Anglo-Saxon in a very
secondary sense, for the period of its greatest glory is that
known by the name of Hallstatt. It is of course far far older
and goes back at least to neolithic times, while in the course
of its history it gave birth as we have seen to the safety pin
fibula, itself in turn responsible for so prolific a progeny. At
Hallstatt we find the pin in the noblest form that is anywhere
represented by extant remains, and in the Museum at Vienna
there are dress pins as much as 13 in. long that were supplied,
like the modern hat pin in well-ordered communities, with
1 Altertbiimer in Ungarn, 1, 337.
368 THE PIN
point protectors.1 That Greek ladies used formidable pins to
attach their Dorian tunics on the shoulders is proved both by
the evidence of literature and of that of vase paintings, but no
actual specimens seem to be known.
In the Germanic period pins are found in women's graves
with reasonable frequency, but opinions have been divided as
to whether they were used for dress fastenings or as part of
the coiffure. They have been discovered in positions which
seemed to indicate a use for both purposes, and M. van
Bastelaer summarizes the evidence as follows : — ' La plupart
des auteurs regardent ces petits objets comme epingles a
cheveux, d'autres comme epingles a attacher les vetements.
Nous pensons que ces deux usages d'occasion etaient admis.
Nous l'avons nous-memes constate dans nos fouilles, ayant
trouve le style parfois sur la poitrine et parfois sous la nuque
de la morte.'2 M. Pilloy was for a time uncertain, but ex-
pressed his conviction in the first volume of his Etudes ', p. 112,
that the pins were generally used to fasten a small wrap or
fichu round the shoulders, and not in the coiffure. The
position of the pin in the grave, when this comes to be opened,
would be much the same whether it had been used in the hair
or to fasten a part of the dress under the chin, and in any case
position in the grave like every other piece of archaeological
evidence has to be received in a critical spirit.
It has been usual for our Anglo-Saxon antiquaries to
assume that the pins found in our graves were for the hair,
and in the case of some of them such employment can almost
be demonstrated (p. 387). It must be remembered at the same
time that certain pins of a plain kind were apparently employed
to keep together the edges of the winding sheet in which a body
was wrapped for burial,3 and this renders plausible the suppo-
1 Von Sacken, Das Grabfeld von Hallstatt, Wien, 1868, pi. xv, xvi, shows
some specimens.
2 Le Cimeture franc de Fontaine-Valmont, 1895, p. 34.
3 e.g. at Harnham Hill, Wilts.
LXXX
facing p. 369
LARGE PINS FOR DRESS OR HAIR
All somewhat reduced, save 6, which is enlarged
PINS FOR DRESS AND HAIR ' 369
sition of a similar use in the case of the garments of the living.
In a report by Charles Roach Smith on the discoveries at
Ozengell in Kent quoted on a previous page (p. 190), it is
said that the dress of a female f appeared to have been fastened
in front by a long metal pin,' and of course for * dress ' here
might be read ' winding sheet.' As would follow naturally
from the history of the pin, the object when found in Anglo-
Saxon graves exhibits sometimes elements of older date.
There was nothing of which the Hallstatt people were more
enamoured than what the Germans call c Klapperschmuck,'
consisting in the attachment to the heads of pins or to brooches
of movable metal plates that jingled when the wearer moved.
The more perfect was the freedom of the vibration the better
would be the effect, and a pin equipped in this fashion would
fulfil its function more pleasingly when projecting from the
coiffure than when in contact with the folds of drapery.
Hence the pin with ' Klapperschmuck ' found in the cemetery
at Leagrave in Bedfordshire, PI. lxxx, 2, would suggest a use
in the hair, though in the British Museum it is labelled ' cloak
pin.' There are parallels to the Leagrave pin and these have
mostly been found under conditions that suggest an early date.
At Brighthampton, Oxfordshire, in grave 17, a bronze pin
of the kind was found ' on the breast ' of a skeleton, though
J. Y. Akerman who reported on the cemetery calls it a hair
pin.1 One was also discovered at Searby, Lincolnshire, in
company with a round headed fibula of the radiating sub-type
ending with a horse's head, the date of which may be reckoned
the last half of V. An example from Canterbury found in the
city near the so-called Watling Street is probably Romano-
British. In northern France a Franco-Roman tomb of about
400 a.d. noticed later on (p. 552 f.) contained a pin of the
kind.
Other pins with movable heads of a different sort are
illustrated from the Museum at Northampton, PI. lxxx, 3.
1 Archaeologia, xxxvn, 393.
hi 2 a
370 THE PIN
They were found at Brixworth, Northants, and as the right
hand one of the two, 5 in. long, has late interlacing ornament
upon the hinged plate at the head it may conceivably have
been worn by a Brixworth lady who attended service in the
still existing church built about 680 a.d.1 These hinged pin
heads are Celtic rather than Germanic in character, and the
arrangement and the ornamentation of this piece are reminis-
cent of an Irish pin figured on p. 36 of Mr. George Coffey's
Guide to the Celtic Antiquities in the National Museum, Dublin.
No. 3, to the left, also with a movable ring hinged to the
head, is d\ in. long. No. 4, 3^ in. long, also from Brixworth,
has a fixed head and is more of the ordinary Germanic type.
The prototypes of pins of the kind are not Celtic but Roman,
and in many cases it is hardly possible to tell a Roman sur-
vival from a Teutonic copy. For example there is a pin in
the Museum at Canterbury of which the head represents a
hand holding a small incrusted stone, PI. lxxx, 5. That
this is Roman seems indicated by the fact that a similar piece
in the Museum at Basel was found on a Roman site at Kaiser
Augst. At Leagrave, Beds, there was found what is almost
certainly a Roman stylus, PI. lxxix, 4, and this introduces the
question whether Roman styli for writing were commandeered
by the Teutonic ladies to serve as hair pins. There is no
reason in the nature of things why this should not have taken
place and the older archaeologists accepted it as an article of
faith. It has more recently been questioned, and M. Pilloy,
in commenting on the so-called ' styliform ' pins common in
northern France 2 concludes that the flat spatula-like termina-
tion of these hair pins was not the wax-smoother of a stylus
but an appliance for parting the hair and taking up small
quantities of pomade. In his chronological arrangement of
the items of Frankish tomb furniture he makes small pins
1 The Arts in Early England, 11, 246 f.
2 Memoires de la Societe Acad'emique des Sciences, etc., de St. Shientin, 4me
Sdrie, Tom. vi, p. 467.
LXXXI
facing p. 371
SMALL PINS, ETC., AND GERMANIC COSTUME
1, 5, 6, natural size ; 2, 3, somewhat reduced j 4, enlarged nearly twice
PINS AND PIN SUITES 371
early and relegates the longer ones to the later Merovingian
or the Carolingian epoch.
The most purely Germanic pins are those which terminate
in the heads of model axes of the specially Teutonic type,
specimens of which from Belgium were given on one of the
plates illustrating the forms of axe heads PI. xxx, 5 (p. 233).
Anglo-Saxon examples do not seem to be known. One of
these Belgian pins has a cross on the head and this can be
paralleled in the bronze pin found on Breach Down in Kent
and figured PI. x, 5 (p. 11 5).
The cemeteries of the south coast have yielded up some
very handsome pins brought together on PI. lxxx. No. i
figures a set from the King's Field, Faversham, in the British
Museum, where the bird-headed examples are reminiscent of
finds in the Frankish cemeteries. The pin with garnet inlays
on the head and with a broken point is in its present condition
64 in. long. The complete one measures 7^ in. Seven in. is
the length of a very handsome gilt bronze pin from Alfriston
in the Lewes Museum. PI. lxxx, 6, shows the head of it on
an enlarged scale, and it will be seen that it is moulded and
faceted in a very workmanlike fashion. This method of
finishing bronze is an inheritance from Rome, though there is
no reason to believe that all objects which show this treatment
are of specially early date. The Alfriston cemetery dates in
the main from the middle and last half of VI. A pin strikingly
similar to this was found in the High Down cemetery, Sussex.
Some pins of a smaller kind are illustrated PI. lxxxi.
Some have rings in the head and others were set there with
garnets or other stones. Two specimens from Kent, 5, 6, less
than 2 in. long, will serve as examples. Of exceptional
delicacy and charm is the suite figured PI. lxxxi, 2. The
objects were found in 1840 near the neck of a skeleton buried,
as a primary interment, in a barrow on Roundway \Down,
Wilts, and consisted in the parts of a necklet with jewels and
pastes set in gold, No. 3, and in the two golden pins with
372 COSTUME
jewelled heads united by a chain, No. 2. The chain ends in
two animals' heads, and in the middle of the chain appears a
roundel of dark vitrified paste set in gold with a cross figured
on it in step-pattern lines. No. 4 shows it in front and back
view of double size. It will be referred to later on (p. 425).
The whole belongs to a small class of finds of much interest
which will be noticed subsequently (p. 424 f.). Here we are
only concerned with the pins which are i-| in. long and
connected by about 5 in. of chain. Another golden pin suite
is shown PL lxxxi, i, and comes from Little Hampton,
Worcestershire. In the middle is a disc of gold set in the
centre with a flat stone and from this a pendant of some kind
was hung. The chain on each side is composed of straight
pieces nearly an inch in length, covered with a sort of web of
wire work, alternating with debased horses' heads hinged so
that the chain may bend in two directions. Pins nearly 2 in.
long, one of which remains, were hinged at the ends of the
chain, which may of course have been longer by other links
now lost. It is actually about £>\ in. long.
A very fine jewelled head of a pin, if that be really its
character, was found at Forest Gate in Essex and is now in
the Ashmolean. It will be noticed later on (p. 538) in con-
nection with inlaid jewellery of the Kentish type of which it
is a sumptuous example.
The conclusion of this review of the different forms of
dress fastenings in Anglo-Saxon tomb furniture is a fitting
opportunity for a word or two on the dress of the period as
worn by the first settlers in Teutonic England, though it must
be admitted that in the words of a recent writer on the subject
' what the actual clothes were which the Anglo-Saxons wore
during the pagan period is a matter upon which not much
reliable evidence is available.' x On this subject of Germanic
costume something was said in the writer's previous work
1 George Clinch, English Costume, Lond., 1909, p. 18.
SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE OF COSTUME 373
already referred to, and it will be sufficient here to summarize
briefly the main points of importance without adding unduly
to the already large number of our illustrations.
Information may be sought from monumental and from
literary sources. The former include (1) tombstones of
Roman soldiers represented as victorious over barbarian foe-
men ; (2) the columns of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and of
Trajan at Rome and the reliefs at Bucharest from the monu-
ment at Adamklissi in the Dobruja, where are shown incidents
of the wars between the Romans and their northern neighbours;
(3) some consular diptychs, the most important of which is
that at Halberstadt, and the great cameos of the early imperial
epoch at the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, and at Vienna, in
which groups of Germanic captives are shown in the lower
compartment and in the exergue ; while (4) for our own
country there must be added the figures carved on the so-called
' Franks Casket ' in the British Museum, almost certainly a
Northumbrian work of VII. The representations in the
illuminated manuscripts are all too late to be of absolute
authority for the migration epoch, but are of course of first
rate value for their own times and have also retrospective
worth. Literary notices begin with Caesar and Tacitus, and
later historians of the imperial age such as Ammianus
Marcellinus supply incidental information. The Byzantine
historians of the later period of the migrations, Procopius,
Agathias, etc., are useful, and something is to be gleaned from
the annalists of the different Teutonic peoples, Jornandes,
Gregory of Tours, Paulus Diaconus, Bede, and of course
from the older heroic lays such as Beowulf.
The most satisfactory general idea of the dress which we
obtain is derived from descriptions we possess of the attire of
Charles the Great, who made it a matter of patriotic pride to
adhere to the traditional Frankish costume. At Aachen or
Ingelheim, as we learn from Einhard,1 Charles^clothed his
1 Mon. Germ. Hist., Script., 11, 455.
374 COSTUME
magnificent frame in linen combinations over which came hose
or trews and a woollen jerkin trimmed with silk. The shoes
which were buckled over the feet had attached to them bands
three ells in length, that were wound round the leg crossing
at front and at back as far as the knee, where they were as we
know from other evidence fastened with small buckles. To
protect the upper part of the body from the cold Charles wore
a garment that can be traced back as one of the most primitive
articles of vesture. This was a sort of cape or scapular of fur
that shielded the front and back of the body as far as the
girdle. It is called in Caesar and other writers * rheno,' and
one of these tells us that its name was derived from that of an
animal — obviously the reindeer. Charles's c rheno ' was how-
ever of otter or sable. Finally, a sea-green mantle clasped on
the shoulder completed the attire, and a sword was always
worn in the belt wherewith the tunic was girded. Pictorial
representations of a costume of the kind agreeing more or less
closely are found in Carolingian MSS., from which PL lxxxii,
i, 3, are taken. No. 3 is a figure of Charles the Bald, grand-
son of the great Charles, and No. 1 is an officer of his court.
They come from the sumptuous Bible, Bibl. Nat., Lat. 1,
written for Charles the Bald. No. 2 on the same plate is a
representation, made up with due reference to evidence, of a
typical Frankish warrior of the actual migration epoch. The
photograph is from the statue issued by the Central Germanic
Museum at Mainz. The last represents of course war costume
the other two the vesture of peace, and in them no weapon is
shown, though Charles the Great always carried a sword.
The elements of this costume can be traced much further
back. Its chief constituents, hosen, tunic, and mantle, are
mentioned and represented in the earliest documents but not
as all worn together. Tacitus expressly signalizes the cloak,
' sagum,' and speaks of the rich as wearing a close fitting
vesture which showed the form of the limbs, by which we may
understand the trews or hosen. The women, he says, dressed
LXXXII
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LXXXIII
facing p. 375
TEUTONIC COSTUME IN SCULPTURE
Alljrom Continental monuments
DRESS ON ANTIQUE MONUMENTS 375
like the men, and he refers in their case to linen tunics
trimmed with purple, which had no sleeves and left the arms,
shoulders, and upper part of the bosom bare.1 The early
sculptured monuments convey the same impression. On the
tombstones the fallen German wears sometimes the cloak and
nothing else and sometimes only the trews.2 A bronze
statuette of a kneeling German in the Bibliotheque Nationale,
Paris,3 is clad in trews and a cloak, and on the Antonine
column a Roman is fighting a barbarian equipped in the same
fashion.* At a much later date in VI Agathias describes the
foot-soldiers of the Frankish-Alamannic host that Butelin led
into Italy in 553 as dressed only in the trews, covering the
loins and lower limbs. On the reliefs of the Antonine
column the tunic is also much in evidence both on male and
on female figures and is represented often as sleeveless,
PI. lxxxiii, 4, and as worn under a mantle quite in classical
fashion, No. 3. It also appears on the figures of both sexes
with sleeves, Nos. 3, 5, and women draw the cloak over their
heads like a veil, also in classical guise, No. 5. One may
doubt indeed whether the costumes in these reliefs are not
entirely Romanized. There is a more genuine look of barbaric
character in the dresses worn by the Germanic captives in the
reliefs on the diptych of Halberstadt, figured here PI. lxxxiii,
I, 2, though it is not possible to tell which particular sec-
tion of the Teutonic peoples is represented. Most unfor-
tunately the surface of the ivory reliefs is much worn and
invaluable details have in this way been lost. The following
description is based on casts from the original. On the upper
relief, No. 1 , we have on the left a bearded figure with a short
tunic reaching half way down the thigh, and apparently, from
1 De Mot: Germ., xvn. This thoroughly classical attire is illustrated
from the Antonine column on PI. lxxxiii, 4..
2 Lindenschmit, Tracbt und Bewaffnung des Romischen Heeres, Taf. vn, vm.
3 Figured in Arts and Crafts, etc., plate in.
4 Petersen, etc., Die Marcus-Saule, etc., Miinchen, 1896, pi. 86a.
376 COSTUME
lines above the ankles of the two legs, with tight fitting
hosen (?). The lady next him, with her hair drawn up in a knot
on the top of the head, like the second female in the relief
below, wears a sleeveless tunic with very elaborate ornamental
work bordering it, and with a distinctly visible girdle. The
mother nursing her child to the right has a tunic without
sleeves and unadorned, a mantle round the lower limbs and
hair flowing from under a fillet in ample locks on to both
shoulders, while the last figure is the most remarkable of all.
He is a bearded man with something like a Phrygian cap on
his head, something over his shoulders that suggests a fur
cape like Charles's 'rheno,' a short tunic, and on the legs
elaborate hosen with ornament down the front of them that
looks like rows of buttons. The bearded male figure with
short hair in No. 2, the undermost of the two reliefs, to the
left with his hands tied behind his back wears only the trews ;
the woman next him with the child has a sleeveless tunic with
very widely open armholes, hair flowing down over the
shoulders and bound round the head by a fillet, and a cloak
apparently thrown over the right shoulder towards the back ;
her companion beside her wears a similar tunic and has the
lower part of the body enveloped in an ample wrap, while the
hair seems to be drawn up into a knot at the top of the head ;
finally, the male figure towards whom she turns seems to be
dressed only in a short tunic reaching half way down the thigh
and open in front as far as the waist, the V shaped aperture
being bordered with what looks like a band of embroidery.
The arms introduced embrace round shields that are Teu-
tonic, but also trapezoidal ones which are of Roman fashion.
There is a quiver of arrows, and lastly a sword in its sheath
that bears a most striking resemblance to the scramasax. It
has an abnormally long hilt without any marked pommel and
ends square below like the scabbard of Childeric's cutlass as
restored by Lindenschmit and Pilloy.1
1 Etudes, in, pi. i.
COSTUME ON THE FRANKS CASKET 377
A passage in Paulus Diaconus cannot be passed over.1 In
describing some early Lombard wall paintings at Monza of about
the year 600 he says of the personages therein portrayed that
they wore ample robes mostly of linen, as did also the Anglo-
Saxons, bordered with broad stripes of other colours. The last
figure in PI. lxxxiii, 2, and the first and second in No. 1,
illustrate this last remark. The Lombard shoes were open
over the instep almost as far down as the great toe and were
laced up with leathern thongs. The ' cross gartering ' on the
legs with bands three ells long is specially noted by the Monk
of St. Gall in his account of the dress of Charles the Great,2
and is seen on the figure of Charles the Bald PL lxxxii, 3.
The king is apparently not wearing shoes for the toes seem to
be visible, but the figure PL lxxxii, i, has what resemble
moccasins fitting tightly to the foot and drawn up over the
ankles half way to the knee.
About midway in point of time between the representations
on the diptych of Halberstadt and those in the Bible of Charles
the Bald may be placed the carvings on the Franks Casket
already mentioned (p. 205), a work of native Anglo-Saxon art
dated by runologists about 650 to 700 a.d.3 The monument
as a whole will be discussed in a later volume in connection
with the carved stones, and here it is enough to say that it
is a casket of whalebone, about 9 in. in length by 7^- in
breadth with a height of about 5 in., and is covered with
carvings of figure subjects drawn from historical, biblical,
and legendary sources and elucidated by runic inscriptions.
PL lxxxi, 7 to 10, show one or two characteristic figures. No. 7
is a warrior bareheaded armed with sword and round shield
and clad in a sleeved tunic girded in at the waist and falling in
skirt-like folds to the knee. Under it are seen rather ample
leggings reaching to the ankle. Between him and the figure
1 Hist. Gentis Langobardorum, iv, 22. 2 Mon. Germ. Hist., Script., 11, 747.
3 This date is given with all due reservation, and must be discussed in
its place.
378 COSTUME
in front similarly attired but with close fitting hosen or bare
legs is a warrior falling backwards who wears a coat of mail.
No. 9, one of the three Magi, has a tunic, the ample leggings,
and a cloak, the ' sagum ' of Tacitus. A cloak of voluminous
dimensions enwrapping the whole figure is worn by No. 8.
The female figure, No. io, from the story of the smith Weland,
is also clad in a voluminous mantle drawn up over the head
like a hood, and carries in her hand a bag.
With regard to the coiffure, for men as well as women to
wear the hair long was a common tradition among the Teutonic
tribes, and many Roman tombstones show it, but on the
Antonine column it is generally represented as short, though
wild and tumbled. When the Alamanni charge the troops of
Julian in the battle by Strassburg their flowing hair bristles
with eagerness.1 At a later date extreme length of locks on
the male head became a speciality of the royal race of the Salian
Franks, the Merwings, but the free Teuton in general did not
abandon his ample locks in favour of the short-clipped hair of
the classical people, and he wore generally also the unclassical
moustache. The Anglo-Saxons wore the hair long down to
the Conquest as is shown by the fact that some of them
thought that the closely cropped heads of the Norman invaders
were those of priests.
In the case of women the Halberstadt reliefs show two
distinct arrangements, (i) flowing locks with a fillet and (2) a
top knot, while the Antonine column and the Franks Casket
supply examples of the mantle drawn over the head like a veil.
Lindenschmit 2 brings forward evidence that the loose hair
betokened the virgin while married women had theirs bound
up. It is rather against this that the two women engaged with
children on the Halberstadt reliefs are exactly those that have
the long tresses. Both maidens and matrons however wore
the fillet or diadem, and Lindenschmit quotes numerous
references to this under the names ' vitta,' ' corona ' or ' dia-
1 Am. Marc, xvi, xii, 36. 2 Handbucb, 383 f.
THE TREWS 379
dema.' It was sometimes of gold set with gems and in this
case would be of metal, but it might consist also in a band of
coloured fabric ; purple is mentioned by Angilbert in his
verses on the brave show made by the consort and daughters
of Charles the Great, a'nd this might be embroidered with
gold.
For the present purpose these notices and illustrations
of dress are only of importance in connection with tomb
furniture. The trews have historical significance. Like
sleeves they are distinctly non-classical and barbaric. The
outland slave maiden who stands by her mistress on the
Athenian tomb reliefs is figured with sleeves, and in Greek
sculpture Persians and Scythians are always shown wearing
the loose trousers called among the former avafp)pi§€<;. In
Roman sculpture Gauls and Germans are similarly dressed.
Now there can be little question that it is the same garment
in the west as in the east and that it was adopted by the
peoples of central and northern Europe from those of southern
Russia and Iranian lands. This is a striking proof of the
fact which Mr. Dalton makes clear in his Treasure of the Oxus x
that the whole region of Europe north of the Carpathians and
the ranges that extend these to the north-west formed a single
archaeological province, through which fashions in art as well
as in costume, for instance the setting of garnets in gold,
might be freely diffused in complete independence of the
Mediterranean peoples. For the form of the garment we do
not depend merely on the illustrations, for specimens of it
actually exist in the Museum at Kiel, and are among the most
interesting of the finds in the Thorsberg Moss of about IV
a.d. They are figured in Engelhardt's Denmark in the Early
Iron Age and in many a book besides. It is to be noted that
loops about the waist part, as in our cricketing trousers, show
that the garment was kept in place by a girdle, and this bears
upon the importance of the belt in Germanic dress as com-
1 London, 1 905.
380 COSTUME
pared with the dress of the classical peoples, among whom the
zone had no such constructive part to play. It should be
added, as one more proof of that reciprocal influence between
Roman and Teuton which we see existing in customs as well
as in matters of craftsmanship, that the Romans in the migra-
tion period came themselves to adopt this barbaric fashion in
attire, and Roman soldiers on the Antonine column, as for
example PL lxxxiii, 4, are seen so dressed. The more con-
servative people however looked askance at the innovation, and
in the Theodosian Code there is a provision that the ' bracae '
were not to be worn by citizens within the walls of Roman
towns.
The question of the material of the Anglo-Saxon dress is
not an easy one to solve. No mere guesswork is of any avail,,
and microscopical and chemical analysis of the actual fibres
are the only means available for arriving at the truth. Linen,
wool, and even silk, as also hemp for strings, have all been
reported as found in Anglo-Saxon graves, and the statements
may be taken for what they are worth. As a matter of fact
with all the resources of the modern scientific laboratory it
is by no means easy to distinguish one kind of fibre from
another, as the portion of fabric must first be very carefully
cleansed, and even then to ascertain what is wool or flax or
woody fibre is difficult. The various portions of fabric which
the writer has submitted to scientific friends who have kindly
examined them for him have all turned out to be woollen,
but there is no reason why linen or even silk should not
declare its presence. The fabric shown PL lxxxiv, 3, adhering
to the front and back of a fibula from Suffolk in the Fenton
collection, is of wool.
With the tunic and the cloak are closely connected the
fibula, for it was in the fastening of these that the brooch was
almost exclusively employed. The general view is that when
fibulae are found in pairs they formed the attachments of the
female tunic, and a pair of fibulae is held to betoken a woman's
USE OF BROOCHES WITH DRESS 381
grave. The single brooch signifies a male interment and is
supposed to have fastened the cloak upon the right shoulder
after the classical fashion. Justinian wears it so in the Ravenna
mosaic, PL xxxin, 2 (p. 243), and so does Roma in No. 3,
while Theodora wears a brooch on each shoulder though we
cannot see exactly what they fasten. Whether brooches were
required for the male tunic is doubtful and here the Hal-
berstadt reliefs are very useful. The figure to the right in the
lower relief, PL lxxxiii, 2, wears a short tunic with sleeves,
for these are clearly indicated by folds on the arms, and it is
evidently a shaped garment like a shirt opening down the
front. No brooch would be required for this, except it may
be to close it up by the throat. The tunics of the women on
the other hand resemble the Dorian chiton of the Greeks in
that there is no provision of sleeves, but the stuff is passed
under the armpits and the two edges of it brought together
on the points of the shoulder. For the attachment here the
brooches found so constantly in pairs in Teutonic graves would
readily serve. This occurrence of fibulae in pairs in women's
graves is noticed in connection with Kingston (Saxonbury)
near Lewes, Sussex ; with Kempston, Beds ; with Marston St.
Lawrence, Northants, where there were ten pairs and only one
single one ; while recently at least eight pairs of saucer brooches
have been found at Alfriston, Sussex, with two odd ones.
The mantles enveloping parts of the figures of the women
are, like the Greek himation, used as drapery rather than as
garments of definite cut and fit, and for the temporary fastening
of these in any required position the pins of six or seven
inches in length already illustrated would come in handily.
We have seen that there is no reason to relegate these exclu-
sively to the purposes of the coiffure. Where women wore
a sleeved tunic the arrangements for fastening would be
different. The Halberstadt reliefs give us no help here, but
there are women in sleeved tunics on the Antonine column, as
for example the child in PL lxxxiii, 5. Here there is no
382 COSTUME
sign of an opening at the neck in front, but considering that,
as Tacitus tells us about the early Germans and as we know
was the case in Greece and to a lesser extent at Rome, the
dress of the two sexes was in these times very much the same,
we may assume that the sleeved tunic of the women would be
often made up like that of the men on the diptych, and in
this case there would be arrangements for closing it when
necessary at the throat. Brooches on the shoulders would
in this case not be needful as the garment would be shaped
and sewn.
These considerations suggest an explanation for some
anomalous appearances in the positions of fibulae in our
Anglo-Saxon cemeteries. Only those instances count where
the exploration of the graves was carefully supervised and
reported on. It is stated for example by Miss Layard about
Ipswich that cin the Ipswich cemetery we never find more
than one of the larger brooches on one individual, though
the smaller ring brooches are found in pairs. That both the
square headed brooches and the circular jewelled brooches
were worn in the centre beneath the chin we have the evidence
of the verdigrized condition of many of the chin and neck
bones,' * and Mr. Reginald Smith notes in the Victoria History 2
that ' ring brooches were found one above the other on the
breast, not as the typical West Saxon brooches, one on each
shoulder.' This certainly suggests the closing up of an
opening in front, perhaps by two small brooches below and a
single large one at the top, though of course this last may
have served to fasten a fichu or cape. At Chessell Down in
the Isle of Wight the position in which the brooches, always
appearing in pairs, were discovered seemed ' to show that they
were used to close the tunic at the neck and breast.' 3 At
Sleaford, Lincolnshire, where, it may be remembered, the
bodies were nearly all in a crouching position, it often hap-
1 Archaeologia, lx, 333. 2 Suffolk, 1, 331.
8 Victoria History Hants, 1, 388.
SLEEVED TUNICS 383
pened that there were a pair of fibulae on the shoulders
and a single one at the breast,1 and the same arrangement is
reported from Brighthampton, Oxon.2 At Sleaford there was
a remarkable abundance of clasps found lying by the wrists
of skeletons. At least 36 cases were noticed and in all but
three there was evidence that the graves were of women, and
this is some proof that the tunics of the women were sleeved.
It is true that the explorer, Mr. Thomas, appeared to regard
them as fastenings of bracelets which do not necessarily involve
sleeves, but on the other hand the triangular pieces found in
other cemeteries (p. 365) were certainly to cover the openings
above the fastenings of sleeves, and the connection of clasp
and sleeve may be assumed as normal. See also (p. 364).
Mr. Fenton has in his collection in London a pair of
clasps from Suffolk to which still adhere considerable portions
of the fabric to which they were sewn. This is distinctly dress
material and not part of a bracelet. The suite PI. lxxix, i,
from Barrington, Cambs, we would regard as typical, for
here clasps with the triangular adjuncts betokening sleeves
occur in company with a single handsome square-headed
fibula which we can imagine closing the opening in the tunic
at the throat. It may surprise us therefore at Sleaford to find
fibulae used in pairs on the shoulder parts of tunics presum-
ably sleeved, but the difficulty is removed by the statement
of the explorer about the bead necklets, which he says were
not necklets proper but ' simply festoons of beads, in many
instances double ones, extending from the one shoulder to
the other, supported at either end by a fibula or pin.' 3
Fibulae worn on the shoulders when not needed for fastening
the dress may sometimes be explained in this fashion, but
they may also have been worn merely as ornaments, the
actual fastening being confined to the front.
However the distribution of fibulae in relation to the
1 Archaeologia, l, 123. 2 ibid., xxxvm, 90.
3 ibid., l, 387. See postea (p. 435).
384 COSTUME
body may be explained, and the subject is a difficult one, it
can be asserted with some confidence that women wore sleeved
tunics as well as sleeveless ones, and that the existence of
clasps in a grave is evidence that the former were in the
particular case in use. Clasps we have seen are with com-
paratively few exceptions confined to Anglian districts and
indeed to the central part of the Anglian area around Cam-
bridgeshire. Is it hazardous to conjecture that these people
had northern connections and wore a warmer dress than the
Saxons and Jutes who had become acclimatized in more
southern surroundings ? If this were the case clasps would
possess no small archaeological significance, • but it must be
repeated that we are here very much in the domain of con-
jecture.
Below the bottom edge of the male tunic which seems to
have reached to the knee the legs were commonly covered with
the trews or hosen over which by way of an ornamental finish
to the costume appeared the ' cross gartering ' noticed in the
case of the dress of Charles the Great and figured PL lxxxii,
2, 3. The former presence of long shoe latchets of the kind
has been inferred from the existence of numerous small
buckles, such as PL lxxxv, 4, which would come in handily
to fasten the ends of these. Remains of actual foot-gear
of Anglo-Saxon make are hardly known, though Roman
shoes are abundantly in evidence in some collections such as
that of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland at Edinburgh.
They are examples of Roman ornamental leather work, and
a similar piece of leather ornamented in like fashion with
open work was found by Faussett in a Kentish grave, see
Inventorium Sepukkrak, p. 152 ; it does not however seem
to have been part of a shoe.
The Germanic dress has only been considered in its simpler
aspects. People of wealth and position, both in the period of
the migrations and in that following on the settlement in new
seats, indulged in considerable luxury in costume and varied
LXXXIV
facing p. 385
GOLD STRIPS, TEXTILES, ETC.
4, natural size ; 3, reduced ; 2, less than half size ; 1, enlarged 2J times
GOLD-INWOVEN TISSUES 385
its forms while elaborating it in details. We are told that the
Gothic youths who were distributed as hostages in Roman
cities when the Visigoths were allowed to cross the Danube in
376 a.d. were admired as much for their rich attire as for
their fair presence, while Bishop Aldhelm's tract de Virginitate
of which there was question earlier in this work, Vol. 1, p. 233,
is proof that dress among the Anglo-Saxon ladies of VII
might assume a fantastically gorgeous character. Only in the
case of one of these bits of extra finery is there any connec-
tion with tomb furniture, and this is the c vitta ' or ornamental
band for confining the hair.
Such bands we know from literary notices already quoted
might be of the precious metals and set with gems. Nothing
answering to this description seems to have been found in
Anglo-Saxon graves, but a fine golden diadem for the head
set with garnets was found in southern Russia and has lately
been added to the Volkerkunde Museum at Berlin. What
we have to deal with here is not metal but tissue.
One Germanic lady on the Antonine column PI. lxxxiii, 4,
has her hair confined under a kind of coif. Interesting dis-
coveries in some of the Kentish cemeteries including Bifrons,
and on some non-Kentish sites, proved the existence as part
of the head dress of Saxon ladies of pieces of fabric partly
woven with strips of gold. Similar gold-inwoven strips were
used as bracelets or at any rate were worn about the wrists
where traces remain. The stuff has of course almost wholly
disappeared but the gold survives, and quite a boxful of the
gleaming strips adorns the collection of the Kent Archaeo-
logical Society at Maidstone. The famous Taplow Barrow
contained a treasure of the kind, and here both fabric and
pattern are to some extent preserved as well as the inde-
structible metal. Most of the find is in the British Museum
but a little is at Reading.
PL lxxxiv, 1 (enlarged) and 2, give an idea of what is pre-
served. Strips of metallic gold, not gilded silver, measuring
III 2B
386 COSTUME
in width j^y in. and in thickness -g-J-^ in.,1 are woven into a
fabric composed of fine wool 2 by the process known as
' Gobelins ' technique, in which the strips in question do not
go all across the warp but are intertwined with the warp
threads only in those parts where the metallic filaments are to
show. In consequence of this the gold which is imperishable
has come away bodily from those portions of the decaying
fabric in which it was used, and it will be seen by reference to
PL lxxxiv, 2, that the gold strips were woven into the stuff
in patches some of rectangular others of triangular shape. In
the case of every strand when the limit of the required patch
of gold was reached the strip was doubled back and returned
forming a parallel strand, the wavy surface of the strip being
caused by the alternate pressures up and down of the woollen
threads over and under which it was passed by the shuttle or
needle. PI. lxxxiv, i, shows an enlargement of one of the
rectangular patches in which it will be seen that a distinct
pattern has been formed of triangles or possibly squares
separated by zigzag lines in which only the woollen ground
appears. This pattern closely resembles certain textile motives
which occur on the woven garments found in the Thorsberg
Moss in Schleswig, and dating from about IV. These are
almost certainly of northern origin as the garments on which
some of the patterns appear are c trews,', a form of vesture
not favoured by classical peoples. The agreement of these
northern patterns with those on the Taplow textiles is an
argument to oppose to those who are too ready to affirm that
anything peculiarly rich and elaborate, like these gold-inwoven
fabrics, must necessarily be ' Roman.' The elaborate gold
work of ' barbaric ' origin, in Scandinavia, PH. liv, lv (p. 309),
1 For these dimensions the writer is indebted to the kindness of his
colleague Professor Harvey Littlejohn, who has ascertained them in his
laboratory by the micrometer.
2 This was also made certain in the Medical Jurisprudence laboratory by
Professor Littlejohn.
GOLD-INWOVEN TISSUES 387
Ireland, and the various centres of Teutonic craftsmanship,
shows that there was nothing in the technique of gold for
which the Celtic or German artist needed lessons from the
Romans, while the fact of the fabric being of wool, and not,
for example, of silk or even of fine linen, is in favour of the
textile being of native make.
The Taplow fabric may have belonged to a cloak as the
burial was a male one, but most of the Kentish gold strands
were found by the heads of the corpses and were certainly the
remains of the ' vittae.' The filaments with which they were
interwoven are not, at any rate at Maidstone, preserved.
Pins may of course have been in use to adjust the place of
such a diadem or coif as well as to fix the hair itself in the
knot or chignon, and we should explain in this way the double
pins connected by a chain of which specimens are shown on
PI. lxxxi. The shortness of the space allowed by the chain
between the pins, in the Roundway Down example at Devizes
about 5 in., makes the use of them on the head rather than
on the breast practically certain.
END OF VOL. Ill
S5-BH512.
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