iltrllrslnt
(titllinii\
>"V %i^
l^xt rcl| a 5 ch f tarn
Id cc
THE ARTS IN
EARLY ENGLAND
1. c
ntispiece to Vol. rv
COLOURED BEADS, ANGLO-SAXON AND PRANKISH
About ^ natural size
// is Continental
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
LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET
1915
All rights reserved
/f03
CONTENTS
PAGE
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS . . . . vii
LIST OF ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERIES .... xxxi
CHAPTER VIII
TOMB FURNITURE: (V) ADJUNCTS OF THE
COSTUME ; MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS ; HORSE
TRAPPINGS; PERSONAL ORNAMENTS— NECKLETS 389
CHAPTER IX
TOMB FURNITURE: (VI) PERSONAL ORNAMENTS-
PENDANTS, BRACELETS, RINGS, EAR -JEWELS;
VESSELS— BUCKETS, BRONZE BOWLS, VASES OF
GLASS 449
CHAPTER X
POTTERY; INLAID JEWELLERY; ROMANIZING OB-
JECTS IN BRONZE 488
CHAPTER XI
ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE CONNECTED WITH
THE MIGRATIONS AND SETTLEMENTS OF THE
ANGLO-SAXONS . 566
xxii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE AT PAGE
5, 6, Two vase fragments found at Teale, Berks, of different vases
but ornamented with the same stamp, Museum at Reading.
7, Fragment of vase showing style of ornamentation, collection of
Lord Grantley.
CXXXVIII. PLAIN URNS FROM ENGLISH AND CON-
TINENTAL CEMETERIES . . . .505
1, Plain urn, 9 in. high, found with burnt bones and a penannular fibula
of VII, in the Terp of Hoogebeintum, Museum at Leeuwarden
(P- 504)-
2, Plain urn, 5^^ in. high, found at Stapenhill, Staffordshire, Museum at
Burton-on-Trent.
3, Small urn with 'lugs' or rudimentary handles, from Brixworth,
Northants, Museum at Northampton.
4, Urn with 'lugs,' 7 in. high, found at Stapenhill with a skeleton
accompanied by an iron knife, Museum at Burton-on-Trent.
5, Cinerary urn found with burnt bones in it, at Ipswich, Suffolk,
Christchurch Museum, Ipswich.
6, Plain urn, 9 in. high, from Sancton, Yorks, Museum at Hull.
7, Cremation urn of globular shape, found with burnt bones in it at
Northfleet, Kent, Town Museum, Maidstone.
8, Plain urn 5^ in. high, found with skulls, brooches, beads, etc., in a
barrow at Peering, Essex, Colchester Museum.
CXXXIX. KENTISH AND OTHER EXCEPTIONAL URNS . 507
1, Bottle-shaped wheel-made vase, from Trivieres, Belgium, 10^ in. high.
Museum at Brussels.
2, Bottle-shaped vase, broken above, c. 9 in. high, from Dover Hill
cemetery, Folkestone, Folkestone Museum.
3, Bottle-shaped urn from Sarre, Kent, K. A. S. Collection, Maidstone.
4, Similar vase, 11^ in. high, from Harrietsham, Kent, as above.
5, Jug of Prankish form, probably imported, found at Sarre, Kent, as
above (p. 501).
6, Early spout-handled vessel, c. 8 in. high, found with burnt bones in it
at Great Addington, Northants, British Museum.
7, Similar vessel from Perlberg cemetery by the Elbe.
CXL. DATABLE INLAID JEWELS OF KENTISH TYPE . 509
I, 2, VII 2, The 'Wilton' pendant, found in Norfolk, No. i, back view
showing gold solidus of Heraclius i (613-641) mounted in cruciform
frame of gold, i| in. across 5 No. 2, front of the same jewel showing
garnet inlays and the reverse of the coin, upside down, British
Museum.
3, VII 2, Reliquary cross found on the body of St. Cuthbert in Durham
Cathedral, gold with garnet inlays, width across arms 2^ in., Durham
Cathedral Library.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xxiil
PLATE AT PAGE
4, VII, Pendant of Prankish origin found at Wieuwerd near Leeu-
warden, Friesland, enclosing in gold filigree frame a gold solidus,
Museum at Leiden.
5, VII 1, Perspective view of back of the ' Kingston ' brooch showing pin
and catch, Museum at Liverpool.
6, vii 1, Pin catch of the ' Kingston ' brooch. For the whole object
see description of Plate A (p. 511 f.).
CXLI. EARLY EXAMPLES OF INLAID WORK, ETC.. . 515
1, Bronze breast ornament of the Early Bronze Age in Denmark,
Museum at Copenhagen, see Sophus Miiller, Nordische Altertums-
kunde, I, 284 f.
2, Portion of above on a larger scale showing the traced lines of the
spiral ornament (p. 292).
3, Jewel of uncertain use inlaid with coloured stones, of iv B.C., from
the Persian Achaemenid period, found at Susa, now in the Louvre,
Paris (p. 521).
4, Golden armlet, 4^ in. across, set formerly with coloured stones in
cloisons, from the ' Treasure of the Oxus,' Victoria and Albert
Museum, London (p. 521).
5, Eagle in gold, set with gems, from the * Siberian ' gold treasure in the
Hermitage, St. Petersburg (p. 524).
6, Golden relic-box set with coloured stones, about 3 in. long, found
in a Buddist tope near Jalalabad and dated about the middle of
II A.D., British Museum (p. 521).
CXLIL SIBERIAN, ETC., PIECES, ILLUSTRATING THE
HISTORY OF INLAID WORK 523
1, Open-work cone of gold, set with gems, Greco-Scythian work, from
Southern Russia, Hermitage, St. Petersburg.
2, Massive gold piece, pierced and set with gems, from the ' Siberian '
treasure in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg.
3, Inlaid fibula from Gotland, in the collection of James Curie, Esq.,
Melrose. (Not mentioned in the text.)
4, Golden fish, 16 in. long, from Vettersfeld in the Nieder Lausitz, pro-
bably Greco-Scythian work of about 500 e.g., Antiquarium, Berlin,
also golden holster, another portion of the find.
5, Golden basket once set with gems a jour, from the Treasure of
Petrossa, University Museum at Bucharest (p. 528).
6, Inlaid bronze breast ornament from Bornholm, set with garnets, 4^ in.
high, Copenhagen Museum, see Miiller, Nordische Altej-tumskunde,
II, p. 188. (Not mentioned in the text.)
CXLIII. GOTHIC AND OTHER INLAID WORK . . .525
I, Gothic votive crowns found at Guarrazar near Toledo in Spain, about
vii, Cluny Museum, Paris (p. 532).
viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE AT PAGE
G. EARLY GOTHIC INLAID WORK 527
I, IV 3, Gold medallion of the Emperor Maximian (286-304 a.d.), set in
a frame with garnet inlays by a barbarian goldsmith, natural size,
Museum at Vienna, from the first find at Szilagy Somlyo in Hungary
(p. 529).
II, IV 3 or V 1, Head of one of a pair of gold-plated silver fibulae from the
second find at Szilagy Somlyo, natural size, showing enamelled
plaque in the centre. Museum at Budapest (p. 519).
III, IV 3, Gold medallion of the Emperor Gratian (367-383 a,d.), set in
frame by a barbarian goldsmith, a little under natural size, which is
2^Q in. in diameter, from the first Szilagy Somlyo find, Museum at
Vienna (pp. 306, 324).
IV, IV ^, Golden pendant set with garnets, almost natural size, which is
2^ in. in diameter, from the first Szilagy Somlyo find, Museum at
Vienna (p. 529).
H. PRANKISH AND ALAMANNIC INLAID WORK . . 541
I, VII 2, Silver-gilt round headed fibula, with inlays of garnets and glass
pastes, from Wittislingen in Bavaria, 4 in. high, with back view
showing Latin inscription. Museum at Munich.
II, v^. Parts of the sword mounts of gold with garnet inlays found in the
grave of Childeric i, chief of the Salian Franks, who died in 481
A.D., Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris (p. 533).
HALF TONE PLATES
LXXXV. OBJECTS FOUND IN CINERARY URNS, COMBS,
ETC 391
1, v^, Small shears, iron; Comb and bronze prickerj Piece of iron
(strike-a-light ?) and bronze tweezers 5 found in cinerary urns
respectively from The Mount, York j Malton, Yorkshire, and
Heworth, just outside York, Museum of Philosophical Society, York.
2, VII, Ivory comb with two rows of teeth and well preserved sheath,
cemetery of Anderlecht, Belgium, Museum at Brussels (p. 390).
3, Fragment of bone comb with double row of teeth from Arreton
Down, Isle of Wight, Carisbrooke Museum (p. 390).
4, Small bronze buckle, width of opening in ring § in., from Broadstairs,
Kent, Offices of Local Board, Broadstairs (p. 384).
LXXXVI. ANGLO-SAXON COMBS 391
1, VII ', Bone comb from Kingston Down Cemetery, Kent, grave 142.
7 in. long, Museum at Liverpool.
2, Bone comb, 5^ in. long, found in Fish Street, Northampton, North-
ampton Museum.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix
PLATE AT PAGE
LXXXVII. TOILET OBJECTS, ETC 391
1, Bone comb, 2§ in. long, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
2, Toilet objects on ring, natural size, from East ShefFord, Berks,
Museum at Newbury, Berks.
3, Iron shears, provenance unknown, natural size.
4, Bronze tweezers, 3 in. long, from Broadstairs, Kent, Offices of Local
Board, Broadstairs.
5, Bronze tweezers from Saxby, Leicestershire, aj in. long. Midland
Institute, Derby.
6, Group of three minute implements from cremation urns at Alten-
walde, near Cuxhaven, North Germany, shears 2^^ long, bronze.
Museum fiir Vblkerkunde, Hamburg.
7, Group of three similar minute implements from a child's (?) crema-
tion urn at Sancton, Yorks, bronze, shears i| in. long, Museum
at Hull.
8, VIII, Minute objects found at Castle Acre and other sites in Norfolk,
iron and bronze, shears i^^ in. long. Museum at Norwich.
9, Manicure implement (?) from King's Field, Faversham, Kent,
bronze, 2j in. long, British Museum.
10, Bronze tweezers, c. 2 in. long, from Faversham, British Museum.
LXXXVIII. KEYS, ROMAN, CONTINENTAL, AND SAXON 395
1, Three iron keys from a Roman villa at Hartlip, Kent {Collectanea
Antiqua, 11, pi. v to vii), central one 8 in. long. Museum of K. A. S.,
Maidstone.
2, c. VII, Bunches of keys of late migration or early Viking period in
Denmark, bronze, Museum at Copenhagen.
3, VI 3, Iron key, 7^ in. long, 2 in. broad, from Saxby, Leicestershire,
Midland Institute, Derby.
4, Ring with iron keys from cremation urn at Westerwanna, near
Cuxhaven, North Germany, Museum at Geestemiinde.
5, Part of skeleton of lady from cemetery on Dover Hill, Folkestone,
showing left hand laid over an iron key 5 in. long, and iron knife
by arm. Museum at Folkestone.
LXXXIX. BRONZE KEYS AND GIRDLE HANGERS . . 397
1, VI ^, Set of three bronze keys, 4 in. long, on a wire ring attached to
an annular brooch, found at OzengelJ, Thanet, Kent, Museum at
Liverpool (p. 396).
2, VI 3, Pair of bronze girdle hangers, one broken short, 4J in. long,
from Stapenhill, Staffordshire, Museum of Natural History Society,
Burton-on-Trent.
XC. GIRDLE HANGERS 397
1, VI 1, Bronze girdle hanger with bar ending in horse's head, from
Sleaford, Lines, grave 158, 4J in. long, British Museum.
2, V ', Pair of bronze girdle hangers joined with bow, each 5^ in. long,
from Searby, Lincolnshire, British Museum.
X LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE AT PAGE
3, VI 1, Bronze girdle hanger, 5 in. long, Bloxam Collection, Rugby
Art Museum.
4, VI 2, Pair of bronze girdle hangers, 5 in. long, from Londesborough,
Yorks, Museum at Hull.
XCL PIERCED GIRDLE HANGERS, ETC., OF CON-
TINENTAL ORIGIN 399
(All in Bronze.)
1, Pierced round girdle hanger with three animals' heads, from Kaiser
Augst, Museum at Basel, Switzerland.
2, Long chatelaines (?) from Gambsheim, Museum at Worms.
3, 6, Pierced girdle hangers from northern France, Collection of M. Pilloy,
St. Quentin.
4, Pierced round girdle hanger with loops for suspension, from
Hardenthum, Pas de Calais, Museum at Boulogne.
5, Pierced round girdle hanger from Meclcenheim, with ivory ring, 3§ in.
in internal diameter, attached outside it, Museum at Bonn.
XCII. PIERCED GIRDLE HANGERS, ETC., OF ANGLO-
SAXON ORIGIN 401
1, Ivory ring joined in sections, interior diameter 3^ in., from a barrow
near Woodyates on the Wilts and Dorset boundary. Museum at
Devizes (p. 400).
2, Pierced round girdle hanger from Little Wilbraham, Cambs, diameter
2§ in., bronze, at Audley End.
3, Pierced girdle hanger (?), from Barfriston, Kent, i| in. high, bronze.
Museum at Liverpool.
4, Portion of ivory ring from Leagrave, Beds, showing method of
joining the sections, British Museum (p. 400).
5, Key-shaped girdle hanger (?), original 4^ in. long, bronze, Museum
at York.
6, Pierced round girdle hanger, from Croydon, Surrey, 2^ in. diameter,
bronze, Grange Wood Museum, Thornton Heath, Surrey.
XCIII. CRYSTAL BALLS, SPINDLE WHORLS, ETC. . . 403
1, VI 2, Crystal ball from Sarre, Kent, nearly 2J in. in diameter, mounted
in silver, with ring for suspension.
2, VI 1, Do., do., from Bifrons i^^ in. in diameter, both in K. A. S.
Collection, Maidstone.
3, v^, Crystal ball, unmounted, i^^ in. in diameter, found in the tomb of
Childeric I at Tournay of the year 481 a.d., Bibliotheque Nationale,
Paris.
4, Faceted polygonal mass of rock crystal, 2-^ in. in diameter, from
Emscote, near Warwick, Museum at Warwick (p. 406).
5, Spindle Whorl (?) of bone, i§ in. in diameter, pierced with central
hole ^ in. across, | in. thick, from Barrington, Cambs, Cambridge
Museum (p. 411).
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xl
PLATE AT PAGE
XCIV. PERFORATED SPOONS, STRIKE-A-LIGHTS, ETC. . 405
0, V 3, Silver spoon with perforated bowl, 5 in. long, from Bifrons (p. 404).
1, VI 2, Perforated spoon, silver, with garnet inlays and hole for suspension,
from Sarre, Kent, 7 in. long. Collection of Kent Archaeological
Society, Maidstone (p. 404).
2, V 3, Silvered bronze spoon with perforated bowl and ring for suspen-
sion, from early grave, no. 6, at Bifrons, 5 in. long, as above (p. 404).
3, VI 2, Purse mount (?) with garnet inlays, bronze, from Herpes,
Charente, France, 4 in. long, British Museum (p. 409).
4, Iron strike-a-light (briquet), from Mitcham, Surrey, Vestry Hall,
Mitcham (p. 409).
5, Iron briquet and flint found with it, from Lussy, Switzerland, Museum
at Fribourg (p. 409).
6, Oriental sea-shell, Cypraea Arabica, from Sarre, Kent, Collection of
K. A. S., Maidstone (pp. 417, 450).
XCV. SPOONS, ANGLO-SAXON AND ROMAN . . .407
1, v^. Silver spoon, 7|- in. long, parcel gilt, found near Broome Park,
Kent, collection of Basil Oxenden, Esq.
2, 3, Details of above on an enlarged scale.
4, Bowl of metal spoon, from Basset Down, Wilts, possibly Roman,
Museum at Devizes.
5, VI ^, Silver spoon from Desborough, Northants, y^ in. long, British
Museum.
6, Roman silver spoon, Museum at Copenhagen.
XCVI. SPINDLES, WORK-BOX, NEEDLES, ETC. . . .411
1, Three bone objects explained as spindles, from Barrington, Cambs,
longest 5^ in. long. Museum at Cambridge.
2, VI *, Collection of iron objects found together close to the thigh bones
of a skeleton in the Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Mitcham, Surrey,
a key and a knife blade are certain, the rest doubtful. Vestry Hall,
Mitcham.
3, Two bronze needles, i^ to if in. long, found at Castle Acre,
Norfolk, Norwich Museum.
4, VII 1, Cylindrical bronze work-box from Uncleby, Yorks, if in. high,
Museum at York.
XCVIL COUNTERS, TOOLS, ETC 4^3
1, Set of nine bone counters, from Sarre, Kent, about | in. diameter,
ornamented with incised circles, collection of K. A. S., Maidstone.
2, Carpenter's plane of bronze and wood, 6 in. long, from Bifrons, Kent,
as above,
3, Minute model of a bill-hook, bronze, original if in. long, from
Kingston, Kent, Liverpool Museum.
4, VII 1, Cylindrical bronze work-box, 2J in. high, from Sibertswold,
Kent, Museum at Liverpool.
xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE AT PAGE
5, Whetstone, original i8 in. long, from Uncleby, Yorks, Museum
at York.
6, Bronze hinge, one of a pair, 2| in. long, found with remains of a box
containing various objects in grave 142, Kingston, Kent, Museum
at Liverpool (p. 417).
7, Silver hasp, i in. long, from grave as above (p. 417).
8, Iron chisel, 4I in. long, from Bifrons, as No. 2.
XCVIII. IMPLEMENTS, ETC., INDUSTRIAL AND
DOMESTIC 415
1, Bronze bell, 3^ in. high, found at Hornsea, Museum at Hull.
2, Bronze pan 4 in. in diameter, with minute hole in centre, probably-
serving as a water-clock, from Market Overton, Rutland, Tickencote
Hall (p. 419)-
3, Iron spit, 4 ft. long, Museum at Worms.
4, Lump of iron slag, from Stapenhill, Staffordshire, Museum at Burton-
on-Trent.
5, Lump of iron pyrites, from Alfriston, Sussex, Museum at Lewes.
6, Scales (with modern strings) and 19 weights, from Sarre, Kent,
collection of K. A. S., Maidstone.
7, Pair of iron blacksmith's tongs, 9 in. long, from Sibertswold, Kent,
Museum at Liverpool.
8, Iron ' Bill ' or curved knife, 1 1 in. long, with bronze mounted hilt,
from Barrington, Cambs, Museum at Cambridge.
XCIX. ENIGMATICAL OBJECTS FOUND IN GRAVES . 419
I, 2, VI ', Objects of iron resembling sword blades, but with haft at both
ends ; I, I ft. 8 in. long, Bifrons, Kent, at Bifrons House 5 2, i ft.
8 in. long, from Chessell Down, Isle of Wight.
3, Small object in gilded bronze from Chessell Down, British Museum.
4, VI 1, Bronze object found at Croydon, Surrey, 3§ in. long, British
Museum.
5, VI S Flattened tube of bronze, 2§ in. long, with loop attached, from
Droxford, Hants, British Museum.
6, Curious bone object from Chessell Down, at Carisbrooke Castle, Isle
of Wight.
7, Bronze objects resembling handles, 3§ in. long, from Ozengell, Kent,
Museum at Liverpool.
8, IX (?), Bronze object found at Cambridge, 3^ in. across, with two
pierced discs front and back, leaving a cavity between them, and
attachment for a strap. Museum at Cambridge.
C. HORSE TRAPPINGS 4^3
1, Copper coin of the Emperor Nero found riveted to what seemed to be
part of a horse's bit, at Gilton, Kent, Museum at Liverpool (p. 422).
2, VI 1, Bronze ring, probably part of a horse trapping, i j=^ in. in internal
diameter, from Fairford, Gloucestershire, Ashmolean Museum.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiii
PLATE AT PAGE
3, 4, Late Celtic (?) enamelled bronze horse trappings from Saham
Toney, Norfolk, Museum at Norwich.
5, Iron horse's bit from Market Overton, Rutland, at Tickencote Hall
(p. 422).
6, Do., do. from Bifrons, Kent, collection of K. A. S., Maidstone.
CI. HORSE TRAPPING, NECKLET 423
1, Silver necklet from Market Overton, Rutland, about half the natural
size, Tickencote Hall.
2, VII 2, Gilded bronze horse trapping, from King's Field, Faversham,
slightly reduced, diameter of round c. 3J in., British Museum.
CII. PENDANTS OF ROMANO-BRITISH STYLE . .425
1, VI 1, One of a pair of bronze pendants, about i^ in. long, from Bifrons,
Kent.
2, VII \ Pendants mounted as a necklet, garnets set in gold, from Bras-
sington Moor, Derbyshire, Sheffield Museum.
3, VI 3, Carbuncle (garnet) set in gold, i^g in. high, from Stowting,
Kent, Stowting Rectory.
4, IV, Oval bronze brooch formerly set with stones, from Long Witten-
ham, Berks, longest diameter about 2 in., British Museum.
5, VII 2, Central portion of gold necklet with cross, from Desborough,
Northants, British Museum.
6, VII \ Four gold pendants set with carbuncles (garnets), from Bar-
friston, Kent, about natural size, Museum at Liverpool.
7, VII S Gold pendant set with flat garnet, from Kingston, Kent,
Museum at Liverpool.
427
CIIL KENTISH PENDANTS AND ROMANO -BRITISH
ENAMELLED BROOCH
1, a, b, c, d, e, with the amethyst and carbuncle pendants above and
below e, were found in a single grave, no. 172, at Sibertswold, Kent,
In^entorium Sepulckrale, plate iv. Diameter of a, i^^ in., width
of b, i^ in. g, is a small gold pendant ^ in. square inlaid with mosaic
glass and attached to a fine gold chain, found in a barrow at Wood-
yates, between Wilts and Dorset, Museum at Devizes, b, c, d, iii
or IV ; a, e, vi ^ (pp. 4.26, 444).
2, Amethyst pendants from grave no. 34, Barfriston, Kent, a little over
natural size, at Liverpool.
3, III, Romano-British or Gallic bronze brooch with face encrusted with
mosaic glass, from South Shields, Museum at Newcastle (p. 445).
CIV. BEADS . . 429
I, v^ to VI 3, String of about ninety beads of glass and other substances,
not amber, brought together from various interments at Broadstairs,
Kent, Offices of Local Board, Broadstairs.
xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE AT PAGE
2, v3. Thirty small beads found with two cruciform fibulae ot date about
500 A.D. in the Roman station by Corbridge-on-Tyne, Beaufront
Castle, by Hexham, Northumberland.
3, Amber and other beads found in an Anglo-Saxon tumulus near
Wyaston, Derbyshire 5 the large beads are amber, diameter of
central one i in., Museum at Sheffield (p. 4.37).
CV. BEADS, NECKLET FASTENINGS, ETC. . . .433
I, Two cylindrical bronze tubes rather over i in. long and ^ in. in
diameter strung with beads, from Harrington, Cambs, Museum at
Cambridge.
2 VI 2, Hollow bead of gold | in. long, found at Market Overton,
Rutland, Tickencote Hall.
3, VII 1, Two hollow beads of silver, i|^ in. long, one with a hollow
glass bead fixed over its end, Kingston Down, Kent, Museum at
Liverpool.
4, VI S Flattened tube of bronze, i| in. long, from Harrington, Cambs,
Museum at Cambridge.
5, VI 1, Three similar tubes from Bifrons, Kent.
6, Back view of the top of No. 4.
7, Inlaid beads with discs of shell in between them, found in a Terp
near Dokkum, Friesland, Museum at Leeu warden, Holland (p. 432).
8, Glass beads found at Holme Pierrepont, Notts, Museum at Sheffield.
9, Bronze fastenings for a necklet, c. | in. in width, from Barrington,
Cambs, Museum at Cambridge.
10, Large bead of amber, 2^ in. in diameter by i^ in. in thickness, found
in an Anglo-Saxon grave at Otterham, near CJpchurch, Kent,
Rochester Museum (p. 437).
II, Inlaid glass bead c. ij in. in diameter, from High Down, Sussex, at
Ferring Grange (p. 441).
12 Green glass bead ribbed, probably Roman, Guildhall Museum (p. 440).
13, Bead showing coiled technique, from Milk Street, London, E.C.,
Guildhall Museum (p. 440).
CVI. BEADS, LATE CELTIC, ROMAN, AND ANGLO-
SAXON 439
I, I (Late-Celtic), Ornamented glass beads, of the 'eye' and 'chevron'
patterns, found in the ' Queen ' Barrow, Arras, East Riding of York-
shire, Museum at York.
2 I 16 blue beads of the 'melon' pattern, found with coins of Nero
and Claudius in a ist century Roman burial at Colchester, largest
bead f in. diameter in the direction of the axis, Museum at
Colchester.
3 ' Millefiori ' bead, J in. in diameter at right angles to axis, from
Chessell Down, British Museum (p. 443).
4, Roman glass bowl in 'millefiori ' technique, British Museum.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xv
PLATE AT PAGE
5, Part of a string of small double and single Roman beads ^^ in. in
diameter, made of two thicknesses of glass enclosing between them
gold leaf, enlarged about two diameters, Colchester Museum (p. 447).
6, V 3, Small blown glass beads, enlarged about two diameters, double
and triple, from Girton, Cambridge, Cambridge Museum (p. 446).
CVII. PENDANTS, COINS, BRACTEATES . . . .449
1, Cypraea Shell (Concha Veneris), 3 in. long, suspended from a chain of
beads, from Haslingfield, Cambs, Cambridge Museum.
2, Bronze wheel-shaped ornament apparently for suspension, 2§ in. in
diameter, found with skeleton and iron knife at Shrewton, Wilts,
Devizes Museum.
3> 3> Z> 3> 3» 3» Coins, gold, imitation Roman and Merovingian, mounted
for suspension, found in St. Martin's Churchyard, Canterbury,
Museum at Liverpool.
4, VI ^, Bracteate, gold, diameter ij in., looped for suspension, found at
Market Overton, Rutland, at Tickencote Hall (p. 453).
5, Talon of an eagle, pierced for suspension, from Alfriston, Sussex,
Museum at Lewes.
6, Bone of sheep (?) ringed for suspension, about ij in, high, from
Kingston, Kent, grave 142, Museum at Liverpool.
7> 7> 7j VI 2, Three golden bracteates, from Frisian Terpen, largest
I in. in diameter. Museum at Leeuwarden (p. 454).
8, 8, 8, VI 2, Three golden bracteates found in grave 29 at Blfrons,
Kent, largest ijg '"• across, K. A. S. Collection, Maidstone (p. 453).
9, 9, 9, 9, 9, VI 2, Five golden bracteates, found in grave 4 at Sarre,
Kent, largest i|^ in. across, as above (p. 453).
CVIII. RINGS, BRACELETS, EAR PENDANTS . . .455
1, Vi^, Three silver wire rings, about i in. across, threaded with beads,
of a kind sometimes used as earrings, from Alfriston, Sussex,
Museum at Lewes.
2, Small rings of silver wire suitable for the finger, from Kingston, Kent,
Museum at Liverpool.
3, Similar ring of gold, | in. in internal diameter, found on Salisbury
Race Course, Museum at Devizes.
4, VI 2, Gold finger ring with ornament in repousse, § in. in diameter,
from Market Overton, Rutland, at Tickencote Hall.
5, 7, 8, 9, ID, Finger rings from King's Field, Faversham, in the British
Museum, reproduced about the natural size.
6, Hammered silver bracelet,. Collection of S. G. Fenton, Esq.
11, Bronze ring, perhaps an armlet, 3§ in. in internal diameter, from
Faversham, in British Museum.
12, VII 1, Silver armlet ornamented with confronted heads of animals,
2| in. in internal diameter, from Faversham, Kent, British Museum.
13, Silver bracelet, with flute-like projection, formerly in Trinity College
Library, Cambridge, Museum at Cambridge.
xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE AT PAOE
14, Bone ring, internal diameter about i in., with linear ornament, in
Free Library, Gravesend, from Arnold Collection, of local pro-
venance (p. 459).
CIX. BRACELETS IN BANGLE FORM, ETC. . . .457
1, Roman (?) bronze bracelets of 'bangle' form, found on Priory Hill,
Dover, Dover Museum.
2, v^ Bronze penannular bracelet, or penannular brooch, 2§ in. internal
diameter in the widest part, from an early grave. No. 6, at Bifrons,
K. A. S. Collection, Maidstone.
3, Roman (?) bronze bracelets of 'bangle ' form, found at the lower part
of a skeleton at Saffron Walden, Essex, internal diameters vary from
2| in. to i^ in.. Museum at Saifron Walden.
4, Silver ring encircling the bone of a finger, Cambridge Museum.
ex. IRON VESSEL AND OTHER OBJECTS OF IRON . 459
1, Iron of spade, 15^ in. long, possibly Anglo-Saxon, Museum at
Cambridge.
2, VII ^ Iron bowl or holder, on stand, 10 in. high, diameter of bowl
5^ in., from Anglo-Saxon grave at Broomfield, Essex, British
Museum.
3, VII *, Iron cruciform brooch, plated with silver, partly gilt, found pro-
bably at Hoxne, Suffolk, see Proc. Suff. Inst. Arch., xiv, i. Extreme
length was c. 8 in., British Museum (p. 175).
CXL VESSELS— DRINKING HORN AND PAIL . .461
1, VII *, Horn mounted in gilded silver, 18 in. long, found in the Taplow
Barrow, Bucks, British Museum.
2, The Aylesford Bucket, Late-Celtic work, 10 in. high, from Aylesford,
Kent, British Museum. See Arcfiaeologia, vol. Lii (p. 466).
CXII. WOODEN BUCKET AND ROUND PLAGUES • 463
1, VI 1, Bronze mounted bucket, 4I in. high, found near Rochester,
Museum at Rochester, Kent.
2, Bronze plaque for suspension, c. \\ in. in diameter, from Leagrave,
Beds, British Museum.
3, 4, vi^, Similar bronze plaques found at Chessell Down, Isle of
Wight, natural size, Museum at Carlsbrooke Castle.
CXIII. BUCKETS AND BUCKET MOUNTS . . -464
1, vi*. Bronze mounted bucket, \\ in. high, with original staves, from
North Luffenham, Rutland, Normanton Park.
2, v ■*, Bucket with early ornament on the bronze mounts, from Soberton,
near Droxford, Hants, Museum at Winchester.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xvii
PLATE AT PAGE
3, VI 1, Part of the bronze mounting of a bucket, from between Twyford
and Borough Hill, Leicestershire, Leicester Museum.
4, VI 1, Bucket mounts from Souldern, Oxfordshire, collection of S. G.
Fenton, Esq.
5, 6, VI 1, Bronze appliques for the ornamentation of a bucket, from
Bidford, Warwickshire, No. 6 is 2-J in. long. Museum at Worcester.
CXIV. BRONZE EWER, PAIL AND BOWLS . . . .467
1, c. 600, Bronze ewer, 7^ in. high, found at Wheathampstead, Herts,
British Museum.
2, VI ^, Bronze ewer from Wonsheim, Rhenish-Hesse, c. 7 in. high.
3, VI 3, Bronze pail, found at Cuddesdon, Oxfordshire, 9 in. high, from
Akerman's Pagan Saxondom, pi. xiii.
4, VI 3, Cast bronze bowl with open-work foot, diameter 10 in., found at
Faversham, Kent, with hazel nuts within it. The contents are
intact. British Museum.
5, VI 2, Similar bowl from Walluf, near Mainz, on the Rhine, 8 in.
in diameter, British Museum.
CXV. BRONZE BOWLS 469
1, VII 1, Cast bronze bowl on a stem, 12 in. high, 16^ in. diameter, found
in the Taplow Barrow, Bucks, British Museum.
2, v^. Bronze bowl from York, with 'scutcheon' and hook in the form
of a bird, arranged for suspension, Museum at York (p. 474).
3, Bronze bowl with marks of 'scutcheons' for suspension, and
characteristic rim, 7I in. in diameter. Museum at Newcastle (p. 478).
+71
CXVI, BRONZE BOWLS
1, VI 2, Beaten bronze bowl with embossed rim, 9^ in. in diameter, from
Alfriston, Sussex, Lewes Museum.
2, VI 1, Bronze patella with handle, 8§ in. in external diameter, 2^ in.
high, gilded inside, the handle should be straight and would be 5^ in.
long. Found with unmistakably Anglo-Saxon objects in a barrow
on Rodmead Hill, Wilts, Museum at Devizes. See Sir R. Colt
Hoare, Ancient JViltshire, I, 46.
3, VI 2, Beaten bronze bowl similar to No. i, loj in. across, 4 in. high,
found at Stowting, Kent, Stowting Rectory.
CXVn. BRONZE BOWLS AND SCUTCHEONS . . .473
1, VII 2, < Scutcheon ' for suspending bronze bowl, with Christian emblems,
diameter i^ in., found at Faversham, Kent, British Museum (p. 117)
2, VII 1, Three scutcheons with Celtic ornamentation, showing method of
attachment, from Chesterton, Warwickshire, Museum at Warwick.
3, VI ', Beaten bronze bow], 8 in. across, found at Croydon, Surrey,
Grange Wood Museum, Thornton Heath (p. 472).
4, Side view of No. i.
IV b
xviii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE AT PAGE
5, VI 2, Beaten bronze bowl of early type, from Ewelme, Oxfordshire,
4-1 in. across, British Museum.
6, VI 2, Beaten bronze bowl with ' scutcheons ' for suspension, showing
depression for ornamental plaque below, 8| in. in external diameter,
from Hawnby, Yorkshire, British Museum.
CXVIII. THE WILTON BRONZE BOWL . . . -474
VI 3, Beaten bronze bowl, diameter n in., height 4J in., with scutcheons
riveted on for suspension, at Wilton House, Wilts, found in the
locality.
CXIX. SCUTCHEONS OF BOWLS WITH LATE-CELTIC
ORNAMENT; BRONZE PAIL WITH ANIMAL
ORNAMENT, ETC . -475
ijVii', Scutcheon, enamelled, with hook attached, 2| in. In diameter,
from Middleton Moor, Derbyshire, Museum at Sheffield.
2, VII 1, Enamelled disc, probably the central ornament of a bronze bowl ;
found at Oving, near Whitchurch, Bucks, c. 2 In. in diameter,
Museum at Aylesbury.
3, Enamelled bronze disc, with attachments at back for fastening It to
leather or some similar substance, collection of Royal Irish Academy,
National Museum, Dublin.
4, VII ^, Enamelled bronze plaque, 2 in. diameter, with plain back, one
rivet hole near rim, found at Lede, Belgium, Museum at Brussels.
5, VII 2, Applique In the form of a fish, from the Lullingstone bowl.
6, v3, Bronze pail, 3I in. high, from Chessell Down, British Museum ;
for frieze of animals upon it see PI. ix, 2 (p. 103).
CXX. THE LULLINGSTONE BOWL . . . . -477
VII 2, Beaten bronze bowl, diameter 10 In., high 4^ In., with applied
ornaments In bronze, tinned and enamelled, soldered on to it, found
in an Anglo-Saxon grave near Lullingstone, Kent, Lullingstone
Castle.
CXXI. GLASS VESSELS, ENGLISH AND CONTINENTAL . 479
1 5 2, 3, Vases of glass from Belgium and northern France, in the
Museum at Brussels.
4, VI 2, Beaker with foot, 4J In. high, found at Croydon, Grange
Wood Museum.
5, VI 2, Funnel-shaped vase from Bifrons, Kent, 6| in. high. Museum at
Maidstone.
CXXIL GLASS VESSELS OF 'TUMBLER' FORM . .481
1, Glass vase, 4^ in. high, from Kingston, Kent, Museum at Liverpool.
2, VI 2, Glass drinking cup found at Woodnesborough near Sandwich,
Kent, 5 in. high, from Pagan Saxondom, pi. xvii.
3, Glass 'tumbler,' from Barfrlston, Kent, 5 in. high, Museum at
Liverpool.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xix
PLATE AT PAGE
CXXIII. GLASS VESSELS ENGLISH AND CONTINENTAL 483
1, VI ^ Lobed vase (tear glass), 7 in. high, of dark green glass found at
Broadstairs, Offices of Local Board, Broadstairs, Kent.
2, VI 2, Glass cup of delicate make, 3I in. high, colour pale blue, found
at Mitcham, Collection of Capt. Bidder, Mitcham, Surrey.
3, Vase similar to No. i, in the Museum at Brussels.
CXXIV. THE CASTLE EDEN VASE . . . . . 484
VII 1, Lobed glass vase, 7^ in. high, of green glass with blue bands down
the lobes, found in an Anglo-Saxon interment at Castle Eden,
Durham, Collection of Captain Burdon, Castle Eden.
CXXV. GLASS VESSELS WITH FOREIGN PARALLELS . 485
1, VI 2, Green glass vase, 'tumbler' shaped, lo in. high, from Faversham,
Kent, British Museum (p. 484.).
2, Similar vase found in Scandinavia.
3, V ', Finely wrought bowl of glass with thread ornament, found at the
Mount, York, York Museum (p 484).
4, VI 1, Large bowl, 'tumbler' shaped, of dull green glass, 7^ in. across,
found at Desborough, Northants, British Museum.
CXXVI. GLASS VESSELS WITH DETAIL . . . .485
1, v^, Fluted glass bowl of delicate make, 6 in. in diameter, found at
Bifrons, Kent, Bifrons House.
2, VII 1, Dark blue glass bowl, 2| in. high, found at Broomfield, Essex,
British Museum.
3, Small bottle shaped glass vase, probably Roman, from Bifrons, Kent,
Bifrons House.
4, Internal view of part of the Castle Eden lobed vase, see PI. cxxiv.
5, VI 2j Small roughly made vase of coarse green glass from Mitcham,
Surrey, in Mitcham Vestry Hall.
CXXVIL GLASS VESSELS FROM SUSSEX AND KENT . 486
1, VI 2, Glass beaker with foot, 6 in. high, from High Down, Sussex,
Ferring Grange.
2, VI 3, Funnel shaped vase, 6 in. high, as above.
3, VI 2, Delicately made cup of 'tumbler' form, 5 in. high, from Sarre,
Kent, K. A. S. Collection, Maidstone.
CXXVIII. GLASS VESSELS FROM SUSSEX . . . .487
1, V, Tall vessel without handles, 8 in. high, with engraved ornaments
and, below the rim, a Greek inscription YriEINCtJN XPCO preceded
by a cross, from High Down, Sussex, Ferring Grange.
2, VI 3, Tall funnel shaped vase, ii^ in. high, from Alfrlston, Sussex,
Lewes Museum.
XX LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE AT PAGE
CXXIX. POTTERY, PRANKISH AND OP PRANKISH
TYPES 491
1, Wheel-made clay vase, c. 4 in. high, from Herpes, Dept. Charente,
France, British Museum.
2, Do., do., from Londinieres, Museum at Rouen.
3, Do., do., from Nesle Hodeng, as above.
4, Urn of Prankish type not wheel-made, found at Frilford, Berks, 4^
in. high, British Museum.
5, Do., do., 3I in. high, from East Shetford, Berks, Museum at Newbury.
6, Vase, 8| in. high, from Broadstairs, Broadstairs Local Board Offices.
CXXX. VASES OP 'SAXON' TYPE FOUND IN BELGIUM,
ETC 492
1, Four vases of so-called 'Saxon' type found at Harmignies and Ander-
lecht, Belgium, in the possession of the Musee du Cinquantenaire,
the Societe Archeologique, and M. Foils. The largest is 7^ in. high.
2, Small cup of baked clay, 3J in. across, with piece of glass inserted in
the lower part, found near Stamford, Museum at Lincoln (p. 500).
3, Roman cinerary urn, with cremated bones. Museum at York (p. 504).
CXXXL CINERARY URNS, NORTH GERMAN AND
ENGLISH 493
1, Cinerary urn containing burnt human bones, from Rebenstorf in the
Hanoverian Ventland, Museum at Liineburg.
2, Cinerary urn, showing contents, burnt bones and earth, from Saxby,
Leicestershire, at the Midland Institute, Derby.
CXXXII. URNS, HANOVERIAN AND EAST ANGLIAN . 495
1, Urn with representation of the human face, from Wehden, Kreis Lehe,
Hanover, Museum at Hanover (p. 499).
2, Urn, 10 in. high, found at Shropham, Norfolk, with swastika orna-
ment, British Museum (pp. 497, 499).
CXXXIII. URNS, CONTINENTAL AND ENGLISH . . 497
1, Urn from Westerwanna near the Elbe mouth, Museum at Geeste-
miinde.
2, Urn, loj in. high, from Hoog Halen, near Assen, Holland, Museum
at Leiden.
3, Urn from Altenwalde near the Elbe mouth, Museum fiir Volker-
kunde, Hamburg.
4, Cremation urn with fragments of burnt human bones, from Pens-
thorpe, Norfolk, 8 in. high, Norwich Castle Museum.
5, Urn from Sandy, Beds, 9^ in. high, Trinity College Collection, now
in Cambridge Museum.
6, Cremation urn, from Heworth just outside York, York Museum.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xxi
PLATE AT PAGE
CXXXIV. URNS, CONTINENTAL AND ENGLISH . . 499
1, Cinerary urn, 9 in. high, from the Terp at Beetgum, Friesland,
Museum at Leeuwarden.
2, Urn from Hoog Halen, Drenthe Province, Holland, Museum at
Leiden.
3, Cremation urn from Hammoor B, Holstein, Museum at Kiel.
4, Urn in the Museum at Hanover.
5, Cremation urn from Kettering, Northants, 8 in. high. Museum at
Northampton.
6, Cinerary urn from Kempston, Beds, British Museum.
7, Urn of Anglian type in the Museum at Sheffield.
8, Urn found with skeleton of female at Stapenhill, Staffordshire, 5^ in.
high. Museum at Burton-on-Trent.
9, Portions of Anglian urns from Saxby, Leicestershire, showing
technique. Midland Institute, Derby (p. 490).
CXXXV. NORTH GERMAN AND ENGLISH URNS . . 500
Left-hand side of Plate, three urns in the Museum at Bremen.
Right-hand side, a cremation urn from Heworth just outside York, and
two urns from North Luffenham, Rutland, the lowest 9J in. high,
formerly in the collection of Mrs. Morris at Leamington.
CXXXVI. CONTINENTAL AND ENGLISH URNS . . 501
1, Urn with handles from Westerwanna near the Elbe mouth. Museum
at Geestemiinde.
2, 3, Urns from Frisian Terpen in the Museum at Leeuwarden, 3 has
handles and rosette ornament.
4, Urn from Shalcombe Down, Isle of Wight, 5I in. high. Museum in
Carisbrooke Castle.
5, Single-handled jug from Chessell Down, Isle of Wight, British
Museum.
6, Urn from Eye, Suffolk, resembling No. 2, from Friesland, Museum at
Bury St. Edmunds.
7, Cinerary urn from Newark, Notts, 6| in. high. Museum at Hull.
8, Urn with swastika ornament from Redgrave, Suffolk, 10^ in. high.
Museum at Bury St. Edmunds (p. 497).
CXXXVIL DETAILS OF ENGLISH URNS . . . .501
1, Urn with foot and horn-like bosses from Alfriston, Sussex, Lewes
Museum.
2, View from below of the Newark urn, PI. cxxxvi, 7, showing foot,
also fragments of cremated bones contained in it.
3, Urn similar to No. i, at Pitt Rivers Museum, Farnham, Dorset,
6 in. high.
4, Urn similar to Nos. i and 3, from High Down, Sussex, 5 in. high,
at Ferring Grange.
xxii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE AT PAGE
5, 6, Two vase fragments found at Teale, Berks, of different vases
but ornamented with the same stamp, Museum at Reading.
7, Fragment of vase showing style of ornamentation, collection of
Lord Grantley,
CXXXVIII. PLAIN URNS FROM ENGLISH AND CON-
TINENTAL CEMETERIES . . . .505
1, Plain urn, 9 in. high, found with burnt bones and a penannular fibula
of VII, in the Terp of Hoogebeintum, Museum at Leeuwarden
(p. 504).
2, Plain urn, 5^ in. high, found at Stapenhill, Staffordshire, Museum at
Burton-on-Trent.
3, Small urn with 'lugs' or rudimentary handles, from Brixworth,
Northants, Museum at Northampton.
4, Urn with 'lugs,' 7 in. high, found at Stapenhill with a skeleton
accompanied by an iron knife, Museum at Burton-on-Trent.
5, Cinerary urn found with burnt bones in it, at Ipswich, Suffolk,
Christchurch Museum, Ipswich.
6, Plain urn, 9 in. high, from Sancton, Yorks, Museum at Hull.
7, Cremation urn of globular shape, found with burnt bones in it at
Northfleet, Kent, Town Museum, Maidstone.
8, Plain urn 5^ in. high, found with skulls, brooches, beads, etc., in a
barrow at Peering, Essex, Colchester Museum.
CXXXIX. KENTISH AND OTHER EXCEPTIONAL URNS . 507
1, Bottle-shaped wheel-made vase, from Trivieres, Belgium, 10^ in. high.
Museum at Brussels.
2, Bottle-shaped vase, broken above, c. 9 in. high, from Dover Hill
cemetery, Folkestone, Folkestone Museum.
3, Bottle-shaped urn from Sarre, Kent, K. A. S. Collection, Maidstone.
4, Similar vase, 11 j in. high, from Harrietsham, Kent, as above.
5, Jug of Prankish form, probably imported, found at Sarre, Kent, as
above (p. 501).
6, Early spout-handled vessel, c. 8 in. high, found with burnt bones in it
at Great Addington, Northants, British Museum.
7, Similar vessel from Perlberg cemetery by the Elbe.
CXL DATABLE INLAID JEWELS OF KENTISH TYPE . 509
I, 2, VII 2, The 'Wilton' pendant, found in Norfolk, No. i, back view
showing gold solidus of Heraclius i (613-641) mounted in cruciform
frame of gold, i| in. across ; No. 2, front of the same jewel showing
garnet inlays and the reverse of the coin, upside down, British
Museum.
3, VII 2, Reliquary cross found on the body of St. Cuthbert in Durham
Cathedral, gold with garnet inlays, width across arms 2^ in., Durham
Cathedral Library.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xxiii
PLATE AT PAGE
4, VII, Pendant of Prankish origin found at Wieuwerd near Leeu-
warden, Friesland, enclosing in gold filigree frame a gold solidus,
Museum at Leiden.
5, VII 1, Perspective view of back, of the ' Kingston ' brooch showing pin
and catch, Museum at Liverpool.
6, VII 1, Pin catch of the 'Kingston' brooch. For the whole object
see description of Plate A (p. 511 f.).
CXLI. EARLY EXAMPLES OF INLAID WORK, ETC. . . s^S
1, Bronze breast ornament of the Early Bronze Age in Denmark,
Museum at Copenhagen, see Sophus Miiller, Nordische Altertums-
kunde, I, 284 f.
2, Portion of above on a larger scale showing the traced lines of the
spiral ornament (p. 292).
3, Jewel of uncertain use inlaid with coloured stones, of iv B.C., from
the Persian Achaemenid period, found at Susa, now in the Louvre,
Paris (p. 521).
4, Golden armlet, 4^ in. across, set formerly with coloured stones in
cloisons, from the ' Treasure of the Oxus,' Victoria and Albert
Museum, London (p. 521).
5, Eagle in gold, set with gems, from the ' Siberian ' gold treasure in the
Hermitage, St. Petersburg (p. 524).
6, Golden relic-box set with coloured stones, about 3 in. long, found
in a Buddist tope near Jalalabad and dated about the middle of
II A.D., British Museum (p. 521).
CXLII. SIBERIAN, ETC., PIECES, ILLUSTRATING THE
HISTORY OF INLAID WORK 523
1, Open-work cone of gold, set with gems, Greco-Scythian work, from
Southern Russia, Hermitage, St. Petersburg.
2, Massive gold piece, pierced and set with gems, from the ' Siberian '
treasure in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg.
3, Inlaid fibula from Gotland, in the collection of James Curie, Esq.,
Melrose. (Not mentioned in the text.)
4, Golden fish, 16 in. long, from Vettersfeld in the Nieder Lausitz, pro-
bably Greco-Scythian work of about 500 B.C., Antiquarium, Berlin,
also golden holster, another portion of the find.
5, Golden basket once set with gems a jour, from the Treasure of
Petrossa, University Museum at Bucharest (p. 528).
6, Inlaid bronze breast ornament from Bornholm, set with garnets, 4^ in.
high, Copenhagen Museum, see Miiller, Nordische Alter tuttisku/ide,
II, p. 188. (Not mentioned in the text.)
CXLIII. GOTHIC AND OTHER INLAID WORK . . .525
1, Gothic votive crowns found at Guarrazar near Toledo in Spain, about
VII, Cluny Museum, Paris (p. 532).
xxiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE AT PAGE
2, Golden bowls, with garnet inlays, from the second Szilagy Somlyo
find, diameter of largest 4I in.. Museum at Budapest (p. 530).
3, Golden bowl, with buckle for suspension, 4I in. in diameter, from
the Nagy-Szent-Miklos find of about viii a.d.. Museum at Vienna
(p. 530).
4, Gold medallion of the Emperor Valens, 364-378, mounted by a
barbarian goldsmith, from the first Szilagy Somlyo find. Museum at
Vienna.
5, Early golden buckle, with part of an engraved sard as inlay, from
Hungary, British Museum (p. 348).
6, Similar buckle with garnet inlays from Southern Russia, iv, or v,
A.D., Museum fiir Vcilkerkunde, Berlin (p. 348).
CXLIV. THE SECOND SZILAGY SOMLYO FIND . . 529
Encrusted golden and silver-gilt fibulae of the end of iv or early V,
found at Szilagy Somlyo, Hungary, rather under J full size. Museum
at Budapest.
CXLV. INLAID DISC FIBULAE OF KENTISH TYPE . . 533
1, VII 2, Disc fibula ornamented with garnet inlays and debased zoomor-
phic patterns, 3 in. in diameter, found at Abingdon, Berks, British
Museum.
2, VII 2, Portion of similar piece with the same provenance, in the
Ashmolean, Oxford.
3, VII * Similar brooch from Sittingbourne, Kent, 2§ in. across, in the
Museum at Dover.
4, VII 2, Similar piece from the Kennard Collection, in the Fitzwilliam
Museum, Cambridge.
5, VI 1, Close-set garnet brooch, | in. in diameter, found at Broadstairs,
Offices of the Local Board, Broadstairs, Kent.
6, VI 1, Close-set garnet brooch of iron, about i in. across, found at
Bifrons, K. A. S. Collection, Maidstone.
7, VI 1, Close-set garnet brooch of bronze, as above.
8, v^, Rectangular inlaid jewel from Bifrons, grave 15, as above.
CXLVI. KENTISH DISC FIBULAE 535
I, 2, VII 1, Kentish disc fibulae, formerly in the Kennard Collection,
Maidstone.
3, VII ^, Kentish disc fibula, diameter i^- in., found on Priory Hill,
Dover, Museum at Dover.
4, viii, Kentish disc fibula from Ash, Kent, the central round is
enamelled, Ashmolean Museum,
5, VI 1 -^ 2^ Three Kentish disc fibulae of a difl^erent style, silver with
inlays, diameter of central one i§ in., Stowting Rectory, Kent.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xxv
PLATE AT PAGE
CXLVII. MISCELLANEOUS EXAMPLES OF KENTISH
JEWELLERY 537
1, VII 3, Encrusted disc fibula, possibly found in Kent, of Frankish type,
Mayer Collection, Liverpool Museum (p. 543).
2, VII 2, Encrusted Frankish disc fibula, silver, gold faced, i^ in. across,
Cochet Collection, Museum at Rouen.
3, VII 1, Small inlaid jewel of Kentish type, f in. in longest dimension,
from Broomfield, Essex, in British Museum.
4, VII 1, Jewelled pyramidal stud, perhaps for a sword knot, base ^ in.
square, from Broomfield, Essex, British Museum (p. 547).
5, VII 2, Pin head of gold with garnet inlays of Kentish style, i^^ In.
long, from Forest Gate, Essex, Ashmolean Museum (p. 547).
6, VII, Dagger pommel (?), silver, inlaid with white substance, c. i in.
in diameter, from Kingston, Kent, Liverpool Museum.
7, VI ', Fiddle-shaped jewel of Frankish character, gold, inlaid with
garnets, etc., no signs of attachment at the back, i^ in. long, found
at Milton next Sittingbourne, Kent, British Museum (p. 543).
8, VII, Circular inlaid stud, | in. in diameter, perhaps the central
ornament from a disc fibula, Bloxam Collection, Rugby Art
Museum (p. 547).
9, VII, Inlaid pyramidal stud, § in. square at base, found on Salisbury
Race Course, Museum at Devizes (p. 547).
ID, VII 2, Encrusted disc fibula of quatrefoil shape, from Charnay, Bur-
gundy, Museum at St. Germain (p. 543).
II, Mass of rock crystal, 4^ in. in longest dimension, with marks of
cutting, probably from Kent, Mayer Collection, Liverpool (p. 515).
CXLVIII. CONTENTS OF LADY'S TOMB AT VERMAND,
FRANCE 551
The objects were found in a single tomb at Vermand, dating about the
end of IV, and are shown half the natural size. For descriptions see
text (p. 552 f.), collection of M. Jules Pllloy, St. Quentin, France.
CXLIX. FOREIGN APPLIED AND SAUCER FIBULAE, ETC. 553
1, Applied fibula from Maroeuil, Pas de Calais, i| in. in diameter, with
pin attachment at back, Museum at Brussels (p. 277).
2, Applied fibula from Sigy, Seine Inferieure, 2 in. in diameter, Museum
at Rouen (p. 277).
3, Embossed plate of applied fibula from Wehden, Kreis Lehe, ij in.
in diameter. Museum at Hanover (p. 278).
4, Saucer brooch, bronze gilt, with scroll ornament, i§ in. across, from
Harmignies, Belgium, Museum at Brussels (p. 277).
5, Applied brooch, ornamented like No. 2, i^g- in. in diameter, from
East Shefford, Berks, Museum at Newbury (p. 277).
6, Bronze strap end, from Hammoor B, Holstein, at Kiel (p. 558).
xxvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE AT PAGE
7, Plate (of applied brooch ?) with scroll ornament, i^ in. in diameter,
from Perlberg, Bez. Stade, Museum at Stade (p. 278).
8, Two small saucer brooches, less than i in. in diameter, from Alten
Buls, province of Hanover, Museum at Hamburg (p. 277).
9, Gilded bronze fibula, 3J in. long, provenance unknown, Museum at
Canterbury (p. 556).
10, Fibula of similar form in Museum at Stockholm.
CL. THREE BRONZE BUCKLES 555
1, Roman bronze buckle, Museum at Bonn.
2, Bronze buckle of barbaric make, 4 in. long, from Crissier, Museum
at Lausanne.
3, Bronze buckle, of transitional style, 4J in. wide, Museum at Mainz.
CLI. PLATE BUCKLES 557
1, v^, Bronze plate buckle, 3 J in. broad, found in Smithfield, London,
British Museum.
2, Complimentary plates of plate buckles, provenance unknown, Mayer
Collection, Museum at Liverpool.
CLIL EARLY BRONZE ROMANIZING OBJECTS . .558
(Probably dating the latter part of v)
1, Bronze strap end from Croydon, Surrey, in Grange Wood Museum,
Thornton Heath.
2, Bronze ring with attachment, from Dorchester, Oxon, Ashmolean
Museum.
3, Faceted bronze disc, diameter i^ in., as above.
4, Similar object from Croxton near Thetford, Norfolk, Castle Museum,
Norwich.
5, 8, Similar object with more elaborate attachments, whole length
about 4 in., from Croydon, in Grange Wood Museum.
6, 7, v^, Bronze strips, with beaded cylinder, 3I in. long, from Dor-
chester, as above.
9, Faceted bronze disc, with attachment, from Milton next Sitting-
bourne, Kent, Maidstone Museum.
10, Bronze buckle, exterior width of bow 2§ in., from Dorchester, as above.
1 1, Bronze buckle with ribbon-like chape, length of piece 2f in., as above.
12, Bronze strap end, 2 in. long, as above.
CLIII. FOREIGN EQUAL ARMED FIBULAE, ETC. . .559
1, Bronze strap end from Quelkhorn, Museum at Geestemiinde, near
Bremen.
2, 3, Back and front views of mutilated equal armed fibula from Quelk-
horn, Museum at Geestemiinde.
4, Equal armed fibula, bronze gilt, width of larger arm 4^ in., from a
tumulus at Anderlingen, Museum at Hanover.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xxvii
PLATE AT PAGE
CLIV. BUCKLES, ETC., WITH ROMANIZING ORNA-
MENT . 561
1, VI 2, Bronze buckle, encrusted with yellow pastes and plated with tin,
longest dimension of chape ij^g in., from Alfriston, Sussex, Museum
at Lewes.
2, v3. Bow of bronze buckle from Burwell Fen, Cambridgeshire, 2^ in.
across, Cambridge Museum (pp. 555, 633).
3, v^, Similar piece from Mitcham, Surrey, i§ in. across, at Mitcham
Vestry Hall (pp. 555, 633).
4, VI 1, Equal armed bronze fibula from Little Wilbraham, Cambs,
3§ in. wide, at Audley End, Essex.
5, VI 1, Similar piece from Haslingfield, Cambs, 3I in. wide, in the
Museum at Cambridge.
CLV. MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS 563
1, VI 1, Bronze girdle plate with romanizing ornament zoomorphic and
faceted, ij- in. in longest dimension, from Bishopstone, Bucks,
Museum at Aylesbury.
2, VI 1, Bronze girdle plate, with similar enrichment, i| in. long, from
High Down, Sussex, at Ferring Grange.
3, IV 3, Bronze knife handle of Roman workmanship, with dog pursuing
a hare, 2§ in. long, found at Richborough, Kent, Trinity College
Collection in Cambridge Museum of Archaeology.
4, V 3, Similar object found at Bifrons, probably Saxon work, K. A. S.
Collection at Maidstone.
5, VI 3, Square headed fibula, bronze gilt, set with garnets and white
substance, 5 in. long, from Sarre, Kent, K. A. S. Collection, Maid-
stone (p. 547).
6, Similar brooch, 5 in. long, found at Herpes, Charente, in Western
France, from Ph. Delamain, Cimetiere d'Herpes, pi. xiii (p. 547).
7, v3j Bronze fibula of exceptional form, found at Kllham, Yorkshire,
Museum at York (p. 807).
8, 9, 10, Brooches of corresponding open work design, from the
Ukraine provinces of Russia, Museum at Kiev. See Baron de Baye,
Les Fibides de V Epoque Barbare speciales a VUkrahie, Caen, 1908
(p. 807).
11, IV, Bronze fibula of early (provincial-Roman) type, width of head
^ in., found at Kempston, Beds, British Museum (p. 784).
12, 14, IV, Two views of early (provincial-Roman) bronze fibula, from
Basset Down, Wilts, i\ in. long. Museum at Devizes (pp. 254, 656).
13, Chape of buckle In pierced bronze, i|^ in. broad, of Romano-British
type, from Sarre, Kent,K. A. S. Collection, Maidstone (p. 351).
CLVL MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS .... 623
I, VI 2, Saucer brooch from High Down, Sussex, to be compared with
PI. LVII, 5, from Horton Kirby, North Kent, at Ferring Grange
(p. 611).
xxviii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE AT PAGE
2, VI 2, Saucer brooch from Northfleet, Kent, in Maidstone Museum
(p. 689) to be compared with PI. LXVIII, 3, and Wylie's Fairford
Gra-ves, pi. in, i.
3, VI 2, Saucer brooch with design of legs, from Saxonbury, in Lewes
Museum, Sussex (p. 689).
4, Urn, 4|- in. high, with cremated bones probably of a child, found in
sand pit at Hassocks, Sussex, Brighton Museum (p. 679).
5, Urn of different form, with cremated bones, same localities.
6, VI 3, Cruciform fibula of late type, z\ in. long, from Shepperton,
Middlesex, Museum at Guildford, Surrey (pp. 624, 635).
7, VII, Disc fibula with garnet inlays and filigree work of late style,
diameter i| in., found in White Lowe tumulus, Winster Moor,
Derbyshire, Museum at Sheffield (p. 540).
8, Armlet of glass from Mailing Hill, Sussex, British Museum (p. 458).
9, ID, Two bronze plaques, tinned, pierced in a cruciform design, i§ in.
in diameter, without attachments at back, from Winklebury Hill,
Wilts, in Pitt Rivers Museum, Farnham, Dorset (p. 654).
CLVII. OBJECTS FROM KENNINGHALL, NORFOLK . . 792
CLVm. MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS 807
1, 3, VI*, Cruciform brooches from Friesland, Leeuwarden Museum
(P- 743)-
2, VI 2, Skull of the Jutish lady of the richly furnished grave 4 at Sarre,
Kent, K. A. S. Collection, Maidstone (p. 704).
4, Girdle hanger from King's Field, Faversham, Kent, British Museum
(P-398)-
5, VII 2, Cast bronze medallion found with the Lullingstone Bowl, | in.
in diameter, with design of three fishes interpenetrating, collection of
Sir William Hart Dyke, Lullingstone Castle, Kent, (p. 477).
6, Romano-British enamelled bronze brooch in form of a hare, from
Bowcombe Down, Isle of Wight, Museum at Carisbrooke Castle
(p. 746).
7, v3. Radiating fibula from Kilham, Yorkshire, found with PL CLV, 7,
Museum at York.
8, VI 3, Cruciform bronze fibula of late type, 5^ in. long, found at
Darlington, Durham, collection of Edward Wooler, Esq., F.S.A.,
Darlington.
9, v^ Two bronze cruciform fibulae of early type, about i\ in. long,
with beads found at same time and place, from Corstopitum on the
Tyne, Northumberland (p. 811).
10, Fragment of urn of black ware, possibly Anglian, found with the
above, from Proc. Soc. Ant., xxiii.
11, Urn of Anglian type, 5 in. high, said to have been found in Buchan,
Aberdeenshire, but provenance not assured. Museum of Antiquities,
Edinburgh (p. 812).
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xxix
LINE ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT
FIG. PAGE
13, TERMINATION OF GIRDLE HANGER, from Searby,
Lincolnshire, Museum at Lincoln ..... 399
14, MOUNTS OF A PURSE OR POUCH, found at Chessell
Down, Isle of Wight, from Hillier, Isle of Wight, p. 33 . 409
15, IRON 'PURSE MOUNTS,' from English cemeteries . . 410
16, EARLY PRICK SPURS, a, from Lymne, Kent (Roach Smith,
Richborough, etc, p. 260); b, from grave 18, Linton Heath,
Cambs {Arch. Jour., xi, 95 f.) ; c, from Pakenham, Suffolk
{Ass., Ill, 1 19) . . . . . . . • .421
17, ORNAMENTAL PATTERNS ON BRONZE BRACE-
LETS, of 'bangle' fashion, at Saffron Walden, Essex . 458
18, STAMPED PATTERNS ON SEPULCHRAL POTTERY,
from Anglo-Saxon cemeteries, a. Smoother of bone at
Hull 502
19, SHAPES OF CUT GARNETS, from the Treasure of
Petrossa . . . . . . . . . .517
20, ROMANO -BRITISH FIBULA, found at Harnham Hill,
Wilts, 619
21, THREE FIBULAE, i, from Harnham Hill, Wilts; 2, from
Chessell Down, Isle of Wight ; 3, from Bifrons, Kent . 620
22, OUTLINE OF UMBO, from Twickenham, Middlesex, in
British Museum, 7 in. high, from Proc. Soc. Ant., xxiv, 328 634
23, CINERARY URN, found at Shepperton, Middlesex . .635
24, SKELETON AT OZENGELL, KENT .... 700
25, 'FRANCISCA,' from Ozengell, Kent, from Coll. Ant., in, pi. i 701
XXX LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FIG. PAGE
26, SECTION OF BARROW GRAVES, at Bourne Park, Kent . 720
27, URN FROM BURIAL ON BREACH DOWN, KENT . 724
28, PLAN OF TUMULI ON CHARTHAM DOWN, 1730,
from Douglas, 'Nen'ia Britanmca . . . . . .729
29, BEADS FOUND IN JANUARY 191 5 in a grave on the
shore of the Firth of Forth . . . . . .813
MAPS
PAGE
I. PRE-MIGRATION PERIOD AND GEOGRAPHY OF
THE SETTLEMENTS 571
II. EARLY MIGRATION PERIOD, c. 275-350 A.D. . . 573
IIL SAXON RAIDS, c. 400 a.d 575
IV. POSSIBLE ROUTES OF THE INVADERS . . .581
FACING PAGE
V. THE THAMES BASIN AND ADJOINING REGIONS 589
VI. JUTISH KENT 691
VII. MERCIA, MID ANGLIA, EAST ANGLIA, DISTRICT
OF THE LINDISWARAS 767
VIII. DEIRA AND BERNICIA 801
LIST OF ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERIES
In the following List the cemeteries where cremation is established
are underlined, as is the case also on Maps v, vi, vii, viii. The
broken line intimates that the evidence for cremation is not
quite conclusive.
Abingdon, Berks, W. Saxon, 649. Adam Wold, Yorks, Northumbrian, 805.
Alfriston, Sussex, S. Saxon, 685 ; its discovery, 23. Ancaster, Lines, Lindis-
waras (?), 801. Arne Hill, Berks, W. Saxon, 651. Arreton Down, Isle of
Wight, Jutish, 746. Arundel, Sussex, S. Saxon, 680. Ash, Kent, Jutish, 705.
Ashendon, Bucks, W. Saxon, 637. Aston near Remingham, Berks, W. Saxon,
641. Avening, Gloster, W. Saxon, 653.
Badby, Northants, Mid-Anglian, 781. Barfriston, Kent, Jutish, 728. Barlaston,
Stafford, Mercian, 771. Banington, Cambs, Mid-Anglian, 785 and 788,
Barton Seagrave, Northants, Mid- Anglian, 782. Basset Down, Wilts, W. Saxon,
655. Beakesbourne, Kent, Jutish, 719. Beddingham, Sussex, S. Saxon, 684.
Beddington, Surrey, W. Saxon, 631. Beeby, Leicester, Mercian, 777. Bens-
ford Bridge, see Cestersover. Benty Grange, Derby, Mercian, 772. Bidford,
Warwick, W. Saxon, 668. Bifrons, Kent, Jutish, 716; typical, 192J its wealth
in fibulae, 246; its character, 27, 192 f. ; orientation, 168. Billesdon, Leicester,
Mercian, 777. Birdoswald, Cumberland, Northumbrian, 81 1. Bishopsbourne,
Kent, Jutish, 719. Bishopstone, Bucks, W. Saxon, 637. Bourne Park, Kent,
Jutish, 720. Bowcombe Down, Isle of Wight, Jutish, 745. Branston, Stafford,
Mercian, 771. Breach Down, Kent, Jutish, 723. Bricklehampton, Worcester,
W. Saxon, 667. Brighthampton, Oxon, W. Saxon, 659 ; sword, etc., from, 223 f.
Brighton, Sussex, S. Saxon, 682. Brixworth, Northants, Mid-Anglian, 781.
Broadstairs, Kent, Jutish, 699; its discovery, 22; sceattas found at, 108; on a
Bronze Age site, 132. Broad Town, Wilts, W. Saxon, 654. Brockbridge,
Hants, Jutish, 745. Broomfield, Essex, E. Saxon, 601. Brough, Notts,
Mercian, 768. Broughton Hill, Hants, W. Saxon, 619. Broughton Poggs,
Oxon, W. Saxon, 661. Brushfield, Derby, Mercian, 772. Buchan, Aberdeen-
shire, 812 and 48. Buttsole, by Eastry, Kent, Jutish or ?, 707; account of, 203.
Caenby, Lines, Lindiswaras, 801. Caistor, Lines, Lindiswaras, 800. Cambridge,
Mid- Anglian, 785 and 787. Candlesby, Lines, Lindiswaras, 801. Canterbury,
Kent, St. Martin's Churchyard, 1 19. Carvoran, Northumberland, Northumbrian,
811. Castle Acre, Norfolk, E. Anglian, 793 and 794. Castle Eden, Durham,
Northumbrian, 810. Castle Hill, Notts, Mercian, 768. Cestersover, Warwick,
Mercian, 774. Chalton, Beds, W. Saxon, 636. Charford, Wilts, W. Saxon,
656. Chartham Down, Kent, Jutish, 728. Chatham Lines, Kent, Jutish, 738.
Chesterford, Essex, E. Saxon, 788. Chessell Down, Isle of Wight, Jutish, 746.
xxxii LIST OF ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERIES
Cliffe at Hoo, Kent, W. Saxon (?), 629. Colchester, Essex, E. Saxon, 599.
Cookham, Berks, W. Saxon, 642. Coombe, near Sandwich, Kent, Jutish, 707.
Corbridge, Northumberland, Northumbrian, 811 f. Cote, Oxon, W. Saxon, 658.
Cotgrave, Notts, Mercian, 768 f. Cow Lowe, Derby, Mercian, 773. Cransley,
Northants, Mid-Anglian, 782. Cranford, Northants, Mid-Anglian, 782.
Croydon, Surrey, W. Saxon, 631. Crundale, Kent, Jutish, 730. Cuddesdon,
Oxon, W. Saxon, 658.
Darlington, Durham, Northumbrian, 810. Desborough, Northants, Mid- Anglian,
782. Dinton, Bucks, W. Saxon, 637. Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxon, W.
Saxon, 647. Dover, Kent, Jutish, 709. Dovercourt, Essex, E. Saxon, 603.
Driffield, Yorks, Northumbrian, 806. Droxford, Hants, Jutish, 744; swords at,
703, 745. Ducklington, Oxon, W. Saxon, 658. Durham, Northumbrian, 810 f.
Duston, Northants, Mid-Anglian, 782.
Ely, Cambs, E. Anglian, 785. East Boldon, Durham, Northumbrian, 810. East-
bourne, Sussex, S. Saxon, 684. East Shefford, Berks, W. Saxon, 649. Eastry,
Kent, Jutish, 707 ; see also ' Buttsole.' Exning, Suffolk, E. Anglian, 791. Eye,
Suffolk, E. Anglian, 795.
Fairford, Gloster, W. Saxon, 662 ; its historical importance, 52 f. Fakenham,
Suffolk, E. Anglian, 795. Farndish, Beds, Mid-Anglian, 783. Farthingdown,
Surrey, W. Saxon, 633. Faversham, Kent, Jutish, 733. Feering, Essex,
E. Saxon, 599. Filkins, Oxon, W. Saxon, 662. Firle, Sussex, S. Saxon, 684.
Flixborough, Lines, Mercian (?), 768. Folkestone, Kent, Jutish, 709 ; site, 142.
Forest Gate, Essex, E. Saxon, 603. Forsbrook, Stafford, Mercian, 773. Frilford,
Berks, W. Saxon, 648 ; continuity in use of, 133 f.
Galley Lowe, Derby, Mercian, 772. Garrowby Wold, Yorks, Northumbrian, 805.
Gilton, Kent, Jutish, 705. Girton, Cambs, Mid-Anglian, 785. Glen Parva,
Leicester, Mercian, 776. Glynde, Sussex, S. Saxon, 683. Goldston-under-Ash,
Kent, Jutish, 705. Great Addington, Northants, Mid-Anglian, 781. Green-
wich, Kent, W. Saxon, 629.
Hackbridge, Surrey, W. Saxon, 632. Hargham, see Shropham. Harnham Hill,
Wilts, W. Saxon, 619 ; its relation to Old Sarum, 52; site, 144. Haslingfield,
Cambs, Mid-Anglian, 785 and 787. Hassocks, Sussex, S. Saxon, 682 and 678.
Hauxton, Cambs, Mid- Anglian, 785. Hawnby, Yorks, Northumbrian, 809.
Heworth, Yorks, Northumbrian, 802. Higham, Kent, W. Saxon, 629. High
Dyke, see Welboum. High Down, Sussex, S. Saxon, 680 5 site, 142. Holdenby,
Northants, Mid-Anglian, 781. Holkham, Norfolk, E. Anglian, 792. Holling-
boume, Kent, Jutish, 741. Holme Pierrepont, Notts, Mercian, 768. Hornsea,
Yorks, Northumbrian, 803. Homton, Oxon, W. Saxon, 658. Horton Kirby,
Kent, W. Saxon, 629. Hoxne, Suffolk, E. Anglian, 175. Hunstanton, Norfolk,
E. Anglian, 792.
Icklingham, Suffolk, E. Anglian, 791. Ingarsby, Leicester, Mercian, 777. Ipswich,
Suffolk, E. Anglian, 790. Islip, Oxon, W. Saxon, 658. Islip, Northants, Mid-
Anglian, 782.
LIST OF ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERIES xxxiii
Kelvedon, Essex, E. Saxon, 599. Kemble, Wilts, W. Saxon, 665. Kempston,
Beds, Mid-Anglian, 784 ; orientation, 166; account of it, 192. Kenninghall,
Norfolk, E. Anglian, 792. Kettering, Northants, Mid- Anglian, 782. Kid-
lington, Oxon, W. Saxon, 657. Kilham, Yorks, Northumbrian, 806 f, Kingsey,
Bucks, W. Saxon, 638. King's Field, see Faversham. King's Newton, Derby,
Mercian, 770. King's Play Down, Wilts, W. Saxon, 654. Kingston, Kent,
Jutish, 7205 its extent, 130. Kingston, Sussex, see Lewes. Kingston-on-Soar,
Notts, Mercian, 770. Kirton-in-Lindsey, Lines, Lindiswaras, 800.
Lackford, Suffolk, E. Anglian, 791. Lakenheath, Suffolk, E. Anglian, 791 and 795.
Leagrave, Beds, W. Saxon, 636. Leicester, Mercian, 776. Leighton Buzzard,
Beds, Mid-Anglian (?), 636 and 784. Lewes, Sussex, S. Saxon, 682. Little
Hampton, Worcester, W. Saxon, ^G^j. Little Wilbraham, Cambs, Mid- Anglian,
785. Linton Heath, Cambs, Mid-Anglian, 785 and 787. Lockinge Park,
Berks, W. Saxon, 651. Loddington, Northants, Mid-Anglian, 782. Londes-
borough, Yorks, Northumbrian, 804. London, Middlesex, W. Saxon, 611 ; as
E. Saxon, 603 f. ; in Danish period, 630. Longbridge Park, Warwick, W. Saxon,
668. Long Wittenham, Berks, W. Saxon, 644 f. ; Christian object found at, 115.
Lowesby, Leicester, Mercian, 777. Lyminge, Kent, Jutish, 711. Lymne,
Kent, Jutish, 712.
Maidenhead, Berks, W. Saxon, 641. Maidstone, Kent, Jutish, 741. Mailing Hill,
Sussex, S. Saxon, 683. Market Overton, Rutland, Mid-Anglian (?), 778.
Markshall, Norfolk, E. Anglian, 794. Marston St. Lawrence, Northants, Mid-
Anglian, 780. Marton, Warwick, Mercian, 775. Melton Mowbray, Leicester,
Mercian, 776 f. Mentmore, Bucks, W. Saxon, 637. Mildenhall, Suffolk,
E.Anglian, 791. Mildenhall, Wilts, W. Saxon, 656. Milton-next-Sittingbourne,
Kent, Jutish, 738. Minster Lovel, Oxon, W. Saxon, 658. Mitcham, Surrey,
W. Saxon, 632. Mount, The, York, Northumbrian, 802.
Nether Wallop, Hants, W. Saxon, 656. Newark, Notts, Mercian, 768 f. Newn-
ham, near Daventry, Northants, Mid-Anglian, 780. Newport Pagnell, Bucks,
W.Saxon, 636 f. Northampton, Mid-Anglian, 782. North Elmham, Norfolk,
E. Anglian, 795. Northfleet, Kent, W. Saxon, 627. North Luffenham, Rut-
land, Mid-Anglian, 778. Norton-by-Bredon, Worcester, W. Saxon, 667.
Norton, Northants, Mid-Anglian, 781.
Oddington, Gloster, W. Saxon, 658. Offchurch, Warwick, W. Saxon, 669. Og-
bourne St. Andrew, Wilts, W. Saxon, 654. Orwell, Cambs, Mid-Anglian,
785. Oving, Bucks, W. Saxon, 637. Oxford, Oxon, W. Saxon, 658. Oxton,
Notts, Mercian (.?), 774. Ozengell, Kent, Jutish, 700; coins found at, 109.
Painsthorpe Wold, Yorks, Northumbrian, 805. Pensthorpe, Norfolk, E. Anglian,
794. Peterborough, Northants, Gyrwas (?), 783. Pitsford, Northants, Mid-
Anglian, 781. Portslade, Sussex, S. Saxon, 682. Frincethorpe, Warwick,
Mercian, 669. Purley, Surrey, W. Saxon, 631.
Quarrington, Lines, Gyrwas (?), 801. Queniborough, Leicester, Mercian, 777.
IV C
xxxiv LIST OF ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERIES
Ragley Parle, Warwick, W. Saxon, 668. Ramsgate, Kent, Jutish, 699. Reading,
Berks, W. Saxon, 642 ; late use of cemetery, n8. Reculver, Kent, Jutish, 709.
Redboume, Herts, W. Saxon, discovery in xii, 121. Redgrave, Suffolk, E.
Anglian, 795. Richborough, Kent, Jutish, 705, Ringmer, see Glynde.
Ringwold, Kent, Jutish, 708. Rochester, Kent, Jutish, 741. Rodmead Down,
Wilts, W. Saxon, 656. Rothley Temple, Leicester, Mercian, 776, Round-
way Down, Wilts, W. Saxon, 657. Rudston, Yorks, Northumbrian, 806 f.
Saffron Walden, Essex, E. Saxon, 600 ; late finds in, 171 f. Salisbury, Wilts, W.
Saxon, 656. Salisbury Race Course, Wilts, W. Saxon, 656. Saltburn-on-Sea,
Yorks, Northumbrian, 808. Sancton, Yorks, Northumbrian, 803. Sandy, Beds,
Mid-Anglian, 636 and 784. Sarre, Kent, Jutish, 701 ; coins found at, 109 ;
swords at, 208, 703. Saxby, Leicester, Mercian, 776 f. Saxonbury, see Lewes.
Seamer, Yorks, Northumbrian, 809. Searby, Lines, Lindiswaras, 799.
Sedgeford, Norfolk, E. Anglian, 794. Shefford, Beds, Mid- Anglian, 636.
Shepperton, Middlesex, W. Saxon, 634. Shoeburyness, Essex, East Saxon, 600.
Shrewton, Wilts, W. Saxon, 657. Shropham, Hargham, etc., Norfolk, E.
Anglian, 794. Sibertswold, Kent, Jutish, 725. Sittingbourne, Kent, Jutish,
737. Sleaford, Lines, Gyrwas(?), 796 f.; its extent, 130J position of bodies,
1545 orientation, 167 f. Snape, Suffolk, E. Anglian, 795, and 590. Soberton,
Hants, Jutish, 745. Soham, Cambs, E. Anglian, 785. Souldern, Oxon, W.
Saxon, 658. Sporle, Norfolk, E. Anglian, 792. Stamford, Northants, Mid-
Anglian, 779. Standlake, Oxon, W. Saxon, 659. Stand Lowe, Derby, Mercian,
772. Stanton Harcourt, Oxon, W. Saxon, 658. Stapenhill, Stafford, Mercian,
770. Stapleford Park, Leicester, Mercian, 777. Steep Lowe, Stafford, Mercian,
772. Stodmarsh, Kent, Jutish, 716. Stone, Bucks, W. Saxon, 637. Stowting,
Kent, Jutish, 712; plural burial, 158, 167. Strood, Kent, Jutish, 741;
Christian object found at, 115. Summertown, Oxon, W. Saxon, 658. Sysonby,
Leicester, Mercian, 777.
Taplow, Bucks, W. Saxon, 638, Teynham, Kent, Jutish, 737. Toddington, Beds,
W. Saxon, 636 and 784. Toyd, Wilts, W. Saxon, 656. Tuddenham, Suffolk,
E. Anglian, 791. Tugby, Leicester, Mercian, 777. Tuxford, Notts, Mercian (?),
774. Twickenham, Middlesex, W. Saxon, 633. Twyford, Leicester, Mercian,
777-
Uncleby, Yorks, Northumbrian, 805. Upchurch, Kent, Jutish, 738. Upper Hey-
ford, Oxon, W. Saxon, 658. Upton Snodsbury, Worcester, W. Saxon, 667.
Wallington, Surrey, W. Saxon, 631. Walmer, Kent, Jutish, 708. Walsingham,
Norfolk, E. Anglian, 794. Walton, Derby, Mercian, 771. Wangford, Suffolk,
105. Warren Hill, Suffolk, E. Anglian, 791. Warwick, W. Saxon, 669. Wel-
bourn. Lines, Lindiswaras, 800. West Stow Heath, Suffolk, E. Anglian, 791.
Wheathampstead, Herts, W. Saxon, 635. Wheatley, Oxon, W. Saxon, 658.
Whitehill, Northumberland, Northumbrian, 811. White Horse Hill, Berks, W.
Saxon, 651. White Lowe, Derby, Mercian, 773. Wibtoft, Warwick, Mercian,
776. Wickhambreux, Kent, Jutish, 716. Wigston Magna, Leicester, Mercian,
776. Wolds, The Yorkshire, Northumbrian, 804 f. ; 134, 144. Willingdon,
LIST OF ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERIES xxxv
Sussex, S. Saxon, 684. Wilton, Wilts, W. Saxon, 656. Windsor, Berks, W.
Saxon, 642. Winchester, Hants, W. Saxon, 619. Wing, Bucks, W. Saxon,
637. Wingham, Kent, Jutish, 716. Winklebury Hill, Wilts, W. Saxon, 654.
Witham, Essex, E. Saxon, 603. Witney, etc., Oxon, W. Saxon, 658.
Womersley, Yorks, Northumbrian, 809. Wood Eaton, Oxon, W. Saxon, 658.
Woodford, Northants, Mid- Anglian, 782. Woodnesborough, Kent, Jutish,
707. Wood Perry, Oxon, W. Saxon, 658. Woodstone, Hunts, Gyrwas(?),
782. Woodyates Inn, Dorset, W. Saxon, 655. Wyaston, Derby, Mercian,
772. Wychnor, Stafford, Mercian, 771. Wye, Kent, Jutish, 730.
Yarnton, Oxon, W. Saxon, 658. Yelford, Oxon, W. Saxon, 658. York,
Northumbrian, 809.
CHAPTER VIII
TOMB FURNITURE: (V) ADJUNCTS OF THE COSTUME;
MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS; HORSE TRAPPINGS;
PERSONAL ORNAMENTS— NECKLETS
ADJUNCTS OF THE COSTUME
Connected with the coiffure are certain domestic implements,
a notice of which may be introduced here as they are associated
with the toilet if not with the actual vesture. Among these
may be enumerated the comb, the shears, and the tweezers, and
with the last again may be coupled sundry other little toilet
articles that are often strung with the tweezers on a ring.
This characteristic of being suspended from a ring, prob-
ably from the belt, belongs to sundry other objects of
personal or domestic use which may be considered in this
place together with certain appliances used to hold them or
to facilitate their suspension. All these objects are commonly
found in the graves near the middle of the body, which points
to their connection with the girdle. The appliances for
suspension are generally called ' girdle hangers,' the pendent
objects are keys, spoons, crystal balls, workboxes, and perhaps
charms, while small boxes or pouches may have held articles
such as coins that were not strung for suspension singly. A
considerable number of objects are in this way brought into
connection as attached to the dress in readiness for personal
use, and to a brief discussion of these we must now proceed.
The habit of wearing the hair long made the use of combs
necessary for men as well as for women, and the objects are
of very frequent occurrence with male and female burials, in
forms that seem to have been taken over from the Romans.
IV A
390 ADJUNCTS OF THE COSTUME
They are generally of bone, and are ornamented as were
Roman combs with incised lines and with the concentric
circles already illustrated (p. 293). The object continues also
in favour in the later Anglo-Saxon period, and combs in
various forms are characteristic of the Danish epoch, so well
represented at York by finds in the Museum of the York
Philosophical Society, and also at the Guildhall Museum,
London. The latest of the Anglo-Saxon combs is that found
in the coffin of St. Cuthbert at Durham and preserved in the
Library there. It can be dated with fair certainty at about
1020 A.D., and will be noticed in a succeeding volume.
Combs are illustrated on Pll. lxxxiv to lxxxvii. The
example Pi. lxxxiv, 4, 4|- in. long, was probably found in
London, though this is not quite certain, and is now in the
Guildhall Museum ; it has one row of teeth and a bar that is
continued at one end to serve as a handle. This form of
comb was noticed in the Proceedings of the Society of Anti-
quaries, xii, 115, in connection with a similar example from
Bedford. If the specimen shown was found in London it
would be almost certainly of the Danish period, but it may be
noticed that a very similar piece ^ was found at Flonheim in
the Rhineland, where the fine early sword hilt now at Worms
was also discovered, and this would make the form possible at
a much earlier date.
The combs on Pll. lxxxv to vii are of the more usual forms.
That from Arreton Down in the Isle of Wight at Carisbrooke
Castle, PL lxxxv, 3, though fragmentary, shows two rows of
teeth, coarse and fine, one on each side of the bar. Such a
comb might be carried in a sheath and PI. lxxxv, 2, in the
Museum at Brussels, is illustrated as it shows one of the most
perfect existing examples of the complete arrangement. There
is a sheath for each set of teeth and the sheaths are hinged at
one end while a catch at the other end holds them together
when closed. Other examples, such as those on PI. lxxxvi,
1 Figured in Barriere-Flavy, Arts Industriels^ etc., pi. lxx, 4.
LXXXV
facing p. 391
OBJECTS FROM CINERARY URNS, COMBS, ETC.
2 is Continental
/ I V. •
LXXXVI
facing p. 391
( ^' ^'
LXXXVII
facing p. 391
TOILET OBJECTS, ETC.
All the objects are natural size
6 is Continental
THE COMB 391
represented their natural size, have teeth on one side only and
an ornamental back by which the object would be held. No. i,
7 in. long, is a very fine example in bone — Faussett said ivory
— that was found in one of the most richly furnished graves
opened by Faussett at Kingston in Kent, grave No. 142, and
is now in the Museum at Liverpool. No. 2 was found in
Northampton and is ornamented on the back with ' T ' shaped
sinkings of the same shape as those on the pierced buckle
plates shown PI. lxxii, 3, 6 (p. 351). Here the coarse and
fine teeth are arranged as in a modern comb. The two holes
at the ends of the bar of the comb indicate the attachment of
a sheath that protected the row of teeth.
A back that rises in the centre in a pyramidal form and is
ornamented with projecting heads of animals might be early,
for it resembles Roman examples. Such a comb was found at
the early cemetery at Furfooz in Belgium, and is compared by
M. Bequet with Belgo-Roman specimens.-^ The Victoria and
Albert Museum contains an Anglo-Saxon comb of the same
form shown PI. lxxxvii, i. This pretty little specimen, 2-|- in.
long, represented the natural size, was found in London"-^ and
must belong to the Danish period. Another pyramidal-
backed comb but without the heads is shown PL lxxxv, i.
It was in a cinerary urn said to have been found near
Malton, Yorks, and is now in the York Museum. The date
naturally suggested is an early one, though cremation must
not be taken as an infallible criterion (p. 147). It is clear
that the dating of these combs from the point of view of their
style and ornamentation is a matter of much difiiculty, for
they have a long history and vary comparatively little in the
course of it.
Next to the comb may be noticed the shears. These are
of the familiar form of the sheep-shearing implement of the
present day, and measure from about 8 in. in length, e.g.
^ Annales de la Societe Arch'eologique de Namur, xiv, 399 f.
2 Victoria History ^ London, i, 164.
392 ADJUNCTS OF THE COSTUME
at Barrington, Cambs/ to a minute size on the scale of a
doll's house. About these last a word will presently be said.
PI, Lxxxvii, 3, shows a well preserved pair. The larger ones are
always of iron and are often rusted into a somewhat shapeless
mass. Scissors of the modern form do occur in Roman times
and in the migration period, but are of the greatest rarity.
Tweezers, almost always of bronze, are a very common but
rather a puzzling accompaniment of burials both of men and
of women. Pll. lxxxv, i ; lxxxvii, 4, 5, give some specimens,
of which the pair No. 4, found recently at Broadstairs, 3 in.
long, is well finished and in fine preservation. These small
objects are often ornamented by faceting, a technique especi-
ally Roman, and taken over from this source by the Teutonic
craftsman. The specimen PI. lxxxv, i, was found in one of
the numerous cinerary urns discovered at Heworth, just out-
side Yorlv, and for this reason is probably of early date. The
faceting here is very sharp and workmanlike. The orthodox
explanation of the little implement is that it was used for
depilation, and a story that makes this plausible is told of
Theodoric, King of the Visigoths — not the Ostrogothic lord of
Ravenna — how that he underwent at frequent intervals at the
hand of his barber the delectable experience of having super-
fluous hairs evulsed from his nostrils. More recently other
suggested uses for the pincers have been more favoured by
archaeologists, such as the extraction of thorns from the foot,
or even the pulling through of the needle in primitive opera-
tions of sewing when there was no thimble available.^ One
consideration that makes for the older view is the association
1 Collectanea Jntiqua, vi, 157.
2 At a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries, reported in its Proccedhigs,
xxiii, 277, it was stated that Colonel Rivett-Carnac, F.S.A., had given the
information that in the provinces of Kumaon and Garhwal, on the Thibetan
border, the Himalayan mountaineers carry not only a flint and steel but also
three small toilet implements attached to a chain, a pair of pincers for
extracting thorns, a spoon-shaped implement for the ears^ and a small
toothpick.
SHEARS AND TWEEZERS 393
of the comb with the tweezers as objects placed with the
fragments of bone in cinerary urns. Combs or fragments of
them are more often found in these receptacles than any other
article, and the tweezers are also of common occurrence. The
cinerary urns in which the Museum of York is so rich con-
tained, as we have just seen, these objects, and PI. lxxxv, i
shows, besides the comb and pair of tweezers, a pricker, a
strike-a-light, and a small pair of shears that made their
appearance in this way among the human ashes.
The tweezers, that must at any rate have been intended
for intimate personal use, are very often associated with other
small implements of the same character which are found at
times pendent from a ring. PI. lxxxvii, 2, shows a little
bunch of the kind consisting in a ' cure-oreille ' and two
stiletto-like objects. We may add in thought to these a pair
of tweezers like PI. lxxxvii, 4 or 5, where it is strung on a
ring, and also No. 9, an instrument perhaps connected with
the 'toilette des ongles.'
There are curious discoveries in the shape of objects ot
these kinds on a minute scale so that they suggest toys.
PI. lxxxvii, 6, 7, 8, show a selection of these reproduced the
natural size. These little objects, insignificant as they are, are
of some archaeological importance as they occur frequently
in those regions of northern Germany where we find tomb
furniture so closely resembling our own. The Museums at
Hamburg, Geestemiinde, Hanover, etc., contain specimens
that are the prototypes of those found at Castle Acre, Londes-
borough, and other sites in our own country. PL lxxxvii, 6,
shows specimens in the Hamburg Museum. The shears are
2-|- in. long, and Dr. Byham their custodian thinks that, like
the companion implements the tweezers and knife, they are
not toys, but were used by ladies for fine needlework. They
are of course of bronze. There are still smaller specimens in
the museums of the district. We are naturally reminded here
of the minute axe heads noticed and illustrated in an earlier
394 ADJUNCTS OF THE COSTUME
part of this survey (p. 232) and PL xxix, 8. PI. lxxxvii, 7
gives on the true scale a set found at Londesborough, York-
shire, and now in the Museum at Hull. They are smaller than
the Hamburg suite but the resemblance between the two sets
is remarkable, and must be remembered when we come to sum
up on a later page the monumental evidence connecting in-
vaders of our own country with the regions about the lower
course of the Elbe. No, 8 reproduces, also of the natural
size, one or two similar minute implements from Castle Acre
and other sites in Norfolk, and a minute pair of bronze tweezers
was found in a cremation urn at Long Wittenham, Berks.
The above-mentioned objects by no means exhaust the
archaeological interest of the parts of the grave adjacent to the
waist of its skeleton occupant. Other personal possessions
have appended to them rings for attachment, and have been
found in such a position as to make it probable that they were
suspended from the belt, while there are objects also that have
no such appendages and yet must have been carried on the
person. Four things possess an accidental importance due to
the fact that they have been confused two and two with each
other. They are ' keys,' ' girdle hangers,' ' strike-a-lights '
and * purse mounts,' according to the accepted nomenclature
which may however require correction. Between the ' key '
and the ' girdle hanger ' there exists an accidental likeness and
the same is the case with the other two, so that there has been
considerable confusion regarding them. PH. lxxxviii, lxxxix
illustrate the subject of the * key,' Pll. lxxxix, xc that of the
' girdle hanger,' while half a dozen other Plates, xci to xcvii,
are required to give specimens of the various personal posses-
sions referred to three or four sentences ago.
The objects shown PI. lxxxviii and PI. lxxxix, i, are called
' keys,' those Pll. lxxxix, 2 ; xc, i to 4 ' girdle hangers ' ; how
far is this nomenclature justified.''^ What presents itself in
^ Some facts relating to the distribution of the objects are given subse-
quently (p. 398).
( <
^^iW
LXXXVIII
facing p. 395
KEYS, ROMAN, CONTINENTAL AND ANGLO-SAXON
2. 4-, are Continental
KEYS AND GIRDLE HANGERS 395
each case is a metal bar from 3 in. to as much as 7 in. long,
with a loop at one end by which it might be strung on a ring,
while the other end is either turned at right angles to the bar
or else worked into a T shaped cross piece or spread out into
other forms. The pieces differ, firstly, in that the ' key '
occurs singly, the ' girdle hanger ' most commonly in pairs
which would not be the case with keys ; secondly, in their
shapes, for while the * key ' is always of a form suitable for
lifting a lock, the 'girdle hanger,' as for example PI. xc,
I, 2, 4, is sometimes ill-adapted for such employment ; thirdly,
through the appearance on the flat face of the bronze ' girdle
hanger ' of incised or stamped ornament of the same kind as
that upon the bar, a thing quite unlikely in the case of a key —
see for examples PI. xc, i, 2, 4, where Nos. i and 4 have
pierced eyes on the flat part unintelligible if they were keys ;
fourthly, in the fact that the ' key ' is commonly of iron, though
sometimes of bronze, while the ' girdle hanger ' is almost
always of the latter metal, and this agrees with the fact that
a key is a necessary object of use that would normally be
cheap and strong, while the other is a piece of personal decora-
tion though also a thing of use, and in connection with this
there must be considered the thickness of the metal bar, which
in the case of many of the flat bronze ' girdle hangers ' such as
PI. Lxxxix, 2, seems too thin to resist the leverage in lifting a
substantial bolt.
It must be understood of course that the sort of lock to be
held in view is a door lock into which the key is inserted in a
horizontal position through a slit, to be then Hfted so as
to raise a latch or bolt, no turning movement as in the case
of our ordinary keys being contemplated. For the purpose
indicated the implements, Pll. lxxxviii, 3, 5 ; lxxxix, i,
are quite suited and they resemble in principle the keys of
area gates familiar to Scottish housewives. The facts that
implements of the same form occur on Roman sites, as for
example PI. lxxxviii, i, from the Roman villa at Hartlip,
396 ADJUNCTS OF THE COSTUME
Kent ; are found in the Teutonic cemeteries of northern
Germany, PI. lxxxviii, 4 ; and are familiar in Scandinavia in
the migration and in the Viking ages, PI. lxxxviii, 2, from
the Museum at Copenhagen, can be easily explained if the
implement be really, as seems almost certain, a key such as
would be used to fasten and unlock the door of a house or of
a store-room. The Roman keys are noticed by Roach Smith. ^
The late-migration or early-Viking age keys PL lxxxviii, 2,
were found in women's graves on Bornholm.^ Some of them
have been compared to the modern picklocks. They are
always in the North a part of a woman's equipment, and
Professor Montelius ^ aptly quotes from the Edda the passage
about Thor disguising himself in Freya's female attire, when
* she reached to him the ring, with the clinking keys.' Such
rings are seen in the illustration, PL lxxxviii, 2, 4. The
discovery has more than once been made in England of an
iron key of this form within the hand of a female skeleton,
and a very striking instance of this is to be seen in the
Museum at Folkestone, in the case of the skeleton of the
Jutish lady shown previously PL xii and PL xv, 2 (p. 157).
An iron key, 5 in. long, lies under the fingers of the right
hand, as is seen in the photograph PL lxxxviii, 5. There is
no other object but a key that would seem to fit the situation.
PL lxxxviii, 3, is a foreshortened view of a large iron key,
7|- in. long, from the cemetery at Saxby, Leicestershire, in the
Midland Institute, Derby. It has it will be seen the same
form as the middle key in the set of three Roman ones,
PL lxxxviii, i.
On PL Lxxxix, No. i shows a set of three bronze keys
strung on a circlet of wire that is itself suspended from the
ring of an annular brooch on which remains of the iron pin
1 Collectanea Antiqua, 11, I f., and pll. v to vii.
2 FiXhrer durch die D'dnishe Sammlung, Kopenhagen, National Museum,
no. 269.
^ Kulturgeschlchte Schwedcns, Leipzig, 1906, p. 285.
I \
LXXXIX
facing p. 397
BRONZE KEYS AND GIRDLE HANGERS
l-XXXIX
I, 2, about natural b>ize
xc
facing p. 397
GIRDLE HANGERS
3, natural size ; tlie rest somewhat reduced
BRONZE KEYS 397
survive. The objects w^ere found in the early cemetery at
Ozengell in the Isle of Thanet, Kent, and have often been
figured.^ They are represented here the natural size, the
longest measuring just 4 in. They are very neatly finished
and are about the best of the various bronze keys, which have
been found, though rarely, in Anglo-Saxon cemeteries. There
is one at Maidstone from Buttsole near Eastry, Kent.
On the Plate, belov^^ the Ozengell keys is a pair of
objects, of vi'hich one is broken off short, found at Stapenhill,
Staffordshire, and now at Burton-on-Trent. The length of
the whole one is 4^ in. and it is shown about the natural size.
Taken by itself it might be regarded as a key, but it is a
specimen of a fairly large class of similar objects very com-
monly found in pairs that are discovered in cemeteries near
the waist of skeletons. As a fact this very one may be seen
on PL XVIII, 3 (p. 177), which presents a view of the skeleton
of the lady who bore it with its fellow at her girdle. Other
pairs of the kind are given on PI. xc, and of these No. 2 is
the most instructive as the two pieces are joined together by a
bow, to the two ends of which they are attached by pins which
would allow them to swing backwards or forwards. The suite
was found at Searby in Lincolnshire and is in the British
Museum. The extreme length of the whole piece is 6 in.
It was accompanied in the grave by a round headed radiating
fibula ending in a horse's head foot of a kind dated generally
in the latter part of V, and also by a pin with the movable
plates (Klapperschmuck) mentioned previously (p. 369). This
is important as showing that the * girdle hanger ' is an object
of early date.
Another pair from Londesborough, Yorks, 5 in. long and
shown somewhat reduced, PI. xc, 4, is at Hull, and though
the bow which united the pieces is broken the two parts of it
^ e.g. by Charles Roach Smith in Coll. Ant., in, i f., and by Thomas
Wright, The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon, 3rd ed. Lond. 1875, p. 490, in
both of which places there is a discussion of the key and girdle hanger question.
398 GIRDLE HANGERS
are extant. Though the two are evidently meant to form a
pair they are not exactly alike, and the upper one has lost the
eye at the end where it was riveted to the bow. No. 3 is a
single piece, 5 in. long, like the rest upon the Plate in bronze,
that has passed with the Bloxam collection into the Art
Museum, Rugby ; and, lastly. No. i was found, one of a
pair, in grave 158 in the cemetery at Sleaford, Lines, by the
hips of a skeleton and in contiguity with an iron mass that the
explorer thought was the remains of a bunch of keys. The
end of the bar is worked into the familiar shape of the horse's
head, and beyond this came the usual eye.
The mode of wearing and the use of the ' girdle hanger '
present difficulties that have not yet been satisfactorily solved.
Little aid is here to be gained from continental sources, for
though these objects have been found in graves in Gaul and
the Rhineland they are not common, and where they are
noticed they are spoken of as ' keys.' Neither in the Arts
Industriels of M. Barriere-Flavy nor in the Mobilier Funeraire
of M. Boulanger are they figured, but the latter writer gives
a pair in his work on Marchelepot, pi. xxxv, and calls them
' keys.' Lindenschmit figures a couple in his Handhuch^
p. 462, but these are of the form of our PI. lxxxix, 2, and
might pass for bronze keys, under which category he ranks
them. It may be held accordingly as proved that what we
call in this country ' keys ' and ' girdle hangers ' are different,
and there must be mentioned now the remarkable fact that the
girdle hanger appears to be a specially Anglian product, rather
wider in its distribution than the wrist clasp already discussed
(p. 362 f.) but hardly ever discovered south of the Thames.
The only example the writer knows from this region Is one
found at Faversham, PI. clviii (p. 807), in that cemetery
remarkable for the large and varied assortment of its tomb
furniture. A pair from Filkins, Oxfordshire, at Liverpool
are from a West Saxon site but possibly they are of Mercian
origin. Bronze keys on the other hand occur in Kent as
XCI
facing p. 399
CONTINENTAL GIRDLE HANGERS
All Continental pieces
USE OF THE GIRDLE HANGER
?>%
PI. Lxxxix, I, etc. On the hypothesis then that the girdle
hangers were used for suspension we may consider them in
elation to the whole subject of the carrying on the person
of the small objects referred to above (p. 389).
There can be little doubt that the 'hangers' were sus-
pended head downwards in the position occupied by the piece
shown on the skeleton on PL xviii, 3 (p. 177), and probably
by a narrow strap, passing under the
bow as the pair hang PL xc, 2, and
secured by one of the small buckles
which have been found so numerously
in graves and for which a use must be
found. In this case these girdle hangers
would offer below four loops by which
small objects might be suspended, and
the pair PL xc, 4, would offer six, or
perhaps even ten if the notches above
the head were used as well as the small
eyes below this. The Museum at Lin-
coln contains a very complete pair from Searby, Lincolnshire,
with three rings inserted in the lowest bar as they would hang.
These are undoubtedly for the attachment of some small
objects. See Fig. 13.
Thus disposed and used these long suspenders correspond
to pierced plates of other shapes, that were employed by ladies
for this same purpose to some extent in England but still
more largely abroad. While as we have seen our girdle
hangers are there called keys, the antiquaries of the Continent
recognize pierced round or rectangular plaques as the founda-
tion of the ' trousse ' or chatelaine. M. Pilloy^ records that in
the later Prankish cemeteries which he has opened ' on trouve
assez souvent a la ceinture des femmes, un peu vers la gauche,
des rondelles ou rouelles de bronze etame que Ton a aussi
appelees plaques ajourees . . . toutes les fois que Ton trouve
1 Etudes, II, 27.
Fig, 13. — Termination of
Girdle Hanger.
400 GIRDLE HANGERS, ETC.
la plaque ajouree a la ceinture d'une femme, on rencontre
vers les genoux les ferrailles qui sont les restes de la trousse.'
Alamannic graves are well furnished with similar objects, and a
classic example is PI. xci, i, from Kaiser Augst in the Museum
at Basel. It bears in the worn portions of the inner circum-
ference of the rim such clear evidence of its former employ-
ment that no sort of doubt can exist as to its character and
purpose, and it is unfortunate that our girdle hangers do not
proclaim themselves more unmistakably by marks of wear of
the kind. A somewhat similar piece PI. xci, 4, from Harden-
thum. Pas de Calais, in the Museum at Boulogne, shows where
the plaque was hung from the belt. PI, xci, 5, introduces us
to an adjunct to the plaque in the form of an ivory ring that
encircled and framed it. The piece is from Meckenheim in
Rhenish Hesse and lies in the Provincial Museum at Bonn.
The internal diameter of the ivory ring will have been about
3|- in., and it was made up of sections fitted together. Now
there is an ivory ring labelled as an armilla or bracelet in the
Museum at Devizes, Wilts, 3|- in. in internal diameter and put
together in this very same fashion, that may very well have
served this identical purpose, and the same might apply to
other ivory rings found whole or in fragments, as in the rich
grave No. 142 at Kingston, Kent, or at Leagrave, Beds, or in
two graves at Brighthampton, Oxon, where objects were found
inside the rings, ^ or at Kempston, Beds." In the cemetery at
Sleaford, Lincolnshire, Mr. Thomas^ found portions of ivory
or bone that seem to have formed rings of the kind. PL xcii, 4
shows a portion of one of the Leagrave rings exhibiting the
method of joining the sections. It is reduced in size. The
Devizes ring is shown PI. xcii, i, slightly reduced. The
alternative view of these ivory rings is that they were armlets.
This is of course possible but the writer offers the suggestion
in the text as a preferable one.
^ Archaeokgia, xxxviii, 86, 89. " Ass. Soc. Reports^ 1864, p. 296.
3 Archaeologiu, l, 383 f.
XCII
facing p. 401
ANGLO-SAXON GIRDLE HANGERS, ETC.
2, 3, 6, natural size; 1, sli^^uly reduced; 5, half size
CHATELAINES 401
Round pierced plaques of a kind resembling the Basel
specimen PL xci, i, occur on English sites. PL xcii, 6, was
found at Croydon, PL xcii, 2, at Little Wilbraham, Cambs,
and are respectively in the British Museum and at Audley End.
They are shown of the natural size. The fancifully shaped
pierced plates with animal and figure subjects that figure
largely in the later sepulchral inventories of the Franks do
not occur in our cemeteries.-^ Specimens are shown PL xci,
3, 6, on a reduced scale, and the pierced plaque, PL xcu, 3,
from Barfriston, Kent, shown the true size, may be something
of the same kind.
These plates could be attached like the pairs of girdle
hangers by means of a small strap and buckle to the owner's
belt, but it is another question how the small objects were
connected with them. Those shown on PL lxxxvii are for
the most part provided with rings and might conceivably be
hitched over the upstanding prongs of girdle hangers like
Pll. Lxxxix, 2 ; xc, I, or like PL xcii, 5, in the Museum at
York, 5 in. long, and represented here half size. This would
however be a very unsafe arrangement and the objects would
be too easily lost or stolen. To the round plaques or the
girdle hangers with pierced but not open apertures the ring
could be fastened by a thong or small strap and buckle but
the objects could only be made available by a tiresome process
of unfastening. No contrivance like the spring attachment,
familiar to us at the end of dog leashes or watch chains, seems
to have been in use for getting an object like a key quickly on
and off the chatelaine. It is possible however that the arrange-
ment observed on the Continent was in use among ourselves,
and that these objects were suspended at the end of compar-
atively long chains or thongs which would render practicable
the manipulation of them without their being detached from
their fastenings. Long chains, composed generally of lengths
^ Pilloy, Les Plaques Jjourees Carolingiennes, Paris, 1893, gives a notice
of these.
402 MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS
of wire looped together, that must have served this purpose,
have been found not infrequently attached to ornamental
pierced plates in graves of the eastern Franks and Alamanni.
The Museum at Worms contains some good specimens, see
PI. xci, 2. The total length of these chatelaines is sometimes
as much as 2 ft. 6 in. It is only when they are of bronze
that the chains or linked wires have survived. If the material
were iron, or if thongs were used instead of chains, little would
now be preserved. Faussett often notices the occurrence in
graves he opened of ' small links of a chain chiefly rusted
together' — to borrow his words about grave 222 at Kingston
Down — and the remains will justify the suggestion that long
chatelaines of the kind may have been an Anglo-Saxon fashion.^
It is at the same time significant that the bunch of bronze keys
from Ozengell, Thanet, shown PI. lxxxix, i, is attached to an
annular brooch which seems to indicate that it was fastened
independently on to some part of the owner's dress and not
hung from a chatelaine. At Broadstairs, Kent, in the private
collection of Miss Bartrum in whose grounds the Jutish
cemetery was recently opened (p. 132), there is a quoit brooch
with an iron ring linked through it which seems another
example of the same arrangement. These two cemeteries are
only a few miles apart.
MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS
Other portable objects must now be noticed which were
^ The following is an extract from the Introduction by Charles Roach
Smith to the record of Faussett's discoveries, Inventorium Scpulcb-ale,
p. xxvii : — ' in the graves of females there is frequent mention of small iron
chains, or links of small chains, decomposed, or oxidized into a mass.
These links, or the remains of them, were generally noticed extending in
two lines from the hips to the knees of the skeletons. , , . They were evidently
worn fastened to the girdle, to which also keys were sometimes attached.'
To their lower extremities, he adds, were appended 'assemblages of imple-
ments . . . precisely of the same character as those we often see worn by ladies
at the present day.'
XCIII
facini; p. 403
CRYSTAL BALLS, SPINDLE WHORLS, ETC.
All the objects are natural size
J is Continental
CRYSTAL BALLS 403
either furnished with rings for suspension or were of such a
kind that they must have been carried on the person in some
other way. Of the former the most interesting as well as the
most puzzling are spoons with perforated bowls, and crystal
balls, which are so often found together that there seems to
have been some connection, as yet unexplained, between them.
The spoon appears in Anglo-Saxon graves in more than one
form, and objects in rock crystal other than these crystal
balls are not very uncommon and will presently be noticed,
but there is something quite special about the perforated spoon
and the sphere. A specimen of the latter was found in the
tomb of Childeric the Frank of the year 48 i a.d., and is shown
PI. xciii, 3. It is a plain sphere of rock crystal i^q in. in
diameter and is without mounts. Similar spheres, in most cases
mounted and strung for suspension, have been found occa-
sionally abroad but, comparatively speaking, far more often
in graves in Kent, in the Isle of Wight, and in some other
English districts. PI. xciii, i, shows one of two ^ at Maid-
stone from Sarre, Thanet. It was discovered in the very
richly endowed grave 4, and is nearly 2| in. in diameter,
mounted in silver bands with loop for suspension. A Bifrons
example, one of three from the cemetery,^ i ^^ in. in dia-
meter, is shown PI. xciii, 2. George Hillier, in his History and
Antiquities of the Isle of Wight^ figures two from the Chessell
Down cemetery on his plate 10, and specimens were also found
at Kingston,^ Faversham,* Chartham Down,^ Harrietsham,^ and
Chatham Lines,'^ while * two crystal spheres mounted in silver '
were exhibited before the Society of Antiquaries in 1901 as
having been found near Canterbury.^ Kempston, Beds,
^ Catalogue of Kent Archaeological Society'' s Collection at Maidstone^ by
George Payne, F.S.A., Lond,, 1892, pp. 20, 30.
2 ibid., p. 20. Bifrons produced 7 examples in all.
2 Inventorium Sepulchrale, p. 42. ^ Victoria History, Kent, i, 373.
^ Inv^ Sep., p. 164. ^ Catalogue, as above, p. 30.
^ Douglas, Ne7iia Britaimica, p. 14. ^ Troc, Sec. Ant., xviii, 279.
404 MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS
furnished an example,^ and Wylie " says that one, afterwards
lost, came to light at Fairford, Gloucestershire.
One of the Chessell Down crystal balls was found actually
within the bowl of a spoon, and the two objects have often in
Kent been discovered in conjunction, the situation in the grave
indicating apparently that the two had been suspended in front
from the girdle, for they are lying generally between the thigh
bones. The most interesting of these spoons is the Bifrons
example PI. xciv, 2, for this was found in a grave with other
objects suggesting a date within V, and its comparative plain-
ness agrees with an early period. This last may also be said
of another Bifrons example figured PI. xciv, o, on a scale of
about half its natural size. The perforations here are more
numerous and not arranged like those in the other examples
on the Plate. The spoons are about 5 in. long, No. o is silver.
No. 2 is of silvered bronze and is furnished with a ring for
suspension.
Other examples such as the one from Sarre PI. xciv, 1,
7 in. long, with hole for suspension, are more ornate and are set
with garnets in the familiar Kentish fashion. All specimens
of this type agree in possessing a round bowl in the middle of
which a number of holes are drilled forming a simple pattern.
This pattern in the case of the early Bifrons spoon PL xciv, 2,
is cruciform, and yet the piece must date nearly a century
before the conversion of the Jutes. The same disposition of
the holes occurs in the more ornate example PI. xciv, i, and
it evidently has no Christian intention.
The questions What was the object of these perforations,
and what connection, if any, was there between the spoon and
the crystal ball, are as difficult to answer as the query What
was the character and use of the crystal itself. The crystal
sphere it is well known has been invested with magical pro-
perties, and superstitions connected with it can be traced back
1 Assoc. Soc. Reports^ 1864, p. 299.
2 Fairford Graves^ P- I5-
/ i
XCIV
f;icing p, 405
PERFORATED SPOONS, ETC., ETC.
I, 2, natural size; 3. | natural size ; o, half size
J, J, are Continental
THE USE OF ROCK CRYSTAL 405
at any rate to mediaeval times/ Douglas who, we have seen
(p. 126), is disposed to detect a mystical significance in appear-
ances that can be otherwise more simply explained, naturally
makes the most of the magical associations of the crystal,
though these cannot be traced by dejfinite evidence very far
back. Lindenschmit ^ is confident that the object was trea-
sured and worn for other reasons than aesthetic attractiveness,
and suggests that it was prophylactic against disease, while
Mr. Reginald Smith ^ is decidedly of the opinion that the
crystal sphere was something more than an ornament and that
its association with the perforated spoon had some meaning.
Like so many of the objects with which this book is dealing
the crystal sphere has been traced back to southern Russia,
and ' a small sphere of crystal or glass mounted for suspension
in very much the same style as the early Teutonic examples
was found in a Greco-Scythian grave dating from the fourth-
third century b.c' ^ There seems reason to think that any
magical or prophylactic significance ascribed to crystal was not
attached to the substance itself, but only to its presentment in
the form of a sphere, in which the changing lights and shades
convey a certain impression of illusiveness. A Gothic sword
hilt in the Museum at Odessa has a rock crystal pommel that
we need not imagine a charm, and there is in the British
Museum a Frankish buckle with the ring formed out of the
same material. The method of cutting the substance is aptly
illustrated by a substantial lump of it in the Mayer-Faussett
collection at Liverpool, probably from a grave in Kent. This
^ The locui classicus for objects of rock crystal used as charms or prophy-
lactics is two articles by Mr. George F. Black in the Proceedings of the
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland for 1892-3 and 1894-5. To these may
be referred any readers interested in this subject, which cannot here be
discussed at length.
2 Handbuch, p. 470.
^ Victoria History, Kent, i, 342, and other passages.
* O. N. Dalton on 'The Crystal of Lothair,' in Arcbaeologia, lix, 35,
note.
IV B
4o6 MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS
will be illustrated later on, in connection with the slicing of
garnets for inlays, see PL cxlvii, ii (p. 537).
Faceted masses of the substance cut in this fashion and
always pierced with a hole in the centre occur in Anglo-Saxon
graves, where they are explained as beads or as spindle whorls.
Long Wittenham, Berks ; Brighthampton, Oxon ; Glen Parva,
Leicestershire, have furnished examples, but perhaps the finest
specimen is one in the Museum at Warwick, found at Emscote
in that neighbourhood, 2^ in. in diameter, shown PI. xciii, 4.
The Glen Parva example is i|- in. across by i|- in. high. Big
masses like these are far too heavy to be carried as part of a
necklet, but similar faceted beads of much smaller size may
have been worn as pendants. A bead pierced for stringing
but not faceted was found with the early perforated spoon at
Bifrons and may have served the same purpose as a crystal
sphere. Pieces of amber, to which substance also there was
attached a mystic virtue, have been found similarly placed, and
at Chessell Down, ' on the left side of a female skeleton, were
five lumps of amber that appeared to have been fastened to a
ring (which remained near them) and thus suspended from the
girdle.'^
Concerning the function of the perforated spoon itself
nothing has been offered but guesses. The one indication
that is of value is derived from the fact that in the Museum
at Wiesbaden a perforated spoon is joined in the same bunch
with a pair of tweezers and a * cure-oreille ' which seems to show
that it was used in some way for toilet purposes. That it was
employed at table for skimming the beer, as suggested by
Dr. Grobbels," is hardly probable, since Hke the crystal balls
and most of the suspended objects it is apparently only found
in women's graves.
Anglo-Saxon spoons of other kinds may now have a word.
Roman spoons with unperforated bowls are common enough
and are generally marked by the pecuHarity that the bowl, which
1 Hillier, Isle of Wight, p. 34. - Dcr Reihengrahcrfund, p. 40.
xcv
facing p. 407
z
<
o
o
z
<
z
o
<;
6
o
z
<
ANGLO-SAXON SPOONS 407
Is usually of an oval form, is dropped below the plane of the
stem by a bend in the latter near the bowl end. No. 6 on
PI. xcv gives an example from the Museum at Copenhagen.
Specimens of such stepped spoons have been found in Anglo-
Saxon graves, as at Haslingfield, Cambridgeshire ; Kemble,
Gloucestershire, and Basset Down, Wilts, PI. xcv, 4, but these
may be merely Roman survivals. The spoon PI. xcv, 5, found
at Desborough, Northants, is of barbaric make and has a
curious flattening of the stem near the bowl which may be
a reminiscence of stepping, and there is a spatula-like termina-
tion of the stem at the other end with some nondescript
ornamentation upon it. The spoon No. i, of which details
are given on an enlarged scale in Nos. 2, 3, is a genuine
piece of Teutonic art probably but not certainly of Anglo-
Saxon origin, and of a date somewhere about 500 a.d.^
It is of silver with considerable remains of gilding, and
measures y^ in. in length. There is a dip or step after the
Roman fashion from the plane of the handle to that of the
bowl of ^ in., and there are strengthening pieces above and
below where bowl and handle join, the one below having two
side branches ending in fan-like extensions. The stem is
banded at intervals by mouldings such as those on turned
balusters. The bowl part with its attachments is joined on to
the stem proper by an animal's head whose open jaws embrace
the stem. At the top of the stem the finish is formed by
a recumbent quadruped with very pronounced claws and a
head like that at the bowl end of the handle. This very
interesting object belongs to Mr. Basil Oxenden and was
found about sixty years ago on ground belonging to his
family, the Broome Park Estate near Barham in Kent, in
a field adjoining the Roman thoroughfare between Dover and
^ See T/je Burlington Magazine for November 191 3. Thanks are due
to the owner of the spoon for his permission to publish it, and to the pro-
prietors of the Magazine for leave to reproduce the illustrations to the
article.
4o8 MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS
Canterbury, just across the road from the well known 'Half-
way ' inn. There appears to be no record of any objects
found with it that might indicate a burial, and some traveller
may conceivably have lost it or had it filched from him as he
journeyed inland from across the Channel.
The obviously Roman derivation of the shape of the piece
is in favour of an early date, and so too is the naturalistically
treated quadruped, that is of Germanic rather than Roman
.character and possesses in compact form the anatomical
structure which in later animal ornament is broken up into
wildest disarray. There are somewhat close parallels to it in
Scandinavian art of V a.d., and it occurs on the earliest of the
three magnificent gold necklets shown on PI. lv (p. 309). In
our own country a creature very like it appears on a carved
wooden knife handle found in the excavations of the Roman
station at Corbridge in Northumberland, and figured in the
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, xxiir, p. 12. It is
true that well knit creatures of the kind occur both at home
and abroad at a much later date, as in examples on Pll. v and ix
(pp. 81, 103), on the Franks Casket, and on the Burgundian
buckle plate shown PL lii, 6 (p. 293), but convincing proof
of the early origin of the spoon is to be found in a small
detail connected with the strengthening or decorative ribs at
the junction of bowl and stem. Some of these terminate in
what is unmistakably the ' horse's head ' that finishes the foot
of the cruciform fibulae of V and VI. Such heads, in forms
strikingly like those on the spoon, occur on some objects in the
often-mentioned Nydam find of about IV in Schleswig, and this
fact may be held to assure the early date of the piece before us.
The problem presented by keys and girdle hangers is
paralleled by that offered by the other pair of similar objects,
the ' strike-a-light ' and the 'purse mount.' The former, the
French ' briquet,' is a piece of iron of the general shape given
PL xciv, 4, a specimen found at Mitcham, Surrey, though the
horns are sometimes longer and curve back towards the centre.
PURSE MOUNTS AND STRIKE-A-LIGHTS
409
The latter, a not uncommon object in Prankish cemeteries, is
an object generally of bronze, or very exceptionally of more
precious metal, often set with garnets, presenting much the
same general shape as the strike-a-light but commonly with
the addition of a buckle appended in the middle of its length.
PI. xciv, 3, shows a characteristic specimen from the Frankish
cemetery of Herpes on the Charente in western France ; it is
4 in. long. Has such a piece ever been found in an Anglo-
Saxon cemetery ? The only recorded specimens of the kind
are in iron not bronze, and the objects on investigation reveal
themselves in many cases as strike-a-lights. That such is the
proper description of objects like PI. xciv, 4, is shown by the
occasional discovery with them of the piece of flint used for
percussion. The two together occurred in the Burgundian
cemetery of Lussy, Canton Fribourg, Switzerland, and they
are shown PI. xciv, 5. Now the supposed purse mounts found
in this country are all described as of iron, the material of the
* briquet,' and it might be argued that they are all in reality
strike-a-lights. In view of the possibility of the confusion
now under notice it may be
said at once that some of
the pieces have decidedly the
character of purse mounts.
For our own country the ex-
ample most to the point is
that figured and described
on p. 33 of Mr. Hillier's
book on the Isle of Wight.
Fig. 14 is a reproduction of
his engraving. He notes
three instances at Chessell
Down of the appearance of
a ' purse or bag.' * In two
cases the upper pieces of the iron framework alone remained ' —
words that we might interpret on the supposition that the iron
Fig. 14. — Remains of Purse from
Chessell Down.
410
MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS
object was a * briquet ' — ' but in one grave the precise use
of this iron clasp was unmistakably defined. It rested about
half way down the thigh bone ; and on carefully removing the
chalk from about it, the bronze binding of the material (the
small portions which were not decayed appeared like leather)
which formed the pouch itself was discovered in the position
shown in the engraving. The iron instruments were placed
exactly as delineated ; but whether they had been deposited
in the bag, or on its outside, was of course impossible to
ascertain.' The find is in the British Museum, but in the
present condition of the fragments there is very little to be
made of them, save in the case of the top piece where the
Fig. 15. — Iron Purse Mounts from Anglo-Saxon Cemeteries.
remains of the buckle seem to be unmistakable. Sketches of
this, Fig. 15, a, and of another from Chessell Down, b, as
they now lie in the British Museum show the remains of the
buckle-like adjuncts. The third piece, c, from Harnham Hill
is more doubtful. How these iron purse mounts were used
is another matter, for the necessary riveting, etc., would be
much more difficult in the case of iron than of bronze. In
any case the adjustment of the object to its supposed purpose
oflTers a problem that has not yet been satisfactorily solved.
The absence among ourselves of the continental pattern
of the decorated purse mount does not of course preclude the
use by the Anglo-Saxons of some kind of sporran or girdle
pouch, in which objects that could not well be suspended
might be preserved safe and easily available for use. On the
history of the pouch in itself, as a product of post-classical
XCVI
facing p. 411
SPINDLES, WORK BOX, NEEDLES, ETC.
1 :"»
■
ai^s«fa-gs-.^i. -gggg**
"m
I, 3, 4, natural size; 2, retiiiced
FEMININE IMPLEMENTS 411
times, Lindenschmit's invaluable Handbuch ^ with its wealth of
literary notices may be consulted. Here we may notice its
appearance in Anglo-Saxon surroundings among the repre-
sentations on the Franks Casket, where the female figure,
PL Lxxxi, 10, carries a bag with a long looped handle, while
in another part, the scene in Jerusalem on the back of the
casket, of two adjacent figures one has a satchel hung round
his neck and the other a bag with a looped handle in his hand.
In no case are metal mounts indicated nor is the pouch slung
at the waist, where however, it will be observed, the Prankish
noble in the Bible of Charles the Bald wears his sporran,
PI. Lxxxii, I (p. 374).
Explorers of our cemeteries have often recorded indica-
tions of the former existence of a pouch of leather or some
other suitable material that had contained small objects which
remain together in a little heap in the grave. In the Mitcham
cemetery, Surrey, close by the thigh bones of a skeleton there
was found a curious assortment of objects, all with the excep-
tion of a single bronze one of iron, that may have been con-
tained in such a pouch. A knife blade and a key were the
only things clearly to be identified, PI. xcvi, 2.
The spindle whorl has already been illustrated, PI. xciii,
4, 5 ; the spindle, which was inserted into the aperture where-
with this was pierced and to which the whorl gave the weight
necessary to keep the implement spinning, would naturally be
looked for in women's graves, and this designation is given
to sundry pointed objects like elongated cigars made of bone or
ivory that have occasionally come to light, as in the important
grave 299 at Kingston, Kent, and at Barrington, Cambs.
Specimens from this cemetery are shown PI. xcvi, i, the
natural size. The longest measures 5^ in. Connected also
with the characteristic operations of women are small work
boxes and needle cases some of which have attachments by
which they might be hung from the belt or fastened to a
1 P. 456 f.
412 MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS
chatelaine. The work box consists in a small cylindrical
receptacle of bronze, between i|- and 2-| in. high, with a lid
fitting over like that of a bandbox but hinged at the back so
that it could not be lost. Ornament is added in the form of
tiny bosses beaten out from the inside and arranged in bands
or simple geometrical patterns. That the designation of these
objects here adopted is correct is shown by the fact that remains
of thread and textiles and also needles have several times been
found in them. The small size and delicacy of the neatly
made little caskets, some of which showed by existing traces
that they were once brightly gilt,^ give a pleasing impression
of the refinement of Anglo-Saxon ladies, and if it be true that
the minute shears and knives noticed on a previous page (p. 2^2)
were really used in fine needlework we may credit the dames
of high degree with fingers as deft as those of the goldsmith
who cut and set the garnets in Kentish jewellery.
The close resemblance among these small objects wherever
they are found suggests manufacture in some one centre and
distribution by itinerant merchants. They have been found in
more than one example in Kent, in two graves at Kempston,
Beds,^ in at least four at Uncleby, Yorks,^ and also in Cam-
bridgeshire, Derbyshire, and Northants.*
Of the specimens shown, PL xcvii, 4, very slightly enlarged,
is from Sibertswold, Kent, grave 60, and has an attachment
riveted on to the centre of the cylinder by which it could be
suspended. Above this attachment can be discerned the hinge
of the lid. The small chain seen to the left in the photograph
ends in a pin which fastens the hasp of the lid when this is
shut down. The other example PL xcvi, 4, from Uncleby,
Yorks, is shown about the natural size. The Kentish box is
said by Faussett to have contained ' some small silken strings,
of two sizes ; some raw silk, as it seems ; some wool and some
1 Kempston inventory, Jss. Soc. Reports, 1864, pp. 289, 291.
2 Jssoc. Soc. Reports, 1864. ^ 'Proc. Soc. Ant., xxiv.
■* Victoria History, Northants, i, 240,
XCVII
facing p. 41 3
COUNTERS, TOOLS, ETC.
I, 4, 7, about natural size; 2, 6, 8, somewhat reduced ; 5, ^ natural size ; 3, nearly double
PERSONAL POSSESSIONS OF MEN 413
short hair.' The Uncleby box contained *two kinds of thread.' ^
One of the Kempston boxes ' contained a fragment of worsted
fabric, and some linen manufacture of three distinct qualities '
and the other * some spun thread and wool, twisted in two
strands.' These notices are important as showing the use of
the objects but, as we have already seen (p. 380), it would be
hazardous to accept implicitly the designations ' silk,' * wool,'
' linen,' for the fibres actually found.
The Kempston boxes are said to have had about them
decayed matter that looked like the remains of a pouch or bag,
and they must have been thus carried when there was no
attachment for hanging. Faussett figures a small needle case
about 2 in. by ^ in. from grave 222 at Kingston with two
gilt bronze needles in it, that has no such attachment. Needles
of bronze of which the longest measures i|- in. were found at
Castle Acre, Norfolk, and are figured PI. xcvi, 3.
To set against these feminine peculia there may now be
noticed some objects belonging specially to men that would be
carried in the male sporran. Collections of counters evidently
intended for playing some game may be mentioned. One set
from a grave at Sarre, In the Kent Archaeological Society's
Museum at Maidstone, Is shown PI. xcvii, i. They average
about 1^ in. In diameter, and have on their upper surfaces
circles incised as ornaments or marks. In another grave at
Sarre there were no fewer than 50 of these counters or
draughtsmen. There were two, one made out of a piece of
Samian ware, at Bishopsbourne, Kent, and the Taplow Barrow,
Bucks, furnished a set of 30. In a barrow in Derbyshire
Thomas Bateman found 28 similar objects, many of them
marked like those from Sarre with Incised circles. These
devices do not seem to have any numerical significance and
it is a matter of pure conjecture how the counters were used.
The Anglo-Saxon warriors, like soldiers generally, were doubt-
less fond of games of hazard, and may have won or lost their
1 Proc. Soc. Ant.^ xxiv, 150.
414 MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS
money by the manipulation of the pieces. Dice, apparently
numbered or marked in a significant fashion, have sometimes
also been signalized, as at Searby, Lincolnshire.
In some parts of the country, as in the Yorkshire Wolds,
the whetstone is of not uncommon occurrence in the graves of
warriors. There were a dozen at Uncleby alone, and there
were found also at Uncleby and elsewhere in the county of
York a number of ' steels ' suitable for sharpening weapons
or knives. They are ' square ended, ^ in. to ^ in. wide, a
little more than |- in. thick, and (with the tang for insertion
in a wooden handle) 4 to 6 in. long.'^ The whetstone at
York, PI. xcvii, 5, ' was found standing upright in a crevice
of the chalk, having been placed there, to be easily acces-
sible to the warriors and hunters who were sleeping in the
grave-mound, when they wished to sharpen their swords and
knives.'" It is of course greatly reduced for the actual object
is 18 in. long.
In this connection may be taken one or two examples of
tools and implements found in Anglo-Saxon graves. These
are excessively uncommon, and this fact has some social signi-
ficance. The tomb furniture with which we have been dealing
is on the whole of a decidedly aristocratic character, consisting
in the main of arms, objects of personal adornment, and vessels
often of a somewhat costly type, and we might in consequence
credit our Teutonic forefathers with the sentiments of the
ancient Athenians who affected to look down on craftsmen as
^avavoroL — outside the social pale.^ In the heroic ages how-
ever the chieftain can wield the tool just as well as the weapon,
and Odysseus is quite as proud of his cunning craftsmanship in
carving the olive trunk into his bridal bed as of his prowess
^ Proc. Soc. Ant., xxiv, 146, from Canon Greenwell's notes.
2 Handbook to the York Museum, York, 1891, p. 211.
^ Shears, workboxes, spindles and whorls, etc., are to be regarded rather
as personal possessions belonging to the intimate life than as implements of
a calling.
XCVIII
facing p. 415
IMPLEMENTS, INDUSTRIAL AND DOMESTIC
I' I ; 2, ^ i 3, L 5 7, i; 8, I, natural size
J is Continental
TOOLS AND IMPLEMENTS 415
with the bow. In graves of the Scandinavian Viking age ' the
presence of anvils, pincers and other tools as well as weapons
and ornaments, is noteworthy, indicating that the art of metal-
work was held in esteem even among chiefs, as indeed is known
from literary sources.' ^ In the settled period moreover some
of the crafts such as that of the goldsmith were held in high
honour in Saxon England, and all classes of the population
high and low alike were engaged in farming. There seems
no reason why the master workman's tools, or the agricultural
implement which represented one side of the activity of the
territorial lords, should not occur with some frequency in
tomb inventories. This is not however the case, and it would
not be easy to find many parallels to the carpenter's plane of
wood and bronze, and the iron chisel which came to light at
Bifrons, and are figured PI. xcvii, 2, 8. The former is 6 in.
long and shows the bottom plate of bronze to the right in the
illustration, the sloping slit for the plane iron, and the hollow
in the wood at the back of this for the fingers. The chisel
measures 4^ in. Sibertswold produced a pair of blacksmith's
tongs, 9 in. long, PI. xcviii, 7, and iron awls were also noted
in the Bifrons cernetery. A lump of rock crystal with the
marks of various cuts on it, has been mentioned (p. 405), but
the wheels with which the crystal was cut and the garnets
sliced, as well as the discs on which they were polished, are
nowhere in evidence, though there must be a good many
graves of goldsmiths in the Kentish cemeteries.
An implement of a very modern type, the bill-hook, occurs
in late Roman and Germanic cemeteries. Though at first
sight the object might be mistaken for an accidental modern
intrusion there is no doubt that the type belongs to the period,
and there are good examples among the Merovingian objects
in the Museums at Amiens and at Peronne. The writer
knows of no full-sized specimen from an Anglo-Saxon site,
^ Enc. Brit., nth Ed., xxiv, 290. Lorange, Den Tngre Jernalders 5v<erd,
pl. VIII, figures some of these tools.
4i6 MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS
but the Kentish cemetery at Kingston furnished to Faussett a
miniature model of one, represented on a greatly enlarged
scale PI. xcvii, 3. The original is of bronze, i|^ in. long, and
is pierced for suspension. A large knife 1 1 in. long of a
curved form suggesting a pruning knife and described as a
' bill * was found at Barrington, Cambs, and is figured, much
reduced, PI. xcviii, 8. The 'bill' and the bill-hook suggest
a peaceful usage, and it has been argued that some of the
forms of axe head found in Anglo-Saxon cemeteries and given
Pll. XXIX, XXX (p. 233) look towards employment in forestry
rather than in war. In the matter of more purely agricultural
implements it may be noted that the Cambridge Museum con-
tains an object of uncertain provenance, that seems also to be
a ' unicum,' in the form of the iron of a spade i ^^ in. long,
shown PI. ex, I (p. 459), and the exceptionally hafted axe
head from Bifrons, PI. xxix, 12, might have been used as a
mattock, for axe blades set thus at right angles to the usual
position of the edge in relation to the hafting have come from
Teutonic graves, as at Namur.
Objects for use in the kitchen rather than the field might
be looked for in women's graves, and it has been suggested
that some of the unadorned vessels of clay that occur, rather
mysteriously, side by side with the ornamented sepulchral
vases may be specimens of the domestic utensils of the house.
For this the reader is referred to a later chapter (p. 504 f.).
An apparatus consisting in an iron chain with an iron hook at
each end, the whole about 2 ft. 8 in. long, is figured in Faussett's
book^ as found in a grave on Chartham Down, Kent, and was
no doubt used for suspending pots over a fire, while there is
given on his p. 78 a cut of an unmistakable bronze trivet.
PI. XCVIII, 3, shows a curious ' unicum ' at Worms in the form
of an iron roasting spit, 4 ft. in length ; we are reminded of
what we are told of Charles the Great, that roasted game was
brought in on spits at his daily meal.
^ Inv. Sep., pi. XV, 22.
SMALL ODDMENTS 417
Nos. 6 and 7 on PI, xcvii are a bronze hinge and small silver
hasp found in the richly furnished grave 142 at Kingston. The
former, one of a pair, belonged apparently to a wooden box
bound at the corners with bronze that Faussett estimated as
being about 14 in. square and of uncertain depth. It appeared
to have contained quite a collection of small objects for personal
use and adornment, including the fine comb figured PI. lxxxvi, i,
three knives, a Cypraea shell like PI. xciv, 6, two bracelets,
a pair of iron shears, etc., etc. Similar, though smaller, boxes
are several times noticed by Faussett in the Inventorium Sepul-
chrale^ as occurring in women's graves. There were twelve at
Sibertswold and nine at Kingston. The list of small oddments
noticed in the inventories or preserved in collections might
easily be extended, but it would be wearisome to the reader to
attempt a catalogue of the casual fittings and implements of
the class of which a few specimens have here been noticed. It
has been thought well to introduce a reference in this place to
miscellaneous discoveries of these kinds instead of relegating
them to the end of the present synopsis of the contents of
Anglo-Saxon graves. These trivial items can in this way be
timeously disposed of, and the synopsis can end on a higher
note with some really important entries such as those relating
to bronze vessels and to the elegant vases of glass.
Among oddments of the kind here referred to are lumps
of iron pyrites that have been found in a tumulus on Breach
Down, Kent ; near Ringmer, Sussex, and quite recently at
Alfriston, Sussex, a specimen from which cemetery is shown
PL xcviii, 5. Lumps of iron slag occurred in some of the
graves at Stapenhill, Staffordshire, and PI. xcviir, 4, gives
one of the pieces.
Among objects connected with trade, rather than with crafts
or with field or domestic husbandry, there may be mentioned
weights and scales that have come to light two or three times
in Kent, at Ozengell, Gilton and Sarre, and also at Long
Wittenham, Berks, and Desborough, Northants. The example
4i8 MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS
from Sarre, grave 26, is figured PI. xcviii, 6. The balance
and scales, mounted of course with modern strings, are of
bronze, and of the weights, 19 in number, among which 9 are
distinctly Roman coins, almost all are squared or ground or
dotted so as to adapt them for their purpose. No consistent
proportion among the weights nor any satisfactory relation in
them to any known standard of the times could be ascertained
at the date when the find was published/ In connection with
a similar find at Gilton accompanied by a piece of touchstone
Roach Smith has a note ^ that may be consulted. In the case
both of Sarre and Gilton the weights and scales were found in
the grave of a warrior with full panoply, and the writer just
referred to suggested that ' the occupant had laid by the imple-
ments of his early vocation ' (that of arms) ' and followed a
more peaceful and humanizing profession.' It might on the
other hand be surmised that he kept his arms about him to
guard his stock-in-trade as a money changer ! Neither here
nor elsewhere in the Anglo-Saxon cemeteries ^ has any stock of
coins been found such as a money changer might have carried
about with him, and notices of finds of coins come under
other headings, but the reader will not need to be reminded of
the discovery of the Crondall hoard (p. 69) nor of the parallel
find in Friesland (p. 71). It should be noted that a hoard,
apparently of a moneyer rather than a money changer, was
found last century at Cuerdale in Lancashire, though not in a
cemetery, but this dates from the early part of X.
Small bells have more than once been found in Anglo-
Saxon surroundings and in Teutonic graves on the Continent.
Faussett figures a couple on his plate x. Quite recently there
appeared at Hornsea, Yorks, not actually in but contiguous
with the Anglo-Saxon cemetery, a small bronze bell, at present
3|- in. high. The shape of it closely resembles that of some
small Roman bells at York, and it is most probably of Roman
1 Archaeologia Cantiana, vi, 161. ^ 7,;^,. 5^^_^ p. 22.
3 Tlic find at Crondall in Hants (p. 69) was not sepulchral.
XCIX
facing p. 419
ENIGMATICAL OBJECTS FOUND IN GRAVES
I, ^ natural size j 4, somewliat leduced ; 8, halt size ; 6, somewhat enlarg
ENIGMATICAL OBJECTS 419
origin though taken over and used by an Anglo-Saxon owner.
Nothing Roman has ever come to light at Hornsea. It is
figured PI. xcviii, i. Lastly PI. xcviii, 2, illustrates a
curious object in bronze explained as a water-clock. It is a
small saucer shaped pan, 4 in. in diameter, with a tiny hole in
the centre, and it is suggested that it was set floating in water,
time being measured by the number of minutes which elapsed
before it became filled and sank.^
On PI. xcix are shown a few enigmatical objects found in
Anglo-Saxon graves but not hitherto satisfactorily explained.
Nos. I and 2 are iron objects at first sight resembling sword
blades but with a sort of tang at each end. Some examples
have come to light in women's graves,^ and they are probably
domestic implements of some kind. The latest theory is that
they were used in weaving as battens to press close the threads
after they had been drawn through by the shuttle. The weight
of the objects makes this rather difiicult to believe, for both
No. I, at Bifrons House, and No. 2, from Chessell Down, are
20 in. long and i|- in. to 2 in. wide. See however the passages
in the Collections referred to in note 2. PI. xcix, 3, is a little
trough-shaped spoon of gilded bronze from Chessell Down,
very similar to one in Devizes Museum found on a Roman
site. No. 4 is a composite object in bronze well made and
ornamented that came to light at Croydon and is now in the
British Museum. It is 3^ in. long and consists in two flattened
tubes of bronze similar to those figured PI. cv, 4 to 6 (p. 433),
fixed at right angles to each other with sundry attachments
the shape of which the illustration shows. No. 5 is a similar
tube with a loop attachment found at Droxford, Hants. There
seems no ground for any conjecture as to the use of the
Croydon piece. No. 6 is an object of bone from Chessell
Down in Carisbrooke Castle Museum. The lower surface is
slightly rounded as if the object were a presser or smoother
of some kind, or it might possibly have been a cloak-button.
^ Proc. Soc. Ant., xxii, 51. ^ Surrey Archaeological Collections, xxi.
420 HORSE TRAPPINGS
PI. xcix, 7, figures a pair of bronze objects that look like
handles, from a Kentish grave at Ozengell. They are 3|- in.
long and were pubHshed by C. Roach Smith in Collectanea
Antiqua^ III, 1 6. Lastly, No. 8 is a bronze object found at
Cambridge consisting in a sort of round box 3^ in. in diameter
with pierced plaques above and below and sundry attachments
cast in the same piece. In the British Museum there is a
similar object minus the attachments that passes for a sword
pommel. It was found in West Smithjfield, London, and may
be presumed to be of Danish date.
HORSE TRAPPINGS
With the objects of a miscellaneous kind of which there is
here question may be taken horse trappings, and other evidence
that the trusty steed of the lord or lady was remembered in
the interment. Such items are of rare occurrence in Inven-
tories of grave furniture. The Germans had equestrian tastes,
but In the migration period they depended much less on their
mounts than did their mediaeval successors of the age of
chivalry, or the nomad peoples of the steppes of southern
Russia. Caesar tells us that In cavalry fights the Germans
often leapt from their horses and continued the combat on
foot,^ and this was recognized as a German practice even at
the time of the Crusades.^ When Julian met the Alamannic
army for the great fight near Strassburg, the king and the
chieftains of the barbarians sprang from their horses and ranged
themselves with the rank and file on foot.' Hence, though
we are told by Tacitus that the horse of the warrior was some-
times burled In the same grave as its master, we should not
expect to find in the migration period this practice of common
occurrence. LIndenschmit, who writes of the ' Seltenheit
mitbestatteter Pferde,' considers Instances of it an indication of
^ De Bella GalUco, iv, ii. ^ Liadenschmit, Haudbucb, p. 298.
3 Amm. Marc, Hist. Rom., xvi, xii, 35.
SPURS AND STIRRUPS
421
early date,^ and M. Barriere-Flavy mentions Me petit nombre
de squelettes de chevaux rencontres jusqu'ici dans les sepul-
tures.'^ There was an instance at Selzen, and at Gammertingen^
outside but near the grave of a woman of stately proportions
was the skeleton of an aged horse with its head by the feet of
the skeleton. Other such cases could be named and German
cemeteries are on the whole more prolific in such finds than
those of Gaul or Britain. In Kent in a tumulus on Breach Down
there was found part of the jawbone of a horse, and at Little
-^-«>«^-^.-^
•OifcSisi'
Fig. 16. — Early Prick Spurs.
Wilbraham, Cambs, Neville discovered close to skeleton 44 ' the
entire remains of a horse.'* Similar discoveries were made
at Marston St. Lawrence, Northants, and at Great Wigston
near Leicester, while in a grave at Stapenhill, Staffordshire,
with a skeleton of a young man in very bad preservation a
horse's tooth was noticed.
Horse trappings of various kinds occur rather more fre-
quently than do the animal's bones. Spurs have been found
sometimes abroad, and till about the end of VII occur singly,
being apparently worn on the left foot so as to turn the horse
to the right and in this way help to keep out of direct danger
the right or unshielded side of the warrior. Anglo-Saxon
^ Handbuch, pp. 286, 292. ^ j^^j ^r/j- Indus trieis, etc., p. 263.
^ Der Reihengrdberfund, p. 3. "* Saxon Obsequies^ p. 16.
IV C
422 HORSE TRAPPINGS
spurs are known, but they are generally of the Danish period ;
an iron one was however found at Sittingbourne, and judging
from the objects of VI that accompanied other interments on
the site it may be ascribed to an early date. Another iron
prick spur was found at Lymne, Kent.^ The best attested
example however is a third of the samic kind that came to
light in the cemetery, dating about the first half of VI, at
Linton Heath, Cambs, where it appeared in company with an
early cruciform fibula and fragments of buckles that may have
belonged to its attachments to the foot.- Fig. i6 shows the
Lymne (a) and the Linton Heath (b) iron prick spurs, and
with them a more ornate example in bronze (c), found at
Pakenham near Ixworth, Suffolk.^ Here the eyes of the crea-
tures that occur on the terminals are incrusted with blue vitreous
paste, and the piece may quite probably be of Saxon date.
The stirrup, when it occurs in this country, is apparently
always of the Viking age. The iron horse's bit is sometimes
found in graves of the pagan period or of VII. Two examples,
very similar in their make, are shown PI. c, 5, 6. One is
from Bifrons cemetery in the K.A.S. Museum at Maidstone,
the other. No. 5, was found at Market Overton, Rutland, and
is now at Tickencote Hall. PI. c, i , is a copper coin of the
Emperor Nero found in the Gilton cemetery, Kent, riveted
to a piece of iron that seemed to have formed the side piece of
a bridle, and on this discovery Charles Roach Smith has the
following note. ' The warrior, whose remains occupied this
grave, had decorated his horse's head gear with one of the large
brass coins of Nero. In the deposit with the body of horse
furniture may be noticed an expiring vestige of an ancient
custom of the Germans in burying the war-horse with his
master, as related by Tacitus, De Mor. Germ., c. xxvii. Only
a few instances of this custom have been met with in the
Anglo-Saxon burial places.'*
1 Roach Smith, Richborough, etc., p. 260. - Jrch. Journ., xi, 95.
3 Jss., Ill, 119. * I"'^- S^P-^ P- 27.
c
facing p. 423
HORSE TRAPPLXGS
J, if., are probably British
T^^'
facing p. 423
NECKLETS
423
Ornamental horse trappings are illustrated on Pll. c, ci.
PI. c, 2, was found at Fairford, Gloucestershire, and is labelled
a fibula, but it is much more likely to be part of a horse's
furniture. It is a bronze ring i j-\- in. internal diameter with
a very knobby external circumference. PL c, 3, 4, are two
pieces from a remarkable find of 1 840 at Saham Toney,
Norfolk, in the form of a series of bronze horse trappings,
many of which bear traces of enamelling in bright colours.
The technique and the character of the work are alike indi-
cative of Romano-British rather than of Anglo-Saxon crafts-
manship, and there is no evidence as to whether or not the
objects were found in Anglo-Saxon surroundings. The form
of PI. c, 4, is curiously Hke that of a similar object in bronze
found at Chessell Down in the Isle of Wight and figured as
no. 49 on one of the plates in George Hillier's History and
Antiquities of the Isle of Wight ^ but such pieces when they occur
in Anglo-Saxon graves must be regarded as survivals. The
object shown PI. ci, 2, is one piece out of a set found in the
King's Field, Faversham, Kent, and represents the most ornate
treatment of this class of objects illustrated in the cemeteries.
It is of gilded bronze about 3^ in. in diameter and has on it
late ornamentation which would bring its date well on in VII.
PERSONAL ORNAMENTS— NECKLETS
The adjuncts of the clothing in the form of objects of
personal use carried in different ways at the waist have now
been briefly reviewed, and in connection with these the survey
has been extended to embrace a notice of some of the miscel-
laneous objects which occur sporadically in interments and
indicate, it may be, the occupations or tastes of the deceased.
The notice represents to some extent a digression, from which
we now return to the subject naturally following that of dress,
and the next sub-heading in our inventory of tomb furniture
is that of objects of personal adornment not forming a part of
424 PERSONAL ORNAMENTS
the clothing, such as necklets, pendants, bracelets, ear-drops,
and finger rings.
It has been noted above that waistbelts or diadems of wrought
or jewelled gold, though they occur occasionally in the migra-
tion period, have not come to light in Anglo-Saxon sepulchres.
On the other hand necklets of conspicuous worth and beauty
are in evidence in British collections, and with these are
associated numerous and varied pendants that are quite a
special feature in our cemeteries.
A neck ornament of a type unique in Anglo-Saxon tomb
furniture is shown PL ci, i, rather more than half full size.
It is a collar of beaten silver, reminiscent of the golden lunulae,
common in the Early Bronze Age in Ireland and found occa-
sionally in Great Britain and on the Continent, that are dated
provisionally by Mr. George Coffey^ at 1200 to 1000 b.c.
Whether or not the form be directly influenced by these lunulae
might be doubted, and the resemblance may be due merely to
coincidence, but it is sufficiently striking to merit notice.
A prominent place must be assigned to a couple of necklets
of gold with garnet settings found, the one at Desborough in
Northants, the other in a tumulus on Brassington Moor,
Derbyshire. They each consist in a number of round, square,
oval, or triangular garnets cut and polished with rounded
faces, so as to make them what would be called in popular
language carbuncles, each stone being enclosed in a gold setting
furnished at the top with a gold loop, so that it can be strung.
In the Derbyshire necklet, PI. cii, 2, this loop is barrel shaped
and of a length about as great as the width of the stone ; in the
one from Desborough similar barrel-shaped pieces are strung
like beads in between each two of the pendants. The former
piece has nothing in the centre but an elongated barrel-shaped
bead of gold longer than the rest, while the middle place in
the other is taken by a pendant cross with straight arms,
jewelled in the centre. The Brassington Moor pendants are
1 The Bronze Age in Ire/and, Dublin, 191 3, p. 47 f.
CII
facing p. 425
NECKLET PENDANTS 425
in the Museum at Sheffield. The Desborough necklet is in
the British Museum, and is figured in the Victoria History^
Northants, i. PL cii, 5, shows the centre of it with the cross,
some of the pendants, which resemble the Brassington Moor
ones, being turned back to show the reverses and the inter-
mediate barrel-shaped pieces.
With the Desborough and Brassington Moor pendants must
be taken the objects of the same kind that were found with
the pin suite in the tumulus on Roundway Down, Wilts, and
were shown PI. lxxxi, 3 (p. 371). There are the same barrel-
shaped gold beads, one large round garnet, to the left of the
figure 3, and three oval-shaped garnets set en cabochon, a
large triangular paste of dark colour i|- in. high and a small
round paste also mounted for suspension, and with them must
be taken the central ornament between the two pins, part of
the same find, shown PI. lxxxi, 2 and in an enlarged form in
front and back views PI. lxxxi, 4. This ornament has at the
back embossed on the gold plate an interlacing pattern
apparently not zoomorphic, and set in the front a bean-
shaped disc of dark coloured glass paste ^ in. in diameter, that
has had a pattern scored into it as if it were a plate prepared
for champleve enamel. Whether the sinkings thus formed
were ever filled in with enamel pastes of differing colour
cannot be certainly determined, but the technique would in
this case resemble one exemplified on the Ardagh Chalice,^
which is of course Irish work. The form of the pattern is
worthy of special attention. The step-motive, so much
employed in the formation of the cloisons for Kentish inlaid
jewellery, is prominently in evidence, and there is formed an
equal-armed cross, with another minute cross patee in the
central round where the' two arms meet, wherein it is hard
not to discern Christian significance. At the ends of the
chains where the pins are attached is the familiar horse's
head of Teutonic art, in a form decidedly degraded.
^ Miss Stokes, Eariy Christian Art in Ireland^ Dublin, 191 1, p. 72.
426 PERSONAL ORNAMENTS
The provenance and date of these objects have often been
discussed, and the Christian symbol in the centre of the
Desborough necklet, which is not a mere ornament but
clearly possesses religious significance, has played a conspi-
cuous part in the controversy. There are two possibilities,
one that the pieces are relics of Romano-British Christianity,
in which case they might either be dated some time before the
coming of the Teutons in the last half of V, or might repre-
sent a later survival of British craftsmanship possible in
regions such as the Peak or the Forest of Elmet ; and the
other that it is a product of converted Saxondom of the latter
part of VII. The problem involved is one of no small diffi-
culty. It may be pointed out that the style of the necklets
is more Roman than Anglo-Saxon. To judge from Anglo-
Saxon tomb furniture in general the only part of the country
where such jewelled objects would be likely to be made is
Kent, and the Kentish goldsmith preferred as a rule to set flat
garnet slips in shaped cloisons, as PI. cii, 7, rather than to
mount rounded * carbuncles' en cabochon. It is true that
Kentish graves have produced sundry pendants in which these
rounded carbuncles are set in gold, but these may be explained
on the same theory of a Romano-British survival which is
possible in the case of the necklets now under consideration.
Pll. CII, 3, 6 ; cm, i, show a selection of these Kentish
pendants, and the photographs may be supplemented by a
reference to plate iv of the Inventorium Sepulchrale^ where these
and other objects of the kind are figured in colour. PI. cii, 3,
is from Stowting and measures about i^% in. in its longest
dimension, the four marked 6 are from Barfriston, grave 48.
From Sibertswold, grave 172, comes the gold disc with
filigree and garnet inlays PI. cm, No. i, a, the design of which
is decidedly Germanic. From the same grave come the three
remarkable trinkets No. i, b, c, d, as well as some Merovingian
gold coins of the triens kind mounted for suspension. There
is no reason to suppose the grave earlier than say the latter
cm
facing p. 427
ROMANO-BRITISH FORMS 427
half of VI with which date would agree the jewelled pendant, a,
but the carbuncle and amethyst pendants, one, No. i, e, set with
a Roman engraved gem, resemble closely the jewels of the
Desborough, Brassington Moor, and Roundway Down neck-
lets, and are of a form much more Romano-British than Saxon.
It is of course a question whether, assuming them to be Romano-
British, we should regard the jewels merely as objects acci-
dentally surviving from the older epoch just as the Roman
coins survived, or as the work of craftsmen of British descent
spared by the invaders and continuing to employ their skill on
traditional work in the service of the conquerors.
There is some reason to regard as Romano-British one or
two brooches of an oval form and set with oval shaped stones
probably en cabochon. One was found at Long Wittenham,
Berks, and is shown PL cii, 4. It is in the British Museum.
Another came from Frilford in that same county. The work
of the setting of PL cii, 4, is entirely classical and non-
Germanic, and the piece is almost certainly to be accounted
for on one of the two suppositions just suggested. A very
interesting pair of objects among the Bifrons finds has much
significance in this connection. These are two oval bronze
pendants that were evidently once set with oval stones en
cabochon as in the case of the Long Wittenham brooch. The
borders however are here worked in repousse with naturalisti-
cally treated animals of an early type. One is shown PL cii, i.
The explanation which suggests itself is that a Jutish craftsman
was copying the practice of the older artists and assimilating
his work to theirs with the addition of his own characteristic
animal ornament. There is a row of quaint animals all similar
with open jaws, an eye, a forepaw and a body curling up behind
into a scroll. There is not a sign of the interlacing that comes
in with the beasts of Salin's ' Style 11 ' in VII, and the piece
may date early in VI.
The three Sibertswold pendants PL cm, No. i, b, c, d,
are specimens of work in glass, and it is in the highest degree
428 PERSONAL ORNAMENTS
unlikely that they were made in this island. They are in all
probability the product of Gallo-Roman workshops on the
other side of the Channel, and would date in III or IV a.d.
They will be noticed again on a later page (p. 444 f.) in connec-
tion with the subject of glass beads with which their technique
associates them. The subjects of pendants generally must be
taken up on a subsequent page ; those here noticed are only a
special class that form at any rate at times the constituent
elements of a necklet, and are of account in connection with
the Celtic and Roman features which they display.
The question thus raised of the Romano-British elements
in Anglo-Saxon work cannot be discussed without reference to
the scutcheons on bronze bowls mentioned in the Introductory
Chapter (p. ^2) ^^ exhibiting Celtic motives of enrichment.
These will be noticed later on in the next chapter (p. 475 f.).
Here however a word may be said as to the probable date and
provenance of the necklets and other jewels of which there has
just been question.
The glass pendants and the Long Wittenham oval jewel
are of no special significance, as the first are imported, the
latter a survival. The pendants or jewels with carbuncles
en cabochon are most probably products of Anglo-Saxon
craftsmanship but are certainly influenced by Romano-British
models though not necessarily by the contemporary activity
of surviving Romano-British workmen. They are of the
Christian period in VII. The same date will serve for the
Roundway Down pins and jewels and for the Little Hampton
pin suite, figured PI. lxxxi, i to 4. The former pin suite is a
crucial example. The pins themselves with their inset car-
buncles would suggest the early part of VII. The horses'
heads terminating the chains are Saxon rather than Celtic and
they appear in a debased and therefore late form, while there
can be little doubt that the same motive, still more degenerate,
explains the form of the connecting links in the Little Hampton
suite. The central jewel of the Roundway Down example is
CIV
facing p. 429
BEADS
I, 2, slightly reduced ; 3, reduced nearly to h natural size
VARIEGATED GLASS BEADS 429
a piece of capital importance quite unique in Anglo-Saxon
tomb furniture, but it is an imitation by a Teutonic craftsman
of a distinctly Celtic technique, and only a tentative imitation,
for the sinkings are too shallow to have really held a differently
coloured enamel paste. The interlacings on the back and the
cross motives on the face indicate a date in VII, and in this
connection a comparison is instructive with the sceat coin
device shown PI. vi, 17 (p. 85). The two are curiously
alike, save for the little cross in the central round, and of
course the coin is at the earliest of VII. Such imitations of
an unfamiliar technical process suggest something more than
the existence as survivals of pieces that could serve as models,
they appear to indicate some living perpetuation of Celtic
craftsmanship even in the midst of Anglo-Saxondom. This
one unique piece would not be sufficient to give this suggestion
any weight, but the existence of the enamelled scutcheons
at once lends it significance. These as we shall see belong
undoubtedly to VII and attest the presence at the time in the
Teutonized parts of Great Britain of activity in work of a
distinctively Celtic kind. How this is to be explained histori-
cally is another matter.
The characteristic necklet of the migration period is that
formed of beads. Strings of variegated glass beads, with
those made up of amber and more rarely of other mineral,
animal or vegetable substances or of metal, are the almost
constant accompaniments of the richer female interments both
in our own country and abroad. Next to ourselves the
peoples of the Rhineland and northern Gaul seem to have
been specially fond of these attractive trinkets, but their
diffusion both as regards localities and time is very wide.
They have never yet been made the subject of any really
searching investigation but upon certain general points in
regard to them antiquaries of our own and of past generations
are on the whole in agreement.
430 PERSONAL ORNAMENTS
It will be sufficient here to give in the first place an idea
of the principal kinds of beads found in Anglo-Saxon graves
in different parts of the country, with some notes as to their
numbers and the positions on the body in which they pre-
sented themselves, and next to furnish any general information
on the whole subject that seems trustworthy.
Beads are found practically in all the Teutonized parts of
the country from Corbridge on the Tyne and Darlington to
Kent, in which district, as is the case with tomb furniture
generally, they are specially abundant. It has been noticed
however that there is a curious dearth of them in the cemeteries
of Surrey.^ The illustrations, Pll. cm to cvi, and the coloured
Plates, B, 11 (p. 2S3) ^^^ C, i, ii, the Frontispiece to this
volume, will give an idea of the form and aspect of these
beads in their different varieties. It should be premised that
in the case of items of exceptional size it may be doubtful
whether they were worn pendant-wise as part of a necklet or
were not rather spindle whorls, or employed for some other
special purpose, and Mr. Reginald Smith has suggested " that
large single beads found in the graves of warriors were
probably used with sword knots, see PI. xxvii, 5 (p. 221).
Considerable variety was exhibited by beads found recently
in the Kentish cemetery at Broadstairs, Thanet. A long string
of them, of course from several different graves, is shown,
rather less than full size, PI. civ, i, and the following brief
description gives an idea of their kinds. Starting from the
right hand lower corner at A we note 15 solid beads ^ of
amber-coloured glass, averaging in length about |- in. Next
follow at the top of the illustration and down towards the
left, from B to C, seven variegated beads of opaque vitreous
pastes, with the forms of a cube |- in. square, the third from B ;
a cylinder, the fourth from B ; a flattened disc ; a barrel.
1 Fictoria History, Surrey, i, 266. - Proc. Soc. Ant., xxii, 55.
3 That is, solid with the exception of the hole through which they arc
strung.
DIFFERENT KINDS OF BEADS 431
The mass of the bead in examples of this kind is very com-
monly terra-cotta colour though the material is not baked clay
but a hard vitreous substance,^ and there are in it white or
yellow inlays in fanciful shapes the variety of which is in-
exhaustible. The coloured illustration PL B, 11 (p. 353) gives
a number of beads of this kind in the Museum at Munich
and no further description of them is here necessary as the
question of their technique must be subsequently considered.
Others of the same general pattern are seen PI. C, 11 (Frontis-
piece) at the top and to the right. They are in the Museum
at Brussels. The three large beads in shape like a flattened
sphere in this illustration are of a somewhat different kind,
and the substance is a semi-transparent greyish glass inlayed in
a fashion to be afterwards described.
Returning to the Broadstairs set, from where these seven
variegated beads end at C down to the lowest part of the
illustration at D, there are about 30 smaller self-coloured beads,
solid save for the opening through which they are strung,
of cylindrical, globular or flattened form, averaging about
^ in. to -I- in. in their longest dimension, and coloured dark or
light blue, white, red, yellow, or pale green. A small set of
beads of much the same nature was found at Corbridge,
Northumberland, in 1908 and it is shown PL civ, 2. Similar
beads in considerable numbers are figured in their natural
colours on the Frontispiece, PL C, i. This illustration is
from the Mayer-Faussett collection at Liverpool, and the
examples were all found in Kent. The variety in the colours as
well as in the shapes and sizes of the attractive little objects is
^ Sir Woolaston Franks noticed about the beads found at Saxby, Leicester-
shire, that ' all the beads were of amber or different forms of glass, and not
of earthenware, a material used for beads only among the Greeks and early
Etruscans,' Proc. Soc. Ant., xiii, 335. This rejection of terra cotta as a
material for beads of the migration period appears to be justified, though
foreign writers still speak of earthenware. The small beads in the centre
of No. I on the Frontispiece to this volume look like terra cotta but on
examination have been found to be vitreous.
432 PERSONAL ORNAMENTS
a cause of their popularity and explains the brisk demand that
was ever being met by something novel and alluring. In the
midst of these beads are seen in the illustration three com-
paratively large amethyst drops, that are a feature in Kentish
burials, see PI. cm, 2. The Museum at Canterbury has a fine
set of them, and seven were found at Broadstairs. These
amethyst beads are an inheritance from Rome, and the Romans
borrowed the fashion of them from ancient Egypt,
Continuing the inspection of the Broadstairs beads, at
the beginning of the rise towards the right at D we find in
the half-dozen largish white cylindrical and spherical beads,
D to E, objects of a very curious kind. The two lowest are
fossil sponges of a minute size found in the local chalk forma-
tion, and the next four are fossil encrinites from the same
source. At Folkestone similar fossils that can be identified
by their ribbed surface were found strung with amber beads
in a necklet. This is interesting as showing that the people
did not entirely depend for their necklets on imported wares,
and in this connection notice may be taken of the use by
the Germanic craftsman of the material shell. Portions of
sea shells cut from the solid valve-parts of the double shell,
or wherever the substance was of sufficient thickness, were
used sometimes in necklets, and some pieces strung with beads
at Liverpool seem to be of this substance. The clearest case
however is the example figured PI. cv, 7, found in a ' terp '
near Dokkum in Friesland and now in the Museum at
Leeuwarden, where in between the spherical beads of ordinary
type there occur round white discs that are undoubtedly of
shell, for they show on one side hollows which prove that they
were cut from concave surfaces. The matter has some im-
portance in connection with the question of the nature of the
white substance that is so commonly used in Kentish jewellery
as a setting for small carbuncles, and will be returned to on
a later page (p. 544).
After the fossils on PI. civ, i, there is a series of small
cv
facing p. 433
BEADS, NECKLET FASTENINGS, ETC.
Most objects approximately natural size
7 is Continental
EXCEPTIONAL BEADS
433
globular beads, E to F, followed by some long thin cylindrical
ones that terminate the series at G. The character of the
work here is in the main of a different kind. Many of the
globular beads are double ones and there is one triple one just
before the continuous row of pipe-shaped beads that descend
towards the end of the whole string. These globular beads
are hollow with thin walls of transparent glass, iridescent, or
shining with what has been called a ' nacrous lustre.' The
shimmer of the surface of them is often like gold or silver
which has led to the supposition that they were actually gilded
or silvered inside. Such a process was well known in anti-
quity, and Otto Tischler dated beads in which a leaf of gold
was enclosed between two layers of transparent glass as far
back in Egypt as IV b.c. In Roman times they were made
and imported into the north.-^ All the same the probability is
that the small hollow beads now in question were not really
silvered or gilded but owe their metallic glitter to the decom-
position of the glass, which has in other cases often added to
the material an indescribable charm (p. 485).
After these globular beads the series ends with about a
dozen slender cylinders, some ^ in. long, plain, striated with
parallel ridges, or else perhaps coiled like spiral springs, that
are sometimes referred to as * bugles.'
Beads of an exceptional kind not hitherto noticed must
now have a word. Some of these are of bronze, silver and
gold. Of the latter metal an example, hollow and shaped
like a double cone about f in. long, was found at Market
Overton, Rutland, and is now at Tickencote Hall. It is
shown a little enlarged PL cv, 2. Of silver, also in the
form of double cones, are two from Kingston, Kent, grave
241, each I J in. long, PL cv, 3. One has its end firmly fixed
in an ordinary spherical bead, and the two kinds, metal and
1 Kisa, Das Glas im Altertume, p. 128. Some small beads of this kind,
in which the gold leaf is clearly visible between two layers of thin glass, at
Colchester, are shown PL cvi, 5 (p. 439).
434 PERSONAL ORNAMENTS
glass, may have alternated. Far more elaborate silver beads
were found in the Saffron Walden cemetery, Essex, but are
of Viking date, see PL xvi, 2 (p. 171). At Cambridge a
small string of ordinary beads has on it two bronze tubes,
i|- in. long, PL cv, i ; they were found at Barrington. In
this connection reference may be made to objects of a some-
what enigmatical character in the form of flattened bronze tubes,
many of which were furnished by the cemetery at Bifrons.
They have come to light elsewhere also, and a specimen from
Barrington, Cambs, i^ in. long, is given PL cv, 4, as it shows
that these curious objects were common to Anglian and Jutish
areas. This specimen is figured of the natural size, the three
Bifrons pieces, No. 5, being somewhat reduced. It was found
at the neck of a skeleton together with beads, and the tubular
form suggests that the objects were strung together or alter-
nated with other articles. In one of the graves, tumulus vi,
opened by Douglas on Chatham Lines eight or ten of these
tubes were found in such positions that they are put together
on his plate (pi. 6) and inventoried as ' detached fluted
appendages of a brass girdle.' There was with them what
looks like a bronze fastening, and the whole was found near
the base of the spine of the skeleton of a female. The puzzle
of the objects is their form, which shows in front a pointed
lip projecting beyond the mouth of the tube at the back, see
PI. cv. 6. It will be remembered perhaps that the enigmatical
object found at Croydon and figured PL xcix, 4 (p. 419) is
made up of tubes shaped in this same fashion, so that it is
clear they were employed in other connections than as part of
a necklet or girdle. They are evidently early.
At Barrington also was found, what is almost unique,
bronze fastenings attached to the ends of a string of beads.
PI. cv, 9, shows them a little reduced. The scarcity of such
finds gives colour to the suggestion by George HiUier^ that
the bead necklets were fastened by tying. In the Report on
^ History, etc., of the Isle of Wight, p. 34.
MODES OF WEARING BEADS 435
the discoveries at Kempston, Beds/ it is stated that in a certain
bead was found 'a portion of the very string by which it had
been suspended, composed of hemp, and consisting of three
strands very carefully and closely laid.' The great majority
of the strings of beads were evidently worn at the neck, but
apparently not always round the neck, for on this we have an
explicit statement from the careful explorer of the cemetery
at Sleaford, Lincolnshire, Mr. G. W. Thomas. The strings of
beads, he tells us/ ^ were not used in the sense which is under-
stood by the word necklet, but were simply festoons of beads,
in many instances double ones, extending from one shoulder
to the other, supported on either side by a fibula or pin. . . .
The position of the skeletons laid on their sides enabled me to
ascertain that all the beads were in situ in front of the body,
and none of them either under or behind the vertebrae, which
must necessarily have been the case, if they had encircled the
neck.' This is only one of several peculiarities which seem to
mark the denizens of the Sleaford cemetery as a people of
special customs unlike those of the Angles in general. As a
rule the beads were worn in ordinary necklet fashion, but
besides these there were smaller strings that encircled the
arms, and beads were also strung, singly or in twos and threes,
on silver wires to be worn as ear pendants, or fastened to the
dress in some way as decorative adjuncts. In a very richly
furnished grave at Kempston, opened March 19, 1864,^ there
was a circle of beads 4 in. in diameter round the upper arm of
a skeleton that wore also an ample necklet. At Broadstairs
out of 59 beads mostly of amber in a certain grave 46 were
near the head and 1 1 round the right arm.
The appearance of beads in male interments — other than
the possible sword knots^ — has been more than once signalized
(pp. 746, 786) ; the bead string with bronze fastenings PI. cv, 9,
is said to have been found in a man's grave, but the evidence
^ Assoc. Soc. Reports, 1864, p. 292. ^ Archaeologia, l, 387.
^ As above, p. 296.
436 PERSONAL ORNAMENTS
in this and other cases seems to be rather doubtful, and it is
a safe general rule that beads imply a female interment.
The number of beads in a single grave is sometimes very
large, and among the Anglo-Saxons this is specially marked.
Lindenschmit^ and the author of the Reichenhall Report of
1890" both give 30 as the average number for Ripuarian and
Alamannic graves though they say that this is sometimes more
than doubled. The following are some statistics about Anglo-
Saxon finds. With a child's body at Broadstairs there were
100 glass and amber beads. The two cemeteries at Sarre and
Bifrons, Kent, furnished to the collection at Maidstone no
fewer than 37 bead necklaces, and they average ^2 beads each.
At Holdenby, Northants, 130 beads were found on a single
skeleton. Two graves on Chessell Down in the Isle of Wight
contained 100 in each, and throughout the cemetery 'in only
one case did it occur that a small number were found.' ^ At
Kempston, Beds, the numbers in each grave noted as furnishing
beads are the following* : — 109, 44, 64, 12, 120, 66, 7, 114,
10, 7, 200, 60, 33, an average of 65 in each. At Long Witten-
ham, Berks, there were reported 270 amber beads in one grave
with a female body.^ At Ipswich, Suffolk, 32 bead necklaces
were found, the largest with 108 beads.^ Barrington, Cambs,
yielded up 895 beads from 2^ graves, and 120 beads were
found round the neck of one skeleton.^ At Linton Heath,
Cambs, one grave contained 141 beads, another 114.**
In regard to the question of the provenance of these beads,
with which is connected the consideration of their forms and
technique, those of amber may be briefly noticed at the outset.
Amber as a material for beads is of time-honoured use, and
the substance has been often found in this form in British
1 Haiidbuch, p. 390. 2 Reichenhall, p. 89.
3 Hillicr, hie of Wight, p. 34. ^ Ass. Soc. Reports, 1864, p. 269 ft;
^ Archaeologta, xxxvux, 334. " ibid., lx, 335.
" Cambridge Ant. Soc. Communications, v, 1 1 .
'^ Akcrman, Pagan Saxondom, p. 54 h
AMBER BEADS 43^
graves. In a barrow, said to be that of a chieftain, at Upton
Lovel, Wilts, no fewer than 1000 amber beads came to light,^
The chief source of supply of the material from Mycenaean
times downwards has been the Baltic coast, where there are
extensive beds of the fossil gum that are now most prolific in
the region of Samland in East Prussia between Memel and
Danzig. Other parts round the Baltic and the North Sea
furnish it, and lumps of the material from these beds are found
washed up on our own eastern coasts. In view of the exten-
sive and old established trade in Baltic amber, it seems most
likely that the amber beads found in Teutonic graves of the
migration period were derived from this source rather than from
other regions, such as Burma, Roumania, or Sicily, where fossil
gums of the kind are met with. The true Baltic amber is to be
distinguished by its richness in succinic acid and is sometimes
called ' succinite.' Its colour is usually pale, whereas the amber
found in the Germanic graves is normally of a dark reddish hue.
Long burial is said however to turn the original pale amber a
deep red,^ and the colour of our amber beads need not prevent
our assuming for it a Baltic or North Sea origin. The history
of the material in Europe makes it on the whole symptomatic
of early date when it occurs in tomb furniture. It is so
reckoned in Hungary.^ Some nicely finished spherical amber
beads are shown PI. civ, 3. The largest is i in. in diameter.
They were discovered by Thomas Bateman in a tumulus near
Wyaston, Derbyshire, and are now in the Museum at Sheffield.
The other beads in this necklet of 27 pieces are of variegated
glass and are much smaller. A particularly fine piece of amber
is a large bead from near Upchurch, Kent, in the Museum at
Rochester, Kent, shown PL cv, 10. It is 2^ in. in diameter
and i-g- in. thick and may have been carried suspended as an
^ Dr. Thurnam, in Archaeologia, xliii, 501.
2 Enc. Brit., art. ' Amber.'
^ Prof. Bela Posta, Archaeologiiche Studien auf Russisckem Boden, Leipzig,
1905, 11, 451.
IV D
43^ PERSONAL ORNAMENTS
amulet (p. 406), for amber was held to possess medicinal pro-
perties and even those of a mystical kind. At Broadstairs,
besides the glass beads on PI. civ and the seven amethysts,
there were no fewer than 75 amber beads of various shapes
and sizes including one large cylindrical one i^ in. in diameter
and I in. long, that suggests use as an amulet. In the early
cemetery at Chessell Down in the Isle of Wight most of the
beads found were ' formed of perforated, unshaped lumps of
amber,' ^
Coming now to the various kinds of glass beads, it is to
be noted that in dealing with the questions of the provenance
and date of these attractive little objects it is necessary to
survey a field far wider than that which enclosed in place and
time the Teutonic migrations, for beads in all essentials the
same were common in the Europe of the later Bronze and
early Iron Ages and are abundant on Roman sites. Their wide
distribution and the occurrence of similar forms in places far
apart go a long way to prove that these beads were not local
products but objects of import. The place or places of their
manufacture and the medium of their diffusion are alike
uncertain, and Professor Hampel laments that owing to the
absence of any thorough-going monograph on the subject his
own treatment of Hungarian examples possesses ' nur ein
bedingter Werth.' " What has been said about the beads in
this aspect by the latest authority on ancient glass ' is sub-
stantially no more than was known to Otto Tischler a
generation ago ^ or to Akerman in 1850.^ The former states
that they must have come from some unknown centre in the
East, and it should be recalled that Douglas in his Nenia
Britannica had said the same thing nearly a century before,
suggesting sagaciously Marseilles as their port of entry into
the western world. Kisa's work exhibits Egypt as the original
1 Hillier, Isle of Wight, p. 34. - Jltcrthilmer, 1, 460.
3 Kisa, Das Gi/is im Altertume, Leipzig, 1908.
4 K'onigsberger Schriften, 1886. ^ Archaeologin, xxxiv, 46.
^w
CVI
facing p. 439
BEADS, LATE CELTIC, ROMAN, AND SAXON
5, 6, are enlarged more than twice natural size
BEADS IN THE ANCIENT WORLD 439
home of the glass industry, which flourished there from before
the time of the Theban Empire, and from Egyptian, especially
Alexandrian, workshops, glass beads as well as other produc-
tions in the same material were imported into the West. The
following is quoted from his book, p. 1 10 f. ' The ornamental
vitreous beads from Egypt are by far the best known and
most widely diffused surviving products of the ancient glass
industry. They are found sometimes singly, at other times
strung together (as a rule by a later hand) as necklets, breast
pendants, and bracelets, from India to the gold coast of Africa,
from Pontus to Britain, on the shores of the Mediterranean
as well as in the interior of Germany and France, in Celtic
lands and in Scandinavia. . . . With these wares, abundant,
cheap, and easily carried, the Phoenician, and later on the
Greek, Roman, and Syrian merchants carried on a brisk com-
merce among the unsophisticated barbarians, and Celts and
Germans exchanged tin, copper, amber, and furs for the
variegated and attractive ornaments, just as gladly as the later
Peruvian Indians and the negroes of the west coast of Africa
bartered their gold for the wares of Venetian traders. . . .
That they hit the taste of the primitive Germans is easily to
be understood, for they are really pretty, and through their
absolutely boundless variety supplied the ever increasing de-
mand for ornament and finery. . . . The enormous abundance
and multiform character of these dainty objects renders it a
very difficult matter to sort them out in accordance with their
origin, chronology, and methods of fabrication.'
Dr. Kisa ^ thinks that in Roman imperial times, up to the
end of I A.D., Aquileia was the chief emporium of Mediter-
ranean wares intended for transport, through the Brenner or
over the Julian Alps, to regions north of the Alps, while from
II onwards the staple was Massilia, and these wares were now
taken up through Gaul and distributed from certain emporia
in the Rhineland, notably Trier and Koln. The extent to
^ Das Glas, etc., p. 117.
440 PERSONAL ORNAMENTS
which Greek or Syrian traders actually carried on this traffic,
and the establishment in the lands washed by the Rhine and
the Meuse of flourishing factories of glass, are points that will
presently be noticed in connection with the glass vessels found
in Teutonic graves. How far the Germanic lands in the
migration period were supplied with their glass beads from
Egypt or Syria, how far from the Roman glass factories in
the regions just named, is a matter not easy to decide, and on
this a word will presently be said.
The questions of methods of fabrication and of chronology
are closely connected, for certain styles were in vogue at
particular periods and absent or but slightly represented at
others. Beads of the simplest form, the solid ones of opaque
glass, such as the examples PI. civ, i, C to D, PL civ, 2, and
most of those in the coloured illustration No. i on PI. C, the
Frontispiece to this volume, may be of any age and were
probably produced in many localities. They were made by
coiling a rod of coloured vitreous paste softened by heat round
a mandril or metal rod, either in a single turn, or spiral fashion,
so as to produce an elongated cylinder. Partial fusion in the
furnace followed by rolling on a smooth marble slab would
hide the joins and bring the whole to an even surface. In
the beads shown in the illustrations, PI. cv, 13, in the Guild-
hall Museum, found in Milk Street, City of London, exhibits
this technique most plainly in its coiled appearance, but many
of the others though smoothed over betray the secret of their
manufacture. The surface of a bead thus formed might be
diversified by moulding it when soft into projecting ribs like
those on a melon, as in the Roman bead found in London,
Pi. cv, 12, or the blue-green Roman beads at Colchester,
PI. cvi, 2, or else by ribs applied in relief in the same material.
Two fragments of glass beads in the writer's possession show
unmistakably these two distinct processes. In one the ribs
are laid on in separate pieces, in the other the efi^ect is pro-
duced by pressing in the material when soft at intervals with
TECHNIQUE OF VARIEGATED BEADS 441
a blunt-edged instrument. A more advanced method of
diversifying the surface was the production of patches, stripes,
and markings of another colour like those on the beads PL cv,
7, II ; PI. cvi, I ; or B to C on PI. civ, i. In these cases
the substance of the bead was softened by heat and morsels or
thin rods and threads of differently coloured glass pressed into
it. Sometimes the inlaid portions were allowed to project
slightly, but usually the bead while the glass was still soft
would be rolled on the smooth marble slab till the inlaid parts
were pressed in level with the rest of the surface. Again, the
added material might stand out in the form of knobs, as in a
specimen to the right of the top line of PL C, 11 (Frontispiece).
A common form of marking found at an early date in
Egypt and also in the West is that of the eye, A slender rod
of coloured glass is wrapped round with a thin layer of glass
of another hue. Over that again might be rolled another
layer of the original colour and so on, with the result that the
whole when seen end on would show a series of concentric
circles round a centre. A small length of this composite rod
would then be cut off and pressed into the softened surface
of the mass of the bead. Examples of the beads thus formed
were found in the Late-Celtic barrow at Arras in the East
Riding of Yorkshire and are shown PI. cvi, 1,1. Such eyes
are not characteristic of beads of the Roman and later periods
but belong in the main, at any rate in Europe, to the La Tene
culture. They do occur however occasionally in Anglo-Saxon,
as in other Teutonic graves ; a few are figured on Plate v of
the Inventorium Sepulchrale^ and some were found half a century
ago at North Luffenham, Rutland, In the late Celtic epoch
begins to be used a form of bead that is specially Roman,
* while it also occurs not seldom in Anglo-Saxon graves. This
is the so-called * melon ' bead, of blue glass that has often
weathered to green, marked by projecting ribs of the same
material arranged like those of the fruit from which it has its
name. PL cvi, 2, shows a set in the Museum of Colchester
442 PERSONAL ORNAMENTS
from a local Roman burial of I a.d. The occurrence of
such beads, generally singly, in Anglo-Saxon graves conveys
the suggestion that the interment is early, and at any rate
they are a distinct Roman survival.
To the Roman imperial period belongs a great develop-
ment of the inlaying technique already described, and the
introduction of a new and more elaborate process, the so-called
mosaic or ' millefiori ' technique. This differs from inlaying
in that the pattern is not displayed only on the surface but
goes through the mass of the material. This, like inlaying,
was an old Egyptian technique developed and perfected at
Alexandria, whence the products and to some extent also the
processes of the work were introduced into the West. The
procedure is in certain respects not unlike that of damascen-
ing in the case of the sword blades. There strands of metal
of different qualities and textures were welded together side
by side and the whole piece was then twisted or doubled or
worked up in various ways under the hammer so that the
strands formed ultimately rather intricate patterns. Here, in
the beads made in mosaic glass, rods or plaques of variously
coloured vitreous pastes were laid together and the adjacent
surfaces made to adhere by exposure to a nicely adjusted
temperature not ardent enough to melt the pieces into a con-
fused mass. This might be in section a flat disc variegated
in stripes, rosettes, etc., or in length a bar composed of
parallel rods of different colours, and these might be folded,
rolled, cut up, or in other ways fashioned by unerring fingers
into beads. In these the differently coloured sections of the
composite mass would go all through it, just as the glass vases
of the imperial period which exhibit the mosaic technique
show the patterns coming through from the outer to the
inner surface. Specimens of these vessels, identified with the
' Myrrine ' vases celebrated by the Roman writers, have been
found associated with Teutonic objects of the migration
period, as at Sackrau near Breslau. See Grempler, der Fund
MOSAIC AND MILLEFIORI BEADS 443
von Sackrau, Breslau, 1888, i, Taf. vi ; 11 u. iii, Taf. iv. A
similar vase in the British Museum is figured PI. cvi, 4.
These true mosaic or millefiori beads are pronounced by Otto
Tischler to be the finest beads of all, and he thinks they
originated in Egypt about I a.d. Such beads are very rare in
Anglo-Saxon graves, but a genuine specimen from Chessell
Down in the Isle of Wight, now in the British Museum, is
shown PI. cvi, 3. It is 1^ in. across, and the light coloured
flowers go right through the whole thickness of the dark
vitreous paste in which they are sunk, reappearing in the same
forms and colours on the other side.
Of equal or even greater importance for the present
purpose are beads which combine the mosaic process with that
of inlaying, in that ornamental incrustations each one of which
is a mosaic are pressed into the surface of a self-coloured glass
bead like those ornamented with the thread or strip inlays
in the front of the illustration PL C, 1 1 (Frontispiece). The
process is an interesting one. Coloured rods are laid side by
side in a sort of bundle the section of which shows a pattern
such as a rosette, or, as is very common, a chequer formed of
white and black or blue squares in juxtaposition. The rods
are united by heat, and then the whole bundle duly softened in
the muffle furnace can be drawn out to any reasonable length
required, when with the diameter correspondingly decreasing
the pattern as seen in the section grows smaller and smaller
while preserving all its elements in their original relations.
Slices of the bundle can then be cut, either in a section straight
through or, as at times, obliquely, or else in long section so as
to form striped lengths, and these can be put together to pro-
duce a pattern, glass being fused into the interspaces to keep
the whole together ; or can be inlayed separately into the
softened surface of a bead or other vitreous mass. Such
mosaic inlays come first into vogue, Dr. Kisa says, in the time
of the Flavian Caesars,^ and Otto Tischler ascribed the orna-
^ Das Glas im Altertume, p. 131.
444 PERSONAL ORNAMENTS
mental use of such inlays on other objects besides beads to
II to IV a.d/ This technique is later than that of the true
mosaic or millefiori beads which are a speciality of the earlier
Empire.'
The above considerations bear upon the questions of the
provenance and date of the Kentish pendants already described
and illustrated PI. cm, i, b, c, d (p. 428), to which may be added
a tiny pendant set in gold, at Devizes, figured the natural size
PI. cm, I, g, and the central pendant of the necklet shown
in colour PL B, i (p. 253)- This whole object is of much
interest and was found at Sarre, Kent. It consists in a string
of coloured beads with large amethysts at the two ends from
which are suspended a central pendant in mosaic glass, i in.
in diameter, and four gold coins, imitation ' solidi ' of the
Emperors Maurice Tiberius (582-602) and Heraclius (6 10-641)
with one of Chlotaire 11, King of the Franks, who died in 629.
These coins serve to date the necklet some time at any rate
after the accession of Heraclius, that is in the first half,
probably the second quarter, of VII. The pendant is of
course a survival from an earlier age. This and the Siberts-
wold pendant PI. cm, i, b, have the surface ornamented with
small square panels each of which is filled with chequer work
in squares, in the first case of white and light blue, in the
second of white alternating with green and violet, each square
being less than a millimetre a side. The panels are divided
by narrow strips of red or of yellow glass, and the whole in the
Sibertswold example is surrounded by a border in which are
small closely set flat garnets. Here each of the little panels
is a slice from a compound stick made up of sixteen slender
square rods, and they are disposed in proper order in a little
oval tray formed of the gold setting, the interstices being filled
in by fusing plain yellow glass into the spaces between, so that the
^ Archiv fiir Antbropologie, Bd. 16.
2 See Tischlcr's papers on coloured glass and enamel in antiquity, in
the Konigsbcrgcr Schiiftev, for 1886. >
SMALL BLOWN BEADS 445
whole is incorporated into one mass. It is possible that the
square sticks were made in Egypt and imported into Gaul
through Massilia and made up there by Romano-Gallic crafts-
men who may already have known the technique of the garnet
inlay which, as we shall see later on (p. 554), appeared in
northern Gaul in IV a.d. The chequer sticks may on the
other hand have been made in Gaul, for such elements were
often incorporated into the enamel of the bronze brooches that
were manufactured so largely in II and III in the district round
Namur in modern Belgium. The Museum at Newcastle
contains more than one Romano-British or Romano-Gallic
piece of the kind, and one of these is shown PL cm, 3. The
surface of the bronze was covered with a pattern formed of
these tiny mosaic panels. In any case the nicety of handling
required in the slicing of the compound stick into the desired
sections was nearly as great as that required originally for its
formation. The other two pendants, PI. cm, i, c, d, are in
inlaid work. Narrow twists of glass of lovely iridescent grey
colour are inlaid into a gold coloured ground, the whole
surface being in relief.
This technique is certainly not Anglo-Saxon, and in all
probability it was not even Prankish but was in the hands of
Gallo-Roman glass workers and enamellers, whose operations
may in some regions have gone on even when the Franks had
made themselves masters of the country. The setting of
garnets in the border of the principal pendant is however
more Teutonic than Gallo-Roman.
Quite apart from all the kinds of beads just passed in
review are the little globular pearls, single, double, or triple,
to which attention was called in the Broadstairs set, E to F.
Whereas all the beads hitherto noticed are solid save for the
hole through which they are strung these globular ones are
hollow with thin walls, and have evidently been made by the
process of blowing. Probably a hollow cylinder was first formed
and this was at intervals nipped round to form the separate
446 PERSONAL ORNAMENTS
beads which are joined by a narrow neck. This is far more
likely than the alternative theory that the little spheres were
made singly and then fused together afterwards into a row.
See Proc. Soc. Ant., xviii, 318. M. Barriere-Flavy, Les Arts
Industriels, etc., i, 84, writes of ' grains de verre souffle, tenus,
allonges en etroits cylindres,' etc. A set of these beads in the
Cambridge Museum, enlarged to about double the natural size,
is shown PI. cvi, 6. These are double and triple ones, but one
from Chessell Down in the British Museum is fourfold. We
have thus three principal varieties among the glass beads found
in our cemeteries, the plain self-coloured solid ones, the pearly
globular blown beads and slender cylinders, and lastly the
variegated solid beads.
Enough has been said to make it clear that variegated
beads of the most attractive kind were common in the Roman
world under the early empire and had been made and known
in the East for centuries, even millenniums before. The
evidence of the Germanic interments seems however to show
that at the epoch of the actual migrations the Teutons had not
acquired a taste for these showy trinkets, or at any rate did
not obtain them, for the beads found in the earlier graves
of the Franks, Alamanni, or Anglo-Saxons are small and
simple ones of the kind seen PI. civ, 2, or PL cv, 8, and
the inlaid beads of a large size and conspicuous colouring
are only found in the later cemeteries. On the Prankish
evidence M. Pilloy ^ and M. Boulanger express themselves
very clearly. ' Aux V*" et VP siecles,' writes the latter, ' les
perles sont petites ou de grosseur moyenne . . . cependant,
aux siecles suivantes, elles augmentent de grandeur, ... A
Tepoque carolingienne, les perles sont generalement plus
volumineuses qu'a I'epoque merovingienne.' " It is probable
that the convulsions of the migration epoch put a temporary
stop to the importation of these attractive wares into the lands
of the north-west, and the people were satisfied with simpler
1 Etuaes, i, 100, 1 11, 118. - Marchelepot, pp. 104, 142.
PROVENANCE OF THE BEADS 447
products, such as those from Corbridge, PI. civ, 2, which
belong to about 500 a.d., or the set from the early cemetery
at Holme Pierrepont, Northants, PI. cv, 8. With one speci-
ally early burial, grave 6, at Bifrons, of about 500 a.d., there
were '39 small beads mostly of green and blue glass with one
large one of amber.' ^ Beads of these modest pretensions, so
easily fabricated, and we may add fabricated so casually that
the process of joining is readily discernible, need not have been
brought from the East but may have been made wherever in the
West there were established factories for glass. Such factories
existed we know on the Rhine and in Belgium and northern
France, and it is to these sources that we must in all prob-
ability look for the supply of small self-coloured solid beads in
the early days of the Teutonic settlements. The same may be
said about the small globular and cylindrical beads already
discussed. If these had come from the East the more showy
variegated examples would no doubt have come with them
and have made their appearance in early Teutonic graves.
The globular beads are contemporary with the small solid
ones, and are most probably also a western product. The
technique of them is inherited from Roman times, for small
double and triple blown beads of the kind have often been
found on Roman sites. There are some in the Museum at
Chesters on the North Tyne, and PI. cvi, 5, shows a set, the
true size and also enlarged, in the Roman collection in
Colchester Museum. These are examples of the gilding
technique noticed above (p. 433) for a film of gold is confined
between two thin layers of glass. ^
The provenance of the showy variegated beads of the sub-
sequent period, that according to the antiquaries of northern
France are in use till' the Carolingian period, cannot as we
have already seen be fixed with any certainty. They were
^ Arch. Cant.^ x, 303.
2 For the photograph and description the writer is indebted to the
kindness of Mr. Arthur G. Wright of the Museum at Colchester.
448 PERSONAL ORNAMENTS
certainly distributed from one or one or two centres, but there
is nothing impossible in the supposition that the glass manu-
factories of the Rhineland may have had something to do
with their fabrication on the lines of the older oriental pro-
duction. The prevailing opinion however is that they were
of oriental provenance, and their appearance in the far North,
as in the case of the find in the British Museum from Tromso
within the Arctic Circle that includes true millefiori beads, is
explained on the supposition that they came up directly from
the south-east along the old trade routes past Gotland.
evil
facing p. 449
PENDANTS, COINS, BRACTEATES
|, 2, -4, natural size ; 4, somewhat enlarged ; 6, much reduced
the rest about natural size
7, 7, 7, arr Continental
CHAPTER IX
TOMB FURNITURE : (VI) PERSONAL ORNAMENTS— PEN-
DANTS, BRACELETS, RINGS, EAR-JEWELS ; VESSELS-
BUCKETS, BRONZE BOWLS, VASES OF GLASS
PERSONAL ORNAMENTS--PENDANTS
The subject of the pendant connects itself as we have seen
with that of the necklet for this is often composed of elements
each one of which would be described by itself as a pendant.
Many pendants have in this way already come under notice in
the last chapter and several others have been figured and
described on earlier pages from the point of view of design or
technique. The objects in question may be conveniently
divided into the following classes : —
1. Artistic pendants especially those jewelled in the Kentish
fashion or ornamented with filigree work in gold.
2. Pendants of the nature of amulets including those of
cruciform design,
3. Coins and bracteates.
I. Many objects under this heading have been already
noticed. Carbuncle and mosaic-glass pendants have just been
discussed (p. 424 f.), pendants in disc form with jewels or
filigree work were figured PI. xi, i, 2 (p. 117), PI. liii, 6, 7, 8
(p. 305) and a handsome one in cast bronze Pi. lxiii, 6 (p. 329),
To these may be added the inlaid pendants figured in colour
Pll. B, III (p. 2S3) j I^» ^11' ^ (p- 5^ 0- '^^^ latter has passed
with the Mayer collection to the Museum at Liverpool, but is
not one of Faussett's pieces. It is exceptional in that it is of
gold throughout as the back view of it PL D, i, shows, and it
450 PERSONAL ORNAMENTS
corresponds in this with the Kingston fibula illustrated on the
Frontispiece to Vol. iii. Such ornaments as a rule are backed
with one of the less precious metals. The front of the piece
is shown on an enlarged scale the back being nearer the
natural size. The bird form with the hooked beak is notice-
able and will be referred to later on (p. 526). The two
jewelled pendants previously figured PL B, in (p. 353) are
exquisite examples of Kentish inlaid work in gold, garnets, and
glass pastes, the style and technique of which will be discussed
in the next chapter.
2. Here again previous illustrations and descriptions need
only be referred to. Pendant crosses were shown Pll. x, 2, 3, 4
(p. 115); cii, 5, and pendants with crosses on them Pll. x, 7 ;
XI, I, 2, 5. Amulets of another kind also occur. The Cypraea
shells which were held to have a mystical efHcacy that may be
surmised from the name and shape of the objects were worn as
pendants, and one, 3 in. long, at Cambridge, is shown sus-
pended from a string of coloured beads, PI. cvii, i. The same
may be said of large amber beads and masses of rock crystal.
A curious kind of talisman is shown PL cvii, 6, on a reduced
scale. It is apparently a bone of a sheep and was found in the
richly furnished grave No. 142 at Kingston in Kent, Aker-
man publishes a beaver's tooth mounted for suspension and a
horse's tooth pierced with a hole for the same purpose, and
refers to some other similar amulets.^ A talon of an eagle
was found lately at Alfriston, Sussex, and is shown PL cvii, 5.
PL CVII, 2, is a remarkable object found with a skeleton and
an iron knife on the site of Shrewton Windmill, Wilts, and
now at Devizes. It is a wheel-shaped disc of cast bronze,
2|- in. in diameter, with a hole in the rim suggesting suspen-
sion, and without any attachments or marks on the back of it.
The front is stamped with characteristic Anglo-Saxon linear
ornaments consisting in triangles and circles (p. 306) and * S '
shaped patterns.
^ Tagan Saxondom, pi. xii and p. 26 f.
COINS AND BRACTEATES 451
3. Coins and their derivatives, the so-called bracteates, form
the last class of pendants to be noticed in this place. Coins
pierced with holes or mounted with loops for suspension are
not uncommon objects, especially in Kent, and are sometimes
Merovingian gold coins, and at other times copies in gold of
late Roman and Byzantine pieces. They served apparently as
ornaments and it is noteworthy that the quasi-superstitious
use of the coin in which it was placed in the mouth of the
corpse as representing his worldly possessions has not been
observed in Anglo-Saxon cemeteries. The custom was not
unknown among the Franks/ and one of the most conspicuous
instances of its observance is the cemetery of Abbeville-
Homblieres, described by M. PiJloy in the first volume of
his Etudes. Here almost every skeleton was provided with
a coin placed either in the mouth or in the hand, and
M. Pilloy made the remarkable discovery that in each case
the coin appeared to be of the issue of the Emperor reigning
at the time of the burial. A chronological, series could be
followed from one extremity of the cemetery to the other.
At Sleaford, Lincolnshire, a young person had been buried
with coins in the hand though not in the mouth.
The use of coins in connection with a string of beads is
illustrated on the colour Plate B, i, 11 (p. 't>S?))- ^ set of
coins shown PL cvii, 3, is of special interest as it is the one
reported to have been found in the churchyard of St. Martin's,
Canterbury'^ (p. 119), and if it accompanied a Christian inter-
ment in the vicinity of that early shrine it would be an
interesting link of connection between pagan and Christian
sepulchral customs.
The Roman gold coin imported into northern Europe
^ Or at any rate Franco-Romans. On the character of these early ceme-
teries of northern Gaul such as Abbeville-Homblieres and Vcrmand, see
Ch. X (p. 549 f.).
^ Col/. Ant.^ I, pi. Lv, p. 178. Other references are given, Vict. Hist.,
Kent, I, 341 note 4.
452 PERSONAL ORNAMENTS
became the parent there of the bracteate. The bracteate
in this sense of the term is an imitation more or less distant
of a Roman coin in very thin gold on which a device is
stamped ^ so as to appear on the one side in relief on the other
in intaglio. Scandinavia is the home of the bracteate, and
those specimens that are found in other Germanic lands are
held to be either importations from the North or to be due at
any rate to northern influence. Some examples from our own
country are given Pll. cvii ; E, iv (p. 519). In respect of de-
sign the bracteates somewhat resemble the sceat coins, in that,
while an ultimate origin in some Roman device can generally
be predicated, there is only in some cases any recognizable
likeness to a classical prototype. In the majority of instances
the representation has become so fantastic that it may be
regarded as practically a creation of the barbaric designer,
and figures from northern mythology, such as Odin on horse-
back with his attendant raven, are evolved from the wreck of
some classical motive. The limits of date for the bracteates
may range from about 450 to 650 a.d.
A few Scandinavian specimens will be found on PI. lv
(p. 309). They are in the Museum at Stockholm and are
figured slightly larger than nature. The three smaller ones
are not bracteates proper but barbaric imitations of Roman
gold medallions for they are of some thickness and stamped
with a reverse as well as an obverse design. The heads are
fairly well rendered, but the Latin inscriptions are reduced as
a rule to a medley of meaningless signs. The bracteates
proper are generally much further removed from the original
prototypes, and inscriptions in runic characters appear on
some of them. The specimen partly seen to the left of PI. lv
has in the centre a device of very frequent occurrence in which
a galloping horse is surmounted by a rider reduced merely to
1 That a stamp was used is shown by the fact that an exact correspond-
ence is sometimes observed between different specimens, which would not
be the case were the execution freehand in repousse.
BRACTEATES 453
the presentation of a large human head. The addition of a
bird to the picture suggests at once the northern motive of
Odin with his raven.
Turning now to English examples we find a specimen
comparable with the Stockholm medallions in the bracteate on
the colour Plate, E, iv (p. 519). It measures i^ in. across and
is shown on an enlarged scale. It was found a couple of
centuries ago in St. Giles' Field, Oxford, and is preserved in
the Ashmolean. The fairly executed head is still near to a
Roman original but the ornamental motives round it are of a
nondescript kind, and among them it is interesting to find the
device of an equal-armed cross with rounded extremities
reproducing a motive that can be traced back to the sceat
coins (p. 105), and that occurs on some carved stones of the
later Saxon epoch in Yorkshire and Cumberland. Sir Arthur
Evans claimed this bracteate as probably of native manu-
facture. PI. cvii, 4, shows another bracteate found at Market
Overton, Rutland, and now at Tickencote Hall. Its diameter
is i^ in. and the material is gold. This ofi'ers an example of
the galloping horse and the bird but there is no indication of
the head or body of the rider, and Mr. Thurlow Leeds in a
note on these two pieces^ argues that in this case also the
probability is in favour of a native origin. Both these
examples may be placed in VI and in the first half of it.
On the other hand importation from Scandinavia probably
explains the presence in Kentish graves of the bracteates
PI. cvii, 8, 9. The three marked 8, together with a fac-
simile of the right hand one evidently stamped from the same
mould, were found in grave 29 at Bifrons, and the five
numbered 9 come from the very richly furnished grave 4
at Sarre, Kent. They are all in the Museum of the K.A.S.
at Maidstone and are reproduced on the plate a trifle below
the natural size. On all but the left hand one of the Bifrons
three the device is that of the dislocated animal already so
1 Archaeologia, lxii, 491.
IV E
454 PERSONAL ORNAMENTS
familiar to the reader, and a date well on in VI is indicated.
With these may be compared the three marked 7, found in
Frisian ' Terpen ' and now in the Museum at Leeuwarden.
The correspondence between these and the Kentish specimens
is almost exact, and the whole set, 7, 8, 9, so closely resembles
Scandinavian examples, such for example as those figured on
p. 225 of Professor Montelius' Kulturgeschichte Schwedens^ that
an origin in the land of the North can be safely predicted.
The Bifrons piece to the left of the three is quite excep-
tional and the motive is here a human figure remarkably well
rendered, with head, arms, and two legs widely spread.
PERSONAL ORNAMENTS— BRACELETS, RINGS,
EAR JEWELS
Following on the subject of pendants comes that of other
personal ornaments not forming part of the dress, and includ-
ing bracelets, finger rings, and ear drops. Under these head-
ings there is nothing of great importance to signalize. In
the tomb inventories of the migration period generally the
bracelet plays a comparatively small part, whereas in the
previous Celtic epoch it was, in some parts at any rate, of
the first importance. The Germanic finger ring is of insig-
nificant moment when we take into comparison the immense
vogue the ring enjoyed under the Romans. As regards the
ear pendant, it was greatly favoured among some branches of
the Teutonic stock, and gave occasion to the gold worker to
execute some of his tours-de-force in delicate manipulation of
the metal and in the setting of gems. The Goths, the
Teutonic peoples of Hungary, and the Franks, delighted
especially in showy ear jewels, and it is one among so many
proofs of the comparative independence in artistic matters of
the Anglo-Saxons that this form of personal adornment had
little attraction for them, while their neighbours across the
1 Leipzig, 1906. T\\c examples referred to are numbered fig. 357.
k\['
CVIII
facing p. 455
h
Z
<
Q
Z
<;
w
h
hi-!
1-1
W
<
O
z
<
BRACELETS AND RINGS 455
Channel paid to it considerable attention. All these trinkets
for the arm, the finger, and the ear were worn by the Anglo-
Saxons, but their craftsmen never took them up and made a
speciality of them, or impressed on them their own artistic
individuality. In dealing with other classes of objects, such
as the Kentish disc fibulae or the * long ' brooches of the
Anglian districts, one feels that the craftsman has brought to
the design and execution all the creative impulse, all the
deftness of hand, all the patience in toil, with which he had
been endowed, and that he has turned out each several piece
of work with something of a personal stamp upon it. No
such impression do we receive from the objects here under
notice, the one exception being a very handsome form of
finger ring that comes into vogue in the later Anglo-Saxon
period, in which filigree work and the use of niello are much
in evidence. These rings will form the subject of discussion
in a subsequent volume, but attention may be called to one
specimen already noticed as an example of technique. It is
figured PI. Liii, 5 (p. 305).
Bracelets formed of strung beads have been referred to
(p. 435). One or two small beads are often found threaded
on a slender silver wire forming a ring about i in. across, and
these are sometimes intended for ear pendants. A triplet of
examples from Alfriston, Sussex, is shown the natural size
PI. cviii, I, though these, with others, seem to have been fixed
on the front of a dress. It will be noticed that the silver wire
is neatly joined so that the ring could be enlarged or con-
tracted at will. The device is Roman, and rings of the kind
imitated from the classical models abound in Kent and are of
sizes suitable for the finger, the ear, or the wrist. Simple as
they are they may have been worn as ornaments even without
the appended bead or beads. An example of a size suitable
for an armilla is shown PI. cviii, 1 1 from Faversham, Kent,
3f in. in internal diameter ; and others of the size for a finger
ring, PI. CVIII, 2, from Kingston, of silver, and PI. cviii, 3, of
456 PERSONAL ORNAMENTS
gold, at Devizes, found with Anglo-Saxon objects on Salisbury
Race Course. All the above are shown of the natural size.
A complete circlet suitable for the arm, but more carefully
wrought and ornamented with two pairs of animals' heads
confronted, passed from the Faversham cemetery to the British
Museum and is shown PI. cviii, I2. A somewhat similar one
from Kingston with three pairs of confronted heads is figured
in Inventorium Sepulchrale, plate xvi, lo. These last two
pieces may be compared with the annular brooches shown
PL LI, 8, lo, II (p. 287).
Another form of metal circlet that might embrace the
wrist or the finger is made by hammering out a strip of silver
to a flat band that may go round in a single turn or in several
revolutions in a spiral. Punched ornament may be added.
PI. CVIII, 6, shows a bracelet of the kind from Warren Hill,
Suffolk, in Mr. S. G. Fenton's collection, London, and
PL CVIII, 13, another in the collection formerly at Trinity
College, Cambridge, where the metal has been deeply fluted in
order to give it lateral stifi^ness. A silver ring in the same
technique is shown PL cviii, 8, from King's Field, Faversham,
and one of gold, PL cviii, 4. This was discovered at Market
Overton, Rutland, and has some ornament on it in repousse.
It is somewhat enlarged in the reproduction. It must be
noted here in passing that in the Danish period handsome
arm rings of a massive kind in silver and others of twisted gold
came into vogue, and some found in England will be noticed
in a subsequent volume.
That the Anglo-Saxons of the pagan period took no great
interest in this form of adornment may be argued from the
fact that several forms of the bracelet found in English graves
are reminiscent of an earlier epoch. One is the bronze pen-
annular armlet with enlarged ends, resembling a form of the
penannular brooch such as that shown PL l, 2 (p. 285), but
without its pin. This form of brooch is rather British than
Anglo-Saxon. The Bifrons cemetery furnished an object of
CIX
facing p. 457
H
w
<
BRACELETS IN BANGLE FORM 457
this kind shown PL cix, 2, that was found in grave 6 with a
set of early objects, including the spoon PI. xciv, 2, and the
plain square headed brooches, PL xxxiv, 10, 11 (p. 245), that
betoken a date about the year 500. The object is described
as a bronze bracelet and was found just above the left wrist of
a female skeleton, but Mr. Reginald Smith prefers to see in it
a penannular brooch that has lost its pin. There are however
penannular bronze bracelets found elsewhere that may be
compared with it, as for example one published by M. Pilloy
from Fontaine Uterte, Aisne ^ ; and two from Reichenhall.^
A close examination of the Bifrons piece has failed to disclose
the slightest trace of the former presence of a hinged pin, so
that it may be taken in this place, under reservation, as a
bracelet. The internal diameter of the ring is 2f in.
Another form of bronze bracelet is a survival, or at any
rate an inheritance, from Roman times and is of the kind
called a ' bangle,' consisting in a slender ring of metal some-
times without opening and at other times closing through its
own elasticity or by means of a hook. M. Pilloy publishes a
collection of them found in the IV cemetery at Vermand near
St. Quentin,^ and the resemblance of some of them to similar
examples in our own country is very marked. They are
ornamented in various ways. The metal is sometimes twisted
cable-fashion, or when it is in a flat strip linear patterns are cut
or filed on the outer face. PI. cix, i , shows a small collection
found in 1883 on the ground of the Priory, Dover, and now
in the Dover Museum. They were not, so far as is known,
accompanied by any Anglo-Saxon objects and are probably
Roman. There are many Roman ones in the Hospitium at
York.
The most interesting find of these objects was made in the
Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Saffron Walden, Essex, (p. 156) and
^ Etudes, I, 23, and plate.
2 Das Gr'dherfeld von Reichenhall^ Taf. xvii.
^ Etudes, II, 262 f. and 'Vermand,' pi. i8.
458
PERSONAL ORNAMENTS
«J H Iflii"^^
»a 111 l>t»i»-wg1
s ssisi [Mnrn
Fig. 17.
Pll. XIV, XVI. By the lower part of a skeleton ^ were lying
22 of these bronze rings, the position of which seemed to
show that they had not been worn as armlets but had been
hung as a sort of chain from the waist. If they be really Roman
they may have been carried as
trophies or objects of curiosity
and their appearance in the grave
would seem to show that the
interment was an early one.
PI. cix, 3, gives a general view
of the objects which are not
easy to photograph, while in
Fig. 17 some of the ornamental
patterns upon them are figured,
together with one or two from
the Vermand specimens for pur-
poses of comparison. The dia-
meter of the rings varies from
about i^ in. to 2^ in., and this makes it unlikely that they
were worn on the person, and impossible that they encircled
the ankles after an oriental fashion.
A third kind of armlet found, though very rarely, in Anglo-
Saxon graves is also a relic from the earlier epoch. This is
the armlet of glass a specimen of which was found at Mailing
Hill, Sussex, and is in the British Museum, PI. clvi, 8 (p. 623).
Such bracelets, and with them rings of glass for the finger and
the ear, were worn by the ancient Egyptians, are common in
some parts of Europe in the Hallstatt and La Tene periods,
and were familiar to the Romans.^ Lignite and jet were used
for the purpose of the fabrication of similar armlets from the
Age of Bronze downwards, while the use of ivory was less
1 Not the same skeleton as the one that wore the late necklet of Viking
date noticed previously (p. 171). The Victoria History, Essex, I, 331, needs
correction here.
2 Kisa, Diis G/as im Altertumc, 138 f.
-Ornaments on Bronze
Bracelets.
\\
EAR JEWELS 459
common.^ Ivory rings are not so rare, as we have seen, in
Anglo-Saxon graves, and while it has been shown (p. 400)
how they may have been connected with the circular girdle
hanger, it is always possible that some may have been worn
on the person.
Anglo-Saxon finger rings of the pagan period are mis-
cellaneous in their character and of no special interest. The
abundance of this class of object among the Romans made it in-
evitable that a certain number of Roman finger rings should pass
into the hands of the Teutonic invaders of the Empire, and some
of these are figured on plate xi of the Inventorium Sepulchrale.
Among a small set in the British Museum from Faversham,
shown PI. cviii, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, No. 7 is apparently one of this
kind. Of the others 8, 9, 10 are plain hoops of bronze or
silver wire or strip, 5 a hoop of wire with the bezel formed
by a twist of the wire. PI. cviii, 14, is a curious ring of
bone reproduced about the natural size, with linear ornament
cut upon it in the form of St. Andrew's Crosses. It is in the
Free Library at Gravesend, and was found in the locality. It
appears too large for the finger but may have been a thumb
ring. PI. cix, 4, shows a plain ring formed of a strip of silver
still encircling one of the phalanges of a finger. It was in the
Trinity College Library Collection, Cambridge. The subject
of Anglo-Saxon rings is passed over comparatively lightly in
this place because an opportunity will present itself later on
for dealing with the whole matter in connection with the fine
rings of the later Anglo-Saxon period.
It has been already noted that the Anglo-Saxon ladies
were not fastidious in the matter of ear jewels, and the simple
ear rings of a couple of strung beads so often found seem as
a rule to have contented them. No examples seem to be
known from our cemeteries of any one of the three kinds of
jewelled ear rings favoured among the Franks and Germanic
^ Dechelette, Manuel d'Jrcheologie, Paris, 19 12, etc., 11, 2, Premier Age
du Fer, pp. 837, 875.
46o VESSELS
peoples further to the east. The Franks were specially fond
of hoops of gold carryhig ornaments in the form of a cube or
polyhedron of gold with its sides set with gems or pastes.
These form one class of the more precious ear jewels that are
fairly common on the Continent. The other kind is the so-
called ' basket ' ear pendant, in which the place of the cube is
taken by a delicately wrought golden cage of open work in
gold closed sometimes at the top with a jewelled lid. It has
been suggested that within the tiny basket there was placed
a little bit of chiffon soaked in some fragrant perfume. In
Hungary costly ear jewels of another pattern, made up of
golden balls put together to the shape of a pyramid, were in
favour. It is another proof of Anglo-Saxon independence in
matters of the kind that none of these showy objects ever
came into fashion on this side of the Channel, and the simple
ring of silver with a bead or two strung upon it seems to
have satisfied the modest desires of the English ladies.
VESSELS— BUCKETS, ETC.
The last heading under which are grouped these notices of
Anglo-Saxon tomb furniture is that of vessels. Vessels are
found in the graves in various positions sometimes singly and
at other times in some numbers, and occasionally one inside
another. There are two exceptional cases in which a whole
collection of vessels of different kinds and in various materials
were found placed together in a shallow metal pan. The
places are Taplow, Bucks, and Broomfield, Essex. On the
former site there were certainly between a dozen and twenty
vessels of different kinds, which might be held to imply habits
of potation in the distinguished occupant of the richly furnished
grave. The materials of these Anglo-Saxon vessels are horn,
leather, wood, iron, lead or pewter, bronze, glass, and clay ;
and, save in the case of one class of them only, the forms are
those of vessels which would be used for the ordinary purposes
DRINKING HORN AND PAIL
I, the original is i8 in. lonj; ; 2, is 10 in. high
2 is Late-Celtic
DRINKING HORNS 461
of life. The exceptional class is that of the sepulchral urn
of clay which is often found actually containing the ashes of
the deceased person in whose grave it is placed, and may be
considered as fabricated especially for this funereal purpose.
This last class of vessels is archaeologically of greater import-
ance than all the rest put together, for as will be seen it bears
on anthropological studies through its association with the rite
of cremation, and on historical through the connection it estab-
lishes_ between our Anglo-Saxon forefathers and the move-
ments of European peoples in the migration period in the
nearer parts of the Continent. For this reason the clay vases
will be treated not in the present connection but in a separate
section, where they will receive the same special attention
which is given to another important item of tomb furniture,
the objects in inlaid gold work.
An exceptional vessel of iron may be taken first. PI. ex, 2,
is an iron bowl, on a stand that makes the total height 10 in.,
found in the Broomfield interment noticed above. It corre-
sponds in a measure with the large bronze bowl also on a
stand found in the Taplow Barrow and figured PL cxv, i,
and in view of its material it is an object of curious interest.
With it on PI. ex are shown two other objects in the same
material, iron. No. i is a spade-iron of uncertain provenance
that may possibly be Anglo-Saxon. It is 15I- in. long, and
is in the Museum at Cambridge. No. 3 is an iron cruci-
form fibula plated with silver, noticed on a previous page
(p. 175). Such an object in this material is of the greatest
possible rarity.
The drinking horn makes its appearance in two very
notable burials, those in the Taplow Barrow of a date about
600 A.D., and at Broomfield in Essex. The Taplow horn is
very handsomely mounted in gilded silver round the rim and
at the tip, and some of the ornamental motives in the cast and
chased enrichment have already furnished matter for comment
(p. 319 f.). It is 18 in. long, and is figured on a reduced scale
462 VESSELS
PL CXI, I. No such artistic mounts were in evidence at
Broomfield, but it is worth notice that the ornamented rim of
bronze embossed with Early Christian figure subjects, figured
PI. X, I (p. 115), shows by its size and shape that it once
formed the mount of a drinking horn like that from Taplow.
Remains of a leathern drinking cup with silver mounts
were found by Thomas Bateman in the barrow at Benty
Grange, Derbyshire, which contained the curious helmet
figured PI. XXI, i (p. 195). A cross occurred in the ornamen-
tation, and the object is illustrated on p. 29 of Ten Tears
Diggings. The discovery of a pewter chalice in a grave at
Reading has been already signalized PI. xi, 3 (p. 117), and a
similar find is recorded from Canterbury.
Metal mountings of a somewhat similar kind to those
used on the horns were applied round the upper rims of
wooden drinking cups, and have come to light sometimes in
Anglo-Saxon graves. One such ornamental band with devices
in repousse work in the Dover Museum was figured
PL Lxviii, I (p. 341). An example was found at Croydon
in which a small barrel-shaped cup, 3J in. high and 2\ in.
in diameter at the mouth, was mounted above and below by
enriched metal bands. The bronze plates embossed with
scriptural subjects found at Long Wittenham, Berks (p. 115 f.),
adorned a cup somewhat of the same kind.
By far the most important vessel in which wood plays a
part is the metal-mounted wooden pail or bucket which
frequently betrays its presence in the cemeteries of most of
the Saxon and Anglian districts. As a rule very little more
than the metal mounts is preserved, but these are sufficient to
indicate the form and dimensions of the object and to make
possible a partial restoration. The shape of the vessel was
generally that of a cylinder with upright sides but some were
a little wider in diameter below than above. This was the
case with one of the largest of those that have been found
in Anglo-Saxon graves, a pail represented only by its hoops
CXII
facing p. 463
WOODEN BUCKET AND ROUND PLAQUES
T, 2, 3, are natural size
BUCKETS OR PAILS 463
discovered at Bourne Park, Kent,^ that must have been 1 ft. in
diameter below and 10 in. at the top, the height being about
12 in. Two buckets at Broomfield, Essex, were 12 in. in
diameter. The skeleton of a still larger one is in the British
Museum from Sleaford, Lincolnshire, measuring 16 in. in
diameter by i ft. in height, and there was a bucket 20 in.
in diameter holding 4 or 5 gallons found at Glen Parva,
Leicestershire. The sizes vary from these dimensions down
to about 4 in. or even less in diameter and height. The
wooden staves, of oak or yew or pine, were bound together
by hoops that are sometimes of iron but more often of bronze,
and the uppermost band forming the rim is frequently orna-
mented by designs in repousse or punched work. Upright
pieces riveted to the successive hoops keep the whole together.
There is generally an arched handle hinged to two pieces
attached to the rim on opposite sides of the vessel, and these
pieces are often fashioned in quaint forms with zoomorphic
enrichment. The more elaborate specimens are ornamented
with triangular pieces generally attached with their points
downwards at the base of the uppermost hoop or ring, in the
same fashion as appears in the Taplow horn, PL cxi, i.^
The srnall bronze-mounted bucket in the Rochester
Museum, found in the locality, PI. cxii, is one of the most
perfect as well as one of the most interesting known, and has
preserved its woodwork almost intact. It is ^^ in. high and
is figured the natural size. It will be observed that the side
pieces riveted on the upper part to give attachment to the
hinged handle branch out and end in animals' heads. The
triangular pieces mentioned above appear to right and left in the
photograph. A unique feature is the addition of a row of round
discs down the side, attached to the vessel by means of an open-
ing near the rim of each but otherwise loose. They all have also
1 Wright, T6e Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon, Lond., 1875, p. 499.
2 In the Roundway Down bucket at Devizes, the triangles seem to have
been placed pointing alternately up and down on the central band.
464 VESSELS
a central aperture. Discs of this kind slightly convex, stamped
with simple patterns and in one case more elaborately adorned,
have come to light several times in interments and have been
regarded as enigmatical. PL cxii, 2, shows one found at
Leagrave, Beds, and Nos. 3, 4, give a couple from Chessell
Down at Carisbrooke Castle, Isle of Wight. One of these,
No. 4, is of silvered or tinned bronze and has round it
stamped ornament of a classical type. Across the opening
near the rim is a sort of bar that ends on each side in an
ornament the motive of which is obscure. The central aper-
ture is here filled up with a stud. The Rochester bucket
shows at any rate one way in which these discs might be used.
The rim apertures there are heart shaped, in the other
examples triangular, while the central hole is always circular.
On PI. cxiii are shown two more buckets, one, No. i,
from North Luffenham, Rutland, at Normanton Park, about
4 in. high, with the woodwork well preserved, and the other,
No. 2, a recent find from Soberton, near Droxford, Hants, in
the Museum at Winchester. The repousse ornament on the
upper band and side piece is of early type. A very remark-
able enrichment of a side piece in the Museum at Leicester,
PI. CXIII, 3, has the form of an ox's head and for this there is
a remarkable parallel in the forepart of the same creature used
as a TrpoKpocrcro^, or projecting ornament, on an early bronze
cauldron from Denmark in the Copenhagen Museum, shown
PI. Lx, 4 (p. 319). The side piece and handle hinge of a
bucket from Souldern, Oxon, in Mr. S. G. Fenton's collec-
tion, No. 4, has on it a rudely formed human head, for which
the Danish piece also furnishes a prototype, though a nearer
one will be found on the Aylesford bucket figured PL cxi, 2,
and presently to be described (p. 466). The enrichments
PL CXIII, 5, 6, are from a bucket found at Bidford, War-
wickshire, in the Museum at Worcester. The work here is
repousse and the ornamentation In dots Is like that on the
Winchester example but the motives are of a floral character.
BUCKETS AND BUCKET MOUNTS
CXIII
facing p. 464
I, i natural size ; 6, natural size
BUCKETS OR PAILS 465
The animal form into which the larger applique has been cut
is very noteworthy and has already been the subject of com-
ment and illustration (p. 106). The smaller piece is one of
the pendant triangles already referred to.
The archaeology of these buckets or pails has often been
discussed. They are probably as widely distributed over the
Teutonic area of Britain as any other item of tomb furniture,
except arms, knives, vessels of clay, beads and perhaps some
of the more common kinds of brooches such as the plain disc
ones of bronze. The fact that the presence of buckets has
been attested in Kent, Sussex, Hants, Dorset, and Wilts ; in
Surrey, Bucks, Berks, Oxon, Warwick, and Gloucestershire ; in
Essex, Beds, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Rutland, Leicestershire,
Northants, Lincolnshire, is proof of this, and Mr. Reginald
Smith notes that they ' are most frequent in the central parts
of the country, from Fairford to Peterborough and from
Warwick to Devizes.' ^ It must furthermore be noted that
the object is frequently met with in continental cemeteries.
Baron de Baye gives useful statistics here,^ and enumerates
many Prankish examples together with specimens from
Burgundian, Alamannic, and Hungarian sources.
The truth is that the object is a survival from the Celtic
period when it was much in vogue. The wooden pail bound
with bronze is itself a descendant from remoter times, and its
genealogy has been traced back by Sir Arthur Evans ^ to
Phoenician and Assyrian prototypes through the bronze
situlae of North Italy, finely represented in the Museums
at Bologna and at Vienna. Two examples of the Celtic
bucket found in England are so m.uch more ornate than
anything of the kind found in an Anglo-Saxon grave that
it is an obvious inference that our Teutonic pails are de-
generate descendants of the older ones. They are also as
^ Victoria History, Warwick, i, 261.
^ Tke Industrial Arts of the Anglo-Saxons, London, 1S93, p. loi f.
^ Archaeologia, Lii, p. 47.
466 VESSELS
a rule very much smaller, running generally from about 7 in.
to 4 in. in height. The famous Marlborough bucket in the
Museum at Devizes, Wilts, measures 2 ft. in diameter by
21 in. in height, and the bands of bronze that encircle it are
elaborately embossed with human and grotesque animal
designs. It has three times the capacity of any known Anglo-
Saxon specimens. The bucket discovered in the Late-Celtic
urn-field at Aylesford near Maidstone in Kent is about 10 in.
high and rather more in diameter. It is now in the British
Museum and is figured PL cxi, 2. The enrichment round
the uppermost band is in the characteristic Late-Celtic style.
These are clearly the prototypes of the much smaller buckets
with which we are here concerned, and the fact that these
occur in early cemeteries is quite in accordance with this view.
With the Anglo-Saxons the use of the buckets goes on into
VII for specimens were found in the Taplow Barrow dating
about 600 A.D.
In accordance with what was said (p. 497) on the subject
of tomb furniture in general no attempt will be made here to
speculate on the use of these objects or the purpose for which
they were placed in the graves. They are often supposed to
have held the heroic beverage called mead, but is it really
imagined that a vessel compacted of wooden staves bound
together by bands of thin bronze plate is likely to have held
liquids without a parlous danger of leakage ^ Where iron
bands were used these might conceivably have been ' shrunk
on ' so as firmly to constrict the vessel, after the fashion of
the cooper's shop, but bronze does not lend itself to the same
ingenious device.
VESSELS— BRONZE BOWLS
Vessels of bronze form a very important sub-class under
the present heading. They exhibit considerable variety in
shape and present some remarkable motives of enrichment,
\ I .'
<'//• '-X
o
m
Q
z
<
Oh
X
N
Z
o
a
V
5
^
^
BRONZE BOWLS 467
and from both points of view they suggest archaeological
questions of some interest and difficulty. Here again we are
dealing with a class of objects abundantly represented in the
preceding Roman and Celtic periods, but whereas the buckets
found in Anglo-Saxon graves are clearly of native manufac-
ture, in the case of certain varieties of the bronze vessels there
is considerable doubt as to whether or not they are imported
products.
It will conduce to clearness if the different kinds of bronze
vessels be described and illustrated at the outset, archaeological
problems involving questions of date and provenance being
left for after discussion.
A beginning may be made with an exceptional vessel
which has the general form of the pail just passed in review
but is made entirely in bronze. It is figured PL cxiv, 3, from
Akerman's Pagan Saxondom^ pi. xiii, and it was dug up at
Cuddesdon in Oxfordshire. It is 9 in. high and is made of
comparatively thin sheet bronze bound with massive bronze
hoops and is furnished with a solid handle. Akerman thought
it early and the objects found with it ^ bear out this suppo-
sition. He noticed that the bottom of it is shaped as if to
be fitted on a stand or trivet. It had been carefully mended
by a patch just under the rim. A somewhat similar pail
is the vessel in which was found a large hoard of the early
Northumbrian coins called ' stycas ' in the churchyard of
Hexham, Northumberland, and as these coins descend to the
middle of IX the vessel containing them is presumably of
about the same advanced date. This form of bronze pail
may therefore have remained long in use. The Hexham pail
is of a different form from the other, and increases in diameter
as it descends. It will be illustrated in a succeeding volume.
As bearing on the question of foreign or native provenance,
^ Two sword blades, a fragment of garnet inlay, and a couple of very
good vases of glass, suggesting a date late in VI. See Relics of Pagan
Saxondom, pp. 11, 28.
468 VESSELS
there may now be noticed two vessels found in this country to
which such close parallels have been adduced from the Rhine-
land as to make it practically certain that our specimens came
from over the sea. PL cxiv, 1-2, 4-5, show the two objects
with their foreign doubles. No. i, familiarly known as the
* teapot,' was found at Wheathampstead, Herts, in a burial that
Sir Hercules Read dated between 590 and 620 a.d.^ It is J^in.
high and is of cast bronze. Its counterpart, No. 2, measuring
about 6 in. in outside diameter and 7 in height, comes from
Wonsheim in Rhenish Hesse. The cast bronze bowl. No. 4,
is one of a small class represented on Kentish sites and came
to light at Faversham in Kent ; it is of exceptional interest in
that it still contains a number of hazel nuts that were found in it.
This discovery has of course a direct bearing on the theory that
vessels were placed in the graves for the purpose of supplying
food for the ghost of the deceased." This matter is discussed
elsewhere (p. 497). The fellow piece. No. 5, is from Walluf
near Mainz. Save that the English bowl has a diameter at
the rim of 10 in. and the German one of 8 in., the two are
almost exactly alike and both have the drop handles and the
open-work vandyke ornament round the rim that serves as the
foot. Both seem to have been cast complete in one piece with
rings and feet, the handles being afterwards inserted. The
Walluf bowl may be a little superior in the finish but the
Kentish example is certainly not a mere imitation. Both
pieces must have issued from the same centre of fabrication,
and the date, to judge from the finds associated with the
Kentish bowls, may be about the same as that just suggested
for the Wheathampstead bronze.
That this centre was somewhere in the Rhineland might
be inferred from the large number of bronze bowls of various
^ Proc. Soc. Ant., xviii, 1 1 1 .
2 Hazel nuts were found in a bronze bowl in one of the graves at Selzen
in Rhenish Hesse (Lindenschmit, Selxen, p. 15), and a bronze bowl filled
with hazel nuts was discovered at Worms on the Rhine.
cxv
facing p. 469
BRONZE BOWLS 469
sizes and shapes found in Teutonic graves in that region and
specially well represented in the Paulus Museum at Worms.
The whole subject has recently been reviewed in the article
' Bronzegefasze ' in the Real Lexicon der Germanischen Altertums-
kunde from the pen of Dr. Hubert Schmidt, who summarizes
recent works such as those by H, Willers, Die romische Bronze-
eimer von Hemmoor, Hannover, 1901, and Neue Untersuchungen
uber die romische Bronzeindustrie^ Hannover, 1907. Herr
Willers demonstrated that after a long period in the first
millennium B.C., during which Celtic and to some extent Greek
workshops supplied central and northern Europe with bronze
vessels, there came about a great development in the Italian
bronze industry, and for a century before and a century after
the birth of Christ there was a very brisk export trade carried on
in the peninsula especially from Capua, as a result of which in the
northern regions of Europe Italian or Roman wares superseded
all others. At a little later date a provincial-Roman industry
was established in the Rhineland, and it was in the main the
products of this that supplied the central European markets
during the first three centuries of the Christian era. A pro-
vincial-Roman industry carrying on the traditions of an earlier
Italian one underlies in this way all the production of bronze
vessels in the migration period, and though the forms charac-
teristic of this period are new ones the Roman tradition is
always at the back of the work. Hence it is not surprising
that archaeologists have often hesitated as to the provenance
of bronze vessels found in Anglo-Saxon cemeteries, and some
would argue for a Roman and others for a Teutonic origin for
cauldron or pan or bowl.
The Germanic craftsman was so much at home in metal
work that there is no reason to doubt his capacity to cast or
beat out the various specimens that come to light in the graves
of his people, but a vessel found in an Anglo-Saxon tomb may
be of Teutonic make and yet imported, like the Kentish bowl
just noticed, from the Rhineland or Gaul. As a rule however
IV F
470 VESSELS
the Anglo-Saxon tomb furniture, in this form as well as in
others, is of native fabrication, and we have a distinct proof
that bronze vessels were freely made on this side of the Channel.
There is a class, and not a small one, of bronze bowls that are
treated in a special fashion and enriched with special orna-
mental motives that are practically unknown on the Continent.
If these particular vessels were made in this country why need
we look abroad for the origin of objects of the class in
general ? The somewhat similar case of the vessels of glass
will presently have to be considered. These vessels are gener-
ally held to be importations, and for this view there is much
positive evidence. This evidence would be materially shaken
were it possible to point to any specimens of the objects that
were certainly or very probably of native British manufacture.
Such specimens have not yet been identified, and we must as
a consequence in the meantime begrudge to the glass vases
the letters of naturalization that may fairly be accorded to the
bronzes, some of which are certainly of our own fabrication.
One cast bronze bowl with open work foot and two drop
handles has already been noticed in the Kentish example
PL cxiv, 4, but by far the finest specimen of the kind was
recovered from a riparian site in Buckinghamshire. The
reference is to the famous Taplow Barrow, one of the most
imposing objects in which was the tall and massive cast bronze
bowl mounted on a stem shown PL cxv, i. Its dimensions
are in height 12 in., in diameter 16^ in. The rings for the
handles are cast in one piece with it and the foot is decorated
with the same kind of vandyked open work as the bowls
already figured, PL cxiv, 4, 5. The rim is scalloped out
twelve times and between each pair of hollows there is a pro-
jecting knob. It is no doubt a product of the same centre of
fabrication as the pieces on PL cxiv, and must be regarded as
an importation. These cast bowls are uniformly solid and
workmanlike in their make, and Charles Roach Smith ^ and
1 Co//. Jut., VI, 144.
CXVI
fac
ing p. 471
BRONZE BOWLS 471
Akerman -^ were no doubt right in seeing in them a good deal
that is Roman.
From these must be distinguished the beaten bowls of
thinner metal and slighter make. Some of these have two
drop handles and possess no foot but are rounded below.
Some Kentish examples are figured on plate xvi of the In-
ventorium Sepulchrale. They have sometimes the shape and
dimensions of pans rather than of bowls, and of the former
kind were the shallow open receptacles in the Broomfield and
Taplow graves that held the collections of other vessels. The
Broomfield piece was about 1 3 in. across and had iron handles.
Under a tumulus at Bourne Park, Kent, there was a beaten
bowl ' of very thin copper ' with iron handles about i ft. across
by 2 J- in. in depth. ^ This was 'strongly gilt,' and traces of
gilding have been reported on others of the vessels now under
discussion.
A vessel of a somewhat exceptional kind, very instructive
from the point of view of technique, is figured PI. cxvi, 2.
It was found on Rodmead Hill, Wilts, in conjunction with
objects of unmistakably Anglo-Saxon character, and is in the
Museum at Devizes. The internal diameter is ']\ in., the
depth 2^, the handle would be 5^- in. long if straightened out,
but by accident or design the end has been bent up. The
whole piece bears a superficial resemblance to the familiar
Roman ' casserole ' that was imported in such numbers into
central and northern Europe, but is far shallower than the
ordinary run of these and is rounded below, while the end of
the handle is without the usual hole for suspension. The
form and details are rather Late-Celtic than Roman,^ and
a near parallel is the bronze patella found at Aylesford, Kent,
and discussed by Sir Arthur Evans in the paper noted below.
^ Pagan Saxondom, p. 23.
^ Wright, The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon, Lond., 1875, p. 468.
^ Willers, 'Neue Untersuchungen, p. 19 f. Sir Arthur Evans in Archaeologia,
vol. Lii, on 'A Late-Celtic Urn-Field at Aylesford, Kent.'
472 VESSELS
There is a remarkable diiFerence however in that the Devizes
pan has the deep hollow under the rim which is the character-
istic feature of the Anglo-Saxon beaten bronze bowls mounted
for suspension, of which examples will presently be discussed,
see for instance PI. cxviii. At Desborough in Northampton-
shire a somewhat similar bronze bowl came to light and is now
in the British Museum, It differs from the Devizes specimen
in that it lacks the characteristic hollow under the rim.
On the same Plate, cxvi, 1,3, are two thin beaten bowls
without handles but with the turned out edges ornamented
with a close row of bosses beaten up from the back, after
a fashion represented in Rhineland work pursued on pro-
vincial-Roman models in V and VI a.d. Lindenschmit in his
Handhuchy p. 479, refers to a Rhenish example with a Latin
inscription on it and notes the wide diffusion of the type
among Frankish and Alamannic cemeteries. It can however
be traced back much earlier, and M. Dechelette^ figures some
from the Hallstatt period almost exactly like the Anglo-Saxon
examples on PI. cxvi. No. 3 on this Plate is from Stowting,
Kent, and measures lOi^- in. across by 4 in. in height. The
other, No. i, is from Alfriston, Sussex, and both pieces may
date in the middle or latter part of VI.
Another form of bronze vessel met with from time to
time in Anglo-Saxon graves is shown PI. cxvii, 3. This is
a beaten vessel, from Croydon, in the Grange Wood Museum,
8 in. in diameter, exhibiting the process of fabrication in the
varying thicknesses of the metal, which is ^-^ in. at the rim,
but only about ^ in. in the body of the bowl where super-
ficial extension rather than stiffness was needful. The turned
up portions of the rim are pierced with holes to receive the
ends of an arched handle like that of the buckets. The
cemetery is an early one and the piece is probably of VI.
Other examples of the kind have been found in this country,
as at Long Wittenham, Berks, and the type also occurs abroad.
1 Manuel d'' Arch'eologic^ 11, 2, Premier Age du Fer, p. 778.
CXVII
lacing p. 473
tn
BRONZE BOWLS FOR SUSPENSION 473
The last of the classes into which the bronze bowls have
been divided is from the standpoints of both archaeology and
art by far the most important. The bowls in this class differ
from all the others in that they are arranged for suspension
and are without the ordinary handles that can be grasped.
This peculiarity at once removes them out of the category of
household objects of use and suggests that they served some
ceremonial purpose. The use in churches of certain hanging
lamps, supported on platters named ' Gabata,' was brought
forward by Sir Augustus Franks^ as furnishing a possible
explanation of these enigmatical objects, but if the bowls
had ecclesiastical connections it is hard to see why they
should appear among ordinary items of tomb furniture in
private graves. Objects that were part of the fittings of a
church would naturally remain in use from generation to
generation as the property of the community, and not be
consigned to private sepulchres.
Among the examples of this hanging type of bowl found
in our cemeteries there are marked differences, some of
which have a chronological significance. A bowl in the
national collection found at Ewelme, Oxfordshire, PI. cxvii, 5,
presents some very early features. It is put together of dif-
ferent pieces, not wrought in one, and the joins of these are
marked with projecting roundels, so that we are reminded
of pieced Bronze Age bowls, and of the cordoned bronze
vessels of the Hallstatt epoch. The form of the neck also
is reminiscent of earlier models, the upright collar above a
rounded body occurring in Bronze Age vessels both of clay
and metal. Round the neck are three discs riveted on at
equal distances and these have projecting ears pierced with
holes by which the bowl could be suspended. It is very
small, only 4.^ in. in diameter. The bowl from Hawnby,
Yorkshire, PI. cxvii, 6, 8| in. in diameter, also in the British
Museum, brings us to the normal form of this particular
^ Proc, Soc. Ant., 2 Ser., iii, 45.
474 VESSELS
class of vessel. It is a beaten bowl rounded below and
with a marked circular depression in the lowest part that
would enable it to stand firm if set down, but when it was
suspended and looked at from below would offer a suitable
field for ornamental treatment. Above, the rim is formed
in characteristic fashion. The top of the bowl is drawn in
in a deep hollow and the edge is beaten out over this. Below
the hollow is fixed a plate of an elegant shape that ends above
in a hook turned inwards to meet and lap over the edge of
the rim. Within this hook there plays a ring, moving freely
owing to the space provided by the hollow, and to this would
be attached chains for suspension. The arrangement is clearly
seen in the different examples of these bowls on Pll. cxv to
cxx. In an example at York, PI. cxv, 2, the plate and the
hook have been turned into a bird with its bill, and this is
strikingly reminiscent of the device of a swan which often
occurs at the end of the handles of Roman pans or casseroles.
The finest bowl of this particular kind is the famous
example at Wilton House near SaHsbury, PL cxviii. This
is of the form already described and has four attachments
the plates of which, commonly called ' scutcheons,' are orna-
mented with pierced designs while the hooks are fashioned
like animals' heads. The body of the vessel is of thin beaten
metal of a yellow hue and has a diameter of 1 1 in. and a
height of 4^ in. The plates are fastened on with rivets. At
the bottom there is the usual circular depression, but without
any enrichment.
Regarded as a whole this object gives a very favourable
impression of the aesthetic feeling and the craftsmanship of
our Anglo-Saxon forefathers. It is simple, dignified, well pro-
portioned, and executed in an unpretentious but thoroughly
workmanlike fashion ; the ornamental parts which remain,
the four plates and hooks, being treated with nice restraint
but with decision, while the ring is finished at the side with
a groove. It will be understood that we are dealing here with
CXVIII
facing p. 474
A'
\V.U/>.,
CXIX
facing p. 475
SCUTCHEONS WITH LATE-CELTIC ORNAMENT
I, 2, 4, natural size; 3, somewhat reduced ; 6, is 3I in. high
//. is Continental ; 9, Irish
CELTIC ORNAMENT ON BRONZE BOWLS 475
a product as distinctively Anglo-Saxon as the saucer and button
fibula or the cocked-hat pommel with the side ring. Stray
examples of insular products of the kind may make their
appearance in continental cemeteries but this does not alter
the national character of the types, which Lindenschmit, in
writing of the Lullingstone bowl, PL cxx, fully recognizes.^
All the merit in design and execution that can be ascribed to
a work like the Wilton bowl must be set down to the credit
of the Anglo-Saxon craftsman. If there were at times an
import of Rhineland vessels, and if in their own productions
our metal workers conformed at first to traditional patterns,
they yet exercised their own freedom in the evolution of new
types and controlled the form and details of the resultant
products in masterful fashion.
Into an Anglo-Saxon bronze industry of this flourishing
and prolific order there suddenly explodes an intrusive Celtic
influence, the source and connections of which are alike obscure.
Hanging bowls in considerable numbers have been signalized
in Anglo-Saxon graves with the peculiarity that the ' scutcheons'
are adorned with ornamental motives of a most pronounced
Celtic kind, unlike anything in genuine Teutonic work, while
these motives are carried out in enamel, a technical process
that is only to the very slightest extent Germanic. The
enamel is of the champleve sort, a familiar feature in Late-
Celtic and Romano-British productions, and the motives are
Late-Celtic flamboyant spirals, joined with close-coiled spirals,
continuous spiral scrolls, and other linear ornaments of Celtic
type. In many cases all that survive are the scutcheons and
hooks, or the scutcheons alone from which the hooks have
been broken ofi^, for these are solidly cast, whereas the bowls
were of thin beaten bronze and have decayed away. Pll. cxvii,
cxix, exhibit some specimens of these mountings from difi^erent
parts of the country, and it will be seen that in some cases the
plate and the hook are in one piece, as in the example figured
^ Handbuch, p, 479.
476 VESSELS
in its natural colours PI. E, in (p. 519), from the old Tilt- Yard,
Greenwich, in the Museum at Canterbury, while in others,
PL cxvii, 2, the plate is separate and is enclosed in a circular
rim to which the hook is attached. When the hook is absent
and there is no sign of it having been broken off, the round
plate may have been used to decorate the central depression at
the bottom of the bowl. This is probably the case with the
plaque in the Aylesbury Museum, PI. cxix, 2, that was found
at Oving, near Whitchurch, Bucks, PI. cxix, i , is a fine example
of the enamelled plate with the hook attached to it, 2^- in. in
diameter, from Middleton Moor, Derbyshire, in the Museum
at Sheffield. The coloured vitreous pastes are here particularly
well preserved. The two circular plaques below these on
PL CXIX are introduced for purposes of comparison. No. 3 is
an enamelled disc found in Ireland and now in the Museum
of the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin. It is certainly not a
bowl scutcheon, for it is furnished at the back with two pro-
jecting tongues, perforated, by which it was attached to some
ground. There are also two small holes in the rim. The
other, No. 4, 2 in. in diameter, with some traces of coloured
enamel, is in the Museum at Brussels. It was found at Lede
in Belgium. There is one hole in it near the rim for a rivet
or for purposes of suspension, but the back is quite plain
without any projections or signs of fastening.
To complete the illustrations of this special sub-class of
the hanging bowl with Celtic ornaments the well-known
Luljingstone bowl,^ with characteristic details, is figured on
Pll. CXIX, cxx. This remarkable object was found accidentally
in connection with works on the railway from Swanley Junction
to Maidstone at a spot not far from Lullingstone Castle, Kent,
where it has ever since been preserved, and where by the
kindness of the present owner, Sir William Hart Dyke, the
writer was permitted to photograph it. It was apparently in
a sepulchre, for inquiries among the men who found it showed
1 Troc. Soc. Ant., 2 Ser., i, 187.
cxx
facing p. 477
i-:i
THE LULLINGSTONE BOWL 477
that ' a burial place had been broken into,' and human skulls
and other human bones were found with or near it, as well as
other objects such as fragments of iron and pottery, and one
or two decorated pieces of metal. It is about 10 in. in dia-
meter and 4|- in height, of bronze beaten in such a way that
the thickness varies from about half or three quarters of a
millimetre over the body to i mill, at the hollow round the
rim and i|- mill, at the edge of the brim. Over the surface
are soldered, not riveted, various ornamental appliques in
plates of tinned bronze of a thickness of i-|- to if mill.,
certain of which found their place in the depressed central
round at the bottom of the bowl. On some of these are
distinct traces of red enamel. PI. cxx gives a view of the
whole, PI. cxix, 5, a detail of the ornament on a larger scale.
The appliques form a varied collection inventoried in the
Proc. Soc. Ant.^ referred to above. The birds confronting each
other, seen in the general view, occur four times, there are
four stags as on PI. cxx, two fish, PI. cxix, 5, while the bronze
disc found with the bowl, PI. clviii, 5 (p. 807), is archaeo-
logically of great significance. The original is only |- in. in
diameter, and it is represented enlarged on account of its
ornamentation, which consists in three fishes the bodies of
which are split so that they can be intertwined into a sort
of triquetra knot. This intertwining we have seen to be an
infallible mark of a comparatively late, at any rate a VII, date,
and this impression is borne out by the ornamentation of the
bowl itself. This is not only plastered over it in a loose
inorganic fashion, but uses interlacing work of careless design
and introduces the Christian symbol of the fish with probably
a cruciform ornament in the depression below, so that it is im-
possible to date the piece earlier than about the middle of VII.
At the same time in the round scutcheons, from which the
hooks have been broken off, we find the same freely treated
Celtic spirals as on the plaques PI. cxix, i to 4, and the same
use of champleve enamel, traces of which are freely visible on
478 VESSELS
the appliques. The bowl is only a late and rather debased
example of a style represented elsewhere by better productions.
These productions are fairly numerous, for in a com-
munication to the Society of Antiquaries in 1907-^ Mr. Reginald
Smith catalogues thirty-six finds of bowls of the type or their
scutcheons. Sixteen of the finds are shown by the associated
objects to be Anglo-Saxon, and the rest had nothing about
them contrary to such an ascription. The finds are very
widely distributed, for a bronze bowl with marks of hook
attachments is in the Museum at Newcastle and has been
figured PI. cxv, 3, while two were found in the grave at
Kingston, Kent, that furnished the ' Kingston brooch ' figured
on the Frontispiece to Vol. iii. The Midland districts are
however the most prolific, and the earliest examples of the
enamelled scutcheons, according to Mr. Romilly Allen, were
found at Barlaston in Staffordshire, in connection with a cast,
not a beaten, bronze bowl. The occurrence of these specimens
of Celtic art — we note the Derbyshire piece PI. cxix, i — in
the same district that furnished jewellery of Romano-British
character (p. 426 f.) has some significance. That the bowls are
of local fabrication, i.e. that each was made near where it was
found, may of course be questioned, but that they are not at
any rate importations from Celtic Ireland seems proved by the
fact that in Ireland they do not occur, save in one intrusive
Viking burial of a later date, at Ballyholme. The Irish plaque
PI. cxix, 3, is certRinly not the scutcheon of one of these bowls,
and Mr. George CofFey in a letter to the writer of January
19 1 2, states that he knows of no scutcheons of the kind found
in Ireland. The bowl from the Viking burial at Ballyholme
had no such scutcheon attached to it. In connection with
this it is important to note that nearly a score of bowls of
this species with the enamelled scutcheons have been found
in Norway, and are proved by accompanying objects to be
of the Viking age from about 800 a.d. onwards. These,
1 Troc. Soc. Ant., xxii, (>6 f.
GLASS VESSELS, ENGLISH AND CONTINENTAL
4, 5, about I natural size
7, 2, J, are Continental
POSSIBLE CELTIC SURVIVAL 479
like the Ballyholme example, may have been exported from
England.
Of somewhat earlier date than Mr. Reginald Smith's com-
munication is a paper in Archaeologia^ vol. lvi, by Mr. Romilly
Allen, in which he deals with the bowls, or rather their
enamelled scutcheons, from the point of view of Celtic
art. In this aspect the bowls connect themselves with the
pendants and other objects previously discussed (p. 424 f.).
The carbuncle pendants and examples of glass mosaic are how-
ever Romano-British and -Gallic, while the scutcheons, like
the Roundway Down jewel, exhibit Saxon and Celtic motives
and Celtic technique without a trace of Roman influence.
They are thus documents of capital importance as illustrating
the relations between intrusive Teutonic culture and that
of the earlier Celtic period. These relations are in our own
islands of especial interest because Celtic art continued to
flourish in the western parts of them to an extent to which
no part of the Continent offers a parallel. The influence of
this Celtic art is markedly in evidence in the case of the
manuscripts and carved stones of the Christian period, but
the influence is distinctly traceable to the fact that Christianity
itself was introduced mainly from Celtic sources. If the
Gospels of Lindisfarne are adorned in Celtic fashion we
naturally connect this with the historical facts that Lindisfarne
was colonized from Ion a, lona from Ireland. These Late-
Celtic scutcheons however with their flamboyant scrolls and
enamel (PL E, iii) have no appearance of being Irish impor-
tations, for such things are not found in Ireland, and look
much more like survivals of Celtic art industry which under
conditions that at present we do not understand maintained
themselves in parts of England through the stormy period
of Teutonic conquest. There is something here which waits
for elucidation in the future, and it is sufficient in this place to
signalize the appearance at a comparatively late date in the
period whereon we are engaged of ornamental motives and
480 VESSELS
technical methods which are not Anglo-Saxon but Celtic, but
which are at the same time apparently unconnected with
recognized centres of Celtic art such as Ireland.
VESSELS— VASES OF GLASS
The last heading in this somewhat lengthy inventory
embraces vessels of glass, for the urns of clay will receive as
was explained a separate treatment. The only archaeological
question of importance here is that of provenance. The
objects themselves though of great interest and beauty offer
for solution no problems in morphology, and few of the
typological questions and puzzles concerning motives of
ornament with which preceding chapters have made us
familiar. The glass vessels in view form a distinct group
among the productions in that material so numerous in late
Roman and in Early Christian times. In their forms and
their technique they are quite unlike the glass vessels that
were made in western Europe in III and IV a.d., during
the pre-Teutonic period, and bear unmistakably the mark
of origin in the migration epoch embracing the centuries
from V to VII. Whereas those earlier vessels were com-
monly of clear glass the ones we have to deal with are only
semi-transparent and of various subdued and rather uncertain
hues of green, brown and azure, though a clear strong dark
blue is sometimes found. The glass is often thin and delicate
and the workmanship quite expert though as a rule less
ambitious than in the earlier epoch, it being a notable dif-
ference that handles, elaborate in the tall and elegant vessels
of III and IV, are in the Germanic period practically non-
existent. One very complicated form however, more elaborate
than the earlier ones, makes its first appearance in Teutonic
times.
Within the compact group thus formed there are distinct
forms that often recur and that remain on the whole con-
\ I
CXXII
facing p. 48 1
VASES OF GLASS 481
sistent with themselves, without that running of one sub-type
into another which we observe in other groups such as the
fibulae or the buckles. They are fairly widely distributed in
England, though for reasons that will soon be apparent they
are more common in Kent and in the South generally than
further north. The question of importance about them
is where they were fabricated. As they are in their nature
fragile and require much care in transport we might assume
that they were made near where they are found, but all the
evidence available seems to show that they are of continental
origin. We have as facts, on the one hand the existence at
the time of flourishing glass factories in the Rhineland and in
parts of modern Belgium and northern France, and on the
other the familiar statement in Bede that when Benedict
Biscop had built his church at what is now Monkwearmouth,
about 675, he 'sent representatives to Gaul to bring back
with them workers in glass, a class of craftsmen up to that
time unknown in Britain, to glaze the windows of the church '
and other monastic buildings.^ These known facts raise a
presumption in favour of the view just stated, and this is
raised to practical certainty when we note that precisely the
same kinds of vessels that we find in this country appear in
corresponding numbers in various parts of the Continent.
It is absurd to suppose that such duplicates of our own pieces
were made in this island and exported in great numbers across
the Channel, for a flourishing insular glass industry could not
have existed here, say about 600 a.d., when a century later
a writer so well informed as Bede has no knowledge of its
existence. It is clear that the crossing of the Channel must
have been in the other direction, and that most at any rate of
the vessels found in our cemeteries came from abroad. This
1 ' Misit legataries Galliam, qui vitri factores, artifices videlicet
Britanniis eatenus incognitos, ad cancellandas aecclesiae porticumque et
caenaculorum ejus fenestras adducerent.' Historia Abbatum Auctore Baeday
§5.
482 VESSELS
does not of course preclude the possibility that glass was also
made in our own country where the manufacture had been
already carried on by the Romans, and some of the simpler
products which come to light here may quite well be of native
fabrication.
It will be well to illustrate at the outset this similarity
between our own and continental glass vessels, so as to justify
the view here taken. On Pll. cxxi, cxxiii, are brought to-
gether some specimens found in English cemeteries together
with similar pieces that have come to light abroad, both in
Gaul, the probable place of their fabrication, and also in the
regions of the North to which as well as to England these
Gallic products were exported. PI. cxxi, 4, is an elegant
drinking cup with a foot, 4|- in. high, found at Croydon and
now in the Grange Wood Museum, and above it, No. i, is
a very similar piece from a local Belgian cemetery in the
Museum at Brussels. A slender thread of glass wound round
the vessels forms a simple but graceful enrichment in relief.
The likeness between the pieces Nos. 5 and 3 is still more
close. The lower one is from Bifrons, 6|- in. high, of greenish
glass, funnel shaped, without a foot and with no aperture
below. This slender conical form begins to come into fashion
in V,^ and many examples of it occur in our cemeteries. Here
the ornamentation consists in festoon-like patterns in glass of
a milky hue inlaid in or rather painted on to the body of the
vase and not in relief. The piece above, at Brussels, shows
the festoon ornament rather more developed, but is otherwise
almost its counterpart. No. 2 is also at Brussels and closely
resembles a vase found in Kent that is illustrated, after a plate
in Akerman's Pagan Saxondom, PI. cxxii, 2. The Kentish
piece has a curious history. It was the last survivor of a set
of about thirty similar vessels found near Woodnesborough
above Sandwich. The fragile cups were pressed into use on
the occasion of harvest festivals at the farm on which they
^ Kisa, Das Glas im Altertume, p. 343.
CXXIII
facing p. 483
.-1
w
z
h
z
c
u
C
z
U
VASES OF GLASS 483
were discovered, and in the course of time all but this single
piece were broken. The colour of it was brownish and the
height about 5 in.
These pieces PL cxxi, 2 and PL cxxii, i, 2, 3, together
with a number of others among these illustrations of glass
vessels, belong to the class known by the familiar modern
term ' tumbler.' The tumbler of to-day stands firm, but
the vessel first called by the name was rounded below, ending
sometimes at the bottom with a little knob as PL cxxi, 2, and
could in no wise stand upright ; the idea being that it had to
be emptied at a draught and was then reversed and set down
upon its rim. Such trick-goblets are not known from antiquity
but come into use with VI a.d.,^ and are characteristic of the
period with which we are concerned. PL cxxii, i, is from
Kingston and No. 3 from Barfriston, Kent, and they are
respectively ^^ and 5 in. high.
Of the vases on PL cxxiii the central one. No. 2, is a
delicate little cup of pale glass found at Mitcham, Surrey, in
a somewhat damaged condition ; of the others No, i was found
recently at Broadstairs. It is of green glass and 7 in. high.
Its prototype, in the Brussels Museum, is No. 3. We have
here a remarkable form of vessel only represented in this
period and belonging rather to the latter than the former part
of it so that Kisa assigns it ' der frankischen und Karolingi-
schen Zeit,' i.e. about VII or VIII. ^ It is called a ' lobed,' a
' claw,' or a ' tear ' glass ; in German * Riisselbecher,' ' snout
cup,' or ' Taschenbecher,' ' pouch cup ' ; in French ' vase a
larmes.' M. Boulanger, and following him Dr. Kisa, call
attention to the expert handling of the material, for when
one examines the interior of these vases it is seen that the
external protuberances,- which are of course hollow, corre-
spond to apertures in the wall of the vessel so that they form
open pockets. No sign of a join is discernible at the openings
of these pockets, and it might have been thought that the
■■• Kisa, Das G/as im Altertume, p, 343. ^ ibid., p. 351, see also p. 912.
484 VESSELS
pockets were made by pressing out the wall of the vessel,
which is however not a practicable process. The illustration
PI. cxxvi, 4, gives a view into the interior of one of these
vases which explains what has just been said. It has been
noticed that certain rare vases of IV exhibit tours-de-force of
somewhat the same kind/ and of these the ' claw glasses ' may
be the descendants. They are not uncommon, occurring not
only in Kent but in other southern counties such as Hants,
Surrey, Berks, Bucks, Gloucestershire ; the Midlands as in
Northants and Cambridgeshire ; and as far north as County
Durham, where there was discovered in connection with an
interment at Castle Eden in 1802 what is probably the finest
and most perfect specimen in the country. This fact, coupled
with the interest of the provenance, makes it worth while to
figure the piece as nearly of the natural size as the dimensions
of these plates will allow. The original is 7^ in. high, andj is
of green glass with crimped bands of blue glass along the
' tears,' and is in perfect preservation,^ PI. cxxiv. The
curiously small foot of all these vases is noticeable and
associates them with the * tumbler ' type. The lobes of the
lower range curl over and are fixed at the tips to the base.
There are nearly always two ranges of these lobes, but a
vase in the British Museum from Ashford, Kent, has three.
The continental parallels to the English vases shown on
PI. cxxv carry us further afield, and prove that exportation
from the Gallic or Rhenish centres of fabrication supplied
with these attractive but fragile objects other regions besides
our own island. Scandinavia took a very considerable contri-
bution. No, I is a vase about 10 in. high found at Favers-
ham, Kent, and No, 2 its counterpart comes from Gotland.
The well fashioned bowl, No. 3, is in the Museum at York,
and there exists in a northern Museum an almost exact
1 Album Caranda, pi. xlv, i, and nouvelle serie no, i.
2 Thanks are due to the owner, Captain Burdon, for his kindness in
allowing the writer to photograph the cup.
CXXIV
facing p. 484
THE CASTLE EDEN GLASS VASE
^^^^H^^Hj^^^^^^Kgjy^
Height 7^ in.
CXXVI
facing p. 485
GLASS VESSELS, WITH DETAIL
1 is 6 in. in diameter
J is Roman
VASES OF GLASS 485
parallel that is however unpublished and cannot be figured
here. PI. cxxv, 4, gives a view of a handsome 'tumbler'
bowl of exceptional size from Desborough, Northants, in the
British Museum. It is of clouded green glass, 4 in. high and
J^ in. wide at the mouth.
Plates cxxvi to viii with the colour Plate, E, 11 (p. 519),
complete the illustrations of glass. On PL cxxvi is a notable
Bifrons piece. No. i, the most delicate and beautiful glass
vessel that the writer knows of as found in an Anglo-Saxon
grave. It is a fluted bowl 6 in. in diameter, exquisitely thin
and quite perfect save that the material is coming away in
flakes no thicker than gold leaf. The form and quality of the
piece give it a far closer resemblance to the earlier glass of
III and IV than is the case with the glass in Germanic graves
generally, and it may be reckoned one of the earliest examples
of all that are here figured. The iridescence of the decom-
posed material is very lovely to the eye, and some idea of the
eff^ect may be gained from the coloured illustration PI. E, 11,
which shows a ' tumbler ' in the Dover Museum, 3 in. across,
of a form not uncommon. The Bifrons bowl is lighter and
more silvery in its opalescent hues. On the same plate No. 5
is a tiny vase found at Mitcham, and it is just as rough and
thick as No. i is delicate and fragile. If any piece may be
regarded as of insular fabrication this would be as likely an
example as any, for it appears quite amateurish by the side of
the more finely wrought specimens. No. 3 on PL cxxvi
was also found at Bifrons. It is a small delicately finished
glass bottle, 4f in. high, of a form and make that suggest a
Roman provenance. Counterparts more or less exact can be
found among the earlier vases figured in Kisa's Formentafel
A and B. No, 2, of deep blue glass with corded enrichment,
is a product of the richly furnished grave at Broomfield in
Essex (p. 599 f.). Its external diameter is 4.^ in, A pair of
vases almost exactly similar in design and colour were found
at Cuddesdon, Oxfordshire, and are noticed in Akerman's
IV G
486 VESSELS
Pagan Saxondom^ p. ii. No. 4 on the Plate is a portion of
an internal view of one of the ' claw glasses ' — that shown on
PL cxxiv — in which the formation of the ' pockets ' is made
visible.
Plate cxxvii shows, about two-thirds their natural size,
three excellent specimens. Nos. i and 2 are from High
Down, Sussex, a cemetery notable for its good examples of
glass. No. 1 is a beaker quite perfect and 6 in. high, of a
type we have already seen represented at Croydon, PI. cxxi, 4.
That next to it is a funnel-shaped vase 6 in. high, decorated
with spirally wound threads of the same material, while No. 3,
5 in. high, comes from the cemetery at Sarre and is preserved
at Maidstone. It is of a type represented often in continental
collections, and ends below with a delicate projecting knob, so
that it is decidedly of the ' tumbler ' class. Lastly, PI. cxxviii
introduces us so far as Britain is concerned to a ' unicum,' in
the form of a vessel with a Greek inscription on it, found at
High Down and now preserved at Ferring Grange, Sussex.
It is a slender vase 8 in. high, as usual without handles, and is
ornamented by a process of abrasion with the wheel producing
linear, floral, and animal forms, and lettering. There runs
round the body of the vessel a frieze of animals wherein
hounds are pursuing a hare in a style represented on Roman
clay vases of ' Castor ' and other wares and on a certain class
of Roman glass vessels, while round the rim is an inscription in
Greek, reading, or intended to read, ►I^ TFIEINHN XPO, words
equivalent to the more familiar Latin UTERE FELIX, and
meaning ' drink from me, and may you keep your health.'
It was the only object found in grave 49, but the gender of
the participle would indicate that the grave was that of a man.
The words are preceded by a cross, seen in the photograph,
and this may be held to convey a Christian suggestion. As
the object was certainly imported this gives no indication of
the date of the cemetery.
There is no reason to conclude that the piece is of oriental
CXXVII
facing p. 486
CXXVIII
facing p. 487
GLASS VASES FROM SUSSEX
I, ^ ; 2, about 2 natural size
VASES OF GLASS 487
make. It need have come no further than from the Rhine-
land, or even from one of the centres of glass fabrication in
northern Gaul such as Vermand or Amiens, for there is
epigraphic evidence of the presence at these places of Syrians,
who may /ery well have carried on there the industry of glass
making which was a speciality of the country of their origin.
Greek words of a kind conveying a greeting are found on not
a few glass vessels in north-western Europe. There is one in
the Museum at Copenhagen, and M. Pilloy notices several in
his Etudes}
The other vase on PL cxxviii, i \\ in. high, was found
at Alfriston, Sussex, and is now in the Lewes Museum. It is
of the funnel shape and is gracefully ornamented. A fair
number of specimens of the type are known, a particularly
fine and perfect example having been found at Kempston,
Beds. One came to light quite recently at East ShefFord,
Berks, and another was found near Aylesbury, Bucks, while
Jutish cemeteries in Kent and the Isle of Wight have produced
specimens. In these vases there is no aperture at the small
end of the funnel, and some examples abroad have a small
foot. The type is represented by more than a score of
specimens in Scandinavia.
1 Kisa, Das Glas, 238 f. ; Pilloy, Etudes, iii, 296 f.
CHAPTER X
POTTERY ; INLAID JEWELLERY ; ROMANIZING OBJECTS
IN BRONZE
POTTERY
Among the vessels found in Anglo-Saxon graves those of
clay take the first place, alike by reason of their numbers and
of their archaeological interest. They are found in all parts
of the Teutonic area in which Anglo-Saxon tomb furniture in
any forms has come to light, and are on the whole as numerous
as any article in the foregoing inventory except of course
beads and the ubiquitous knife blade. They are of common
material but of special forms and distinctive ornamentation.
The reason why this item of tomb furniture has been
reserved for special treatment is the same reason that has
kept back from analysis in the foregoing chapters the inlaid
gold jewellery of Kent — the two classes of obj'ects do not
concern England alone but the connections of England and
the English with continental lands and peoples. Hence the
discussion of them involves a comparatively wide outlook
with a proportionate demand for space that can best be met
by devoting to each class a distinct section. When viewed
from this more general standpoint the urns possess the special
interest that they prove the presence over the whole coastal
region of north-western Europe from Schleswig to the mouths
of the Rhine of a population uniform in culture but differing
culturally from the Teutonic peoples of the Hinterland and
of Gaul, and furthermore afford evidence of a striking
similarity between this population and the Teutonic settlers in
HAND-MADE ENGLISH URNS 489
the major part of England. Pottery of the same marked
type we shall see to be distributed over the whole of the
regions indicated on both sides of the North Sea, and it is a
very strong proof that the same people or set of peoples were
at one time or another in occupation of the two districts.
With the exception of a certain limited class confined to
Kent, the urns in question are all hand-made, that is, fashioned
without the aid of the potter's wheel, and agree to the extent
of a strong family likeness in their general size and shape.
The sizes vary considerably. The largest English example
that has come under the writer's personal notice is one 14 in.
high and of ample girth found in the Anglo-Saxon cemetery
discovered a few years ago in St. John's College cricket field,
Cambridge, and they descend in size to little pots standing a
couple of inches high. A very large number however will be
found to run of an average height of about 7 in. or say from
5 in. to 9 in. The dimensions of many specimens are given
in the text and the list of illustrations. In colour they vary
within somewhat narrow limits. The general hue is a
brownish grey that may be described as ' mud-colour ' but
this runs sometimes in the direction of red and at other
times in that of black, while the tone ascends here and there
to a lightish buff. The urns are ornamented in three ways,
and it is by this ornamentation even more than by their shape
that they are identified as belonging to this particular class of
ceramic products. It must be noted however at the outset
that unadorned urns without the special characteristics in
question are found here and there under conditions which
make it certain that they were used at the same time and by
the same people as the ornamented ones of the marked type
here under review.
The first and most distinctive form of the ornament con-
sists in projecting bosses or flutes made commonly by forcing
the soft clay of the wall of the vase out from the interior, but
formed also at times by additions plastered on to the outside.
490 . POTTERY
This is a method of ornamentation of old use in northern
Germany where the vases which exhibit it are called generically
' Buckelurnen.' Some detailed photographs, PL cxxxiv, 9
(P- 499)) illustrate the technique. The lowest fragment shows
the projecting rib added in a separate piece on the outside, the
two above, showing vase fragments from the interior, exhibit
the process of forcing out the clay from within. A second
method of ornamentation consists in impressed lines or
markings arranged in simple linear patterns and formed
either by incisions or shallow grooves made with the shaped
end of a piece of wood, or by the pressure of the finger tip.
Stamped ornaments are the third kind, and they are impressed
on the wet clay by wooden stamps similar in kind to those
used to-day for adorning pats of butter. On these modes of
ornamentation a word must be said. The first two are of
ancient German origin, and Professor Schuchhardt derives
both the bosses and the impressed lines from the earliest clay
vases made in imitation of the vessels of wicker-work bound
with cords which are supposed to have preceded ceramic
products. The stamped ornaments on the other hand are so
common on Roman pottery, especially that for which the
Gallic workers in clay were famous, that we may regard them
as derived from this source. Now the pottery of the Teutonic
invaders of Gaul differs as was noticed above from this pot-
tery of north-western Germany and of England. These
invaders were Franks, and Prankish or, as it is sometimes
called, Merovingian pottery possesses the following character-
istics. The urns are all made on the wheel and in consequence
are sharper in their details and more neatly finished, when
compared with the others ; they are also smaller and of a
different shape ; they are never adorned with bosses but
practically always with stamped patterns. PL cxxix shows,
on the left hand side,^ some characteristic specimens, one, i,
1 In the plates illustrating the urns which follow, one object in view has
been to bring out as clearly as possible the parallelism between English and
CXXIX
facing p. 491
POTTERY, PRANKISH AND OF PRANKISH TYPES
7, 2, y, are ConUneutal
PRANKISH URNS 491
from the Prankish^ cemetery at Herpes on the Charente in
western France, the other two, 2, 3, from Rouen. The clean
execution and sharp true lines of the mouldings are due to
the use of the wheel. For purposes of comparison there are
shown to the right of the plate some English urns which
exhibit an approximation to the Frankish rare in our insular
examples. The Frilford urn. No. 4, and the Berkshire ex-
ample, 5, below it from Newbury, are not made on the wheel,
but otherwise resemble both in form and ornamentation the
transmarine pieces with which they also accord in size, for
the three Frankish urns are each about 4 in. high, the Frilford
one 4-J in. and that from Newbury 3f in. The lowest example
on the right. No. 6, was found at Broadstairs in a grave with
a skeleton, so it is not cinerary. It is a handsome piece
standing 8^ in. high, and the sharp fillet at the neck makes it
look as if it were made on the wheel. It is considered by
some a Frankish importation, and in certain details and in
ornament it clearly resembles Frankish models. It is how-
ever above their average size and is not of a characteristic
Frankish shape ; moreover it possesses very distinct though
rudimentary bosses, so that it is probably of insular fabrication.
This use of the wheel, the neat finish, and the stamped
ornaments, are natural in the case of pottery made in a
Romanized region where the classical traditions may have
lived on, while the ruder hand-formed ware with the primitive
bosses and incisions belongs naturally to the unromanized
regions north and east of the Rhine. The stamped ornament
found in the latter regions may accordingly be regarded as an
importation from Romanized lands, and though it occurs all
over the northern region it is more in evidence the further
we descend towards the south and west.
continental specimens. With this intention the plates are in most cases
divided into a right and left hand portion, the English examples being placed
on the right, the continental ones on the left.
^ Not, as it has been sometimes called, Visigothic ; see Boulanger, Le
Mobilier Fun'eraire, p. Ixxv f.
492 POTTERY
The pottery in question is found in Schleswig, in the
regions about the mouth of the Elbe, in the province of
Hanover, in the Dutch provinces of Groningen, Drenthe, and
Friesland, and occurs also more sporadically in the districts
nearer to the Rhine and even to the west of that river as far
as the neighbourhood of Brussels, where the cemeteries of
Harmignies and Anderlecht have yielded up a score or so of
specimens, from which a selection is shown on PL cxxx, i.
These are all at Brussels, The top one to the left belongs
to the Museum, that to the right, 7^ in. high, to the Societe
Archeologique, Of the two in the lower row the larger is
4^ in. high, and they both form part of the collection of
M. Foils, to whom, as to the Societe, thanks are due for their
kindness in allowing this publication. In our own country
the same types are found abundantly in Yorkshire, in the
Midland districts, and in East Anglia, and more sparingly in
the Thames Valley and the southern counties, though very
rarely in Kent. The finest continental specimens with bold
and effective ornamentation are claimed for the Hanoverian
province, but there are excellent examples also in the Museum
at Leiden.
The question of the uses of these vessels introduces us
to another consideration of the first importance. On the
Continent, in Schleswig, Hanover, and the north and east
generally, they are cremation urns and are found with frag-
ments of burnt human bones in them, but as we move
towards the west and south similar urns are found accompany-
ing interments of the unburnt body. In our own country
cremation urns are common in Yorkshire, the Midlands, and
East Anglia, but they are often accompanied by interments of
the whole body so that the cemetery is called a * mixed ' one,
and such ' mixed ' cemeteries occur also in Friesland, in the
* Terpen' about which something has been said already (p. 70).
In such cemeteries empty urns or urns with no burnt bones
in them may be found placed in the grave with an unburnt
cxxx
facing p. 492
VASES OF SAXON TYPE FROM BELGIUM, ETC.
T are Continental ; 5- is Roman
CXXXI
facing p. 493
CINERARY URNS, N. GERMAN AND ENGLISH
/ is Continental
THE CINERARY URN
493
skeleton, and when these urns are of the same type as those
with burnt bones therein, the temptation is strong to call
them ' cinerary ' urns. The words * cinerary ' or ' cremation '
should however never be applied to urns of this class, especi-
ally in England, except in those cases where it is certain that
burnt bones were contained in them. Such, it has been already
explained in the Prefatory Note, is the usage in these chapters.
The aspect of true cinerary or cremation urns in our museums
is illustrated by PL cxxxi. Sometimes they have been cleared
of everything but the actual fragments of burnt bones as in the
case of the urn at Liineburg, No. i, and at other times they are
left with the accumulated earth in them in which may be seen
unmistakable osseous fragments. The broken urn PL cxxxi, 2,
from Saxby, Leicestershire, is a good example.
Prankish cemeteries are practically all of the inhumation
kind, * les Francs,' M. Boulanger says,^ ' n'ayant jamais
incinere.' As illustrating the contrast in this respect between
the Elbeland cemeteries and those of Gaul, Kemble noticed
long ago ^ that the great cemetery which he partly excavated
near Liineburg only produced two unburnt interments but
about three thousand cremated ones, whereas a Rhineland
cemetery he compared with it had seventy inhumed inter-
ments and not a single case of cremation. Hence the Prankish
or Merovingian urns noticed above are never, west of the
Rhine, found with burnt bones in them. It is a remark-
able fact however that certain urns of this special Prankish
character, evidently imported, have been found in some of the
Frisian ' Terpen ' used for cremation purposes and with burnt
bones in them, whereas conversely, the few urns of the
northern type that as we have just seen have come to light in
the modern Belgium, a Prankish region, were placed by the
side of inhumed skeletons.
These facts open up the whole question of the relation
between these two methods for the disposal of the mortal
^ Le Mobilier Funeraire, p. xxxi. 2 Horae Fern les, p. 102.
494 POTTERY
remains of the dead, and upon this the following few
sentences must suffice.
Inhumation, or the burial of the body intact, is the
oldest and most general custom, but at a certain period that
may be fixed at somewhere about looo B.C., and chiefly
among the peoples of the Aryan stock in the Bronze Age of
culture, this was for a time superseded by the practice of
burning the body so that only the ashes were preserved. The
reason of this has been often discussed, but into these general
questions it is impossible in these pages to enter. The
references given previously (p. 148) may be found useful.
It must be sufiicient here to note the fact that after this
practice of cremation had generally though not universally
prevailed during the Bronze Age especially in its later
period, in the succeeding Iron Age inhumation, especially in
certain regions, came again into fashion. In the centuries
immediately before the Christian era the relations of the two
customs are somewhat complicated, but the Germans still held
in the main to cremation until the migration period. The
Romans also clung somewhat tenaciously to the practice of
burning the body, but from about the end of 1 1 a.d. through-
out the Roman Empire inhumation began to take its place.
Whether or not the concealed influence of Christianity, or
perhaps the potency of Jewish example which in some ways
had affected classical society, may partly account for this
cannot here be discussed. The fact suffices that in Mediter-
ranean lands, and wherever Roman influence prevailed, from
III A.D. onwards inhumation grew to be the fashion. In the
world of the migration period, so long as the Teutonic
peoples remained in their original seats they retained as
a rule their ancestral custom of cremation, but when they
neared or crossed the borders of the Roman Empire their
practice began to change. Wherever the influence of
Christianity penetrated thither of course it carried the
principle of the burial of the unburnt body, but it would be
A'\.
\\}:U
CXXXII
facing p. 495
HANOVERIAN AND E. ANGLIAN URNS
/ is Continental
CREMATION AND INHUMATION 495
a mistake to connect the change of habit with direct sub-
mission to the new faith. Inhumation was not confined at
the time to professing Christians but it was gradually
becoming more and more common within, on the borders of,
and outside the Empire during the centuries from III to VI,
soon after which time the Teutonic invaders of the Empire
were all nominally Christians, and the old northern paganism
only survived in Scandinavia.
It is the view taken in these volumes, that on the mainland
over against our island as in England itself, the difference
between cremation and inhumation was not in this period
a matter of race but rather of date and latitude. In regard
to time, in any given Teutonic region early burials would be
cremated, later ones inhumed, though natural conservatism
in some individuals or families, susceptibility to new influences
in others, might retard or accelerate the change. In regard
to place, at any one time regions nearer to the romanized
districts south and west of the Rhine would show more
inhumed burials than those further away, and this applies to
our own country as well as to the Continent. The people
who used the bossy vases cremated while still in their
northern seats, but by the time they had penetrated beyond
the Rhine they were burying their dead, while in the inter-
mediate district of Friesland cremation burials and inhumed
ones accompanied by the same characteristic type of urn are
found at practically the same levels in the Terpen. So too in
our own country, it is a mistake to say that the Angles
practised cremation, the Saxons and Jutes inhumation, on
account of racial differences. The latter peoples occupied the
southern regions of the country and may have crossed to our
shores from southern seats on the Continent, and with them
the change of burial custom was far advanced — in the case of
the Jutes probably complete. The Saxons, or at any rate the
forefathers of the Gewissae or West Saxons, who penetrated
the country by way of the Thames Valley, were still to a
496 POTTERY
considerable extent practising cremation at the time of their
first settlement (p. 581 f.), but later on abandoned it. The
Angles, who settled further to the north and had strong
northern affinities shown specially in their use of the cruciform
brooch, retained the practice of cremation to a later date
though their mixed cemeteries show that the new custom was
all the time making its influence felt. The remarkable pre-
valence of cremation in East Anglia may be due to an early
occupation by the Angles of this province.
The presence in graves of urns holding the ashes of the
dead needs no special explanation. Some receptacle for these
was necessary and the vessel of burnt clay readily offered itself.
Vases of bronze, and of glass, were used for a similar purpose
by the Greeks and by the Romans including the Romano-
British population, but taking the cremation cemeteries of
the ancient world as a whole pottery furnished by far the
greater number of the receptacles required. The material
for these was cheap and accessible, their manufacture easy,
and they could be invested with a handsome appearance that
did honour to the defunct, while symbolical ornament could
readily be introduced. This leads to the question whether
the enrichment of the class of urns here under notice has any
funereal significance. The bosses and linear patterns and
stamped devices appear as a rule to have only an aesthetic
purpose, but Professor Mestorf saw in some of the ornaments
on the urns in Schleswig symbols of a religious kind, one of
which is the central disc surrounded by a ring of dots seen on
the urn from Leeuwarden, PI. cxxxvi, 3, on the Hamburg
urn, PL cxxxiii, 3, and in a better example on the fine
cremation urn from Newark, Notts, in the Museum at Hull,
PI. cxxxvi, 7. This she considered a solar emblem, but on
the other hand Dr. Sophus Miiller ^ only sees in it the classical
rosette. This motive has been already noticed (p. no) in
1 Nor disc he Alter tumskunde, u, 96.
CXXXIII
facing p. 497
URNS. CONTINENTAL AND ENGLISH
/, 2, J, are Continental
ORNAMENT ON THE URNS 497
connection with the coins, and it may occur early as a direct
classical legacy, or comparatively late as a symptom of the
Carolingian renaissance. On several of our English urns, as
on that from Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, No. 8 on this same
PI. cxxxvi, and the Shropham urn, PL cxxxii, 2, appears the
swastika or fylfot, an equal armed cross with the ends bent at
right angles towards the side, a device which some writers
invest with mystic symbolism of an awe-inspiring kind. To
the present writer the appearance of this device on Teutonic
pottery or objects of metal is so casual that he attaches no
more significance to it than to its occurrence on old Greek
painted vases of the ' Melian ' class, where it is obviously
nothing but a fragment of a broken up key-pattern ornament.
It may be frankly admitted here that the writer regards with
considerable indifference the attempts that are sometimes
made to read abstruse symbolism into the decorative devices
found on objects of the migration period. Wherever a simple
explanation of these devices on an aesthetic basis appears
plausible it has in these chapters been preferred to one of a
recondite kind. The morphology, the art, the technique of
the objects in question offer so much of interest and of difficulty
that it will be well not to complicate the treatment of them by
indulging in speculations as to possible meanings for the devices
that they bear. This procedure has been adopted in the case
of the coins and of the tomb furniture and will as a rule be
adhered to in the chapters that follow.
Handsomely decorated cremation urns may accordingly be
taken as a matter of course, but the appearance of vessels of the
same kind set empty by the side of the inhumed bodies is not
so easily explained. The food-vessel theory is of course well
known, and finds some support in the fact that hazel nuts have
been actually found in a bronze vase placed with an inhumed
body in the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Faversham, Kent. This
vase with its edible contents was shown PI. cxiv, 4 (p. 467),
and may bear up as best it can the doctrine that the numerous
498 POTTERY
urns of pottery, of wood, and of bronze, found in Teutonic
interments, were placed there for the purpose of furnishing a
store of sustenance for the deceased. This is one of the
questions which Hke that of the symbolic devices cannot be
discussed in these pages without taking up space that can be
better occupied with other topics. The placing of the empty
urn by the head of the skeleton may perhaps best be explained
as a survival from the traditional custom of the use of the urn
in cremation burials.
The pottery of which there is here question is further
illustrated on Pll. cxxxii to vi. The specimens were selected
primarily to exhibit the general characteristics of these
particular ceramic products and it will be seen that a family
likeness runs through them all. The shapes however and the
enrichment show considerable variety and the differences are
as far as possible illustrated. On the plates, a sufficient
number of examples of different kinds have been assembled
to bring out into clear light this variety in form and in
ornamentation. The phenomenon here is the same as that
already observed in the case of the coins. The Anglo-Saxon
craftsman, whether he had under his hand the commonest
clay or the nobler materials silver and bronze, did not show
himself the dull boorish plodder that popular prejudice would
see in him, but a personage alert, individual, ingenious, by no
means satisfied to reproduce the same thing over and over
again. Specimens have been chosen from most of the con-
tinental localities indicated above, but the special object of the
grouping has been to bring into view the similarity of the urns
found in England to those from the continental sites. On
each plate the urns on the right of the vertical line of division
are from Britain while those on the other side are continental.
The similarity that rules throughout is convincing evidence
that the people who made and used them occupied at one time
or another the continental regions shown on the maps and
also forced their way into Britain. Historical records give
i I ■
CXXXIV
facing p. 499
URNS, CONTINENTAL AND ENGLISH
^- ^■> J' ■/> ^''(^ Continental
FOREIGN AND ENGLISH POTTERY 499
grounds for dubbing these people ' Saxons,' and accordingly
the continental name for this pottery is ' Saxon,' whereas, since
in our own country it is chiefly found in the north and in East
Anglia, we are more accustomed to call the urns ' Anglian.'
On this a word is said later on (p. 581).
PI. cxxxii shows two handsome urns representing, the upper
one, I, the Elbe-mouth cemeteries in northern Hanover, the
lower one, 2, East Anglia. The Hanoverian urn, from
Wehden, is ornamented with projecting bosses and ribs and
with incised lines, but is exceptional in this class of vessels
in that it has preserved in the human face and breasts
reminiscences of the older German ' Gesichtsurne ' found in
Posen and other districts further to the east. The lower vase,
in the British Museum from Shropham in Norfolk, is equally
handsome but differs from the other in that stamped ornaments
form its chief decoration. Stamped ornaments, as will be
noticed in the examples on the plates, are on the whole rarer
on the Continent than with us, and are less seen the further
north we go.
PI. cxxxiii shows three English urns, two of which, 4, 6,
are cinerary, and three continental specimens of the same
general character. The fine example at Leiden, 2, has stamped
patterns as well as bosses. The Geestemiinde urn, i, from
the great cemetery at Westerwanna near Cuxhaven, where
1200 cremation urns have already been found though the
necropolis is only half explored, resembles the cinerary urn, 4,
from Norwich in the alternating vertical and horizontal pro-
jections. No. 3, from Altenwalde near Cuxhaven, is in the
Hamburg Museum fiir Volkerkunde, and shows sharp wart-
like bosses, that also appear on No. 6, a cremation urn from
Heworth just outside York. No. 5 is a very handsome urn,
9^ in. high, from Sandby, Beds, formerly in the Library of
Trinity College, Cambridge. PI. cxxxiv exhibits remarkable
cases of similarity. No. 6, a cinerary urn from Kempston,
Beds, shows, besides the characteristic English stamped orna-
500 POTTERY
ments, a series of what look like projecting brows with bosses
under them, that may possibly be reminiscent of the human
face which we have seen surviving on the Hanoverian urn
PI. cxxxii, I. The same motive treated somewhat differently
appears on the Leiden example, No. 2, from Hoog Halen in
the Drenthe province. The urn No, 3 in Kiel Museum,
from Hammoor B, a cemetery in Holstein where the finds are
accorded an average date of about 400 a.d., is curiously like
the urn No. 7 beside it, at Sheffield. The two lowest on
PI. cxxxiv, Nos. 4, 8, are again notably alike, but the urn at
Burton, 8, from the Stapenhill cemetery near that town,
differs from its Hanoverian twin, 4, in that it is not cinerary,
but was found empty beside an inhumed female skeleton.
PI. XVIII, 3 (p. 177), shows the urn in position at the head of
the skeleton. The two urns in the topmost row, Nos. i, 5,
exhibit as ornamental motive the spiral. No. i, at Leeuwarden,
gives it in a form resembling the Greek wave pattern, while the
cinerary urn, 8 in. high, from Kettering in the Northampton
Museum, No. 5, shows it degenerating. PI. cxxxv offers
parallels that appeal at once to the eye. At Bremen, it may
be mentioned, an urn of this class (not one of those shown on
the Plate) has a small piece of glass let into it like a window,
a curious feature that may be paralleled in an urn of 'Anglian '
type in the Museum at Lincoln shown PI. cxxx, 2. A few
other examples are known in North Germany and in England.^
The two Rutland urns from North Luffenham may have
contained cremated bones, see * Anglo-Saxon Remains found
at North LufFenham, Rutland, previously to 1900,' by
V. B. Crowther-Beynon, F.S.A.^
As a rule the urns both at home and abroad are rounded
underneath or just flattened sufficiently to make them stand
steadily, but sometimes, and more often abroad than at home,
they have a moulded foot. The use of handles may at this
^ E. Thurlow Leeds, The Archaeology^ etc., p. 92.
2 Associated Societies' Reports^ I90+-
cxxxv
facing p. 500
NORTH GERMAN AND ENGLISH URNS
msMk
CXXXVI
facing p. 501
O
z
w
c
<;
<
h
z
w
z
h
z
c
'^<l'^^
CXXXVII
facing p. 501
DETAILS OF ENGLISH URNS
HANDLES AND FEET OF URNS 501
point be noticed. Well formed handles occur with fair
frequency on the continental urns in the various districts
previously mentioned, with the exception of the most northerly
cemetery where the urns have been found, that of Borgstedt
in Schleswig ; they are seen on Hanoverian and Frisian
examples, PI. cxxxvi, i, 3, and are also well represented at
Leiden. No instance is known however of their occurrence
on urns of the strictly ' Anglian ' type in this country,^ and
this is after all in accordance with what we should expect.
The ornamented urn is a form of art the raison d^etre of
which is its employment in connection with cremation, and
when cremation was going out of fashion, as was clearly the
case among the Teutonic settlers in England, it would be
natural that the form should suffer impoverishment. In this
connection the vases on PI. cxxxvii are of interest as they are
singularly developed in form. No. 2 is a view of the lower
part of the Newark urn at Hull with the rosettes, already
noticed (p. 496), with beneath it some of the fragments of
burnt bones which it contained. No. i came to light recently
at Alfriston, Sussex, while No. 4 comes from High Down in
the same county, so that the form may be local in Sussex.
No. 3 is in the Pitt Rivers Museum at Farnham, Dorset,
labelled as from ' London ' — the place no doubt of its purchase.
It belongs evidently to the same class. The boldly projecting
horn-like protuberances are a notable feature as well as the
moulded feet. On PI. cxxxvi the curious resemblance between
the urn No. 6, from Eye, Suffolk, at Bury St. Edmunds, and
that at Leeuwarden, No. 2, will not escape notice. The urn
No. 4 was found at Shalcombe Down, Isle of Wight, close to
1 Rudimentary handles occurring on another class of English urns of
simpler make will presently be noticed, and there is a single exceptional one-
handled vessel in the British Museum, from Chessell Down, of which a
figure is given PI. cxxxvi, 5. A small one-handled jug in the Maidstone
K.A.S, Museum, PI. cxxxix, 5, is pretty obviously of Prankish provenance.
A unique handled vase of very early date and of a continental type found in
Northamptonshire is noticed later on (p. 508).
IV H
502
POTTERY
Chessell Down, whence comes the handled jug next to it,
No. 5. Urn No. 8 has been already referred to on account
of its swastika ornament (p. 497).
The fabrication of hand-made urns of this type is a matter
of some interest, as the material may be manipulated in several
different fashions. These are discussed in an interesting article
by Ed. Krause in the Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie^ xxxiv, * Ueber
die Herstellung vorgeschichtliche Thongefasse.' The various
o ^
^J CI Q^
Fig. 18. — Patterns on Funereal Pottery.
processes may be reduced to four, (i) the 'mud pie' process
in which the vessel is fashioned by the hands out of clay in the
lump, all in one piece without any implements except perhaps
a tool of bone or wood for the final smoothing of the surface ;
(2) a process in which the clay is beaten out to shape over
some sort of anvil or mould ; (3) the process of building up
the vase with previously formed separate pieces laid one to
the other and made to adhere by pressure ; (4) the coiled
technique, whereby the urn is formed by coiling round and
round in spiral fashion a continuous rope or long thin rouleau
STAMPED PATTERNS ON THE VASES 503
of clay. M. Franchet in his recent Ceramique Primitive ^
dismisses the subject in summary fashion by saying that the
earliest vases are all built up, as the French phrase goes, ' au
colombin,' by process No. 3. The vessels with which we are
here concerned give no indication inside or out that they were
built up in this way or were coiled, and it is much more likely
that they were fashioned as it were from the lump by the
* mud pie ' process. An experienced piecer of broken urns in
one of our great museums has assured the writer that he
believes they were all made by this sort of rule of thumb,
though perhaps finally smoothed by a tool, such as one found
at Sancton, Yorks, and figured, from Hull Museum Publications
No. 66, in Fig. i8a. The firing of the urns of this class is
nearly always very imperfect, and the clay is as tender as that
of a Greek vase.
A word may be said about the stamped patterns illustrated
on so many of the vases now passed in review. The two
devices for which a religious significance has been claimed,
the rosette and the swastika, have been already referred to
(p. 496 f.). Apart from the simple impressed dots and incised
lines, we find at times impressed circles like those that figure
on the bone plaques and combs (p. 293), and markings like a
double comma with the tails joined. The star pattern and
a motive like lattice work are however the most characteristic
devices. There are four-pointed stars (or equal armed crosses),
five-pointed, six, seven, eight, and even ten-pointed stars, as
well as multiplex stars or rosettes, all arranged in a round or
surrounded by incised circles. The lattice-work patterns are
not, like the stars or rosettes, radiating, but are based on the
right angle and arranged within rectangular, triangular or
circular bounding lines. They remind us of the stamped
patterns on the morsels of gold foil used to line the cloisons
in Kentish inlaid work (p. 513) so as to give an effect of
sparkle. Some specimens are shown at the lower part of
1 Paris, Geuthner, 191 1.
504 POTTERY
PI. cxxxvii of stars and lattice-work devices. The examples
Nos. 5, 6, have an interest of a special kind. They are
fragments of two urns from Theale, Berks, in the Museum at
Reading. They are different urns, the one being of reddish
clay the other of grey, but they appear to be marked with the
self-same stamp, which is an argument in favour of their
being of local make. The lattice-work patterns on No. 7 are
from a fragment in the collection of Lord Grantley. Fig. 18
reproduces a set of these linear motives brought together by
Mr. Thomas Sheppard, Curator of the Hull Museum, in the
excellent Hull Museum Publications, Nos. 66, 67, together with
others which the writer has added from his own notes. Some
impressions, Mr, Sheppard remarks, seem to have been
made from Roman signet rings. A sketch of the bone
smoothing tool referred to above (p. 502) has been added
and is marked * a.'
As a necessary appendix to this discussion of the normal
urns of the * Saxon ' or ' Anglian ' type, a word must be
said about certain forms of pottery found in Germanic
cemeteries that are of a different kind. We will deal
first with the plain unornamented vessels that occur in
many Teutonized districts in our island and abroad, and
might at first sight be taken for products of a distinct age
and culture. Though so simple in appearance they represent
a more advanced technique than the others in that their
smooth globular form suggests fabrication on the wheel,
whereas the bosses of the more elaborate products are derived
from a more primitive tradition of hand-wrought ware. The
plain urns may have been inspired by reminiscences of the
smooth wheel-made Roman vessels of which a specimen was
shown PI. cxxx, 3 (p. 492), in the shape of a Roman cinerary
urn in the Museum at York, with the burnt bones inside it.
They are found in situations and in connections that prove
them to be contemporary with the bossy and stamped urns
of the 'Saxon' or 'Anglian' type. No. i on Pi. cxxxviii is
CXXXVIII
facing p. 505
U
URNS OF THE PLAIN TYPE 505
a good specimen found with burnt human bones in it in the
Terp of Hoogebeintum in Friesland and now in the Museum
at Leeuwarden. It is 9 in. high and with the bones was found
a quoit shaped jewelled brooch of VII type. With this may
be compared No. 2, an example at Burton from the Stapenhill
cemetery, Staffordshire. This is similar in shape and make
but it was not a cremation urn, and it is much smaller,
measuring in height 5|- in., so that it may represent the
degeneration of the type. The wide mouthed vessels by its
side, Nos. 3, 4, and the three in the bottom line are of a kind
very often represented in our cemeteries, and found with
burnt human bones as well as in an empty state.
Such urns occur in cemeteries side by side with the
enriched ones and in close conjunction with objects of an
unmistakably Anglo-Saxon character. Thus, No. 4, 7 in.
high, was found at Stapenhill empty by the side of a skeleton
furnished with an Anglo-Saxon knife. No. 8 was accom-
panied by skulls, a knife, Anglo-Saxon brooches, and beads,
in a barrow at Peering, Essex. It is in the Colchester
Museum, ^^ in. high. No. 6, from Sancton, Yorks, in the
Hull Museum, 9 in. high, contained no bones but some
fragments of bronze. On the other hand the plain urn.
No. 5, is a cinerary urn from the Ipswich cemetery, and
some of the fragments of burnt bones found in it and in
other urns from the site are shown beneath it.-"^ No. 7,
a globular urn found at Northfleet near Gravesend, Kent,
and now in the Maidstone Museum, still exhibits within it
the cremated bones it has always held. It is one of a class
of cinerary urns of great archaeological interest that represent
the rite of cremation >as practised in riparian cemeteries along
the Thames Valley (p. 627).
The two plain urns of this class shown PL cxxxviii, 3, 4,
from Brixworth, Northants, and Stapenhill, exhibit the
^ This photograph is owed to the kindness of Mr. Frank Woolnough,
F.R.Met.S., Curator of the Ipswich Museum.
5o6 POTTERY
peculiarity of rudimentary handles in the form of pinched
out projections of the clay, or as they are called in Scotland
' lugs,' pierced with a small hole through which can be passed
a thong for the purpose of carriage. This arrangement
carries us back to the ceramics of the neolithic age when
the same device was in vogue, and the appearance of the
feature at this period and in these connections is a very
curious fact, especially in view of the absence of handles from
the contemporary English vases of the more ornate kind.
What explanation should be given of this class of vases is
difficult to see. It has been suggested that they were the
common household vessels used for culinary and other
purposes, and the large urn from the cemetery at Sancton,
Yorks, PL cxxxviii, 6, has been held to show marks of
employment over the fire. The pot is however in a condition
that makes any judgement on such a point very uncertain.
A second class of exceptional urns is confined to Kent and
these differ from all our others in the characteristic that they
are formed, though by rather unskilled hands, on the potter's
wheel. The vases in question are bottle shaped and are
ornamented partly with concentric incised lines and partly
with small depressed dots arranged in double wavy lines or
grouped into simple patterns such as rosettes and impressed
on the soft clay by means of a roulette. There are never any
bosses or handles. The vessels are no doubt made on the
wheel as the narrow necks are not in accordance with the
traditions of hand-made pottery, but the incised concentric
lines, a form of ornament suitable for wheel work, are
sometimes so irregular and imperfect in their parallelism
that it is evident that the vases were made in this country
and by workmen to whom the use of the wheel was com-
paratively unfamiliar. The Roman potteries in Kent, as at
Upchurch by the Medway, may easily have transmitted the
tradition of the classical technique to the new settlers.
The vases are apparently not a mere Roman survival,
'av:
CXXXIX
facing p.
KENTISH BOTTLE SHAPED VASES 507
native in origin as well as in fabrication, but are of a kind
represented, as Mr. Leeds has recently shown, in the
cemeteries of the Rhineland, and so connecting the Jutes
of Kent with the continental regions from which they may
have crossed to our shores. They possess on this account
considerable archaeological interest, and may be placed with
the inlaid Kentish jewellery as furnishing evidence of the
provenance and the ethnological relations of this section of
our Teutonic immigrants. From this point of view the
bottle shaped vases will receive attention later on (p. 741 f.).
They are found mostly in the earlier Jutish graves and were
especially well represented at Sarre, whence came more than
a dozen which are now in the K.A.S. Museum at Maidstone.
They run commonly from about 8 to 12 inches in height,
and are better fired than the ordinary urns of the * Anglian '
type.
On PI. cxxxix, No. i shows a continental prototype of
these Jutish vases. It is in the Museum at Brussels from the
cemetery at Trivieres-^ and stands 10^ in. high. This is
better made than the English examples, and as a contrast
there is placed beside it. No. 2, the most recently discovered
specimen of the kind in this country, a vase with a broken
neck found in 1910 in the cemetery on the down
above Folkestone (p. 141). It is now about 9 in. high. The
incised lines which encircle it are not nearly so true as in the
continental example, and the markings below on the body of
the vase though showing that it was wheel made are unwork-
manlike. The specimen below, No. 4, found in the church-
yard at Harrietsham between Maidstone and Ashford and
now in the K.A.S. Museum at the former place, is of reddish
clay and 1 1|- in. high. No. 3 is from the cemetery at Sarre,
whence also comes the jug No. 5, which is quite of a Frankish
type and was probably imported.
^ Vases of this type are very rare in the Belgian cemeteries and almost
unknown in France, but are far more common on the Rhine.
5o8 INLAID JEWELLERY
Lastly, to complete the subject of Anglo-Saxon pottery,
the jug No. 6 introduces us to one of the most remarkable
discoveries in an archaeological sense connected with our
Anglo-Saxon cemeteries. It is a vessel of coarse yellowish
grey paste about 8 in. high, with a single handle that has the
peculiarity of being perforated so as to serve as a spout. It
had been used for a cremated burial and some of the frag-
ments of bone found in it are seen below it. The point of
interest is that this special form of urn is represented in the
cemeteries of northern Germany and Scandinavia, where it
would date in V, and its appearance in a riparian grave in
Northamptonshire, at Great Addington on the Nene, is an
interesting link of connection between the earliest Anglian
settlers of this part of England and their ancestral seats.
INLAID JEWELLERY
The comparison of the sepulchral pottery of Anglo-Saxon
England with that of the Continent has indicated that the
Teutonic invaders of our country did not descend abruptly
on these shores like the Vikings of four centuries later by
a straight course from the far north, but came borne on the
crest of a great movement of migration which affected all the
lands from the mouth of the Elbe to those of the Rhine.
The characteristic forms of * Anglian ' pottery as they appear
in our own country are not to be paralleled from Schleswig
alone, but from the whole region between the two rivers just
mentioned, a region that the kinsmen of our own Angles and
Saxons made for a time at any rate their own. In the case of
the Jutes of Kent, their urns we have just seen are of a
special type not represented in the North at all, but common
in the Rhineland districts with which the future colonizers of
Kent must have had considerable dealings. Still pursuing
this branch of the subject we will now go on to examine
another characteristic Kentish product for which the Rhine-
I ^
CXL
facing p. 509
DATABLE INLAID JEWELS OF KENTISH TYPE
3, natural size; i, 2, somewhat enlarged
/f. Is Continental
DATABLE SPECIMENS 509
land and the eastward regions reached through the Rhine
Valley furnish prototypes. A comparative study of this
particular product will bear out the impression already derived
from other sources, that the Jutes when they settled in Kent
had already established relations with those parts of the
Continent lying over against our south-eastern shores.
In dealing with the diiferent forms of the fibula represented
in Anglo-Saxon tomb furniture one form specially prevalent
in Kent was passed lightly over and left for subsequent treat-
ment. This was the disc fibula adorned with inlays of semi-
precious stones in the form of sHced garnets, varied with glass
pastes of other hues. One specimen of a simple kind was
illustrated among the objects from the Bifrons cemetery
PI. XXXVI, 10 (p. 245), but the whole subject must now be
taken up in a more formal manner and treated not in relation
to English finds alone but on considerably broader lines.
Ornaments of gold inlaid with garnets and coloured glass
pastes form one of the most striking features in general
collections of antiquities from Germanic graves of the
migration period, and no Teutonic area has furnished
specimens of this work more numerous and more excellent
than has Kent. These Kentish objects, it will be shown,
were made in the county itself and were not only in common
use there among the well-to-do classes but were imported to
other parts of the country where they have come to light in
a sporadic manner. One specimen of this inlaid jewellery,
found in the north of England but of Kentish character, is of
especial value in that it can be within certain limits dated.
This is the pectoral cross found upon the body of St. Cuthbert
when his grave in Durham Cathedral was opened in 1827,^
shown PI. cxL, 3. It was evidently a reliquary cross worn
from motives of private devotion, not a badge of episcopal
^ The St. Cuthbert relics as a whole will receive full treatment in
a subsecjuent volume.
510 INLAID JEWELLERY
office, for It was discovered not above but under the liturgical
robes, and had apparently not been seen when the body was
translated in XII. It measures 2|- in. across the arms and is
reproduced the size of the original. Under the central piece
of inlay there was probably a relic.
St. Cuthbert died in 687 and the appearance of the cross
shows that it had been worn for a considerable time, so that
the date of its fabrication might be about the middle of VII.
Another datable piece is in the British Museum and is
known as the Wilton pendant, PI. cxl, 1,2. It was found
in Norfolk, an isolated discovery, and consists in a genuine
gold solidus of the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius i (613-641)
mounted in a cruciform frame of gold with garnet inlays on
the front of it, No. 2. The craftsman has in one way rather
bungled his task. He has placed the obverse of the coin
bearing the imperial effigy at the back of the pendant. No. i,
possibly with a view of giving to the cross which appears as
the reverse device the prominent place on the front of the
jewel. He has however disposed the bust in an upright
position as the pendant hangs, and this involved the appearance
of the cross on the front upside down. It is interesting to
compare this arrangement with that of a similar piece of
Prankish origin but of much slighter make in the Museum at
Leiden,^ No. 4 on PI. cxl. Here on the front of the coin
enclosed in a thin frame of gold filigree work appears the
obverse of the piece with the imperial bust head upwards,
while the reverse type, a Victory, necessarily placed head
downwards, is tucked away at the back. The comparison is
instructive. The Prankish work is more scholarly, and this
has been already noted as one of the differences between the
two sides of the Channel. Artistically speaking the Mero-
vingian craftsman had no advantage over his insular brother,
but Roman civilization was more with him, and there was in
Gaul a more firmly rooted ecclesiastical organization with
^ Found at Wieuwerd near Leeuwarden, hut of Prankish provenance.
\v
\^„>'
PL D
facing p. 51 1
INLAID WORK, KENTISH AND CONTINENTAL
II
III
IV
II and IV, about natural size;
III, enlarged more than twice linear
// aPiJ III are Co>itinental
THE WILTON PENDANT 511
Roman traditions at its back, so that his scholarship, as
shown for example in the reproduction of inscriptions on
coins, was in advance of that of the comparatively untutored
Anglo-Saxon.
The curious setting of the coin in the Wilton pendant is
significant chronologically. The goldsmith evidently felt
bound to bring the device of the cross into special prominence
and this reminds us that in 628, on the conclusion of a peace
with Persia, the Emperor Heraclius recovered the true wood
of the holy Cross. This event impressed Christendom, and
the cruciform shape of the pendant with the arrangement of
the coin are no doubt connected chronologically with the
historical event, so that the fabrication of the piece would fall
in the second quarter of VII. It is accordingly clear that
these handsome jewels were being manufactured in VII and
for Christian purposes ; the tradition of the craft goes back
however to far earlier times, and the history of it will presently
be traced in the needful detail. It will be of advantage how-
ever first to arrive at some clear understanding of the work in
question from the technical standpoint.
The technical character of this work as we find it repre-
sented in Kent may be elucidated by a detailed description of
what is one of the very finest extant examples of the tech-
nique, an inlaid brooch of gold found in the tomb of a lady
at Kingston Down in Kent in the year 1771, and now the
chief treasure of the Mayer-Faussett collection in the Museum
at Liverpool. The jewel, together with a portion of the face
on a larger scale, is given in the natural colours on the
Frontispiece to Vol. iii, PI. A. It may date from the early
part of VII.
The piece is a disc fibula, that is a brooch consisting in a
continuous circular plate with pin attachment at the back. Of
such disc fibulae there are several kinds. The form here in
question has two plates, a front and back, set at a little
distance from each other and united by a rim, the vacant
512 INLAID JEWELLERY
space being filled in with some kind of cement or paste.
This, which remains in the case of a disc fibula in the Dover
Museum that has lost its back plate, appears to be of a
resinous composition. The Kingston fibula is in diameter
3|- in. At the rim it is |- in. thick, but as the front plate is
slightly convex the thickness in the middle is |- in. The back
plate is of gold like the front, and save for the bronze pin no
other metal but gold is employed. In this the jewel differs
from the other disc fibulae of the kind both at home and
abroad, for the back plate in all other examples with which
the writer is acquainted is of bronze or silver. Nos. 5, 6,
on PI. cxL exhibit the treatment in detail of the back. The
pin projects from a kind of drum the upper surface of which
is set with gems, and this drum revolves in a horizontal plane
inside a casing, but only moves sufficiently to allow the point
of the pin to enter or be released from the catch. A spring
to prevent the pin's point dropping and so slipping out of the
catch is provided by the elasticity of the pin itself against the
resistance offered by a stud that projects below the pin at its
butt end. For additional security a loop is attached to the
back plate to which a chain or cord was fastened when the
precious piece was in wear. The exterior of the upright
casing and the part of the plate surrounding it are ornamented
with filigree work in gold showing debased zoomorphic orna-
ment corresponding to a date in the early part of VII. The
catch is a somewhat elaborate work of art and is fashioned
like the head of an animal, filigree work adorning the plate on
each side of the neck. The rim of the whole jewel is enriched
with a band of work of this same kind in gold, and there are
three staples of gold driven in through the rim apparently to
keep the back and front plates together.
This careful elaboration of the back part of the brooch
prepares us for the very sumptuous and at the same time
precise and well-considered treatment of the front. Here, as
the Frontispiece, PL A, shows, a plate of gold slightly convex
THE KINGSTON FIBULA 513
is covered over with compartments formed by strips of gold
soldered down upright upon the ground and again soldered
together at the points of contact, as seen in the enlarged
portion. A round central boss is considerably raised and is
also marked out with similar compartments. The construc-
tion of these cloisons is well shown in a piece in the Museum
at Worms, where they remain intact while the settings
have all disappeared, No. II on PI. D (p. 511). Into
the spaces thus formed were inlaid coloured gems or pastes,
or else panels of gold plate on which are ornaments in relief
of a specially Teutonic kind. The compartments are planned
according to a cruciform scheme, into which however we
need not read any Christian significance. Between the
central boss and the circumference are four rounds, and
between these four straight bars suggesting an equal-armed
cross. A series of five concentric bands combine with these
forms to produce a number of variously shaped spaces, that
are again subdivided by the upright strips of gold which are
often bent into a step-like pattern, a form characteristic of the
compartments or cloisons in this Kentish inlaid work. Most
of these cloisons are filled in with thin sHces of garnet, and to
increase the effect of the rich crimson colour of these the floor
of the compartment is covered with a thin sheet of gold foil
on which a pattern of small squares has been stamped, similar,
only on a minute scale, to some of the patterns impressed by
stamps on the clay vases. The light penetrating the thin slip
of transparent stone is reflected back through it with the added
lustre of the shining facets of the gold foil. To secure more
variety, four square slabs of the semi-precious stone set
diamond fashion midway between the four rounds are of
darker hue than the rest^ as is seen in the enlarged portion,
while a certain number of the spaces tastefully disposed over
the face of the brooch are filled with glass pastes of a dark
blue colour. In certain places, such as the ring round the
raised central boss and the middle parts of the four round
514 INLAID JEWELLERY
spaces disposed cruciform fashion, there occurs a white sub-
stance, used very commonly in this Kentish jewellery in the
form of a convex button in the midst of which is set a rounded
garnet.^ The nature of this white substance is an unsolved
puzzle, and on this a word is said later on (p. 544). Its
importance is due to the fact that it is an English speciality of
rare occurrence on the Continent, being practically unknown,
as used in this fashion, in the disc fibulae of this same inlaid
type so common in Merovingian Gaul. The ornamentation
in the compartments where there is no inlay is a debased form
of the characteristic Germanic animal ornament a discussion
of which will be found in Chapter vi (p. 325 f.).
The garnets used are divided into thin slices by the
process known to modern gem-cutters as ' slitting.' This
is now achieved ^ by pressing the stone against the edge of a
thin disc of metal revolving very rapidly, that is charged with
some erosive material in fine powder and made into a paste
with water. The wheel is of soft metal and the fine hard
grains of the powder bite into the edge of it, fixing themselves
there like little teeth so that the wheel becomes equivalent to
a circular saw. The thin slips are cut to shape by wheels of
the same kind, or, when the facets are hollow, by being pressed
against revolving cylinders of suitable diameters. Polishing
is effected by pressure against flat revolving surfaces charged
with rotten stone or other substances of the kind. Mr. Clare-
mont notices that the apparatus of the lapidary of to-day is
characterized by extreme simplicity and even primitiveness.
The only appliance he disposes of that was not known in
Anglo-Saxon times is diamond dust for an erosive, which has
now replaced the emery powder (corundum) employed by the
^ A gem with convex polished top rounded and not cut into facets is
said to be mounted 'en cabochon.' Garnets treated in this fashion are
popularly termed ' carbuncles.'
2 Mr. L. Claremont, The Gem-Cutter'' s Crajt, London, 1906, gives a
technical account of these processes.
/ 1
CXLI
facing p. 515
EARLY EXAMPLES OF INLAID WORK, ETC.
All Continental or Asiatic
KINGSTON FIBULA, TECHNIQUE 515
ancients. For the rest, the wheels and other appliances at
present in use were no doubt available in the Kent of about
the year 600. In this connection reference may be made to
an object in the Mayer collection at Liverpool that was
probably found in a grave in Kent. It is a block of rock
crystal measuring ^.^ in. in its longest dimension and is shown
PL cxLVii, II (p. 537). A portion has been sliced off it,
above and to the left, by the use of a wheel of the kind
referred to, and below this the photograph shows the edge of
a narrow cut that penetrates part of the way through the mass.
The technique is just the same as that of the garnet slitting.
With regard to the skill in manipulation involved, we must
remember the very high standard in matters of technique
attained by the classical and older oriental peoples as well as
by barbaric craftsmen in the Bronze Age, and it is worth while
illustrating this by a single outstanding example. No. i on
PL cxLi shows a bronze breast ornament of the Early Bronze
Age in Denmark, on which the spirals have been impressed
with a ' tracer,' also of bronze, with a certainty of hand that is
little short of miraculous.^ No. 2 on the same plate gives a
portion on an enlarged scale. We have accordingly a right
to expect manipulative facility and precise execution from the
Germanic metal worker of the migration period. The work
is in the technical sense of the term * barbaric,' in that it
belongs to the regions outside the classical world, but ' bar-
baric ' in this sense does not carry with it any connotation
such as ' rude ' or ' clumsy.' As a matter of fact the execution
of this Kentish brooch is in every way admirable, and on this
point the following may be of interest.
On the question of materials and technique in this
characteristic work of the migration period, the writer
consulted a professional expert in precious stones familiar
with their structure and history as well as with their manipu-
lation in practice, and found him extremely kind and willing
1 Sophus Miiller Nordische Jltertumskunde, i, 285.
5i6 INLAID JEWELLERY
to impart all the information in his power. He was
acquainted with sundry rather clumsy achievements in gem
cutting by the modern natives of Siam, and his view before
the production of some photographs of Germanic work was
that this would be of the same rough-and-ready kind. After
a glance at some reproductions of these objects in colour he
said that the red inlays must be of coloured glass, fused
enamel fashion into the cloisons or cut to shape and inserted
cold. It was fortunate that a piece of the red inlay that
had fallen out of a cloison on a Kentish jewel was available,
and this specimen he at once handed over to a technical
expert on his staff who was asked to test it and report as to
its constitution. The answer came after a short interval that
it was not glass but garnet, and it may be noticed here that
all over the Teutonic area the red inlays are almost invariably
garnet. Otto Tischler, an archaeologist of the last generation
whose special bent was towards the investigation of points of
technique, tested every piece he gained access to and found
it always garnet ; ^ the late Josef Hampel was of the same
opinion,^ and so are French archaeologists such as M. Pilloy.^
The nature of the inlaid substance being thus established, the
writer's friend kindly explained that though garnet cut easily
yet it was a brittle stone, and when sharp angles and hollows
were in process of formation breakages would often occur.
He suggested therefore that the stones might have been
shaped first of all without any painful effort after exactitude
of contour to attain which involved the risk of fractures,
while the strips of gold forming the cloisons would be bent
1 Mitt. d. Wiener Antbropol. Gesellschaft, xix (1889), 162 f,
* Alterthiimer in JJngarn^ i, 473.
3 The popular tests are (1) comparative hardness, which is much
greater in garnet than in glass, as can be tested with a fine jeweller's file ;
(2) temperature, the garnet striking colder when touched by the tongue;
and (3) absence in the garnet of any trace of decomposition or iridescence
so common in ancient glass, or of surface flaws or scratches which the
softer glass shows as the result of abrasion.
TECHNIQUE OF GARNET CUTTING 517
round subsequently to fit the actual perimeter of the garnet.
It was soon seen that with a surface like that of the Kingston
brooch, entirely covered with the shaped cloisons only
separated from each other by the dividing strips, such a
process was impossible, and the final result of the investiga-
tion was a declaration that the gem cutting in question, so far
from showing any sign of barbaric rudeness, was fully up to
the best technical standard of to-day. The modern workman
could of course carry out the work with quite equal precision,
but a master gem cutter of to-day would hesitate before he
undertook a commission of the kind on account of the number
of the brittle stones that would be spoilt in the process. An
inquiry elicited the information that a simple piece like the
specimen shown, trapezoidal, with one side straight and the
others convex or hollow, and less than a quarter of a square
inch in area, would take a modern workman the best part of
an hour to cut and polish, while those which were shaped
step-fashion or with salient angles might occupy half a day.
It should be understood that the modern use of diamond dust
instead of the older emery greatly accelerates operations.
This result represents on the whole rather a triumph for the
craftsman of old, who would have no occasion to fear the
competition of his modern successor even when armed with
all the appliances of science and machinery.
In connection with this technical point it may be of
interest to show here the shapes of some cut garnets that
exhibit far greater elaboration and sharper angles than any-
Fig. 19. — Shapes of Garnets in Treasure of Petrossa.
thing in the Kingston brooch or in Anglo-Saxon jewellery in
general. The stones in Fig. 19 are from the Petrossa treasure
presently to be noticed, and the forms are copied from the
work of Professor Odobescu, Le Trhor de Petrossa.
IV I
5i8 HISTORY OF INLAID JEWELLERY
Two questions now present themselves, one concerning
the general history of inlaid work in Europe at large, and the
other concerning the special position of Kentish jewellery in
relation to other developments of the craft in different
European countries. The provenance of the inlaid gold
jewellery as a whole has been the subject of a controversy
that may now be considered as practically settled. It has
been claimed as Roman, but evidence is overwhelmingly
strong that it really belongs in its origin and development to
rep-ions outside the classical world. Our own special form
of this work, the Kentish jewellery, has been regarded as
Prankish rather than of native provenance, but here again
there are convincing grounds for ascribing it to the Anglo-
Saxon not the Merovingian goldsmith.
These two points must be dealt with in some detail, as the
subject matter is one of considerable interest and importance,
and the general historical question may suitably be accorded
precedence.
Reference was made in the Introductory Chapter (p. ii)
to the work by the late Alois Riegl of Vienna, entitled
Late Roman Artistic Industry^ in which he attempts to vindi-
cate for the later classical civilization the credit of creating
the new decorative forms and fashions which appear at the
epoch of the Teutonic migrations. The author's Hfe was
unfortunately cut short before the second volume was com-
pleted, so the work remains as yet a torso, and the evidence
Riegl was prepared to bring forward in support of his thesis
has been very imperfectly presented. This thesis involved
the two rather paradoxical theories that both inlaid gold work
and enamelling were arts developed naturally in the late
classical world to answer to certain new artistic tendencies
which were making themselves apparent in the Roman
imperial period. As a fact all the evidence we possess at
present exhibits both enamelling and inlaid work as essentially
\ I
PI. E
facing p. 519
ROMAN ENAMELLED BROOCH, ETC.
II
III
IV
I and III, somewhat reduced ; 11, 3 natural size ;
IV, enlarged to i^ linear.
/ IS Continental
ANGLO-SAXON ENAMELLING 519
non-classical, having their origin outside the classical peri-
phery and at dates prior to the development of classical
civilization, touching this periphery at certain times and
places, and even practised to a limited extent by the Greeks
and Romans, but always remaining barbaric arts until
Byzantium from about VI or VII adopted and made her
own one of the many processes of enamel. Both enamel and
incrustation or inlaying, it may be noticed, remained through
the middle ages characteristic artistic processes of the West.
Both these processes were therefore in use on the out-
skirts of the classical world at the time that the Teutonic
tribes made their first incursions into the Roman Empire.
Enamelling they learned, and though practising it in a very
sporadic and half-hearted fashion they did enough to keep
the art alive till it took a new start in the Carolingian period.
There are one or two specimens of Anglo-Saxon enamel-
ling in the pagan period, and PI. cxlvi, 4, exhibits one in the
form of an enamelled central disc to a circular Kentish brooch
from Ash in the Ashmolean. Here in a ground of dark green
enamel there is a quatrefoil in white enamel in compartments.
There is no question that this is genuine vitreous enamel fused
in. The most conspicuous example of the technique occurs in
the head plates of two ' long ' fibulae in the celebrated Szilagy
Somlyo find at Budapest presently to be noticed. One of
these is shown in the natural colours, PI. G, 11 (p. 527). The
enamel is green and purple, in the cloisonne technique. The
subject of Anglo-Saxon enamel becomes of much greater
importance in the later epoch, in connection with the ' Alfred '
jewel, and will be treated more at length in a succeeding
volume. In contradistinction to enamel, inlaid work appears
to have appealed to the Teutons at once with decisive force,
and they threw themselves with ardour into its production.
The first of the Teutonic peoples to enter the imperial domains
achieved in this branch of art the most splendid results that
the art ever produced and imparted the tradition of it to all
520 HISTORY OF INLAID JEWELLERY
the other branches of the Germanic race. The people in
question were the Goths, and to the time when the Goths
hung like a cloud on the north-eastern frontiers of the
Empire we may ascribe the earliest essays which soon resulted
in masterpieces in the characteristic Teutonic inlaid gold
jewellery.
The Goths entered the Roman Empire from the east from
seats on the northern coasts of the Euxine Sea whither they
had migrated from Baltic lands about II a.d. In the lands
above the Black Sea they had every opportunity of becoming
acquainted with the technique, and how this came about a
sketch of the early history of the craft will show.
This history begins in Egypt, where in the time of the
1 2th dynasty, about 2000 b.c, occur the earliest datable
examples of inlaid gold jewellery. A pectoral ornament in
pierced gold work, exquisitely chased at the back and in front
enriched with inlays of red cornelian and blue glass pastes,
found at Dahshur and now in the Cairo Museum, is shown in
colour PI. F, I (p. 521). Nothing of its kind in existence is
of finer technical quality. The British Museum has recently
acquired a small Egyptian headdress for a statuette in gold set
with inlays of lapis lazuli dating about 1000 b.c, and Egyptian
examples of inlaying of about this period are numerous and
familiar. The influence of such work abroad is seen in some
early Greek gold jewellery of the Mycenaean period from
Aegina that is inlaid with lapis lazuli in the same fashion, and
similar incrustations have left distinct traces in certain objects
of carved ivory, probably of Phoenician manufacture, also in
the British Museum, that were found in the north-west palace
at Nimrud in Assyria, and may date from IX b.c. Of more
importance was Egyptian influence on the art of the Persians,
who in VI B.C. were for a time masters of the Nile valley.
The splendour of the jewels worn by the Persians was pro-
verbial, and ancient writers mention a famous golden vine in
the chamber of the Great King, which had its clusters of
PI. F
facing p. 5^"
EGYPTIAN, PERSIAN, AND GOTHIC INLAYS
II
III
IV
I, 111, about \ nat\iral size; iv is ii in in diameter
j-ll/ (^o/itiufntcd
EARLY PERSIAN INLAID WORK 521
grapes made of ail kinds of precious stones such as emeralds
and ' Indian carbuncles,' that is, of the very garnets which
were later on to glow in the inlaid jewellery of the Goths and
Anglo-Saxons. A very important link in the chain of evi-
dence connecting the later inlaid work with the nearer East
came to light in the course of the recent excavations carried
on by a French expedition on the site of Susa, one of the
Persian capitals, the ' Shushan the palace ' of Scripture. Here
in 1902 were found objects in gold jewellery set with coloured
stones in a tomb that was dated by coins to IV b.c. One of
these, a jewel of uncertain use, now in the Louvre, is seen
PI. cxLi, 3. It is work of the Achaemenid period in Persia.
In all probability of Persian origin and of about this same
date were many of the gold objects found in 1877 on the
river Oxus, near Balkh the ancient capital of Bactria. The
bulk of these objects, known as the Treasure of the Oxus, is
in the British Museum, and they have been published in a
book by Mr. O. M. Dal ton ^ that is an indispensable modern
work on this much-discussed subject of inlaid gold jewellery.
Amongst them were two gold armlets terminating in two
winged monsters whose bodies and wings are covered with
cloisons in which were once set coloured stones. One is in
the British Museum, the other in the Victoria and Albert
Museum shown PI. cxli, 4 (p. 515).
Still keeping to the East, we can trace in Persia and lands
where her influence is known to have extended the continu-
ance of this technique into the early centuries of our era.
There is a golden relic box in the British Museum set with
garnets and green stones found in a Buddhist tope near
Jalalabad in Hindustan and dated by coins found with it to
about the middle of 11 a.d.. No. 6 on PI. cxli. Here the
technique is somewhat different, for the inlays are not set in
1 The Treasure of the Oxus^ London, 1905. With this should be taken
the same writer's paper ' On some points in the History of Inlaid Jewellery '
in Archaeologia^ vol. lviii.
522 HISTORY OF INLAID JEWELLERY
cloisons but in apertures cut in the thickness of the gold
plate in which they appear as windows. This same technique
is seen in two famous pieces of somewhat later date, both
fully attested as of Sasanian, i.e. later Persian, origin. One is
a rectangular plaque, perhaps part of the garniture of a girdle,
at Wiesbaden, found in a Frankish tomb at Wolfsheim. It is
shown on the colour Plate F, iii. The plate, which is of sub-
stantial thickness, is pierced with round and diamond shaped
apertures in each of which is inserted a slip of garnet, the gold
being burnished down at the edges to fix the slips in their
places, and the effect is something like that of the plate
tracery of mediaeval windows. The plaque is a little over
2 in. long and has on the back in old Pahlavi characters the
name ' Ardashir,' or as we call it ' Artaxerxes.' There were
two Sasanian sovereigns of that name, and the object may
date either in the first part of III or the last part of IV a.d.
Lastly, No. iv on PI. F shows a view into the interior of the
famous Cup of Chosroes, a later Sasanian sovereign about
600 A.D., in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris. This is a
very shallow bowl 11 in. in diameter wrought in gold about
^ in. thick save at the edge where it is thicker. In the centre
is inserted a plaque of rock crystal 2^ in. in diameter finely
engraved with a portrait of the monarch seated on his throne.
Round this centre a narrow band is excavated in compart-
ments in each of which is inserted a garnet, and a row of
similarly inlaid garnets adorns the outer rim. The field of
the bowl in between is pierced through with round apertures
the largest of which are of a diameter of i|- in. These are
filled in with plaques of green and red glass which have
moulded patterns on them. They are fixed by burnishing.
The bowl stands on a massive gold rim -^^ in. thick and
I" in. high, and is of course a work of the first order. When
it is held up to the window the coloured discs and the engraved
crystal centre are seen by transmitted light.
Turning now towards the West we are met at once by a
CXLII
facing p. 523
SIBERIAN, ETC., INLAID PIECES
I
I
All Continental
SIBERIAN INLAID GOLD WORK 523
fact the significance of which has been lately emphasized,^ the
influence of Iranian or Persian culture on southern Russia.
This influence is much in evidence in the early centuries of
our era through the constant occurrence in Russian finds of
objects of Sasanian workmanship largely in the form of shallow
silver bowls embossed with figure subjects in relief,^ but it
begins much further back, as Professor Rostowzew has shown,
and it is not too hazardous to connect with this oriental inlaid
gold work, centering in Achaemenid Persia but penetrating at
any rate to Bactria, the extraordinary development of the
same technique in the lands between the Caspian and the
Euxine and in the regions up to the Ural mountains and
Siberia. A large number of objects in the precious metals,
for the most part inlaid, have been found over a considerable
portion of hither Asia to the north as well as to the south,
and also over eastern Europe from the Yenisei in Siberia to
Vettersfeld in Prussia. The openness of the whole of this
vast region of plains rendered the transmission of culture-
influences from end to end of it an easy matter, and Mr.
Dalton remarks that ' the Scythic-Siberian style ' ' maintained
an unmistakable character from the Yenisei to the Carpathians'
and may in time ' have extended over a period of at least six
or seven centuries.'
Siberian art of this order is represented by some extra-
ordinary objects in massive gold set with turquoises and
garnets that in point of style are quite sui generis^ and are
among the choicest treasures of the Hermitage Museum
at Petrograd. Their date and exact provenance are alike
unknown. Some were found in XVIII. One of the best of
^ E.g., by Professor M. Rostowzew in a paper on Iranism and Ionian-
ism in South Russia, read at the International Congress of Historical Studies
in London in April, 191 3.
^ As recently as June 1912 a great treasure containing Sasanid objects
was brought to light at Poltowa, the scene of the famous victory of Peter
the Great over the Swedes.
524 HISTORY OF INLAID JEWELLERY
these is an eagle of gold, set with gems, that holds in its talons
an antelope of a species characteristic of this region, No. 5 on
PL cxLi, A piece with more pronounced character still is
given in No. 2 on PI. cxlii. It is very massively wrought in
gold pierced with apertures and bedecked with coloured gems
in compartments. A man on horseback is seen pursuing a
wild boar, and there are trees and animals in the background.
Other objects that probably originated to the north of the
Black Sea show a mixture of classical motives derived from
the flourishing Greek colonies of the region with those of a
barbaric character, which for want of a better term may be
qualified as ' Scythian,' An excellent example is the remark-
able piece of open work in gold, set with gems, in the Kerch
room at the Hermitage, shown PL cxlii, 1.^ No. 4 of the
plate shows the famous golden fish and a golden holster of
Scythian pattern, found at Vettersfeld in the Nieder Lausitz,
that are supposed to be Greco-Scythian work of perhaps
500 B.C., brought up from southern Russia at a time and
under conditions at which we can only guess.
Into these lands north of the Euxine descended in II the
Goths, and an important era in the history of early mediaeval
culture and art has at this time and place its beginning. In
receptivity to culture the Goths stand easily first among
the Teutonic peoples, and in this favoured region, a meeting
place of classical and oriental civilizations, they readily imbibed
a good deal of what Greece and Rome had to teach, as well as
the attractive, because showy and bizarre, elements of Iranian
and Scythic decoration. They first of all made their language
a written one by the adoption with certain modifications of the
letters of the Greek, and to a lesser extent the Latin, Alphabet
to form the so-called runic Futhorc," a set of characters
1 Kondakoff, Tolstoi, and S. Reinach, Jntiquites de la Russie Meridmiale,
Paris, 1 891, is che most accessible standard work on all this subject, but there
is a considerable literature on it in the Russian language.
2 A word formed from the first six letters of the series F, U, TH,
etc., just as Alphabet from the Greek alpha, beta, etc.
, \
CXLIII
facing p. 525
GOTHIC AND OTHER INLAID PIECES
All Continental
INVENTION OF RUNIC WRITING 525
specially adapted for incision in wood that was the first appar-
atus of writing among the Teutonic peoples. The runic
Futhorc of 24 letters was probably invented or evolved among
the Goths north of the Euxine about 200 a.d., and was before
long transmitted to the north-west to the Baltic lands whence
the Goths had come, along the easy and open route by the
plains at the back of the Carpathians by which the people had
themselves effected their southward migration. At a later
period when owing to the pressure of the Huns they had
moved westward into Dacia the Goths were converted, and
under the influence of the Church, that was closely bound up
with the Roman system, their language was made a literary
one by the translation into it of the scriptures by Bishop
Ulfilas, who created for the purpose a Gothic alphabet closely
following the classical but with the admixture of certain runic
elements. The existence of this classically formed Gothic
alphabet stood in the way of the propagation of the earlier
runic system towards the west, and accounts for the curious
fact that the art of runic writing reached Britain and Gaul not
directly along the Danube and Rhine but round by the way of
northern Europe. Dr. Almgren,^ Bernhard Salin/ Haakon
Schetelig,^ and others, with whom Professor Hampel * agreed,
believe that with the runes the Goths sent to the north-west
at the same time a form of fibula that was developed in
Scandinavia to the characteristic form of the ' long ' or ' cruci-
form ' brooch transmitted in V to our own country. The pre-
history of the Teutonic fibula is, it must be acknowledged,
rather obscure, but there is no doubt about the runes. ^
^ Studien ilber nordeurop. Fibelformen, Stockholm, 1897.
2 Thierornamentik^ pp. 69, 136, 355.
^ Cruciform Brooches of Norway, p. 8.
* Alterthumer in Ungarn, i. p. 773 note.
^ See the article on runes by Professor von Friesen in the new Reallexicon
der Germ anise hen Altertumskunde, Strassburg, 1 9 1 1 , etc. The demonstration
that the Greek and not the Latin alphabet was the foundation of the Futhorc
is the corner-stone of the present theory of the origin and early history of
runic writing.
526 HISTORY OF INLAID JEWELLERY
In matters aesthetic the Goths, whose artistic sensibility
seems to have been keen, were not able to assimilate classical
art proper, for this would have involved a treatment of the
human figure in which they had received no schooling, but
they were appealed to by the effective contrasts of gold and
crimson in the inlaid work, and by some of the motives used
in the mixed style of the Euxine lands. One of these motives
is the griffin, a creature whose habitat is the Scytho-Greek
zone of culture inland from the north coast of that sea. It
appears on the piece reproduced PL cxlii, i. The griffin is
prominent in a certain class of works in Hungary that are
known as the Keszthely group, and occurs in Teutonic work
in other regions, as upon Anglo-Saxon sceattas (p. 91) and
other objects. Another motive that is distinctly Gothic, but
was adopted by many other peoples, is the eagle, and the pro-
venance of this motive might be a subject of discussion.
Dr. Gotze,^ while vindicating it for the Gothic regions of
southern Russia, does not offer any explanation of it. Lin-
denschmit's view was that the creature with hooked beak was
a falcon, and betokened the love of the Teutonic chieftain for
this companion of the chase. ^ It is open to any one to argue
that the eagle was borrowed by the Goths from Roman art,
or was adopted as a motive from the barbaric work of the
region, exemplified by No. 5 on PI. cxli. Falconry had
hardly developed far enough in the early migration period to
have been its origin, but there are figures on the early Anglo-
Saxon sceattas (p. 92) that hold on their wrists birds with
hooked beaks which look more like hunters' falcons than like
the eagle of St. John or the holy Dove, while Professor
Montelius believes that the denizens of the richly furnished
^ Gotische Schnallen, Berlin, n.d.
2 Wir konnen deshalb keinem Zweifel Raum geben, dass wir in den
zahlreichen Darstellungen eines Krummschnabligen Vogels unter den
Zierstiicken des 5 bis 8 Jahrhunderts nur ein Zeugniss der altheimischen
Vorlicbe fiir die Falkenjagd zu erkennen haben, u.s.w., Ha?idbuch, p. 455-
PL G
lacing p. 527
EARLY GOTHIC INLAID WORK
II
III
IV
All approximately natural size
All Continental
GOLDEN TREASURES OF THE GOTHS 527
graves of VII at Vendel in Sweden practised falconry, for in
one of these graves the skeleton of a hawk was found.^
There is no reasonable doubt that inlaid jewellery, griffins,
and eagles were artistic specialities of the Goths, and were by
them transmitted to the other Teutonic peoples. This trans-
mission was favoured by the westerly movements of the
Gothic peoples. With the settlement of a portion of the
Goths in the former Roman province of Dacia there comes
at once an important development of their art. In what is
now Roumania and Hungary where the Visigoths resided
from about 270 to 376 a. d., three finds of golden treasures
of surpassing interest, with others of less bulk but equal
intrinsic quality, have come to light in circumstances that
make it almost certain that they belong to these Visigoths,
and must probably date before they were driven south over
the Danube by the irresistible pressure of the Huns. The
reference is to the Roumanian find known as the Treasure of
Petrossa in the University Museum at Bucharest, and the two
finds at Szilagy Somlyo near Grosswardein in Hungary, of
which the first is at Vienna the second at Budapest. These
come under the category familiar in our own country of
' treasure trove,' for they were deposits hidden in the ground
by owners who doubtless hoped to recover them when the
enemies they feared were no longer in the neighbourhood.
That the owners were Goths and the enemies the Huns before
whom the Visigoths fled in 376 is a conjecture which lies very
near, and there are indications of date which would support
such a hypothesis.
The Petrossa Treasure was when perfect of such magni-
ficence that the suggestion that it was the royal treasure of
Athanarich the Gothic King who retired before the Huns is
not unnatural. More than a dozen pieces of considerable
size and weight in massive gold or gold encrusted with semi-
precious stones survive from the treasure, though in a sadly
^ Kulturgeschichte Schwedens, p. 244.
528 HISTORY OF INLAID JEWELLERY
mutilated condition, and consist in golden dishes and ewers,
fibulae and other objects of personal adornment, such as the
pectoral ornament shown in colour PL F, ii (p. 521), and
some wonderful baskets of openwork in gold, the spaces being
filled in with coloured stones or pastes, No. 5 on PI. cxlii, see
also PI. xLviii, I, 2 (p. 273). It will be noted that the baskets
are in the same technique as the Cup of Chosroes (p. 522) with
the coloured inlays used as window panes, while the pectoral
which is in the form of an eagle is set with stones in raised
cloisons over the body, and on the neck heart-shaped garnets
are sunk into the plate as on the piece at Wiesbaden, No. iii
on PI. F (p. 521). There is the same treatment on the bodies
of the leopards which form the handles of the golden basket.
The stones have mostly disappeared but the settings or sink-
ings for them remain, and these show that the garnets were
cut into acute angles and re-entrant curves the execution
of which demanded the nicest skill and exactitude ; see the
forms in Fig. 19 (p. 517). The motives exhibit a blend of
the classical and the barbaric which corresponds exactly with
what would be expected at the time and place, and from a
people situated as were the Visigoths.
One of the other two finds carries with it still more
distinct indication of date, for it consists largely in medallions
in gold of an imposing size bearing inscribed portraits of
Roman Emperors of the end of III and the first three quarters
of IV A.D., from Maximian who died in 304 to Gratian who
assumed the purple in 367. These are undoubtedly gifts
presented by the emperors to their Germanic neighbours
across the Danube, and it is equally certain that they were
mounted for suspension by barbarian goldsmiths. This is
proved by the fact that in mounting the pieces the barbarian
goldsmith has in some cases mutilated the head of the
Emperor, in other cases the inscription, in a manner quite
impossible in a Roman craftsman. The most conspicuous
instance is the medallion with the head of Valens shown
SZILAGY SOMLYO SECOND FIND
Slightly under ^ natural size
All Continental
ROMAN GOLD MEDALLIONS 529
PI. cxLiii, 4, where the triangular plaque below the attachment
for suspension covers a good part of the sacro-sanct effigy.
In the case of the medallion of Gratian, 367-383 a.d., part of
the inscription at the back of the head is mutilated by the
stamped pattern added by the barbarian goldsmith, who has
enclosed the medallion in a frame on which are a number of
full-faced heads surrounded with a beading and with filigree
scrolls between each two. These details have been noticed
on a previous page (p. 324). The medallion is figured in
colour PL G, III (p. 527). The mounting in the case of the
medallion of Maximian, No. i on PL G, introduces garnet
inlays, a fact of great historical significance. We have just
seen that the craftsman must have been a Goth, and evidence
of his inexperience in the art of * laying out ' a design, quite
consistent with fine capacity in technical execution, is seen in
the irregular trapezoidal cloison just by the *N * of Maximianus
where spacing was at fault, and the rhomboid in place of two
triangles opposite to it. If this medallion were mounted for
suspension, as would be natural, soon after it was received, it
furnishes us with a specimen of Germanic inlaid work of the
beginning of IV, the earliest datable example known of the
form of decorative art most characteristic of the race and
period. A pendant of gold inlaid with garnets of great beauty
and in perfect preservation is shown No. iv, PL G (p. 527).
It formed a part of this same find, and by the medallions that
accompanied it it may be confidently dated not later than the
third quarter of the same century. Here the garnets are used
partly as flat inlays in triangular cells and partly exhibit convex
polished faces projecting 'en cabochon.' This piece again is
of the highest historical and aesthetic value.
The above treasure came to light in 1797, and by an
extraordinary coincidence a second hoard was discovered a
century later in 1889 close to the same spot. It consisted for
the most part in very handsome silver-gilt or golden fibulae set
with garnets, and there were also some golden bowls adorned
530 HISTORY OF INLAID JEWELLERY
with inlaid mountings about which there is a peculiarity,
trifling in itself, that is of no small historical significance. At
the back of the bowls there are rings passing through eyes
riveted on to the surface by rivets the heads of which can be
seen in the interior of the bowls. Through these rings were
passed straps or cords by which the vessel could be carried
attached to a belt or to a saddle. Now Herodotus '^ tells us
that in his time the Scythians used to carry drinking cups
suspended from their girdles, and it is a characteristic of the
nomads of the great Asian plains that to this day they carry
with them vessels for use on a journey or at one of the drink-
ing bouts of which the Scythians of old and some of their
modern descendants are so fond." A bowl of the same kind
but of later date from the find published in Professor Hampel's
work noticed below is figured beneath the Szilagy Somlyo bowls,
PI. cxLiii, 3, and illustrates the arrangement. This feature on
golden bowls adorned with garnet inlays is a really convincing
proof, equally cogent with that derived from the treatment of
the imperial medallions, that this inlaid gold work is of non-
classical origin, and had once its home in the plains of southern
Russia whence the Goths brought it with them to the Danube.
The collection of fibulae in this second find at Szilagy
Somlyo is the finest in existence and with the bowls forms the
glory of the National Hungarian Museum at Budapest.
The Plate cxliv gives a general view of the collection of
fibulae, the forms of which apart from their sumptuousness
of enrichment are of much interest. It must be noted that
over and above the garnets set flat or en cabochon there are
occasionally used as inlays coloured glass pastes and, in the
case of one pair of fibulae, enamel. There are also some
early forms of animal ornament. It would seem natural to
ascribe the hoard found in 1889 to the same epoch as that
1 IV, X.
2 Hampel, Der Goldfund von Nagy-Szent-MikUs, Budapest, 1886, p. 108
and notes.
VISIGOTHIC JEWELLERY 531
discovered a century earlier, on the supposition that the owner
of the whole treasure buried it in two places to double the
chance of part of it remaining undisturbed.^ This seems more
likely than that two owners at different epochs chose this
particular spot as a place of concealment. The medallions,
ceasing with Gratian who assumed the purple in 368, coupled
with the fact of the migration of the Visigoths across the
Danube under pressure from the Huns in 376, certainly
appear to indicate a date about 375 for the deposit, but this
though it is generally accepted for the medallions seems to
some rather too early on a typological scheme for the fibulae
of the second find, which Professor Hampel brought into V.
The question may in the meantime be left open.
It will not be necessary to follow the art into the domains
of all the Teutonic peoples that adopted it. The ancient
Dacia corresponding roughly to the modern Roumania and
Hungary may be taken as the centre of distribution. The
Visigoths carried the art through Italy to the seats of their
later rule in southern France and Spain, while the Ostrogoths,
whose settled home for half a century was the Italian penin-
sula, have left there their traces in the form of objects of
decorative art that can be distinguished by their style from
the later products of Lombard craftsmen. The appearance of
the eagle motive is here a touchstone. Dr. Gotze brings out
the similarity in this feature between buckles found in Italy
and those which from their South-Russian provenance are
shown to be Gothic. A fine golden fibula in the form of an
eagle covered with garnet inlays and measuring 4^ in. by
2^ in. was found at Cesena, not far from Theodoric's capital
Ravenna, and is now in the Germanic Museum at Nuremberg.^
The Cluny Museum at Paris boasts a somewhat similar piece
1 This was the view of von Pulszky, Die Goldftinde von Szilagy-Somlyo,
Denkmaler der Volkerwanderung, Budapest, 1890, pp. 8, 31.
^ Romische Quartaischrift fiir christliche Kunst, 1899, p. 324. Mitthei-
lungen d. germ. nat. Museums, i899j 1900.
532 HISTORY OF INLAID JEWELLERY
in bronze gilt that was found at Valence d'Agen in the
Visigothic district of Toulouse, and a counterpart to this is in
the Archaeological Museum at Madrid, and was discovered
in the once Visigothic district between Saragossa and the
capital. The famous Gothic votive crowns, found at Guar-
razar near Toledo in Spain in 1858 and preserved at Madrid
and in the Musee Cluny at Paris, are notable through the fact
that in the case of two of them there are jewelled letters
hanging from the bottom edge of the circlets, which spell the
names of two Visigothic kings of VII — Svinthila (621-631)
and Reccesvinthus (649-672). The group of nine crowns at
Paris is shown PI. cxliii, i. The Vandals at one time were
closely associated with the Goths and no doubt adopted from
them the technique, which is illustrated in some pieces of
inlaid work found in Africa and doubtless of Vandal make.
Lombard inlaid gold work is well illustrated from the finds
at Castel Trosino near Ascoli on the eastern slope of the
Apennines now in the Terme Museum at Rome.^
From the present point of view the important after-
developments of this technique are those located in the valleys
of the Danube and the Rhine, along which the art spread
westward to the Alamanni, the Burgundians, the Franks and
the Jutes of Kent, while it probably ascended from central
European regions to Scandinavia. An early piece of the first
rank from the standpoint of technique was found at Apahida
near Kolozsvar in Hungary, and is now in the Siebenbiir-
gisches Museum there. It is a golden buckle inlaid with
garnets the cutting of which is of great exactness, and the
construction of the plate behind the massive ring would repay
analysis did limitations of space allow. This with several
other pieces was found in company with some silver vases
enriched with reliefs in a late classical style and also with
a cross-bow fibula of Roman type, and the date is thus fixed
^ Mengarelli, ' La necropoli barbarica di Castel Trosino,' in the Mofiu-
menti Antichi of the Lincei, vol. xii, 1902.
CXLV
facing p. 533
INLAID KENTISH DISC FIBULAE
I, 3, 4, somewhat reduced ; z, enlarged ; 5, 6, 7, 8, approximately natural size
SWORD MOUNTS OF CHILDERIC 533
to the early part or middle of V, The fashion of this work
spread from the Danube valley into that of the Rhine, and
a landmark of its progress may be recognized in an inlaid
buckle now at Stuttgart which appears like a direct copy of
the Apahida piece. This last is figured in colour about the
natural size PL D, iv (p. 511).
In the last quarter of V we find the work in some
examples of the highest technical perfection in the form of
buckles, buckle-plates, purse-fastenings, studs, and especially
mounts attached to the scabbards of two swords, all found in
the grave of the Prankish chieftain Childeric, the father of
Clovis, which was accidentally opened at Tournai in Belgium
in the year 1653. Childeric, it is known from history, died
in the year 481 a.d. so the find is fully authenticated and
dated. There are several pieces of inlaid gold work among
the scabbard mounts from the grave, and the apportionment
of each to its proper use is a difficult problem (p. 218) on
which M, Pilloy, Etudes ^ vol. iii, has a good deal to say. We
are only concerned here with the character of the work in
which exactness of garnet cutting, closely serried setting, and
flatness, are remarkable features. Some specimens of the
work are figured on the colour Plate H, 11 (p. 541). The style
here is markedly different from that of the earlier inlaid
fibulae from Szilagy Somlyo where the distribution of the
stones over the gold is somewhat free and open. In the
Hungarian pieces the garnets, mounted commonly en cabochon,
are of various sizes and shapes, and, as in the case also with
objects, in the Petrossa Treasure, they are dotted over the
ground leaving parts of the gold surface free. In the
Prankish work, as in the buckle from Apahida and the eagle
fibula from near Ravenna, the stones are more evenly and
more closely set and the only gold that appears is on the
edges of the cloisons between the pieces. It happens not
seldom that when a new phase of art is beginning the earliest
efforts are of a free, bold, and somewhat experimental kind,
IV K
534 HISTORY OF INLAID JEWELLERY
whereas a little later the work becomes for a time far more
precise and stiff, and is less attractive to the eye though it
imposes by its correctness and self-control. The difference
was marked by Gottfried Semper, who called the former the
' lax ' archaic style, the latter the * severe ' archaic style where
everything seems to be sacrificed to formal exactitude. In
this western part of Europe at any rate, at the end of V and
for part of VI, close-set garnet inlays kept rigidly flat are the
rule. A small stud or button was found in Childeric's grave
set with eight garnets shaped like keystones and arranged
round a centre, and fibulae of this same pattern are common
in early Frankish graves and occur also in the Rhineland,
Burgundy, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy. Archaeologists
in northern France recognize these as the earliest forms of
the inlaid jewel that came into common use. The Pierpont
Morgan collection ^ contains many specimens some of which
have the inlays shaped so as to form a cross. The Franks it
must be remembered were nominally Christians in VI, but
see (p. 117 f.). These close-set brooches also make their
appearance in Jutish sepulchres where they are regarded as an
early symptom. With us they are so rare and sporadic that
they have been looked upon more in the light of importations
from Gaul than productions of native industry. They are not
however, as was just noticed, an exclusively Frankish
speciality, and our craftsmen may have made them in
accordance with the general fashion of the time. The four
lowest pieces 5 to 8 on PI. cxlv are examples. No 5, ^ in.
in diameter was found recently at Broadstairs, Kent, where
it is preserved. Nos. 6, 7, 8 were found at Bifrons and
are in the K.A.S. Museum at Maidstone. In 6 the sliced
garnets are mounted in iron, in 7 and 8 the cloisons are in
bronze. They are early pieces and the close setting is
common to all. No. 7 is i in. across.
As VI advanced a change came in the work in the
^ Catalogue of a Collection of Gallo-Roman, etc., Antiquities, Pll. 11, viii.
CXLVI
facing p. 535
KENTISH DISC FIBULAE
Somewhat enlarged
KENTISH EXAMPLES 535
direction of greater freedom and variety in the spacing and
the choice of the incrustations, and to VII or the very end
of VI we have to ascribe the more elaborate examples of the
art of which Kentish workmen produced their full share.
From the typological point of view, and on the evidence
of the animal ornament in the sunk panels, the Kingston
fibula is ascribed by Dr. Salin ^ to his ' Style II ' the period of
which is VII, but the great sobriety of the treatment of the
inlays is in favour of a comparatively early date. A good
deal of the work is close flat setting, and glass pastes of
a colour contrasting with the crimson garnets are sparingly
used. Such variety in colour occurs, we must remember,
a hundred years earlier in some of the Szilagy Somlyo
brooches, so it is not always in itself a sign of advanced date.
The piece is probably earlier than the famous Wittislingen
round-headed fibula at Munich, PL H, i (p. 541), which will
be presently compared with it, and which must date about the
middle of VII.
The four brooches shown PI, cxlv, i to 4, are constructed
like the Kingston piece but of less costly materials, and
employ as coloured inlays garnets set flat and cut very small
into pieces so shaped that their pointed ends interpenetrate
along a zigzag central line. The cutting is very careful and
delicate as the stones are all wedge shaped. The cloisons in
which they are set are of gilded bronze. They have all a
front and back plate with a filling of some resinous composi-
tion in between, and are about |- in. thick with a diameter of
about 3 in. Two were found at Abingdon in Berkshire but
are almost certainly of Kentish workmanship. Of these
PI. CXLV, I, is in the British Museum, while. No. 2, enlarged
to show the technique, gives a part of one in the Ashmolean.
In No. I debased animal forms in filigree fill spaces on each
side of four raised buttons of some white substance in the
centre of each of which there is a round garnet. A larger
^ Thierornanientih, p. 327 f.
536 HISTORY OF INLAID JEWELLERY
white boss in the centre is surrounded with a band of inlays
from the extrados of which four strips of inlay run out to the
circumference producing a cruciform pattern. In the Ash-
molean example, No. 2, the cross is further emphasized by
four panels within the inner band that encircles the central
boss. The work is very precise and refined, but the pieces
have suffered through time. Another very similar specimen
found at Sittingbourne, Kent, is in the Dover Museum, No. 3,
and a fourth. No. 4, has passed from the Kennard collection
to the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge. The jewels may
all have issued from the same workshop, but the whole four
have been reproduced in order to illustrate the Saxon crafts-
man's manner of production. Notwithstanding the strong
family likeness, they are not reproductions of a single pattern
but are tastefully varied, and they illustrate in the aptest
fashion the characteristics of work done under the healthy and
stimulating mediaeval conditions which were touched on in an
earlier volume.^ The craftsman took too much interest in
what he was doing ever to repeat himself in mechanical
fashion, and it may be incidentally noticed that this will
explain the fact that even when objects are intended to be
pairs, as is the case with the fibulae worn on the two shoulders
by Teutonic ladies, they very often show this same sort of
difference. An example is the pair of cruciform fibulae found
.at Corbridge and noticed later on (p. 81 1).
The Kentish disc fibulae shown on PI. cxlvi differ in
construction from the ones already noticed, in that there are
not two plates with cement filling between, but a single plate
generally of silver to which the pin is attached, and which may
be faced in front by a thin applique of gold enriched with
filigree work and carrying cloisons for the setting of garnets
or pastes, or may be decorated in other fashions. The rim is
carefully treated and often ribbed at intervals, plain spaces
intervening between the ribbed ones. Zigzag patterns exe-
^ The Arts in Early Englajid, i, 1 6 f.
V >,
'I \
CXLVII
facing p. 537
MISCELLANEOUS INLAID PIECES
3» 4' 6, 7, 8, 9, approximately natural size, 2, 5, I larger than natural size;
II, rather more than half natural size
^, /o, are Co?itine/!tal
CLASSES OF KENTISH BROOCHES; 537
cuted in niello often occur in circular bands towards the rim.
Some of the fibulae with this construction are handsome pieces
about 2 in. in diameter, and are decorated with tastefully-
disposed garnet inlays and filigree patterns in between. They
are typologically later than the close set type as they distribute
the patches of colour more sparingly over the field, and
employ filigree scrolls of a rather tame character. PI. cxlvi
shows some examples. Nos. i and 2 were in the Kennard
collection near Maidstone ; No. 3, at Dover, i-J in. across,
was found on the Priory Hill there ; No. 4, from Ash, Kent,
is in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. Two are arranged
in threes the other two in fours. The close resemblance among
them will not escape notice.
A fourth class of Kentish disc fibulae introduces us to
work of a rather more homely type. The brooches in question
vary in diameter from about if in. to i in., and are generally
silver gilt, never, so far as the writer has observed, gold.
Three or four garnets, either cut in the form of a keystone or
step-shaped, are disposed round a central boss and divided by
panels in which there is sometimes nondescript linear ornament
and at other times fragments of unmistakable zoomorphic
patterns. These brooches may date from the earlier part of
VI onwards. There is the same niello work and the same
treatment of the rim as on the fibulae of the last kind men-
tioned. The three examples from the interesting finds at
Stowting, near Hythe, Kent, now preserved in the Rectory
there, will illustrate the style, PL cxlvi, 5. The diameter of
the central piece is i|- in.
A detail not to be passed over in connection with the
brooch from Ash, Kent, PI. cxlvi, 4, is the fact that the
central ornament is worked in enamel (p. 519). The rarity
of genuine enamelling in Anglo-Saxon work of this period
makes the piece specially notable. On a previous plate,
PI. Lii, 10 (p. 293), there was figured another ' unicum ' in
the form of enrichment in niello on the back of a fibula of the
538 HISTORY OF INLAID JEWELLERY
fourth kind just noticed. The silver plate has a device con-
sisting in an arrangement of step patterns incised on it, and
the lines are filled in with a black composition.
The use of garnet inlays for other purposes than the
decoration of the disc fibulae has been already illustrated from
English examples in the case of the Wilton and other pendants,
Pll. cxL, I ; Liii, 8, etc. : the cross of St Cuthbert, PI. cxl, 3 ;
buckle plates, Pll. lxxi to lxxiii, and in the case of fibulae of
other types in which an inlay or two is used to give a touch of
colour. Inlays on sword hilts are also found, Pll. xxv, 9 ;
xxvii, 1,2. A few more examples are brought together on
PI. cxLvii. No. 5 is one of the handsomest jewels of the kind
known. It is the head of a pin, probably for the hair, nearly
i|- in. long, inlaid with garnets in gold, the cloisons being
markedly of step pattern. It was found at Forest Gate,
Essex, and is now in the Ashmolean Museum. No. 3 is also
an Essex piece, and is a jewelled applique of uncertain use.
Nos. 4, 8 and 9 represent a small class of jewelled objects
the purpose of which is not quite clear. 4 and 9 are
small pyramids, the first of gold the other of bronze, set with
garnets and pastes. They are hollow and a bar goes across at
the back by means of which they could be tied to a cord or
fastened like a button on to some surface. No. 9 is |- in.
square at the base. It was found on Salisbury race course
with a fellow piece, and the pair are in the Museum at Devizes.
No. 4 was found with No. 3 at Broomfield, Essex, and they
are both in the British Museum. No. 8 on PI. cxlvii is a
button of the same construction but of a round form, ^ in. in
diameter, hollow, but with a plate at the back with marks on
it of attachment. It may possibly have served originally as
the central boss of a Kentish disc brooch such as the Kingston
fibula, and it came to the Rugby Art Museum with the Bloxam
collection. Found at Princethorpe it is of local provenance,
and is inlaid with garnets. No. 6 was recognized by Faussett,
who found it in grave 76 at Kingston, Kent, as a dagger
KENTISH WORK OUTSIDE KENT 539
pommel. It is about i in. in diameter and is of silver inlaid
not with garnets or pastes, but with the white substance
presently to be noticed in connection with Kentish jewellery
in general. On the colour Plate D (p. 511) Nos. i and in
represent, the one the back, the other the face of an interesting
piece from the Mayer collection at Liverpool, in the form
of a golden pendant shaped as an eagle of the Gothic type,
inlaid with garnets and glass pastes, one of the former being
set en cabochon in a disc of the white substance presently
to be noticed (p. 544 f.). The edge is finished with a gold
beading, and the back it will be seen is of gold. For clearness
the object is reproduced very considerably enlarged. No. in
being more than twice the natural size.
Several plates might be filled with examples of inlaid
jewellery of the Kentish type found in different parts of
England outside the borders of the county. One or two
examples may receive mention here to supplement the small
list just given. In Norfolk a companion piece to the Wilton
pendant was found accidentally by a woman walking along
the sea beach between Bacton and Mundesley. This Bacton
pendant, as it is called, encloses an imitated gold coin of the
Emperor Mauricius, 582-602, in a frame where the cloisons
for the inlaid garnets take forms like those of leaves so that
the effect is that of a wreath. Like the Wilton piece it is in
the British Museum. Another mounted coin in the same
collection comes from Staffordshire, where it was found at
Forsbrooke near Blythe Bridge Station, in a part of the
county near where the barrow finds of VII jewel work have
come to light. The coin here was a cast from an earlier piece
of Valentinian 11, 375-392, but the jewel was evidently of the
same comparatively late date as the similar pieces that have
been noticed. Garnets and blue glass pastes were set in the
framing, and the barrel-shaped loop was also inlaid. The
back of the coin is hidden by a plain gold plate. The Sheffield
Museum contains a circular gold brooch with filigree work
540 KENTISH INLAID JEWELLERY
round inlaid red stones, from White Low, Wlnster, Derbyshire,
PL CLvi, 7 (p. 623). In Leicestershire, on the borders of
Northants, between Husband's Bosworth and Welford, ap-
peared a jewel, sometimes called 'the Naseby Brooch,' that is
figured by Akerman on PL xxxii of Pagan Saxondom. It is
of the quoit brooch form faced with a plate of gold adorned
with filigree work and with four garnets set in the white
bosses previously discussed (p. 514). The diameter is if in.
Several finds of jewelled objects of the kind from burials on
the Yorkshire Wolds are noticed later on (p. 804 f.) and the
late character of such objects and their resemblance to Kentish
work are there pointed out. Further south in Buckingham-
shire there was found at High Wycombe a small gold filigree
pendant, apparently of VII, pronounced in the Victoria History,
Bucks, I, 195, to be ' almost identical with Kentish specimens.'
The Twickenham inlaid pendant is figured PL liii, 8 (p. 305).
We come now to the second point noticed (p. 518), the
special position of Kentish jewellery in relation to the develop-
ments of the craft in continental lands. A word was said in
the Introductory Chapter (p. 4 f.) about the curious English
idiosyncrasy, that may almost be called an anti-patriotic bias,
as a result of which any provenance but a native one is assumed
for all objects of special merit found in our own country. Is
it necessary, we ask, to bring in the Prankish craftsman as a
' deus ex machina ' to account for this specially interesting and
beautiful insular product the Kentish inlaid jewellery ?
The point which needs here to be emphasized is the fol-
lowing. Whether or not the Kentish craftsmen borrowed the
first form of their inlaid work, the small close-set garnet
brooch, from the Franks or Alamanni of the Rhineland, they
certainly developed the art at home on thoroughly insular
lines. VII in Merovingian Gaul witnessed a parallel develop-
ment of inlaid jewellery in the direction of a freer, more
varied, treatment of the inlays, but though parallel it by no
PI. II
facing p. 541
PRANKISH AND ALAMANNIC INLAID WORK
II
I IS g natural size
Both are Continental
CONTINENTAL AFFINITIES 541
means coincided with our own. No mistake can be greater
than to imagine Kentish jewellery in its later and most char-
acteristic forms a copy of Prankish. The relation between
the two is similar to that which we have found existing in the
sphere of coinage between the trientes and the sceattas. The
Franks with their older and more Romanized culture give us
the start and furnish us with our first models, but after that
our designers and workmen go their own way and produce
effective pieces original in design and technique. It happens
moreover at times that when Anglo-Saxon work specially
resembles similar productions on the Continent the affinities
are not to be found by crossing to the south of the Channel
but by taking a cast further east. In architecture, it was
shown in a previous volume/ the Anglo-Saxon style, though
perhaps influenced at the outset from Gaul, in its later periods
has no affinity with what is found in Normandy but borrows
largely from Austrasian Germany. The same is the case here.
Frankish forms of the inlaid disc fibula, as we shall presently
see, are of a character quite different from our own, whereas
there are distinct points of contact with Alamannic work from
the middle Rhine, where in VII disc fibulae are much in
evidence. The two finest Alamannic jewels, one a long, the
other a disc fibula, are in the Museum at Munich. They
were found with other objects in a rock-cut tomb near Wittis-
lingen in Bavaria in 1881. The long fibula, PI. H, i, wrought
of silver gilt, is one of the most elaborate productions of the
period and is probably rather later than the Kingston fibula,
with which it agrees, not of course in the form, but in the
close setting, the flatness, the form of the cloisons and the
sparing use of glass pastes of other colours to contrast with
the garnets. There were such pastes in the quatrefoils which
occur on PI. H, i as the centres of little groups of cloisons,
but there is nothing of them left but some green pastes in the
uppermost compartment. The compartments in which are
^ II, 48 and passim.
542 KENTISH INLAID JEWELLERY
the groups of cloisons are bordered with zigzags filled in with
niello, as on the rims of so many Kentish brooches. The
two profile heads on the spreading part of the foot of the
fibula below the bow, though without eyes, are otherwise
curiously like the heads on a very delicate piece of Kentish
gold work in the form of a small buckle of pure gold found
at Faversham and now in the British Museum, PL B, iv middle
at top (p. 3 S3)- ^^ ^^ remarkable too that at the back of
both of these Alamannic fibulae from Wittislingen the catch
for the pin is formed from the head and neck of an animal,
just as on the Kingston fibula. The back view of the long
fibula shows this catch. The back has been reproduced also
on PL H, for the reason of the remarkable Latin inscription,
figured and discussed in the Kataloge of the Bavarian National
Museum.^ It is of pathetic interest and seems to convey a
last greeting of a spouse to her husband. ' Thy Tisa most
faithful so long as life was mine ' apparently greets her con-
sort Uffila — ' may he live happy in God.' The husband may
have had the piece made in memory of his wife. The wording
shows that they were Christians, and as the Alamanni were only
converted in the first quarter of VII this is an additional reason
for placing the piece about the middle of the century. We
do not meet with inscriptions of this kind on our own English
pieces and this can be easily explained on the ground that the
Anglo-Saxons were not so instructed in Latin as the Teutons
of the Continent. Anglo-Saxon tomb furniture dates from
before the great advance of learning later in VII in which
Northumbria took the lead. The burial in a Christian grave
of all this valuable tomb furniture is a fact the significance of
which must not be lost sight of.
The later Prankish inlaid work possesses the following
characteristics. Blue and green pastes become very common
side by side with the garnets or even supersede them, and the
1 Bd. IV, Miinchcn, Rieger, 1892, p. 250 and Taf. xxi, on which is also
figured the zoomorphic pin catch of the disc fibula.
COMPARISON WITH PRANKISH 543
pastes or stones are mounted in raised. settings and distributed
over the face of the jewel so as to leave ample intermediate
spaces which are filled in with loosely assorted filigree work.
The arrangement of the stones is commonly in fours, the
arrangement in threes being only occasionally met with. The
brooch as a whole is generally circular, but a square shape with
rounded corners is not infrequent. No. 10 on PI. cxlvii
gives an example that is strictly speaking Burgundian for it
was found at Charnay, but the type occurs also in Frankish
sepulchres.
The Kentish disc fibulae of the later kind possess quite
different characteristics and are certainly not influenced by the
Frankish productions. As a rule the two classes can be
separated with ease and assurance, and this in spite of the
fact that stray examples out of their own province are found
sometimes on each side of the Channel. The Mayer-Faussett
collection at Liverpool contains a brooch, PI. cxlvii, i, which
is entirely of the Frankish character,^ and would be recognized
at once as exceptional if placed with a number of our normal
Kentish pieces. These are flatter in their treatment and keep
mainly to the garnet inlays while the arrangement in threes is
quite as common as that in fours. A collection of 22 disc
fibulae from Faversham is in a special case In the British
Museum among the large assortment of objects in the Gibbs
bequest, and of these no fewer than 1 9 are arranged in threes,
but this proportion Is larger than generally obtains. No form
is known but the circular. The exceptional jewel figured
PI. CXLVII, 7, Is not a fibula, for the back which is of gold
shows no signs of attachment, and the form of It Is so unlike
what we meet with in our own country that it Is regarded as
an Importation from France, though it was actually found in
Kent. It is in the British Museum. The formation of
cloisons in a sort of step pattern Is specially common in
^ This was not one of the Faussett pieces, but passed to Mr. Mayer from
the Rolfe collection, and the provenance is uncertain.
544 KENTISH INLAID JEWELLERY
England, but this also occurs in other Teutonic regions as in
the Rhineland, Pi. H, i (p. 541), and Scandinavia, Pi. xxvii, i
(p. 221). It is certainly rarer in France than elsewhere, and
M. Pilloy regards it as a point of difference between Prankish
inlaid work and Anglo-Saxon. The most striking point of
difference however is to be found in the almost universal
employment in the insular examples of a special substance
that is hardly ever used by the Merovingian artist, or at any
rate in the way common among ourselves. Almost every
example of the Kentish inlaid disc fibula in our museums will
be found to contain rounded buttons of a white material in
the centre of the top of which is set, generally en cabochon,
a garnet. On the question of the nature of this material
nothing very satisfactory can be said. The substance has
suffered in its composition so much degradation through time
that even the resources of the scientific chemistry of the day,
as Professor Church kindly informed the writer, are inadequate
to solve the problem. This being the case the conjectures of
the amateur are at any rate pardonable. It is the opinion of
the writer that various substances were employed but were
used as substitutes for ivory, a beautiful but rare outland
material that could not always be come by.^ A disc brooch
found at Maidstone and in the Museum there has a button in
the centre about ^ in. in diameter much decayed, and the
texture of this resembles ivory more than any other substance
that could be named, but at the same time other examples
are clearly not ivory. The test of dilute hydrochloric acid
which the writer has applied in many instances has always
shown that the substance is a carbonate — old ivory reacts to
the acid though not fresh ivory — and shell which we know
(p. 432) was used in migration-period jewellery, bone, meer-
schaum, minerals such as orthoclase or felspar, have all been
suggested. A substance of the kind was used sometimes by
^ Walrus ivory might of course be more accessible than the oriental
product.
THE WHITE SUBSTANCE 545
itself as an inlay in Frankish brooches, and flat pieces of the
material with garnets let into their centres appear on an inlaid
plaque in the Musee Cluny at Paris, ^ and a few other pieces.
On the other hand the Musee Cinquantenaire at Brussels
contains about fifty disc fibulae with inlays from Frankish
cemeteries, and there is no example among them of the white
substance used as a mount for garnets, though one or two
show flat white inlays, while almost all the English examples
used, or at any rate examined, for this book show this
speciality, the exceptions being nearly always the small fibulae
of the fourth class, such as the two side ones in PI. cxlvi, 5.
Some of these however contain the substance, the use of which
can in this way be followed back to the first half of VI.
We may consider it therefore established that Kentish
inlaid jewellery represents a tradition not brought from the
north but received here on its arrival in the west along the
frequented routes of intercourse between east and west by
the valleys of the Danube and the Rhine. The technique
came to western Europe in the rather severe form of the
close-set inlays of flat garnets covering uniformly the field to
be adorned, as we find it on the sword hilts of Childeric or in
the small close-set brooches found in France, on the Rhine,
and in our own country. This fact seems well attested, but
we must always bear in mind that in eastern Europe, long
before the time of Childeric, the technique had already
developed greater freedom, so that in the Szilagy Somlyo
fibulae Pi. cxLiv, or the Treasure of Petrossa, rounded stones
are freely distributed on an open scheme and the garnets are
varied with coloured pastes and enamel. It is specially
important in view of this to notice that in western Europe
this free treatment does not appear till much later, and the
earliest pieces are all of the simple close-set kind. Apart
from these, most of the examples of the characteristic Kentish
inlaid work that appear in our museums and private collec-
1 Part of the de Saulcy donation, i860. It is numbered 8018.
546 KENTISH INLAID JEWELLERY
tions can be shown to be comparatively late. In cases like
that of the Wilton pendant or the cross of St. Cuthbert PL
cxL (p. 509) there is external evidence of this, while in other
instances, such as those of the Kingston and Abingdon disc
fibulae, the internal evidence of the debased animal ornament
is equally conclusive.
If so much of this work be demonstrably late while yet
the small flat brooches appear quite early, the question arises
What is the history of the technique between these epochs,
that is between about 500 and 600 a.d.? This is not easy to
determine. The development of the ornamented disc brooch
from the simple form in which we find it on the lower part
of PL cxLv to the more ornate forms like Nos. i to 4 cannot
be followed in a series of accurately ' placed ' examples. All
we can do is to deal with certain classes which can be arranged
in something like chronological order. The small size and
unpretentious character of the brooches resembling those from
Stowting PL cxLvi, 5, suggest that they should be placed
earlier than the large and showy specimens on the same plate
which probably all belong to the first half of VII. Examples
of the former have been found accompanying spoons set with
simple garnet inlays and other objects indicating a date in the
first half of VI, but on the other hand in many examples
of this same form of brooch debased zoomorphic ornament
makes its appearance in the intervals between the keystone or
hammerhead garnets, and this would bring the pieces at any
rate down to the latter part of VI, after which the prevailing
fashion is represented by the ornate brooches of the first half
of VII. It follows that the use of the inlaid brooches of class
4 like PL cxLvi, 5, may cover roughly speaking the sixth
century.
With respect to examples of garnet inlaid work found on
objects other than the disc fibulae an early example is to be
found in a silver spoon discovered by Douglas in one of the
earliest graves opened by him on Chatham Lines, the objects
DATES OF INLAID PIECES 547
In which he figures on his pi. 11. They are in the Ashmolean
Museum, and Mr. Thurlow Leeds has published photographs
of them on a plate opposite his p. 107. The objects, which
include round headed radiating fibulae, are all early and the
date of them may be still in V. The silver spoon is set with
garnets along its stem and at the junction with the bowl.
This same sort of incrustation with flat garnet slips of
rectangular and other simple shapes, that we find on this early
spoon, occurs on the five knobs of a crisply wrought radiating
fibula with early linear ornament from Bifrons PI. xxxv, 4,
(p. 245) of V character, and also on the Kentish square
headed brooches in their various stages of development. We
find such inlays on the small early brooches of the kind, like
the one shown PI. xxxiv, 2 (p. 245), a piece that was found at
Bifrons, grave 42, in company with the two small close-set
disc fibulae PI. cxlv, 6, 7, and like them may be dated about
500 A.D. Inlays of the same sort however are also found on
fibulae that are shown by their zoomorphic ornament to belong
to quite the latter part of the same century, and as an instance
may be quoted the square headed fibula PL clv. 5 (p. 563),
notable because it is the counterpart of a piece found in the
Prankish cemetery of Herpes in western France. The two
are shown together on the Plate, Nos. 5, 6. In the case of
pendants and other jewels, such as the pin-head PL cxlvii, 5,
or the inlaid studs, PI. cxlvii, 4, 8, 9, a VII date is indicated,
and this applies also to the two beautiful little jewels of this
kind found in conjunction with coins mounted as pendants in
the King's Field, Faversham, Kent, shown PI, B, iii (p. 253)-
It will be noticed that in the disc fibulae of the type of the
Kingston brooch and the Wilton pendant PL cxl, 2, the
outline of the cloisons exhibits the step-pattern already noted
in sceat coins and on the central ornament of the Devizes
pin suite PL lxxxi, 4. Since the objects last mentioned can
be proved to be of VII date, this fact makes it pretty safe to
locate in the same century pieces like the pin-head and the
548 ROMANIZING BRONZE OBJECTS
two pendant jewels just mentioned, where the step-pattern
Is much in evidence. It is quite natural that in garnet cutting
the outlines of the slips should become more complicated as
time went on, though at the same time in eastern Europe, as
in the Petrossa Treasure, or a wonderful inlaid bracelet at
Budapest from Pusta Bakod in Hungary, tours de force in
gem cutting are conspicuous at quite an early date. These
chronological indications apply of course to the fairly
numerous specimens of inlaid jewels found not in Kent but in
other parts of the country. There is in some cases external
evidence of a comparatively advanced date, and in others the
criteria just adduced apply, so that all the objects of the kind
enumerated a few pages back (p. 538 f.) may be safely set down
as subsequent to 600 a.d.
Reference has been already made (p. 37) to the very plaus-
ible theory that in many cases these inlaid jewels found in parts
of the country outside Kent are really Kentish not only in
their inspiration but also in their actual origin. It is a widely
held opinion, for which some further grounds will be found
as we proceed (p. 598), that Kentish influence diffused at the
close of VI owing to the political power of ^thelberht of Kent
is the cause of the adoption by the non-Jutish peoples of this
attractive method of enrichment.
ROMANIZING OBJECTS IN BRONZE
The urns and the inlaid jewellery are as we have seen
productions that illustrate the connections which we know
must have existed between our own antiquities and those of
north-western Europe in general. The objects of the par-
ticular class now to be considered derive also their main
interest from the illustrations they offer of these same associa-
tions. If the pottery exhibit some of the ethnic affinities of
our own Teutonic population with their kinsfolk across the
North Sea, and the inlaid jewellery link the extreme north-
EARLY FRANCO-ROMAN CEMETERIES 549
west of Teutonized Europe with the great cultural move-
ments in the furthest European east where Germanic barbarism
was in touch with the civilization of Greece and the nearer
Orient, the particular connection now to be studied is that
existing between the Germanic peoples on both sides of the
North Sea and certain aspects of the art and culture of the
Romans.
The archaeologists of northern France are fortunate in
disposing of a considerable body of evidence bearing on the
relations of early Teutonic art with that of Rome, for they
possess cemeteries, such as Vermand and Abbeville-Hom-
blieres in the neighbourhood of St. Quentin, the date of which
can be historically fixed at before the year 400, wherein are
represented objects of earlier type than Germanic tomb furni-
ture in general, that seem to be derived from a source partly
Roman and partly barbaric. These objects are transitional,
and exhibit Roman motives Teutonized and Roman forms
and technical processes copied and used with a distinct in-
fusion of German artistic feeling and craftsmanship. The
difference between this semi-classical work and that of
Merovingian times, say VI and VII, is so marked that some
of the French antiquaries, such as M. Pilloy and M.
Boulanger, have adopted for it a distinctive, but rather mis-
leading term, calling it ' Gallo-Roman.' As Bernhard Salin
pointed out some time ago,^ if there were anything Gallic
about them the particular objects in question would be found
over the whole Gallo-Roman area and not only in the north-
west corner of France and in modern Belgium. They occur
moreover in Germanic regions along the Rhine and in
Hungary, and their habitat is in general the frontier regions
between the Empire and Teutonic lands. The objects are to
a considerable extent of a military character, and the graves
1 In his valuable article on ' Some early forms of Germanic Antiquities
in England' in Kon. Vitterhets Hist, och Ant. Akademiens Manadsblad,
Stockholm, 1894.
IV L
550 ROMANIZING OBJECTS IN BRONZE
which furnish them are often those of soldiers in the Roman
service. These soldiers were not Romans in the strict sense
and were not Gauls, but were in all probability Germanic
warriors who had served with the legions and had been estab-
lished as veterans in holdings of land along the imperial
frontiers.-^ M. Pilloy writes himself of the * Gallo-Romano-
Germains qui, au IV® siecle, composaient en majeure partie
les legions chargees de la defense de la Gaule, et surtout de
ses frontieres, legionnaires ou auxiliaires qui apres leurs vingt
annees de service obtenaient leur conge et se fixaient dans
notre pays ou des concessions de terre leur etaient attribuees
en vertue de decrets imperiaux, et que le contact avec les
populations gallo-romaines avait romanises." One only
wonders here why the first word ' Gallo ' was ' lugged in.'
The most richly furnished of all these graves, known as
the ' Tombeau du Chef Militaire de Vermand,' contains no
Celtic elements and is rightly described by M. S. Reinach as
that of ' un chef militaire germanique, enseveli dans le terri-
toire de I'Empire,'^ and M. Boulanger himself, although, in
agreement with M. Pilloy, he writes in his large work of
' guerriers gallo-romains,' yet in his smaller treatise of later
date on Marchelepot says distinctly that the Vermand warrior
* paraissait etre un Franc du service des Romains.' The truth
indeed about the genesis of this mixed or transitional art
could not be better expressed than in M. Boulanger's own
words in the * Introduction ' to his large work, p. xxiv, where
he writes ' les Germains qui avaient franchi le Rhin . . . et
les legionnaires entres dans I'armee romaine, apporterent avec
eux le gout de I'art barbare, qui, lentement d'abord, puis,
1 For some remarks on ' the interpenetration in the personnel and organ-
ization of the army of Roman and Germanic elements' see Arts and Crafts
of our Teutonic Forefathers, Chapter in, ' Roman and Teuton.'
2 Etudes, II, 225.
2 In the Preface to the work of M. C, Boulanger, Le Mobilier Funeraire,
etc., 1902-5, p. xiv.
CXLVITI
facing p. 551
o
CO
h
z
ui
h
z
o
CHIEF CLASSES OF THE OBJECTS 551
rapidement ensuite, s'infiltra dans I'art romain qui domlnait
en Gaule, sans melange, a la belle epoque des Antonins.'
It was said above that these particular cemeteries, of
which that of Vermand is the most important, can be dated to
IV. Their early character is forcibly attested by the forms
of the glass vessels which they have furnished, and which
M. Pilloy has published in a series of plates in the second
volume of his Etudes. The glass of the Gallic and Rhenish
factories of III and IV is finer and more elegant in its forms
than that of V to VII found in Teutonic cemeteries. Ver-
mand yielded up more than 500 vessels of glass, and Abbeville-
Homblieres furnished a smaller collection, and in no case do
we find among them the characteristic shapes of the migration
period such as those figured in this volume Pll. cxxi to cxxviii.
Furthermore the cemetery at Abbeville exhibited the remark-
able phenomenon already referred to (p. 451) that almost all
the persons interred had been supplied with a coin placed in
the hand or in the mouth — the so-called ' Charon's obol ' —
and that these coins seem in each case to have been a speci-
men of the issue of the reigning Emperor. The series begins
with Magnentius (350 a.d.) and ends with Honorius who
assumed the purple in 395. The histories of the cemeteries in
question cannot be followed further down than the reign of
Honorius, and it is a supposition that seems borne out by the
facts that an end was put to the use of them by the devastat-
ing invasion of Gaul by the Vandals, Suevi, and other
Teutonic tribes in tfc^ year 406 a.d.
The objects characteristic of the ' mobilier ' of these ceme-
teries make their appearance elsewhere, and wherever they are
found they may be dated approximately in accordance with
the evidence just adduced. Our chief concern is with those
examples that have been found, sporadically but in sufficient
numbers, in our own country as well as in northern Europe.
The principal classes of objects are buckles, and with these
is associated a special form of fibula as well as strap ends and
552 ROMANIZING OBJECTS IN BRONZE
certain enigmatic but very characteristic fittings of metal.
As regards ornamentation, there are two points of special
interest, one, the Keil- or Kerbschnitt technique already dis-
cussed (p. 294 f.) used mainly in spiral scroll work (p. 317) ;
the other, the use of animal forms of a distinctly naturalistic
type. The first of these may be regarded as on the whole of
northern provenance, the second as classical. The buckle
sometimes takes the form of a rectangular plate with an
opening for the strap contrived within its periphery, and this
plate with adjuncts appended to it is decorated with the scroll
work just noticed. The ring of the buckle at the back on
each side of the part where the tongue is hinged is commonly
adorned with two animals' heads, and the fibula, in some cases
the buckle also, exhibits on the external edges the forms of
crouching animals, while recumbent beasts in profile make
their appearance in other parts of the enrichment. The metal
fittings are finished with a sharp faceting, that is more Roman
than Teutonic.
The illustration PI. cxlviii will be useful for the present
purpose as it represents, on a scale of half the natural size,
the tomb furniture from a single grave of a lady of distinction,
whose remains were buried near to the famous tomb at Ver-
mand of the ' chef militaire ' of whom there has been already
question. There are comprised in the * mobilier ' several
items that are of considerable value in relation to the after
development of what is in the strict sense Teutonic tomb
furniture. The date will be about the end of IV. At the
top there is a pin, the head of which is supplied with the
' Klapperschmuck ' which we have seen (p. 369) to be an
inheritance from the Earlier Iron Age. Just below this head
is a fibula of a rare and curious type that does not make its
appearance in Anglo-Saxon graves, though Dr. Salin notes
one from Hanover on page 88 of his 'Thierornamentik. It has
the form of a tall slender cone, and there is another and
somewhat broader one on the lower part of the Plate to the
CXLIX
facing p. 553
CONTINENTAL APPLIED BROOCHES
2, 3, 4, 6, 7, S, 9, approximately natural size; i, somewhat enlarged; 5, reduced;
10, a perspective view
7, 2, J, ^, 6, 7, S, 10, are Continental
AN EARLY FRENCH TOMB 553
right of the centre. At the top, in the middle under the
point of the pin, is a fragment of a pewter dish with figure
subjects on the rim, and just below this to the right is a thin
disc of gilded silver embossed with a classical lion's head
within a border of chevrons of a rather northern type. In
the middle of the lower part of the Plate, within a wire ring
joined with the slip-knots we have come to know, is a similar
thin embossed disc with chevron border evidently intended like
the other to be cemented down upon some ground. Here
however there is the additional feature of an upright rim
round about it of silver nearly |- in. high. We cannot fail to
be reminded of the ' applied ' brooches of our own country,
constituent parts of which are embossed discs and upright
rims of this very kind. The previous discussion of the type
may be referred to (p. 275 f.). Examples of the complete
* applied ' brooch have come to light, though rarely, in Frankish
cemeteries in this region of northern France and Belgium, and
it is quite possible that in these IV pieces we have before us a
contribution to the pre-history of the type. Two specimens
of these Frankish applied brooches may be illustrated in this
connection as they are of value for comparison with our own.
One is in the Museum at Rouen and was found at Sigy, Seine
Inferieure, PI. cxlix, 2. The ornament upon it is strikingly
like that on a similar applied brooch found recently at
East Shefford, Berks, and now in the Museum at Newbury,
PL CXLIX, 5. The two have in common a curious trident
form that has never been satisfactorily explained. This same
cemetery it may be remembered produced a small urn of a
pronounced Frankish type, PI. cxxix, 5 (p. 491). The other
Frankish 'applied' fibula is at Brussels, PI. cxlix, i, and was
found at Maroeuil, Pas de Calais.
Returning to PI. cxlviii, another very interesting object is
seen to the left of the slip-knot ring. It is a fibula with very
short but extremely wide foot to which corresponds above a
head formed as a wide half-cylinder within which plays the
554 ROMANIZING OBJECTS IN BRONZE
long spiral coils of the spring. The general resemblance of
the piece to the equal armed fibula with wide head and foot
noted before in the example found at Kempston, Beds (p. 271),
will not escape notice, and it is quite possible that in late pro-
vincial-Roman fibulae like the one here illustrated we have
the origin of the quite abnormal form of the wide equal-armed
brooch, on which something will presently be said. The
Roman ' cross bow ' fibula to the extreme right of PI. cxlviii
is of course a familiar type, and is found now and again in the
Teutonic cemeteries. Along the bottom line are four bronze
appliques, perhaps for the ornamentation of a band or flap,
which have the characteristic form known as that of the
' Amazon shield.' It is not Teutonic but is a very old shape
used by the Romans and traced back by some archaeologists
to Phoenician models. A bronze buckle inlaid with silver of
this form was found at Richborough, and is described and
figured by Charles Roach Smith as Anglo-Saxon,^ but it is
more probably Roman. The double swallow-tail pieces above
the cross-bow fibula are enigmatical. The necklet is of amber
beads of curious double forms alternating with flat discs.
Lastly there are to be noticed four buckles of early forms that
may be compared with the more primitive ones represented at
Bifrons, PI. lxx (p. 347). They possess also their own special
features of interest. Of the two to the left of the cross-bow
fibula the lower one has its ring set round with small garnets,
and the piece is of the highest value as a very early example
of the new technique that was later on to prove so important
in all this region. The one above has the ring formed of two
dolphin-like creatures confronted. On the left hand of the
Plate are two buckles in which the ring, on each side of the
part where the pin hinges, ends with animals' heads, which
have been signalized above as characteristic features in buckles
of this Roman or romanizing type. A certain number of
Anglo-Saxon buckles figured on these plates possess this same
1 Richborough, etc., pi. v, 3, and p. 88.
CL
facing p. 55 5
THREE BRONZE BUCKLES
All Continental
THREE BUCKLES COMPARED 555
peculiarity. PI. v, 12, at Cambridge is a good example, the
leaf ornament as was shown (p. 107) pointing to an early
date. Another instance is the large buckle from Smithfield-
on PL CLi.
The reader's attention is asked for the three buckles on
PL CL, which are instructive in regard to the relation between
Roman and Germanic art. No. i, in the Provincial Museum
at Bonn, is clearly of classical design and fabrication. The
two dolphins forming the ring and the human head are un-
mistakable evidence that the piece is in the classical sense
Roman. No. 2 is as certainly barbaric, for this is proved by
the blundered inscription and the swastika on the border of
the plate to the right. Two crouching animals decorate the
open-work plate and the elaborate ring and tongue exhibit the
animals' heads of Roman tradition. The piece, from Crissier,
is in the Museum at Lausanne. The form of the bow in this
buckle PL cl, 2, is worth notice. The straight bar or pivot,
the French call it ' brochette,' on which the tongue is hinged
is not continuous with the bow as in normal examples but is
attached to it by two eyes, the ends of the bow being turned
up inwards and ending in fanciful animals' heads. The two
English buckle bows, PL cliv, 2, 3, — 2, from Burwell Fen,
Cambs, in Cambridge Museum, 2^ in. across, and 3, from
Mitcham — possess the same arrangement, and have the further
feature of interest that though found far apart, one south of
the Thames and the other in the Anglian Midlands, they are
almost counterparts. Two animals' heads are formed in each
case in the middle of the bow flanking the point of the tongue.
No. 3 on PI. CL is in the Museum at Mainz, a magnificent
specimen ^^ in. wide, the size of the reproduction, about
which it is impossible to say with certainty whether it is Roman
or barbaric. The difficulty may be evaded by calling it
' transitional.'
A piece on much the same grade of artistic merit but in
its form unmistakably Teutonic is figured on the lower part
556 ROMANIZING OBJECTS IN BRONZE
of PI. cxLix, No. 9. It is a fibula in the Museum at Canter-
bury, 2^ i^- lo'^gj of cast bronze gilded, with ornamentation
in the ' Keilschnitt ' technique, resembling in some respects
that on PI. CL, 3. The provenance of it is not recorded and
it may be an import from Scandinavia, for a piece curiously
like it, in the Museum at Stockholm may be seen in a per-
spective view PL CXLIX, 10, The Canterbury fibula is at any
rate undoubtedly Teutonic work of V and shows the crouch-
ing beasts on the edges of the foot in well-modelled natural
forms. These beasts have been much discussed. They occur
constantly on this class of Roman or romanizing objects found
in northern Gaul and along the frontiers of the Empire, and
proximately at any rate must be regarded as Roman. Their
recognition as Roman is largely due to the Swedish antiquary
Dr. Hans Hildebrand, who developed this thesis in articles in
the Tidskrift for Bildande Konst och Konstindustri for 1876,
p. I, etc., entitled ' Djurtyper i den aldre Nordiska Orna-
mentiken,' since which time it has practically become an
established doctrine needing no further justification. What
is remarkable is the avidity with which the motive was taken
up in the North. These Roman ' Randthiere,' as the Germans
call them, and the reclining beasts in profile used as the
adornments of panel-like spaces, were made there the starting
point for the development of an elaborate system of animal
ornamentation, the different stages of which we have already
followed in connection with the fibulae and other such objects.
In our own country, as we have seen, this development is
worked out in the course of VI, but besides the innumerable
examples showing this characteristic German beast ornament
in its various stages, we possess specimens which display the
motives still in their original Roman form before the Teutonic
imagination had set to work upon them, and it is this particular
class of objects with which in this place we are concerned.
These objects have for us a double interest, artistic and
historical. The classically treated animals are the origin of
CLI
facing p. 557
BRONZE PLATE BUCKLE WITH ADJUNCTS
Natural size
EARLY FINDS IN ENGLAND 557
Germanic ' Thierornamentik,' while on the historical side the
datable character of the objects themselves make them most
valuable documents in connection with the history of our
Teutonic settlements. Wherever they come to light there
we may assume either an early establishment of a band of the
conquerors, or at any rate the passage of such a band on a
preliminary foray.
The most striking discoveries of the kind have been made
on the Thames, one at London itself, another much higher
up the valley at Dorchester near Oxford. The historical
significance of the finds will be noticed later on, and here it
will be sufficient to illustrate the pieces in question by photo-
graphs and descriptions, noting that in every case we are
dealing with objects of V date or at any rate character.
PI. CLi, I, is a characteristic example of the bronze plate-
buckle of the type already referred to (p. 349) and was found
in Smithfield, London. The plate is 3^ in. broad, and it is
figured the natural size. The original forms part of the
national collection in which it is one of the most interesting
exhibits. A small plate-buckle with characteristic romanizing
animal ornament was found at Richborough and is figured by
Charles Roach Smith in his work on the place. -^ The other
photograph, No. 2, is from a piece of uncertain provenance
in the Mayer Collection at Liverpool, and is added here to
show the triangular adjunct which, repeated at both ends
of the plate, is sometimes used to give the whole piece
a finish.
The Dorchester discovery (p. 647) was one of curious
interest as it brought to light some of the earliest objects of
Teutonic character found in any part of this country. The
chief of these was a ' long ' brooch of very early type that has
been already illustrated, PI. xl, 6 (p. 259). This is a IV form,
and is so classed by tiaakon Schetelig in his Cruciform Brooches
of Norway^ p. 18 f. Other objects were of the special roman-
1 Richborough, etc., pi. v, 2.
558 ROMANIZING OBJECTS IN BRONZE
izing class now under discussion. The buckle, PI. clii, io,
possesses the two heads on the bow signalized above (p. 552).
The smaller specimen No. 11, with its ribbon-like chape shows
also two heads on the bow, but they are differently arranged
and project as TrpoKpocrcroL on either side of the point of the
tongue. In this they resemble almost exactly a small buckle
No. 6 on PI. Lxx (p. 347) from Bifrons. The heads are
probably those of the horse and are like horses' heads on
Roman pieces such as the enamelled brooch shown PL E, i
(p. 519). Heads of the kind appear on early combs of the
Roman or romanizing period as well as on much later combs
such as PI. Lxxxvii, i (p. 391). The bronze buckles are
however certainly early. The strap end PI. clii, 12, is note-
worthy, as the form occurs here and there in England, as
PI. CLII, I, from Croydon, Surrey, in the Grange Wood
Museum, and is also found in Hanover and Schleswig in
connections that make us sure of its early date. PI. cliii, i, is
an example from Quelkhorn at Geestemiinde and PI. cxlix, 6,
was found at Hammoor B, Holstein, and is in the Museum
at Kiel.
The most interesting objects however in the Dorchester
find are those numbered 2, 3, 6, 7 on PI. clii. They are in
themselves of no great intrinsic importance but similar objects
occur elsewhere at home and abroad in connections that give
them no little archaeological interest, and they possess the
additional attraction that their character and purpose are enig-
matical. It should be said at once that specimens occurred in
the cemetery at Vermand so that their early date is assured,
while the same types are represented by finds in the Elbe
mouth cemeteries and in Hanover. The most characteristic
piece is the round disc of bronze PL clii, 3, from Dorchester,
with faceted edges and attachments that will have afterwards
to be considered. In our own country similar pieces have
been found at Croydon, PL clii, 5, 8, at Norwich, PL clii, 4,
at Milton next Sittingbourne, Kent, No. 9, and apparently at
EARLY BRONZE ROMANIZING OBJECTS
All approximately natural size
CLIII
facing p. 559
FOREIGN EQUAL ARMED FIBULAE, ETC.
4, sliglitly reduced
All (Continental
THE DORCHESTER FIND 559
Kempston, Beds.^ Abroad, apart from the Vermand find,^
specimens have been found in some of the early Belgian
cemeteries,^ and in the north J. H. Miiller published one
found in the cemetery at Perlberg, Kreis Stade/ well known
to British antiquaries from the notice of it in Kemble's
Horae Ferales.
How the object is to be explained is not easy to say.
There are useful discussions on all these associated objects
that occur in the Dorchester find, in M. Pilloy's Etudes^ vol. i,
237 f., vol. II, 224 f., vol. Ill, 242 f. In one place, i, 243, he
sees in the disc part of a mantle clasp, but in his later discus-
sions he regards these solid little bronze buttons, that run
from I" in. to i|- in. in diameter, as meant to fortify the front
of leathern straps that hung down from the Roman soldier's
belt over the front of the body, to serve as protection and at
the same time not to interfere with the movement of the
limbs. Soldiers on Roman tombstones may be seen wearing
these protective adjuncts to body armour that correspond in
position to the sporran of the Highlander.^ In connection
with this he explains pieces like PI. clii, 7, which occur
numerously in the early Franco-Roman cemeteries, as the
plates serving for connection between the belt and the set of
pendant straps. A bronze cylinder with classical mouldings
forms the top of plates of the kind and a thong through this
might attach it to the belt, while the marks of rivets on the
flat piece below show where pendent pieces could be fastened.
Such a cylinder however seems to serve as a finish to flat
^ The entry in the inventory, ' Grave 11 ... a bronze ring with a lipped
upper edge : attached to this a piece of flattened bronze, vv^ith rivet-hole,'
etc., seems to imply this. Ass. Soc. Reports, 1864, 285.
2 Published in Pilloy, Etudes, ii, Vermand, pi. 16.
^ e.g. at Furfooz, Annales de la Soc. Archeologique de Namur, xiv, 399.
* J. H. Muller, For- und Fri'ihgeschichtUche Alterthilmer der Provinz.
Hannover, Taf. xxii, 218,
^ e.g. Taf. Ill to VI of Lindenschmit's Tracht und Bewaffnung des
Romischen Heeres.
560 ROMANIZING OBJECTS IN BRONZE
plates used in other connections, and it may have been meant
just to act as a stiffener. The use of the bronze discs with
faceted edges for the purpose M. Pilloy suggests is of course
possible, though in this case we should expect to find the
pieces together in some quantities, not as is the fact singly or
in twos and threes. They are practically indestructible. We
have the advantage in this country that some of these discs
have come to light with attachments still in position, that
give an idea how they may have been used, but do not fit in
very readily with M. Pilloy's suggestion. The examples at
Vermand from which he argues have a loop as part of the
disc through which plays a ring which again is caught above
in the bight of a bent strip of bronze. If the ring and loop
PL cLii, 2, be supposed attached through an eye to a bronze
disc pendent below, we have the Vermand arrangement. At
Croydon however, No. 5, the eye above the disc is a loop
prolonged downwards at the back by a strip 2^ in- long, and
as the side view, No. 8, shows, the strip has a shoulder at the
back, and to give additional security the centre of the disc is
pierced for a rivet that runs through the strip at the back and
prevents the loop opening by the bending of the strip. Such
a rivet can be seen in situ in the Sittingbourne specimen in the
Maidstone Museum, PI. clii, 9. The strips numbered 6 on
the Plate may have formed part of an arrangement of the
kind, which rather suggests the sort of attachment that we
find on the bronze bowls of the hanging kind, Pll. cxvii to cxx.
Seeing that the round discs shown on the sporrans on Roman
tombstones number as many as 70 or 80, it is inconceivable
that each one can have been embarrassed with a complicated
attachment of this kind.
Pll. CLiii, cLiv, exhibit other objects of this same early
romanizing class, on which the animal form is rendered in a
more or less naturalistic fashion. It may be repeated that
they are of value from two points of view, on the one hand as
evidence of early date in the deposits in which they occur.
c;,
CLIV
facing p. 561
BUCKLES, ETC., WITH ROMANIZING ORNAMENT
All approximately natural kize
BROAD EQUAL-ARMED FIBULAE 561
on the other as supplying the animal forms that are the
starting point of the specially Teutonic * Thierornamentik ' so
conspicuous on objects in the tomb furniture of VL These
early buckles, brooches, and other objects of bronze, belong
on the Continent to IV rather than V and in our own country
may be ascribed to V. If they were brought ready made to
our shores by early raiders or settlers they may belong to IV,
if made in this country we could not date them before the
latter half of V, and they may belong to any time before
about 500 A.D., after which date the ornamental motives
become more decidedly Teutonized.
The broad equal-armed fibulae may receive attention first.
It has been suggested that they are a direct adaptation of the
Roman form shown on the left hand side of PI. cxlviii, but
it is noteworthy that they appear to belong not to the border-
lands of the Empire but rather to the Elbe-mouth region
where the type is fully represented, while elsewhere on the
Continent it does not appear. As we have already seen in
connection with the full-faced human head (p. 322 f.), Roman
forms, especially the * Randthiere,' found their way early to
the Hanoverian region, and the equal armed fibula with these
features need not surprise us by its appearance there at an
early date, but it is a curious fact that the form does not make
itself known anywhere else but there and in the English Mid-
lands, though a specimen, fragmentary but unmistakable, was
found in the Holstein cemetery at Hammoor, north-east of
Hamburg, and is now in the Museum at Kiel.
The Jahrbiich of the Provincial Museum in Hanover for
1907-8^ contains, p. 22, a list of the then known examples
from north-west Germany, eight in number, and to these
must be added a fine one from Quelkhorn in the Museum at
Geestemiinde as well as a portion of another, and the frag-
ments of the one from Hammoor B. The English examples
number three, of which that found at Kempston, figured PI.
1 Hannover, W. Riemschneider, 1908.
562 ROMANIZING OBJECTS IN BRONZE
XXXVII, 7 (p. 247), is small, debased, and obviously late, while
the other two are equal to the Hanoverian ones. Of these two
the specimen PI. cliv, 5, comes from Haslingfield, Cambs,
and is in the Cambridge Museum. The width of the larger
of the two parts is 2^ in. This may be compared with the
Hanoverian specimen shown PI. cliii, 4, that was found in
a tumulus at Anderlingen and was not in connection with
a cremated burial, so that it is reckoned comparatively late
among the local finds of the migration period. In date it
may correspond with the Haslingfield piece which it resembles
in the lively set of ' Randthiere.' The piece PI. cliv, 4, was
found at Little Wilbraham, Cambs, and is now at Audley End.
It is 3f wide, and is duller in design than No. 5. No. 3
on PI. CLIII is the fragment from Quelkhorn in the Museum
at Geestemiinde and it is figured here because the foliage
character of the scroll that forms its chief ornamentation is
particularly well developed. No. 2 gives the back view with
the spring coil. It may be repeated that though these objects
are only found in the north of Germany and in Midland
districts in England yet the ornament on them is in the
provincial-Roman style, and the form probably a direct
development from a Roman type such as was noted on
PI. CLviii. See (p. 553 f.).
The enriched buckle with its chape and complementary
plate, No. I on PI. cliv, introduces us to another use of the
animal form as an ornamental motive. The piece is from the
Alfriston, Sussex, find, and is of bronze once plated with
tin, as is shown by remaining bright fragments just behind the
upper hinge joining the chape to the bow. Four round
sinkings on each plate, which is i^ in. in its longest
dimension, are filled with a transparent yellow substance that
seems too hard for glass, and on each side of the row of inlays
are two recumbent animals represented in profile. This form
of the animal is as much Roman or ' transitional ' as are
the ' Randthiere ' and the beast's head as terminal or as a
CLV
facing p. 563
MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS
2, 12, 14, natural size ; i, nearly double natural size ; 3, 4. about half size j
5, 6, "^ natural size ; 11, reduced by ^
6, S, p, 10, are Continental
FACETED ORNAMENT 563
irpoKpoa-a-o'?, but it appears in English work in connections
that make us doubt whether it is necessarily so early as, say,
the terminal heads on the bow of the buckles. On the
Continent it makes its appearance on the chapes of buckles
of IV type such as some at Vermand, or an often-figured
example from Sedan ^ and a similar piece in the Museum
at Budapest,^ and is certainly quite early. In the examples
just mentioned it is engraved on a flat surface. In our own
country the same creature, that we find on the Alfriston
buckle engraved in outline, occurs in another technique on
the chape of the Brighthampton sword, PI. xxvii, 8 (p. 221),
and is also found again in line on the enigmatical bronze
object from Croydon, PI. xcix, ^4 (p. 419), and on the silver
penannular brooch from Sarre, PI. xlix, i (p. 281), perhaps
also on the Bifrons pendant PI. cii, i (p. 425). In the round
we have seen it on the end of the silver spoon, PI. xcv, 3
(p. 407). PL CLv, I, adds a characteristic piece from
Buckinghamshire in the Museum at Aylesbury. It is
probably a belt ornament, or an applique meant for some
other purpose, and measures i^ in. on its longest side. On
this piece, especially in parts, the recumbent animal viewed
in profile is a good deal degraded, but there is no doubt about
what is intended. The technique is curious and looks like
carved work. It is probably cast from a wooden model, for
the triangular sinkings between the under part of the body
and the hind leg of the creature are in the chip-carving
technique. Besides the animals, early linear ornament of
a romanizing type occurs in the central panel.
Linear ornamentation of a similar kind, reminding us of
the sharp faceting on the edges of the bronze discs lately
discussed, on the feet of Roman fibulae, the butt-ends of
tweezers, and other objects, occurs on the belt ornament from
High Down, Sussex, PI. clv, 2. This has at the two sides
^ Salin, Thierornamentik, fig. 338.
2 Hampel, Alterthilmer in Ungarn, iii, Taf, 49.
564 ROMANIZING OBJECTS IN BRONZE
of it the projecting horses' heads we have come to know on
the combs and elsewhere, as Pll. E, i (p. 519); lxxxvii,
I (p. 391), and the central square is adorned with sharply cut
sinkings in a geometrical pattern. In both these pieces the
animal and linear ornament and the technique represent the
Roman tradition, but it does not follow that these and similar
examples need all be relegated to V. Neither High Down
nor Alfriston are very early cemeteries and the first half or
middle of VI would be a reasonable date to conjecture. The
same date may be suggested for the Sarre penannular brooch
PI. XLix, I (p. 281), the animal design and the workmanship
of which are so excellent, while the flattened quoit form of the
ring and the somewhat complicated make of the piece
generally do not appear very early. The quoit form of
brooch is not Roman and appears to have been developed out
of the earlier annular form by a process of flattening (p. 285),
The evolution was accomplished at an early date, for a simple
quoit brooch, PI. xxxvi, 8 (p. 24.5) occurred in one of the
earliest graves at Bifrons, in company with Pll. xxxiv, 10, 11 ;
xxxvi, 6 ; xciv, 2 (p. 405) ; cix, 2 (p. 457), and one of the
penannular form, PI. li, i (p. 287), was found in the early
interments on the line of the Watling Street at Cestersover
(p. 774), and in both cases a date about 500 a.d. is plausible.
It is unlikely however that an elaborate piece with compli-
cated mechanism was made much before 550 a.d., and in the
notice on a subsequent page (p. 685 f.) of the cemetery at
Alfriston, Sussex, some comparisons are drawn the result of
which would be to bring the piece within the middle third of
VI. The Croydon object, PI. xcix, 4 (p. 419), where the
same couchant animal is introduced into the ornamentation
may be earlier, for bronze tubes like those of which it is made
up are found in an early grave deposit on Chatham Lines,
that may go back to about 500.
If an advanced date in VI be rightly assigned to some objects
of this kind it would show that a Roman tradition was still
SAXON AND ROMAN WORK 565
dominant in certain artistic circles at a time when Teutonic
animal ornament had already begun to shape its wayward
course. We saw previously that the hilt of the Bright-
hampton sword probably dated the weapon in VI in spite of
the profile animals on the chape. In other words, as was
pointed out earlier in this book (p. 14 f.) we must not press
the typological argument too far, and assume that work was
being carried on everywhere on the same lines at each
successive epoch of Anglo-Saxon art history.
Too much need not be made of the differences observable
in the rendering of the animal in the various pieces that have
been quoted or figured. The creature is at its best on the
Sarre brooch and perhaps at its worst on the Aylesbury belt
plate, PI. CLV, I, yet the faceted linear ornament on other
parts of this object would justify an ascription to quite an
early date.
PI. CLV, 3, 4, illustrate the relation between Roman work
and the imitation of this by the barbaric craftsman on which
we may compare PL cl (p. S^^). Both pieces show knife
handles in cast bronze with the design in open work of a dog
pursuing a hare. No. 3, now in the Cambridge Museum
was found at Richborough, Kent, a Roman site, and No. 4
comes from Bifrons. The first is clearly Roman work, the
latter looks much more like an Anglo-Saxon imitation. The
particular motive is not uncommon in this transitional period
both at home and in northern France.
IV M
CHAPTER XI
ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE CONNECTED WITH THE
MIGRATIONS AND SETTLEMENTS OF THE ANGLO-
SAXONS
The corner stone of old English ethnology is the statement
in Bede about the original seats of the Teutonic conquerors of
Britain and the parts of our island in which each of them
settled. Bede apparently assumes it to be a matter of
common knowledge that his countrymen in general came from
what was anciently known as the Cimbric peninsula, answering
to the modern Jutland, Schleswig and Holstein. As regards
their distribution in that region his information is most
definite in the case of the Angles, who came, he says, ' from
that country which is called " Angulus," and which from that
time till now is said to remain desolate between the provinces
of the Jutes and the Saxons.' The approximate location of
this Angulus is given by the survival to this day of the name
' Angeln ' which can be read on the map of the modern
Schleswig in the district between Schlei and Flensburg. It is
true that this is only a small corner of the Cimbric peninsula
but Angle-land was certainly much bigger than the modern
Angeln. On this point Mr. R. W. Chambers's commentary
on Widsith, sometimes called The 'Traveller s Song, may be
consulted, and he shows by reference to King Alfred's Orosius
that not only Jutland but also some of the important adjacent
islands on the east of the peninsula were ' part of the original
Anglian home.' ^ The ancient importance of the Angles in
this region is attested by notices of them in the heroic litera-
ture of the Anglo-Saxons. It is a reasonable theory of
1 Widsith, Cambridge University Press, 191 2, p. 71 f., see also p. 24.1 f.
066
HISTORY OF THE ANGLES 567
Beowulf that the poem received its present literary form at
the court of the famous English King Offa of Mercia in the
last part of VIII, but the scene of it is laid near to the earlier
continental seat of the Angles in Schleswig. This had been
ruled about the middle of IV by an earlier King Offa from
whom the Mercian Offa claimed descent, and who is celebrated
in the poem as ' for graces and war feats widely famed and
ruling with wisdom his ancestral home,' while in the above
mentioned Traveller s Song, an Anglo-Saxon poem of the first
half of VII that is claimed to be * the oldest monument of
Germanic epic,' this same OfFa is pictured as a potent warrior,
who conquered the Danes and extended his kingdom to the
Eider by victories over his neighbours to the south, who may
very likely have been the Saxons. A powerful Anglian kingdom
is in this way attested in the pre-migration period in Schleswig,
and this implies a considerable population that could furnish
materials when the time came for a migration en masse to
England,
The statement about the desolate condition of the old
territory of the Angles after their migration from it is attested
archaeologically by the fact that after V, when the shifting of
population had taken place, the district becomes almost
barren as regards antiquarian discoveries, that is to say the
objects which by appearing in cemeteries attested the existence
and activity of a population in the region these cemeteries
served, cease after a certain date, and suggest the inference
that this population had taken its departure. This fact is of
no little importance as securing credit for Bede's whole
statement which contains, as will be seen, matter for which
he is really our sole authority. If he be right about the
Angles we may accept his location of the Jutes on the one
side of this people and the Saxons on the other. Now the
Saxons are placed by the geographer Ptolemy,^ writing about
the time of Marcus Aurelius, in ' the neck of the Cimbric
^ II, xi, 7. 'E(^e^7js Se kirl rbv av\kva rrjs KtfijSpiKrjs l^epcrovqa-ov ^d^oves.
568 MIGRATIONS AND SETTLEMENTS
peninsula,' a situation corresponding to the north of the
modern Holstein, so that the Jutes would come on the other
side, that is the north, of Angle-land, in the district which
still bears their name in the form Jutland.
As regards the English seats occupied by the three peoples
here mentioned Bede locates the Jutes in Kent and in the Isle
of Wight and the parts of Hampshire over against it ; the
Saxons in Sussex, Essex, and Wessex ; the Angles on the
east coast from the Lothians to the borders of Essex and in
the somewhat vaguely defined inland districts of Mercia and
Mid-Anglia. This distribution is attested by the existing
local nomenclature which is partly made up of the ethnic
names, but this does not apply to the Jutish regions, to which
this people has not bequeathed its appellation. Were it not
indeed for this statement in Bede we should have no know-
ledge of the Jutes as settlers in England, but there is no
reason to doubt what he tells us. Archaeological evidence,
as well as the evidence of social customs, currency, and the
like, proves that there existed marked differences between the
early Teutonic inhabitants of Kent and the other Anglo-
Saxon settlers.^ Apart from Kent we really know nothing of
the Jutes, so that we cannot claim that these peculiarities are
attested elsewhere as Jutish, but the existence of the marked
differences is so far in favour of the accuracy of Bede's infor-
mation. The question of the archaeological relations among
the groups of antiquities found in Jutish, Saxon, and Anglian
regions, is, of course, one of the utmost importance and will
be fully discussed in the sequel. When these relations are
established we shall be in possession of a valuable body of
evidence bearing on the question how far these three peoples
were distinct how far ethnically and culturally allied, but the
discussion must for the sake of clearness be deferred. For
the moment it is enough to note that the differences are
1 This evidence is fully stated and explained in Professor Chadwick's
The Origin of the English Nation, Cambridge, 1907 ; see especially Chapter iv.
ANGLES, SAXONS, AND JUTES 569
certainly not of a very fundamental kind. The fact is that
the names Jute, Saxon, Angle are used even by Bede himself
in so loose a fashion that he cannot himself have reckoned the
racial distinctions as in any way absolute. Bede is apparently
himself unmindful of these distinctions when in another
passage he says that ' the race of the Angles or Saxons came
to Britain,' as if these were alternative names for the same
people, and speaks in yet another of 'the coming of the
Angles ' when according to his previous statement he ought to
have said 'the coming of the Jutes.' Apart indeed from
Bede, the variations in the use of the terms ' Saxon ' and
' Angle ' are very curious, and form the subject of an article
in the new Reallexicon der Germanischen Altertumskunde. For
example, the word ' Saxon ' was used in the oldest times, as it
has been employed ever since, by the Celtic peoples to denote
their Teutonic neighbours, and the Angle of the north is as
much a Saxon to the Scottish Highlander as is the inhabitant
of Wessex to the Welsh. On the other hand, in the literature
of Wessex the word ' Angle ' and its compounds is commonly
applied to the people and the language of the whole country,
and the terms ' England ' and ' English ' go back to times
when the predominant people in Britain were not any of the
Angles but the Saxons of Wessex.
This does not mean that no differences can have existed
between Angle and Saxon or between Anglo-Saxon and Jute,
but that these differences were of small account when com-
pared with the more important characteristics all the three
peoples possessed in common, characteristics marking off the
Teutonic conquerors in general from the Romanized Britons
or Gauls whose lands they overran, and marking off also the
settlers in Britain from, those who came to occupy France and
Italy. This consideration applies not to Britain alone but to
the whole Teutonic area over which we find distributed peoples
that in their essential ethnic character were one, though they
were divided up into numerous aggregates differing in name,
570 MIGRATIONS AND SETTLEMENTS
position, and history. In north-western Europe in the early-
migration period it is extremely difficult to decide how far the
use of a common name implies close ethnic affinity among the
peoples to which it is applied, how far these names are used
loosely as generic terms for tribes each of which is possessed
of its own special appellation. The word ' Saxon,' to take
one example, is evidently used as a collective name for several
peoples, and Miillenhof^ goes so far as to say that from I
onwards the sea robbers from the north were sometimes called
Jutes, sometimes Heruli, Suevi, Angli, Warni, Friesones, but
for the most part Saxons, and Dr. Krom^ thinks that at the end
of IV all maritime raiders were commonly called * Saxons.' It
is advisable to bear this caution in mind so as to avoid attaching
too definite a meaning to the various ethnic names with which
the history of this migration period is replete.
With this in remembrance we may accept Bede's statement
about the original seats of the English and their distribution
among the districts of Britain, though it should be added that
one good early authority, Procopius, mentions a fourth people,
the Frisians, as having shared in the conquest of our island.
When, in what order, and by which routes, was effected this
transference of peoples from one side to the other of the
North Sea Bede does not distinctly tell us, though we may
gather certain information from his history, and may supple-
ment this by a critical use of other sources, such as Gildas,
Nennius, and the Saxon Chronicles. All literary authorities
agree that the first definite settlement was made in Kent, and
Bede tells us that these immigrants were Jutes. The Chronicle
makes the first settlement of the Saxons in Sussex. About
the Angles we hear little more than the important fact that
theirs was a migration en masse. Such a migration would
naturally be a direct one, for there would be no reason for
^ 'Nordalbingiscke Studien, i, Ii6.
'^ De Populis Germaftis antiquo tempore patriam nostram incokntlbus Anglo-
Saxonumquc Migraimibus. Lugd. Bat., 1908, p. 138,
ANGLES, SAXONS, AND JUTES
W v-^..>-^.
the Angles to leave a country where they had apparently been
flourishing except to take possession of known seats of a
specially promising kind. Now a glance at Map i, above,
will show that the parts of England settled by the Angles lie
nearer to their continental seats than any other portion of the
British Isles. Hence there is no geographical difficulty in
the way of a direct passage across the intervening ocean to
the Wash and the mouths of the Humber or the Tees.
The case is different when we figure to ourselves the
migrations of the Jutes and the Saxons. The original starting
point of the former is further from Britain than the seats of
her other Teutonic invaders yet the Jutes are represented as
occupying Kent, the Isle of Wight, and Hampshire, compara-
tively remote parts of our island, while the Saxons starting
from Holstein or the mouth of the Elbe colonize at their first
settlement Sussex, to reach which they would have to pass
round our eastern and southern coast leaving eligible spots for
572 MIGRATIONS AND SETTLEMENTS
a landing, such as East Anglia or Essex, all unnoticed on their
beam. In both cases we should anticipate a descent on nearer
and more directly accessible British districts, and this initial
difficulty leads us to ask what we actually know of the move-
ments of these peoples which finally landed them on our shores.
In the case of the Jutes we possess no information, but from
both history and archaeology we learn a good deal about the
Saxons or the aggregate of peoples called by that general
name, and this proves that prior to their settlements in Britain
they were much in evidence along the continental coasts south
and west of their original seats as far as the Atlantic, and
makes it probable that they invaded south-eastern Britain
from near the mouths of the Rhine and the Scheldt rather
than from those of the Elbe or the Weser.
The Map, No. i, brings these geographical relations into
view. Taking what is now Esbjerg as a convenient port of
departure for the peoples of the Cimbric peninsula the
comparative accessibility of our north-eastern coasts as
compared with Kent and Sussex is by the radiating dotted
lines at once made apparent. The distribution of the three
peoples in the peninsula on the authority of Bede is also
indicated. Furthermore the map shows the name ' Chauci '
along the coast to the south-west of the Saxon territory.
Tacitus describes the Chauci as a powerful and warlike race
living apparently between the Elbe and the Ems,^ while Pliny,
who had served in their country, locates them along the coast
and in certain islands to the east of the Frisians.^ With them
the Romans had many dealings alike of a friendly and of
a hostile kind. Drusus and Tiberius make treaties with them
and the Romans receive from them contingents for the
army.^ They remained true even after the overthrow of
^ De Mor. Germ., c. xxxv. ' Populus inter Germanos nobilissimus.'
- Hist. Nat., XVI, i.
3 Tacitus, Ann., i, Ix. 'Chauci, cum auxilia polliccrentur in com-
militium adsciti sunt.'
EARLY HISTORY OF THE SAXONS
573
Varus, but before the middle of I they invade lower Germany
which is freed from them by Corbulo/ and about a.d. 70
they oppose the Romans in the Batavian rising.^ A century
later, in the time of Commodus about 180 a.d., they break
into Belgic Gaul where they are defeated by Didius Julianus.^
After this we hear no more of them, and it is a plausible and
widely accepted hypothesis that the Chauci were after this
time in some way amalgamated with the Saxons, or that the
name ' Saxons ' was transferred to them, for as a fact in III
the Saxons emerge into the light in the same regions and
engaged in the same operations as the Chauci. Map 11 shows
the probable situations of peoples in the latter half of III.
The exact position of the Frisians at the time is not easy to
1 Tac, Ann., xi, xviii. 2 Xac, Hist., iv, Ixxix.
3 Spartianus, Fit. Did. ]ul., i, 7. ' Belgicam sancte ac diu rexit. Ibl
Cauchis, Germaniae populis, qui Albim fluvium adcolebant, erumpentibus
restitit.
574 MIGRATIONS AND SETTLEMENTS
fix, but a portion of them had made a raid into Gaul and were
afterwards settled there and are mentioned as a ' cohors
Frisiavonum ' in the Notitia Dignitatum, The older Batavians
seem to have disappeared from what is now Holland and
their place is taken by the Salian Franks who have moved to
the west of the Yssel, while the ' Saxons ' lie to the north and
east of them. The Saxons, or the confederation of peoples
called by that name, join with the Franks in combined raids
on Gaul about the year 286, in the course of which the sea
rovers' keels may have swept the Channel as far as Armorica
or Brittany.^ Somewhat later, in the time of the Emperor
Julian about the middle of IV, the pressure westwards of the
Saxons appears to have forced the Salian Franks across the
Rhine to an undefined inland district called Toxandria,^ and
the Saxons, perhaps including the Frisians, are in possession
of the coast lands as far as the Rhine. See Map iii.
It was in these maritime seats that the Saxons displayed
those conspicuous qualities as professional raiders which so
deeply impressed the inhabitants of the coasts open to their
ravages. Ammianus Marcellinus ^ writes of them that they
were formidable to the provincials above all other enemies
owing to their suddenness. No one, he explains, could guard
against them for they formed no plans beforehand, but made
casual raids upon distant regions just where the wind carried
them. In the middle of V we obtain from the pen of
Sidonius Apollinaris^ an interesting contemporary description
of the Saxons as they appeared in their character of ruthless
sea rovers before the trembling Gallic provincials. He is
writing to a Roman commander who is about to embark on
a naval expedition directed against ' the curved pinnaces of
the Saxons.' They are arch-pirates, all at once and in unison
^ Eutropius, blc. ix, c, 21, in Mon. Germ. Hist., Auct. antiquiss., 11,
Carausius . . . cum apud Bononiam per tractum Belgicae et armo-ricae
pacandum mare accepisset, quod Franci et Saxones infestabant.'
2 Amm. Marc, xvii, viii, 3. ^ jbid., xxviii, ji. 12. ^ Ep., viii, 6.
EARLY HISTORY OF THE SAXONS
commanding, obeying, teaching, and learning their one chosen
business of brigandage. The most truculent, most elusive, of
foes, they strike when least expected, and when they are off
again with spoil and prisoners to their own country they
crucify some of their captives to ensure from their gods a safe
return. The most interesting passage in the letter is that
which concerns their seamanship. ' To these men,' he writes,
' a shipwreck is good practice rather than a matter of terror.
The dangers of the deep are to them not casual acquaintances
but intimate friends, for since a tempest throws the invaded
off their guard and prevents the assailants from being descried
from afar, they hail with joy the crash of waves on the rocks
which gives them their best chance of getting the better of
enemies other than the elements.'
Map III indicates the state of affairs in regard to Saxon
incursions into Gaul in the last quarter of IV. Ammianus
is our chief authority.^ Writing of the time of Valentinian i
^ Hist, Rum., XXXVII, viii, 5.
576 MIGRATIONS AND SETTLEMENTS
(364-375) he speaks of the regions of Gaul infested by the
Franks and their neighbours the Saxons both by land and sea,
so that wherever they could find entrance there was rapine and
conflagration and the murder of those captured. An inland
raid on the part of the Saxons some time in this period is
important because in connection with it we find a reference to
the youthful Saxons, like the earlier Chauci, taking service in
the Roman army, a notice the significance of which will be
seen as we proceed. The Notitia Dignitatum mentions an
' Ala Saxonum.' So busy were the Saxons along the northern
coasts of Gaul that the Notitia Dignitatum, or official Gazetteer
of the Roman military system, in an entry dating from the
early years of V, refers to the whole maritime region from the
Scheldt to Brittany, under the name of * Litus Saxonicum per
Gallias,' ' the Saxon shore of Gaul.' Literary evidence of
actual settlements in Gaul exists, though it must be admitted
that archaeological discoveries do not supply much confirma-
tion. In 45 1 a body of Saxons fight under the banners of
Aetius against Attila. About the same time we can locate
them on the authority of Gregory of Tours ^ in the north-west
region of Gaul near the mouth of the Loire, and somewhat
later their further advance inland was resisted by the Franks
and the Visigoths. A century afterwards there is evidence
of independent Saxon communities near Nantes and near
Bayeux where they were known as Saxones Bajocassini. The
evidence of place names seems to indicate a Saxon settlement
near Boulogne," for in that arrondissement the terminal
syllable -thun occurs twenty-seven times, and some of the
places in question have the same names as English villages.
There is an ' Alincthun ' (' Alingetuna ' in a document of
1 208) which corresponds with our ' AUington.' * Dirlingthun '
^ Hist. Franc, 11, xviii, xix ; see also iv, xiv ; v, xxvii, etc.
2 De Loisne, ' La colonisation saxonne dans le Boulonnais ' in Bulletins
et Memoires de la Societe Nationale des Antiquaires de France, Serie vii, torn.
V, 1906, p. 139.
EARLY HISTORY OF THE SAXONS 577
is the same as ' Dirleton ' near North Berwick, and ' Fauketon '
('Foukestun' in 1307) is obviously the 'Folkestone' of the
other side of the Channel. The Norman ' Ouistreham ' at
the mouth of the river that runs up to Caen is our ' West-
ham ' which occurs at Pevensey and elsewhere in England.
As was intimated on the last page it cannot be said that
archaeological evidence does anything to support the pre-
sumption thus raised of actual Saxon settlements in the parts
in question. The cemeteries in the neighbourhood of Boulogne
and in Pas de Calais generally and the seaward districts of
Picardy and Normandy do not yield, except of course quite
accidentally, objects of a specially ' Saxon ' character. For
example the pottery in Museums such as those of Boulogne,
Amiens, Rouen, is uniformly of the regular Prankish type.
Turning now to the historical evidence for the early Saxon
connection with the other side of the Channel with which we
are more specially concerned, we find the chief historical
indications noted on Map iii (p. 575). Ammianus includes
Britain with the Gauls as the objective of the Saxon raids to
which he refers in the passsages dated on the map, but it is
noteworthy that he does not use the term ' Litus Saxonicum '
as applying to any part of the Britannic coasts. Early in
V the Notitia Dignitatum refers to a ' Litus Saxonicum per
Britannias,' corresponding to the south-eastern coast of our
island from the Wash round to Porchester in Hampshire.
Ammianus writing about 390 only knows this part as ' mari-
timus tractus,' and the inference has been drawn that the
Saxons who had up to the end of IV only raided the coasts
opposite their continental seats had by the beginning of V
effected settlements upon them and in this way impressed
upon them their name. To this question reference will be made
(pp. 674, 790) in connection with archaeological evidence, but
it may be said here at once that there is no more support in
the finds for the view of an early settlement on our own Saxon
Shore than exists in the case of the supposed Saxonized parts
578 MIGRATIONS AND SETTLEMENTS
of northern France. A good contemporary authority, the
Southern GaUic Chronicle, known as Chronicon Imperiale^
under the date 409 a.d. states that at that time Britain was
being devastated by the Saxons^ and twenty years later occurs
that well known military event the so-called ' Hallelujah
victory,' in which under the direction of Bishop Germanus
of Auxerre, in his secular days a skilled soldier, the Chris-
tianized Britons put to rout an invading host of Picts and
of Saxons." The action took place in some hilly region in
the interior of the island, possibly in Derbyshire.
What has now been said about the movements of the
Saxons and their incursions on the lands on both sides of
the North Sea and Channel will have made it highly probable
that the Saxon parts of our island were colonized not from
the original seats of the people in Holstein but from their
later rallying places over against our south-eastern coasts.
Historical evidence confirms in this matter the statement
by Adam of Bremen^ who writing in XI tells us that the
Saxons dwelt first upon the Rhine, and that part of them
coming from thence to Britain drove the Romans out of that
island, while another part conquered Thuringia and there
settled — becoming he might have added the ' Old,' or Con-
tinental, Saxons, mentioned by Bede and others of our early
writers. How far, it must now be asked, are we justified in
assuming a similar course of events in the case of the Jutes
and the Angles .'' A movement of Jutes to the regions near
the mouths of the Rhine and a temporary residence there before
the settlements in England is not attested by any direct state-
ments in our literary authorities, but there is as will be seen
archaeological evidence of the most convincing kind that some-
thing of the sort must have taken place. The fact may be
^ Edited by Th. Mommscn in Mo7i. Germ, Hist., Auct. Antiquiss., vol. ix.
2 Constantius, Fita German't, in Acta Sanctorum, July vii. The passage is
quoted by Bede, Hist. Eccl., i, 20,
3 Hist. Eccl., I, 3.
THE MIGRATION OF THE ANGLES 579
mentioned, though too much stress must not be laid upon it,
that the Frankish prince Theodebert (p. 61), writing about
the year 540 to the Emperor Justinian, informs him that
together with the Saxons the ' Eucii ' had made voluntary
submission to his rule. Some recent authorities, such as
Dr. Ludwig Schmidt,^ identify these ' Eucii ' or ' Eutii ' with
the Jutes, and derive from the passage assurance that the
people had their seats at that time, and presumably before it,
in the vicinity of the Franks.
With respect to the Angles, we have already seen that
Bede's statement invites us to accept a migration en masse
directly from Schleswig to the north-eastern parts of Britain,
but it does not follow that this accounts for all the Anglian
settlements in our country. A portion of the Angles, hke
a portion of the Jutes, may have joined in the stream of
Teutonic migration to the west and south which has been
followed in connection with the Saxons,^ and it is held by
some that the settlement of East Anglia was probably effected
independently of the general Anglian migration, and from
seats near the mouths of the Rhine. A story in Procopius
which will be referred to on a later page (p. 764 f.) seems to
show a rather close connection between Norfolk and Suffolk
and the continental region opposite to them, while the passage
just quoted from Adam of Bremen contains in most but not
in all MSS. an additional clause to which it is possible to
attach a similar significance. After the words ' Saxones primo
circa Rhenum sedes habebant ' all the Codices but one (the
one however that is at the same time the most authoritative)
add the parenthesis ' (et vocati sunt Angh),' a phrase which
justifies the view that under the general name ' Saxons ' may
have been included peoples or sections of peoples known
sometimes by distinctive individual titles,
A theory, or rather theories, of the course of the migrations
1 Jllg. Gesch. d. Germ. Folker, Miinchen, 1909, p. 149.
2 R. W. Chambers, Widiith, p. 246.
58o MIGRATIONS AND SETTLEMENTS
and settlements, which we have seen to be supported though
hardly proved by literary evidence, and which in some points
are strikingly confirmed by archaeological discoveries, are pre-
sented in graphic form in Map iv, the aim of which is not
so much to lay down any one hard and fast line along which
events must have progressed, as to give the various possi-
bilities of the situation in such a form that they can be easily
grasped. Here the Jutes are seen crossing to Kent and
coasting along the Channel to the Isle of Wight and Hamp-
shire from starting points in the region of the mouths of the
Rhine, though their connection with more northerly seats is
at the same time indicated ; the Saxons, already in these seas
ubiquitous, may have crossed to Sussex, and may possibly have
entered inlets in our southern coasts further to the west, from
the opposite side of the Channel or more probably from those
regions of the modern Holland where, as shown in Map iii
(p. 575), was the centre of their power. From the ports
here, as modern travellers to and from the Continent are
aware, the traject to Essex is easy, and the same applies to
the mouth of the Thames which archaeological finds exhibit
as the gateway to those inland regions which became the seat
of the West Saxon power. With regard to the Angles,
Bede's migration en masse from Schleswig is compatible with
other Anglian movements more in accordance with the proved
ones of the Saxons, and East Anglia may very well have been
colonized, as suggested above, from intermediate seats. The
above are only advanced as plausible historical hypotheses,
and the next step will be to inquire what support they receive
from archaeological discoveries.
For the present purpose the most important archaeological
fact connecting England with the Continent is the distribution
of the characteristic pottery described and illustrated at the
beginning of the last chapter. We call this pottery ' Anglian,'
for the reason that it is more abundant and exhibits bolder
and more characteristic forms in our Anglian regions than in
THE EVIDENCE OF POTTERY
581
those occupied by the Saxons, but continental writers, German,
Dutch and Belgian, speak of it as 'Saxon,' and this simple
fact casts a flood of light on the relations between Angle and
Saxon which in our country have an importance they do not
possess abroad. On the Continent the Angle plays no part
in the history of the migration period and is merely an
archaeological curiosity. On this side of the sea he is repre-
sented as peopling by far the larger part of Teutonized
England. Judging by their common use of the pottery just
mentioned the ' Angles ' of England must have been very
similar culturally to the so-called ' Saxons ' of the Continent,
and we should be quite ready on this ground to believe that
part of them at any rate had shared in those movements
towards the south and west, attested as we have seen both
by history and by archaeology, that preceded the settlement
in England. The pottery therefore is a piece of archaeological
evidence that exhibits the resemblance of Saxons and Angles.
IV N
582 MIGRATIONS AND SETTLEMENTS
Other pieces of evidence of the same kind as we shall see tend
to emphasize their difference and these will presently be noticed.
For the moment we may still keep to the pottery as a
whole and may note the remarkable divergence in the use of
it on the two sides of the North Sea. Save in parts of
Holland where inhumation occurs, and also in one or two
examples in Belgium (p. 492), it may be said that on the
Continent practically every ' Saxon ' urn is a cinerary one and
every burial is by the method of cremation, while with our-
selves in all regions urns of the very same kind are in countless
cases found with inhumed burials, and the two rites are
almost everywhere except in Kent used in conjunction. The
facts about our own country may be summarized as follows.
We shall see good reason for dividing England as a whole
into three main areas with certain other outlying self-contained
districts. The v/hole of the Thames basin including Essex,
with the basins of the Hampshire Avon and the Warwickshire
Avon, is one district that is regarded as the East and West
Saxon area, and to this fall to be added as adjuncts the self-
contained South Saxon region, and the two Jutish provinces
of Kent and the Isle of Wight with part of Hampshire.
Next, on the northern and eastern sides of the watershed that
separates the basins of the Thames and the Warwickshire
Avon from those of the Trent and the rivers discharging into
the Wash, comes the Anglian region, embracing Mercia and
Mid-Anglia, or the areas watered by the streams last mentioned,
together with Lincolnshire, and to this main Anglian area is
added the self-contained East Anglia incorporating the counties
of Norfolk and Suffolk. Finally, from the Humber north-
wards come the provinces of Deira and Bernicia, of which
only the southernmost one, practically speaking eastern and
central Yorkshire, is of much importance from the point of
view of archaeology. See Maps Nos. v, vi, vii, viii.
In what way we may ask is the practice of cremation
distributed over these areas .?
CREMATION IN ENGLISH DISTRICTS 583
In Jutish Kent and the other Jutish districts there appears
to be no undoubted instance of cremation among the Teutonic
settlers/ and Kentish pottery in its most characteristic form,
that of the bottle-shaped vase (p. 506), gives no hint at the
previous practice of the rite, for such urns could never have
been used to contain calcined bones. In Sussex instances of
human cremation do occur, but they are very few,^ while
among the people who ascended the Thames Valley and
founded the kingdom of Wessex cremation was in use but
was apparently rapidly dying out. It is found at sites all the
way up the Thames Valley^ but not on every site, and is
much less frequent in connection with settlements in the
lateral valleys of the tributaries of the main stream. In
Essex there is no evidence of its use. On the other hand, in
the Anglian cemeteries across the border from Essex, in East
Anglia and Cambridgeshire, the rite is in full employment,
though again not in every burying ground nor exclusively in
any one of these. In the territories of the Mid-Angles and
the Mercians cremation is also represented in every district
though not on every site, and here, at any rate in Northants
and Derbyshire, cemeteries are found in which cremation
appears the only method in use for the disposal of the corpse.
The same appearances meet us in Yorkshire, where there are
purely cremation cemeteries as well as those in which the two
rites are coexistent, and those where inhumation only is found,
and it is worth noting that the most northerly of all the
cemeteries of ancient Northumbria, that at Darlington, a little
north of the Tees, showed no signs that bodies had been
burned. In the Maps, v to viii, that give a conspectus of
1 For the examples quoted from Coombe by Sandwich and Folkestone
see (pp. 222, 696) ; for (non-Jutish) cremation in North Kent (p. 627 f ) and
for the discovery of supposed cinerary urns at Hollingbourne and Maidstone
(P- 740-
^ The examples are noticed (p. d'j'] f ).
2 See Chapter xiii (pp. 627, 631, 634, 642, 646, 659, etc.).
584 MIGRATIONS AND SETTLEMENTS
the more important Anglo-Saxon finds in different parts of
England the cemeteries where the use of cremation has been
established are underlined. As regards the comparative chron-
ology of the two rites, what was said in the Introductory-
Chapter (p. 147) may be recalled. Though on the whole
cremation is the earlier rite, this is by no means a hard and
fast rule, for, if we take what seem to be the two earliest finds
in the country, we note that one, at Great Addington,
Northants, was of a cremation urn (p. 508), the other, at
Dorchester-on-Thames (p. 557 f), perhaps the earliest of all,
was a find of objects accompanying inhumed skeletons.
It is undoubtedly a hard matter to reconcile this irregular
and not always early use of the rite of cremation in our own
country with the almost universal employment of it abroad by
people who associated with it urns of exactly the same pattern
as ours. If however it were the case that our invaders had
been in touch with the South before they actually came here
to settle, we could understand that the ancestral habit in the
disposal of the dead may have become broken. Such com-
munication with the South seems evidenced by the occurrence
in the southerly regions of England of the romanizing bronze
objects of which there has just been question. It is true that
in our own country sporadic examples of this kind of work
occur in the Midlands, as in Cambridgeshire and Rutland,
PI. CLiv, 2 (pp. 561, 779) and in Norfolk, PI. clii, 4 (p. 558) ;
it is true also that there are occasional examples discovered in
the cemeteries of northern Germany (p. 559) but the fact is
thereby unaltered that, abroad, the work really belongs to the
border lands between the Empire and the Teutonic regions
to the north and east and, in England, to the Thames Valley
area exhibited in Map v.
Southerly connections might in this way explain the fact
that in the Thames Valley area and its adjoined districts
cremation is, as it were, receding into the background, and
this hypothesis is strikingly confirmed by the case of Jutish
ANGLIAN TRADITION OF CREMATION 585
Kent, where the affinities of tomb furniture generally are most
markedly with the South, and where cremation is most
markedly out of evidence.
It must however be remembered that, if Bede's account
of the Angles be right, this explanation of the very partial use
of cremation in this country, as compared with the regions of
the Continent where ' Saxon ' pottery appears, should not
apply to the more northerly districts of England. Archaeo-
logical facts in Schleswig support as we have seen Bede's
statement of a migration thence en masse of the population,
and if this population, as we must assume would be the case,
came directly across to our shores we should expect them to
bring over unimpaired their traditional custom of burial.
Now it is quite possible that in central Jutland this custom
was in some measure that of inhumation, for cremation was at
this time, though general, not universal in the North. In
fact in an important set of graves on Bornholm the bodies
were as a rule inhumed.^ But granted that cremation pre-
vailed among the Angles in their native seat, it is possible that
a change in favour of inhumation began to operate soon after
the settlement. The purely cremation cemetery at Heworth
just outside York may for anything we know represent one of
the earliest burial grounds of the new population ; while some
at any rate of the inhumation burials in the county, such as
those on the Wolds, we know to have been quite late. As
has been already pointed out (p. 48), there are other dis-
crepancies between archaeological evidence and tradition in
connection with the Anglian settlement of northern Britain,
and in general it must be confessed that our knowledge of
early Anglian affairs is extremely limited. On this point
more will have to be said (p. 758 f).
If the romanizing objects in bronze are evidence of an
early connection with the South in the case of the settlers in
the Thames basin, corresponding evidence of northern affinities
1 Sophus Miiller, Nordische Alterthimskunde, 11, 185.
586 MIGRATIONS AND SETTLEMENTS
in the case of the Anglian peoples may be found in a charac-
teristic piece of tomb furniture which belongs essentially to
their domain, though it may occur occasionally in other parts.
This object is the cruciform brooch of the genuine three-
knobbed type.^ In the survey of the cemeteries that follows,
and that constitutes the statistical part of these two volumes
(p. 38 f.), special attention is given to the distribution of this
object, and it is shown that it does constitute a real 'discrimen'
between Anglian and Saxon regions. It is as characteristically
Anglian as the inlaid jewel work is Jutish, and the truth of
this principle is not altered by the fact that in both cases the
object or the style of work is represented sporadically outside
its proper region.
On the Continent this same object is conspicuous by its
marked absence from Prankish, Alamannic, and Burgundian
cemeteries, as well as from those of Teutonic peoples more to
the south and east, and it occurs most abundantly in the far
north in Scandinavia. Its position in the lands from which
our forefathers are supposed to have come is as follows. The
prototypes of it (p. 259 f.) are included in the Nydam moss-
finds of IV and occur in a rather more advanced form in the
cemetery of Borgstedt in Schlesvvig, Fig. 12 (p. 259), and in a
further stage of development in two examples from the im-
portant cemetery Hammoor B, not far from Hamburg, in
what was formerly Holstein, These examples are sufficient
to locate the type in this region at a time prior to any actual
migration of either Saxons or Angles to our shores, and the
fact that we find it again in our own cemeteries, in one case,
at Dorchester, in the form like the Borgstedt specimen — com-
pare Fig. 12 with PI. XL, 6 (p. 259) — and in other cases in forms
like that from Hammoor B, PL xl, 3, supplies us with valu-
able confirmation from the side of archaeology of the historical
apergu given in the foregoing pages. The cruciform brooch
^ The origin, forms, and typology of this object were discussed in
Chapter v (p, 258 f.).
SOME SIGNIFICANT DISCOVERIES 587
is with us a distinctively Anglian institution, and it is a matter of
importance to locate it in the home of the Angles in Schleswig.
It must be understood at the same time that while we
may find as it were the cradle of the cruciform brooch in
Schleswig, the theatre of its development on the Continent
was not Schleswig-Holstein nor northern Germany, but Den-
mark and Norway. It was in Scandinavia that it was most
abundant and attained its classical form. Its occurrence in
northern Germany and in Friesland is only occasional, and it
is by no means so much at home in the regions covered by
the ' Saxon ' pottery of which there has been question (p. 492 f.)
as it is in the Anglian parts of England. The object in this
way constitutes an interesting link of connection between
northern England and Scandinavia, on which antiquaries such
as Haakon Schetelig have a good deal to say.
The historical significance of the broad equal armed fibula
Pll. CLiii, CLiv (p. 561), must have a word. The ornamenta-
tion and most probably the form of this are Roman, and yet
on the Continent it is found so far as we know at present in
northern Germany and Schleswig alone. Its appearance in the
same shape in the basin of the Great Ouse in our own country
undoubtedly implies such a close relation between the localities
that it is clear that some of those who settled in the Mid-
Anglian district came over directly from the Elbe mouth.
The spout-handled urn, PL cxxxix, 6 (p. 507), that was found
with cremated bones in it at Great Addington on the Nene
in Northamptonshire has also prototypes in the same region,
though the type is more numerously represented in Scandi-
navia. It probably represents a very early intrusion of settlers
from the Elbe-mouth region into this part of Mid-Anglia,
but a difficulty presents itself here in the fact that the inhabitants
of the Elbe-mouth region are regarded as Saxons whereas these
Hanoverian brooches have been found in the Anglian regions
of Britain. Mr. Thurlow Leeds ^ believes in a mixture of
^ The Archaeology), etc., p. 8i.
588 MIGRATIONS AND SETTLEMENTS
Anglian and Saxon elements, or a Saxon ' couche ' overlaid by
an Anglian, in the part of England where these brooches come
to light, but, as we shall see later on (p. 615 f.), the districts
watered by the streams discharging into the Wash appear to
have been settled by immigrants ascending these streams from
that estuary, and these immigrants must be ranked as Angles
though this appellation is no guarantee of their ethnic purity.
The archaeology of Jutish Kent ^ we shall see later on to
be complicated by the fact that, while the great bulk of the
tomb furniture yielded up by its cemeteries is of a distinctly
southern character as is also the method of disposing of the
dead by inhumation, yet there are elements in this tomb
furniture that have unmistakable affinities with the further
north. This is an archaeological paradox on which something
is said in Chapter xiv (p. 742 f.) and which is ably handled by
Mr. Thurlow Leeds in the last chapter of the book to which
reference has so often been made.
^ It must be borne in mind that certain cemeteries in northern Kent
are not regarded as Jutish, but as belonging to a different set of settlers who
peopled the Thames Valley. See Chapter xii (pp. 611, 627 f.).
MAP
V
NOTES ON MAP V
The Map shows the portion of England settled by the Saxon contingent of
the Teutonic invaders. This consists in the main of the Thames basin
with the inclusion of Essex, and there are added also the basin of the
Warwickshire Avon to the north-west, and, to the south, Wilts with part
of Hampshire.
The line of the watersheds bounding to the north the Thames Valley
and that of the Warwickshire Avon, marked by a row of close-set crosses,
separates the Saxon districts from those of the Angles in the basins of the
Trent, Nene, Bedfordshire Ouse, etc., see Map vii (p. 767). The corre-
sponding southern boundary similarly marked, as far westwards as the
borders of Hampshire, is the limit of the Thames basin to the south, and
agrees roughly with the great natural barrier the forest district of the
Andredslea, below which again and in an isolated position lies the realm
of the South Saxons. Further west the Thames basin watershed is marked
by a line of widely spaced crosses, for it is not here effective as a delimitation
of districts occupied by the immigrant Saxons, whom we find in Wilts and
part of Hants on the other side of the actual divide. The Jutish regions of
the Isle of Wight and south-eastern Hampshire are included in this Map,
but for those of Kent there is a special Map on a larger scale. Map vi
(p. 691).
The principal sites in these regions where Anglo-Saxon tomb furniture
has come to light are marked in Roman lettering, the few in cursive and
between brackets being sites in the contiguous Anglian areas. Names
underscored with a full line are those of cemeteries where the practice of
cremation by the immigrants is established; the broken line used in one or
two instances indicates some doubt as to the existence on the site of Anglo-
Saxon cremation.
The county boundaries are shown by dotted lines, but in the interests of
clearness all names have been excluded from the Map save those of the
cemeteries. The river Stour is however named, as it is specially important
as the boundary between the realm of the East Saxons and that of the Angles
of Suffolk, and the letter * C,' near the western border of the Map, locates
Cirencester, the position of which in relation to the Saxon settlement at
Fairford possesses historical significance.
CHAPTER XII
THE SETTLEMENT OF THE THAMES BASIN
The preceding Chapter has been occupied with the three
questions of the original seats of the Teutonic peoples who
occupied England, the general direction of the migrations
with the intermediate halting places which history and archaeo-
logy seem to indicate, and the routes by which the new comers
may have reached our shores. The subject now before us is
that of the settlements themselves, involving a study of the
actual lines of penetration of the immigrants, the reasons why
they chose their places of occupation, and the groups into
which these localities seem naturally to fall.
Archaeological discoveries confirm what would be generally
surmised, that the invaders coming across the sea in ships
entered the land by the natural openings formed by estuaries,
and pushed their way up the rivers as far as was practicable.
To what extent this last was possible depends on the one hand
on the draught of the vessels, on the other upon the width of the
streams. The former can be judged from surviving specimens
of the barques themselves or of others that must have been
like them, and about the latter it can be safely said that the
streams offered more accommodation in the migration epoch
than is the case to-day. This is a matter within the province
of the scientific geographer, who would have much to say
about the reasons for this change and about the extent to which
it has operated in different parts. There is no question that
some rivers formerly navigable from the sea upwards are so
no longer. The Cinque Ports offer instances of the silting up
589
590 THE THAMES BASIN
of once open channels, and corresponding changes on the
Sussex coast are noticed later on (p. 670 f.). In the Dee at
Chester the position of old Roman mooring rings shows that
large galleys must in ancient times have floated in places
which now can only be reached by small boats. It must be
sufficient here to signalize the general fact of the change with-
out attempting any estimate in detail.
In the case of the ships we are fortunate in possessing
specimens, if not from the actual date of the Teutonic migra-
tions, yet from periods before and after that time and suffi-
ciently near it to furnish valuable data. There is the Nydam
boat now at Kiel that dates from about IV, and there is more
than one Viking ship of IX or X of which the Gogstad example
at Christiania may be taken as typical. These two vessels
agree in general dimensions and build, being between 70 and
80 ft. long, clinker-built with iron bolts. ^ This makes it
likely that boats of the intermediate period would not be very
difrerent. Our own country has produced an interesting relic
in the shape of the remains of a clinker-built boat with iron
bolts, 48 ft. long, 10 ft. wide and about 4 ft. high, that came
to light in 1862 in a tumulus on Snape Common near Alde-
burgh, Suffi^lk.^ The tumulus, 60 to 70 ft. in diameter, was
of the Bronze Age for an urn of that period was found in it,
but there was also within the mound an urn of ' Anglian '
type containing calcined bones, and similar cinerary urns came
to light in the immediate vicinity, so that intrusive Anglian
cremated burials in an older Bronze Age tumulus were clearly
indicated. As evidence for the date of the boat we have the
following. About the middle of it was some human hair but
^ There is a full account of early ships with abundant references to
ancient writers and records of discoveries in a long article on ' Prehistoric
Naval Architecture of the North of Europe,' by George H. Boehmcr in the
volume for 1891 of the Reports of the U.S. National Museum under the
direction of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 1892.
2 Proc. Soc. Jnt., 2 Sen, 11, 177.
THE SEA-ROVERS' SHIPS 591
no bones, and close to this was a portion of a tear- or lobed-
glass goblet of the form already illustrated, Pll. cxxiii, cxxiv
(p. 484), and also a gold finger ring adorned with filigree work
and set with a late Roman engraved gem. The question of
course is whether the boat is contemporary with the Anglian
cinerary urns or represents a second intrusion on the original
tumulus in the Viking epoch. Viking burials in Bronze Age
tumuli are not at all unknown/ and boat-burial, indicated by
the hair, is quite a Viking institution. Much as one would
like to see in the Snape-Common boat one of the actual keels
in which the first East Anglian settlers came to land, the
probability is that it is of Viking date, for the lobed-glass
vessel cannot be earlier than the end of VI or early part of
VII. Such a vessel has actually been found in a Viking boat
in Norway, no doubt as ' loot.'
The remains of Scandinavian vessels are sufficient however
to enable us to form a general idea of the ships of the Saxon
sea-rovers, those * curved pinnaces ' of the Saxons, mentioned
in the passage quoted from Sidonius Apollinaris (p. 574), a
summary representation of which we may see on the sceat coins,
PI. VI, 2, 7, etc. (pp. 85, no). The equal curves both in
plan and elevation of stem and stern here visible form a dis-
tinctive feature of the small votive boats in gold from Nors
in the Copenhagen Museum of the Later Bronze Age, of the
ships of the ' Suiones ' described by Tacitus,' of the Early
Iron Age Nydam vessel, and of the Viking ships as well as of
the reproductions of their lines in rows of stones in cemeteries
in Sweden or along the Baltic coast, — and in light, easily
manoeuvred vessels of the kind, perhaps 50 to 70 ft. long,
we can picture to ourselves the Saxon and Anglian sea-rovers
pushing their way up the frequent inlets of the indented
English coast, and nosing out a passage along the inland
streams even to the heart of the land.
That these were the lines of penetration, rather than the
^ S. Miiller, Nordische Alierlumskunde, ii, 254. ^ q)^ ^gy^ Germ., xliv.
592 THE THAMES BASIN
Roman roads, must be taken as the fundamental fact of the
geography of the settlements, and this will apply to the earlier
passing raids as much as to the organized movements of
migration. Mr. Thurlow Leeds, while emphasizing the
general principle just enunciated is inclined to think that the
earlier raiders used the Roman roads for their swift passage
from place to place.^ But such raiders needed a means of
rapid retreat with their booty to their base of operations, and
it can never have been safe for them to go far from their
boats. The most conspicuous piece of archaeological evidence
for an early raid is the Dorchester discovery (p. 557 f.), and
this find is riparian. A piece of literary evidence, on the value
of which opinions may differ, is to be found in Geoffrey of
Monmouth (see p. 755 f.), who presents us with the plausible
statement that in the early days of the Teutonic invasion in
northern Britain, before the appearance of the semi-mythical
King Arthur, the Britons contend against the raiders with
varying success ' being often repulsed by them and forced to
retreat to the cities ' while more often they routed their
German assailants ' and compelled them to flee sometimes into
the woods, sometimes to their ships.' This last touch has at
any rate verisimilitude, and we are inclined to see in it a bit of
genuine tradition. With ships therefore the sea-rovers came
and went on their raids, and in ships they brought their
families and goods when the era of settlement succeeded to
that of transient inroads.
Of the waterways into the interior of Britain on its eastern
side the most important were the Thames, the rivers dis-
charging into the Wash, and the Trent. By the first, as will
be made tolerably clear in the sequel, the people who became
afterwards the West Saxons forced their way into the very
heart of the island, while the powerful Mercian kingdom,
impinging on West Saxon territory from the side of the north,
was founded by immigrants whose keels had breasted the
^ Archaeology of the Settlements^ p. 17.
USE OF THE RIVERS 593
current of the Trent. The Great Ouse, the Cam, the Nene,
the Welland, led the Mid-Anglian settlers to their inland seats
in Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Northants, and the eastern
Midlands generally. The Yorkshire Ouse gave access to
York near which there is evidence of early settlements, but
with regard to the occupation of Northumbria in general there
rules great obscurity. Besides these districts opened up by
the larger rivers there were others that may be described as
maritime, where the rivers are comparatively small and do not
admit of penetration far inland. Eastern Suffolk, Essex,
Kent, Sussex are such districts, and here most of the early
settlements are near the sea. East Anglia in one part, the
north-western portion of Suffolk, is penetrated by tributaries
of the chief rivers debouching on the Wash, and so far it
belongs to this great river system, but in the main it forms
quite a distinct province. Essex was a kingdom by itself, so
was Kent, and so also Sussex, and apparently Wight. Any
historical questions that relate to the occupation of these dis-
tricts concern the districts alone and each stands pretty much
on its own footing.
Far other is the case with the West Saxon settlement and
with those of the west and east Midlands north of the Thames
Valley, for the time and manner of the first cannot be fixed
without opening up certain questions of very wide-reaching
interest, and the two other regions cannot be considered
independently of the West Saxon district, for the three
' spheres of influence ' impinged upon each other and inter-
penetrated in a rather complicated fashion. These considera-
tions have influenced the order in which the various settlements
are dealt with in these chapters. It would be natural to begin
with Kent because the literary authorities seem in agreement
that the Kentish kingdom was the one first established, but
the comparative isolation of Kent makes its early history far
less important than that of Wessex which affected to a much
greater extent the country at large. Moreover, apart from
594 THE THAMES BASIN
the dates given by the literary authorities which at the best
are not very trustworthy, the archaeological evidence for
priority in occupation would not be in favour of Kent as
against other parts of the country. It is proposed accordingly
to leave on one side for the moment the self-contained
kingdoms of the south coast, Kent, Sussex, and the Isle of
Wight with the opposite shore of Hampshire, and take up at
the outset the more complicated but more important question
of the Teutonic settlement of the basin of the Thames (Map v).
For the present purpose we may include under this term
Essex as well as the north-western riparian region of Kent.
Kent properly speaking does not now come into the story,
but we have to take account of Essex. Geologically speaking
it belongs to the Thames system, for the clay that overlies the
chalk throughout the river basin covers Essex as well as a
good deal of the coastal region of East Anglia ; its rivers too
may without doing violence to nature be included in the
Thames basin, for with the exception of the upper waters of
one tributary of the Cam they all run towards the Thames or
what may be regarded in a wide sense as its estuary, and in
history also Essex is inseparably connected with the Thames
in Saxon times through its nominal possession of London.
The East Saxons were masters of a compact little kingdom
that included the two great Roman centres we know as London
and Colchester. Bede distinctly defines the position of the
people.^ They are ' divided from Kent by the river Thames,
and border on the eastern sea. Their metropolis is the city
of London, which is situated on the bank of the aforesaid
river, and is the mart of many nations resorting to it by sea
and land.' Bede uses the present tense and what he says
about London applies in the strict sense to his own day, the
early part of VIII, but he is mentioning the city in connection
with events of the beginning of VII, and it is clear from his
manner of writing that he meant his words to apply, mutatis
1 Hist. EccL, ii, 3.
THE EAST SAXONS 595
mutandis, to the condition of affairs at the earlier date. The
activity at this period of the London mint as an evidence of
commercial life has been already referred to (pp. So, no) and
the period indicated has been fixed at about the second half
of VII.
Of the settlement and early history of the East Saxons
little or nothing has been recorded, and the first historical
statement about them is the one just quoted from Bede. He
goes on to say that at the opening of VII they were ruled by
Sasbert, nephew of iEthelberht of Kent, who as Bretwalda was
his overlord. Henry of Huntingdon tells us ^ that the king-
dom was founded by the grandfather of Sasbert, Erchenwin,
called in the genealogies appended to Florence of Worcester
i^scwin, and this would make its origin not earlier than the
second quarter of VI. It is not likely however that this
accessible region remained unoccupied by Teutonic settlers
for nearly a century after the invasion of Kent. The indented
Essex coast opposite to continental regions where the Saxon
sea-rovers had long been in evidence invited attack, and there
is no reason to suppose that the Roman forts of the ' Saxon
Shore ' in Essex would continue to form an effective barrier
against inroads any longer than was the case with the similar
strongholds in Kent.^ Hence we may fairly presuppose an
early occupation by the East Saxons of the lands between
Colchester and London. W^iUiam of Malmesbury states,^ we
do not know on what authority, that the kingdom of the East
Saxons was nearly coeval with that of the East Angles, and
the later may be dated from evidence contained in a story in
Procopius referring to events of about 540 a.d,^ If at that
time, that is about 540, there existed as the story seems to
indicate a flourishing East Anglian kingdom, this kingdom
1 Bk, II, ad Ann. 514 ; Rolls Series, No. 74, p. 49.
2 The forts of the Saxon Shore are shown on the map, Vol. i, fig. 5,
p. 52.
s Gesta Regum, i, 6. * De Bella Gothico, iv, 20. See (p. 764).
596 THE THAMES BASIN
must have been founded a good while before, no doubt within
V, and this carries with it by implication a corresponding date
for the East Saxon settlement.
As regards the limits of the kingdom, with London
under their control the East Saxons would necessarily be
in possession of a good part of what is now Middlesex.
How far towards the north and west their territory stretched
is uncertain, but the forest country provided there a natural
boundary. In X if not before the Essex diocese administered
from London included the eastern parts of what is now Hert-
fordshire, and this may be taken as evidence that the early
kingdom had the same westward limits of extension. The
diocese and almost certainly the early kingdom were bounded
to the north-east by the Stour, which still divides Essex from
East Anglia. It is a noteworthy fact that the genealogy of
the East Saxon royal house preserved in Henry of Hunting-
don ^ went back to a mythical ancestor named Saxnat or
Seaxneat, a name that occurs in a document connected with
the 'old' or continental Saxons as that of a deity *Saxnot,'
and this suggests that the ethnic name of the whole Saxon
people may mean the ' children of Saxnot,' and not the ' men
of the seax,' or sword-knife, as is usually believed. Professor
Chadwick has called special attention to the fact that the only
other Saxon royal genealogy preserved to us, that of the West
Saxons, ascends to Odin through practically the same names
as those of the ancestors of the Anglian house of Bernicia,
and he uses this in favour of his contention that in Britain at
any rate there was no real difference between Saxon and Angle.
The East Saxon genealogy however, as Professor Chadwick
admits, points strongly in the other direction, and this suggests
the inquiry as to whether archaeological facts relating to Essex
throw any light upon this question.
The case of Essex in its relation to the neighbouring
Anglian districts of Cambridgeshire and East Anglia supplies
1 1. c.
ESSEX AND ITS NEIGHBOURS 597
as strong archaeological evidence as is anywhere available for
a specific difference between Saxon and Angle. A summary
notice of the Essex cemeteries and their outcome will presently
be given, but the evidence they offer on this point may here
be briefly summarized.
Essex marches on the north with Cambridgeshire and
Suffolk, the division in the latter case being the very definite
one of the Stour. At the eastern end of the boundary line the
important Suffolk cemetery at Ipswich lies only ten miles
north of the frontier, at the western end the great Cambridge-
shire cemeteries of Little Wilbraham and Harrington are only
a dozen miles from the largest known and most northerly
Essex cemetery at Saffron Walden, while that at Linton
Heath is quite close to the Essex border. That a certain
overflow from one side to the other was possible we know
from the discovery of two late cruciform fibulae that are
almost counterparts, the one appearing at Chesterford, Essex,
the other at Barrington, Cambs, PI. xlv, 7 and 5 (p. 269), but
as a fact, apart from this accident, there is scarcely any
resemblance between the grave goods of the two districts.
(i) Both in East Anglia and in Cambridgeshire cremation
was in use side by side with inhumation. At Little Wilbra-
ham the Hon. R. C. Neville reported more than a hundred
urns nearly all containing human bones,^ and there was crema-
tion at Barrington if not at Linton Heath, and certainly on
the site of Girton by Cambridge, where the rite seems to have
preponderated. Cremation is also fully represented on Suffolk
sites. There has been a doubt as to the date of some of the
cremation burials at Ipswich, see PI. cxxxviii, 5 (p. 505), and the
urn figured on that Plate is not of the specific Anglian type, but
the cemetery produced at least one urn with fluted projections
pressed out that contained human bones; it is in the Layard
room at the Christchurch Museum, Ipswich. On the other
side of the border in Essex no case of cremation is authenti-
^ Saxon Obsequies, p. 11.
IV o
598 THE THAMES BASIN
cated, though we may see a reminiscence of the rite in the
little urn only 2|- in. high, from Kelvedon, Essex, PI. xi, 4
(p. 117), which was found with a stone covering it — an
arrangement known in cremation cemeteries (p. 147). A
good urn of Anglian type was found at Heybridge near
Maldon, Essex, strikingly similar in height, 5|- in., and shape
and ornament to an urn found with a non-cremation burial
at Stapenhill, Staffordshire, figured PI. cxxxiv, 8 (p. 499), but
there is no evidence that the Essex urn was cinerary.
(11) The ' long ' or cruciform brooch swarms in some of
the Cambridgeshire cemeteries, such as Little Wilbraham,
and occurs all over the East Anglian area though, curiously
enough the form was not represented in the Ipswich cemetery.
Specimens were however found elsewhere near that town. The
only ' long ' brooches that have been signalized from Essex
are the stray Chesterford specimen and a couple from Feering
in the Colchester Museum. One found in Tower Street,
London, is a Thames-side not an Essex piece (p. 611).
(hi) More striking is the case of the square headed
brooch, which is abundant at Ipswich in both its plainer and
its more ornate form and is quite common too in Cambridge-
shire. This has not come to light in Essex.
(iv) Sleeve clasps, which again like the ' long ' brooches
are strangely absent from the Ipswich finds, are specially at
home in East Anglia and in Cambridgeshire, Pll. lxxviii, 5, 6 ;
Lxxix, I, 2 (p. 365), but have made no appearance in Essex.
(v) Both Essex and Suffolk exhibit many examples of
inlaid work of the Kentish type, but this does not imply any
special relation between the two save that of local contiguity.
These Kentish jewels are to be connected with the spread of
the political influence of j^thelberht of Kent at the close of VI,
which was felt specially strongly in Essex, but as Bede tells us
extended up to the Humber.^
These archaeological facts, together with the defined local
^ Hisi. Eccl. ii, 3.
EAST SAXON CEMETERIES 599
position of Essex especially in face of East Anglia, and the
evidence of genealogy, give to the East Saxon Kingdom a
very distinctive place among the Teutonic aggregates, and
enable us to affirm that after all the word ' Saxon ' does
possess its own meaning apart from ' Angle.' What was the
bond of union among the East Saxons and in what they
differed from the South Saxons and from the inhabitants of
Wessex are however questions we have no means of answering.
The fact that even about 600 when ^thelberht of Kent was
at the height of his power, and later on when on the other
side Redwald of East Anglia had succeeded ^Ethelberht in the
Bretwaldaship, the East Saxons remained lords or overlords of
London is a testimony to the prestige of the kingdom, though
this was not maintained by any marked military prowess.
As a typical Saxon kingdom we might expect Essex to
furnish us with a valuable and instructive repertory of grave
goods, but in this we are disappointed. The Essex cemeteries
are few and on the whole poorly furnished, the richest burial
is of a wholly exceptional, one might say accidental, kind, and
the most interesting single finds are either of Kentish pro-
venance or of the later, Viking, period. The finds in London
will be noticed specially on a coming page (p. 611) ; the other
Essex discoveries may now be briefly summarized.
Colchester. The Museum at Colchester contains many
objects found in Saxon graves in the vicinity, but though the
same square mile has furnished numerous Roman funereal
deposits there seems no clear proof that the Saxons went on
using, as at York, the Roman cemeteries (p. 137). A conical
umbo, such as PL xxiii, i (p. 199), and a diminutive axe head
may be mentioned.
Feering-Kelvedon. Near the Roman road that runs
between these two places, about half way between Colchester
and Chelmsford, there was a large cemetery the exploration
of which has not been satisfactorily described. Though
6oo THE THAMES BASIN
the field in which many interments were discovered about
1888 bore no external marks it had been known in the
middle of XVIII as ' Barrow Field ' and this seems to indicate
the former presence of tumuli.^ Some beads of the small
blown-glass and cylindrical forms which we have seen to be
early (p. 445 f.), and arms, buckles, etc., of ordinary types came
from inhumation burials at Peering, but the most interesting
objects from the cemetery are half a dozen ' applied ' brooches
of which two only have kept their enriched plates. The
ornament here is of the late zoomorphic type and as with the
find there was a buckle with garnet inlay on the chape the
objects may be placed early in VII.
Shoeburyness. Here, in a locality that has yielded up a
goodly store of objects of earlier ages, some bodies were
found that were pronounced Saxon. They were arranged in
a circle with the feet pointing inwards, a disposition that may
be paralleled in Saxon times at Newport Pagnell, Bucks ; at
Cuddesdon, Oxon, and to some extent in the remarkable
plural interment at Stowting, Kent, already noticed (p. 189).
Saffron Walden. The cemeteries above noticed are
on the London clay, a subsoil the Teutonic settlers are some-
times credited with avoiding. On the chalk and marls of
the northern part of the county we find the most extensive
of the Essex cemeteries the name of which has just been given.
This Saffron Walden cemetery is one of special interest, and
the exploration of it has been well reported by Mr. H.
Ecroyd Smith. ^ The site is within the present limits of the
town on fairly level ground to the west of High Street and
south of Abbey Lane, and measured about 100 ft. by 80 ft.
Within this space, in 1830 and again in 1876, some 200
graves were opened, and the arrangement of the bodies has
been already figured and noticed in connection with the
Anglo-Saxon cemetery in general, PI. xiv (p. 155). There
^ Essex Naturalist, 11, 124.
2 An Ancient Cemetery at Saffron H'alden, Colchester, n,d.
EAST SAXON CEMETERIES 6oi
was proof that the site had been in use for burials in the pre-
Teutonic period but no clear evidence of the practice of
cremation either by the earlier people or the Saxons was
apparently obtainable. No coffins seem to have been used.
The interest of the cemetery resides in the fact that it was
apparently a very late one. The bodies, as the illustration,
PI. XIV, showed, were in the main part of the cemetery care-
fully and regularly disposed after the fashion of the normal
pagan burials, but there was a great paucity of arms and of
tomb furniture generally, though some of the regular Anglo-
Saxon objects, beads of rock crystal, iron keys, knives, etc.,
made their appearance. There were two notable finds, both
of which have been figured on previous plates. The set of
22 bronze rings mostly of a size for bracelets with faceting
and other enrichment, PI. cix, 3 (p. 457), give no clear indica-
tion of date. The objects are most probably Roman, and if
this be the case, though the use of them would in itself point
to an early date yet it does not force us to it, for Roman
paraphernalia may have been discovered and appropriated in
any subsequent age. On the other hand the necklet with the
pendants, PI. xvi, 2, is certainly late and of the Viking period
(p. 171 f.) yet the body of the lady who wore it was laid in one
of the best formed graves entirely in the manner of the
earlier burials of the pagan period. This is a most exceptional
and indeed unique phenomenon.
Broomfield. By far the most important discovery in
this branch of archaeology in Essex is that of a single excep-
tionally well-appointed grave at Broomfield a little to the
north of Chelmsford.^ It was found accidentally in a gravel
pit, and is that of a warrior, with whom were buried objects
strikingly resembling in some respects those found in the
grave of a Saxon chieftain of note in a barrow in Taplow
churchyard, Bucks, Both graves were of large size, that at
Broomfield 8 ft. that at Taplow about 12 ft. long, and con-
1 Troc, Soc, Ant,^ xv, 250.
6o2 THE THAMES BASIN
tained in addition to arms remarkable collections of vessels in
iron, bronze, glass, wood, horn and clay. While the Taplow
barrow had also some beautiful objects of personal adornment,
that at Broomfield yielded similar ornaments that had been
applied to arms, and in each case the style of work was that
specially characteristic of the Kentish area. The sword, of
which the wooden sheath was partly preserved, had its hilt
apparently adorned with inlaid jewels of gold of which one,
a truncated pyramid, may have served to secure the sword
knot. It has been shown PI. cxlvii, 4 (p. 537). There
were also a shield boss, a spear head, and a knife. Most of the
vessels were contained in a shallow round pan of bronze about
13 in. across with iron handles, and consisted in two fine
glass vessels of deep blue colour, PI. cxxvi, 2 (p. 485), an
almost exact duplicate of which was found in 1847 ^^
Cuddesdon in Oxfordshire,^ and two turned wooden cups with
rims of gilt bronze, of a kind represented elsewhere in the
south-eastern districts of England. There were also traces of
cows' horns, interesting in connection with the magnificent
decorated horns found in the Taplow barrow. There were
found near the pan two iron-mounted buckets of wood 12 in.
in diameter, and there was also an iron cauldron that would
have held about a couple of gallons, and besides this another
very remarkable and indeed unique vessel, consisting in a
hemispherical iron cup mounted on a stem of iron branching
into four feet, which brought the total height up to about
II in., PI. ex, 2 (p. 459). A vase of grey pottery with
impressed zigzag ornament is of Frankish type, and closely
resembles similar vases found at Faversham and at Kingston.
Some remarkable features of the find that suggest problems
hard of solution still remain to be noticed. There were
distinct traces of a coffin in the form of angle irons with
rivets and fragments of wood but no signs of bones. Marks
of combustion which appeared led the explorers to the con-
1 Akerman, Tag^m Saxondom^ p. 1 1 .
THE NAME 'EAST SAXON' 603
elusion that ' the body had been placed in a stout coffin and
burnt as it lay on the ground.' Against this supposition are
the facts that delicate objects in the grave such as the cups of
glass and wood were not injured by fire, and that the process
of incineration could only have been carried out as described
with an almost prohibitive amount of difficulty (p. 148).
Forest Gate. Here was found the sumptuously adorned
pin head set with garnets that has been figured PI. cxlvii, 5
(p. 537). This is in the Kentish style and probably
imported.
DovERCOURT, near Harwich, was the place of origin of
a radiating fibula of bronze now in the Ashmolean. There
are other isolated finds of single objects of interest, but they
mostly belong to the Viking period, and will be noticed in
a subsequent volume.
The Museum at Chelmsford contains some very curious
spears, with long iron shanks but not angons, that may be
Anglo-Saxon ; they were found at Witham.
We have come now to the point where the consideration
of the East Saxon Kingdom as a separate entity is merged in
questions of wider import, to which we are introduced by
the relation of this kingdom to London and through London
to the Thames Valley in general.
The name ' East Saxon ' carries with it some considerations
of moment. The peoples who divided among themselves the
land of Britain possessed specific appellations many of which
passed later on out of vogue. There was for example the
name * Gewissae,' that belonged Bede tells us ' of old time ' to
the West Saxons ^ though he employs it in his history as if it
were still understood, a name on the origin and meaning of
which something will presently be said. Certain of these
appellations were given or adopted after the settlement, for
^ 'Gens Occidentalium Saxonum ; qui antiquitus Geuissse vocabantur,'
Hist. Eccl., iii, 7, cf. iv, 14 (16).
6o4 THE THAMES BASIN
they are derived from Roman place-names. This was the
case with the Dorsastas, the dwellers by Durnovaria or
Dorchester, and the Magesastas or Magonsastas who took
their title from the Roman Magnae. Others were apparently
traditional tribal names of older use, and in connection with
these one would like to know what degree of ethnic affinity
they may be held to denote. There were the Hwiccas of
Worcestershire whose name survives in Wychwood Forest
called in a charter of 841 ' Hwiccewudu,' and the Gyrwas of
the Fenland whose may be the important South-Lincolnshire
cemetery at Sleaford. Even the important ethnic designation
of the Jutes was replaced at an early date by a territorial
name drawn from Kent, since the former is only preserved in
Bede and occurs in no other independent authority, and it
would be interesting to know whether the settlers in what
became Essex and Sussex had special ethnic or tribal designa-
tions. In any case the fact that the different branches of the
Saxon race were distinguished by local names is significant.
This nomenclature seems to indicate London or its neighbour-
hood as a centre from which the settlements around were
named according to their relative positions. West Saxons to
the west of it, East Saxons to the north-east, while those in
the centre came to be called, though apparently only at a later
time. Middle Saxons. The district we know as Surrey would
doubtless have been called the South Saxon land had not the
name already belonged to the Teutonic settlers on the south
coast, the record of whose appearance there at an early date is
hereby confirmed. ' South ' at any rate is the first part of the
name of Surrey in the many forms in which it occurs in the
Chronicles and elsewhere. This point may seem a minor
one, but as a fact it is practically decisive of two of the most
vexed questions in early Anglo-Saxon history, the pro-
venance of the West Saxons, and the position of London in
relation to the Teutonic settlement of the country. The
former would hardly have been termed ' West Saxons ' had
THE FATE OF LONDON 605
their strength lain in early times in the South as would be the
case if they had worked their way up from the Solent ; while
their passage in some force up the Thames would not have
been practicable if London had remained for long a hostile
stronghold guarding the water way.
There is no subject within the scope of this volume on
which opinions are more widely sundered than that of the
history of London during the early times of the Teutonic
settlement. Some hold that the city practically ceased for
more than a century to exist, while others imagine it always
a substantial entity with its own life and influence. ' For a
while,' says Professor Haverfield,^ ' London ceased to be. . . .
Nothing had been found to suggest that Roman Britons
dwelt in London long after a.d. 400. Nothing Saxon had
been found to suggest that the English occupied it till long
after A.D. 500. . . . It lay waste a hundred years. Ishmaelite
English or even fugitive Britons might have hid amid its
ruins and beside its streams. But . . . the site lay empty.'
On the other side Sir Laurence Gomme explains the fact that
the records of the time are silent about London on the view
that it preserved a position of quasi independence apart from
the Anglo-Saxon political and social arrangements. It is a
plausible argument in his favour that he can point to so
many apparently Roman survivals in the institutions of
the London of later history/ one of which in the sphere of
numismatics has been noticed in that connection (p. 80), but
it would be going too far to maintain that this independence
practically affected the course of the Saxon settlement. He
accepts the view of a West Saxon invasion from the south
through Hampshire on the ground that the invaders ' did not
sail up the Thames, as they did the Severn and the Tyne and
the lesser rivers,' but, * spread inland from the southern coast,
1 Address before the Classical Association of England, January 191 2.
2 Sir Laurence Gomme, The Governance of London^ Lond., 1907, The
Making of London, Oxford, 191 2, and London, Lond., 1914.
6o6 THE THAMES BASIN
prevented from following up the Thames by the presence of
London.' ^
To this it must be replied that the Teutonic immigrants
were far too strong in the south-eastern part of the country
to have tolerated a hostile London barring their way into the
interior. Had such a barrier been maintained there would
have been a shock of opposing forces that would have left
some record of itself in the Chronicles. It is a fact, to which
Professor Haverfield attaches very little importance, that an
entry in the A.-S. Chronicle under the year 456-7 gives us the
quite credible information that after the action at Crayford,
on the borders, Sir Laurence Gomme maintains, of the ' terri-
torium ' of the Roman city * the Britons left Kentland and in
muckle awe fled to London burgh,' but we are not told of
any beleaguerment or assault, and Sir Laurence Gomme urges
that ' Anglo-Saxon history would not have been slow to put
on record the destruction of London.' ^ After-facts are never-
theless eloquent. * The Anglo-Saxons entered London, con-
trolled it, mastered it, but they did not conquer it ' writes Sir
Laurence,^ and he pictures Londoners ' living in Roman
houses ... in Roman fashion and . . . governed by Roman
organization and institutions,' * and apparently keeping up an
imposing civic life in matters of constitution as well as of
outward monuments up to the time of King Alfred. The
principal remains of these monuments he notes ' are pave-
ments discovered in modern times twelve or fifteen feet below
the existing level of — ' no less than fifty-six streets.'^ Surely
this momentous fact that mediaeval and modern streets run
not on the lines of Roman streets but across the sites
of Roman houses should give us pause ! It indicates ruin
and (probably much later) rebuilding. However attractive,
especially to a Londoner born, is the vision we are now asked
to contemplate of a great, independent, still Roman, London
^ The Making of London^ p. 96. ^ London, p. 87.
2 Making of London, p. 96. •* ibid., p, 89. ^ ibid., p. 82.
THE SAXONS AND LONDON 607
of about 500 A.D., a London brought ' through the stress and
trouble of conquest, unconquered and undestroyed,' it must be
confessed that it is rather a city in the heavens. And apart
from this, however the invaders dealt with Londinium itself,
they were certainly attracted to the site and formed numerous
settlements around it that are identified by their characteristic
and early-sounding Saxon names appearing now on every
London omnibus — * we find them settling all round London
in places which can be recognized by their terminals -ham,
-ington, -ey, -end, -wich ' ^ — but assuredly all these places could
not coexist with a London that was still, as the writer of the
page just quoted from seems to regard it, potentially hostile.
The open village communities would not have been on their
side secure, nor on its side could London, with its territorium
parcelled out among these communities, have obtained supplies.
The Saxons probably raided and sacked London but after-
wards treated it, as Ammianus tells us" the Alamanni dealt
with Strassburg, Worms, Mainz, and other Romano-Gallic
cities, establishing themselves in the suburbs but avoiding the
interior of the enceinte, and they certainly would not allow
the quasi-independence of the Roman city to affect their own
operations and movements. Such quasi-independence would
account for the extremely interesting survivals the treatment
of which gives to Sir Laurence Gomme's books such a fascina-
ting interest, but the Roman bridge over the Thames would
not have opposed any more serious physical obstacle to an
ascent of the river than would the equally Roman Pons Aelii
at Newcastle to the navigation of the Tyne which Sir Laurence
Gomme himself says was free to the Teutons. These bridges,
the existence of which over Thames as well as over Tyne may
be considered certain, need not have been arched in stone, and
passage would be easy when the wooden superstructure was
removed.
It follows accordingly that London furnishes no argument
1 Making of London^ p. 96. 2 m^t^ Rom., xvi, ii, 12,
6o8 THE THAMES BASIN
against the view that the waterway of the Thames carried the
forefathers of the West Saxons to their destined seats in the
south-western midlands. There are difficulties however in
the way of accepting this view owing to the fact that it is
opposed to the direct evidence of the A.-S. Chronicles. As a
fact, the coming of the West Saxons is recorded in certain
paragraphs in the Chronicles duly provided with proper names
and dates, according to which their entry into the land was
from the south by Porchester and Southampton Water and
occurred soon after the settlement of the South Saxons in
power in Sussex. It has however long been recognized that
there are special difficulties in accepting these accounts as they
stand which do not apply in the case of other similar entries
in regard to other bodies of the first immigrants. The same
events are ascribed in the same Chronicles to two different
dates twenty years apart. One of the principal personal
names is Celtic and most of the others appear to have been
formed from the names of pre-existing places in the region
of the supposed descent. The district was in part at any rate
in the occupation of the Jutes who presumably settled there
at a date not far removed from that of their conquest of Kent.
It is known of course that the West Saxons ultimately made
themselves masters of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight,
though the name of the Jutes still clung in the time of Bede
to a part of the mainland opposite the Isle, and when they
were established there with their capital at Winchester it must
have seemed natural to assume that their forefathers had
entered the country through the open doors of Portsmouth
Harbour and Southampton Water, It is of course possible,
as we shall presently see, that, V, as was the case with the
later Danish inroads, piratical descents on a small scale pre-
ceded concerted operations of invasion, and there may have
existed a genuine West Saxon tradition of some early raids
on the southern coast on which the accounts in the Chronicles
came to be built up. The position of the Harnham Hill
THE WEST SAXONS 609
cemetery, near Salisbury, upon the Hampshire Avon which
can be ascended from the sea at Christchurch Haven, is not
to be lost sight of (p. 619 f.). Such in brief outline is the
evidence against the Chroniclers' account of the West Saxon
settlement.
An attempt must now be made to reconstruct the early
history of the West Saxons on the hypothesis already laid
before the reader. It may be premised that the archaeological
evidence available is all in favour of this hypothesis, but for
the sake of clearness it will be best to treat the matter first
from the historical standpoint, and to embrace in the survey
the settlement of the Thames basin as a whole.
The view that the occupation of south-eastern and northern
Britain was preceded by numerous raids of a passing kind, in
which were concerned comparatively small bodies of warriors,
agrees with the general sketch already given in Chapter XI
of the doings of the northern sea-rovers, and seems to be now
accepted by modern British historians. The West Saxons or
their forefathers may in this way have raided up the country
from Southampton Water or Poole Harbour or Christchurch
Haven, but their keels also visited the Thames, and there can
be little doubt that their ultimate settlement of Wessex was by
way of the Thames Valley. At how early a date it would be
possible for a few well-equipped keels to force a passage past
Londinium it is hard to say, but we must always remember
that London Bridge would not be arched in stone. At a
much later date the Vikings pressed up all the rivers of
north-western Europe amidst a hostile population, and raided
far and wide without any thought of permanent settlement,
and it may have been easier than we imagine, even in a
Britain nominally under Roman rule, for the dreaded Saxon
pirates to ascend into the interior of the land and withdraw
again in safety. The contemporary account of the doings in
Britain of Germans of Auxerre already referred to (p. 578) is
6io THE THAMES BASIN
from this point of view of the first importance. At what
time we should date the beginning of a serious settlement in
force we cannot say, but there is a significant statement in
William of Malmesbury ^ according to which the kingdom
of the West Saxons was formed later than that of their
kinsfolk in Essex.
Professor Oman ^ has suggested that the name * Gewissas,'
which belonged at one time to the West Saxons, was not a
traditional tribal appellation but had a collective sense to be
inferred from the prefix * ge,' and may have merely meant
'allies' or 'confederates.' Such a name may have been only
adopted when separate units, composed it might be of different
tribal elements, coalesced into one body, and this he surmises
may have happened about the middle of VI, the time of
Ceawlin the first king of the West Saxons who emerges into
the light of history. Prior to this consolidation of the West
Saxon kingdom Saxon settlements of the ' Gewissae ' may have
been formed at different points all along the course of the
Thames and up its chief tributaries, and even in the earHer
period of raids, before the Teutons had brought over their
womenkind and bent themselves to settlement, they may
have left traces of themselves in the form of their bones their
arms or their possessions. Only on this supposition can we
explain the appearance here and there in the Thames Valley
of objects of early character that must date long before the
consolidation just spoken of.
It has been decided accordingly to regard the Thames
Valley, Map v (p. 589), as one main district that may for the
sake of clearness be called that of the ' Gewissas.' It must be
remembered that Kent and Essex and London are all washed
by the waters of the Thames and deposits now found near
the river bank in these regions may have belonged to the
Gewissas of the future just as well as to the Jutes and
^ Gesta RegutUy i, ch. 5 and 6, ad init.
2 England Before the 'Norman Conquest, p. 227 f.
EARLY FINDS IN LONDON 6ii
East Saxons of the riparian provinces. Northfleet near
Gravesend in Kent is a case in point ; though the Watling
Street runs not far inland and so makes it accessible from
the interior part of the county, yet it is just a spot where
a keel or two of Saxon sea-rovers may have come to shore
and formed a small settlement. Such metics the Jutes
may have readily tolerated as the Romans of old welcomed
strangers into their nascent commonwealth. At Northfleet
and its neighbourhood urns of a more * Anglian ' type than
those found generally in Kent have been discovered, and in
some which from their form might well be Teutonic there
are cremated bones. Northfleet together with Higham, also
a very riparian site, and Horton Kirby easily accessible up
the Darent, furnished to Mr. Thurlow Leeds's list of saucer
and applied brooches^ no fewer than seven examples while
the whole of the rest of Kent only produced the same number,
and two of those from Horton Kirby reproduce almost exactly,
apart from the outer band of ornament, one found in the
South Saxon cemetery at High Down, see Pll. lvii, 5 ; clvi, i
(pp. 313, 623). Hence there is very good ground for calling
these North Kent finds rather Saxon than Jutish.
Two very interesting early objects have been found in
London. One came to light in West Smithfield near the
river Fleet and just outside the Roman walls, and the other
in Tower Street within the enceinte. In neither case was the
find connected with a sepulchre. The first object is a bronze
buckle of peculiar form with ornamentation of early type
shown already, PI. cli, i (p. 557). The second piece is an
early cruciform fibula that Mr. Reginald Smith suggests may
have been lost by some sea-rover of V or early VI as he passed
London on his course up the river. ^ We are quite justified in
placing these objects to the credit of the Thames-farers who
are known later on as Gewissas and West Saxons, rather than
to that of the territorial magnates of the place, the East Saxons.
^ Archaeologla, Lxin, 197. ^ Fict. ///V/., London, i, 149.
6i2 THE THAMES BASIN
The above suggestions may appear to extend the sphere of
influence of the West Saxons beyond their proper boundaries,
and to encroach on archaeological territory that already pos-
sesses rightful owners, but what is advanced here is quite in
accordance with the views of present day scholars. However
it may be with the parts east of Greenwich, when we pass
London and advance towards the west we are on ground that
at any rate to the south of the river may be claimed with
assurance for the Gewissas. A view has already been expressed
of the provenance and earliest history of this famous people,
and some attention must now be paid to the subject of their
settlements and their doings after they begin to emerge into
the light of history. We have seen reason to reject in its
existing form the accounts in the A.-S. Chronicle of the coming
of the West Saxons, whom that authority introduces into the
country across Hampshire from the south. The Chronicle
gives us other important statements touching the West Saxons
at a period when their kingdom was consolidated about the
middle of VI, and some of these are of great historical
value while one at least involves considerable difficulty in its
interpretation.
In the year 568 the Chronicle tells us that Ceawlin the
West Saxon king fought a battle at ' Wibbandun ' against
^thelberht of Kent 'and drove him into Kent.' The battle
was therefore fought certainly on the south side of the river
and probably in Surrey, and the result of it seems to have
been the fixing of the boundaries between the two kingdoms
on the line of the still existing frontier between Surrey and
Kent which though quite an artificial one, has always divided
the two dioceses of Winchester and Rochester. South of the
Thames therefore, from the end of VI onwards. West Saxon
land stretched from Surrey to as far west as the Teutonic
settlements as a whole extended, and even before Ceawlin's
time Surrey, or at any rate the riparian tracts of it, may be
reckoned as in the occupation of Gewissas. South of the
THE THAMES AS WEST SAXON 613
Thames no other people comes into effective competition with
the West Saxons, and from the point of view of archaeology
as well as in other connections Berkshire, Wilts, Somerset,
and the regions further to the south and west are their
undisputed domain.
As regards the north of the river the case is somewhat
different. The general view here taken is that the fact of
Dorchester-on-Thames becoming the first seat of the West
Saxon bishopric established in 634 is conclusive proof that the
main strength of the people was on this side of the valley, and
it was not till a later period that the pressure of their Mercian
rivals forced the West Saxons to concentrate their strength
around their more famous capital and later bishop's seat at
Winchester. Oxfordshire Mr. Reginald Smith takes to be
' certainly one of the principal seats of the West Saxons,' -^ and
he holds that Worcestershire and part of Warwickshire must
be regarded as West Saxon until the middle of VII, the time
of Mercian aggression. We may safely assert the same of
Gloucestershire after the great victory of Ceawlin at Deorham
near Bath in 577, on which a word will be said later on.
It is true that the Teutonic settlers of Gloucestershire and
Worcestershire had their own tribal appellation of Hwiccas,
but they evidently belonged to the confederacy of the
Gewissas and we may reckon their domain as at any rate
in the West Saxon zone till the Mercian movement south
after the middle of VII.
Dr. Beddoe in his Races of Britain, p. 255, writes as
follows from the racial point of view : — ' In Oxfordshire, at
least in the central part, the West Saxon element is very
strong ; and hence, extending up the valley of the Thames,
it affects a great part of the Cotswolds, the hill country of
Gloucestershire, and even the Severn valley, as far as to the
Severn.' Of East Worcestershire he writes : — ' Its dialect is
still Saxon rather than Anglian, still of the southern type,
^ Victoria History, Worcestershire, i, 225.
IV P
6i4 THE THAMES BASIN
though it was early transferred from the sovereignty of
Wessex to that of Mercia.'
More difficulty is presented by that part of the Thames
Valley which lies north of the stream, from the borders of
Essex westwards to the junction with it of the Thame near
Dorchester. To understand the difficulty we must try to
realize the geography of the headquarters of the West Saxon
power in the period now under notice. Ceawlin's predecessor
and Ceawlin himself with his brother are represented in the
Chronicle as striking successive blows in various directions in
campaigns which one would imagine involve the supposition
of some centre of power from which the movements would
proceed. Thus in 552 we read of a successful action against
Old Sarum in southern Wiltshire, in 556 of a campaign
ending in a fight at * Beranbyrig ' which used to be located
at Banbury, but is now identified with Barbury Rings near
Marlborough. In 568 there is the movement against iEthel-
berht of Kent, in 577 the brilliant campaign in the west which
has been already noticed. A few years before the last named,
in 571, there is an expedition towards the north-east, the
direction of Bedfordshire, in connection with which there is
a very puzzling entry in the Chronicle. With regard to the
district indicated, the document of VII called the Tribal
Hidage is evidence that a people called the ' Cilternsastas '
were then in occupation of the district where their name still
survives in that of the ' Chiltern ' Hills and Hundreds. In
this direction the West Saxons moved in 571, and their
opponents the Chronicle says were the ' Brito- Welsh,' whom
they defeated at ' Bedcanforda ' (Bedford), taking from them
four towns, Lygeanburh, and iEglesburh, Bsenesingtun, and
Egonesham. The three last places are always interpreted
as Aylesbury, Bensington near Dorchester-on-Thames, and
Eynsham on the river a few miles above Oxford, while there
is, a place-name Lenborough a little south of Buckingham.
There are obvious difficulties in the way of accepting this as
WEST SAXON CAMPAIGNS 615
it stands. Why should these Saxon -sounding places be
' tunas ' of the Britons ? It is true Professor Chadwick ^
thinks that a Saxon name for a place like Eynsham does not
necessarily preclude a British origin, but the difficulty is rather
with Bensington. If the Britons were in force in the district
looked down upon by the Wittenham Tumps their stronghold
would surely be the Roman Dorchester rather than a British
predecessor of the neighbouring Benson. It is hard again to
see what eifect a victory far to the north-east at Bedford could
have on the fortunes of a Thames-side Oxfordshire town like
Eynsham, which would be cut off from any Bedfordshire
Britons by the Teutonic Cilternsaetas. Could Ceawlin have
left so long in hostile possession ground that would seem the
natural centre of his extensive military operations ?
Leaving for the moment this difficulty about Eynsham
and Bensington, we may see reason for adopting the sugges-
tion of Professor Oman ^ that the ^.-S. Chronicle is wrong
in making the opponents of the West Saxons in 571 Britons.
He argues with much .force that the expedition to the north-
east of the Thames Valley should be taken in connection with
that of a few years before against Kent, and that it was
intended to assert the power of Wessex against rival Teutonic
aggregates in that region just as it had been asserted in 568
toward the south-west.
If this be the case, we may be certain that these rivals
were of the Anglian stock. It must be borne in mind that
Bedford, though at no great distance from the Thames Valley
is on quite another river system. While the Thame which
runs southward past Aylesbury discharges into the Thames,
the Ousel, which reaches nearly to Aylesbury from the north,
and the Ouse with its other tributaries belong to the river
system that has its outlet in the Wash. These waterways
guided the movements and the settlements of the invaders,
1 Enc. Brit., nth ed., ix, 592.
2 England Before the Norman Conquest, p. 230.
6i6 THE THAMES BASIN
and just as the Mercian Angles made their way up the course
of the Trent till they met and pushed southwards the Gewissas,
so the Middle Angles found their way up the Ouse, the Nene
and the other streams that converge on the Wash and by their
advance checked all extension of the West Saxon power to the
north-east of the Thames basin. It follows from this that we
may look for West Saxon remains on the northern side of the
Thames Valley as well as to the south, but not beyond the
watershed which divides the streams discharging towards the
south from the river systems draining into the Wash or the
Humber.
The direction of this watershed does not run evenly east
and west all across the country. The upper waters of the
Roding of Essex, the Lea, the Hertfordshire Colne, the
Thame, come down from about the same parallel of latitude
and correspond to those of the Great Ouse and its affluents
including the Cam, on the northern side of the line. With
the Cherwell we are carried higher up the map and this
corresponds in its upper waters with the Nene, the course of
which lies to the north-west of that of the Ouse. West of the
Cherwell the Evenlode, the W^indrush, the Leach, the Coin,
are streams of less importance but capable of affording access
to the interior of Oxfordshire, a central seat of the early West
Saxon power, as well as to part of Gloucestershire. When
we follow the Cherwell to the upper part of its course we are
close to another river system, that of the Warwickshire Avon
draining to the south-west into the Severn, and we find the
upper waters of the Avon in the same sort of correspondence
with those of the Welland, the third and westernmost of the
three rivers that discharge from the south-west into the Wash.
At the same time the Avon valley is separated by a watershed
to the north from the river system of the Trent. The Avon
clearly belongs to the West Saxon sphere of influence.
Mr. Thurlow Leeds remarks -^ that ' in the three counties of
^ The Archaeology, etc., p. 62,
MERCIAN PRESSURE ON WESSEX 617
Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, and Warwickshire a line of
cemeteries exists along the line of the Avon valley which have
yielded objects typically Saxon, as compared with the Anglian
culture to the north,' and he quotes appositely a suggestion
made by a writer in the Transactions of the Bristol and
Gloucestershire Archaeological Society for 1896-7 about
certain further operations in the West Saxon campaign in
the West that began in 577 a.d. The Chronicle tells us that
in 584 ' Ceawlin and Cutha fought against the Britons at the
place which is named Fethanleag.' The writer just referred
to, the Rev. C. S. Taylor, identified this place with a locality
near Stratford-on-Avon called Fachanleage in a charter of 966.
*The archaeological material,' Mr. Leeds goes on, 'corroborates
this view in a very marked degree, and it may be concluded
that the battle represents a campaign as the result of which
the Saxons successfully occupied the Avon valley. From a
point in the neighbourhood of Warwick a small group of finds
of West Saxon character extends into Oxfordshire and down
the Cherwell valley until a junction is formed with the large
settlements in the Thames Valley. But a sharp line has to be
drawn between these and those on tributaries of the Nene on
the other side of the Northamptonshire watershed. This
physical feature undoubtedly constituted the boundary between
the West Saxons and their neighbours the so-called Middle
Angles.'
It will be noted that a frontier has now been constituted
starting with the Essex Stour and crossing the country in a
wavy line towards the west so as to mark off the Anglian and
the Saxon spheres of influence. When we follow this west-
wards to the parts where the basins of the Avon and of the
Trent are contiguous we are in a region where the frontier
was later on obliterated by the advance southwards of the
Anglian Mercians, who drove the West Saxons, or at any rate
shifted the centre of the West Saxon power, to the southern
side of the Thames Valley. This political change was worked
6i8 THE THAMES BASIN
out by about 630 in consequence of the victory over the West
Saxons of the famous Mercian hero Penda, but it is not easy
to say what practical effect such an event would have on
culture forms. The boundaries of the kingdoms of the
Heptarchy were often changing, and the vague overlordship
of the Bretwalda passed from one powerful monarch to
another, but this need not have implied either actual shiftings
of population or the alteration of the conditions of production
in arms or jewels. It is probable that the fabrication of the
ordinary apparatus of life in a locality was but little affected
by its transference from the rule of its native lord to a foreign
conqueror. The common people with their needs their ways
and their tastes would remain the same. A change of fashion
would perhaps be felt in the upper stratum of society, and an
outland character might appear in objects of the rarer and
more costly kind. If the spread of a taste for garnet inlays
in the Kentish style may reasonably be ascribed to the extension
of the power and prestige of ^^thelberht when he became
Bretwalda at the close of VI, so too Mercian fashions may be
held to explain some of the artistic phenomena of the middle
of VII in those regions north of the Thames that had passed
then from West Saxon to Anglian sway. On this however a
word is said subsequently (p. 775).
To the south of the Thames Valley the West Saxons, at
any rate from London westwards, had no rivals, and the
Kennet took them into Berkshire and North Wilts where
remains of their art have been found. Their position in
South Wilts, Hampshire, and those eastern parts of Dorset
where archaeological evidence of their presence has been
found, is not so easy to understand. When Winchester
became the seat of the bishopric of the West Saxons and grew
to be their effective capital, Hampshire was the centre of their
power, but this did not happen till the days of the pagan
cemetery with its tomb furniture were over, and as a fact
hardly any archaeological discoveries of the pagan period have
HARNHAM HILL CEMETERY 619
been made in the county, except in the south-eastern corner
where the art appears to be Jutish rather than West Saxon,
These finds in the Meon district will be noticed later on
(p. 744 f.). At Winchester itself a few Saxon arms have
been found and other relics at Micheldever a little to the north
of it/ and near the Wiltshire border there are finds recorded
at Broughton Hill and at Nether Wallop, objects from which
are in the Museum at Salisbury. These belong however
rather to the Wiltshire region (p, 6^2 ^0- Dorset, in spite of
a perverted use of the term ' Wessex ' in connection with the
novels of a distinguished writer, was never a West Saxon
stronghold, and almost the only finds of the pagan period
within its bounds are some made on its extreme eastern
borders by General Pitt Rivers, The one important West
Saxon cemetery of all the region to the south of Devizes is that
at Harnham Hill by Salisbury, and Harnham Hill is from
the present point of view a puzzle. It is on the whole a late
cemetery but it produced some very early objects such as the
fibula shown Fig. 20 and a bronze lion's head something like
PI. IX, 3 (p, 103), These however are probably both Romano-
British survivals, and like the
bronze bangles at Saffron Walden
may have been annexed at any time.
Signs of lateness in the cemetery,
the site of which has been noticed
(p. 144) are the numerous unfur-
nished graves, 26 out of the 64 Fig. 20. -Fibula, Harnham Hill,
reported on, which with the almost
invariable eastward position of the feet may suggest the
influence of Christianity ; the absence of arms, the regular
arrangement of the graves, and the number of child burials —
there were 14 such skeletons — implying a population in peace-
ful possession of the locality. Mr. Leeds ^ thinks that the
objects found would agree with a date of foundation for the
^ Fktoria History, Hants, i, 391. ^ The Archaeology, etc., p. 52.
620
THE THAMES BASIN
cemetery after the successful attack on Old Sarum in 556.
This hardly agrees however with his dating of saucer brooches
in his paper on the subject in Archaeologia^ lxiii, 164 f. Two
of these brooches were found at Harnham Hill ornamented
with patterns he regards there as early. The brooches are
figured Archaeologia^ xxxv, pi. xii, 9, 11, and resemble those
on our Pll. Lvii, 6 ; lviii, 2 (p. 315), respectively. These
saucer brooches may be taken in connection with a pair of
small brooches of the long form found in grave 13 at Harnham
Hill on a child's skeleton and shown in outline Fig. 21, i.
Fig. 21. — Three Bronze Fibulae.
It is there followed by two others, one of which, No. 2, is its
exact counterpart, while the other, No. 3, is strikingly similar.
Now No. 2 was found at Chessell Down in the Isle of Wight
and No. 3 at Bifrons, PI. xxxv, 7 (p. 245), The Chessell Down
graves are early and Bifrons is in part at any rate a decidedly
early cemetery, though in the case of No. 3, one of a pair,
there is no record of the objects with which it was found.
The fibula by itself would be placed rather in the first half
of VI than in the second. This indication of date is not the
only point of interest about this little brooch for it distinctly
suggests a connection with the Jutish civilization of the Isle
of Wight and of Kent, and makes us return to the account in
the Chronicle of the West Saxon advance from the south and
WATERSHEDS AS BOUNDARIES 621
bethink ourselves of the easy access from the sea afforded by
the Hampshire Avon which flows by the Harnham site. We
are here of course in the domain of conjecture and it is
impossible to spend time in the discussion of probabiHties.
The alternative theories about Harnham Hill, (i) that it was
founded from the Thames Valley side in connection with the
extension south of West Saxon power about the middle of VI,
(2) that it is a monumental proof that part at any rate of the
West Saxons came up from the English Channel, are worth
stating clearly in view of the possibilities of further discoveries
of West Saxon antiquities in the hitherto barren region south
of Salisbury Plain.
There may now be attempted in a few words a general
survey of the antiquities of this whole district of the Thames
and Avon basins which has been provisionally regarded as the
West Saxon sphere of influence. It would be of course a
great mistake to push to the limits of pedantry this general
theory of an advance up the rivers, and of boundaries formed
by watersheds. Granted that the theory is a sound one, we
must allow that, after the invaders had ascended the streams
to a reasonable height from the opposite directions, there
must have remained a good deal of ground open to be
traversed overland that would fall under the power of which-
ever people was most numerous or active, without there being
any count taken of watersheds. Thus In parts of Bedford-
shire, Bucks, Northants, Warwickshire, there is debatable
land on each side of the natural boundaries, and a certain
mixture of styles has led Mr. Leeds to make this a sort of
joint Anglo-Saxon district, and to hazard the hypothesis that
in this region an earlier Saxon occupation was followed later
on by a more efi^ective one on the part of the Angles. It
seems better always to bear in mind the fundamental fact that
the difi^erence between Saxon and Anglian grave goods is by
no means an absolute one and that certain classes of objects
and certain ornamental styles are common to both peoples ;
622 THE THAMES BASIN
while at the same time we maintain the general theory of the
settlements that, so far as the Midlands are concerned, the
Saxons came in by way of the Thames and its affluents and by
the Warwickshire (and perhaps the Hampshire Avon), while
the Angles entered the country up the rivers debouching in the
Wash and the Humber.
One striking point of similarity between Anglian and
Saxon inventories is furnished by the saucer and applied
brooch, which is quite at home in Anglian Cambridgeshire
and also in Northants and is largely represented at Kempston,
Beds. It has till lately been regarded as a characteristic
product of the West Saxon region where it is found with
great frequency, and its occurrence at Kempston has probably
had a good deal to do with the reluctance that has been felt to
recognize Kempston as an Anglian settlement.^ Historical
likelihood however is immensely in favour of its having been
founded by people who had ascended the Ouse, which even now
flows by it in a stream that would carry a sea rovers' squadron.
The vale of Aylesbury watered by the Thame is West Saxon
in population^ and the jfinds agree with this. The Bucks
girdle plate, PL clv, i (p. 563), exhibits the same motive of
ornament, the recumbent beast, as south country pieces from
Croydon, Surrey, PL xcix, 4 (p. 419), Alfriston, Sussex,
PL CLiv, I (p. 561), and Sarre, Kent, PL xlix, i (p. 281)
and in itself suggests an early date, though on the contrary
the large saucer brooch from Ashendon, Bucks, PL lviii, i
(p. 315), is decidedly late. There is nothing Anglian in the
tomb furniture of this region, but across the divide in Bed-
fordshire the case is different. At Kempston cinerary urns
were proof of cremation, and this rite is frequent further
north in Cambridgeshire, but not to the south. It is true that
cremation is represented freely among the Thames Valley
^ * The whole collection from Kempston has a decidedly Saxon appear-
ance,' Victoria History, Beds, i, 181.
2 John Beddoe, The Races of Britain, Lond., 1885, p, 255.
CLVI
facing p. 623
MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS
INTERPENETRATION OF AREAS 623
burials but as we shall see presently it decreases in frequency
as the river is ascended and is very slightly represented in the
lateral valleys that were colonized from the main one. It is
not likely that West Saxon settlers would have carried the rite
with them so far from the Thames as Bedford and at the same
time have left no trace of its observance in the intermediate
region. The extremely irregular orientation again is not a
West Saxon trait. Though the saucer and applied brooches, the
crystal ball and inlaid bead, and the glass, may suggest southern
connections, the small long brooches so numerous on the site,
PI. XLii, I, look the other way, for it was shown previously
(p. 264 f.) that they really belong to the cruciform class which is
distinctly Anglian in type. We regard Kempston accordingly
as belonging to the Anglian area, and to enforce this view we
have only to reflect on the one or two specially early objects
the site has revealed, among them that rare piece, the broad
equal armed fibula, the only English counterparts of which
occur in Anglian Cambridgeshire (p. 561 f.), and which is found
in Hanover and in Holstein.
These same criteria may help us in another part of our
imagined frontier where in Warwickshire the Avon runs right
up into Anglian territory, taking its rise a dozen miles to the
west of Rugby. Rugby School Museum contains a most
valuable collection of local antiquities collected and afterwards
bequeathed to the institution by the well known antiquary
Matthew Bloxam, and there are specimens from the same class
of cemeteries in the Museum at Warwick. Here again we
meet with cremation. This rite was dying out among the
Gewissas by the time they reached Fairford and they certainly
did not carry it with them when they made their way up the
Avon valley, yet cinerary urns were found at Marton between
Warwick and Rugby — one with a late saucer brooch in it,
PL Lxix, 5 (p. 343), and on the same site were discovered
wrist clasps, that are unknown in the West Saxon area.
Again the cruciform brooch in its simpler and chaster form
624 THE THAMES BASIN
with the three knobs, not the late florid form, the object which
is after all the chief criterion that marks off Angle from
Saxon, is very rare in the West Saxon area, though it occurs
curiously enough more often in Kent. Of a pair found
recently at East SheiFord, Berks, one was figured PI. xli, 6
(p. 261), and Mr. Leeds says that two discovered by Professor
Rolleston at Frilford, Berks, are in America;^ a three knobbed
cruciform brooch of a later type occurs at Fairford (^Fairford
Graves^ pi. iii, 6) and one not unlike it was found at Shep-
perton on the Thames (PI. clvi, 6), but these are all that seem
to be known in the Thames basin and that of the Avon till we
come near Rugby. In this part of Warwickshire they are in
full evidence, and they were represented in the extraordinarily
interesting find of interments on the actual line of the Watling
Street near Rugby, already referred to (p. 139). The burials
extended for a length of half a mile and were of men women
and children. There was one cinerary urn containing ' ashes
concreted together in a lump at the bottom ' and by it a sword
with a spear and shield boss. With the other bodies were
arms, iron buckles, hooked instruments (keys?), fibulae both
long shaped and circular, clasps, rings, tweezers, and feminine
possessions in bronze and silver, beads of amber and glass, and
small drinking cups,'^ The cremation urn, the long brooches,
and the clasps, all betoken an Anglian cemetery. The wrist
clasp is, as we have seen (p. 364), a characteristic product of
the Mid-Anglian cemeteries, but in West Saxon ones it is
unknown. When we come to deal with the Middle and East
Anglian cemeteries we shall see the cruciform brooch as well
as the wrist clasp in full possession of the field, the former
indeed the characteristic type of brooch over the whole area,
^ The Arckaeolog"^ , etc., p. 64, note.
- M. H. Bloxam, A Glimpse at the Monumental Architecture and Sculpture of
Great Britain, Lond., 1834, p. 44. The site is called Cestersover.
See Akerman's Pagan Saxondom, pi, xviii, and Coll. Ant., i, p. 36. One
of the long brooches is figured PI. xli, i (p. 261).
SAXON AND ANGLIAN DIFFERENTIAE 625
and these phenomena do certainly constitute an archaeological
difference between Angle and Saxon.
Midway between the two parts of the long frontier just
noticed there is another region where similar phenomena
present themselves. This is where the system of the
Northamptonshire Nene impinges on that of the Cherwell in
the country north of Banbury.^ In a line of earthworks along
the course north and south of the so-called Portway, signalized
in the place names Aston-le-Wall, Walton, etc., it has been
sought to see a fortified * limes ' between Angle and Saxon,
like that across Newmarket Heath where East Anglia is
supposed to have entrenched itself against foes on the west.
However this may be, while in the Cherwell valley there are
West Saxon finds, just on the eastward side of this perhaps
imaginary frontier work, Marston St. Lawrence, in the
extreme south-western corner of Northants, brings us face to
face with Anglian culture. The site is not riparian but is on
the high ground of the actual watershed beyond the limit
where any of the streams flowing from the east could have
been navigable, and here is found a cemetery which, as is
the case with the Nene valley sites in general, is a partly
cremation one though most of the interments were by inhuma-
tion. Northants generally, and of course Leicestershire and
Rutland, are Anglian in their partial use of cremation, their
cruciform fibulae, their girdle hangers, and their sleeve clasps,
though the last keep rather to the east of Leicestershire and
belong more to the region centering in Cambridgeshire.
Huntingdonshire produced a fine series of Anglian brooches
and of wrist clasps found partly at Woodstone near Peter-
borough and now in the Museum of that town. Here
however we are in thoroughly Anglian surroundings and well
within the frontier.
It follows from what has now been said that a delimitation
^ A. Beesley, History of Banbury, Lond., 1850, p, 28 f.
626 THE THAMES BASIN
in the Midlands between Angle and Saxon is possible, and
that archaeological evidence agrees with that drawn from
geography and from history. We can surrender the two old-
established criteria, cremation and the saucer brooch, though
as we have seen the first of these still possesses value, and may
admit that in the patterns of funereal pottery, in florid square-
headed brooches, in arms, in vessels and numerous other
objects, substantial differences are not to be discerned, but at
the same time the three objects so often mentioned, the
cruciform brooches, the wrist clasps, and the girdle hangers,
abundant on the one side of the line but so sparingly repre-
sented, if represented at all, on the other, do furnish us with
very distinct differentiae between the two regions and races.
CHAPTER XIII
THE CEMETERIES OF THE THAMES BASIN
The following are brief notes on the principal cemeteries in
the Thames and Avon areas just reviewed. The direction of
the survey is from east to west. The first finds to be
noticed are some near the Thames waterway on the north
coast of Kent, and of these the most instructive are
those at
NoRTHFLEET near Gravesend. In 1847 and again in
1899 ^^ ^^^ south of Northfleet Church, and in 1901 to the
west of it, Anglo-Saxon burial places were discovered, the
objects found in which were included in the Arnold collection
and are now partly in the Museum and Free Library at
Gravesend partly at Maidstone. The most important objects
are urns, some of the distinctive so-called ' Anglian ' type,
and others of the plain kind that are so often found in the
same cemeteries with the former, and a certain number of
these were cinerary urns and contained human bones. As no
assured cases of cremation of Anglo-Saxon date were known
from the many Kentish cemeteries, this discovery was rightly
held a most remarkable one, and it is really the fundamental
fact that underlies the theory of the colonization of the
Thames basin to which expression has been given in the last
chapter. These urns are now called West Saxon not Jutish,
and are brought into connection with similar cremation and
other urns found in riparian cemeteries higher up the river.
Though urns of this * Anglian ' kind do occur elsewhere in
Kent, yet the characteristic pottery of the Jutish cemeteries
we have seen to be of quite a different type (p. 506 f.). There
627
628 THAMES VALLEY CEMETERIES
are 1 5 of these Northfleet urns besides fragments at Maid-
stone, and several still at Gravesend. One of the plain ones
with the bones in it has been shown PL cxxxviii, 7 (p. 505).
Burnt human bones were also found in one of the Maidstone
urns that has distinctive ' Anglian ' ornamentation upon it,
and this proves that ' Anglian ' urns as well as plain ones at
Northfleet were used for cremation. At Gravesend there are
some excellent arms from the site including a good sword
blade and an angon, while at Maidstone is a ' francisca ' axe
head. The most significant of the products are however saucer
brooches. Our previous study of this object (p. 312 f.) has
shown it in common use in the West Saxon and Mid-Anglian
areas, though it is no doubt more specially Saxon, and plenty
of examples have been found in Sussex. In Kent the poor
little specimens we found at Bifrons, PI. xxxvi, 5, 12, (p. 245),
hardly count as saucer brooches in the ordinary sense, and
Mr. Leeds, in his paper on the subject in Archaeologia^ lxiii,
enumerates only 14 Kentish examples, of which 7 were found
either at Northfleet or in this particular region of Kent. Of
the rest, one came from Chatham which it could have easily
reached from the estuary. Of one at Canterbury and one in
the British Museum the exact provenance is doubtful, while
three were found in the King's Field, Faversham, the richest
but the worst explored cemetery in the whole country, a site
where we should not be surprised to find all sorts of outland
objects. Only at Sarre was one found in really Jutish
connections. Hence it follows that we can remove saucer
brooches out of the Jutish tomb inventory and keep them to
the Saxons and the Angles, the appearance of them in Sussex
being in this respect instructive as showing that ' Saxon,'
archaeologically speaking, does mean something after all. Of
two Northfleet saucer brooches at Maidstone one is a scroll
pattern example of early date perhaps about 500 a.d., and the
other is an almost exact counterpart of brooches found much
higher up the river, one at Filkins in Oxfordshire, shown PI.
SITES IN NORTH KENT 629
Lxviii, 3 (p. 341), and one at Fairford, Archaeologia, lxiii,
pi. XXVI, 6, both avowed West Saxon sites. It is a curious
fact that though the three brooches are so much alike one has
seven dots in the little central rosette, another eight and the
third nine, so that exact repetition is as usual avoided. The
Northfleet brooch will be found PI. clvi, 2.
There are one or two other North Kent sites that are of
the same type as Northfleet.
Cliffe-at-Hoo and Higham, east of Gravesend are
likely sites for cemeteries of this kind. Of one at the first
named place -^ little is recorded but the fact of its former
existence, but Higham furnished to the Rochester Museum a
scroll-patterned saucer brooch of early type, shown PI. lix, 2.
HoRTON KiRBY. This site is six miles up the Darent, that
runs into the Thames past Dartford at which place there have
been some Anglo-Saxon finds of no special significance.
Horton Kirby may be a riparian settlement like Northfleet.
Here about ^S graves were opened in 1866-7, yielding some
of the usual objects, see PL xxx, 2 (p. 233), including certain
urns that were apparently not cinerary. The most important
find was that of a pair of saucer brooches, figured PI. lvii, 5
(p. 313). They are adorned with full-face human heads
filling in the spaces between the arms of a sort of cross (with-
out Christian significance) within a border like a Roman
' vitta ' (p. 312). The same cruciform pattern, though with-
out the heads, occurs on a pair of saucer brooches from High
Down, Sussex, shown PI. clvi, i (p. 623), and the border on
some Wiltshire examples at Devizes as well as the Bucks
fibula PL Lviii, I (p. 315). The next site is
Greenwich. Here in the Park, south-west of the
Observatory, there is a group of tumuli, 50 of which Douglas
opened in 1784, finding enough to show an Anglo-Saxon
origin but nothing of interest save rather extensive remains of
woollen and linen fabrics. The cemetery is of interest as the
^ Archaeologia Cantiana, xiii, 502.
IV ^
630 THAMES VALLEY CEMETERIES
only one known that may have belonged to one of the Anglo-
Saxon settlements which have been already noticed (p. 607)
as clustering round London. These settlements we have
seen to be Saxon in their names, and in their configuration
they exhibit the normal features of village church and village
green and manor house, yet in the case of no one of them has
any trace of the original cemetery, so far as the writer knows,
betrayed its presence. The ground all round them has been
dug over often enough, and traces may have passed out of
existence unrecorded, or there is the alternative that the
settlements themselves may have been formed rather late
when the pagan system of interment was passing out of use.
In London itself there have been two discoveries of early
objects, in neither case in connection with an interment, and
for these the reader is referred to (p. 611). The bulk of the
Anglo-Saxon discoveries in London have been of the later or
Danish period, and will be discussed in a succeeding volume.
A little to the west of London and on the south of the river
discoveries of much interest have been made. The riparian
tract itself was clay land and marshy and did not invite
settlers, who seem to have turned their boats up the lateral
stream of the Wandle that bore them to sites where at a very
early date they made themselves at home.
Anglo-Saxon burials in Surrey so far as they are known
are confined to the eastern half of the county and to the
gradual northern slope of the North Downs from the latitude
of Mitcham to that of Leatherhead. To the south and west
of the county there were great stretches of heath and wood-
land that were unattractive to settlers of agricultural tastes.
At Croydon and to the west and south of that centre, in a
district opened up by the Wandle, discoveries attest the pre-
sence from an early date of Teutonic immigrants in whom we
see the future Gewissae or West Saxons. In cemeteries of this
kind, well supplied with arms and containing objects the date
of which might fall within V, we may see archaeological
CROYDON AND SURREY SITES 631
evidence that carries us back to the first settlement of the
localities. We must not of course expect to find every object
of a specially early date, for the cemetery generally will have
remained in use for some considerable time, nor must we on
the other hand jump to a general conclusion from the appear-
ance of a single object of disproportionate antiquity, as such a
thing may be an accidental survival. Apart from the appear-
ance of this or that special object, a cemetery will have a cer-
tain physiognomy of its own, and on some sites we seem
brought into touch with objects that may have been seen and
used by the earliest Teutonic settlers.
Croydon with some surrounding places such as Purley,
Wallington and Beddington were such early seats. In
the first-named town itself, not far from the Town Hall, dis-
coveries in connection with building operations were made in
1895,^ and the proceeds are partly in the Grange Wood
Museum at Thornton Heath and partly in the British Museum.
In Beddington parish near the site of a Roman villa Anglo-
Saxon interments have from time to time been revealed, and
some objects from there are to be seen in the Croydon Public
Library. Other graves were opened near Sanderstead Station
under Purley Down and one was found at Wallington. Alto-
gether this group may account for some 50 skeletons which
from the large number of arms and paucity of ornaments are
conjectured to have been chiefly male. Arms naturally are an
early sign, for the longer a community has lived a settled
agricultural life in a single spot the less will these be in
evidence. Croydon arms have been shown Pll. xxiii, 2 ;
XXV, 3 ; xxvii, 9 ; xxix, 6 ; xxxii, 1 5 (an angon). The chief
point of importance however here was the fact that cremation
as well as burial was in use. An enriched cinerary urn, 9 in.
high, in which were fragments of bones, and half a dozen
other similar urns, were found in 1871 and subsequently
on the Beddington site, while a very handsome but fractured
1 Troc. Soc. Ant., xv. 328.
632 THAMES VALLEY CEMETERIES
cinerary urn found with bones at Croydon is in the British
Museum.
Mitch AM. Archaeologia lx contains the account of dis-
coveries at Mitcham and its vicinity from 1871 onwards from
the pen of Captain Harold Bidder, in whose collection most
of the objects found are preserved, while he has placed others
in the Mitcham Vestry Hall.^ At Mitcham some 77 graves
have been opened on land connected with Ravensbury Park
and the bodies have been found lying on, or slightly sunk
into, the gravel subsoil at depths varying from 1 8 in. to 3 ft.
There were no external marks, but it is interesting to learn
that land in the vicinity of the cemetery had been known for
centuries as ' Dead Man's Close.' The site is on a slight
slope above the river Wandle and further explorations in the
same cemetery may be looked for. The feet were mostly
turned to the east but there were some cases of north and
south orientation. The crouching position occurred once.
It is noteworthy that no single case of cremation has been met
with here though at Hackbridge two miles further up the
river graves were opened in the early seventies of which
cremated burials formed a feature.
Mitcham is undoubtedly an early cemetery. Arms were
again conspicuous, for three swords were found in each case
with an umbo, and as was the case at Croydon some of those
early objects in bronze were discovered of which there was
question in connection with Pll. clii f. (p. 558). Mr. Reginald
Smith in Proc. Soc. Ant., xxi, argued for an early date for the
cemetery from the complete absence of the specially Teutonic
animal ornament which we find coming into such general,
though as we have seen (p. 104 f.) not universal, use from
about 500 A.D. Such animal forms as occur are of the early
romanizing type noticed (p. 556 f.). The close resemblance
of a romanizing bronze buckle to a similar piece found on the
Anglian site of Burwell Fen, Cambridgeshire, has been noticed
^ See also Surrey Archaeological Collections^ x.xi, and Proc. Soc. JnL, xxi, 4.
SURREY AND MIDDLESEX SITES 633
in connection with PI. cliv, 2, 3 (p. 555), and is a very curi-
ous fact. PI. CLIV, 3 is the Mitcham piece, No. 2 that from
Burwell Fen. Mitcham glass is simple, and there were four
urns of pottery one at any rate of which had 'Anglian ' details.
Of special interest were the saucer and applied brooches, the
former ornamented with linear designs, stars, and running
scrolls. Specimens are figured Pll. lvii, 6 ; lix, 6 (pp. 313,
317). At Mitcham the early signs are pretty constant, but
at Croydon fragments of claw-glass goblets would bring the
use of the cemetery down to about 600 a.d.
Farthingdown. Quite out of the Wandle district to the
south, near Coulsdon, a cemetery of a different aspect^ has been
brought to light on the elevated ridge of Farthingdown some
400 ft. above the sea. The skeletons, all inhumed, within
the 16 graves opened were sunk a little in the chalk and
were all laid with the feet to the east, the places of interment
being marked by low mounds. Ornaments were again
infrequent, and it has been noticed that there is a curious
absence of beads in Surrey graves. A small gold pendant
has a cruciform design upon it that may possibly have a
Christian significance. Arms as usual were conspicuous, and
in one remarkable interment there was the skeleton of a
warrior whose stature was reckoned at about 6 ft. 5 in., and
across whose breast lay a mighty sword 3 ft. 2 in. long
weighing i lb. 14 oz. and accompanied by the elaborately
constructed shield boss figured PI. xxiii, 3 (p. 199).
Further inland no discoveries of the pagan period in
Surrey have been recorded, save some doubtful finds on the
downs at Leatherhead and we may now return to the
Thames Valley.
Twickenham was the site of a discovery reported in
the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries^ June 20, 191 2,
vol. xxiv, p. 327. The chief object was the jewelled gold
1 Well described by Mr. Wickham Flower in Surrey Arckaeohgual Collec-
tions^ VI, 109.
634
THAMES VALLEY CEMETERIES
Fig. 22. — Outline of Umbo from
Twickenham.
pendant figured PI. liii, 8 (p. 311), but there were other
objects from the site which may have come from the same
grave. The most interesting of
these is a shield boss, 7 in. high,
of conical form but with an ogee
outline that looks more Celtic
than Anglo-Saxon.^ The early-
character of umbos in the
Thames Valley cemeteries has
however already formed the
subject of comment (p. 200).
The outline is given in Fig. 22.
Far more germane to the sub-
ject in hand are discoveries made
a little higher up the stream at
Shepperton. Here on the
Middlesex bank almost opposite
to Walton-on-Thames a cemetery
was discovered and reported on by Mr. Mainwaring Shurlock
in 1868.^ Eight skeletons had been found in a gravel-pit laid
out with feet to the east, with traces of the funeral feast but no
sign of coffins. PJ.xviii, i (p. 177), gives a view of the disposi-
tion of one of these in the grave with its arms, while the sword
hilt, of distinctively early type, is illustrated PI. xxvi, 2
(p. 219). The interment has a very early appearance. These
inhumed bodies were not however alone, for cremated burials
also occurred on the site. ' The mode of sepulture varied,'
wrote Mr. Shurlock, ' some bodies were burnt, the bones
collected and placed in urns for interment.' When the report
was read in 1868 he exhibited an urn in his possession, the
undisturbed contents of which consisted in calcined bones
embedded in earth that had become hard like concrete. Li
^ Sec examples figured by M. Dechelette, Manuel cf Archeologie, etc., 11,
Second Age du Fer, p. 1163.
2 Arch. Journ.^ xxv, 171. Proc. Soc. Jtit,, 2nd Ser. iv, 118.
MIDDLESEX AND HERTS
635
the earth he had found a minute glass bead and a small
portion of a bronze ornament. The labourer who had dis-
covered the urn said he had destroyed many others. Between
the reading and the printing of the report two more urns with
calcined bones were found near the site. Fifty years previ-
ously an urn containing burnt
bones had been found in the
Shepperton Range gravel-
pit and an engraving of it
was exhibited of which Fig.
23 is a sketch-reproduction.
The form and decoration
are markedly of the type
called on the Continent
' Saxon,' and by ourselves
' Anglian ' on account of
their prevalence in the
Anglian districts of our
own country. It is not very common to find
such a thoroughly north country type in the south.
A small bronze cruciform fibula of a latish type was
found at Shepperton and is preserved with other objects
from the site in the Castle Arch Museum, Guildford. It
is figured PL clvi, 6.
Shepperton is a riparian cemetery of the type of that at
Northfleet. We will now follow the West Saxon coloniza-
tion of the northern side of the valley through Herts and
Buckinghamshire up to the watershed where we have pro-
visionally fixed the boundary between Saxon and Angle.
The first named county is poorly supplied with Anglo-Saxon
burying grounds, though we must remember the Red-
bourn tumuli opened in XII (p. 121). There have been
isolated finds however, such as that of the bronze ewer
found at Wheathampstead between Hertford and Luton,
PI. cxiv, I (p. 467).
Fig. 23. — Cinerary urn from Shepperton,
an urn of
636 THAMES VALLEY CEMETERIES
The waterway of the Lea opened the way through the
centre of Hertfordshire into the southern part of the neigh-
bouring county of Bedford, and here as in Bucks the people
appear to have distinctly West Saxon characteristics while in
the north of Bedfordshire we are confronted with Anghan
characteristics. The Lea which passes Wheathampstead comes
down from near Leagrave, north-west from Luton, where
two inhumed bodies with suggestions of early date were
found. ^ There were other remains a little further on at
Chalton and a long hedge not far oiF bears the suggestive
name of ' Dead Man's Hedge.' Leagrave objects were
figured PI. lxxx, 2 (p. 369) and PI. cxii, 2 (p. 463), and
are early. A little beyond Chalton is Toddington where
a dozen skeletons were found, one with feet to the north.
Toddington is about six miles north-east of Leighton
Buzzard and here on Leighton Heath a mile north of the
town a cremation cemetery came to light, the site being con-
nected with a local name 'Dead Man's Slode,' or Slade.
Both at Toddington and here there were applied and saucer
brooches and also small long brooches of the general kind
represented at Kempston, PL xlii, i (p. 265), but the manner
of disposing of the bodies was quite different. It would be
pedantic to insist too rigidly on the theory of the watershed
frontier, but it is worthy of notice that though Leighton and
Leagrave are almost on the same parallel of latitude yet
the former is on the other side of the divide and is on the
Ousel a tributary of the Ouse flowing from the north. At
Shefford to the north in the direction of Bedford, within the
assumed Anglian area, there was a discovery made of the
usual saucer brooches. The fine urn at Cambridge from
Sandy still further north, PL cxxxiii, 5 (p. 497), 9|- in. high,
has all the appearance of an Anglian cinerary vessel but it
seems actually to have been found with a skeleton and also
remains of wooden coffins. Burials at Newport Pagnell
1 Proc. Sec. Jnt,, xxi, 59.
BEDS AND BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 637
on the other side of Bedford from Sandy are rather against
the watershed theory. The site, which is in the county of
Bucks, is on the Ousel and should be Anglian. A consider-
able inhumation cemetery was opened here in 1900 and more
recent discoveries have been made on the spot.^ A variety of
the usual objects were found, the types being on the whole
early. The feature which seems to connect this cemetery
specially with the South was the disposal of bodies in a circle,
a peculiarity observed at Shoeburyness, Essex (p. 598), Cud-
desdon, Oxfordshire (p. 658), and to some extent at Stowting,
Kent (p. 713).
The Museum at Aylesbury contains objects of interest
from several sites in the Vale, and all the associations of the
finds appear to be West Saxon. Ashendon, Stone, Bishop-
stone, DiNTON are some of the sites. Oving produced the
enamelled bronze plaque, PI. cxix, 2 (p. 475), and burials at
Wing and Mentmore have been previously noticed (p. 1 19).
There are records of about 50 graves in the district, though
many more must have been opened. In what is known as
the Causeway Field at Bishopstone,^ a couple of miles south
of Aylesbury, graves were found at a depth of 2 ft. to 2 ft.
6 in., in which most of the bodies were laid full length in a
direction north and south while a few were contracted. Here
was a sword, sundry spear heads and knives, three umbos,
saucer and applied brooches as well as square headed ones,
tweezers, beads, and other objects including the very remark-
able early bronze girdle-plate, figured PI. clv, i (p. 56^)'
A feature of the locality is the large saucer brooch, of which
specimens have been found at Stone and Ashendon^; PI.
Lviii, I (p. 315) shows one 3^ in. in diameter from the latter
site. These are late examples of the type, and on the whole
the objects from this group of sites are not specially early, but
are quite of a Saxon character. The finds from Dinton are
^ T/je Jntiquary, xxxvi, 1900, p. 97. Records of Buckinghamshire, ix, 420.
2 ibid., V. 25. 2 Aicerman, Pagan Saxondom, pi. xxxviii.
638 THAMES VALLEY CEMETERIES
in private hands, among them is a good funnel-shaped glass
goblet, as PI. cxxviii, 2 (p. 487).
Returning towards the Thames, we meet at Kingsey near
Thame with cremation burials that are not represented in the
Aylesbury Vale. Two urns filled with human bones were
found in 1859,^ and in one was a Roman coin of the Emperor
Hadrian. This may be regarded as a cremation cemetery of
the Thames-side type, the site being easily accessible up the
Thame and the Ford brook.
All burials in this particular region are put to the shade
by the magnificent one in the far-famed Tap low Barrow
overlooking the Thames.^ This, the most remarkable single
interment of the whole Anglo-Saxon period, is that of a chieftain
of rank and wealth whose grave was found at the base of a large
tumulus in the old churchyard at Taplow. The site is near
the river and on an elevation commanding an extensive view.
The barrow, which was roughly circular and about 80 ft. in
diameter by a height to its flat top of about 15 ft., was
excavated in October 1883. The earth and gravel of which
it was composed held many fragments of Roman and of
earlier date that had been on or in the ground used as material
for the tumulus. The Anglo-Saxon burial was however to all
appearance the primary and the sole interment, and the mound
had been heaped up expressly to cover it. The grave was
under the centre of the barrow but was excavated to a depth
of 6 ft. below the original level of the churchyard and
measured 12 ft. in length by 8 ft. in width.
There is a marked resemblance between this interment and
that at Broomfield, Essex (p. 601 f.). In both cases there
^ Records of Bucklngbamshire, 11, 166.
2 The description that follows is taken in the main from the account in
the Ficioria History, Bucks, i, 200 f, which was based on a MS. record
communicated by one of the explorers. The objects from the site form a
conspicuous part of the Anglo-Saxon collection in the British Museum, but
some fragments arc at Reading.
THE TAPLOW BARROW 639
was a grave of Mycenaean amplitude with an almost Mycenaean
wealth of tomb furniture, but hardly any traces of an actual
body. At Broomfield there was some evidence of the exist-
ence of a coffin but no remains of bones nor even of osteoid
ashes. Here at Taplow there was evidence that the grave
had been lined and covered with stout planks equivalent to a
coffin, but remains unmistakable though small of the actual
body did come to light. The fragment of a jaw-bone with a
tooth in it was found at the east end of the grave which was
oriented south of east to north of west, and this shows that
the corpse was laid with feet to the west instead of turned in
the usual direction. A fragment of a thigh bone towards the
west confirms this inference, and we may conclude from this
that the interment was not a Christian one, that is not later
than the conversion of the West Saxons by Birinus about S^^.
On the other hand the tomb furniture gave no indication of a
very early date such as we have seen reason to infer for some
of the Surrey burials. Many of the objects were of VII
character and closely resembled the richly adorned jewels
characteristic of the more opulent Jutish burials in Kent.
Kentish affinities indeed, absent in Surrey, were here specially
in evidence. It should be made quite clear that we are not
dealing here with a Viking burial, for the signs of the Viking
age nowhere appear on the tomb furniture, but with the
burial of some distinguished chieftain of the Gewissas, of a
date about the year 600 or a decade or so later.
In the matter of arms there is to be noted the appearance
of two iron shield bosses placed above the head and to the right
or north side of it, and of two spear heads one of the ordinary
kind and the other of the great length of 26 in. and barbed,
so that it is possibly an instance of the rare angon. Both
these spear heads were found where the feet of the skeleton
must have been, and not as is usual, e.g. in the Shepperton
grave {p. 177), by the head. This variation is observed also
in the case of Frankish tombs. A sword 32 in. long and 2^ in.
640 THAMES VALLEY CEMETERIES
wide in a wooden scabbard lay by the side of the body with
the hilt under the arm. There was also of course a knife.
In the category of personal ornaments and of vessels the
inventory discloses exceptional richness. Remains of the
actual clothes in which a corpse was attired or wrapped
frequently make their appearance in Anglo-Saxon graves, and
among the materials is certainly wool and perhaps sometimes
linen. In certain cases the fabrics have been enriched with gold
threads or rather strips interwoven with filaments of wool or
linen. This was the case in several Jutish graves, and the
enriched pieces seem to have been used in the headdress and
at the wrists (p. 385). At Taplow gold strips were in evidence
and certain textile fragments preserved at the British and the
Reading Museums show how the gold was used, and this has
been already explained (p. 385 f ).
This gold inwoven tissue seems to have formed a mantle
fastened on the shoulder by a golden buckle 4 in. long
adorned with garnet inlays shown PI. B, iv, to right (p. 253)-
This is of distinctly Kentish type, and the debased zoomorphic
ornament in gold filigree work, similar to that in the com-
partments of the Kingston brooch, Vol. iii, Frontispiece,
shows that the jewel is of VII character. On the same Plate
B, IV, to left, is shown a gilded bronze clasp, one of a pair that
seem to have fastened the belt as they were found in the
region of the waist. The ornament here is of the same char-
acter as that on the buckle, and as we have seen already
(p. 330 f.) would indicate a date of about a.d. 600 or a
little later.
The vessels placed in the grave were numerous and varied
and in some instances of a unique character. The same
remark may be made about the vessels in the Broomfield
grave, and the resemblance between the two interments is
in this respect particularly close. In both cases a compara-
tively large uncovered vessel had been placed in the tomb,
and in it was disposed a whole collection of smaller vessels
RIVERSIDE FINDS 641
many of which corresponded in the two cases pretty closely.
In each case there were two horns, two glass vessels, and two
metal mounted wooden cups. The horns at Broomfield were
in their natural state, but at Taplow they were tipped and
mounted round the mouth in such a fashion as to turn them
into costly and beautiful works of art. PI. cxi, i (p. 461),
shows one of the horns and PL lx, i (p. 319), gave on a
larger scale the pattern on the metal mounts, see the descrip-
tion (p. 319 f.)- Other mounts may have belonged to a couple
of wooden drinking cups similar to the pair found in the open
pan in the Broomfield grave. Both in Essex and here at Taplow
two glass vessels accompanied the horns and wooden cups.
Apart from these sets of smaller vessels contained in a larger,
there was at Taplow a claw glass beaker of the type shown
PI. cxxiv (p. 484), and a fourth glass vessel of tumbler shape,
another small metal mounted drinking horn, and two buckets
of which metal parts were of iron and also of bronze. The
most remarkable vessel of all however was the handsome
cast bronze bowl, a foot high on a moulded stem, PI. cxv, i
(p. 469). It is most remarkable that at Broomfield an iron
bowl upon a stem of a quite unique character was found in
the grave in the same relative position as the bronze bowl at
Taplow, that is in the middle of the south side, PI. ex, 2
(p. 459). There were also at Taplow one or two minor
objects including a set of 30 bone pieces of cylindrical shape
apparently for the purpose of some game.
The bank of the Thames in this part of its course has
yielded up one or two isolated objects that may be mentioned.
Thus a spear head was found accidentally about 20 years ago
near the railway station at Maidenhead/ and an interesting
saucer fibula found by the Thames at Aston near Rem en-
ham is figured in Baron de Baye's Industrial Arts of the Anglo-
Saxons^ PI. VIII, fig. 5. A * winged' iron spearhead of a late
type, now at Reading, came from the Thames river bed, and
^ Berks^ Bucks and Oxon Archaeological 'Journal, iv, 1898, p. 87.
642 THAMES VALLEY CEMETERIES
the wonderful ornamented pommel of a dagger found at
Windsor, PL lvi (p. 311), is also of a late period, though
still no doubt of VIL
CooKHAM produced a small collection of arms found with
six skeletons in connection with railway works about 1854,
and now in the Reading Museum. Among them was the
unique two edged dagger, PL xxviii, 3 (p. 231).
Reading in its Museum enshrines objects of great interest
found in Anglo-Saxon riparian cemeteries within the present
limits of the town, and these sites were discussed in a valuable
article by W. Ravenscroft, F.S.A,, in vol. xiii, 1907-8, of the
Berks^ Bucks and Oxon Atchaeological Journal^ on which the
following is based. Two of these cemeteries agree with other
Thames Valley burial grounds in offering clear evidence of the
practice of cremation side by side with that of the interment
of the unburnt body. In common also with other important
Berkshire cemeteries, such as Long Wittenham and Frilford,
these two Reading burial grounds had been in use in the pre-
Saxon period, and we have to deal with the relations between
Romano-British and Teutonic interments on approximately
the same sites. A third Reading cemetery in which Anglo-
Saxon interments have been identified is one which belonged
originally to the oldest church of the town, the predecessor
of the present St. Lawrence. This oldest church seems to
have been pulled down when Reading Abbey was built, but
its graveyard remained, close up to the wall of the Abbey,
and was in use till the Suppression. In 1906 ancient inter-
ments were discovered in the Forbury Garden on the site
of this old cemetery, and there are arguments, partly cranio-
logical, which indicate that the earliest interments found were
of the late Anglo-Saxon period. These burials being in con-
secrated ground would of course not include tomb furniture,
and we are concerned here rather with the earlier cemeteries
which begin with the pagan period, but are held to contain
interments down to about the date 740, at which time burials
THE READING BURIAL GROUNDS 643
in the consecrated churchyard would already have become
general.
The first of these two earlier cemeteries was discovered in
1 89 1 and is called the pagan Thames-Kennet cemetery. It
was reported on by Dr. Joseph Stevens in a paper read in
1893 and published in vol. l of the Journal of the Archaeo-
logical Association ^ p. 150 f. The discovery was made on the
occasion of the widening of the Great Western Railway at
a spot near the junction of the Kennet with the Thames to
the east of the town. The interments were both incinerated
and inhumed, the inhumed bodies lying east and west but
with the feet to the west and not to the east, as in a normal
orientation. Out of 13, 7 were cremated 5 inhumed and i
was doubtful. The depth was slight, 2 ft. to 2 ft. 6 in., and
there was no indication of tumuli, though Dr. Stevens re-
marked that ' the distances the interments lay apart favour
the opinion that small tumuli were at one time present.'
Some cinerary urns were found with bones in them, and in
one case there was in the urn part of a bone comb. In the
case of the inhumed bodies there was no evidence from nails
clamps or decayed wood that coffins had been used.
The second cemetery was discovered about the same time
and in the same locality, in a meadow alongside the King's
Road leading east from the town. In a report by Dr. Stevens
in vol. I of the Berks^ Bucks and Oxon Archaeological Journal^
three levels of interments were distinguished, at 6 ft., 4 ft.,
to 3 ft. and 2 ft. 6 in. On the lowest level were found
oriented skeletons of tall subjects *with globular crania,
powerful jaws, and high cheek bones, characteristic of the
Celtic race,' ^ with no tomb furniture, while ' the shallower
graves yielded secular objects with the bodies, which were not
buried in so orderly a way, their occupants having longer,
broader, and more capacious skulls.' The inference is that
the lower burials were of a Christianized British population
1 Ravenscroft, I.e. (p. 642).
644 THAMES VALLEY CEMETERIES
while those above were Anglo-Saxon, of a people who though
perhaps nominally Christian still preserved the pagan institu-
tion of tomb furniture. It was surmised that the latest
burials might come down to about 740 a.d. Fifty-one
skeletons were exposed, making sixty-four in the two
cemeteries.
In regard to tomb furniture the pagan Thames-Kennet
cemetery furnished among other objects the following. With
inhumed interment No. 4 there was a most interesting early
specimen of the ' appHed ' brooch, shown PI. lviii, 5 (p. 315)
(the brooch is one of a pair), the ornamentation of which
consists in a very classical looking border divided off by a cable
moulding from an inner space ornamented with a ring of full-
faced human heads around a central star. "With interment 7
(inhumed) occurred an ornamented urn 5 in. high, and with
the urn was a pair of ' applied ' brooches the ornamentation
on which is of the debased zoomorphic kind.
In the second or King's Road cemetery there were sundry
miscellaneous finds but apparently no arms. The most
interesting of these finds were two objects in pewter, a metal
often employed by the Romans and used also for later Anglo-
Saxon brooches. With one male skeleton was found a much
corroded large cruciform fibula in this material 5 in. long,
while with another male skeleton with its feet to the east
appeared a very exceptional and interesting piece of tomb
furniture in the form of a pewter chaUce, 4 in. high, PI. xi,
3 (p. 117). A similar object is in the Museum at Canterbury,
and the occurrence of this sacerdotal insignium in a cemetery
of this kind, not attached to a church, is remarkable. The
piece is probably late, as the form of the chalice approaches
that common in the Romanesque epoch, and in any case the
find is an interesting link of connection between the Early
Christian and mediaeval epochs in our Church history.
Long Wittenham, about halfway between Wallingford
and Abingdon on the Berkshire side of the river, is a classic
LONG WITTENHAM 645
site where as at Reading and Frilford the Romano-British
and Anglo-Saxon civilizations seem to meet, though it may be
rash to hazard any theory as to what relations between the
two races seem to be indicated. Some existing place names,
like the place name Britford near Salisbury, have been held
to betoken localities frequented by the British population.
Between such a population and the Saxons at Long Wittenham
or at Harnham Hill peaceful relations may have been
maintained, and certain objects of Romano-British provenance
found in Saxon graves at both the places just named may be
held to give support to this suggestion, see PI. cii, 4 (p. 425),
and Fig. 20 (p. 619). Taking these cases alone the sugges-
tion would not carry much weight, but the instance that we
shall presently come to at Fairford in Gloucestershire is much
more striking. Here we shall find a cemetery the use of
which must have begun quite early situated some eight miles
from Corinium or Cirencester, a fortified Romano-British city
that we are told only fell before the Saxon arms on the
occasion of the successful campaign of the West Saxon
Ceawlin in 577 a.d. In view of this remarkable situation
cases not so striking, such as these in Berkshire, assume an
importance that forbids us to pass them over in silence.
Long Wittenham was reported on grave by grave by
the well known antiquary J. Y, Akerman in Archaeologia^
XXXVIII and xxxix, and the objects discovered are mostly in
the national collection. The site was on the south of the
village, about two miles from a farm on which Romano-
British remains were so plentiful that traces of buildings of
that period are spread over 250 acres and fragments of
contemporary pottery strew the fields. Here in 1859-60,
on a bed of gravel beneath about 3 ft. of alluvial soil were
found a number of skeletons indicating ' a large robust race,'
the thigh bones of the men measuring io\ in. to 17^^ in.,
those of the women 18 in. to 14 in., while one female thigh
bone was 20 in. long. In most cases the feet pointed some-
IV R
646 THAMES VALLEY CEMETERIES
what north of east though children were generally laid north
and south. There were between 180 and 190 inhumed inter-
ments, and besides these there were 46 cremation urns with
burnt bones in them accompanied occasionally by trifling
objects such as a fragmentary comb or pair of tweezers. It
should be specially noted that these cremation urns were
certainly Teutonic and not Romano-British, as they have the
distinctive form and ornamentation of the Anglo-Saxon type.
The explorer thought that the earlier interments were
cremated pagan ones the later inhumed Christian, and he
noticed that when cremation urns had been disturbed by the
subsequent burial of an unburnt body the urns with their
ashes were treated with a reverent care that reminds us of
what Faussett noticed in some of the Kentish grave fields,
where however the cinerary urns were pre-Saxon.
Arms were not conspicuous, only two swords being found,
but one early burial was of a warrior ^ with his feet to the
north, equipped with sword, spear, and shield and accompanied
by a small urn at his shoulder. Another with the same
orientation had with him a buckle with the heads at the
terminations of the ring that we have ascribed to V (p. 552 f.).
On the other side a distinctly Christian object appeared in
the form of the famous ' Long Wittenham stoup,' now in the
British Museum. This is a small pail or beaker covered with
bronze plates on which were embossed scriptural subjects.
On this the reader is referred to what was said about a similar
discovery at Strood, Kent (p. 115 f.), where a Gallo-Roman
provenance seemed indicated.
Ornaments were abundant in the graves of the women,
especially in the form of saucer and applied fibulae, of which
there were 26, for the most part in pairs, as well as 8 that had
lost their embossed front plates.^ They appear from their orna-
1 Arch. Journ., v, 291. This discovery was made a decade before the
regular opening of the cemetery.
2 Archaeologia, lxiii, 197.
DORCHESTER-ON-THAMES 647
ment to be of various dates and bear out the view that the
cemetery was for a long time in use. Flat disc brooches of
bronze, and small square headed ones were also in evidence.
Buckles were poorly represented (p. 352 f.) but beads were
plentiful, and in one grave, No. 71, there were 270 all of
amber. Objects of rarity were two of the small button shaped
brooches (p. 276), and a minute pair of bronze tweezers that
was found in a cinerary urn. A pair of scales was brought to
light in grave 80, and in grave 93, where was the Christian
stoup, there was a beaten bronze bowl of the type of the
Croydon one, PI. cxvii, 3 (p. 472).
Dorchester-on-Thames. Discoveries here have been
already referred to and certain finds have been figured, Pll.xL, 6;
CLii, 2, 3, etc. They are to all appearance the earliest of any in
the whole country, and how the owners of the objects reached
the site is not certain. MS. information about the discovery
exists in the possession of the Ashmolean Museum and
Mr. Leeds has made some of this public. The actual site
was apparently near the river Thames at the Dyke Hills, a
range of earthworks running between the Thame and the Isis
which here makes a sharp bend. There is the authority of
Professor RoUeston that there were two skeletons one of
which was that of a woman, and to her belonged the smaller
buckle, PI. CLII, II, and the fibula, PI. xl, 6 (p. 259). The
rest of the objects, PI. clii, 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 12 (p. 558), with a
large bone perforated disc, perhaps from a sword knot, were
found with the male skeleton. As the spot is close to the
junction of the Thames and Isis it is conceivable that the
warrior and his wife, who may have accompanied him on his
raids, came down the tributary stream instead of up the main
valley.
Other discoveries quite apart from these have been made
at Dorchester, and the Museum at Reading contains two
large and handsome saucer fibulae 2^ in. in diameter, with
linear ornamentation but apparently, from their size, not of
648 THAMES VALLEY CEMETERIES
an early date. They may be compared with the large saucer
fibulae found at Stone and at Ashendon in the Vale of Ayles-
bury, and with the obviously late one from Whearley, Oxon,
Pll. Lviii, I ; Lxix, I (pp. 315, 343). The comparison
emphasizes the West Saxon character of the Aylesbury dis-
trict. The famous sword from Wallingford in the Ashmolean,
the hilt of which is pranked with silver, belongs to the later
or Danish period,
Frilford. This cemetery, resembling in its main features
Reading and Long Wittenham, is of special importance in
that it was scientifically explored by Professor Rolleston, who
communicated an elaborate report on his researches to vol. xlii
o^ Archaeologia. The site is on the river Ock, a tributary of the
Thames which it joins by Abingdon, whence Frilford is distant
three or four miles, and the excavations were first reported
on in 1865 by J. Y. Akerman,^ who notices that the ground
was ' strewed with fragments of Roman or Romano-British
pottery.' The site of a Roman villa is near at hand, and as a
fact the majority of the Frilford interments, according to the
Rolleston report, are Romano-British, so that one great interest
of the investigation he carried on is the fixing of the relation
between these and the later Teutonic burials. There were
123 burnt or buried bodies in all, and he divides these into
no fewer than five classes of which the first two are Romano-
British of the period before the Saxon invasion. Of the
Anglo-Saxon burials half were cremated half showed inhuma-
tion. Urns containing calcined bones at times vindicated
their provenance by their 'Anglian' form and ornamentation,
the inhumed burials by the characteristic Teutonic tomb
furniture. Some of these Anglo-Saxon burials were shallow
and unoriented and well supplied with tomb furniture, others
were in deeper excavations and oriented, and the grave in
these cases was lined with upright stones, and a stone was
placed under the head of the skeleton by which it was shown
1 Troc. Soc. Ant., 2nd Ser., iii, 136 f.
FRILFORD, ETC. 649
that there was no coffin. All the bodies were found laid at
full length.
No sword was discovered and arms were not much in
evidence. The saucer brooch was well represented, and in
one case at any rate in an early form. The number of these
brooches has recently been increased, for Mr. Thurlow Leeds
found two applied brooches with zoomorphic ornament on a
woman's skeleton on this site in March 191 2. Here as at
Long Wittenham, PL cii, 4 (p. 425), there was found an oval
brooch with settings for glass or stones that from its form and
character may be pronounced Romano-British.
In 1832 at Milton North Field by Abingdon some graves
were opened, and these produced exceptional treasures in the
form of the two extremely fine inlaid disc fibulae of the Kentish
type that were figured PI. cxlv, i, 2 (p. S33)' The one which is
now in the Ashmolean was found on the breast of a skeleton
lying due north and south at a depth of a couple of feet.
These riverside cemeteries and that at Frilford agree in
the character of their sites, which are on low ground and are
distinctly riparian. Leaving for the moment the main stream
we will now proceed westwards from Reading up the course
of the Kennet and into the lateral valley of the Lambourn,
where at East Shefford, already among the breezy downs,
discoveries were made about 1890 in the course of the Lam-
bourn valley railway works, while quite recently, in 19 12,
fresh excavations have brought to light in the neighbourhood
new examples of Anglo-Saxon art. These last are in the
Museum at Newbury, while the proceeds of the former dig-
gings are for the most part in the British Museum.
The report read before the Society of Antiquaries on
March 20, 1890, indicates ' an extensive Anglo-Saxon burying
place ' in a locality that ' appears to have been selected from
its commanding height and picturesque situation on a high
ridge of land on the left bank of the river Lambourn.' There
650 KENNET VALLEY CEMETERIES
was a large number of skeletons of all kinds, mostly at a depth
of about 2 ft. 9 in. below the surface, and accompanied by
arms and ornaments. A woman had on her left shoulder a
square headed fibula of gilded bronze of a type not unlike one
common in Kent, and wore a small necklet of amber beads.
On the breast of another were two applied brooches 2^ in. in
diameter. Other circular and quoit shaped brooches are in
the British Museum.
The later discoveries on the site in 1912 were described by
Mr. Harold Peake, of Westbrook House, Newbury, at a meeting
of the Royal Anthropological I nstitute, April 1 9 1 3 . The excava-
tions had been conducted with scrupulous care, and the whole of
the facts about the 26 graves opened properly tabulated. The
graves were sunk partially in the chalk and pillows had been
left (p. 155). It was reported about the skeletons that those
of the older women seemed to exhibit a different type from
the rest and one that suggested the British race. This observa-
tion has already formed the subject of comment (p. 184) and
it needs only to be pointed out here that the fact that the
racial peculiarities were observed in the aged women would
support a theory that here at any rate if not elsewhere the
earliest settlers took to themselves British wives.
The objects exhumed were of much interest. Of five urns
all found in women's graves one at least was of distinctly
Frankish type, PL cxxix, 5 (p. 491), and one of the applied
fibulae possesses a counterpart in the Museum at Rouen that
was found at Sigy, Seine Inferieure. The two may be com-
pared, PI. cxLix, 2 and 5 (p. 553). Fibulae, circular and long,
were found in pairs in women's graves, the long ones point
upwards. Among the latter were two characteristic cruciform
brooches with knobs detached from the head plate and fixed
on the ends of the axis of the spring coil, PI. xli, 6 (p. 261),
after a fashion prevailing about 500 a.d. This discovery is of
importance because of the rarity of the type in the West Saxon
area, as was noticed above (p. 624). The ordinary ubiquitous
BERKSHIRE DOWN CEMETERIES 651
small square headed long brooch was also in evidence, and
there was a funnel shaped glass goblet. It is worth noting that
a very small boy had been buried with a tiny spear head beside
him.
East ShefFord though accessible up a lateral stream from
the Kennet valley is already among the downs, and one or
two down cemeteries in Berks may here have a word. At
Arne Hill near Lockinge, a mile or two east of Wantage,
J. Y. Akerman reported on some excavations in 1862.^ The
site was the top of an isolated hill, and here some 80
skeletons of all ages and both sexes were found at a depth of
2 ft. to 2 ft. 6 in., nearly all lying east and west. The fact
that there was very little grave furniture points to a late date
for the cemetery. On the other hand not far off at Lockinge
Park a single body was discovered in 1892 at a depth of 7 ft.,
where the crouching position and the character of some of the
relics indicated the pagan Anglo-Saxon period. With a blue
glass * melon' bead of Roman provenance (p. 441) were two
simple disc shaped bronze brooches with engraved circles on
the faces.
On the downs above Uffington, on White Horse Hill,
Berks, some details are given in Crania Britannica ^ of the
discovery of what were apparently Anglo-Saxon remains in
close proximity to or in connection with a Romano-British
cemetery and a Roman villa. Near at hand there was a
low oblong mound in which were found nearly 50 skeletons
pronounced by the writers to be ' clearly of the Roman
period,' and the site is on the side of the hill just above the
famous White Horse and not far from ' Weland's Smithy.'
The mound where the Saxon remains were found was ' of
very slight elevation in irregular figure-of-eight form.'
Within it were six skeletons carelessly buried. One skeleton
had a Romano-British enamelled brooch on its shoulder.
^ Proc. Soc. Ant.^ 2nd Ser., 11, 320.
2 By J. B. Davis, M.D. and John Thurnam, M.D., Lond., 1865, 11, 51.
652 WILTSHIRE CEMETERIES
Beside another were found the blade of a knife and the
umbo, handle, and silver-headed studs of a shield, of iron
and of the well known Anglo-Saxon type. The skilled
craniologists who give the report pronounce the skulls to
be ' probably Anglo-Saxon,' and to differ from those in the
first named mound, but there was no other tomb furniture,
and the bones were in a very confused condition. About
half the bones were those of children or young people,
and this fact, with the comparative absence of arms and
personal ornaments, precludes the supposition, which other-
wise might have been entertained, that these were bodies of
Saxon warriors who died in fight with the Britons or in
storming a Roman villa or station. It is a very remarkable
fact however that in both sets of interments decapitated
skeletons were found, with the heads in some cases placed
between the knees. Two male skulls of the Romano-British
set had been cleft through by a death blow. Many of this
set too were of young people, and of the 46 skeletons 27
had the feet to the east.
The valley of the Kennet, after we pass the lateral valley
of the Lambourn leading up into the Berkshire downs, takes
us by a straight course westwards to the down country of
northern Wilts by Marlborough. By the river, or by the
Roman road to Bath which follows its course, the West Saxons
may have made their advance, and we find traces of their
presence in North Wilts as well as at Harnham Hill by
Salisbury a good deal to the south. The one important
Wiltshire cemetery, that at Harnham Hill, has already
received consideration (p. 619), and its position on the Hamp-
shire Avon has been noted (p. 621). On the evidence however
of the tomb furniture of the pagan period Wilts, north or
south, is no more than Hampshire or Dorset an early West
Saxon region, and in these counties, as compared with the
Thames Valley, the finds are few and poor. These facts are
an instructive commentary on the theory based on the
BURIALS IN WILTSHIRE TUMULI 653
Chronicle that brings the West Saxons up from the south
coast, a theory that Sir Laurence Gomme finds a necessary
corollary to his own view of London history.
The Thames in its upper reaches skirts Wiltshire on the
north for some fifteen miles, but the river valley cemeteries
that are pretty plentiful to the north of the stream are absent
on the Wiltshire side till we find ourselves in the down
country. This region of chalk and oolite uplands is inter-
sected by the broad valley of the Bristol Avon and the narrow
one of the Hampshire Avon, and over a large area of this
especially in Wiltshire there are innumerable prehistoric tumuli.
As is the case to a greater extent in the somewhat similar chalk
country of the Yorkshire Wolds, and as is also the case on the
downs of Sussex and the Isle of Wight, there are intrusive
Anglo-Saxon burials in some of the earlier tumuli (p. 133).
For example, at Avening in Gloucestershire, near Minchin-
hampton, occurs a characteristic example. Here was an
extensive low circular tumulus, the central area of which to
the extent of many square yards showed traces of cremation.
Nearer the surface in the centre a skeleton had been buried,
and round the circumference, outside the cremation area,
were ' seven graves, each composed of large rough flagstones
placed leaning against each other like the roof of a house,
three or four forming the side of the grave.' In each grave
there was a skeleton, but in one there were two lying head to
feet. With the bones were many iron spear heads, iron
buckles, and * a small iron basin ' that was evidently an umbo,
and one skeleton had a bead necklace, indicating a female
interment. The discovery was made in 1847.-^
The Wiltshire Magazine has contained from time to time
notices of a similar kind to that recorded about Avening
in Gloucestershire, and these have recently been brought
together in a valuable paper by the Rev. E. H. Goddard in
vol. xxxviii, 1 9 14, entitled 'A List of Prehistoric, Roman,
^ Ass., IV, 1849, p. 50 f., and Proc. Soc. Jut., ist Sen, i, 241.
654 WILTSHIRE CEMETERIES
and Pagan Saxon Antiquities in the County of Wilts.' Other
notices are supplied in General Pitt Rivers's monumental
work on Cranborne Chase.
What was probably an intrusive Saxon burial in a pre-
historic tumulus in the churchyard of Ogbourne St. Andrew,
near Marlborough, has been illustrated PI. xviii, 2 (p. 177).
In the upper part of a tumulus at the top of a hill above
Broad Town, near Wootton Bassett, there were found in
1834 an iron javelin head and an amber and a glass bead.
On King's Play Down, Heddington, north of Devizes, there
was opened in 1907 what appeared to be a Saxon grave in a
barrow 24 ft. in diameter but only i ft. high. The well
preserved skeleton of a man laid with feet to the east was
pronounced by Dr. Beddoe on the evidence of the skull to
be of Saxon character. Other possible examples of intrusive
burials are noticed in the Magazine^ vi, 332 ; x, 91, etc. ;
but more surely accredited are the secondary interments
found in barrows on Winklebury Hill, north of Cran-
borne Chase, by General Pitt Rivers.^ Here moreover in
proximity to the barrows were discovered numerous Anglo-
Saxon graves of the ordinary kind with a certain amount of
tomb furniture. In these 30 skeletons came to light in
receptacles cut into the chalk at depths varying from 2 ft. to
2 ft. 6 in. 26 had feet to the east, 2 to the west, and it is
particularly noted that these two were skeletons of children
(p. 189). One skeleton only was in a contracted posture.
There were no marks of cremation and no trace of coffins
or of stone linings to the graves. Urns did not appear and
the chief objects found were knives. There were however a
couple of ' unica ' in the form of two pierced bronze plates,
as well as an iron buckle and some beads. The finds are in
the Pitt Rivers Museum at Farnhair., Dorset, and the pierced
bronze plates, silvered, or perhaps tinned, i|^ in. in diameter,
found at the waist of a skeleton and apparently fastened to
^ Cranborne Chase, 11, 257 f.
BASSET DOWN 655
some circular object of wood, are curious and worthy of repro-
duction, PI. CLVi, 9, 10. Not far from here a barrow by
WooDYATES Inn produced a characteristic spear head and
knife, another Woodyates barrow the ivory ring PI. xcii, i
(p. 400) and the mosaic pendant set in gold, PI. cm, ig
(p. 427) and a third a button brooch, PI. lviii, 6 (p. 315)-
■ It may be noticed here that these burials on the borders
of Wilts and Dorset represent the furthest recorded dis-
coveries of cemeteries of the pagan period towards the south-
west. Dorset hardly comes into our story at all, and the
isolated objects representing Anglo-Saxon civilization which
its soil has yielded up are mostly of the later period. This
applies to a good specimen of the scramasax, in its Anglo-
Saxon form, rather long, 12 in., and slender, with the straight
cut down from the back to the point, as in the example
PI. XXVIII, 10, from London, of X (p. 228), which was found
at Milton Abbas and is now in the Dorchester Museum.
The fact is that the settlement of Dorset emphasized by the
foundation of the bishopric of Sherborne in a.d. 705 belongs
to the Christian period, in connection with which the region
will be subsequently noticed.
After Harnham Hill, already noticed (p. 619 f.), the best
Wiltshire cemetery is probably that at Basset Down over-
looking Swindon from the south-west. Here in 1822
operations in the grounds of a house occupied at a later
date by N. Story Maskelyne, F.R.S., laid bare a number of
skeletons, and in 1839 others came to light. Tomb furni-
ture of the usual kind, embracing shields, spears, knives,
fibulae, beads, etc., was in evidence. The domes of the
umbos were of the concave shape described previously
(p. 200). There were saucer brooches with star patterns
over 2 in. in diameter. The most notable finds however
were of certain objects of very early character including a
spoon of Roman shape, a provincial-Roman fibula, a bronze
hair pin with movable ring through the head, and above
656 WILTSHIRE CEMETERIES
all some small glass beads of elongated form and of the
double and triple shape which generally betoken an early-
date. It is possible of course to regard the early fibula which
was shown PH. clv, 12, 14 (p. 254) and the Roman or Roman-
izing spoon PL xcv, 4 (p. 407), as accidental survivals, but
the former is a very interesting find and comparable with the
early fibulae from Dorchester and from Kempston, Pll. xl, 6
(p. 259) ; CLv, 1 1 (p, 784). The small beads, the umbo, and
perhaps the star pattern saucer brooch, are of early types, and
hardly justify Mr. Leeds's relegation of the cemetery to a
comparatively late period.^
MiLDENHALL near Marlborough produced among other
objects a couple of saucer brooches figured PI. lvii, 4 (p. 313).
The soil of Salisbury itself and its neighbourhood has been
somewhat fertile in Anglo-Saxon objects and there are speci-
mens in the Salisbury Museum. Behind St. Edmund's
Church a cemetery of 20 bodies has been found and some of
those best acquainted with the local antiquities believe that
there is evidence of racial conflicts in the finds in and about
the town, the Britons being buried without furniture, the
Saxons with their arms and ornaments about them. A good
sword blade from Charford, another from Toyd, a spear
head from Nether Wallop just over the border in Hants,
and arms from several local sites are in the Museum.
Wilton, where the famous bronze bowl was found, PI.
cxviii (p. 474) lies a little to the west of the city.
On Salisbury Race Course in a barrow where no interment
was found several objects of interest were discovered, such as
the inlaid stud, PI. cxlvii, 9 (p. 537), the gold ring, PI. cviii, 3
(p. 455), an umbo, a bronze bowl, and some glass frag-
ments. On Rodmead Down there was found with a skeleton
the interesting bronze bowl figured PI. cxvi, 2 (p. 471) and
also one of the tall conical umbos, nearly 7 in. high, of which
specimens were shown, PI. xxiii, i, 3 (p. 199). At
^ The Archaeology^, etc., p. 52.
RIPARIAN CEMETERIES IN OXON 657
Shrewton between Salisbury and Devizes the curious wheel-
like bronze pendant was found, PI. cvii, 2 (p. 449), and
finally, near Devizes, on Roundway Down, was made the
remarkable discovery of the inlaid pendants and the pin suite
figured PL lxxxi, 2-4 (p. 371). They were with the
skeleton of a lady who lay in a wooden chest bound with iron
and oriented north and south. The interment was upon the
chalk and the tumulus seemed to have been heaped above it, so
that the burial was to all appearance primary and not intrusive.
The above list of scattered discoveries in the central down
lands of Wiltshire might easily be extended. It might be
mentioned for instance that in 19 13, in excavating for some
military building at the new aviation barracks at Choulson
opposite Netheravon, some skeletons were found with which
were an iron spear head and other objects of Anglo-Saxon
character. Sufficient notice has however been taken of these
discoveries to make their general character apparent. They
are for the most part decidedly late, and come from scattered
interments rather than from regular cemeteries. It is note-
worthy that almost the only evidence of early date comes from
the site at Basset Down House only 8 or 9 miles from the
upper waters of the Thames, and therefore comparable with
the riparian cemeteries to which we must now return.
On the other side of the main valley, in Oxfordshire, a
different set of phenomena meet us. Riparian cemeteries are
here numerous and important, both near the banks of the
main stream and in the lateral valleys of the tributaries such
as the Thame, the Cherwell, the Windrush. Further up the
country, in inland Oxfordshire, the finds are more or less
isolated, and resemble' in this those in central Wilts that have
just been noticed. The objects that have come to light here
are of the normal West Saxon character, a few being of special
interest such as the splendid scramasax at Bristol, PI. xxviii, 20
(p. 227), which came from Kidlington up the valley of the
658 THAMES VALLEY CEMETERIES
CherwelL Cuddesdon, see below ; Wheatley, whence the
large late saucer brooch, PL lxix, i (p. 343) ; Wood Perry,
between the Thame and the Cherwell ; Summertown, Wood
Eaton, Islip, Upper Heyford, Souldern, which produced
the bucket-mount PI. cxiii, 4 (p. 464), on the Cherwell ;
Hornton, in the northernmost corner of the county, where
were found saucer brooches with spiral ornament and a hand-
some square headed fibula in the British Museum ; Yarnton
nearer to Oxford ; Yelford south of Witney ; Minster
LovEL north-west of it, where a beautiful enamelled jewel of
the later period was discovered ; Stanton Harcourt and
Cote in the same region ; Ducklington near by, where a
child had worn round the neck a pendant bulla of Kentish
type, make up a sufficient list of sites. To these may be
added a site just over the border of Gloucestershire, near
Stow-on-the-Wold, v/here at Oddington, in 1787, a small
tumulus was found to contain about half a dozen skeletons of
both sexes, with which were characteristic objects of Anglo-
Saxon tomb furniture, including a pair of well-preserved
saucer brooches, the present location of which is unknown to
the writer.
Most of these sites are indicated on Map No. v (p. 589)
but space forbids any more reference to them, and attention
must be now concentrated on the finds of special interest in
the Thames-side burying grounds.
The riparian cemeteries of southern Oxfordshire are of
the highest importance and the same may be said of the
Gloucestershire site at Fairford which belongs to the same
group.
Oxford itself is not barren of finds, for the bed of the
Cherwell at Magdalen Bridge yielded up an umbo of the
shape represented in these Thames Valley cemeteries in which
the dome has a concave sweep in its outline (p. 200). A
similar umbo was found not far off at Hincksey.
The Cuddesdon cemetery, nearer to the Thame than the
BRIGHTHAMPTON 659
Thames, is important, as the bodies are said to have been
found arranged in a circle, with the heads outwards, lying on
their faces, and with the legs crossed.-^ There were two
swords, and the unique bronze pail figured PI. cxiv, 3 (p. 467).
The occurrence of a pair of blue glass vases one of which is
singularly like that figured PI. cxxvi, 2 (p. 485) from Broom-
field, Essex, and of a fragment of garnet inlay, makes it likely
that the cemetery dated c. 600 a.d. Above Oxford, from
about Bablock Hythe, begins a more important and in some
cases much earlier series. In some of these cemeteries the
Thames Valley cremation is still in evidence, but Mr. Leeds
has aptly remarked that the occurrence of the rite becomes
rarer as we ascend the river ' so that it may be concluded that
it was dying out while the Saxons were engaged in pushing
their settlements further westwards.' ^ We have already seen
reason to surmise that this may be applied also to settlements
founded up lateral streams, where cremation is also com-
paratively rare, such settlements being as a rule, it would be
natural to suppose, later than those in the main valley. The
settlements up the Wandle however seem to have been early,
but this tributary would be met with comparatively soon by
those ascending the main river from the sea.
The exploration of the important cemeteries on neighbour-
ing sites at Standlake and Brighthampton was first reported
on by J. Y. Akerman and Mr. Stephen Stone in the fifties of
the last century, and subsequent notices have added to our
knowledge of the sites.^
Discoveries of a casual kind embracing about 40 skeletons
had been made in both localities from time to time for a
generation previously, and the existence of cremation had been
noted. Writing in 1857 Mr. Akerman reports that 'a con-
siderable portion of the area excavated appears to have been
1 Arch. Journ., iv, 157. ^ The Archaeology, etc., p. 58.
2 Archaeologia, xxxvii, 391 ; xxxviii, 84 ; Proc. Soc. Ant., ist Ser., iv, 70,
93, 213, 231, 329.
66o THAMES VALLEY CEMETERIES
occupied by urns deposited just below the surface'^ and
' scattered promiscuously among the graves.' One of these
urns ' had contained the bones of a child, and was ornamented
with a pattern common on the mortuary urns found in the
northern counties.'" There were also examples of burials in
a crouching posture, as of a woman of advanced age found
in 1859,^ with unmistakable Anglo-Saxon objects. At that
time about 60 fresh graves had been opened,* and Bright-
hampton had already declared itself as a cemetery of warriors
rich in arms, and one moreover presenting clear evidence of
an early date. Four swords had come to light, and this is a
large proportion in 60 graves. One male skeleton, grave 31,
was reported by Professor Quequett to indicate a stature of
not less than seven feet, and a sword lay here on the left side
' the pommel under the arm pit, and the left hand resting on
the blade ; near the hilt was discovered a large amber bead,
probably the ornament of the sword knot. The chape of the
scabbard was of bronze ornamented with figures of animals in
gold.'^ To the right of the head was a spear and above the
left shoulder a bucket.
It is a remarkable feature of this discovery that near the
hilt of the sword were found four bronze studs that looked like
part of its fittings, and with them {Arch.^ xxxviii, 96) ' a small
cross patee of base silver,' the same metal used apparently for
the mount of the scabbard mouth. The^ bearing of this on
the date of the sword is obvious, see Pll. xxvii, 5-8 (p. 221) ;
Lix, 7 (p. 317). Ill a woman's grave, no. 22, with ten Roman
coins of III and two saucer fibulae, was found a knife or small
dagger in an ornamented sheath with incised patterns of a simple
and early form, and these coins of III have been dwelt upon as
conclusive evidence of an early date, say the middle of V.*^ The
1 Jrchaeolog'm, xxxviii, 84. ^ Archaeologia^ xxxviii, 87.
2 Proc. Soc. Jnt., ist Ser., iv, 329.
■* i.e., over and above the 40 or more previously reported.
^ Proc. Soc, Jnt., I.e., 231. *'■ ibid., xxi, 63.
STANDLAKE, FILKINS, ETC. 66i
cross patee found with the sword looks of course the other
way, and reference may here be made to what was said
previously (p. 223 f.) about this and the form of the sword
hilt. A date in the first part of VI was there suggested for
the warrior's burial.
In 1863 gravel pits were opened on the sites of these two
cemeteries and further discoveries were made. At Standlake
26 graves were found, mostly devoid of tomb furniture, but a
woman's grave was well supplied with trinkets, including two
gold garnet-set pendants and an amethyst bead — both objects
characteristic of Kent. In the same year at Brighthampton
there was brought to light ' a mortuary urn containing calcined
human bones, and among them a dish-shaped bronze fibula which
had evidently been subjected to a considerable degree of heat.' ^
The prevalence of arms has already been noted. Beneath
one umbo ' the fingers of the hand were found, the three first
encircling the iron bar by which the shield was held.' ^
Under the head of ornaments the saucer and applied
fibulae were as usual in this region in evidence. Mr. Thurlow
Leeds reckons 15 in all to the credit of Brighthampton and
one, perhaps two, to Standlake.
A bucket was found at Brighthampton in the grave of a
child.^
Near to the eastern limit of the county the neighbouring
sites of Broughton Poggs and Filkins, in this case some-
what further from the river, were explored about the same
time as the last, and reported on by Mr. Akerman.^ At
Broughton Poggs 1 2 skeletons in all were exliumed, three of
which were held to indicate a stature of over 6 ft. Two were
laid feet to feet, one pointing east the other west. Another
pointed to the south and a fourth to the north, so that theories
of orientation must have sat lightly on the people of the place.
Two pairs of fibulae, one saucer and one applied, were the
^ 'Proc, 2nd Ser., 11, 443. ^ Arch., xxxvii, 395. ^ j^.^ p. ^^i,
* Anhaeologia, xxxvii, 140 f. ; Proc. Soc. Ant., 1st Ser,, iv, 73.
IV s
662 THAMES VALLEY CEMETERIES
chief objects of note, and one pair, at Liverpool, is shown
PI. Lxviii, 2, 4 (p. 341).
At FiLKiNS 15 graves were opened, at a depth, 6 in., so
slight as to suggest the previous existence of tumuli. The
cemetery was close to the village, and it is to be noted that
no effort seems to have been made to seek for a more elevated
position for these cemeteries on the higher ground which rises
here to the north. A sword was found in company with a
spear, and 8 saucer and applied fibulae, one of the former being
shown PI. LXVIII, 3 (p. 341). Here the feet were generally to
the east, though in grave 5, a furnished one, a child's skeleton
was placed with feet to the north (p. 189), and in grave 13, an
unfurnished one, a female skeleton was also so placed. Many
of the objects found on these two sites were incorporated with
the Mayer-Faussett collection in the Liverpool Museum.
The last of these Thames Valley cemeteries is the classic
one at Fairford in Gloucestershire about six miles from
Broughton Poggs, and like so many of this group of sites it
is on a lateral stream the Coin, some five miles above its
junction with the Isis. The historical questions raised by the
position of Fairford taken in connection with its apparent date
and its proximity to the Romano-British Cirencester have been
already discussed (pp. 52 f., 645) and need not be further
noticed.
Fairford cemetery forms the subject of a well-known
book by William Michael Wylie, F.S.A.,^ who resided in the
place from 1847. The remains were found in a field to the
west of the little town ' on the summit of the bank that gently
slopes to the meadows of the Coin.' No tumuli were apparent
but the ground had probably once been ploughed, and the
shallowness of the interments with other indications seemed
to show that tumuli may once have been present. Quarrying
operations in 1844-5, and ^g^^i^ from 1850 onwards, led to
the discoveries. At the first date 2^ skeletons were enumer-
1 Fa'irfcrd Graves, Oxford, John Henry Parker, 1852.
FAIRFORD 663
ated, though the number was probably greater, but the objects
found with them were scattered. In 1 850-1 Mr. WyHe watched
and reported on the excavations, and at the conclusion of his
book he expressed his conviction that many more interments
remained to be discovered both in further portions of the
cemetery itself and also on other sites in the vicinity. The
graves opened up to the close of 1851 numbered 130-40 and
represented both sexes and all ages. Cremation was ap-
parently represented though very sparingly, but Mr. Wylie
stated in another connection * several instances of cremation
came under my own immediate observation.' ^ In one place
there occurred a plain coarse earthenware vase of the same
type as the ones shown PL cxxxviii, 7, 8 (p. 505), which con-
tained the ashes of a child (p. 189),^ This was however
apparently surrounded with debris of pottery, bones, animals'
teeth, etc., that bore traces of the fire. Similar appearances
were found elsewhere and may betoken the funeral feast. In
one such case where ' rites, perhaps sacrificial ' are suggested,
p. 29, a coarse earthen vessel with 'a vandyked pattern on
it,' that might be Anglo-Saxon ' had contained bones.' A
remarkable interment, p. 28, had, above, 'three small vessels
of thin common red ware, filled with burnt bones ' and by
them a small female skeleton, with a bronze armlet round the
arm bone and some beads by the hips, while underneath, at a
depth of 3|- ft., was a male skeleton with which was nothing
but ' some animal's teeth and a Roman tile.' This grave was
treated exceptionally by being walled in at the sides with stone
slabs after the fashion of some of the graves at Frilford
(p. 648). A large quantity of pottery apparently of Roman
date was found in a fragmentary condition suggesting to the
reporter the custom of casting sherds upon a grave referred
to in Shakespeare's lines relating to Ophelia. Fragments of
' Samian ' ware were among them, and there was a Roman
potter's stamp. These indications seem to show that the site had
^ Jrchaeologia, xxxvii, 472. ^ Falrford Graves, p. 24 and pi. vii, fig. 2.
664 THAMES VALLEY CEMETERIES
been used for interments in pre-Saxon days. Nothing is said
about the use of coffins, but these are apparently unknown in
the Thames Valley though they occur in Wilts. As the wood
work of a bucket, p. 20, was found partly preserved, wooden
coffins would certainly have left a trace.
In the matter of orientation we learn with some surprise
that the skeletons were as a rule interred with feet towards
the north. The east and west orientation occurred exception-
ally in one case. The usual remarks are made as to the large
size of some of the bones.
As regards indications of date we have Mr. Wylie's words
' these Fairford graves . . . would seem to bear a very early
date,' p. 22. Among the finds are saucer brooches of early
type, one, PI. lvii, i (p. 313), located as early as the end of
V.^ A knobby horse trapping, PI. c, 2 (p. 423), is of an early
type, and equally suggestive is a fivefold pearly glass bead of
small diameter, figured in Mr. Wylie's pi. iv, that reminds
us of similar beads of early type, PL cvi, 5, 6 (p. 445 f).
Nothing definitely Christian appears to have come to light.
Among the weapons there were two swords and spear
heads of the usual types and of course knives, but no scrama-
saxes or axe heads. The dome of the umbos is worthy of
notice. They differ from those of the ordinary mammiform
type in that the upper part which is usually of a flattened
domical form rises here in the concave curve, PL xxiii, 4
(p. 199).
The category ornaments is headed by the saucer and
applied brooches, of which Mr. Leeds catalogues no fewer than
31.^ They are of different designs some early and some later,
as PL Lvii, 7 (p. 313)- There were also the usual plain bronze
disc and quoit brooches and one or two small square headed
ones, with one of a distinct cruciform type possessing the
three fixed knobs and a flat expanding tail, closely resembling
the Shepperton example shown PL clvi, 6 (p. 635). There
^ Jrchaeologla, lxih, 166. - I.e., p. 197.
FAIRFORD, KEMBLE 665
were also two of the large ornate square headed pattern about
6 in, long, A small bird fibula and a couple of little button
ones are recorded. A little rectangular plaque with a central
garnet and zoomorphic ornament around it is almost exactly
the same as one found in Kent, Beads, chiefly of the later
ornate type, were sufficiently abundant, and there were about
1 50 beads or perforated pieces of amber.
Vessels were represented by a claw glass vase, some
mounted buckets and a beaten bronze bowl with edge turned
over and brought up in a tongue at each side to form attach-
ments for a handle, of which a counterpart was found at
Croydon, PI. cxvii, 3 (p. 473). Pottery, except in the form
of sherds, was conspicuous by its absence. ' Very few urns
were found at Fairford, and these of a common description,'
p. 23, note.
With Fairford may be taken some finds at Kemble, on the
other side of Cirencester and rather nearer the Roman city.
There were 26 interments and all the bodies were laid east and
west at a depth of only 6 in,^ A bronze stepped spoon may-
have been a Roman survival, and we can compare it with the
similar piece from Basset Down, Wilts, PI. xcv, 4 (p. 407).
This spoon with other objects from Kemble are in the
Museum at Liverpool. The finds resemble those from Fairford
in that objects of early and of late appearance may be singled
out. A pair of saucer brooches with the star pattern might be
quite early, though it is true that this pattern is very per-
sistent (p. 3 1 5), while on the other hand another pair resembled
those from Buckinghamshire, showing debased geometrical
ornament on a large scale, after the fashion of the piece
figured PI. Lviii, i (p. 315). There were also the bases of
two applied brooches.
After his capture of the three Romano-British cities
Ceawlin, whom the Chronicle credits with taking many * tuns '
^ Jrchaeologia, xxxvn, 1 1 3.
666 THAMES VALLEY CEMETERIES
and countless booty, seems to have carried his arms victoriously
towards the west and north, and the rest of Gloucestershire,
Worcestershire and perhaps the south-western part of War-
wickshire, became as we have seen Teutonized as the domain
of the people called Hwiccas. The Britons still offered a
stubborn resistance, and seven years after the victory of
Deorham they checked the West Saxon advance in an impor-
tant action at the place called ' Fethanleag,' on which some-
thing has previously been said (p. 617), after which Ceawlin
' returned in wrath to his own.' Whether, as J. R. Green
supposed, the Teutonic invaders penetrated on the occasion
of this campaign as far up the Severn valley as Viroconium
which sank under their onslaught in fire, we cannot say, and
we must await any light that may be thrown on this obscure
period by the excavation of that great ruined city which is now
in progress. At present the whole of the region indicated
above is singularly poor in archaeological evidence of early
movements and settlements of the West Saxons. Monuments
of the later Anglo-Saxon period in the form of churches and
carved stones and portable objects are not wanting, but the
place for the discussion of these is not here. What we have
in view at present are the cemeteries of the pagan period, of
which the Thames Valley has offered to us so many examples.
In the wide districts to the north and west of the head of the
Thames Valley no extended cemeteries of the kind are known
to exist. These districts could not of course begin to receive
Teutonic settlers till after the campaign of 577, and we do not
know for how long or in what directions the British reaction
seven years later checked the progress of Teutonic coloniza-
tion. The promulgation of Christianity in VII in any case
militated against the traditional practice of furnishing the
grave, and regions which were settled late could hardly be
expected to offer much archaeological material of this kind.
To come again into a region of pagan cemeteries we have to
turn from the Severn valley backwards towards the Midlands,
WORCESTERSHIRE FINDS 667
along the main track marked out by the course of the War-
wickshire Avon.
Writing in 19 10 the Worcestershire antiquary whose tract
is noted below ^ was not able to enumerate more than four
' places in the County of Worcester where Anglo-Saxon
remains of the pagan period have been found.' Ascending
the Severn valley from Gloucester and following its tributary
the Warwickshire Avon, we find Norton by Bredon, between
Bredon Hill and the river ; Bricklehampton and Little
Hampton in the Vale of Evesham, and Upton Snodsbury a
few miles east of Worcester on the Bow Brook a tributary of
the Avon. At all these places there have been finds, slight in
extent but significant, and the remains discovered are to be
seen in the City Museum, Victoria Institute, Worcester. At
Bredons Norton there were four iron shield bosses, four
spear heads, a knife, and a sword with part of a bronze
mounted scabbard, also a couple of amber beads. From Little
Hampton there came a skeleton with a sword,^ and the gold
ornament with double pins fastened by a chain, now in the
British Museum and figured PI. lxxxi, i (p. 371). Brickle-
hampton produced an amber bead, a blue glass bead of the
familiar ' melon ' pattern, and a perforated tooth probably the
canine of a wolf that was no doubt a pendant.
Upton Snodsbury was more productive and rendered up
a sword, six spear heads, a late cruciform, two small long,
and two saucer brooches, two crystal spindle whorls, or it may
be sword pommels, and a necklace of no beads, with a string
of 2 1 beads, and others of amber.
Nearly all these objects may be early. The number of
arms, three swords out of four finds, and numerous spears, the
melon shaped bead regarded always as Roman, the gold pins
1 F. T. Spackman, F.G.S., 'On Some Anglo-Saxon Antiquities from
Bricklehampton in the County of Worcester,' in Associated Societies' Reports,
XXX, 1 9 10.
2 Troc. Soc. Ant., 2nd Sen, in, 27.
668 AVON VALLEY CEMETERIES
with the pendant which Mr. Reginald Smith counts Roman or
Romano-British, are all objects that fit the pagan period,
though for reasons given above (p. 425 f.) the last named item
has here been relegated to VIL The Upton Snodsbury finds
make an interesting set. See PL xlv, 4 (p. 269).
Further up the Avon valley but now in Warwickshire, and
always in the neighbourhood of the river or on a tributary,^
finds of some significance have come to light. On the Avon
just over the border Bidford has enriched the collection at
Worcester with two saucer brooches of a type belonging to
the West Saxon area,^ while on its tributary, the Arrow, a few
miles to the north in Ragley Park, a find of some importance
produced one of the ornate square-headed brooches, 7 in. long,
the general habitat of which is the Anglian region to the north
and east. It must be remembered that two specimens of the
same type were found at Fairford, but in view of the com-
parative frequency of its occurrence in the Anglian midlands
its appearance at Ragley Park may be symptomatic of the
meeting between Angle and Saxon which can be located some-
where in this region. The Ragley Park find included also
some fibulae of the radiating type (p. 256). Nearer to the
county town, in Longbridge Park, on a slightly sloping bank
of river gravel on the north bank of the Avon, a number of
skeletons were laid bare the arrangement of which was so
irregular that some thought it betokened hasty interment after
a battle. Ornaments in abundance were however found and it
is clear that the two sexes were represented in the cemetery.
There was a sword with other arms, bronze mounted buckets,
and a glass funnel-shaped vessel. The brooches included one
florid cruciform specimen 7^ in. long of the latest and most
debased style of ornamentation figured PL lxix, 3 (p. 343),
and several saucer brooches with star patterns, spirals, and
1 In Warwickshire, ' sepulchral relics of the pagan period are confined to
the valley of the Avon,' Victoria History , Warwick, i, 251.
2 Troc. Soc. Ant., 2nd Ser., iii, 424.
WARWICKSHIRE FINDS 669
debased zoomorphic motives. A bracteate 2 in. in diameter,
probably imported from Scandinavia, made its appearance.
There was also a so-called ' girdle hanger ' an object which we
have not once had occasion to signalize in the West Saxon area
but which is abundant in the Anglian regions.
Warwick itself furnished the fine ornate square-headed
fibula, called the 'St. Nicholas' or 'My ton' brooch, PI. lxviii,
6 (p. 340)5 and the immense faceted crystal PI. xciii, 4 (p. 406).
Beyond Warwick the river Avon and its tributary the Leam
soon take us into regions where the characteristic Anglian
objects make their appearance especially in the form of the
cruciform fibula and the girdle hanger, and where we meet
again with the rite of cremation which we had left behind in
the valley of the Thames. Marton near the Leam (p. 775), half
way between Leamington and Rugby, with its late example of
cremation, may be regarded as an Anglian overlap on the
West Saxon side of the actual watershed. The same may be
said about Princethorpe the site of a supposed Roman station
on the northern bank of the Leam, where with an open
socketed spear head and other objects there was found a ' long '
brooch of pronounced Anglian type 5 in. in length and ter-
minating in a conventional horse's head.^ On the other hand
finds at Offchurch in the same neighbourhood have more of
a Saxon character. They are in private hands but are noticed
and in part figured in the Victoria History^ Warwick, i, coloured
plate. ^ It must be noted at the same time that Princethorpe
was the place of discovery of the round jewelled stud in the
Rugby Museum, PI. cxlvii, 8, which is of Kentish character.
^ Figured in Coll. Jnt., i, pi. xix. 2 ggg ajgo Jss,, xxxii, 466.
CHAPTER XIV
THE SOUTH SAXON AND JUTISH SETTLEMENTS IN
SUSSEX, KENT, AND HAMPSHIRE
THE SOUTH SAXONS IN SUSSEX
It was explained in Chapter xi (p. 582) that the greater part
of Saxonized England can be divided into three main areas
bounded by the watersheds of the principal rivers mostly
flowing towards the east, but that there are other smaller self-
contained districts independent of the great river systems and
readily accessible from the sea. One of these is Sussex,
another Kent, and a third the Isle of Wight. The archaeology
of the settlements in these three regions forms the subject of
the present chapter. See Maps Nos. v, vi (pp. 589, 691).
The first to be noticed is Sussex, the southern or maritime
portion of wliich formed the Kingdom of the South Saxons.
The physical characteristics of the district, when viewed from
the sea, are such as to make it an attractive place of settle-
ment while they isolate it from neighbouring regions. The
South Downs, rising to an average height of about 400 to
600 ft., in their course of about 50 miles from Beachy Head
to beyond Chichester, leave between themselves and the sea a
strip of littoral that gradually broadens from east to west and
was in Roman days a mile or so wider than it is at present.
The littoral offers good agricultural land, and it is backed by
the comparatively bare and waterless slopes of the downs, that
give passage however to several streams which afford along
their banks favourable sites for settlement. These streams,
670
PHYSICAL FEATURES OF SUSSEX 671
the modern Arun, Adur, Ouse and Cuckmere, with the run-
lets that now intersect the spacious levels inland from Pevensey,
were in Roman days extensive inlets of the sea such as still
form Chichester Harbour with its feeders. In a recent paper
in vol, Liii of the Sussex Archaeological Collections, the writer,
Mr. A. Ballard, on the basis of old maps and records, coupled
with known hydrographical facts, the existence of inland salt-
pans, etc., has constructed a map of ancient Sussex, in which
the waterways into the interior of the country, bringing salt
water even to Pulborough and to Lewes, stand invitingly
open to maritime invaders.
The down region penetrated by these inlets averages about
4|- miles in width and ends to the north in a steep escarp-
ment overlooking the woodland region of the Weald. The
escarpment is however not so sudden as not to leave open
and habitable lower slopes north of the downs between them
and the actual weald, slopes where there is evidence of early
settlements. The weald itself was almost wholly covered in
pre-conquest days by the vast forest of Andred — still repre-
sented by the woodland regions of St. Leonards, Tilgate,
Worth, and other ' forests ' — which in the time of King
Alfred^ was reckoned to extend from Portus Lemanis near
Hythe westwards for 112 miles with a breadth of about 30,
and the Domesday map of Sussex shows that in XI the whole
northern half of the county with the southern part of Surrey
was very sparsely inhabited save along the course of the above
mentioned streams. The present parishes in this wealden
region are very large while those in the southern zone are
small and proportionately numerous, which gives an idea of
the distribution of the inhabitants at the time of the ecclesi-
astical settlement of the country. A scrutiny of the place
names reveals a contrast between the ' folds ' and the ' hursts '
of the woodland region and the characteristic Saxon settle-
ment names of the parts nearer the coast. Mr. J. H.
^ A.-S, Chronicle, ad ann. 893.
672 THE SOUTH SAXONS
Round, in a paper on place names as illustrating the
Teutonic settlement,^ distinguishes the later * -hurst ' ' -ley '
and ' -den ' from the early ' hams ' and ' tons ' which mark
the first establishment of groups of the new immigrants, and
he notices that in this respect Sussex shows far more early
place names than Essex, * -ham ' being most frequent round
the coast and up the river valleys. It might be added that
Sussex is particularly rich in the names ending with ' ing '
without a suffix like ' ham ' or * ton,' on which Kemble had a
theory noticed previously, Vol. i, p. 68. Without accepting
Kemble's theory we may yet safely reckon that these ' ing '
names carry with them evidence of early date. Between the
northern slopes of the downs and the sea there may be
counted on the present map about thirty of these, while there
is barely one in the whole of the woodland district of the
Weald. As we shall presently see, the finds of Anglo-Saxon
antiquities correspond in their general location with the settle-
ment names, and show that the early Teutonic population
was confined to the more maritime regions south of the
Weald. If it were thus cut off from the north, physical con-
ditions isolated it also to the east and to the west. In the former
direction the South Saxon kingdom was separated by the
Andreds-weald and by the lagoons and marshes of the Romney
region from Kent, while to the west the inlets of the sea
by Chichester and Havant, running nearly up to the
downs, form an equally effective barrier in the direction
of Hants.
The country thus bounded is represented as passing into
the hands of the Teutons through a course of events of which
we have a consistent and plausible account in the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicles. It was the earliest settlement ascribed to the
Saxons, as distinct from the Jutes of Kent and Hampshire,
and dates from 477, when a chieftain named JEWd. landed with
the crews of three ships at a place supposed to be at the
1 Proc. Soc. Jfii., 2nd Sen, xvi, 84.
THE COURSE OF THE CONQUEST 673
western end of the littoral.^ The capture of the Roman city
Regnum must necessarily have preceded their permanent
establishment in this region, and the name by which the
city was afterwards known, Cissan Ceaster, is stated, possibly
with truth, to have been derived from one of Ella's sons,
Cissa.^ In 485 we hear of a great battle between the invaders,
now doubtless strongly reinforced, and the Britons, on one
of the rivers up the valley of which the former were probably
forcing their way. Some time later, in 491, fourteen years
after the original descent, the second of the Roman stations in
Sussex the strong fortress of Anderida was taken, and perhaps
because its resistance had incensed the assailants, all the
inhabitants were put to the sword. This victory established
the South Saxons in possession of their kingdom, and Ella's
military distinction was such that according to Bede ^ he
exercised a sort of hegemony among the Teutonic chieftains
in general, being the first to hold the vaguely defined office of
Bretwalda.
We have here the story of an invasion carried to successful
issue after a severe struggle by a band of complete strangers
forcing their way in by arms among an alien and hostile
population. That the tradition of the settlement took this
form is not a little notable. The region we must remember
was part of the ' Litus Saxonicum,' and the invaders as Saxons
^ Mr. Ballard, I.e., p. 8, adduces Keynor, inland from Selsea, as 'a
name which is an obvious contraction of the "Cymenshora" of the
A.-S. Chron. (a.d. 477) and of the "Cumneshora" of the Selsea charter of
683 (Birch, Cart. Sax., No. 64) and marks the traditional landing place '
of the invaders. The charter is of course not genuine, but can still, as in
similar cases, be used quantum valet as evidence.
2 Some scholars exhibit an almost morbid suspicion of all these personal
explanations of names of places that are furnished by documents like the
Anglo Saxon Chronicles, but after all is it not a recognized fact that the place
names of Anglo-Saxon England as a whole are largely formed from the
names of individuals ? See Vol. i, p. 72 f.
2 Hist, EccL, ii, 5.
674 THE SOUTH SAXONS
might on a priori grounds be reckoned a section of the
adventurous sea-rovers who had infested the North Sea and
the Channel for at least a hundred and fifty years and had
settled in more than one region of Gaul. See Maps ii, in, iv
(pp. 573-75-8 i). In the nature of things one would expect them
to have been no strangers to this attractive littoral, and had we
no definite notices of the descent and conquest of 477-491
we should incline to the theory which makes the ' Litus
Saxonicum ' so called on account of the actual infiltration
through an extended period of Saxon settlers. This view of
the much debated phrase certainly derives no support from
such traditional information as we possess about the origin
of the South Saxon kingdom. Nor, as we shall see, is it borne
out by archaeological evidence. None of the finds of Teutonic
character that have been made in the district suggest a date
earlier than the last quarter of V, which tradition as we have
just seen assigns for the first entry of the invaders.
The history of this kingdom witnesses to the character of
isolation impressed by the nature of the district on all its
successive groups of inhabitants from pre-historic times.^
Ella's position as Bretwalda seems opposed to this, but Pro-
fessor Oman suggests ^ that his leadership was acknowledged at
the special epoch when the different bodies of invaders had to
draw their forces together to resist the British rally under
Ambrosius Aurelianus. After this time the isolation of the
South Saxons seems an established fact, and Eddius in his Life
of Wilfrid ^ says that their kingdom was ' aliis provinces in-
expugnabilis ' on account of its numerous cliffs and the
density of its woods. For this reason it had as a whole
continued pagan till the visit to it of Wilfrid in 681. In its
political relations it remained technically as well as practically
independent for more than a hundred years, but early in VII
1 Fict, Hist., Sussex, i, p. 2.
2 England Before the Norman Conquest, Lond., 19 10, p. 222.
^ Historians of the Church of York, Rolls Series, 71/1, p. 57.
DISTRIBUTION OF CEMETERIES 675
it became subordinate to its powerful neighbour Wessex. It
continued however to have its own rulers and virtually to
manage its own affairs till the time of the unification of Eng-
land under Ecgbert. In all matters of culture accordingly we
may assume that anything which was specifically South Saxon
at the time of the establishment of the kingdom remained
South Saxon through the ensuing centuries, and from this
point of view it is to be regarded as a separate province
independent alike of Wessex, and of the Jutish regions that
originally bordered it on the west as well as on the east. A
hypothetical connection with the Saxon settlers in Surrey,
which Mr. Reginald Smith shows to be suggested by archaeo-
logical facts, will be noticed in the sequel (p, 689 f.).
The distribution of the known South Saxon cemeteries
corresponds with the general view of the Teutonic settlement
of the region which has now been outlined. Upon the Map,
No. v (p. 589), ten sites are named, but, as the repetition of
the sign ' etc' will indicate, one name, such as that of ' Lewes,'
may cover several distinct sites of pagan interment. To the
east of Pevensey no pagan cemeteries have as yet come to
light, though a later Saxon burial in connection with a church
is evidenced by the interesting ornamented grave slab of the
period in the church at Bexhill. The down country between
Eastbourne and Lewes is well supplied with cemeteries, though
the most important of all the sites is further west, at High Down,
above Worthing (p. 143). The cemeteries are as a rule upon
high ground but as was noticed in the Chapter on the Cemetery
(p. 144) there is one notable exception in the case of the im-
portant site between Kingston-by-Lewes and Southover, the
western suburb of the county town. The cemetery here, in
the grounds of the house called Saxonbury, is not far above
the Lewes and Brighton railway line, though beyond Kingston
sites of far greater elevation readily offer themselves. On the
other hand on the other side of Lewes and on the downs at the
back of Beachy Head several elevated sites have yielded traces
676 THE SOUTH SAXONS
of burials, and there are indications in these parts of a con-
tinuity in burial customs with the older inhabitants of the
land. Tumuli of the Bronze Age exist in some abundance on
the chalk, downs round Lewes where the Saxons afterwards
interred their own dead, and the existence of the earlier
barrows may have suggested a continuance of the custom of
mound burial. In 20 to 30 burials on 4 sites the Anglo-
Saxon interments were under grave mounds or tumuli, and it
has been noticed that the Saxon barrows are smaller than the
Bronze Age ones and are within sight of the places of settle-
ment while the latter are further away among the downs. On
a site upon high ground between Glynde and Ringmer to the
east of Lewes the Teutonic immigrants had possibly made
use of an older burying place, for between two of the Saxon
graves were found seven cinerary urns containing cremated
bones, that may have been of earlier date.
An interesting site now within the limits of Eastbourne is
furnished by a ridge about 100 ft. above the sea that once
overlooked the since obliterated haven of Hydney. To the
north of Eastbourne the ground now traversed by the railway is
very flat and was originally an inlet of the sea that reached
nearly to Polegate. Out of it rose one or two slight elevations,
islands or * eyes,' of which one was Horsey, a little inland
from the sea not far from the gas works, and another Hydney,
a little north-east of the present Hampden Park station.
What is now the residential suburb of Upperton and the
elevated ground from there to Willingdon, overlooking these
flats, contained extensive Anglo-Saxon burying grounds. The
Mill Field, the name of which survives in Mill Road, furnished
many remains.
Except in the case of the mound burials just noticed, in
nearly all these cemeteries the laying out of the area and the
mode of interment were practically the same. The graves
were as a rule cut through the upper soil till the chalk was
reached, upon which, sometimes in a slight sinking, the body
METHODS OF BURIAL 677
was laid. No traces of the use of a coffin of wood in inhumed
burials have been observed, nor, save in the case of the tumulus
burials, of any above-ground memorial. At High Down
(p. 177), and also on the ridge just mentioned above Hydney
Haven, the graves were so regularly spaced that some tem-
porary memorials of a perishable material such as wood seem to
be suggested. As regards orientation, the east and west position
was almost universal ; about 80 out of 86 at High Down,
29 out of 32 at Saxonbury, lay like this, and about the same
proportions seem to have obtained on other sites. Where
the east and west orientation was not observed the body was
nearly always laid with its feet to the north. Cases of the
crouching position are very rare, but there was at least one
each at High Down and Saxonbury.
Grave furniture was generally though not universally
found, and a rich archaeological treasure was furnished by
cemeteries such as High Down and Alfriston. Even in these
more amply furnished burying grounds however there were
many graves that had no object in them or perhaps only a
knife. Whole cemeteries such as one above Glynde near
Lewes yielded practically nothing more than these most
ubiquitous of objects. Out of 86 graves opened at High
Down 25 contained no relics, and the same is true of 8 out
of the 32 at Saxonbury, and of 40 among the 115 at Alfriston
(p. 170).
It will be gathered from the foregoing that the rule of
burial among the South Saxons was inhumation. The rule is
not quite so absolute as it is among the Jutes of Kent and
Hampshire where no fully attested case of cremation is known,
but it is to such extent the prevailing rule that apparent
exceptions need careful treatment. It may be premised that
the survival of the practice of cremation among some of the
invaders of the Saxon stock is attested beyond the shadow of
a doubt by the discoveries in the Thames Valley already
noticed (see p. 583, note 3). The idea that cremation in this
IV T
678 THE SOUTH SAXONS
country was non-Saxon and only Anglian is now proved
untenable, and there is therefore no reason to deny the possi-
bility of cremation in Sussex. At the same time the absence
of it from the other south coast counties, and the complete
dearth of examples in extensive Sussex cemeteries, such as
Alfriston and Saxonbury, makes it necessary to exercise due
caution before the presence of the rite can be held attested.
On the Map, No. v (p. 589), two sites in Sussex are marked for
cremation sites Hassocks and High Down. The former lies
at the back or northern foot of the downs and is in the
foreground of the well-known prospect from the Devil's
Dyke behind Brighton.^ It is not in the wealden district
proper but just off the foot slope of the downs below their
bold escarpment, and the early place names Ditchling,
Poynings, Percing and Fulking^ can be read close by upon
the map, and the fact that there was a Roman villa near by,
beside Danny Park, shows that the place was in early times
accessible and attractive. Here at Hassocks have been found
two Roman wells contiguous with a sandpit. Investigations
in these have rewarded Mr. Couchman with Roman remains
such as fragments of ' Samian ' ware, coins, fibulae, a bronze
cock or duck encrusted with enamel, and other unmistakable
objects of the kind. In the sandpit have been brought to
light at different times before and after 1900 a collection of
Anglo-Saxon arms, embracing sword blades, spear heads,
knives, a characteristic umbo, etc., and about two dozen urns
at least four of which contained cremated bones. Are these
urns, like the iron weapons, of Anglo-Saxon origin }
They are not unmistakable ' Anglian ' urns. Specimens
of these have come to light in South Saxon cemeteries, as at
1 In all that relates to the Hassocks site the writer acknowledges with
thanks the help he has received from Mr. J. Edwin Couchman of Dene
Place, Hurstpierpoint, who has made a thorough study of the local
antiquities.
2 In Domesday Dicclinges (Diccninges), Poninges, Percinges, Fochinges.
CREMATION IN SUSSEX 679
Alfriston and High Down PL cxxxvii, i, 4 (p. 501), but
none of them have been found with burnt bones in them.
The Hassocks urns are of the plain unadorned kind, but some
of them are such as are found often enough in assured Anglo-
Saxon surroundings both empty and with bones, see the
examples on PI. cxxxviii. Two Hassocks cremation urns are
shown PL CLVi, 4, 5 (p. 623). One, No. 4, is of a character
quite common in Anglo-Saxon cemeteries, and would be
accepted at once at its face value as of our period. No. 5 is
not of a normal Anglo-Saxon type and by itself could not
claim recognition, but it is at the same time quite a possible
form. Of the bones in these urns it is reported that they are
small and the skull bones thin. Some of the urns also are quite
small. No. 4 being only 4|- in. high, and there is good ground
for the suggestion that the cremated remains are those of
children. If this be the case it is in favour of the view that
we have here genuine instances of South Saxon incineration
for as we have seen (p. 189) children seem at times to have
been buried in more archaic fashion than their elders and
betters.
In the second case, that of Ringmer, there were Saxon
inhumed bodies between two of which ' were found seven
urns, of the ordinary very badly burnt black pottery. . . .
These were quite plain and filled with burnt bones. . . .
Unfortunately, the urns were crushed into such small frag-
ments that it was found impossible to restore more than one
of them.' The writer of the above sentences,-^ a wary and
experienced excavator, had no doubt at the time that the
cremated burials were as much Saxon as the others, but on
the other hand it is perhaps safer to regard them, as is the
case in the Victoria History^ as pre-Saxon.
The case of High Down also presents difficulties. In the
original report of the excavations in Archaeologia^ liv, lv, the
burials are all exhibited as inhumed, but objects such as
^ A. F. Griffith, M.A., in Sussex Archaeological Collections, xxxiii.
68o THE SOUTH SAXONS
brooches were found distorted by heat under conditions that
are best explained on the assumption that the rite of cremation
was in some cases employed. Mr. Leeds has no doubt that
High Down was a partly cremation cemetery.'^ On the whole
it has been thought best to mark these two sites as evidence
of cremation but to use a dotted underline instead of a full
one, to indicate, as will be done in the case of a Kentish site,
that the evidence is not wholly conclusive.
The cemeteries are enumerated from west to east.
According to a private communication quoted in the
Victoria History, Sussex, i, p. 346, * several Anglo-Saxon
barrows' were opened in 1893-4 on the downs not far from
Arundel. Nothing was found but two iron knives and a
bronze pin with the skeletons, but these seem to have been
Teutonic and the existence of tumuli is to be noted.
In the cemetery on the top of High Down above
Worthing the commanding position of which has been
signalized (p. 142 f.) the graves, of which there was no
external indication (p. 177), were accidentally discovered in
the course of planting operations undertaken in 1892 by Mr.
Edwin Henty of Ferring Grange. Most of the objects found
are preserved by Mr. Henty at his house, and he kindly
permitted the photographs reproduced on these plates to be
taken by the writer. A report on the discoveries was
furnished by Sir Hercules Read to Archaeologia, liv, lv, but
prior to his undertaking the supervision of the work in 1893-4
other graves had been opened without any accurate record,
so that an addition must be made to the 86 interments noted
in the report, and at least 100 may safely be assumed. The
graves were dug through the supersoil to depths varying from
2 ft. 6 in. to about 5 ft., and the bodies were laid on the chalk
subsoil without any coffins. Almost all the bodies were
oriented with the feet to the east and with one or two
^ The Archaeology, etc., p. 46.
HIGH DOWN 68 1
exceptions were laid straight out upon their backs. Both
sexes were represented, and about lo per cent, of the graves
were of young persons, this fact and the regularity and careful
nature of the interments indicating a community in peaceable
occupation of the district. The men were of tall stature many
seeming to average about 6 ft.
On a general survey of the tomb furniture the reporter
dated the cemetery about the close of VI. It certainly be-
longed to the pagan period of South Saxon history, and this
sufficiently shows that eastward orientation is not necessarily
Christian. The appearance of the cross on the engraved glass
vase shown PI, cxxviii, i (p. 487), does not invalidate this, for
this imported object may have come to pagan Britain from
some continental region already Christianized.
As indications of date, a small Roman urn, Roman coins
pierced for suspension, a blue ' melon ' bead, and a bronze
head of a faun, Roman or copied from a Roman original,
are not of great significance for this part of the country was
thoroughly romanized and objects of the kind must have been
numerous. Of greater importance in this respect was one
of the so-called romanizing objects in bronze discussed in
Chapter x (p. 548 f.), for these are certainly early and at the
same time of Teutonic make. The piece in question, a belt
ornament, is given PI. clv, 2 (p. S^^)- ^ P^^^ °^ 'bird'
fibulae set with garnets is also early, and a penannular brooch
shown PI. L, 2 (p. 285), suggests Romano-British associations.
Among the weapons figured an angon, two swords, and
the spear heads shown PI. xxxi, i (p. 235).
The ornaments comprised a good collection of fibulae,
square headed, quoit and annular, and above all of the saucer
and button type, for these together with the collection of glass
vessels formed the most significant feature of the inventory.
Of saucer fibulae there were about half a dozen pairs of small
size about i^ in. in diameter, as well as a pair of button ones
adorned with the usual full face.
682 THE SOUTH SAXONS
Twelve graves all apparently of males contained urns of
clay, one of which was Roman. In form and ornamentation
many of them showed the special ' Anglian ' character, and
there was nothing resembHng the bottle shaped urns of Kent.
The glass was of special excellence and interest, and included
the unique inscribed vase PI. cxxviii, i (p. 487), the beautiful
beaker PI. cxxvii, i, and the funnel shaped vase No. 2 on
the same plate, with half a dozen other pieces.
Discoveries small in extent but of much interest were
made in 1883-4 on a height 200 ft. above the sea over the
Brighton railway station and looking down on Preston Park.
About 6 skeletons were found, well supplied with arms in
the form of shields, the thickness of the wood of which could
be seen to be |- in., spears and a sword. Of one shield we
are told that it covered the breast of a skeleton and ' some of
the bones of the hand were under the boss when discovered.
One small bone of the finger was still adhering to the edge,
and upon the edge the impression of the grain of the wood
was distinctly visible in the rust.'^ The abundant arms be-
token an early, that is a pagan, date and it is noteworthy that
the bodies were laid with the feet to the north (p. 160 f.).
Some of the objects, including the spear head with closed
socket PI. xxxii, 4 (p. 235), are in the Brighton Museum.
At PoRTSLADE a fcw arms were found with bodies in
1898 and are in Lewes Castle Museum.
We pass over here the discoveries at the back of the
downs at Hassocks as they have already been dealt with
(p. 678 f.).
Next comes the fruitful district about Lewes, which lies
on one of the streams that find their way through the barrier
of the South Downs and give access from the sea to the
interior of the country. The most prolific of several sites in
the neighbourhood is that of Saxon bury, near Kingston,
where in 1891 a cemetery was found that yielded 32 graves
1 D. B. Friend's Brighton Jlmanack, 1885, p. 166.
SAXONBURY, ETC. 683
in an area of about 130 by 50 ft. The site has been described
(pp. 144, 675) and the record of the discoveries is contained
in the Sussex Archaeological Collections, vol. xxxviii. The
graves were sunk slightly in the chalk subsoil and with the
following exceptions the bodies were lying supine with feet
to the east : — no. i was in a contracted position on the
right side, nos. 5 and 6 had the feet respectively to north-
east and to north.
As at Brighton, arms were a special feature in the tomb
inventory and this suggests an early date, while no late
indications appeared. The three swords found are figured
PI. XXV, 2 (p. 209). The objects recovered, which are in the
Museum of the Sussex Archaeological Society, Barbican
House, Lewes, include some pieces of special interest such
as the bronze pendant with the figure of a bird PI. ix, 7
(p. 103), the half of an ornate bronze wrist clasp PI. lxxvii, 5
(p. 361), a bronze belt ornament, etc. Saucer brooches again
made their appearance. In the way of vessels there were only
two insignificant little pots of clay.
In 1830 twenty or more skeletons came to light on
Malling Hill, the high ground east of Lewes, with some
swords and other weapons. A portion of a green glass
bracelet now in the national collection, PI. clvi, 8 (p. 623),
was the most interesting of the finds, as this, being a charac-
teristic British object, is an early indication (p. 458).
The cemetery on high ground between Glynde and
RiNGMER has been previously noticed (p. 679) as a possible
example of continuity in burial sites. The Saxon inhumed
graves were oriented as usual, all but one where the body had
its feet to the south. A few weapons and other ordinary
objects were accompanied by some balls of pyrites, a phenome-
non noticed also at Breach Down, Kent, and Alfriston, Sussex,
PI. xcviii, 5 (p. 415). Above Glynde itself the discovery
of many interments is reported, but there was hardly any
tomb furniture save some iron knives. With one interment
684 THE SOUTH SAXONS
however was an open-socketed spear head and this was under a
tumulus. The presence in the vicinity of earlier urn burials
under tumuli shows that here there was continuity.
In a field near Beddingham south-east from Lewes
skeletons were found at the close of XVUI/ of which four
had the feet to the east, one to the south and one to the
north. There were two swords and a quantity of beads, so
that the interments \Yere in all probability Saxon.
On the downs that present their bold northerly escarp-
ment to the traveller on the railway between Lewes and
Polegate several groups of burials have been found, sum-
marized on the Map (p. 589) as ' Firle, etc.,' but available
information is scanty, and in any case the tomb furniture was
of very slight value.
This range of downs curves downward toward the south-
east and ends above Eastbourne, where is situated the
cemetery, the site of which has been already noticed
(p. 676), and which is the furthest east of the cemeteries of
Sussex representing the pagan South Saxon period. There is
a summary description in the following terms in vol. xxxvii
of the Sussex Archaeological Collections : — ' In the Mill Field,
Eastbourne, a large number of interments of Saxon date were
discovered in 1877. . . . The graves were spaced with the
utmost regularity, and knives, spearheads, umbos of shields,
glass tumblers, a wooden drinking bucket about six inches
high, bound with silvered bronze, an armlet, stirrups, and
swords were found, one of the latter having the upper portion
of the wooden scabbard bound with a gilt bronze rim, bearing
a triangle and interlaced pattern,' In the Transactions of the
Eastbourne Natural History Society, vol. i, 1881, Mr. Herbert
Spurrell gave a few additional details, noticing that some of
the skeletons held iron knives in their left hand. Some of
the objects found are now in the Museum at Eastbourne.
At WiLLiNGDON on the same ridge a little inland from
^ Archaeologia, xiv, 273.
ALFRISTON 685
Eastbourne ' large numbers of skeletons with weapons were
found, the remains being buried in a pit near the site,' but
no further information is forthcoming.^
No South Saxon cemetery is of greater interest and im-
portance than the one recently discovered at Alfriston, on
the Cuckmere a few miles inland from Seaford, at the back
of Beachy Head, see p. 23. The plan prefixed to the Report^
indicates the presence in the part excavated of about 140
interments, and there is one portion at any rate of the ground
where fresh discoveries may be looked for in the future.
The graves are for the most part numbered in the plan, and a
detailed inventory of the contents of about 85 is given in the
text of the Report. Nearly all the graves lay east and west
but six were oriented towards the north. No traces were
found of cremation. The tomb furniture was fairly rich and
varied, though no objects in gold were found and no examples
of inlaid work. The speciality of the cemetery was the col-
lection of fibulae, several of which are of the highest interest,
and have been already noticed and figured on the plates.
Two of the graves, nos. 28 and 43, were remarkable for the
richness of their furniture and this applies specially to the
latter, in which a lady had been interred who suffered from
disease of the hip.
The arms inventoried in the Report include 6 swords, but
at least 3 more have been found and this makes the large
number of 9 swords in all. The weights of the 9 blades have
been kindly ascertained by Mr. Grifiith whose reports show
that in their present corroded condition they average about
2 lbs. There were at least 14 umbos exhibiting some varieties
of form, with studs and handles of shields, numerous spear
heads, and a couple of axes inclining to the ' Francisca ' form
^ Sussex Arch. Co//., xxxvn, 112,
2 An Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Alfriston, Sussex, by A. F. Griffith, M,A.,
and L. F Salzmann, B.A,, F.S.A. Reprinted from vol. lvi of the Sussex
Archaeo/ogicd Societf s Co/Zections, 1913.
686 THE SOUTH SAXONS
with one of the combined axe and hamnier shape, like PL xxx, 2
(p. 233), a piece from Horton Kirby, North Kent. Of
vessels there was a small supply, but of the two clay vases,
' which would seem to have been perfect when buried,' i.e.
apart from sherds, one, PI. cxxxvii, i (p. 501), is of special
interest, and there were one or two good pieces of glass, e.g.
PI. cxxviii, 2 (p. 487). A bronze bowl, PI. cxvi, i (p. 471)
is of an early type. The miscellaneous objects included one
spoon with perforated bowl, a cowrie shell, a lump of iron
pyrites PI. xcviii, 5 (p. 415), etc. There were some good
pins for the hair including PI. lxxx, 6 (p. 369).
The list of fibulae embraces the foUowingr : — the three
large square headed fibulae shown on PI. lxvii (p. 339) were
accompanied by two pairs of small square headed fibulae not
unlike those shown in the upper row on PL xxxiv (p. 245)
but with ornamentation of a distinctly later type. Saucer
fibulae were represented by 15 examples, 7 pairs and one odd
one, the ornamentation being spiral and zoomorphic, and there
were ten button brooches, of which 5 were found in a single
grave, but none of the ' applied ' type. There were several
plain disc and ring brooches, among them the remarkable
silver penannular one figured PL xlix, 2 (p. 281), a pair of
square swastika brooches, PL xlviii, 5 (p. 279), and two pairs
of, practically, equal armed brooches, of which one pair was
shown PL xxxvii, 5 (p. 247).
Among the buckles, which made their appearance in 27
graves and were about half of bronze and half of iron, there
were two of special interest as furnishing indications of date.
One^ was accompanied by a girdle plate on which is inter-
lacing work of rather a poor kind betokening a date in VII,
and the other has been figured PL cliv, i (p. 561). This is
one of the pieces discussed in Ch. x (p. 562) that has incised
upon it the crouching animal in profile of Roman origin, of
which there has been already question. The possible dates
^ See the Report referred to (p. 685) note 2, pi. ix, 2,
ALFRISTON 687
within which the use of this motive may fall it is important
to fix, and the opinion has been expressed (p. 564) that it is
not necessary always to make it as early as, say, V. A com-
parison of objects at Alfriston with some others already figured
from other sites will confirm this view.
The crouching beast on the buckle just mentioned,
PL CLiv, I, is obviously near akin to that which forms the
chief motive of ornamentation on the beautiful silver penan-
nular fibula from Sarre, adorned with the doves in cast silver,
PL xLix, I (p. 281), and the two pieces may very well be
contemporary. The remarkable construction of PL xlix, i,
brings it into close connection with PL xlix, 2, the silver
Alfriston penannular brooch with the foliage scroll ornament.
Now the last named piece was found in the richly endowed
grave no. 43 together with PL lxvii, 2 (p. 339) the hand-
some square-headed fibula on the foot of which there appears
to be the representation of the human form (p. 320). This
fibula is shown by the character of its ornamentation, as well
as by the detail that in both brooches a beading was soldered
round the edges of the foot, to be about contemporary with
the other piece No. 3 on PL lxvii,^ and this was found in
grave 28 accompanying a pair of saucer fibulae (figured in the
Report, pi. VI, 3, 3a) on which the sole motive of ornament
is zoomorphic enrichment of an obviously late kind, dating
quite to the latter part of VL In the same grave 28 on the
other hand was found the bronze bowl PL cxvi, i (p. 471),
that might easily be a good deal earlier (p. 472).
These various equations may be somewhat puzzling to
follow, but it can be said briefly that (a) the two large square
headed brooches PL lxvii, 2, 3, (b) the saucer brooches with
late zoomorphic ornament, (c) the penannular silver brooch
with floral scrolls are all connected and cannot be very far
removed from each other in point of date, and for this date
^ In the rendering of this piece, PI. lxvii, 3, the beading, which is
loose, was by an oversight omitted.
688 THE SOUTH SAXONS
some time in the last half of VI will probably be correct. If
construction link (c) to the Sarre brooch with the silver doves,
then the latter may be placed in about the middle third of VI,
and the same date may be assigned to the buckle mentioned
above, that is figured PL cliv, i.
The artistic excellence of the Sarre brooch naturally in-
clines one to give it an early date. The quoit form in itself
may belong to V (p. 282 f.) but the elaborate construction
must be later, and PL xlix, 2 (p. 281), which shows it, was
found with PL lxvii, 2 (p. 339) which cannot be very early.
On the whole the middle and the latter part of VI seems to
suit the character of most of the principal objects found in
the cemetery, though some of the saucer fibulae with spiral
scrolls, such as are figured on pi. vii of the Report, as well as
some of the better executed of the button brooches, such as
PL Lix, 5, may be of the first half of VI, while the Interlacing
work on the girdle plate mentioned above (p. 686) would
fall in VII.
About South Saxon tomb furniture as a whole a word or
two may be said. Its unlikeness to that of Kent has already
been noticed and in nothing is this more strikingly shown
than in the almost entire absence in the Sussex cemeteries of
the inlaid work so common in the Jutish regions. The
appearance of vessels of glass and of romanlzing bronzes in
both districts hardly counts, for these are not purely native
productions, but the small square headed fibulae at Alfriston
and High Down and the button brooches are possessions in
common. The difference In this respect between the saucer
and the button brooch is curious. The latter is a point of
connection between Sussex and Kent, the former is a point of
difference, for it is quite at home in Sussex, with 15 at
Alfriston, nearly as many at High Down, and others at
Saxonbury, but it is a stranger In Jutish Kent. On the other
hand the saucer brooch is a link of connection between the
South Saxons and their kinsfolk of the Thames Valley, and
SUSSEX AND SURREY 689
attention has been called to a certain similarity in the tomb
furniture of Sussex and of Surrey.^ The saucer brooches with
a pattern of legs surrounding a central rosette link up the
Thames Valley cemeteries, for pieces almost counterparts were
found at Fairford (p. 662 f.), at Filkins, Oxon, PL lxviii, 3
(p. 341), and at Northfleet, Kent, PI. clvi, 2 (p. 628 f.), while
a similar design of legs without the central rosette is seen PI.
CLVI, 3, from Saxonbury, in Lewes Museum, Sussex. Again,
Horton Kirby, near Northfleet, is connected with High
Down, Sussex, through the similar patterns on PI. lvii, 5
(p. 313) and PL CLVI, i. The scroll patterns so markedly
prominent at Alfriston, see plate vii of the Report, are repro-
duced in the Surrey cemetery at Mitcham, PL lix, i and 6
(p. 317). A curious similarity exists between the design of
the Alfriston buckle PL cliv, i (p. 561) and that of the small
iron buckle from Croydon PL lxxv, 4 (p. 355), while the
crouching beast on the Alfriston piece reappears on the
enigmatical Croydon object PL xcix, 4 (p. 419). The same
beast is in evidence on the quoit brooch from Sarre, so often
referred to, PL xlix, i, and Mr. Leeds suggests, on other
grounds, that the Sarre piece may have had a Sussex origin.^
The glass goblet from High Down, Sussex, PL cxxvii, i
(p. 486) is almost exactly similar to one from Croydon,
Surrey, PL cxxi, 4.
It is quite out of the question to explain these similarities
by direct intercourse between the South Saxon land and Surrey
or the Thames Valley by means of the Roman Stone Street
connecting Chichester with London. The road passes through
very wild country where there are few or no traces of early
Anglo-Saxon settlements, and though chapmen may have
traversed it, it cannot in early times have been a frequented
route. The isolation of Sussex need not of course have been
an absolute one, but there is evidence (p. 674) that in VII it
was a recognized fact. The remains of South Saxon art in
^ Victoria History, Sussex, i, 345. ^ The Jrchaeologf, etc., p. 49.
690 THE JUTES OF KENT
VI prove however that the crafts flourished in the country,
and the imported glass shows that it was open to outland
influence. No doubt the South Saxons were racially akin to
the other sea-rovers who formed the settlements in the
Thames Valley, and starting with common traditions they
would develop their industries on similar lines but with the
usual local peculiarities. It must be repeated however that
the conditions alike of production and of distribution in
Anglo-Saxon times (p. ;^2 ^0 ^^e matters on which we have
practically no information.
THE JUTISH SETTLEMENTS : KENT
If Sussex be of all English districts the one that is most
cut off^ from intercourse with the inland regions that environ
it, the Kentish area is one that all through history has been
particularly open to through traffic. Its maritime coast line
has indeed no superiority in the matter of inlets over that of
Sussex, but on the north, while the latter was in old time
bounded by an almost impassable belt of woodland, Kent lay
along the safe and accessible Thames estuary, and parallel
with this frequented waterway a stretch of easy and open
country between the river and the North Downs offered
ready means of land intercourse with the interior districts of
the island. The proximity of the south-eastern portion of the
county to the Continent, from which its white cliffs are easily
visible, has made it from time immemorial the gate of England,
and Goidels and Brythons probably followed each other
through its open portals to be again succeeded by the Belgae
from northern Gaul, who showed the way to the formidable
Roman invaders some century after their own advent. From
the ports of Thanet and of Dover the ancient route known
later as the Pilgrims' Way, which originated at least as early
as the pre-historic Iron Age, led along the dry and open
southern slope of the North Downs towards the west, while
MAP
VI
facing p. 691.
mm
y% ^^
3 ^' '^'^
<S.' .^
NOTES ON MAP VI
The Map, on a larger scale than Maps v, vii, viii, gives the loca-
tion of the principal cemeteries of Jutish Kent, marked in Roman
lettering.
To the north-west a few names in cursive and between brackets
are to be regarded as those of Thames Valley cemeteries that are
rather West Saxon than Jutish.
The lines of the principal Roman roads converging from the
coast on Canterbury and carrying the traffic thence towards London
are shown by dotted lines.
Folkestone is underscored by a broken line because of the pos-
sible occurrence there of cremation in a Jutish grave (p. 696).
THE SETTLEMENT OF KENT 691
a parallel route on the other slope of the hills nearer the
Thames marked the course followed later on by the Roman
Watling Street, that has remained ever since the main
thoroughfare for road traffic from the continental ports to
London and the midlands.
Favoured in this way by geographical position, Kent has
played an important part in the development of early English
culture. In all the pre-historic periods, from the shadowy
eolithic downwards, the district has been productive beyond
the average of the rest of the country, and notable neolithic
and Bronze Age remains are matched by the fine Late-Celtic
productions found at Aylesford and on other sites. In Roman
days four roads from as many maritime stations converged on
Canterbury, and poured goods and travellers into that em-
porium of traffic whence the busy Watling Street transmitted
them to London. See Map vi.
There is a consistent tradition according to which Kent
was the first portion of the island on which Teutonic invaders
secured a permanent hold, and there is no reason to reject this
though archaeological evidence gives it no special support.
That the first landing was in the Richborough haven is also
a credible tradition, and an early settlement of Thanet is
archaeologically attested. Li what way the penetration
of the county in general was effected is not easy to say.
Mr. Thurlow Leeds, who favours as a rule for the country
at large the river-valley theory of penetration, is in the case
of Kent disposed to see in the Roman roads the lines of the
Jutish advance, and to assign no part to the rivers. To the
present writer a study of the topography of the Kentish
cemeteries has brought the conviction that, save in one
respect, these cannot be grouped according to any single
general theory of the settlement. One point is clear, the
maritime character of the settlement. Evidences of early
Teutonic occupation, as was previously noticed (p. 670 f.) are
confined to the districts easily accessible from the sea, that is to
692 THE JUTES OF KENT
the eastern portion of the county and the northern littoral.
Numerous as are the Kentish cemeteries they all lie north and
east of a line roughly marked by the railway that runs from
Swanley Junction by Maidstone and onwards to Ashford and
Folkestone. Furthermore, we have already seen reason to
withdraw from the Jutes the Thames-side cemeteries from
Cliffe-at-Hoo up to Greenwich and to assign them to the
Saxon settlers of the Thames Valley who founded the kingdom
of Wessex. Jutish Kent would therefore not come further
west than the Medway, which curiously enough still forms the
line of demarcation between the dioceses of Canterbury and
Rochester as well as between those somewhat whimsical cor-
porate entities ' Men of Kent ' and ' Kentish Men.'
Within the Jutish area the distribution is not easy to
systematize. In correspondence with the tradition of the
entry near Richborough and the early seizure of Thanet, we
find a ring of cemeteries, some of early date, on the high
ground encircling Richborough haven, and may treat of these
as a single group. Tradition, as embodied in the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle, brings the invaders next to Aylesford on the Med-
way near Maidstone, a locality not accessible by any natural
line of advance from Thanet, save haply by the use from Ash-
ford westwards of the ' Pilgrims' Road,' but quite in the way
of any force advancing by water up the river Medway. An-
other locality indicated in the Chronicle is Crayford, almost on
the north-western verge of the county, and this certainly suggests
an advance along the great Roman thoroughfare, the main line
of which is still followed by wheel traffic between Canterbury,
Rochester and London. A range of Anglo-Saxon cemeteries
from Faversham westward to Strood by Rochester follows the
line of this road and may be claimed as archaeological evidence
that this was the line of advance, but the early settlement at
Chatham revealed by the explorations of the author of Nenia
Britannica may just as well have been founded as a riparian
site in connection with the ascent of the river to Aylesford as
GROUPING OF CEMETERIES 693
by a marching detachment along the Roman road. Inland
from the circle of high ground dotted with cemeteries round
Richborough haven there are many important sites between
here and the longitude of Canterbury that cannot easily be
brought into connection with any theory of the settlement.
Most of them are however late cemeteries the history of
which cannot be carried back to any date near that of the
actual conquest, and may be regarded as the outcome of a
comparatively slow process of diffusion that carried the immi-
grants to rural sites which different communities made their
own. Some of these lie not far from the Roman roads between
Richborough and Canterbury and Dover and Canterbury, but
the sites do not seem to have any relation to these thorough-
fares, whereas on the other hand a great many of them lie
along the valley of the Lesser Stour and might be claimed on
this ground as riparian. Whether the Lesser Stour, which
takes a sweep within the larger curve of the Greater Stour on
which Canterbury lies, had ever a sufficient head of water to
convey sea-rovers' keels as far as Barham Downs may be
doubted, but the fact remains that if we follow this valley
upwards from the flat land between Preston and Grove Ferry,
where once was the sea that made Thanet an island, we pass
some of the most prolific sites in Anglo-Saxon antiquities of
the whole county, and in the words of Mr. Godfrey Faussett ^
' rich as east Kent is found to be in such relics, it may be
doubted whether so many of these burial places have been any-
where discovered lying together, as in this valley of the Lesser
Stour.' The valley of the Greater Stour is not so well supplied
with cemeteries, but there are some on its slopes above Canter-
bury at Chartham, Crundale and Wye. The Stone Street,
the Roman road from the ancient sea-port station at Lymne
near Hythe, is not fringed with any cemeteries, though some
interesting objects have been found at Lymne itself, and
the cemetery at Stowting on the southern slopes of the
^ Arck. Cant., x, 299,
IV u
694 THE JUTES OF KENT
North Downs is not far as the crow flies from the Roman
highway.
Besides these groups of more or less connected cemeteries
there are others dotted here and there over the eastern parts
of Kent, and by counting contiguous ones, such as Barfriston
and Sibertswold, together, and omitting from the enumeration
casual finds, the total of the Kentish sites may be reduced for
our present purpose to about twenty-five, and they will be
enumerated in the direction east to west, from the sea coast
by Thanet towards the inland parts of the county, according
to a grouping to be presently explained. The Map, No. vi,
on a larger scale than Maps v, vii, viii, gives the names and
localities of the cemeteries. The total number of graves of
the existence of which there is reasonable evidence may be
taken as in round numbers about 2200. This figure has been
arrived at by taking the (uncatalogued) interments in the
King's Field, Faversham, at 400, and making a moderate
guess at the numbers represented in one or two cases by
'many' or ^several' in the reports. Of this total number
about 1200 graves have their furniture properly inventorized.
The chief local collections are at Maidstone, in the general
Museum and the collection of the Kent Archaeological Society,
Canterbury, Rochester, Dover, Folkestone, but the Mayer-
Faussett collection in the Museum at Liverpool is the most
important of all. The British Museum of course possesses
Kentish objects in abundance, and the Gibbs collection from
Faversham, now deposited there, furnishes some of the best
items.
Evidence of the use by the Teutonic immigrants of
cemeteries belonging to the earlier population is in Kent
particularly clear. The chief Roman centres of an urban
character, as was noticed above (p. 138) do not yield Anglo-
Saxon remains, though there was one instance, at Strood,
across the Medway from Rochester, where Teutonic inter-
ments were contiguous with those of Roman date (ibid, and
CONTINUITY IN BURIAL PLACES 695
p. 1 1 5). The Teutonic settlements were here as elsewhere
in Britain rural ones, and we have seen that in the country
generally it is in the rural Bronze and Early Iron Age
cemeteries that we find the connections between the inter-
ments of the older and the immigrant race. In Kent the
connection is rather with the somewhat later Romano-British
times, when cremation was in use prior to the recrudescence
of the practice of inhumation from III onwards. The instance
of Crundale noticed later on (p. 731) is one where the earlier
cremated burials were accompanied by objects of a Roman
character. In the case of nearly half the cemeteries included
in our enumeration there was some sign of this continuity
with some epoch of the past, and the instances are Broadstairs ;
Sarre ; Ash, Gilton, etc. ; Beakesbourne, etc. ; Kingston ;
Breach Down ; Barfriston and Sibertswold ; Crundale and
Wye ; Sittingbourne, etc. Evidence of earlier burials is
afforded sometimes by the presence of a Roman cinerary urn
that seemed to have been broken at the second interment, or
of a vase of distinctively Celtic type, such as the banded one
from Breach Down (p. 724). In many cases vases found in
these circumstances contained distinct relics of cremated
burials, and this occurred at Ramsgate, Gilton, Kingston,
Breach Down, Sibertswold, Crundale, Sittingbourne. Such
burials are always regarded as non-Jutish on the ground that
the rite of cremation was not practised by the Jutish settlers
in England. On this a word will presently be said, but it
may be noticed here that there was generally clear evidence
that the urn with evidence of cremation was not of the same
age as the skeleton equipped with Jutish tomb furniture that
was found with it. It is noteworthy, and to the credit of the
immigrants, to have the testimony of Faussett that the frag-
ments of earlier urns containing burnt bones, accidentally
broken at the time of the secondary burial, were at times
* carefully placed one within the other,' ^ or, ' the smaller
^ Inv. 6V/>., Barfriston, grave 26.
696 THE JUTES OF KENT
broken pieces of the urn were carefully placed on the contents
of the larger sherds . , . but the larger pieces were so placed
together as to hold the burnt bones.' ^
It has been stated already (p. 583) that there is no properly
attested example of Jutish cremation. Burnt bones were
found it is true in a bronze bowl in a burial at Coombe near
Sandwich together with an Anglo-Saxon sword, but we have
seen (p. 222) that the character of the sword hilt shows that
the burial was at least of VII or at any rate much later than
the early Jutish days when, if ever, cremation would have
been in use. Again at Folkestone, on the rising ground
called the Boyle or Bayle, near the parish church, there was
found in 1850 together with iron fragments that may have
imported a spear head or a sword, an urn with calcined bones
in it that is stated to have had the form of Anglian cinerary
urns from other parts of the country (see note* below). It is
unfortunate that neither this urn nor any drawing of it has
been preserved, and owing to the fact that urns not of the
Anglo-Saxon period have been so often found in Kent with
burnt bones in them, the Jutish character of this particular
urn must be regarded as a little doubtful. Hence the case is
treated on Map vi in the same way as those of Hassocks
and High Down in Sussex and a dotted line is used under the
name of the place.
1 Inr. Sep., Gilton, grave 50.
- Prcc. Soc. Ar.t., isc Ser., 11, 175. The words of Thomas Wright, F.S.A.,
who communicated the discovery, are important enough to be quoted. ' These
remains arc . , . undoubtedly Saxon. They consist of a large iron spear head
— if it be not, as I imagined at first sight, part of a sword — and the fragments
of an urn, broken probably by the workmen. The latter was filled wTth
calcined bones, a circumstance worthy to be noticed, because urn-burial
among the Saxons in Kent appears to have been a much less usual practice
than the interment of the body entire. An examination of the fragments of
the urn will show that it was identical in character with the Saxon pottery
found in the cemeteries in Northamptonshire and in East Anglia.' No
drawing of the fragments of the urn accompanied this notice.
CEMETERIES IN FIVE GROUPS 697
The general character of Kentish tomb furniture will
have been inferred from the numerous examples figured on the
plates, and it will be remembered that the whole contents of
one early and specially well furnished cemetery, that of Bifrons,
have been analysed and to a great extent illustrated. The
occurrence in so many Kentish graves of our period of Roman
objects, such as pieces of Samian pottery, ornaments, and
coins, is of course a natural consequence of the extensive
romanization of the district, and has no special significance.
In other respects the geographical position of the district has
a bearing on its archaeology. The importation from the
Continent of objects made in other Teutonic centres would
naturally follow the earlier Romano-British trade-routes, and
though many such objects would be passed on into the other
regions of England a proportionately large number would
remain in the county. This applies specially to the cast
bronze bowls, such as PL cxiv, 4 (p. 467), the vessels of glass,
Pll. cxxi to cxxviii, and also to objects such as the 'francisca'
axe, the angon, and the radiating fibula, which belong to the
Continent and of which at any rate the earlier specimens were
imported from abroad.
The Kentish cemeteries are dealt with in the following
groups which are partly natural groups geographically con-
nected, and partly arbitrary, in that outlying cemeteries are
for the sake of convenience brought in to groups to which they
do not strictly belong.
I. Richborough Haven Cemeteries. From the high
ground of Thanet above Pegwell Bay on the north round to
Walmer on the south there is a circle of heights that look
down on the flats where once the sea flowed in to form Rich-
borough Haven. Broadstairs and Ramsgate ; Ozengell ;
Sarre ; Ash with Richborough, Goldston, Gilton, Coombe
and Woodnesborough ; Eastry with Walmer and Ringwold,
are the principal sites of cemeteries.
698 RICHBOROUGH HAVEN CEMETERIES
II. South Coast Cemeteries, including Dover, Folkestone,
Lyminge, Lymne, Stowting.
III. Cemeteries of the Lesser Stour Valley. This stream
rises at the back of the downs that overhang Hythe and
Folkestone and flows northward to join the Great Stour at a
place the name of which, Stourmouth, recalls the time when
the sea ran through here and made Thanet an island. From
the lower reaches of the stream near Stodmarsh, as far as
Breach Down by Barham, the slopes of this valley are dotted
with Anglo-Saxon cemeteries of which may be mentioned
Stodmarsh, Wickhambreux and W^ingham ; Bifrons ; Beakes-
bourne ; Bishopsbourne and Bourne Park ; Kingston ; Breach
Down ; and to these may be adjoined two linked cemeteries,
on the other side of Barham Downs and of the Roman road
that runs along their ridge, Barfriston and Sibertswold.
IV. On the Great Stour, above Canterbury, are the
cemeteries at Chartham Down ; Crundale, and Wye.
V. The fifth group may be termed the Watling Street
cemeteries, and comprises the important site of the King's
Field, Faversham, with cemeteries atSittingbourne and Milton ;
Chatham Lines ; Rochester and Strood ; west of which place
the sites are regarded as no longer Jutish. Up the Medway
valley Maidstone and Hollingbourne must be mentioned.
I. THE RICHBOROUGH HAVEN CEMETERIES
If any one stand on the southern edge of the tableland of
Thanet with Broadstairs and Ramsgate on his left, he will
have below him the marshes where once the sea flowed in,
and beyond these the slight rise that marks the site of Rich-
borough, the Roman Rutupiae. Further back from the sea
than the Roman Castrum the markedly high ground begins
at that conspicuous landmark the spire of Ash and continues
in a ridge to the prominent church tower of the Teutonic-
sounding Woodnesborough, whence after a low-lying stretch
BROADSTAIRS AND RAMSGATE 699
which was formerly under water, it begins again at Eastry
and stretches to the sea behind Walmer. At many points
in this amphitheatre of elevated ground there are Saxon
cemeteries that no doubt served the immigrant population that
had gathered near the various havens forming the old Rutupian
harbour, and that seem to have been in use early enough to
carry us back to the first generation after the Conquest.
Broadstairs is included in this group though it may not
strictly belong to it. The site and the discoveries made upon
it have been already noticed (pp. 22, 132). The use of the
cemetery may have begun soon after 500, for an early close-
set garnet brooch was found PL cxlv, 5 (p. ^23) ^^^ *^^
small double and triple blown beads and cylindrical ones
PL CIV, I, F to G (p. 429) would agree with this, but the
lobed glass vase PL cxxiii, i (p. 483) might be nearly a
century later. Up to the date of writing exactly 30 Jutish
graves have been opened, two of them between 8 and 9 ft.
long by 2 to 3 ft. wide, and in one grave were three bodies,
two adults and a child. There was no sign of cremation, nor
were there any outward marks of the interments. In most
cases the feet were to the east or south-east, but two skeletons
were found in a crouching position. The tomb furniture was
varied and interesting. There were arms, including one
fine sword, spear heads, umbos, and knives, abundant beads
mostly of an early kind PL civ, i (p. 429) including also 75 of
amber and 7 amethysts, a small cast bronze buckle of early
appearance, and the urn PL cxxix, 6 (p. 491) and lobed glass
vessel PL CXXIII, i (p. 483). For the important find of
early Anglo-Saxon coins, with their indications of date, see
(p. 108).
At Ramsgate, in a position corresponding to that of the
Broadstairs cemetery, on the flat tableland above the West
Cliff, where West Cliff Road comes out into the open near
St. Augustine's, there were found about 1 840 some mixed
burials, in which Roman cinerary urns with burnt bones had
roo
RICHBOROUGH HAVEN CEMETERIES
near them skeletons with Saxon-looking swords by their sides.
This use by the immigrants of an older place of sepulture and
the prominence of weapons suggest an early date.
This same impression is derived from the little we know
about the cemetery at Ozengell in Thanet. A little inland
from Ramsgate, about a mile west
of St. Lawrence and still on the
tableland, an extensive burial field
was accidentally discovered during
the construction of the Canterbury
|iJ| and Ramsgate railway between
1845 and 50. The site is not far
from the point where the road
from Deal to Marg-ate crosses that
o
between Ramsgate and Canter-
bury. The land is now laid out
for corn but in older times it was
open down, when tumuli, remem-
bered as ' hillocks,' seem to have
marked the graves. Here the rail-
way workmen cut into Jutish in-
terments the whole number of
which they guessed at about 100,
and discovered many articles of
interest that were disposed of in
casual fashion. Thirteen graves
were however carefully reported
on,^ and Fig. 24 is from a sketch
made at the time by the well-known antiquary Mr. Fairholt of
one of the best preserved of the interments. The warrior was
armed with short sword, spear with spike at the butt end, knife,
and shield which was laid on the breast. An earthen vessel of
the specially Kentish type was by the shoulder. The interments
were rather irregular and were effected in the chalk at a depth
1 CoU. Ant., in, i.
\K^.^s:^^
Fig. 24. — Interment at Ozen-
eell, Kent.
OZENGELL AND SARRE
701
of 2 to 3 ft. In one case as at Broadstairs a man, woman and
child were found in one grave (p. 190) and there were other
instances of double burial. It was noticed as a special feature
that, as was the case with 20 graves at Goldston by Rich-
borough, many of the bodies had been covered with thin
slabs of a laminated sandstone, an outcrop of which occurs
near ClifFsend on Pegwell Bay. Some traces of coffins in the
form of iron bolts were also observed.
Indications of date were not wanting, and early symptoms
were a close set garnet fibula of circular form, a knobby ring
once probably the main part
of an annular fibula but now
used as a keyring, PI. lxxxix, i
(p. 397), a radiating fibula and
a 'francisca' of particularly ele-
gant shape. Fig. 25. On the
other hand the discovery of
three sceattas (p. 109) and an
imitated coin of Justinian point
to a use of the cemetery down
to at least the end of VI. The other objects found, arms,
ornaments, beads, etc., do not call for special remark.
A few miles away on the western edge of the tableland of
Thanet, on rising ground crowned by the windmill of Sarre,
a very extensive and interesting cemetery was systematically
explored in 1863-4. There had been previous casual dis-
coveries on the site, from one of which came the necklet
shown in colour PI. B, i (p. 353) the coins on which date
it in the second quarter of VII, but the excavations were now
properly supervised, and the results of 272 interments re-
corded grave by grave, by the Kentish antiquary John Brent,
F.S.A.-^ The site is called by Mr. Godfrey Faussett ' as bleak
and exposed a down as Saxon ever chose for his burying
^ Arch. Cant., v, 305 f., vi, 157 f., vii, 307 f. Earlier discoveries were
figured, ibid., in, pll. 11, iii, iv.
Fig. 25. — Axe Head from Ozengell.
702 RTCHBOROUGH HAVEN CEMETERIES
place,' but there is no pronounced elevation. The graves were
regularly placed and in all but a few cases ranged east and
west. They were cut in the chalk below the supersoil which
was 12 in. to 1 8 in. thick. There is no mention of tumuli or
any outward marks, and had such existed the indefatigable
explorers of XVIII would certainly have attempted the site.
Mr. John Brent thought there never had been any tumuli
' from the even appearance of the upper soil and the pro-
pinquity of some of the graves.' ^ As is so often the case
in Kent part of the cemetery had been in use in earlier times.
It was noticed that grave no. 130 and others immediately
surrounding it showed signs of having been dug on the site
of Romano-British interments. Samian ware was found in
no. 228, and there was a Roman urn, such as was used for
cremation, in no. 181. There were several graves of un-
wonted size : thus no. 4 was 10 ft. by 4 ft. and ^^ ft. deep ;
no. 17 was 9 ft., no. 60 9|- ft. long; no. 81 measured
9 ft. by 5 with a depth of 6 ft. Fourteen cases of double
burials were recorded, the most interesting being no. 39,
where two old warriors had been laid to rest with a varied
collection of weapons (p. 189). Only very occasionally were
traces of coffins found.
The cemetery was remarkable for the number of arms
discovered, but it also furnished some very fine examples of
decorative work, which will be noticed below. Of indications
of date or provenance the following may be noticed. A few
of the graves, e.g. nos. 85, 114, 157, 179, 186, were set
obliquely to the general east-west direction, and while the
others offered no indication of date no. 85 contained a bronze
ring fibula with knobs, like that serving as a key ring at
Ozengell, PI. lxxxix, i (p. 397), and the bone of a sheep
or deer, both early symptoms. No. 148 had the skeleton
lying with feet to west (contrary to the normal position with
feet to east), and with this there was early grave furniture
^ Archaeolog'ia, xli, 320.
SARRE 703
consisting in a close set garnet disc fibula, a large * melon '
bead of Roman type, and a pierced bronze girdle ornament of
a kind common in Frankish graves and of early character.
In no. 126 was a small bronze brooch of very Roman type,
though the settings, which in the Gallo-Roman age would
have been in enamel, are now of white substance with garnet
centres. Among the beads were a good many of the small
double or triple kind. On the other hand there were very
distinct late indications such as the necklet just mentioned
(p. 701). In grave 158 were two garnet fibulae, one of which
showed in its pattern a gold cross with a filling of garnets.
It is improbable however that the cross has any Christian
significance for with this brooch was found another of quatre-
foil shape closely set with garnets, which looked early and
rather Frankish in type. It may be compared with PI. cxlv,
7, 8 (p. S33)-
In the matter of arms Sarre is remarkable in that one
fourth of the total number of the graves contained weapons,
and with the 272 bodies there were found no fewer than 26
swords, so that of the 68 armed men more than a third were
sword bearers. This proportion is far larger than that of any
other cemetery in the country as a whole except perhaps the
recently discovered one at Droxford, Hants, where six swords
made their appearance (p. 208). Spear heads were found in
the same grave with swords in many cases, e.g. nos. 6, 8, 11,
17, 39, 57. Umbos were sometimes placed over the face of
the corpse, nos. iii, 118, 156. The shield in no. 39 had
left an impression on the soil which showed that it was about
18 in. in diameter. Grave 39 contained an axe head, 89 an
angon 42 in. long. In one grave, 26, it was found that
a scramasax 12 in. long and a knife of 6 in. had been carried
in one sheath.
Some graves of females contained considerable evidence of
wealth and luxury. That numbered 4 was the richest, and
the summary of its contents runs as follows, ' Gold wire
704 RICHBOROUGH HAVEN CEMETERIES
thread, a silver finger ring, six gold bracteates, a large quantity
of beads' (133 of amber were counted), 'four bronze fibulae,
a glass drinking cup,' PI. cxxvii, 3 (p. 486), 'three knives,
two keys, a pair of scissor-shears, a silver spoon, a crystal
ball or amulet,' Pll. xciv, i ; xciii, i (p. 403), ' a buckle, a
comb, a pin, two Roman coins, and a fossil echinus.' ^ The
skull of the lady whose were these possessions was preserved,
and a photograph of it in its glass case is given PL clviii, 2
(p. 807). Finer single objects were however found in other
parts of the cemetery. There were two disc fibulae set with
garnets, of the first class (the Kingston example is in a class
by itself), and a large square headed fibula, set with garnets,
5 in. long, PI. CLV, 5 (p. 563) see (p. 334) in no. 159. A saucer
fibula with garnet centre and scroll ornament, i in. in diameter,
no. 260, and some smaller disc fibulae with a flat quoit
shaped brooch, no, 27, pretty well complete the Brent
inventory of this class of objects, which was but sparingly
represented in the cemetery, but to the above, from the 1863-4
diggings, fall to be added one or two pieces from other
graves that are now in the British Museum, the most
important of which is the silver penannular brooch PI.
XLix, I (p. 281) about which so much has already been said
(pp. 282, 685). A buckle with triangular plate inlaid with
a gold panel on which are lacertine creatures interlaced was
found in a deep grave, no. 68, together with a sword, an
umbo, a bucket, and a bone comb, three of the teeth of which
had been deftly replaced in bronze. There were in all seven
glass vessels of which two were of the lobed form, and some
bronze bowls beaten and cast. The display of pottery was
not remarkable for its quantity, but the specimens were very
characteristic of the Kentish style, being mostly of the bottle
shape, PI. cxxxix (p. 507). A handled jug of a Frankish
form was also found, PI. cxxxix, 5. In no. 238 was a
^ Catalogue of the Kent Archaeological Society's Collections at Maidstone,
London, 1892, p. 17.
ASH, ETC., AND GILTON 705
Cypraea shell. Bronze tweezers were found in the same
grave with a sword, no. 86. In two graves, nos. 6 and 198,
there were counters or draughtsmen and in the latter two
dice marked exactly like modern ones. A special find was
a pair of scales with 19 weights partly formed from Roman
coins, PI. xcviii, 6 (p. 415). The owner of these appliances
was armed with spear and shield and with the scramasax and
knife in the one sheath, and had with him moreover iron keys
and what looked like part of a lock.^
At Rich BOROUGH some casual discoveries have been
made.^ Behind and on each side of Richborough there is
a group of cemeteries. At Goldston-under-Ash 20 graves
were opened a little before 1850 and the use of covering
slabs of laminated sandstone connects them with Ozengell.
' Weapons, coins, urns, glass vessels, and beads ' are reported
by Charles Roach Smith.^ Along the whole of the ridge
between Ash and Woodnesborough finds have from time to
time been recorded, and swords, fibulae, beads, coins, etc., are
mentioned, but on the higher ground at Ash and behind it at
Gilton more important discoveries have been made. Douglas
here opened several graves, but the chief discoveries were
made in 1760 to 1763 by Bryan Faussett, whose report on
Gilton is in Inventorium Sepulchrale^ p. i f. He opened 106
graves of the contents of which he furnishes an inventory.
No plan is published but Faussett stated that while most of
the bodies had the feet to the east, nine were oriented
differently with feet to the north. Traces of coffins were
observed in about half the graves opened. The signs of
earlier use of the burying ground have been the subject of
comment (p. 695 f.), and in connection with some Romano-
^ The Sarre collection is partly in the Museum of the Kent Archaeo-
logical Society at Maidstone and partly in the British Museum.
2 Reported in Charles Roach Smith's Richborough^ Reculver, and Lymne,
London, 1850. See PI. lxv, 2 (p. 342).
3 Jss., V, 374.
7o6 RICHBOROUGH HAVEN CEMETERIES
British enamelled bronze brooches in graves nos. 67 and 70
and a Roman mirror in no. 94, the editor of Faussett's MSS.,
Charles Roach Smith, remarks in a note to Inv. Sep., p. 28,
' the antiquary cannot fail to notice the Roman character and
influence which prevail at this cemetery.' Marks of a fairly
early date were not absent, but, as is the case with all
Faussett's cemeteries, the objects in general were rather late,
and an imitated coin of Justinian, 527-565, that had been
pierced for suspension, in grave 41, gives an indication.
There was however a good collection of weapons, including
five swords, and this is an early sign. In connection with
the spears Faussett measured distances between heads and
ferules (p. 241), and moreover noted frequently the presence
beside the body of what he termed a ' pilum,' which he
regarded as a sort of light javelin about ^^ ft. long often
accompanying the heavier spear.
Ornaments were plentiful and several pieces illustrated on
the plates were found here. This applies to the open work
clasp PL Lxxvii, 3 (pp. 106 f., 362), the late silver square
headed brooch PI. lxv, 3 (p. 342), the bronze pendant with
interlacing animals PL lxiii, 6, the buckle with rectangular
chape inlaid with garnets PL lxxi, 4 (p. 349), which are all
examples of VII work. Seven handsome disc fibulae set with
garnets, one or two of which are of great beauty, are recorded
in the inventory, and as we have seen point to a date in VII.
There was not much pottery, but good glass vessels came
to light, as in graves 19, 27, 41 which were female interments,
and a lobed beaker in no. 83, a grave which contained the
body of a warrior. The silver brooch PL lxv, 3 it will be
remembered was in a male interment, and it is to be noted
that a male skeleton in no. 89 had on his arm a bronze
bracelet, very Roman in aspect, figured Inv. Sep., pi. xvi, 9.
In the case of several women's graves there were indications
of the presence by the feet of a small wooden box in which
little personal belongings might be contained.
GILTON TO EASTRY 707
Among the vessels bronze bowls take the first place. Two
graves, 8 and 19, each contained a shallow thin beaten bronze
bowl resting on a three-legged trivet. The one in no. 8 had
been patched in several places. A more remarkable example
of such repairing came to light in a grave near Gilton that
Roach Smith described in 1842. He speaks of 'spear heads,
battle axes and swords of iron, umbones of shields, fibulae,
buckles, beads, a glass cup and crystal balls,' and in conjunc-
tion with these of two bronze dishes, the larger 21 in. in
diameter by 5 in depth, of thin metal with handles attached
by plates soldered on,^ the smaller, of thicker metal, 14 in. in
diameter with drop handles and an open work rim for a foot,
as in the examples PI. cxiv, 4, 5. This last was cast, the
larger one beaten, and this had been repaired ' at a date long
subsequent to that of the fabrication of the basin,' with two
pieces of a different metal on which are some curiously fan-
tastic designs, figured in Archaeologia, as below.
The remarkable discovery made at Coombe near Sandwich
about 1848 has been already noticed (pp. 222, 696).
In connection with Woodnesborough, at the end of the
Ash series of cemeteries, an extraordinary phenomenon
reported from the end of XVIII has been already noticed
(p. 482). There were then discovered on a farm about thirty
glass tumblers of Jutish date, and these were so well pre-
served that they were kept at the farm to be used at ' harvest
homes ' and on other special occasions by the farm labourers !
Akerman in 1855 engraved the only one which then survived,
and it is reproduced PI. cxxii, 2 (p. 481).
Eastry, on the road between Sandwich and Dover, is a
site where natural changes have been great. The ground rises
here for the ascent of the downs but an inlet of the sea once
extended as far as the present flat ground at the foot of the
hill. A little inland from Eastry and adjoining it is Buttsole,
and here from time to time discoveries of Anglo-Saxon graves
^ Arckaeologla, xxx, p. 132 f.
7o8 SOUTH COAST CEMETERIES
have been made and are described in a book by the Rev.
W. F. Shaw entitled Liber Eastriae^ or Memorials of Eastry}
The most interesting finds are not mentioned in the book,
but some letters recently found by Mr. Hubert Elgar in
the Maidstone Museum give all the information required.
According to one from Mr. W. W. Cobb, of Dec. 29, 1866,
the objects in question including the remarkable appliques in cast
bronze PI. xxiv, 2, 3, 5 (p. 203), the arrow heads PI. xxxii, i
(p. 237), the three umbos PI. xxii, 1 (p. 197), were found by
Sir Samuel Chambers, of Updown by Eastry, at the site of
a cottage called ' Southbank,' between the Lynch, the Cross,
and Buttsole and close to the main road near Brook House.
Mr. Cobb presented the objects to the Museum. A letter
from the Rev. W. F. Shaw written after his book had been
published confirms this. It may be added that in addition to
the objects just mentioned there were also three swords, corre-
sponding to the three umbos, that are now in the Museum
and are remarkable as being rather different in size and shape
from the usual Jutish or Anglo-Saxon swords. This bears on
the suggestion that these burials were of three warriors of a
different stock from that of the population in general, see
(p. 203). ^
The list of sites round Richborough Haven may be con-
cluded with a mention of Walmer, on the Waterworks Hill
behind which some discoveries have been made,^ and Ring-
wold on the downs above Kingsdown. A few Anglo-Saxon
objects found here in the middle of XIX are in the British
Museum.^
II. THE SOUTH COAST CEMETERIES
The grouping here is artificial and a matter of convenience.
Dover, Folkestone, and Lymne the Roman Tortus Lemanis,
1 London, 1870. Sec also Hasted's Kent, vol. x, p. 101, where dis-
coveries made in 1792 between Buttsole and Eastry Cross are described.
2 ykt. Hist., Kent, i, 363, 3 j^.^^ Joum., ix, 304.
DOVER AND FOLKESTONE 709
are all accessible from the sea, and so too on the northern
coast is Reculver the ancient Regulbium, and at all of these
Anglo-Saxon objects have been found. At Folkestone, and
also a little inland at Lyminge actually on the upper waters of
the Lesser Stour, round headed radiating fibulae have been
found suggesting an early date, and we may ask ourselves the
question what would be the position of these three Roman
seaports and the other natural havens after the Jutish conquest.
The immigrants came as sea-farers and either they or their
kinsfolk had been for some time before the settlement familiar
with the sea ways between Britain and the Continent, but they
settled down as farmers, and we read little about their mari-
time activity after the actual conquest. See however (p. 765).
How far they used the ports we cannot tell but they have
left their traces on or near their sites.
At Dover the finds have been sporadic and not specially
early. Objects figured on the plates were discovered on the
Priory Hill, Pll. cxlvi, 3 (p. 535) ; cix, i (p. 457), and at
the Old Park at the back of the town on the road to
Canterbury, PI. lxviii, i (p. 341).
Folkestone offers more of interest for here we have the
outcome of the exploration of a regular cemetery. The
situation and character of this have already formed the
subject of comment (p. 142), and the nature of the inter-
ments has been illustrated Pll. xii (p. 151); xv (p. 157). The
exploration of the cemetery is of very recent date but on the
site^ some years before 1849 there was found a round headed
radiating fibula ^ similar to that just mentioned from Lyminge,
the earliest object that the cemetery has furnished. In 1889
nine graves were opened on the site, but the principal discoveries
were made in 1907, when 25 graves of men, women, and
children were laid bare in connection with the widening of the
^ Sometimes located as being a little below the inn 'The Valiant
Sailor.'
2 T. Wright, T6e Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon, Lond., 1875, p. 482.
IV X
710 SOUTH COAST CEMETERIES
road to Dover at an awkward turn by the chalk pit, see Fig. 4
(p. 141), near the summit of the long rise. There were no
external indications of the graves, though the down at this
point does not seem ever to have been brought under cultiva-
tion. There was one skeleton in a crouching position, and in
the case of one of the extended ones, no. 21, there were
indications of a violent death, for there was a knife blade
thrust into the right side below the ribs through part of the
back bone, the knife remaining in that position. The feet
were as a rule turned east- south-east, facing, it was noticed,
the rising sun in November or January. The objects dis-
covered are in the Folkestone Museum, and they comprise
several pieces of special interest.
Arms are a feature of the collection. A double edged
sword of the usual type had its scabbard covered with leather
which seemed to have been ornamented with crossed bands of
white. There were ten spear heads with the usual variety in
their forms and two shield bosses of the hemispherical shape,
one of which has its central flat stud and the five studs or rivet
heads round its rim tinned, and was surrounded as it lay with
other plated bronze studs that indicated a breadth for the
shield of about 30 in. There were also 25 knives, but the
most striking object was the long ' dagger ' figured PI. xxviii, 6
(p. 227). There was one handsome garnet inlaid disc fibula
and several buckles, with numerous amber and glass beads,
and with them some apparently of fossil encrinite, as at
Broadstairs (p. 432). One large iron buckle can be com-
pared with the specimen at Maidstone PI. lxxiii, 2 (p. 2SS)-
There was also a small mounted crystal ball, and a bottle
shaped vase which was one of the later finds of 19 10.
Science owes a debt to Mr. A. G. Nichols, Burgh Engineer
of Folkestone, for the care with which he supervised the
excavations, making ' a careful plan to scale of the exact
position and orientation of every skeleton brought to light
as well as a photograph of nearly every one before it was
FOLKESTONE AND LYMINGE 711
removed.' 'One skeleton,' PI. xii (p. 151), 'he removed
uninjured by sawing away the ground in which it was em-
bedded and pushing an iron plate below it after the saw. In
this he did what f^w anthropologists would have had the skill
or resources to carry out, and procured what I believe is the
most valuable Anglo-Saxon specimen in the world.' The
words here quoted are from a paper by Professor F. G.
Parsons ' On some Saxon bones from Folkestone.' -^ He
found on the site in 19 10 four more skeletons, and drew up
a report on the remains as a whole, reckoning the stature of
the males at about 5 ft. 6 in. and that of the females at
5 ^^' Zi '^^'i ^^^ difference in the stature of the two sexes
being not so great as it is now. The men ' were not up to
the average of upper middle class Englishmen of the present
day,' which is about 5 ft. 9 in. or 5 ft. 10 in. These estimates
of stature are interesting in comparison with those that have
been made in the past in connection with other discoveries
of skeletons. As a rule the older accounts give the impression
of an average stature above that of the present, and quota-
tions from these that may be found by reference to the index
have been given from time to time in the pages. As is the
case with the subject of comparative craniology referred to
previously (p. 186), this question of the estimate of stature
from the evidence of bones is one for careful scientific investi-
gation, for which there seems still to be room.
The notice of Anglo-Saxon burials at Folkestone would
not be complete without a reference to a discovery of an urn
with calcined bones, reported in 1850 as having been made
in the part known as the Boyle or Bayle in that corner of
older Folkestone near the parish church. On the strength of
the report previously quoted (p. 696) the case has been marked
on the Map (p. 691) as a possible example of Jutish cremation.
At Lyminge, a place well known to students of Anglo-
Saxon architecture and history, see Vol. i, p. 279, Vol. 11,
^ Journal of the Ro;jal Anthropological Institute, vol. xli, Jan. -June 191 1.
712 SOUTH COAST CEMETERIES
pp. ii8, 128, 273, two objects of special interest were found
accompanied by Anglo-Saxon arms and one or two other
items. ^ They are a round headed radiating brooch and a
cruciform brooch with fixed knobs and horse's head foot — one
of half a score of examples of the cruciform type found in
Kent on which a word will afterwards be said (p. 718). In
the neighbourhood of the old Roman station at Lymne, but
not on the actual site, skeletons have been found with
characteristic Anglo-Saxon objects/ the most interesting of
which are a buckle with oval chape of the Prankish type, the
great rarity of which was signalized in connection with the
example from Ipswich, PI. lxxi, 6 (p. 349), and a back plate
connected with a girdle (p. 357), both engraved with linear
and conventional ornament of early character.^
The site of Stowting has been included with the fore-
going. Lymne is the starting point of the Roman road, the
so-called Stone Street, from Portus Lemanis to Canterbury,
and we may ask how far this road seems to have been used
by the Jutes in connection with their settlement of the
country. As the crow flies Stowting is less than a mile from
the Stone Street but it has no topographical relation to it.
The present village and the Anglo-Saxon cemetery lie in
a hollow of the chalk downs in the secluded situation
characteristic of the settlements, while the Roman road
traverses at a considerable height the bare down, and the two
localities are in no way in touch. At the other end of the
Stone Street there were Saxon burials on Chartham Down,
but they are more than a mile from its line and in
closer connection with the Stour valley below it. The fact
is that along all its course save at its southern extremity the
Stone Street passes through a country bare of settlements to
a degree quite surprising in populous Kent.
1 Proc. Soc. Ant., x, 206. 2 jjj_^ j^^ j^g^
3 The pieces are figured in C. Roach Smith's Richborough, Reculver, and
Lymne, p. 264.
STOWTING 713
The successive discoveries at Stowting, made in a field
above the church and rectory and well above the village, are
of great interest, and the earliest were described in a pamphlet
by the Rev. Frederick Wrench, rector of Stowting.-^ There
are three dates involved. In 1844 thirty skeletons were
discovered, in 1866 twenty-five graves yielded up as many as
thirty-four bodies,^ and seven more were opened in 1881.^
The earlier finds are figured on three plates in the pamphlet
and many of the objects are still preserved in the rectory,
where through the kindness of the late Rev, A. Upton the
present writer had an opportunity of inspecting and photo-
graphing them. Several have been shown on the plates, as
for example the pierced umbo PL xxii, 4 (p. 197), the three
silver disc fibulae PI. cxlvi, 5 (p. S^S)^ ^^e bronze bowl
PI. cxvi, 3 (p. 471), the girdle ornament and shoe shaped stud
PI. Lxxv, 6, 7 (p. 358). The Stowting objects were on the whole
of an early character. There were two spathas, one ^6 in.
long, the other possessed of a small embryo cocked hat
pommel like the example at Guildford, PI. xxvi, 2 (p. 219),
and other arms. Women's graves, in one of which a perfect
skeleton measured only 5 ft. 2 in., produced beads, some of
which were of the small double form, while one was a melon
shaped blue glass bead of the Roman type, and the three
fibulae mentioned above.
The discoveries of 1866 were chiefly remarkable for some
burials of special interest. In grave 5 in the enumeration in
Archaeologia^ xli, there were two adult skeletons with the
bones of a child at the feet of one of them. No. 9 was
a grave 9 ft. long by 4 ft. wide oriented north and south as
an exception to the eastward orientation prevailing here as
in Kent generally, and it was richly supplied with tomb
furniture (p. 167). It was evidently the tomb of a lady of
^ J Brief Account of the Tarish of Stowting, London, 1845.
2 These discoveries are recorded in Archaeologia, xli, 409 f.
^ Ass., XXXIX, 85.
714 SOUTH COAST CEMETERIES
distinction, and around the skull was some of the gold wire
or gold strips noticed at Bifrons, Sarre, and other Kentish
sites as well as at Taplow (p. 385). Near the head was
placed a well-preserved wooden bucket mounted in bronze,
4|- in. high and 4|- in. in diameter, and this was protected by
slabs of chalk carefully placed above and around it. Among
the ornaments were a button fibula with the usual full-faced
head, two square headed brooches and a circular inlaid one,
together with the remains of a Romano-British bronze
enamelled fibula. Five bronze tags were at the waist and
there were other small objects of the same material, together
with two Roman coins pierced for suspension. No. 21 was
the interesting plural interment mentioned previously (p. 158).
Here were six skeletons apparently all of women and all
deposited at the same time. ' This,' writes the explorer,-^ ' was
a remarkable grave or rather vault. It contained six skeletons,
all lying nearly north and south. It was of a circular shape,
nearly nine feet in diameter ' (and about 4 ft. 6 in. deep).
' The skeletons lay all on the same level. The skull of the
second touched the left shoulder of the first, and the skull of
the third the left shoulder of the second. The skulls of the
other four were parallel with the shoulders of the second
interment. The feet were curved round, and nearly all
together, corresponding in some degree with the circular wall
of the grave. The interments lay so close together that there
was great difficulty in distinguishing the special relics of each.'
Then follows an inventory of the copious tomb furniture.
There were four or five necklaces of beads one or two of
which ' consisted almost solely of small double and triple
beads and bugles,' and there were two of the blue Roman
melon beads, in both cases an early symptom. A silver plate
fibula of quatrefoil shape closely set with twelve garnets
conveys the same impression as to date, and so does a small
circular garnet fibula, and a bronze object catalogued as
^ Mr. John Brent in Archaeologia, xli, 413.
STOWTING, ETC. 715
a fibula but evidently part of a horse trapping of the pattern
of PI. c, 4 (p. 423). The inlaid square headed fibula 2^ in.
long, the bronze and iron buckles, the bronze suspension
rings or annular brooches, the spiral silver finger ring found
encircling a phalanx, etc., etc., have no special significance
but serve to convey the impression of remarkable richness
of equipment in the unique interment.
The excavations of 1881 produced ordinary objects, but
grave no. 6, oriented north and south, contained a body in
the crouching position, by the right side of which was a spear
head 21 in. long and a ' knife ' 15 in. long, 'on which was
laid a smaller knife 8 in. long. Both had evidently been
contained in the same sheath.'
As regards chronology the first half of VI may be set
down as a probable average date for the Stowting interments.
III. CEMETERIES OF THE LESSER STOUR VALLEY
As we have noted above (p. 696) cemeteries begin here
near the mouth of the stream at Stodmarsh and continue till
beyond Barham, while there have been grouped with these two
outlying sites inland from Dover, Barfriston and Sibertswold.
Now it is a remarkable fact that all these cemeteries save one
are comparatively late, the objects found in them suggesting
dates not earlier than the latter half of VI and running on to
the middle of VII, whereas in one case, that of Bifrons, about
half-way up the valley, we find a cemetery of the same class
as Ozengell or Sarre, the use of which may well have been
begun by a community settled in its chosen seat in the last
half of V. The site of Bifrons on the south-eastern slope of
the valley of the Lesser Stour is at the same time close to the
line of the Roman road from Dover to Canterbury, and the
settlement or settlements which it served may quite well have
been formed by early immigrants who were advancing along
that thoroughfare from east to west. The other cemeteries
7i6 LESSER STOUR VALLEY
appear rather to be the result of the later peaceful penetration
of settlers to the country sites up river valleys and in the
hollows of downs, that suited their tastes and mode of life.
It is true that Wingham and Wickhambreux are near the line
of road from Richborough westwards, but the objects found
on these sites are comparatively late as are those in the other
cemeteries of the group, excluding of course Bifrons. Most
of the sites, but not Bifrons nor the three mentioned just
below, are those of cemeteries excavated by Bryan Faussett in
XVIII, and inventorized in the often quoted publication that
embodies his reports.
Near the lower reaches of the stream at Wingham,
Wickhambreux, and Stodmarsh a few graves have been
opened that revealed some objects of great artistic interest.
From eight graves at the first named place the British Museum
has been enriched with some fine inlaid jewels of the class
characteristic of Kent, as well as other objects, some of which
were illustrated by Akerman when they were in the collection
of the finder Lord Londesborough. A disc fibula and a
bracteate-like pendant he figures in Pagan Saxondom, pi. xi,
I and 4, a pin with jewelled head, pi. xl, 3, a cast bronze bowl,
pi. X. At Wickhambreux ^ another bronze bowl was found
together with a sword, near the hilt of which lay a jewelled
stud not unlike those which have been noted in connection
with other cemeteries, PI. cxlvii, 4, 8, 9 (p. 537). Here
also was a lobed beaker of glass. Stodmarsh^ a mile to the
west of the stream produced ornamented fibulae, buckles, and
studs, and a jewelled spoon with perforated bowl. The objects
are now in the British Museum.
The cemetery at Bifrons has already been brought pro-
minently before the attention of the reader (pp. 27 f., 150,
168 f., 192 f., and, in connection with the plates, passini).
The name, a whimsical appellation of XVIII, applies to the
house, in the park attached to which the cemetery was dis-
'^ Arch. Cant., xvii. ^ Archaeologia, xxxvi, 179 f.
BIFRONS 717
covered. It lies on a slightly levelled site half-way up the
hill above the stream. The land had been under the plough
and no tumuli were to be seen. In 1866 some twenty graves
were opened/ and in 1867 ninety-one, the contents of which
are described grave by grave by Godfrey Faussett in Archaeo-
logia Cantiana^ vols, x and xiii. The objects found are for
the most part in the Museum of the Kent Archaeological
Society at Maidstone. At the same time that this systematic
exploration was going on, a responsible servant of the pro-
prietor, Lord Conyngham, was opening a number of others,
with due care but without any note of the special contents of
each grave, and the objects from these embracing many of great
interest are preserved at Bifrons House. No plans were made,
but we are told that some of the graves from no. 70 onwards
were laid in a very even line. The graves were as a rule
shallow ones, in the chalk under the supersoil, and there were
some traces of coffins. There were several cases of double
interments and in no. 83, a kind of pit, there were five bodies.
The orientation was remarkable (p. 168 f.), and tall stature
of women as well as men was inferred by the explorers from
the skeletons they laid bare. A warrior in grave 72 was
credited with a stature of 6 ft. 3 in., and was armed with
sword, spear, shield and knife, and it was reported of some
of the shields that from the position of the umbos in the
graves they must have been oblong rather than round. This
was observed in graves 34, 37 and 39, and in no. 37 there
were indications of the former presence of wood along the
left side of the body which suggested to the explorer a bow,
for the right side was occupied by a spear of which the head
was beside the right cheek and the ferule near the feet. A
double grave, no. 64, showed, below, a female skeleton with
some gold strips and, above, a male skeleton with an iron
* dagger.'
Any analysis of the Bifrons tomb furniture would be super-
^ Arch. Cant., vi, 329.
7i8 LESSER STOUR VALLEY
fluous, as specimens of all the characteristic items have been
already figured and described in the preceding chapters. A
note may however here be added on the specially early objects
found at Bifrons which justify its separation from the other
burial grounds of this group that may conveniently be termed
the ' Faussett ' cemeteries.
The most striking point of difference between Bifrons and
cemeteries like Kingston or like King's Field, Faversham, is
the absence from the former of the usual Kentish garnet inlaid
work especially in the form of the more ornate disc fibulae
such as those shown Pll. cxlv, i to 4 ; cxlvi, i to 4 (pp. ^23^
535) or on the Frontispiece to Vol. in, and the jewelled buckle
plates of triangular or other forms, such as PL B, iv, right
(p. 353). These pieces are so thoroughly Kentish that their
absence from a conspicuous cemetery of at least 150 graves is
remarkable and only to be explained by the fact that they are
late, belonging to VII, when the use of the Bifrons cemetery
must have been over. The Bifrons inlaid brooches PI. cxlv,
6, 7, 8 (p. 533) with their close settings are of the earliest
type, or like PI. xxxvi, 10 (p. 245) are of the intermediate age.
Of the early round headed radiating fibulae four specimens
were found. Some of the small square headed brooches on
the top line of PL xxxiv (p. 245) can be shown to be of early
date by a comparison with finds at Chatham (p. 740), but it is
the cruciform brooches that are specially significant. Brooches
of this type have been shown to furnish a differentia between
Anglian and Saxon tomb furniture (pp. 586, 624) being char-
acteristic of the former but a very rare Ingredient In the latter,
Kent for some reason is better supplied in proportion than the
Saxon districts and about ten examples are known of which
five are furnished by Bifrons. PL xxxv, 5, 10, 12, figure
three of them, and like the rest of the five they are of the
kind that have the side knobs detached, indicating a date
somewhere about 500 a.d. In one Bifrons tomb there was
a collection of objects to which on comparative grounds a
BEAKESBOURNE, BOURNE PARK, ETC. 719
similar date has been assigned. Most of these objects are
figured Pll. XXXIV, 10, 11 ; xxxvi, 6, 8 ; xciv, 2 ; cix, 2.
The bracteate with the intelHgible figure of a leaping man,
PI. cvii, 8, left hand (p. 453) is early. Buckles with the
romanizing animal heads of early type are shown on the
Bifrons card PL lxx, 6, 9 (p. 347).
At no great distance from Bifrons, but above and to the
east of the valley, Faussett in 1773 opened forty-five graves
between Adisham and Beakesbourne. The location was, in
Faussett's words, ' as usual, on the crest of a very high part
of the Down,' where there were to be seen two or three groups
of tumuli, large and small, the most considerable being 70 ft.
in diameter and 10 in height. Two skeletons were within it
(no. 44). The graves were cut in the chalk and the tumuli
heaped over them, coffins being sometimes used. With few
exceptions the feet pointed east. This was a case where signs
of earlier cremated burials were frequently observed, in no
fewer than eight instances out of the forty-five, though actual
remains of burnt bones are not notified. In no. 16 was a
patera of ' Samian ' or, as Faussett calls it, ' fine coralline ' ware
as well as a cinerary urn. There were coins of Maximian and
Diocletian, and in no. 30 an interesting find of ornamented
leather, that seems to have formed part of a child's belt. This
has a very Roman appearance, and may be compared with the
Roman ornamented leather from Newstead in the Museum of
the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. A few arms were
found but there was little else. The objects are at Liverpool.
Several sites in the valley about Bishopsbourne and above
it were excavated in XVIII and again about 1844. In 1749
three graves were opened in what was then a wood near
Bishopsbourne and the bodies were found oriented with feet
to the north. Faussett opened some in 1771 and he stated
that there were at the time about 100 tumuli visible in the
park of Bourne Place. In the first volume of the Archaeo-
logical Journal Thomas Wright gives a circumstantial report
720
LESSER STOUR VALLEY
Fig. 26. — Section of Barrow Graves at
Bourne Park, Kent.
of the opening of three barrows at Bourne Park in 1844.^
' As in all Saxon barrows,' he writes, ' the deposit is not in the
mound itself, but in a rectangular grave dug into the chalk.'
Two of the graves were very spacious, measuring about 14 ft.
in length with a width of 6 to 7 ft. and a depth of 3 ft., and
Fig. 16 gives his sketch of the section of them with the
tumuli above. The
other grave was smaller
and appeared to be that
of a woman. In each
of the three there seems
to have been a bucket.
No. I furnished part of a sword blade but the contents of no. 3
were of much interest." There was a bucket about i ft. in
height and diameter, a conical shield boss and perhaps a spear
head, with the very unusual item of a horse's bit, with which
may be compared the find PL c, i (p. 423) from Gilton, no. 83.
There was also a beaten bowl ' of very thin copper ' with iron
handles, about i ft. across by 2^ in. in depth, and strongly gilt.
There were also two counters, one of bone and one made out
of a piece of * Samian ' ware, but there was no trace either of
the bones of a skeleton or of ashes.^ The graves lay nearly
north and south.
The village of Kingston lies in the valley of the Lesser
Stour far below the ridge along which runs the Roman Road
to Dover. ' Near the top of the hill,' writes Faussett,'* ' on the
hanging side of it, which fronts to the north-west . . . are a
number of '* tumuli sepulchrales," or hemispherical mounds of
earth, of various heights and diameters, which stand pretty
close and contiguous to each other.' Two hundred and sixty-
three of these barrows were opened by Faussett in the years
^ The account is given also in Inv. Sep., 95, note.
2 T. Wriglit, The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon, Lond., 1875, p. 468.
2 ' It was, in fact, an Anglo-Saxon cenotaph.' ibid., p. 469.
■* Inv. Sep., p. 35.
KINGSTON 721
from 1767 to 1773, and besides these he rifled forty-five
graves not marked by tumuh on the same site, and the con-
tents of the whole three hundred and eight tombs were
systematically described in his own excellent fashion. This
is for the number of the interments examined the largest
English cemetery of which a definite record was kept, but
although it has the distinction of having produced the finest
piece in all Anglo-Saxon grave furniture, it was not on the
whole richly endowed. No plan is given, but it was remarked
by the editor-^ that a set of graves about no. 25 seemed to
belong to the humbler section of the community, while it may
be added that about no. 92 were many graves of children.
More than 95 per cent, of the bodies had the feet towards the
east, and Faussett notes that the graves which furnished
exceptions to this orientation ' were always, and without a
single exception, found at the extreme verge, or utmost limits,
of the burying ground.' ^ The graves were ' regularly and
neatly cut out of the firm chalk,' and in 183 cases Faussett
found indications of coffins and about half of these seemed to
him to show traces of having passed the fire. There were
13 cases in which more than one body was found in a grave,
and three graves, nos. 142, 205, and 299, are singled out from
all the rest by their exceptional richness in furniture. In 205,
a grave 10 ft. by 8 ft. and 6 ft. in depth, a child seemed to
have been buried previously to the interment of the chief
occupant, who was presumably its mother. Arms indicated
male interments in 43 cases and women were diagnosed
through beads, etc, in 54. There were 31 graves of children.
There were four cases in which earlier interments had
been disturbed, nos. i, 4, 23, 137, and in no. 4 burnt bones
were actually discovered. No. 178 produced a patera of red
* Samian ' ware, and there were Roman coins in five graves.
Among these was one of the Emperor Claudius, 41-54 a.d.,
that was much worn and had been pierced for suspension, but
1 Inv. Sep., p. 48, note. 2 ibid., p. 40.
722 LESSER STOUR VALLEY
the rest were all of the last half of III and the first half of IV,
from Gallienus, 260-, to Constantlne, -337, and this shows
that comparatively early coins may occur in late cemeteries.
From the chronological point of view the little objects shown
PI. X, 2 (p. 115) are the most interesting in the cemetery.
They are two little equal armed crosses of silver, less than
|- in. across, that were each made up with back pieces, and a
filling of some cement held in position by a silver rim, into the
form of a pendant. They are clearly of Christian origin.
They were found in the richly furnished woman's grave
no. 142.
At Kingston weapons were not nearly so much in evidence
as in the cemeteries nearer the coast, and there were only
three doubtful cases of swords. Some very small heads of
darts left Faussett uncertain whether they were meant for
children or were really arrow heads — a class of objects very
rarely represented in Anglo-Saxon graves (p. 241). Knives
made their appearance in 144 graves, in those of children and
females as well as of men.
In the matter of personal ornaments we are met by some-
thing of a paradox, for while grave 205 contained the famous
Kingston fibula, sufficient in itself to make the fortune of a
cemetery, and four other fine disc fibulae inlaid with garnets
were also found (two in grave 299), yet with a couple of
trifling exceptions no other fibulae came to light. Only a
mile or two away at Bifrons, a cemetery only half as large
as Kingston yielded up the varied collection of fibulae of all
sorts of types which has been noticed above Pll. xxxiv, v, vi,
(p. 245), but in place of the square and round headed ' long '
fibulae, the bird fibulae, the little button and saucer ones, and
the rest, we only find at Kingston beside the four discs a
couple of primitive-looking little wire safety pins Fig. 10
(p. 249) that seem to have fastened the hose of the lady on
whose breast blazed the great Kingston gem. It is to be
explained by chronology (p. 546 f.) that the inlayed disc fibulae
KINGSTON AND BREACH DOWN 723
so well represented here were just the one kind lacking at
Bifrons. The silver rings with sliding knots (p. 455) were
largely in evidence and some had evidently been earrings.
Nearly fifty graves contained beads, and amethystine beads
and pendants, rather a Kentish speciality, were represented in
exceptional abundance.
In the department of vessels, there were two bronze bowls
with the rich interment 205, and in no. 76 a bronze bowl
with the scutcheons ornamented with Late-Celtic patterns
(p. 475 f.). Urns and glass vessels were fairly represented.
The graves being so numerous we should expect a harvest of
miscellaneous objects, and in nine graves there were traces of
the wooden boxes that seem to have contained little personal
belongings of the ladies (p. 417). A dainty little bronze
workbox from grave 222 contained two needles. There were
half-a-dozen pairs of shears. Two ivory sticks in no. 299
may have been spindles, and their pointed ends would fit into
the holes in the exceptionally large beads that are not seldom
found and are probably spindle whorls. A double-toothed
comb appeared in 302, two Cypraea shells in 142 and 299,
and there was a crystal ball in no. 6 but no perforated spoon.
The strike-a-light also occurred in a female grave, no. 299.^
Breach Down is the name of a cemetery on high ground
located about a mile to the west of the Canterbury and Dover
road. Here in 1841 Lord Albert Conyngham, F. S.A.,
'counted one hundred and three tumuli upon that part of the
Downs near the village of Barham,' and in the autumn of that
year he opened sixty-five, communicating his results to the
Society of Antiquaries in whose Archaeologia^ vol. xxx, they
were published. In 1844 eight more were opened,^ and a
similar number in the succeeding year. The drawing repro-
duced in Fig. 7 (p. 179) conveys a good idea of the impression
made by these groups of primeval-looking sepulchres on the
^ The Kingston finds are in the Mayer-Faussett collection at Liverpool.
2 Arch. Journ., i, 379.
724
LESSER STOUR VALLEY
bare and deserted downs. They vary in size and one, which
was found empty, was 132 ft. in circumference by 8 ft. in
height. The graves as usual were cut in the chalk subsoil
and all were oriented east and west save no. 8 of 1844 which
had the feet pointing north. It was reported of the skulls
that they seemed of rather a low type.
Fig. 27. — Urn from Breach Down.
There were two cases of intrusive burial of which no. 32
was the most interesting. Here was an interment of a Jutish
warrior with a sword, 2 ft. 6 in. long with ' four small buckles
lying about the middle of the sword blade ' (a phrase that
rather suggests the studs on the scabbards of the long scrama-
saxes found on the Continent), an umbo, a spear head, and
' at the head of the grave a ribbed urn of red pottery con-
taining calcined bones.' The urn is engraved,^ and is shown
in Fig. 27. It will be seen that it is girt with projecting
horizontal bands that will be at once recognized as Late-Celtic
^ Jrchaeologia, xx.v, 47,
SIBERTSWOLD AND BARFRISTON 725
in character. This is of considerable importance as fixing the
approximate period of the earlier burial. The date of the
Anglo-Saxon interments may be judged from the pin with
cross-head, PL x, 5 (p. 115). For the sceat coins found on
this site see (p. 109).
The objects found were as a rule unimportant. There
were three swords, of which two were accompanied by spears.
Knives were as usual very common. In grave 52, by far the
most richly furnished of all and attested as female by a small
disc fibula, a silver bracelet, and some beads, there lay upon
the pelvis a massive silver buckle with triangular shaped plate
of gold on which was a pattern of interlaced beasts, an obviously
late object. In no. 49 was found part of the jawbone of a
horse, and the discovery of pyrites in no. 28 reminds us of a
similar find in the South Saxon cemetery between Glynde and
Ringmer and in that at Alfriston PI. xcviii, 5 (p. 415).
The above concludes the list of known cemeteries in or
about the valley of the Lesser Stour. On the other side of
the ridge that carries the Roman road, three or four miles
east of Breach Down, lies the important joint cemetery of
SiBERTSwoLD AND Barfriston, of which we learn in the
Inventorium Sepulchrale. The ground here is undulating but
presents no marked elevations. At Sibertswold, — the two
cemeteries though practically continuous are separately
enumerated — Faussett opened 181 graves, and it is worth
noting, as bearing on the varying conditions governing pre-
servation of the contents of graves, that in a set of tombs
which, in the absence of a plan, may be assumed to be con-
tiguous there were the following differences : — in no. 2Z
the bones were pretty perfect, in 35 sound, but in 34, 1^6,
and 37 they were almost gone. Almost all the graves were
under tumuli and in one hundred and eleven there were traces
of coffins that appeared to have been made very solidly, the
wood often seeming about 3 in. thick. In one case, the very
rich burial no. 172, the coffin had been * strengthened by
IV Y
726 LESSER STOUR VALLEY
eighteen pieces of iron, each having a strong rivet at each end,
and three iron staples.' Only five graves varied from the
usual eastward orientation and of these the bodies in nos. 13
and 14 had the feet to the north, while in nos. 136 and 160
there were in each case two interments under one mound one
of each pair having the feet to the north while the companion
body lay east and west. In no. 34 a child's body pointed
with its feet to the west (p. 189). Weapons indicated males
in 41 cases ; beads, etc., females in 41, and there was a group
of males with weapons occupying 9 graves out of the 1 1
between nos. 105 and 115. There were several instances of
plural interments beneath a single tumulus. Wedded pairs
seem to have lain in nos. 86-7 and 102-3 » ^^^ ^^^ latter case
both were aged, in the former there was a transverse fosse
forming a communication between the two graves which lay
parallel and about 2 ft. apart. A mother and child seem to
have occupied under one tumulus nos. 172 and 173, and in
grave 6, 5 ft. deep, there were ' at least four ' skeletons. There
were one or two graves, notably 172, with abundant furniture.
As is so often the case in this region there was ample
evidence here that the site or part of it had been used for
sepulchral purposes in Romano-British times. A gruesome
incident narrated by Faussett brings this fact into clearest
light.^ The farmer who used the land on which some of the
tumuli were situated told him that a couple of years earlier his
men had found ' in two holes or nests ' a couple of large urns
of about the capacity of a bushel each ' entirely full of pieces
of men's bones, which plainly appeared to have been burnt.'
In the true spirit of reverence for the past they immediately
set the treasures upon end and were found ' busy in pelting
the jars with some large pieces of very hard stone, which they
had ploughed up at the time they found them ' ! When
Faussett visited the place of execution he found it littered
with * a vast number of sherds of paterae of fine coralline
^ I1W. Sep., p. 127.
SIBERTSWOLD AND BARFRISTON 727
earth' ('Samian' ware), ' and other vessels of difFerent materials,
colours, and sizes,' and he noted the inscription PRIMITIVI on
the bottom of one of the paterae. In tumulus 164 two earlier
cinerary urns were found, with ' many pieces of burnt bones.'
In the matter of weapons five swords are reported, in each
case accompanied by a spear or a dart. A sort of dagger, in
no. 177, had a bronze pommel of curious form, and a blade
13;^ in. long, and weapons which Faussett calls 'knives' are
given lengths in the blade of 20 in. (no. 45), 10^ in. (no. 58),
and 9 in. (no. 95). In 58 there was a spear head which seems
to have had the remarkable length of about 2 ft. 2 in., and in
98 the head of a barbed dart about 1 1 in. long. It was noticed
in several cases that the javelin heads were reversed, with the
points towards the feet, e.g. nos. 150, 157, 176. Umbos,
conical and hemispherical, were in evidence.
The contents of the female graves were varied and
abundant, and a speciality of the cemetery was the excep-
tional collection of pendants found in grave 172 and figured
PI. cm, I (p. 427), the rest of the ornaments and feminine
impedimenta being of the kinds represented at Kingston and
in the other * Faussett ' cemeteries.
The vessels comprised a considerable number of urns, in
nearly a score of graves, three glass cups, two of which were
in the male grave 157, and the very curious find of a couple
of small wooden bowls or drinking cups, which Faussett
estimated would hold about a pint apiece. Both of them
were bound with bronze round the lip and one had a number
of straps of bronze riveted on in a very curious and irregular
fashion. There are several examples of the discovery in
cemeteries of ornamental metal edgings to bowls of the kind,
e.g. PL Lxviii, I (p. 341), but this find of the wooden bowls
themselves, in grave 69, was quite exceptional. The objects
from here and Barfriston are at Liverpool.
Barfriston, an adjoining cemetery though separately
enumerated by Faussett, ofFered the contents of forty-eight
728 GREATER STOUR VALLEY
graves, all under tumuli and ranged in the general direction
east and west, with coffins that all showed marks of burning
in about half the number. There were the usual traces of
earlier cremated burials in some tumuli about No. 26 and
elsewhere. A 'Samian' ware fragment appeared in No. 39,
and a narrow necked vase apparently Roman in 25, while
four graves had urns (not cinerary) contemporary with the
interments. In the vase just mentioned there were some
coins, one of Constantine. and one of Theodosius the Great
378-395 A.D. A bronze buckle suite was shown PI. lxxiv, i
(p. 357). In grave 38 there was a pierced bronze plate very
like a Prankish girdle ornament, PL xcii, 3 (p. 401).
Besides the above, and a single sword, there was nothing
of special interest in the cemetery, but the usual objects were
fairly represented. There were five vessels of glass, one of
which is figured PI. cxxii, 3 (p. 48 1).
IV. CEMETERIES OF THE GREATER STOUR VALLEY
Chartham Down. This site is three or four miles to the
south-west of Canterbury between the roads leading to Chilham
and to Wye, half a mile to the south of Chartham church, and
on the slope that leads past the present County Asylum towards
the fine upland crossed at a height of 350 feet by the Stone
Street. Here was to be seen in XVIII a collection of about a
hundred tumuli, twenty of which were opened as early as 1730
by Dr. Mortimer, secretary to the Royal Society, and his
report on them is printed by Douglas in the Nenia Britannica,
p. 99 f.,^ where is also given a plan of the tumuli that is
reproduced here in Fig. 28. It is interesting to know that
Bryan Faussett, then a boy of ten, gained his first experience
in work of the kind by watching the proceedings, while later on,
in 1764 and 1773, he himself examined the contents of fifty-
^ And also, with omissions, in the Inv. Sep., p. 162 f.
CHARTHAM DOWN
729
three more of the tumuli. When however Charles Roach Smith
published the Jyiventorium Sepulchrale in 1856 the down land
had been brought into cultivation and not a vestige of a mound
was to be seen. Faussett's later investigations were not very-
fruitful and he found nearly half the graves unfurnished, but
the earlier excavations produced some good results, and
Mortimer's account of the opening of the first tumuli, A, B,
and C on the plan, Fig, 28, is interesting enough to be quoted.
They were each about 23 ft. in diameter and 3 ft. high. ' On
opening the top they found in these, as in all the others,
Fig. 28. — Plan of Tumuli on Chartham Down in 1730.
somewhat more than a foot of common earth ; then chalk
rubbish for about two feet, which was easily removed with a
spade. But when they came to the level of the basis, or a
little lower, they found the natural soil to be solid chalk, in
which was hewn a trench about eight feet long, two broad,
and one and a half deep, and commonly running nearly east
and west. This trench seems to have supplied the place of a
coffin to the deceased. The bones of one person (sometimes
the skeleton nearly whole and entire), with the head to the
west, lying at the bottom of them ; in some with large flint
stones ranged on each side of the body, in order, I suppose,
to keep the earth from pressing on the corpse ; and all the
rest was filled with chalk rubbish, lightly flung in, so that
730 GREATER STOUR VALLEY
even now it could be removed by the hands.' The contents
of the grave were valuable and hicluded a fine disc fibula of an
uncommon pattern figured by Douglas pi. v, no. i, fig. i,
two garnet pendants, one gold pendant of the bracteate form
with an unmistakable cross worked into the design of the
centre,^ a crystal ball, a bronze bowl and two vessels of glass.
Tumulus B contained indications of an earlier cremated inter-
ment. Another gold bracteate pendant with very curious
interlacing pattern stamped upon it was in tumulus E, and is
figured by Akerman on the plate referred to in note i. Pins,
buckles, and beads, weapons of the usual kinds, and some
miscellaneous objects of no great importance completed the
inventory of the contents of these twenty barrows.
In the fifty-three graves mostly oriented east and west that
were explored by Faussett in 1764 and 1773 one or two objects
of special interest came to light, but it is curious that, with the
exception of what he suggests was a ' toy' pilum, with head 5^
in. long, not a single weapon made its appearance. Grave 9
produced a notable object in the form of a small silver
pendent cross of the Latin form, shown PI. x, 3 (p. 115),
while to set against this no. 16 offered a Roman bronze key
and two Roman bracelets of bronze and no. 26 a Roman
stylus^ 7 in. in length. In 48 there were the bronze mountings
of a wooden drinking cup, like those in grave 69 at Siberts-
wold. A unique object was the hanger and hooks for
supporting a pot over the fire (p. 416).
Crundale and Wye are situated on the eastern side of the
valley of the Great Stour two thirds of the way from Canter-
bury to Ashford. On the downs above the villages numerous
graves have been opened. There have to be noticed,
(i) excavations made by Faussett on Tremworth Down by
Crundale in 1757 and 9, and, (2) sundry scattered discoveries
of which notes are given in the Victoria History ^ that have
1 It is figured by Akerman, Tagan Saxondom, pi. xi, 3,
2 Kent/^i, p. 368.
CRUNDALE AND WYE 731
enriched the British Museum with one or two articles of
special interest.
(i) Faussett's discoveries were made 'on the north-west
side of a very dry and pretty steep hill ; the top of which
commands a very extensive and beautiful prospect.' ^ The
site however was not chosen by the Teutonic immigrants, for
the cemetery was really Romano-British and the Jutish burials
were intrusive. The diggings were the first in point of time
to which Faussett set his hand, and it has been pointed out
that the fact that most of the objects he found here were
Roman fixed the idea in his mind that all similar burying
grounds in the county would be of the same character, and
led to the curious result referred to (p. 123). Faussett
opened twenty-seven graves none of which were under tumuli,
and he is careful to note their exceptional orientation. The
skeletons had their feet to the west, an orientation which he
tells us in a later note written apparently in the autumn of
1773 (see Inv. Sep.^ p. 198) he had only observed once in all
his researches, namely in Kingston, no. 149, a burial of a
young person. Everywhere else he says, ' at Ash, Chartham,
Kingston, Bishopsbourne, Sibertswold, and Barfriston . . .
they were found, in general, with their feet pointing to the
east, or near it,' though, he adds, ' some few, indeed, I have
met with at some of those places, which pointed with their
feet to the north, or near it.' In these 27 graves evidence
that the body had been burned appeared in eleven cases, and
in practically all these there were specimens of Roman pottery
mostly in the form of ' Samian ' ware. In no. 9 there was
also a Roman fibula. All these cremated burials but one were
in the first dozen opened by Faussett. Nos. 8 and 11, and
all from no. 13 to no. 27 (except no. 21 which seems to
have lain a little apart from those nearest it in the enumera-
tion), contained unburnt skeletons, nos. 8, 18 and 26 being
plural burials. The date of some of these interments with
^ Inv. Sep., 195.
732 GREATER STOUR VALLEY
unburnt bones can be fixed In the Jutish period by objects,
such as beads, a pin, a buckle found with no. 1 8 ; an urn of
Saxon type and a knife with no. 22, a skeleton about 6 ft.
6 in. in length ; amber {}) beads, an iron chain and remains
of a wooden coffer, and pendent knick-knacks in 24 ; but in
other cases the appearance of remains of iron (25 and 26) or
of a knife (13, 23) is not sufficient to decide whether the
interment was before or after the Teutonic settlement. The
blade of a knife was found in no. 9 with a cremated burial,
Samian ware, and an undoubtedly Roman bronze fibula. With
the skeleton in no. 24 was a coin of the younger Faustina,
wife of Marcus Aurelius, and this fact is used by Faussett to
date the burial back to the period of that emperor. His
argument is of course a fallacious one and the burial was
without doubt that of a Jutish lady. No urns of any sort
were found either with the skeletons or with the ossuaries.
The disposition of the latter is thus described ; the ' bone-
urns were all of them placed in round holes of about two feet
diameter, and about as many deep, in general, in the firm
chalk. They always occupied the centre of the hole (or nest,
as I have ventured to term it) ; and the smaller and empty
urns and paterae, which always accompanied them, were placed
round them. There was never more than one ossuary in
a hole, or nest.' ^ The phenomena thus described are of much
interest, for the instance is the most conspicuous one in the
county of that continuity in burial customs from the Romano-
British to the Teutonic period to which attention has been
directed (p. 694).
(2) The other discoveries were made casually at various
dates, and many of the objects resulting from them were in
the well-known Durden collection, which was dispersed
without any full record being published of the provenance of
the various items.
Two important objects figured on the plates come from
1 Inv. Sep., 196.
KING'S FIELD, FAVERSHAM 733
these sites and they are both of an advanced date. One is the
sword pommel with interlacing ornament PI. lxiii, 4 (p. 329),
and the other the handsome late buckle with the Christian
symbol of the fish, PI. lxxiii, i (p. 355).
V. WATLING STREET CEMETERIES
King's Field, Faversham. The line of the Watling
Street from Canterbury to London was as we have seen not
markedly avoided by the Teutonic settlers as was the case
with Roman roads in England generally. The richest of all
the Jutish cemeteries abutted on it at a point near where it
descends into the plain between the North Downs and the sea,
after crossing the offshoot of the former that runs to the west
of Canterbury. The situation was a favourable one for
a settlement as there was easy access on the north to the
sea, and here some distance to the north of the Roman
thoroughfare was the old town of Faversham. The cemetery
which has yielded up so many treasures lay between the town
and the road and the site of it bore the name of The King's
Field. Some time before i860 the line of the London,
Chatham and Dover railway cut through a portion of it and
brought to light some graves the existence of which had
been previously unsuspected.^ From that date till 1894 the
^ In connection with this cemetery, the writer acknowledges with
gratitude the information Icindly placed at his disposal by Mr. George
Payne, F.S.A., who remembers the first cutting of the London, Chatham
and Dover railway which led to the discovery, and has kept the explorations
throughout under his attention ; and also by Mr. J. Wilkie Morris, of Favers-
ham, who has indicated to the writer the boundaries of the cemetery, and
given to him interesting details. According to this local resident any one
standing at the point where the road southwards over the down to Ashford
leaves the main Roman road, and looking north past the station, would bisect
by his line of sight the large plot wherein the interments were found. The
boundaries are, roughly speaking, to the west Canute Road and Plantation
Road, to the north Cross Lane and a prolongation of its line eastwards,
while they reach on the east almost to the Recreation Ground, and cut
734 WATLING STREET CEMETERIES
cemetery yielded a rich harvest, but there was at no time
any scientific exploration nor any record of the position and
contents of single graves nor indication of the local relations of
the various craves one to the other. The ground between
the railway and the Roman road, a quarter of a mile to the
south, was topped with a stratum of brick earth in which the
graves had been dug, and this earth was gradually removed
during the period just indicated so that the present surface
ot the soil, now covered with small houses, is sensibly lower
than the land in its environment. The graves came to light
casually in the course of these operations as well as the earlier
ones connected with the railwav, and the objects found were
sold by the workmen. A large number of specimens, some
of which are of great interest and beauty, were collected by
Mr. William Gibbs, of Faversham, and bequeathed by him
in 1870 to the Science and Art Department. They are at
present in the British Museum. Other objects passed into
private collections, such as those ot Mr. John Brent, F.S.A.,
Sir John Evans, and the late Mr. David Kennard of Linton near
Maidstone. Some of the objects were once in the possession
of a well-known burgess of Faversham who held the property
of the brickfield, but so far as the writer has been able to
ascertain Faversham itself has now nothing to show of all the
treasures from her soil which she yielded up to strangers.
The small local Museum has no single piece. No complete
inventory ot the finds was ever made and the private
collections mentioned above are dispersed all but that of
Mr. Gibbs. Of this a catalogue was drawn up by Charles
Roach Smith and published by the Science and Art Depart-
ment in 1 87 I.
across from its south-west corner by St. Catherine's Church to this same
corner of the Ashford Road. The Watling Street naturally forms the
boundary to the south. The whole area on this showing would have
measured about a sixth part of a square mile, but as has been noticed above
no scientitic record was kept of the positions or contents of the graves.
KING'S FIELD, FAVERSHAM 735
The cemetery is not on high ground, though there is a
gentle slope from the site of it to the lower part of the pleasant
town, and a much more pronounced elevation might have
been secured within a mile or so in the direction of the downs,
had any special point been made of this. No tumuli are
mentioned as marking the graves, and no evidence of cremation
of Jutish date seems to have come to light. The situation
along the line of a Roman road may be considered to show
amenability to classical influences which would of course be
especially potent in Kent. A considerable amount of Roman
pottery was found at or near the site which may have been used
by the Romans for funereal purposes. Indications of early date
exist, but in relation to the finds generally were not much in
evidence. There is a round close-set garnet brooch in the
British Museum ; also radiating brooches and a typical long
cruciform fibula ending in the horse's head. Likewise a bronze
plate for a belt ornament with a design incised on it that may
be compared with similar work on objects of the romanizing
type shown PI. clv, i, 2 (p. S^S)- Two saucer brooches
2^ in. in diameter were also found. As indicating an advanced
period there may be mentioned a disc fibula in the national
collection that exhibits both the cross and the swastika in its
design, while the cross with an undoubtedly Christian signi-
ficance occurs on some bronze scutcheons for fixing the
suspension loops for bronze bowls PL x, 6 (p. 1 15).
The Gibbs bequest is strong in the matter of arms. A
faceted crystal sword pommel may be compared with a similar
one from a Gothic grave in the Museum at Odessa, and there
were several other sword blades, as well as a store of umbos,
spear heads, and knives. Some bronze horse trappings are
among the most showy examples of metal work of the kind
that our Teutonic graves have yielded up to the light, PI. ci, 2
(p. 423). The coarse interlacing work shows them to be
of a date well on in VII.
The treasure in golden and inlaid ornaments for the person
736 WATLING STREET CEMETERIES
gives its special distinction to the cemetery. The fine Kentish
disc fibulae with garnet inlays, of the late VI and of VII, were
much in evidence, and at least fifty examples must have been
found on the site. Some rare forms of buckle are figured by
Charles Roach Smith in Collectanea Antiqua, vi, pi. 24, and
with them were found some strap ends. A buckle, silver gilt,
with triangular plate with three round headed studs and an
inlaid gold plate carrying zoomorphic ornament, is of a char-
acteristically Kentish form. An ornamented pin for the hair
PL Lxxx, I (p. 369) carries on the top the figure of a bird
resembling the bird fibulae common in Merovingian art. The
presence of gold strip as in graves at Sarre, Bifrons, and else-
where, may be signalized. Two small objects in gold are
figured on the colour plate B, iv, middle (p. 353), but any
list of such trinkets would necessarily have to be a long one.
Faversham is just a site where imported objects might be
expected to emerge, for the community it served was evidently
a wealthy one, and the position of the place in the track of
land commerce between the ports serving the Continent and
London would bring it into touch with outland products.
In the case of more than one object found on the site a foreign
origin has been suggested, and one instance is the piece of
silver-plated iron shown PI. xvii, 5 (p. 175). Objects again
not brought from overseas but belonging to other regions of
England would not surprise us by their appearance in a place
so very much in the world, where well-to-do people lived at
a comparatively advanced period of Anglo-Saxon culture. In
a charter of Coenwulf, King of Mercia, 811 a.d.,^ the place is
referred to as *oppidum regis quod ab incolis ibi Fefresham
appellatur,' and the traditional name ' The King's Field ' is
significant. The name, Mr. Morris says, inspired the diggers
of the brickfield, so that they worked under great excitement
expecting every moment to unearth the crown ! The cemetery
has a certain cosmopolitan aspect. The saucer brooches have
1 Thorpe, Dlflomatarium Jnglkuni, p. 57.
TEYNHAM AND SITTINGBOURNE 737
been explained on this ground (p. 628) and the same may be
said of the object shown PI. clviii, 4 (p. 807). This is a
bronze girdle hanger (p. 394 f.) and is the only piece of the
kind known to the writer as occurring in a cemetery south
of the Thames (p. 398).
Under the heading vessels may be noticed the cast bronze
bowl shown PI. cxiv, 4 (p. 467), almost certainly an imported
piece, the interesting feature about which is that it contains
hazel nuts. Lindenschmit noted similar objects in a bronze
bowl found in a woman's grave, no. 10, at Selzen in the
Rhineland.^
Another bronze vessel was of the thin type, beaten and
not cast ; this had attached to it enamelled discs with hooks
on their rims by which the bowl could be suspended. An
ornamented rim of a drinking vessel is also to be noted. The
pottery was not important and appeared to be largely Roman,
but one urn figured in the Victoria History ^ p. 372, is of a
pronounced Merovingian type. On the other hand there was
a good display of glass, among other pieces being that shown
PI. cxxv, I (p. 485) which almost exactly resembles a glass
vessel found near Alands in Gotland in a grave of VII,
PI. cxxv, 2.
Finds of garnet-mounted gold jewels, arms, etc., are
reported from Teynham, halfway between Faversham and a
site of some importance, Sittingbourne, near which place
several fields have yielded examples of Teutonic tomb furni-
ture. Between 1825 and 1828 about fifty skeletons are said
to have been disinterred in a stratum of brick earth, like that
on the King's Field, Faversham, on a declivity north-west
from Sittingbourne church.^ There were no outward marks.
The cemetery had been in use before, and earlier cremation
interments, not in this case Romano-British but older and of
the Bronze Age, were disturbed. There were both arms and
^ Das germanische Todten lager bei Selzen, p. 15.
2 C. Roach Smith, Coll. Ant., i, 97, quoting earlier reports.
738 WATLING STREET CEMETERIES
ornaments of the usual kind, and among the latter was the
very fine disc fibula of the ' Abingdon ' type now in the
Museum at Dover, PL cxlv, 3 (p. 533). At Dover also is the
conical umbo, PL xxiii, i (p. 199) found here that seems the
best extant one of its kind. There was also a melon shaped
glass bead of Roman type. Again in 18 80-1 discoveries
were made at the western end of Sittingbourne, on a site where
Romano-British cremated burials already existed. The Jutish
interments numbered about forty and seem to have been of
the late VI. Three large square headed fibulae set with
garnets and worked with animal motives, and a fiddle shaped
inlaid pendant, figured PL cxlvii, 7 (p. 543), are evidence of
this. Here too was an iron spur, an object excessively rare
in Anglo-Saxon graves (p. 421 f.).
MiLTON-NEXT-SiTTiNGBOURNE was the scenc of the dis-
covery of some early objects amongst which is a cruciform
fibula with loose knobs and a horse's head foot, in the Maid-
stone Museum, and, in the same collection, two of the round
faceted bronze discs noticed among the romanizing bronze
objects PL CLii (p. 558). Here too a Roman gold finger ring
with sard intaglio was found with a skeleton accompanied by
a glass vessel, a gilt bronze buckle, and an iron spear head.
At Upchurch not far away there were discovered in 1852 a
disc fibula inlaid in a star pattern, a green glass cup, amethyst
beads, and a piece of Samian ware.-^
Among the first discoveries of Teutonic remains in Kent
that were properly published are those made by the Rev.
James Douglas within the military lines on the downs above
Chatham and described in Nenia 'Britannica under the headings
Tumuli i-iv, VI, ix-xri, xvi-xx. Moreover some of the graves
thus opened chanced to be among the earliest Teutonic inter-
ments in the country, so that the question naturally arises
(p. 690 f.) whether the settlers in question had gradually
advanced by the land route from Thanet westwards, or had
1 Coll. Ant., II, 16 1.
CHATHAM LINES
739
reached this locality at a bound by the direct access by water
up the Medway. Evidence of interments had come to light
as early as 1756 and Douglas from 1779 onwards opened
fourteen of what he called ' tumuli.' As he remarks however,
p. 3, note, that ' the soil is chalky, has been plowed over,
gardens were upon it, and, before it was purchased for the
King's service, there was a rope-walk precisely on the site of
the tumuli^ there cannot have been much to show, and Douglas
may have used the word 'tumulus' as equivalent to 'grave.'
The site was the ' western slope of the steep hill, which faces
the town of Rochester.' The bodies were as usual in cists
excavated in the chalk and Douglas noted some indications
of coffins.^ The orientation was very noteworthy, and is
described as generally in the meridian line, the feet pointing
to the south, though in one or two cases the feet were turned
to the north, and this was the case with the specially early
female interment in tumulus 11 and the warrior's burial in
tumulus I shown PL xiii, 2 (p. 126). The contents of the
graves are systematically inventorized by Douglas and in most
cases figured. They afford some valuable guidance as to
date. One remarkable discovery in this respect was that of
two female skeletons apparently in the same grave ^ but
described separately in the Nenia under the headings ' Tumulus
XVII ' and ' Tumulus xviii.' Douglas considered that the
bodies were those of relatives or friends and that xvii was
interred before the other. He distinguished the furniture of
the two interments and it is remarkable that while that with
XVIII is characteristically Teutonic the objects with xvii are
just as distinctively Roman, Both bodies had their feet to the
south. With xvii was a glass bracelet, two bronze bracelets
and a bronze finger ring, all of Roman type, and another
1 Nen. BriL, p. 57, note. He adds however that in other cases the
size of the shield which he gives at 30 in. renders the presence of a coffin
very problematical.
2 'This grave or cist contained two female bodies.' Nen. Brit,, p. 58.
740 WATLING STREET CEMETERIES
bronze bracelet with expanded ends of Celtic appearance.
With XVIII on the other hand were a round headed radiating
fibula set with garnets and with a diamond shaped foot,^ a
small square headed fibula, shoe shaped studs, some gold
strip found near an ivory armilla and probably once worn on
the arm, amber beads, etc., all familiar features in Jutish
graves. In tumulus ii there appeared two small round headed
fibulae with three radiating knobs, and two square headed ones
with linear ornament and with cross on foot, a perforated
silver spoon inlaid with garnets found between the thigh bones,
a small button fibula with head upon it, no fewer than ten silver
wire rings strung with beads as if for earrings, and Roman
coins of Anthemius, 467-472, and some other emperors.
This is certainly a very early burial of the last part of V or
the beginning of VI. Tumulus iv revealed a handsome late
digitated fibula of silver," a crystal ball with rings for suspen-
sion, amber beads, Roman coins, a glass cup, etc. ; tumulus vi
another small three knobbed radiating fibula and two square
headed ones. In tumulus xx there was a small bronze Roman
coin with helmed head and VRBS ROMA on the obverse and
on the reverse a good example of the wolf and twins type with
wolf's head turned towards the children and T H P below ;
also an open work knife handle with hound pursuing a hare,
of the kind shown PI. clv, 3, 4 (p. 563). A disc fibula with
keystone garnets was found in tumulus xii, and in xix
tweezers occurred in conjunction with the beads that indicate
a feminine interment. Two arrow heads of iron are figured by
Douglas from the cemetery. A large number of the objects
found are in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford.
Writing in 1868, Charles Roach Smith ^ drew attention to
the fact that Saxon cemeteries have not been found in any
^ Figured Nen. Brit., pi. xv, 5.
2 ibid., pi. IV, 7.
3 Coll. Ant., V, I 39 ; compare also Mr. John Brent in Jrckaeologia, xli,
416 (1867).
ROCHESTER AND STROOD 741
obvious connection with the important Roman urban centres
in Kent. This is as we have seen (p. 137 f.) notably true
of Canterbury, for the capital, though on three sides of it
there are excellent elevated sites for burial grounds of the
Teutonic type, contributes no cemetery to the present list.
It is true too of Dover, but Rochester, though it seemed
to Mr. Roach Smith a case in point, is on rather a different
footing. Not only, as we shall see presently, have Saxon
interments been found close to the Roman burial place at
Strood just on the other side of the Medway, but two places
in Rochester itself have yielded graves with Teutonic tomb
furniture. At Star Hill, Eastgate, in 1852 twenty skeletons
were found, accompanied with a Roman twisted bronze
bracelet, five spear heads, a rectangular ornamented plaque
with characteristic zoomorphic enrichment, a garnet keystone
brooch and some beads ; and again in 1 892, near St. Margaret's
church, several bodies were found in cists cut in the chalk
with feet towards the east and enough tomb furniture to
identify them as Jutish.
The case of Strood on the other side of the Medway from
Rochester has already been quoted (pp. 115 f., 138) as an
example pointing to continuity in burial arrangements between
Roman and Saxon. Another Jutish grave found casually
about a mile west of this spot in 1859 contained, with other
arms and characteristic objects, the rare weapon known as the
angon (p. 238). Two localities up the Medway, Maidstone
and HoUingbourne by the Len, yielded Anglo-Saxon objects,
and in each case there was a contiguous deposit of urns that
have been called ' cinerary.' There is no proof that they
actually contained ashes, so the case cannot be considered one
of Jutish cremation.
Reasons have been already given (p. 61 1) for regarding the
Anglo-Saxon cemeteries in North Kent to the west of the
Medway as rather West Saxon in character than Jutish, and a
IV z
742 JUTISH KENT
notice of these has been included in the chapter that deals
with the settlements in the Thames Valley (p. 627 f.). A retro-
spective glance at the tomb furniture found on the Jutish
sites now passed in review may here suitably be taken and a
final word said upon the fascinating but very obscure ' Jutish
question.'
The existence of a ' Jutish question ' is due to the para-
doxical character of the phenomena involved. Bede derives
the Jutes from the northern part of the ' Cimbric ' peninsula,
and Bede's statement is generally acknowledged to carry very
great weight. In Jutish graves in Kent there are found
objects of two classes that are specially characteristic of Scandi-
navia, bracteates and cruciform brooches, and so far archaeo-
logical evidence strengthens Bede's position. On the other
hand however, the overwhelming majority of the objects in
Jutish graves have no special affinities with the North but
rather with the Rhineland and with northern Gaul, and this
makes it impossible to accept Bede's statement as involving a
direct migration of the Jutish population from Jutland to
Kent and Hampshire. Some compromise is clearly necessary.
Either the Jutes were a homogeneous people, in which case
we must assume that they reached our shores not directly
from their northern seats but after a prehminary sojourn
somewhere near the mouths of the Rhine ; or the Jutes were
a composite people, one section coming from the North and
bringing with them the traditions of Jutland, and another
section consisting in tribes that had descended at an earlier
date towards the South and had had time before the migration
to England to assimilate Rhineland and Prankish culture.
This Jutish question is discussed by Mr. Thurlow Leeds in
the last chapter of his Archaeology of the Anglo-Saxon Settlements
and a perusal of his well balanced arguments will furnish
much material for thought to those interested in this somewhat
complicated but very interesting subject. Mr. Leeds empha-
sizes the importance of Frisia as an intermediary between
THE JUTISH QUESTION 743
Jutland and the Rhine district, and points out the rather
significant fact that in the modern Friesland discoveries have
been made of the same two classes of northern objects which
we have just noticed as intrusive elements in Jutish graves —
bracteates and cruciform brooches. PI. cvii, 7 (p. 454) shows
three bracteates at Leeuwarden from Frisian terpen, the
central one of which closely resembles in design some of the
bracteates from grave 4 at Sarre, such as the one in the right
hand bottom corner of the plate. Two Frisian cruciform
brooches at Leeuwarden are shown PI. clviii, i, 3 (p. 807).
Hence a hypothesis which Mr. Leeds seems to adumbrate is
a plausible one, that genuine Jutes from Jutland, headed by
the sept that later on furnished the Kentish royal house the
genealogy of which is thoroughly northern, filtering as it
were through the intermediate Frisian region, amalgamated
in the Rhineland with a contingent of the Ripuarian Franks,
and that the two sections combined formed the population
that ultimately settled in Kent.
Rhineland cemeteries unquestionably exhibit very many
close parallels with the regular Jutish tomb furniture, excluding
the bracteates and the cruciform brooches, and the connection
with the Rhineland is made closer by the bottle shaped vases
found in Kent and on the Rhine, though not in Merovingian
Gaul. The supposition that any large body of the Kentish
settlers were actually of Frankish race may seem hazardous, as
if this were the case we should expect a closer correspondence
than actually obtains between Kentish and Frankish culture
generally, reckoning institutions as well as material objects
represented in the tomb furniture.
It is not possible to enter into any detailed discussion of
these questions which would involve the marshalling of
linguistic and philological arguments as well as those drawn
from records and from archaeology. It is sufficient to have
presented the archaeological evidence connected with the prob-
lem of the Jutes, and to have indicated certain hypotheses on
744 JUTISH HAMPSHIRE
which this may be reconciled with the evidence drawn from
other sources.
THE JUTISH SETTLEMENTS : HAMPSHIRE AND THE
ISLE OF WIGHT
It is notorious that Bede's statement about the settlement
of Jutes in the Isle of Wight and on the opposite coast ^ is
borne out by discoveries made in Teutonic cemeteries on the
Island which have yielded objects strikingly resembling those
found in Kentish graves, but when the first volume of the
Victoria History of Hants was published in 1900 Mr. Reginald
Smith could only say that ' up to the present time no dis-
coveries on the coast opposite the Island have revealed any
trace of Jutish occupation.' Soon after that date however a
Teutonic cemetery was opened at Droxford in the Meon
country about eight miles north of Fareham,^ and the contents,
now in the British Museum, supply archaeological evidence
that confirms, though in no very striking fashion, the state-
ment of the father of English history. Finds in the Isle of
Wight consist partly in objects that are of a specially Kentish
character and only occur rarely in other districts. The Drox-
ford objects comprise nothing of a kind not found in the
Island and in Kent, and one piece strikingly resembles Kentish
work. The cemetery may fairly be regarded as Jutish.
The discoveries at Droxford were made in connection
with railway works on the line from Fareham to Alton and
there was no outward indication of the cemetery. The area
of it was confined to the summit of a hill and the interments
1 How much of the opposite coast was thus settled is uncertain. Bede's
words in Hist. EccL, iv, 16 denote the Mcon district watered by the Hamble
(if this be equivalent to ' Homelea ') as Jutish land, but the Jutes may have
settled also to the west of Southampton water. The evidence is discussed
in the Fictoria History, Hants, i, p. 380 f.
2 Proc. Soc. Jilt., 2nd Ser., xix, 125.
DROXFORD, ETC., AND ISLE OF WIGHT 745
were numerous and close together. Some bodies lay east and
west but others were ranged from north to south. There
was no indication of cremation nor of any earlier use of the
site for burials. The cemetery agreed with some of those in
Kent, such as Sarre, and also with the South Saxon Kingston-
by-Lewes, in the large display of arms, but in ornamental
objects it was poor and pottery was very sparingly represented.
A cross bow brooch, a survival from Roman times, may be
taken as an indication of early date, and the number of
weapons points in the same direction.
These weapons included no fewer than 6 swords, 32 spear
heads, 8 umbos with three well preserved shield handles, and
it is noteworthy that with one of the swords there were found
two unusually large spear heads. Small saucer brooches of
the button type, found in Kent and also more abundantly
among the South Saxons, occurred, but the small square
headed brooches constituted a more striking point of similarity,
for kindred objects are characteristic of the Isle of Wight
finds and also occur at Bifrons and elsewhere in Kent. There
were Roman coins of M. Aurelius and Faustina as well as
others of later date.
The Museum at Winchester contains some objects found
at Brockbridge, between Soberton and Droxford, including
two interesting saucer fibulae of late character, PI. lxviii, 5
(p. 341), the foot part of what was probably a round headed
radiating brooch, and a bronze mounted bucket — objects not
specially Jutish in character, and, on the evidence of the saucer
brooches, not of early date.
The downs in the south-west portion of the Isle of
Wight were studded in parts with Celtic barrows, and in-
trusive Jutish burials have been found in some of these.
Excavations on Brightstone and Bowcombe Downs, about
1850-60, are recorded in the Journal of the British Archaeo-
logical Association^ vols, xi, 34, 177 f., and xvi, 253 f. A
barrow on Bowcombe Down 62 ft. in diameter with an
746 THE ISLE OF WIGHT
elevation of about 6 ft. revealed intrusive Saxon interments.^
There were a fine sword with part of its wooden scabbard and
bronze chape still preserved, some good spear heads, one
1 8^ in. long with part of the shaft still in the socket, an umbo
with silver plated rivets of bronze, a knife 7 in. long. A
female skeleton was found in a crouching posture with an iron
knife grasped in her left hand. She had a bead necklace and
a saucer shaped button brooch with full-faced head.'"^ A male
skeleton lying north and south had at the right side of the
waist three gilded bronze button brooches and a fourth under
the chest, while there also appeared the remarkable feature of
a Romano-British enamelled bronze brooch with the design of
a hare. It is figured PI. clviii, 6 (p. 807). Near the knee were
six large beads which it is remarkable (p. 435), but not quite
unexampled, to find with a male interment. The primary
interment in the centre of this barrow was Celtic but the
Teutonic immigrants ' employed its ample dimensions for
their funereal purposes, while round it clustered other of their
graves forming from their numbers a complete cemetery.' ^
The character of the cemetery closely resembled that of the
better known one on the neighbouring Chessell Down which
Mr. George Hillier's descriptions have made so familiar, but
the orientation was very irregular.
The finds on Chessell Down are recorded by the writer
just named in the first part of his History and Antiquities of the
Isle ofJVight^ issued to subscribers in 1 855-. A series of plates
illustrates the principal objects, and some further information
and illustrations are Qriven in C. Roach Smith's Collectanea
Antiqua^ vol. vi. An etching by Mr. Hillier reproduced in
the last named work, p. i 50, shows a female burial of excep-
tional richness. Mr. Hillier in 1855 found and reported on
about 100 skeletons, but he records some earlier explorations
of 1815-18 on Chessell and neighbouring Downs. Seven
skeletons were found on Arreton Down in 18 15, mostly as
1 Ass., XVI, 254 f. '^ ibid., xi, 187, fig. 4. ^ ibid., xvi, 260.
ARRETON, SHALCOMBE, AND CHESSELL DOWNS 747
intrusive burials in earlier tumuli in which there was evidence
of cremation.^ The next year some barrows were opened
on Shalcombe and Chessell Downs and produced about 30
skeletons, with which were found several objects resembling
those found in Jutish graves in Kent, as for example a pair of
disc fibulae with garnets arranged triangular fashion. The
most striking resemblance is that between a pair of round
headed fibulae of curious form at Bifrons House and one
found at Chessell in 18 16 and figured by Mr. Hillier on
his p. 25, see Fig. 21 on (p. 620). The King's Field,
Faversham, had produced others of the same kind, figured
in Collectanea Antiqua, vi, pi. 26, 4. In 1818 some more
Chessell graves were opened but no further discoveries are
reported till 1855 when Mr. Hillier's own researches began.
It was his impression that the cemetery had been in use during
a lengthened period, and that the earliest graves were at the
base of the down, the later ones lying on the higher levels.
The lower graves had no tomb furniture, and among them
there were three instances of cremation. The upper ones had
characteristic Anglo-Saxon objects, and it seems probable that
the lower ones were really pre-Teutonic. This would account
for the instances of cremation, which otherwise would be quite
exceptional in the Jutish area.
The bodies were placed two to three feet apart and were
sunk to depths between three and six feet. The orientation was
generally north-east to south-west but six skeletons lay due
east and west. ' That there had been originally mounds, or
some other mark of recognition over the graves ' Hillier had
no doubt, but none were then visible. The bones were as a
rule well preserved and in one case there seemed to be a
family burial, for a warrior armed with sword, spear and
shield and with a bow and arrows had next him the body of
a child, while beyond this lay a female skeleton. The man
was on his left side and the woman on her right so that they
^ Hillier, I.e., p. 25.
748 THE ISLE OF WIGHT
faced each other (p. 190). There was evidence in some parts
that graves had been used over again, the original burials
having been disturbed. Few special indications of date were
to be found in the tomb furniture, except a radiating fibula
noticed below. A large ring fibula without its pin, called by
Hillier a buckle, is furnished with the knobs which, suggesting
Celtic tradition, we have taken to be as a rule an early-
indication.
Arms were fairly numerous and presented several points
of interest. Hillier figures five spathas of which four have
the most primitive form of hilt while the fifth had a cocked
hat pommel, double plates above and below the grip, and
some ornament at the top of the scabbard, all of silver. Knives,
of which two were nearly a foot in length and might be called
scramasaxes, were found with a large proportion of the
interments. There were 24 spears, and as seemed to be the
case in the Gilton and other Kentish cemeteries (p. 242) they
were of two kinds, the long war spear 6 ft. or 7 ft. from
point to ferrule, and a shorter lighter implement about 4 ft.
long. Twelve umbos were found, of the same types as in
Kent, and the shields, about 18 in. in diameter, were usually
placed over the knees, but in one case the head and in another
the feet were covered by the buckler. One axe head of the
francisca form was preserved, and another was said to have
been found by a workman in a marl pit and to have been
hafted by him and actually used as a tool. This was also done
in a similar case in Belgium where a Prankish axe head was
found and put to modern use. With its new handle it is
preserved in the Museum at Brussels. The enigmatical object
of iron like a sword blade with a tang at both ends occurred
here in the same form as in Kent, PL xcix, i, 2 (p. 419).
The most interesting find in the way of arms was that of
arrow heads, 24 of which were recovered, both barbed and
bolt shaped. In the same grave we are told that * the presence
of the bow, about five feet in length, could be distinctly traced
CHESSELL DOWN 749
by the dark, line of decomposed wood which remained in the
chalk.' Some supposed arrow heads, it will be remembered,
were found in Kent, as at Chatham, and at Buttsole by Eastry
PL XXXII, I (p. 237).
Under the head of objects of personal adornment the first
place is taken by the fibulae. Earlier finds of garnet-set disc
brooches and long fibulae occurring also in Kent have been
noticed above (p. 747), and Mr. Hillier himself procured 2^
fibulae from Chessell Down, 20 of which were of silver, the
rest of gilded bronze. The types represented are as follows : —
(i) button shaped saucer fibulae with heads, (2) larger saucer
fibulae, (3) disc fibulae with keystone or triangular garnets,
(4) radiating, with 5 knobs (a broken specimen was taken from
a grave that seemed to be earlier in date than most of the
tombs), (5) small and large square headed fibulae very like
some found in Kent but also similar to South Saxon finds,
(6) bird fibulae, which occur in Sussex, but are also represented
in Kent, (7) an equal armed fibula with two semi-circular ends
with projecting knobs (Hillier's no. 31) resembling continental
forms but with no fellow among British finds. It may be
noticed that the garnet-set disc fibulae so characteristic of
Kent, though represented in the Isle of Wight, only occurred
in one example here and in a pair at Shalcombe.
Where fibulae were found here there was always more
than one, and in the case of the interment referred to above ^
there were no fewer than five. In regard to the position of
the fibulae as worn (p. 382) it may be well to quote the
following from Mr. Hillier's volume, especially as the book
is a rare one, not existing in the British Museum Library.
* The position which the fibulae retained on the skeletons,
seemed to point to the conclusion that the part of the Anglo-
Saxon attire to which they had been attached was either a long
dress, open partly down the front, or a tunic, which, being
confined round the waist by a belt of leather or some other
1 Co//. Jni., VI, 150,
750 THE ISLE OF WIGHT
substance, was closed at the breast and neck by the fibulae.
When two were found they were invariably removed from
those positions, and when three were exhumed, it was clear
that a similar arrangement had prevailed, with less space
between them. This description, however, only refers to the
smaller kind of fibulae taken from skeletons supposed to be
those of ladies ; for the two larger (Nos. 27 and 41), which
were apparently on the remains of males, were probably
employed in fastening a mantle.' ^
Thirty-three belt buckles were found In the hundred
graves, varying from the plain ring with hinged pin and no
buckle plate to those furnished with these, though not with
the handsomely ornamented triangular plates met with in
Kent. There were some strap ends and shoe shaped studs
exactly of the Kentish form. Seven finger rings were found,
one of gold, one of bronze and five of silver. Beads were abun-
dant, two graves having produced 100 each. A large propor-
tion, as in Kent, were of amber, and there were many examples
of the early blown glass beads with one millefiori bead.
Under the heading vessels may be mentioned a bronze
mounted bucket, a bronze pail, Pll. cxix, 6 ; ix, 2 (pp. 475,
103), and a bronze bowl intended for suspension, while the grave
shown Coll. Ant.^ vi, 150 seemed to have two silver mounted
wooden vessels, one by each foot. Mr. Hillier found no
glass, but vessels in this material had resulted from the earlier
explorations. An annular object in bronze, no. 49, appears
connected with horse trappings, and may be compared with
PI. c, 4.
Lastly, the striking discovery was made of two mounted
crystal balls, one of which was accompanied by a silver spoon
the gilded bowl of which was perforated with the usual holes.
These are exactly of the same kind as similar objects found
in Kent.
^ Hillier, p. 32. The writer is indebted to the Council of the Society
of Antiquaries for kindly granting him the use of their copy of the volume.
CHESSELL DOWN 751
As regards date the majority of the objects suggest the first
half of VI, though later objects were found. The absence of
the more ornate inlaid disc fibulae so common in Kent and
belonging to VII is significant in view of the historical
accounts we have relating to the island. The Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle states that in 530 a.d. it was overrun by the West
Saxons, and later on it seems to have passed under the power
of Mercia, for in 681, according to what Bede tells us, the
Mercian king Wulfhere dealt with it as if it were his own,
handing it over to the king of the South Saxons. We can
gather at any rate that the Jutish culture of the island, flourish-
ing at the end of V and in the early part of VI, would have lost
any power of development before VI was over, and would
not reflect the later artistic phenomena of Kent.
CHAPTER XV
THE ANGLIAN KINGDOMS
It is unfortunate that Bede, an Angle by race, has trans-
mitted to us so little information about the coming and first
settlements of his northern countrymen on British soil. The
Anglo-Saxon Chronicles have preserved for posterity pictur-
esque though somewhat dubious indications of the early days
of Teutonic conquest, but these entries refer to the southern
parts of the island to which the compilers of the annals them-
selves belonged. Similar traditions probably existed among
the conquerors of northern Britain and Bede might well have
recorded them. About the origin of the Anglian race, he
informs us in the often quoted passage, ch. 15 of his bk. i,
that they came from the country called ' Angulus,' which is
without doubt the district still called Angeln in Schleswig,
though he gives us no glimpses of their history in their
continental seats, such as we obtain from Beowulf and from
Widsith. He tells us that they were divided into East Angles,
Midland Angles, Mercians, ' all the progeny of the North-
umbrians, that is of those races that dwell to the north of the
river Humber,' and ' the other Anglian peoples,' under which
last phrase we should include the ^ Lindiswaras ' who settled in
the modern Lincolnshire between the Humber and the Wash,
He gives us no information however about the ethnic affinities
of these different sections of the Anglian race. The migration
from ' Angulus ' was en masse, and Bede's statement about the
deserted condition up to his own time of the ancestral territory
is quite borne out by the archaeological evidence which Schleswig
provides (p. 567).
That the various sections of the Angles of whom Bede
EARLY HISTORY OF THE ANGLES 753
writes did not form a close ethnic unity is indicated by the
fact that the traditional genealogies of their kings given at
the end of the Historia Britonum of Nennius ^ are all different.
Several tribal names have also been preserved, some of which,
like that of the Lindiswaras or the ' Pecsaetas ' the dwellers in
the Peak of Derbyshire, were derived from their places of
settlement, while others such as those of the ' Gyrwas ' about
North Northamptonshire and the ' Spaldingas' may be ancestral
appellations that betoken ethnic distinctions. On the other
hand Bede has no hesitation in applying the name ' Angli ' to
all alike and affords us no ground for supposing the sectional
differences to be deep seated.
The relations of the various branches of the Angles are of
interest from the point of view of archaeology, for it might be
possible to detect corresponding differences in the cemeteries
of the various districts, so that Mercian tomb furniture, for
example, might differ from that of the East Angles, or the
taste in personal ornaments of the Lindiswaras from that of
the ladies of Bernicia. The reticence of Bede is especially to
be deplored when we come to the question of the dates and
the course of the Anglian raids and ultimate settlement.
About these there is nothing in the Ecclesiastical History except
the notice in the Chronological summary ^ that in the year 547
* Ida began to reign from whom the regal stock of the North-
umbrians draws its origin,' a statement copied in the A.-S.
Chronicle with the addition that he ' built Bebbanburh which
was at first enclosed by a hedge, and afterwards by a wall.'
A good deal of Anglian history may have preceded this estab-
lishment of Ida the first Northumbrian king upon the rock of
Bamborough, but of this from the side of the conquerors we
have no primary information, though William of Malmesbury,
a secondary authority, tells his readers^ that there had been
^ Nennii Historia Britonum, recensuit Josephus Stevenson, Eng. Hist. Soc,
Lond., 1838, §§ 57 f. All references to Nennius are to this edition.
2 Lib. Vj c. 24. 3 Gesta Regum, i, 3.
754 THE ANGLIAN CONQUEST
Northumbrian chieftains without the title of king for ninety-
nine years previously. On the other hand from the British
side there have come down to us numerous notices of long
continued and strenuous contests between native Briton and
immigrant Teuton of which northern Britain was the scene.
Exactly how much historical worth these notices possess it is
impossible to say, but at the present time the tendency is
decidedly against that wholesale rejection of evidence of the
kind that was in fashion a generation or so ago. Geoffrey of
Monmouth is no doubt a romancer, but are we prepared in
our present way of thinking to reject entirely the statement
with which he opens and closes his British History, to the
effect that a historical person of his time, Walter, Archdeacon
of Oxford, had given him ' a very ancient book, written in
the British tongue,' the contents of which Geoffrey had in-
corporated in his own work ? This shadowy volume has been
much discussed and as a rule discredited, but a recent writer
of high authority ^ is disposed to believe in it. It was not
necessarily, he shows, an importation from Brittany, and he
thinks the document may have originated in Mercia or
Loegria in IX or X. If Geoffrey of Monmouth were really
in possession of documents of British origin which embodied
some genuine traditions of the age of Teutonic inroads his
British History may be used to corroborate and extend the
slighter notices in the Historia Britonum just mentioned.
In connection with the first appearances of the Teutons,
' Nennius ' ^ and Geoffrey of Monmouth ^ both make Hengist
and Vortigern arrange to hand over the regions in northern
Britain near the Roman wall to the former's two kinsmen,
who are represented as sailing round the country of the Picts
and taking possession of extensive territories in connection
with which is mentioned the ' Frisian Sea.' This appears to
1 Ernst Windisch, Das Kelthche Brittanien bis zu Kaiser Arthur^ Leip.,
1912.
2 Nennius, H\st. Br'it.^ § 38. ^ Hist. Reg. Brit., vi, xiii.
EARLY ANGLIAN RAIDS 755
be the Firth of Forth, for Joceline of Furness in his Life of
Kentigern, c. viii (see vol. i, p. 162) refers to a place near
Culross on the Forth as ' Fresicum litus,' and this has been
held as evidence of early Frisian settlements in this region.
Here in the North according to Geoffrey the invaders are
attacked by Ambrosius Aurelianus, who is exhibited by the
contemporary Gildas as organizing a British reaction against
the foemen when their first inrush had spent its force ; the
result of the attack was that one body of the Teutons retires
upon York the other to the fortress of Alclyde (Dumbarton)
while their possession of the north is afterwards confirmed to
them by treaty with the Britons.^ A difiiculty at once arises
here. Alclyde was in Bede's time the stronghold of the Britons
of Strathclyde and it is surprising to find it mentioned as a
refuge for the enemies of the British. Bede however tells
us that of old time the Firth of Clyde separated the Britons
from the Picts. Now Alclyde is on the north or Pictish side
of the Firth, and was presumably once in Pictish hands, while
the later name Dumbarton, fort of the British, would be a very
likely appellation for a stronghold seized and held by the
Britons in what was once their enemy's country. If Alclyde
were at this time Pictish, Geoffrey's statement is explained.
As for York, it had probably passed early into the power of
the invaders with the principality of Deira (p. 755), though
Geoffrey's account of the expulsion of the British clergy from
the city and the ruin of the churches is a piece of literary
embroidery.^
Later on, reinforced by a great Germanic fleet from across
the North Sea, the Teutons ' invaded the parts of Albania,' that
is northern Britain, ' where they destroyed both cities and
inhabitants with fire and sword.' The Britons contend against
them with ' varying success, being often repulsed by them
and forced to retreat to the cities,' while more often they
routed their Teutonic assailants ' and compelled them to flee
1 Hist. Reg. Brit., viii, iii-viii. 2 ibid., ix, viii.
756 THE ANGLIAN CONQUEST
sometimes into the woods, sometimes to their ships.' ^ Both
' Nennius ' and Geoffrey now bring upon the scene King
Arthur, behind whom we must no doubt discern a historical
personage. The first named enumerates twelve successful
battles which he fought against the invaders in different
localities no one of which can be surely identified/ but ' the
more the Saxons were vanquished the more they sought for
new supplies from Germany and perpetually grew in strength ' ;
this continued until the reign of Ida, who was the first king
in Bernicia,^ and of whom we have the notice already quoted
from Bede and the A.-S. Chronicle. Geoffrey* says that at
the time of Arthur's appearance the invaders had entirely
subdued all that part of the island that extends from the
Humber towards the north. The victorious career of Arthur
in Geoffrey's narrative is of course a romance, but after the
departure of the meteoric hero the barbarian invaders are
represented as again desolating the country with fire and
sword/ till the Britons, weakened by civil dissensions, finally
retire into the western parts of the island.^ This last state-
ment, like the one from Nennius about the reign of Ida,
corresponds with what we learn from other sources, and
brings us also to just the same period, the middle of VI.
Writing at this very time, about 545, Gildas gives us just the
same idea of the condition of Britain as we derive from this
last statement by Geoffrey, an idea, to quote the words of
Professor Oman,^ ' of a Celtic Britain which does not extend
anywhere towards the east coast, and indeed would seem to
stop short at the eastern watershed of the Severn valley.'
1 Hist, Reg. Brit., viii, xxi. Gildas, a quasi-contemporary authority, says of
the same period 'nunc cives, nunc hostes, vincebant.' De Excid. Brit., § 26.
2 For the connection of the Arthurian legend with northern Britain
see Skene's Celtic Scotland, Edinburgh, 1886, i, 152, He identifies many of
the localities of the battles with Scottish sites.
3 Nennius, Hist. Brit., § 56. ^ ///^^ ^^g jj;-//^ jx^ \
5 ibid., XI, viii. *^ ibid., xi, x.
■^ England before the Norman Conquest, p. 230.
EARLY ANGLIAN RAIDS 757
Accordingly the British sources of information we have been
using have at any rate brought the history of the Teutonic
conquest of northern Britain down to a point at which we
have confirmatory evidence from other quarters of the actual
state of affairs.
In the earlier period during which these British sources
are all that we can draw upon what they tell us corresponds
with the probable course of events. The genealogies at the
end of Nennius give names of kings of Northumbria long
before Ida of Bernicia and his contemporary Yffi of Deira,
and a predecessor of the latter in the fourth generation is
credited in the Deirian genealogy with having * separated
Deira from Bernicia,' that meaning in all probability the
establishment of an Anglian principality in Yorkshire with its
capital at York, while the more northerly Bernicia remained
British. The two names are Anglian adaptations of the
Celtic appellations Deifr and Byrneich.^ This event may be
calculated according to generations as occurring at the very
beginning of the Anglo-Saxon settlements, and may be
brought into connection with the notice about the northern
expedition of the kinsmen of Hengist and the traces of
Frisian settlers on the Firth of Forth, though of course there
is the obvious difficulty that whereas Hengist, as the leader
of the conquerors of Kent, should be a Jute, the raiders
of northern Britain were presumably Angles. Successive
invasions from the sea, no doubt up the valleys of the
principal rivers, marked the course of the conquest and of one
of these we have authentic record in the account of the
'Hallelujah' campaign in the Life of Germanus of Auxerre
(p. 578). The varying fortunes of the struggle as indicated
in the British sources are in accordance with likelihood, and
there is a touch of actuality in the notices that when the
British were defeated they fled to the cities while the worsted
Saxons betook themselves to the woods or to their ships.
1 Skene, Celtic Scotland^ i, 1 56 note.
IV 2 A
758 THE ANGLIAN CONQUEST
From about the middle third of V onwards we may
accordingly represent to ourselves different bodies of the
Angles entering the estuaries of the eastern coast of northern
and midland Britain and forcing their way inland up the
streams. The Forth, the Tyne, the Tees, the Humber and
its feeders, the Wash with the rivers that form it, all invited
the entry of the war galleys, and also offered those facilities
for riparian settlements of which the invaders so largely
availed themselves in the Thames Valley.
The foregoing paragraph embodies a reasonable hypothesis
based on literary records and historical likelihood, and this has
now to be tested by the archaeological facts which have come
to light in the regions indicated, or by the negative evidence
of the absence of archaeological phenomena where these would
be expected. Where material discoveries have actually been
made these have to be confronted with the historical records,
but the absence of antiquarian material is sometimes as signifi-
cant historically as its existence, and should be followed by
the same sort of comparative inquiry.
Now with regard to the northern portion of the old
Northumbrian kingdom from the Tyne valley to the Forth,
we have to deal with the somewhat surprising phenomenon
that the particular class of Anglian antiquities with which we
are at present occupied is not there represented. The region
in question is of the highest importance for the antiquities of
the Christian period from the latter part of VII onwards, and
these antiquities so far as they are architectural have been
already fully discussed in the second Volume of this work,
while the decorative arts as represented by the sculptured
stones, the illuminated manuscripts, and other ecclesiastical
objects of the same period, will receive due attention in a
Volume which will closely follow the present. On the other
hand antiquities of the pagan period with which we are now
concerned have not come to light in the regions just indicated,
and this is a fact worthy of all attention. Few parts of the
ANGLIANS IN SCOTLAND 759
United Kingdom have been better worked archaeologically
than the Scottish Lowlands, but though there are numerous
carved stones of the ' Anglian ' character about which much
could easily be said, there is no existing fragment of Saxon
architecture to serve as a monumental comment on the accounts
of ecclesiastical activity over the region, which Bede has trans-
mitted to us. Though the evidence already summarized
seems to show that Angles were busy in the region, apparently
from an early period, and though they have left living traces
of their presence in ethnographical traits,^ and in unmistakable
place names of Teutonic origin such as Abington or Hadding-
ton, yet in no one of the numberless ancient graves opened in
the Lothians, in Clydesdale, or on the Borders, has a fragment
of an 'Anglian ' urn^ or skull of Anglo-Saxon type, or a single
weapon or object of personal adornment of Saxon character
come to light. Till the other day it might have been said
that hardly any piece of characteristic Anglo-Saxon metal
work of a decorative kind from any period had been found
north of the Tweed and Solway, but quite lately, in 19 12, a
remarkable discovery was made at Talnotrie near Newton
Stewart in Galloway, where at the bottom of a peat deposit
various artistic objects in silver and bronze came to light con-
sisting in a beautiful silver nielloed strap end, an elaborately
adorned globular head to a hair pin, a pair of silver disc-headed
dress pins, a leaden weight with a brass top adorned with
interlacing work, and other objects of minor interest. The
deposit was not sepulchral, and the special value attached to it
that it could be dated with great certainty by means of a number
of Anglo-Saxon and other coins of about the middle of IX.
This date of course removes the objects out of the field covered
by the present Volume and a further notice with illustrations of
the find must be reserved for a subsequent occasion. So far,
1 Beddoe, The Races of Britain^ Lond., 1885, p. 248 f.
2 An urn of Anglian type said to have been found in the north of Scotland
is noticed later on (p. 812), and figured PI. clviii, ii (p. 807).
76o THE ANGLIAN CONQUEST
as has been said, it is the only important discovery of objects
of this character that has been made in the Scottish area.^
What is here said of Northumbria north of the Tweed
applies to almost the same extent to the rest of the ancient
Bernicia south of that comparatively modern boundary. In
English Bernicia cemeteries of the pagan period can hardly be
said to exist. None are known in Northumberland and prac-
tically only one in Durham, where at Darlington in 1876 some
dozen skeletons equipped with tomb furniture were brought
to light. The very interesting Durham cemetery at Hartle-
pool was distinctively Christian, and the monuments there
discovered will be discussed in another connection.
It will be seen at once that this negative evidence from the
side of archaeology almost wholly destroys the impression
derived from literary sources of an early Anglian settlement of
the regions in question. It would suggest that the Anglian
attacks were rather in the nature of raids, and the retirement
to the ships may have been the rule even after a victory over
the opposing Britons as well as after a defeat. The real
settlement of the country, evidenced by national character-
istics, by language, by place names, by racial features, may
have belonged to a later period when the influence of Christi-
anity had led to a discontinuance of burial in pagan cemeteries
and with tomb furniture. The fierce wars waged according to
Nennius,^ by the Britons against the sons of Ida, wars about
which Celtic bards seem to have hymned heroic lays, and in
the course of which the Northumbrian forces were beleaguered
for a time in the Island of Lindisfarne, may have been con-
nected with Anglian pressure northwards, and full mastery of
the northern region may only have been obtained after the
victory of Ida's grandson iEthelfrith at Degsastane,^ since
which time, Bede tells us,* no one of the kings of the Scots
1 See however for a very recent find (p. 812 f.). ^ §§ 62-3.
8 Identified by Dr. Skene with Dawston at the head of Liddesdale.
* Hist. EccL, i, 24.
BERNICIA AND DEIRA 761
had ventured to come out to battle against the Anglian race.
If this be the truth, then the absence of Anglian cemeteries of
the pagan period in the parts of Northumbria north of the
Tyne may be explained in the same way as the dearth of similar
memorials in the western and south-western parts of the
Hwiccian province and of Wessex — regions which were not
permanently settled by the Teutons till the pagan period of
the country cemetery and of tomb furniture was past.
When we pass from Bernicia into Deira we find that in
Yorkshire the discoveries have been far more numerous, but
they still increase in copiousness and interest as we proceed
further to the south. Deira is bounded on the south by the
estuary of the Humber which gives access to the Trent, whose
sinuous course offers a navigable waterway into the very heart
of the Midlands, while on the other side the Ouse opens up
Yorkshire to such an extent that almost the whole of the county
is comprised within its basin. The name ' Northumbrians '
embracing the inhabitants of Deira and Bernicia coupled
with that of * Southumbrians ' used in the A.-S. Chronicles,
ad ann. 697, 702, as equivalent to Mercians, seems to imply
that the estuary of the Humber was one main gate of entrance
from which the Invading Angles made their way to the north
and south up the streams of the Ouse and the Trent. That
the latter was the line of advance of that section of the Angles
who became the Mercians of history seems unquestionable,
and riparian cemeteries, both on the Trent and its important
tributary the Soar, mark some of their early settlements. We
have already seen (p. 617 f.) that at the watershed between the
river systems of the Trent and Soar and of the Avon the
Mercians would come into contact with the West Saxons who
had advanced northward as far as this from their earliest seats
in the Thames Valley. We need not stay to argue the question
which of the two peoples made the earlier appearance in the
Midlands. If West Saxon history in the strict sense begin
only with Ceawlin, 560-591, that of Mercia cannot be followed
762 THE ANGLIAN CONQUEST
further back than the reign of the famous Penda, 626-655.
There is some evidence however, explained by Professor
Chadwick in the first chapter of his Origin of the English Nation^
which would go to prove that ancestors of Penda had held the
Mercian kingship at least as far back as the middle of V.
The Mercians were therefore probably in the Midlands from
an early date though the great extension of their power did
not come till much later. A striking proof that the Mercian
settlers followed the Trent is the fact that in Bede's time they
were divided by that river into two sections the northern and
the southern Mercians, implying that they occupied in about
equal force the two sides of the valley. As it is only from
about Nottingham westwards that the course of the stream
runs approximately west and east, so it is only in this western
part of its course that it could be said to divide north from
south, and it is here, in southern Derbyshire and western
Staffordshire with parts of Leicestershire and Warwick, that
we must seek for the original centre of the Mercian power.
It is significant that Lichfield, about the middle of this district,
was the first fixed seat of the Mercian bishopric, and Tamworth
close by was the royal residence.
The Midland Angles, who do not seem to have had a
royal line of their own, are always distinguished by Bede from
the Mercians. The name Mercians, * mark-men,' implies
that they were looked upon as the westernmost branch of the
English, impinging on the still British territory, the Mid-
Angles coming between them and the East Angles. The
former were ultimately merged in Mercia when as described
in the historical notes prefixed to the Chronicle of Florence
of Worcester that kingdom embraced all England between
the Thames and the Humber as far east as Essex and East
Anglia, but at the time we are dealing with these Midland
Angles may be regarded as that section of the invaders who
used the rivers debouching on the Wash as their paths of
entry into the land. These rivers, the Welland, the Nene, the
LINDISWARAS AND EAST ANGLES 763
Ouse, would give access to the pastoral shires of Rutland, with
part of Leicestershire, Northants, Cambridge, Bedford, and
Huntingdon, in which shires are found some of the best
equipped cemeteries of the whole Anglian area.
The Lindiswaras never played an independent part and
have practically no history. The material apparatus of their
daily life, or perhaps of that of the Gyrwas, may be represented
in the interesting cemetery at Sleaford, but Lincolnshire
cemeteries of the pagan period are disappointingly few. There
seems some reason to apportion the low lying lands of Kesteven
and Holland in the south of Lincolnshire in the basin of the
Witham, with parts of the counties bordering this region on
the south, to the people called Gyrwas. Bede gives us the
interesting bit of information that Medeshamstead, the modern
Peterborough, was in the country of the Gyrwas.^
East Anglia on the other hand holds a very distinctive
position and must be treated apart from the other branches of
the Anglian stock.
The East Anglian kingdom embraced the two counties
Norfolk and Suffolk and a portion of Cambridgeshire includ-
ing the Isle of Ely.^ On the west the province was effec-
tively bounded by the fen country and there is evidence that
in the British period also the region was somewhat isolated,^
It seems possible too that at a later period in East Anglian
history, when aggression from the side of Mercia was
threatened, an artificial barrier was added to that provided
by nature, for the great earthwork across Newmarket Heath
known as the Devil's Dyke * has all the appearance of having
been reared to protect a population to the east of it against an
attack from the west. To the south the Stour seems to have
always divided East Anglia from Essex, as is the case at the
1 Hist EccL, iv, 6. 2 Bede, Hist. EccL, iv, 19.
^ Victoria History, Suffolk, i, 274.
* An excellent view of this is obtained from the railway between CaiU'
bridge and Newmarket,
764 THE ANGLIAN CONQUEST
present day, and this fact is not a little remarkable. As a
rule, as we have seen, rivers did not form the original
boundaries between the various sections of the conquerors,
but rather the open tracks by which they entered the land and
from which they spread to left and right upon either bank.
The original Wessex was a Thames- Valley state occupying
both sides of the river. It was not till a later period that
Mercia pressed her rival to the south and constituted the
Thames as a frontier between Angle and Saxon.^ The original
settlers on the east coast might well have entered the Stour and
spread themselves on both sides of the stream. What really
happened in all probability was that the East Saxons were the
first in the field, taking the unoccupied side of the Thames
estuary for their domain so as not to interfere with the con-
querors of Kent on the south. Extending their settlements
towards the north from the Thames or the Blackwater, they
may only have reached the latitude of the Stour at about the
time when the Angles appeared in force in their future domain.
William of Malmesbury tells us that the two kingdoms were
about co-eval," and the Stour, an inconsiderable stream, may
have presented itself to both peoples as a convenient boundary.
Slight as it was as a natural barrier, it seems so far as we know
to have been always observed, and it certainly served as a
delimitation of two spheres of culture, for as we have seen the
practice of cremation, which we shall find in full force in
Suffolk, has never been observed in Saxon cemeteries in
Essex (p. 597 f.).
The dates of the coming of the East Angles and of the
establishment of their kingdom are of course uncertain, but
Procopius^ narrates events of about the year 540 which, if at
all truly recorded, would show that the state must have been
^ Wessex in Florence of Worcester, and in Roger of Wendover, ad ann.
586, embraces Surrey, Berks, Hants, Wilts, Dorset, Somerset and Devon —
all south of the Thames.
- Gesta Regu??!, i, 6. ^ De Bella Gothico, iv, 20.
EAST ANGLIA 765
founded a long time before. An Anglian princess of that
part of Britain opposite the mouths of the Rhine, obviously
East Anglia, was very shabbily treated in respect of a matri-
monial engagement by the son of the king of the Warni
(Varini) who lived by the lower Rhine in what is now
Holland. Thrown over by this prince in favour of the
sister of the powerful Theodebert, King of the Franks (534-
548), the lady equipped a fleet of 400 ships and manning
them with 100,000 warriors sailed over the sea, defeated the
forces of her faithless fiance, and made herself master of his
person. Her only revenge was to make him give up the
Prankish alliance and perform to her his vows. The Angles
are represented in the story as a powerful and warlike people
and though the details may be absurd there is no doubt some
historical foundation for the romance, which is connected with
the name of the best known Teutonic prince of the time.
So far it would seem that up to the middle of VI the immi-
grants in Britain had kept up their seamanship, which in VII
and VIII Professor Chadwick thinks they had greatly lost.^
An argument for the comparatively early settlement of the
East Anglian area may be found in the fact that on the
whole cremation was more in vogue here than in any other
part of the country. It may be regarded as in East Anglia
the prevailing rite, and according to the general theory which
has been previously discussed (p. 494 f.) this is an early
indication.
A few sentences may now be devoted to an archaeological
survey of the region as a preliminary to a synopsis of the
cemeteries and their contents.
The riparian theory of the settlements, as it may be called,
holds to a considerable extent in all the Southumbrian region.
It is to be noticed however that all the main streams above
mentioned run in the lower portions of their course through
1 Origin of the English Nation^ p. 19.
766 THE ANGLIAN CONQUEST
flat and marshy lands affording few attractions to settlers, so
that in the valley of the Trent it is not till near Newark, in
that of the Welland till Stamford, in that of the Nene till past
Peterborough, that we find in cemeteries the evidence of the
permanent establishments of the invaders. The Cambridge-
shire cemeteries do not begin till we approach the county
town, and the Great Ouse has to be followed up nearly to the
latitude of Bedford before much is found. Not therefore in
their lower reaches but some way up the valleys along the
course of the Trent, the Soar, the Nene, the Ouse, we find
early riverside cemeteries which are evidence of penetration
by way of the streams to the very heart of the inland region,
and of the habit of settling as near the river bank as was
convenient. On the other hand there are regions where the
streams are of no great importance but where fairly early
Anglo-Saxon settlements make their appearance. Rutland for
instance is a county of hills rather than rivers, and though
North Luffenham is on a tributary of the Welland the sites at
Market Overton and Cottesmore are quite inland. It may be
of significance that as we shall see the first named cemetery
appears distinctly earlier than the latter ones. Again, in parts
of Northants, as at Marston St. Lawrence, Holdenby, Ketter-
ing, Norton by Daventry, the settlements seem like those in
central Wiltshire to be more independent of the waterways.
In Lincolnshire the one important cemetery at Sleaford is
quite of a riparian character lying as it does on the Slea, a
tributary of the Witham, but the few finds reported from the
upland districts of the county seem not to be connected with
river settlements, and it is curious that with two possible
exceptions no cemeteries have come to light in connection
with the long range of villages, many with late Saxon churches,
that lie so thickly along the foothills of the ' cliff' range, the
oolitic escarpment that runs almost due north and south from
Grantham to the Humber. In Cambridgeshire the Cam brought
the settlers to the county town and to the sites around it so
MAP
VII
jadng p. 767.
NOTES ON MAP VII
In this Map the watersheds bounding on the south and west the
basins of the Trent and of the rivers debouching in the Wash is
shown as the line of demarcation between the Angles and the
Saxons, the slight overflows on the one side and the other of the
line being indicated by names in cursive and between brackets,
such as Saffron Walden and Newport Pagnell locating Saxon
settlements in the Anglian sphere of influence ; and by names in
capitals showing Anglian sites such as Cestersover and Marton on
the Saxon side of the boundary.
The delimitation of the Mercian from the Mid-Anglian terri-
tories, and of the latter from the East Anglian, has not been
attempted on the Map, nor have the Gyrwas and the Lindiswaras
been separated. In the List of Cemeteries at the beginning of
Vol. Ill, an indication is given of the division to which each
cemetery may, in the writer's view, be assigned.
The underlining of the names to mark the appearance of
cremation is in this district far more frequent than in the Sason
and Jutish regions shown in Maps v and vi.
ANGLIAN DISTRICTS 767
fertile in Anglian grave furniture, and another tributary of
the Ouse, the Lark, carried immigrants to the apparently well
peopled region of north-west Suffolk, while the main stream
of the Ouse and its upper tributaries served Bedfordshire.
To judge from the tomb furniture, the new comers soon
followed the rivers up to about their navigable limits, for
Kempston above Bedford on the Ouse produced some of the
earliest objects in the whole country, and at Great Addington
on the Nene, though not so high up as in the other case,
there was found the remarkable spout-handled urn, shown
PI. cxxxix, 6 (p. 507) which might outdo even these objects in
the competition for an antique birth certificate.
The general character of these Anglian cemeteries. Map vii,
and of their furniture is sufficiently distinct from what we have
found in the West Saxon area. We shall find cremation far
more frequent, and as has been already pointed out (p. 623 f.)
in the true cruciform brooches, in wrist clasps, and in the
objects known as girdle hangers, we obtain very distinct
criteria that mark off Angle from Saxon ; while in the local
distribution of the wrist clasps we may find a peculiarity that
seems to mark off certain divisions of the Anglian name from the
rest. It must be admitted at the same time that archaeological
districts are by no means always conterminous with those
indicated by historians, and whereas the East Anglians are
politically distinct from the Mid Angles, the fairly well
marked clasp district among the Angles generally takes in
Mid Angles, East Angles, ' Gyrwas,' and the Northumbrians
of Deira, but excludes apparently the Mercians. Cruciform
brooches, of the specific three knobbed type, are at home in
Notts and Leicestershire, in Mid Anglia, and in East Anglia
and Northumbria, and in almost all parts we find examples of
the early type with detached side knobs as well as the later
ones with fixed knobs. In the same regions too we find
examples of the freer treatment of the type resulting in the
handsome ornate pieces that ultimately degenerate into the
768 MERCIA AND MID ANGLIA
florid but flatly treated brooches of the middle of VII.
Girdle hangers are specially well represented in Lincolnshire
both in the flat country and on the Wolds. Buckets, bronze
bowls, etc., are widely diffused but glass vessels are not so
common as in the South.
THE MERCIANS IN THE BASIN OF THE TRENT
THE MID ANGLIAN CEMETERIES
The flat and often marshy lower reaches of the Trent would
not invite new comers to land, but on the Roman site of Flix-
BOROUGH, a few miles up the stream, some characteristic long
brooches have been found. The horse's-head foot of one in
the Lincoln Museum is of an advanced type, and the settle-
ment, if it existed, was probably not an early one. Not till
we are south of the latitude of Lincoln do riparian cemeteries
of an early type make their appearance. These are situated (i)
at Brough on the Fosse Way between Newark and Lincoln,
the site it is supposed of the Roman station Crocolana, (2) at
Newark itself, (3) at Cotgrave on the line of the Fosse Way
not far from Nottingham, (4) at Holme Pierrepont still
nearer to the county town and close to the Trent. On all these
sites early objects have been found such as might have been in
use among the very earliest settlers. Trefoil headed bronze
brooches are not necessarily early but one found at Brough
is of dainty form and sharply faceted in the Roman fashion,
and another from Holme Pierrepont^ has the same char-
acter. Castle Hill between Newark and Cotgrave furnished
other examples. At the Holme Pierrepont sites also there
was a good-sized square headed fibula that Mr. Reginald
Smith located in V. The question of the probable date of
examples of this particular sub-type has been already discussed
(p. 235)3 ^^^ though all the examples need not be specially
^ The Holme Pierrepont cemetery where discoveries were made about
1839 {^ss., VIII, 190) is sometimes referred to under the name Cotgrave, a
more important place some four miles away.
COTGRAVE, NEWARK 769
early the Holme Pierrepont one has as good a claim as any to
be thus labelled. A bronze bowl for suspension, a fragment
of Roman glass, and an enamelled brooch of Romano-British
origin, agree with an early dating of the site, and so too does
the early cruciform brooch with detached side knobs, figured
PI. XL, 5 (p. 259). The Fosse Way burials near Cotgrave
resembled some that we shall come to later on on the Watling
Street near Rugby, already signalized on account of the
remarkable fact that the burials were actually in the Roman
roadway itself (p. 139). At Cotgrave the same phenomenon
presented itself, and four skeletons were found laid in the
direction of the road, that is, approximately north and south,
each with two spears. The burial in the actual roadway seems
to preclude the notion that the invaders used the Roman
thoroughfare for their own movements (p. 592).
At Newark we meet with the rite of cremation represented
by about 36 urns saved from more than double that number.
They were found in 1836-7 by the side of the Fosse Way in
the direction of Nottingham during excavations for a house,
and they were arranged in regular lines at equal distances from
each other. Mr, Thomas Bateman reported in general terms
that ' each contained calcined human bones.' ^ Three of these
urns are in the Hull Museum, and one, a very handsome one,
is figured Pll. cxxxvi, 7 ; cxxxvii, 2 with some of the bones
found in it (p. 501). It is to be noted that one of the three
Newark urns at Hull is quite plain and of the globular form
represented PI. cxxxviii, i, 2. It was however an Anglian
cinerary urn, and contained ' the cremated human remains
which had originally been buried with it,' ^ just as did the orna-
mented vessels from the same site. The usual small objects,
tweezers, shears, comb, were found in some of the urns, and
there is no reason why the cemetery should not be regarded
as contemporary with the others just noticed from the same
neighbourhood.
1 Ass., vin, 189. 2 Hull Museum Publications^ No. 17.
770 MERCIA AND MID ANGLIA
Not far above Nottingham the Soar enters the Trent, and
we may assume in accordance with the general theory here
followed that the immigrants were borne upon its waters into
the heart of Leicestershire. Only a mile or two up the stream
is the site of Kingston-on-Soar where in 1844 an important
discovery was made of a cremation cemetery near the river
but ' on the slope and near the summit of a gentle eminence.'
About 200 urns were destroyed ' before it occurred to any
one that they were worthy of preservation,' but 30 were
retained and of these all but one ' contained human bones
thoroughly calcined.' Some fused glass beads were noticed
in some of the urns, which were arranged in lines, each being
covered with a stone slab.
Continuing to follow the main stream towards the west,
we come upon a similar cremation cemetery to that at Kingston
by the village of King's Newton near Melbourne. Here a
considerable number of cinerary urns were found of the type
of those at Kingston and Newark, and again about 200 were
wantonly destroyed. They generally stood on flat stones and
were covered with others, but in one or two cases the urn was
reversed over the ashes which had been placed on a flat stone.
A little beyond Burton-on-Trent is the important cemetery
at Stapenhill. The site overlooks the river but is on com-
paratively high ground 120 feet above the stream. Here
discoveries of much interest were made in 1881, revealing a
cemetery where cremation and inhumation were both repre-
sented and where indications of an earlier use of the site for
funereal purposes made themselves apparent.^ The Plates
illustrate various objects from the site, PI. xviii, 3 (p. 177),
a burial; PI. xxxvii (p. 247), 6, a small equal armed brooch,
8, a pair of trefoil headed brooches ; PI. lxxxix, 2 (p. 397), a
1 Transactions oj the Burton-on-Trent Natural History and Archaeological
Society^ Lond., 1889, vol. i, p. 156 f. The finds are in the possession of
the Society at Burton-on-Trent, where the writer was kindly allowed to
examine and photograph them.
STAPENHILL, ETC. 771
pair of girdle hangers ; Pll. cxxxiv, 8 ; cxxxviii, 2 (p. 505),
urns. Cremation urns and skeletons were found beside each
other, and out of 36 burials observed 5 were cremated. In
one cremation urn was found part of the bed-plate of an applied
fibula. The objects found were not specially early but the
cemetery was no doubt a pagan one of VI, and Mr. Reginald
Smith notices a resemblance between it and Kempston. Other
sites in the vicinity have furnished Anglo-Saxon objects.^
Branston across the Trent opposite Stapenhill is one, Walton
on the same side as Stapenhill a little further south is another,
and here cinerary urns were found. A few miles further up
the river Wychnor furnished from a gravel pit a small col-
lection of arms with a bronze mounted bucket and part of a
trefoil headed fibula.
Wychnor is the limit of the Trent valley riverside
cemeteries of the kind here described, and no regular burial
grounds are known to the west of this point. An interesting
single discovery at Barlaston near the Potteries is probably of
rather later date than the cemeteries.^ It was that of a single
burial in a rock-cut tomb of a warrior accompanied by his
sword, in whose grave had been placed one of the bronze
bowls with enamelled scutcheons already figured and described
Pll. cxvii to cxx (p. 475 f.). Mr. Romilly Allen thought this
bowl the earliest of its class, for it is cast and not beaten.
The whole class is however a late one, and carries us into VII.
The same may be said about a considerable body of objects of
the period that have come to light in sepulchral tumuli, gener-
ally of an earlier age, in the northern or hilly districts of
Staffordshire and Derbyshire. The opening of an immense
number of barrows in these regions is described in the two
works by Thomas Bateman, Vestiges, and Ten Years Diggings,
and in a certain proportion of the tumuli there was evidence of
the intrusive burial of the bodies of Anglo-Saxons, while in
^ Molyneux, History of Burton-on-Trent.
2 Jewitt, Grave Mounds and their Contents, Lond., 1870, p. 258.
77i MERCIA AND MID ANGLIA
other cases the tumulus burial of the Teuton was primary.
The earlier work. Vestiges of the Antiquities of Derbyshire, pub-
lished in 1845, gives a list of nine barrows in which Saxon
remains had been found, and the later work, carrying the
history of the investigation down to 1858, adds a number of
others, so that about a score of cases of intrusive Anglo-Saxon
burials and a similar number of primary interments can be
reckoned up,^ The Anglo-Saxon bodies were mostly laid at
full length with the feet to the east. Thus the large barrow
called Steep Lowe near Alstonefield, beside the Dove in North
Staffordshire, revealed in 1845 ^ secondary interment of the
kind with split-socketed spear heads. ^ A barrow at Brush-
field in Monsal Dale above Bakewell, opened in 1850, pro-
duced a skeleton with an iron sword of spatha form and
various other objects in the same metal. ^ Swords it has been
noticed are rare in Derbyshire burials only three having been
recorded. In a barrow at Stand Lowe in the Middleton
district in 1845 the appurtenances of an Anglo-Saxon lady
were discovered consisting in a little round bronze workbox,
beads, a couple of knives, etc., though the only vestiges of the
actual skeleton were the enamel crowns of the teeth (p. lyy).^
A somewhat similar discovery was made in 1852 in a tumulus
at Wyaston, Derbyshire, of the primary interment of a lady
with a necklace of beads, shown PI. civ, 3 (p. 437), and
various jewels and trinkets.^ The remarkable find in the
Benty Grange barrow of the iron helmet has been already
noticed, PL xxi, i (p. 195).
The chief point of interest about these barrow interments
is the occurrence in them of objects of jewellery both of the
special kind already discussed (p. 424 f.) and in more ordinary
forms such as occur most frequently in Kent. The necklet
from the tumulus of Galley Lowe on Brassington Moor
1 yktoria History, Derby, 1, 267.
2 Vestiges, p. 76. ^ Diggings, p. 68.
* Vestiges, p. 74. ^ Diggings, p. 188.
DERBYSHIRE BARROWS 773
near Wirksworth has been figured and discussed PL cii, 2
(p. 425) and this is not alone in the district. In a tumulus
at Cow Lowe near Buxton in an intrusive interment were two
gold pins with heads set with garnets and linked together by
a chain, ^ so as to agree closely with the Roundway Down pin
suite PI. Lxxxi, 2 (p. 371). There was also a necklet of
pendants. In a barrow called White Lowe near Winster
above Darley Dale in Derbyshire an important discovery was
made about 1765, in connection with what appears to have
been a primary interment. There were two large urns, two
glass vessels, beads, a wonderful silver bracelet, and a golden
disc fibula ornamented with inlaid garnets and filigree work.'^
Associated with the find was a cruciform pendant similarly
enriched. The last two are in the Sheffield Museum and the
cross is figured PI. x, 4 (p. 115) and the disc fibula PL clvi, 7.
It will be seen that the somewhat loose and monotonous treat-
ment of the filigree scrolls is evidence of an advanced date.
To these jewels must be added one of the class of the Bacton
and Wilton pendants from East Anglia (p. 539), though the
coin which is set in the inlaid gold framing is of an earlier date
than in these two cases. It was found at Forsbrook in
Staffordshire south-west from the uplands where the barrow
interments occur. There is little doubt that these jewels are
all comparatively late, belonging to VII, and they appear to
date the barrow interments as a whole, making them distinctly
later than the riparian cemeteries. For one thing, the early
' long ' brooches which occur round Newark and which we
shall find abundant in Leicestershire do not make their appear-
ance in the barrows, while the inlaid work in these regions is
probably due to Kentish influence.
The above seems pretty well to exhaust the northern and
western parts of Mercia, and we may return now to the
cremation cemetery of Kingston-on-Soar which marks the
entry into Leicestershire. Before however ascending the Soar
^ yestiges, P- 9i- ^ ibid., p. 19.
IV 2 B
774 MERCIA AND MID ANGLIA
a glance may be taken at some later finds in Notts which like
the barrow finds in Derby and Stafford are evidence of the
spreading of the Teutonic population over the districts from
the earlier riverside centres. At Oxton near Southwell three
barrows were opened about 1790 and Anglo-Saxon weapons
were found. The principal barrow was 150 ft. in diameter
and 7 ft. high,^ and the primary interment was sunk into the
original soil below. There was a sword, a knife, a spear, an
umbo, and besides the arms a thin bronze bowl and some
objects that were seemingly counters. The burial was evidently
that of an important personage, and may be compared with
the much richer ones at Taplow and Broomfield (pp. 638, 601).
TuxFORD, between Newark and Retford, produced a fine ornate
square headed brooch, 6|- in. long, of a kind of which examples
are found in almost every part of the country, but of which
some good authorities think Leicestershire and Northants were
in a special sense the home. These belong in all probability
to the latter part of VI and first half of VII.
That part of Leicestershire that lies within the Trent
basin may be reasonably regarded as the original territory of
the southern Mercians. At any rate cemeteries of the pagan
period are abundant there and some of the earliest deposits of
all, distinctively Anglian in their character, lie even over the
southern line of the watershed in the Avon basin near Rugby.
The reference is to the finds near Cestersover, on the line
of the Watling Street, already mentioned more than once
(pp. 139, 624). Akerman on pi. xviii of Pagan Saxondom
gives an instructive selection from the brooches found appar-
ently on the bodies of women, and many can be seen now
in the Rugby School Museum. The very early character of
the long brooch figured PI. xli, i has been attested (p. 262)
and in the same group of finds come PI. li, i, 9 (p. 284)
which receive in this way their birthright. There was one
cremation urn, and there were also clasps, trefoil headed
^ Thomas Bateman in Ass,, viii, 188.
MERCIAN ARCHAEOLOGY 775
brooches, as well as small long ones (p. 265). The last
mentioned objects we have seen to be ubiquitous, but most
of the others are distinctively Anglian and belong especially
to the Midlands, whether we reckon these Mercian or Mid
Anglian. As they extend towards the east through Cambridge-
shire to East Anglia, and save for the trefoil brooches are not
represented on the western side of the Trent basin, we may
call them Mid Anglian. With the exception perhaps of
Marton (p. 344, note i) south-west of Rugby, where
cinerary urns were found, one of which contained the late
saucer brooch figured PL lxix, 5 (p. 343), these Cestersover
or Bensford Bridge finds seem to represent the southern
limit for these regions of Anglian extension, and it is curious
that more to the west, where Tamworth and Lichfield became
the political and religious centres of the Mercian kingdom,
early Anglian cemeteries are conspicuous by their absence.
So long as that stern old conservative Penda flourished (626-
655 A.D.), the influence of Christianity cannot have counted
for much, and the institution of tomb furniture should have
been in full vigour ; but as a fact, while Leicestershire at any
rate on its eastern side swarms with cemeteries, these hardly
exist in the upper or western part of the basin of the Trent,
and the same is the case in the northern parts of Warwick-
shire till we approach the West Saxon sites in immediate
proximity to the Avon. Mercia in truth, so far as the evidence
of cemeteries is concerned, is not an important archaeological
province. The appearance of abnormal objects in different
parts of central England is sometimes explained as the result
of the extension of the political influence of Mercia in VII,
but we are in the difficulty that we really do not know what
were Mercian specialities in art and in the material apparatus
of life, while on the other hand we cannot tell how far changes
in political predominance made a difference in the archaeology
of districts affected.
Starting backwards from the sites near Rugby and passing
776 MERCIA AND MID ANGLIA
WiBTOFT near the headwaters of the Soar, we note import-
ant discoveries at Glen Parva and Wigston Magna on
the Soar to the south of Leicester and also some finds in
Leicester itself, while on the Soar north of the county town the
site of RoTHLEY Temple is intermediate between Leicester and
Kingston-on-Soar. It is when we turn in a north-westerly
direction from the county town, along the lateral valleys of the
Soar tributaries the Wreak and its affluents, that we find the
cemeteries becoming really numerous, and Melton Mowbray
on the Wreak is on the northern boundary of a singularly
productive region. Taking the county as a whole, there is
the one early site on the Watling Street, where the objects
found suggest V, but as a rule the tomb furniture seems to
point to VI and to be pagan in character. Cremation is very
conspicuous on one site, Saxby to the east of Melton, and
occurs in doubtful cases elsewhere in the county, but as a rule
the bodies were buried unburnt, and were well supplied with
the usual accompaniments.
At Wigston Magna twenty skeletons were unearthed in
1795 and a horse's skeleton with its iron bit were also found,
while in 1886 the very rich burial of a lady came to light at
Glen Parva, dating probably in the first half of VI. Stones,
it was noticed, had in each case been used to cover the bodies.
The Glen Parva burial goods embraced cruciform fibulae, girdle
hangers, a faceted crystal, a funnel shaped glass vessel, etc. The
Wigston Magna burials yielded a florid square headed fibula
of late VI, as well as girdle hangers with animal head terminals.
Another Glen Parva interment was that of a warrior with
sword and spear. At Leicester itself several finds have been
made but not of a character to support the theory that the new
settlers continued the use of the Romano-British cemeteries.
Cremation urns are however recorded. Roth ley Temple
produced a clasp, PL lxxviii, 3, and a very characteristic
square headed brooch figured PI. lxvi, i (p. 337), and a
very late cruciform fibula with debased ornamentation, figured
WREAK VALLEY SITES 777
by Akerman in his Pagan Saxondom^ pi. xx, 2 ; but the
Leicester Museum also contains an early cruciform fibula
with detached knobs from the site, so the settlement may
have been formed at an early date.
The sites in the Wreak valley are too numerous to receive
individual treatment. There may be named in passing east-
wards QuENiBORouGH ; BiLLESDON, whcre was found the fine
square headed fibula of about the middle of VI, 6 in. long,
figured PL lxv, i (p. 336) ; Keythorpe Hall, Tugby, which
with Queniborough is responsible for four bronze bowls ;
Beeby with three cruciform brooches, two with loose knobs ;
TwYFORD that produced the silver clasps and spiral wire loops
shown PI. Lxxvi, 3, 5 (p- 359) ; Ingarsby, with another florid
late square headed brooch^ ; Lowesby ; Stapleford Park,
where graves were originally covered with a low mound and
where four urns containing cremated bones were found,
whence too the Bede House Museum at Melton Mowbray has
been enriched with perhaps the most debased of all the mon-
strous late cruciform fibulae in the country, y-^- in. long and
quite flat. Near Melton itself and at Sysonby interments
with feet to the east and a good collection of arms were found.
The cemetery at Saxby a few miles east of Melton
demands a special word. This was cut into accidentally in
connection with railway works in 1890, and an interesting
collection of objects from the site is housed in the Midland
Institute, Derby, where through the kindness of Mr. W. B.
Worthington, Engineer in Chief to the Midland railway, the
writer was enabled to examine and photograph them. Here
cremation and inhumation coexisted on the same site, and a
good set of cinerary and other urns of characteristic Anglian
types is at Derby. The inhumed bodies were turned with
their feet not to the west but to the east. Cruciform fibulae
were much in evidence but with fixed knobs, so that a late
date in VI seems to suit the chronology of the cemetery.
^ Pagan Saxondom, pi. xvi.
778 MERCIA AND MID ANGLIA
Most of the sites just enumerated are in a wold country,
though Melton, Stapleford and Saxby are in the river valley.
The same upland region includes a good part of Rutland, and
here at Market Overton is another wold site about five
miles east of Saxby. An important cemetery has recently
been opened here, and the contents were published by
Mr. V. B. Crowther-Beynon, F.S.A., in vol. lxii of Archaeo-
logia. Ironstone workings begun in 1906 led to the dis-
covery, and most of the objects found are at Tickencote Hall
near Stamford, where Major Wingfield kindly gave facilities
for their study. The spiral wire clasps, PL lxxvi, 4, seem to
connect the site with Twyford in Leicestershire, while an array
of large square headed and cruciform brooches, mostly of
the florid type, is characteristic of this whole region. Cre-
mation to a limited extent appears to have been indicated, and
a general date of about the second half of VI was suggested
by the reporter. What makes the cemetery specially not-
able is the number of exceptional objects which made their
appearance, and a reference may be given to the remarkable
silver brooch of South German type, PI. xxxix, i (p. 255) ;
the silver neck ornament, PI. ci, i (p. 423) ; the gold bead,
PI. cv, 2 (p. 433) and gold ring, PI. cviii, 4 (p. 455) ; and
the gold bracteate, PI. cvii, 4 (p. 453).
The other Rutland cemetery, also a notable one, is at
North Luffenham near the south-eastern corner of the
county, but it is a pure accident that the two are in the same
administrative division of the country. Geographically they
belong to different basins, for North Luffenham is on an
affluent of the Welland while Market Overton lies between
the upper waters of the Witham and those of the Eye, a
tributary of the Wreak. The two cemeteries agree in the
possession of applied brooches and Market Overton produced
two saucer brooches, whereas Leicestershire and the other
Mercian regions, save for a late saucer one at Marton near
Rugby, and a possible applied one at Stapenhill, are devoid of
NORTH LUFFENHAM, STAMFORD 779
this form. This shows we are approaching the Mid Anglian
region proper where these brooches are almost as much at
home as among the West Saxons. Furthermore, North
LuFFENHAM prescnts us with wrist clasps which, hardly known
if at all (save around Rugby) in the Mercian region, become
very common in Mid Anglia. The North Luffenham site
is on high ground, 350 feet above the sea level, and dis-
coveries have been made from 1863 onwards, the objects
being partly in the possession of Lord Ancaster at Normanton
Park, and partly in the collection of the late Mrs. Morris
formerly of the place. Mrs. Morris had a good set of urns
but it seems to be uncertain whether any of them contained
cremated bones,^ and in her possession too was a strap end with
crouching beasts in the romanizing style after the pattern of
those shown PI. cxlix, 9 (p. SS3)' '^^^ large square headed
and cruciform fibula, sometimes in its latest form, is well in
evidence, but small cruciform fibulae with the three knobs also
occur, and the cemetery may have been in use from an early
part of VI. The number of swords, no fewer than six, and the
numerous other arms, are in favour of a comparatively early date.
With the exception of North Luffenham the basin of
the Welland is not well furnished with Anglo-Saxon
cemeteries, but these are much more abundant along the
course of the Nene and accompany the river almost to its
source. At Stamford on the Welland however was found
one of those very curious objects, an urn with a small piece
of glass let into it, PI. cxxx, 2 (p. 500). Similar vessels were
found at Kempston, Beds,^ and at Girton by Cambridge, and
serve to link together these Anglian sites and connect them
with northern Germany where other examples are in evidence
(p. 500). It should be noted that the Kempston example
was found by the side of a skeleton, so that such urns were
not necessarily used for incinerated remains.
^ Two of these urns are figured PI. cxxxv (p. 500).
2 Gentleman's Magazine^ 1864, pt. i, p. 224.
78o MERCIA AND MID ANGLIA
Not actually on the Nene system, and indeed a wold site
rather than one obviously connected with a river, is Marston
St. Lawrence near the borders of Oxfordshire and quite in
the south-western corner of Northamptonshire. It is noticed
however here as an example of an Anglian cemetery, or at any
rate one founded by immigrants ascending the rivers from the
Wash, that is pushed on to the high ground even up to the
watershed and comes almost into touch with the West Saxon
cemeteries of the valley of the Cherwell. The site was
reported on in two papers by Sir Henry Dryden read in 1850
and 1882,^ and to the first paper Charles Roach Smith contri-
buted an introduction in which he notes the contrast between
the finds here and those from Kent. The skeletons unearthed
numbered 32 and were laid generally with the feet towards
the north-east, at a depth of i ft. 3 in. to i ft. 6 in,, while at
a depth of 3 or 4 ft. there appeared the skeleton of a horse.
Small hillocks seem to have been raised over the graves as in
a modern churchyard. There were also at least four instances
of cremation, and one ' urn with Van Dyke pattern on it . . .
had a comb at the bottom of it and was full of burnt bones.'
Seven of the bodies were buried with arms but no sword was
found, and among the fibulae, of which there were- ten pairs
with one odd one, were three saucer brooches, trefoil headed
and ring brooches, and one florid square headed one. The
occurrence of a pair of bronze clasps is to be noted as
connecting the cemetery with the region to the north and
east. As would seem natural considering the position of the
cemetery it was not an early one, and may date from the last
part of VI.
Similar orientation of bodies was observed in a cemetery
of 20 interments at Newnham near Daventry by the upper
waters of the Nene. There were here also saucer brooches
and ornate square headed ones, and in both cemeteries small
triple beads were found, a fact which seems to show that
^ Archaeologia, xxxiii, 326; xlvui, 327.
NORTON, BRIXWORTH, ETC. 781
these are not always early indications. At Badby close to
Newnham, and at Norton on the other side of Daventry,
large ornate square headed fibulae were again a feature and
Northants shares with Leicestershire the reputation of being
particularly prolific in this specially English form of ornament.
The Norton burials were in a long mound bordering the line
of the Watling Street. At Badby in connection with quarry-
ing operations many skeletons were found from time to
time, disposed north and south, with Anglo-Saxon tomb
furniture.-^
These sites are all at the western limit of the district, the
last named group lying near the watershed between the basins
of the Nene-Welland and the Warwickshire Avon, In the
valley of the Nene itself the remarkable discovery was made
of the spout-handled urn, PL cxxxix, 6 (p. 507), at Great
Addington near Thrapston. This had burnt bones within
it. The Nene valley cemeteries almost all exhibited traces of
cremation, generally, as at Brixworth and Holdenby, com-
bined with inhumation, but sometimes, as at Pitsford, the
former was the exclusive site. Holdenby, like the two other
places just mentioned a few miles north of the county town,
is a typical cemetery of the district and has been opened more
than once and described in the Journal of the Northampton-
shire Natural History Society, vol. xi, 1901, and also, by
Mr. Thurlow Leeds, in vol. xv, 1909. The site is a compara-
tively elevated ridge above some low lying lands, and here
18 skeletons were found in 1864 and 1899 and 11 in 1908,
while at least one cinerary urn with burnt bones is recorded.
There was one very handsome florid late square headed
brooch of the first half of VII, some late saucer and applied
brooches, and a large number of long brooches of various
patterns among which the trefoil headed one was prominent.
There was also an interesting ornate girdle hanger and a con-
siderable number of wrist clasps. Two penannular brooches of
^ Ass., I, 60.
782 MERCIA AND MID ANGLIA
iron are rarities. Beads were greatly in evidence but there
was not much in the way of arms.
At Northampton itself Anglo-Saxon discoveries have
been made, especially on the site of St. Andrew's Hospital,
PL Lxvi, 2 (p. 337), and Duston, a little to the west of the
town, famous for pre-Roman and Roman finds, has furnished
recently some interesting saucer brooches, PL lix, 3 (p. 317)
and other objects, PL lxvi, 3.
Kettering is the centre of a group of cemeteries, of
which IsLip on the Nene, Woodford, Barton Seagrave,
Cransley, Cranford and Desborough may be mentioned,
with Loddington, where was found quite recently one of the
conical shield bosses similar to PL xxiii, i (p. 199). The
Kettering cemetery exposed in 1903 was almost entirely
a cremation one, for 80 or 90 urns were found with only
six skeletons. The usual small objects, tweezers, combs,
melted glass beads, etc., were found with burnt bones in the
urns.-^ For the remarkable find at Desborough see PL cii, 5
(p. 425). Here were at least 60 skeletons with feet to the
east, and some evidence of cremation.
On the lower course of the Nene, in two contiguous burying
grounds about half a mile apart, Woodstone in Huntingdon-
shire nearly opposite Peterborough yielded up considerable
archaeological material, including more than forty fibulae, that
was reported on by Dr. T. J. Walker of Peterborough at the
Congress held there of the British Archaeological Association
in 1898." Some of the objects were long ago published by
Artis on pi. lv of his Durobrivae^ and the Peterborough
Museum possesses a good collection including a magnificent
spear head 25 in. long, several pairs of clasps, and a good
assortment of long brooches, both of the normal cruciform
type with the three knobs, one example of which has the side
knobs detached, and of the more fanciful patterns like those
from Kempston, Beds, PL xlii, i (p. 265). One of these
^ Troc, Soc. Jnt., xix, 307. ^ j^j^^ 1899, n.s., v, 343 f.
WOODSTONE, THE OUSE BASIN 783
last ends below with an unmistakable horse's head. There was
also one large florid cruciform brooch of a late style, singularly like
an example found at Holdenby. Saucer brooches also occurred
on the site, and Dr. Walker figures two radiating brooches of
the V type (p. 256). He mentions too that the bones of a
horse were found in the same grave as those of a man with
possibly a fragment of a spur, and states that cremation as well
as inhumation was in use, for ' cinerary urns with the calcined
bones of those who were burnt in the funeral pyre, and the
skeletons of those who were consigned to the ground unburnt,
are found side by side.'
Peterborough itself has furnished some Anglo-Saxon
relics, including the remains of a bucket.
In the matter of square mileage the present basin of the
Bedfordshire Ouse comes fifth in rank of the river basins of
Great Britain, and affluents now bring their waters to it from
the centre of East Anglia as well as from the vicinity of the
Oxfordshire Cherwell and from near Saffron Walden in Essex.
Immigrants entering the land up the stream in the eastern
portion of the Wash^ might turn up the lateral waterways
of the Little Ouse or the Lark into Norfolk and Suffolk as
well as follow the Cam southwards or continue towards the
west in the direction of Bedford. It is possible that this
would account for the resemblances which have been noticed
between East Anglian tomb furniture and that found in Mid
Anglian cemeteries such as Market Overton, Rutland ; and
Holdenby, Northants. Suffolk cemeteries are specially
abundant on the course of the Lark, and the settlers who
used these cannot have been very different from other Anglian
immigrants who chose the Nene or the Welland as their port of
entry into the land. At Far n dish in Bedfordshire not far from
the Nene at Wellingborough there was discovered a large florid
square headed brooch of a pronounced East Anglian type.
Some note has been already taken of certain cemeteries by
^ The channels are of course altered since Saxon times.
784 MERCIA AND MID ANGLIA
the upper waters of the Ouse that seem to bring the Anglian
fashion of cremation to near the border of the West Saxon
sphere of influence or even over it. Leighton Buzzard is
one of these, but of far greater importance is Kempston on
the Ouse, a couple of miles above Bedford. The cemetery-
has already been referred to more than once (pp. 192, 622)
and is one of the most important in the country. As is the
case with many Anglo-Saxon grave fields the site is on a bed
of gravel, on the surface of which below the supersoil the
bodies were laid, and the working of the gravel in modern
times revealed the interments. These were disposed, it will
be remembered (p. 166), in every direction, and with the
bodies were a number of cinerary urns, PI. cxxxiv, 6 (p. 499),
some containing besides the bones the usual small objects. The
Kempston saucer^ applied, and small long brooches have been
illustrated Pll. xlii, i ; xlvii, i (p. 275). That there were
clasps seems indicated by the words ' portions of metal, thin
plates of bronze, which might have formed the fastening, by
way of clasp, of the dress.' ^ A mounted crystal ball - with
one or two examples of inlaying seems to show a connection
with the south, for such objects belong specially to Kent, but
on the other hand the equal armed fibula, PI. xxxvii, 7 (p. 247),
connects the cemetery with Cambridgeshire where two finer
examples of the same rare type have been found (p. 561 f,).
The occurrence of a very early bronze fibula of a pre-Teutonic
pattern, PI. CLv, 11 (p. S^3)y ^^ ^^ course in itself an early in-
dication, and we have to remember the equally early bronze
brooch, on the same plate. No. 12, that came to light with
Saxon objects at Basset Down, Wilts, where the spoon of
Roman pattern and the small triple beads show that the
cemetery may have been in use at an early date. Other
cemeteries in this part, Sandy, Toddington, Farndish, in
Bedfordshire, have been already noticed (p. 6^6) in relation to
the sites in the West Saxon area across the watershed.
1 Jss. Soc. Reports, 1864, p. 270. 2 ibid., pi. 11, 8.
CAMBRIDGE, LITTLE WILBRAHAM 785
The Cambridgeshire cemeteries lie for the most part in the
neighbourhood of the county town, and fruitful discoveries
have been made at Orwell, Haslingfield, Barrington,
Hauxton, Little Wilbraham, Girton, places that lie on
different sides of Cambridge within a radius of half a dozen
miles, while Linton Heath, Soham, and Ely are a little
further off on the eastern side. At the last named place the
Gentleman s Magazine, of 1766, p. 118 f., describes the dis-
covery of a warrior's grave, with sword, spear and shield and
by the head a 'great urn,' and one would have been tempted
to see in him one of the early raiders, but he is given away
by the fact that a claw glass goblet was found with him. The
site of Cambridge ^ itself has been remarkably prolific, and
the Cambridge Antiquarian Society's Communications contain
several notices of finds in different parts of the urban area,
e.g., in vol. xvi, 191 2, p. 122, there is a note of the discovery
of an urn with burnt bones in company with Anglo-Saxon
relics. Important discoveries were made in 1888 and later
on the cricket ground belonging to St. John's College. The
records of one set of investigations, those at Little Wilbra-
ham, have been embodied in the well known work, the Hon.
R. C. Neville's Saxon Obsequies ^"^ and the objects found are in
great part in the private collection at Audley End of Lord
Braybrooke, who kindly allowed the writer to examine and
photograph them. The proceeds of other Cambridgeshire
cemeteries are scattered, but a large body of examples from
the various sites are displayed in the new Museum of Archae-
ology and Ethnology at Cambridge, and reports of many of
the discoveries are to be found in the Communications of the
Cambridge Antiquarian Society.
At Little Wilbraham, where the cemetery was on a
hill about 100 ft. high facing the south, 188 inhumed bodies
were disinterred only 24 of which were unaccompanied by
any deposit. More than 120 urns were also counted and 83
^ For Cambridge see also (p. 787). 2 London, 1852.
786 MERCIA AND MID ANGLIA
were preserved, most of them containing burnt human bones
and a considerable number of small objects of the usual kind
with the addition of some fibulae, knives, keys, etc. Crema-
tion side by side with inhumation was therefore fully estab-
lished. There was one case of the burial of a horse, with its
iron bit, by the side of the rider. There was nothing specially
remarkable about the weapons and vessels, but it is note-
worthy that some instances are given where several beads, of
which, in all, the large number of 1 176 made their appearance,
were found in the same grave as a warrior's arms. The single
large bead found with a sword (p. 224 f.) in graves 44, 96,
151 is of course another matter. Clasps formed a feature
of the finds and there were 24 reckoned in the inventory,
mostly of the simpler patterns illustrated PI, lxxviii, i to 5
(p. 363) ; a rich collection of girdle hangers, many in pairs,
also came to light.
The fibulae were the most interesting part of the find and
fill ten plates in the above-named publication. Apart from a
few disc brooches, one a Kentish inlaid one of the middle
third of VI, one or two quoit and annular ones, a couple of
applied (no saucer brooches were found) and two exceptional
specimens to be presently noticed, the fibulae were mostly of
the * long ' kind, though the ubiquitous florid square headed
brooch was also represented. The ' long ' fibulae included
small long brooches of the usual patterns, trefoil headed
brooches, etc., but the collection was especially strong in the
genuine cruciform type in the different stages of development
which have been followed in a previous chapter (p. 258 f.),
including the late rather florid stage represented by the
example PL xlv, 2 (p. 269). Most of them have the side
knobs fixed but one or two were of the earlier form with
detached side knobs. The Cambridgeshire cemeteries gener-
ally like those of the greater part of East Anglia are strong in
the cruciform brooch, which as we have seen (p. 598) just
overflows into Essex, but not into the West Saxon regions of
CAMBRIDGE, LINTON HEATH 787
Herts, Bucks and Oxon. A very early example with specially
narrow head plate and detached side knobs came from the
St. John's College Cricket Field explorations at Cambridge.^
This was in part a cremation cemetery and produced early
objects, though late ones were also found, such as the applied
brooch with naturalistic animals, Pll. lxiii, 5 ; v, ii (p. 106),
a late date for which is indicated by a buckle with triangular
chape of the Kentish pattern found with it in a woman's
grave.^ The comparatively advanced type of most of the
examples at Little Wilbraham looks towards an average date
for the cemetery of the latter half of VI, but two objects at
least were found whose proper habitat is V. These are a
round headed fibula of the radiating pattern, which was prob-
ably imported, and the handsome equal armed fibula of Hano-
verian type shown PI. cliv, 4 (p. 561). With this must be
compared the still finer example from Haslingfield, PL cliv, 5.
The significance of the appearance here and at Kempston of
these rare objects has already been signalized (p. 561 f.).
Another radiating fibula was found in the cemetery on
Linton Heath close to the Bartlow Hills on the very border
of Essex. This was also excavated by the Hon. R. C. Neville,
who contributed an account of it to the Archaeological Insti-
tute in 1854,^ He remarks upon its similarity to Little
Wilbraham but emphasizes the remarkable difference that
here, though urns were found, ' no burnt human bones, bronze
tweezers, bone combs, or other small objects were contained
in the vases.' There were 104 skeletons with parts of others,
and to find no trace of cremation in a comparatively large
cemetery of this region is not a little remarkable. It was
moreover to all appearance an earlier cemetery than that at
Little Wilbraham, and belonged to the first half of VI, and
this makes the absence of cremation all the more notable.
Linton Heath produced saucer and applied fibulae and an
^ For Cambridge see also (p. 785).
^ Archaeologia, lxiii, 191. ^ Jrch. Journ,, xi, 95.
788 MERCIA AND MID ANGLIA
abundant assortment of large square headed and smaller
cruciform fibulae of the types figured on the plates of Saxon
Obsequies. A unicum was the spur sketched Fig. i6 (p. 421).
It is a noteworthy fact that a cemetery well stored with fibulae
of this pronounced Anglian type should be found close to the
borders of Essex where objects of the kind are only repre-
sented by one or two casual discoveries. The occurrence at
Chesterford on the northern limit of Essex of a late cruci-
form fibula closely resembling one found over the border at
Barrington, Cambs, PL xlv, 5, 7 (p. 269) is an accident
that brings out into more marked prominence the difference
between Cambridgeshire and Essex, the Anglian and the East
Saxon realms.
It is unfortunate that there is no connected account of the
various explorations of the last named cemetery, where so
many interesting objects have from time to time come to
light. On the Map, No. vii (p. 767), Barrington is under-
scored with a broken line implying some doubt as to the
presence of cremation. The facts are that in Coll. Ant., vi,
135, there is a report on the excavation of 30 graves in 1861
with no sign of cremation. In vol. 11 of the Cambridge Anti-
quarian Society's Communications^ at p. 7, Professor Babington
reported on discoveries of about the same time on the site
where the interments were estimated at about 200, but nothing
is said about cremation ; and there is the same silence in the
case of the Notes by the Rev. J. W. E. Conybeare, communi-
cated to vol. X of the Communications, p. 434, on objects found
there between 1873 and 1898. On the other hand, in vol. v
of the same publication, an ' Account of the Excavation of an
Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Barrington, Cambridgeshire,' by
that careful antiquary the late Walter K. Foster, F.S.A., con-
tains the words ' in this cemetery cremation seems to have
been quite the exception, very few cinerary urns having been
found.' A Barrington publication would be a welcome addi-
tion to our knowledge of Mid Anglian antiquities.
NORTH-WEST SUFFOLK AND IPSWICH 789
EAST ANGLIA
It is not easy to reconcile the apparent solidarity of the
East Anglian kingdom, which evidently formed a distinct
political entity, with any plausible theory of the actual settle-
ment. From the geographical point of view we cannot point
to any one gate of entry through which a homogeneous body
of invaders can have passed to spread themselves ultimately
over the whole region. North-west Suffolk seems to proclaim
on the evidence of its pagan cemeteries that it was colonized
from the side of the Wash along the courses of the Little
Ouse and the Lark ; while quite on the other side of the
country direct access could be gained up the inlets of the
Yare, the Waveney, the Ore, the Deben, and finally the
Orwell, where at Ipswich an extensive cemetery has actually
been found just at the head of the estuary. At Ipswich the
tomb furniture differed in some remarkable respects from that
found in other parts of East Anglia, though, as we have
already seen, it bore no resemblance to that of the neigh-
bouring kingdom of Essex (p. 597 f.). Ipswich however apart,
there exists what Mr. Reginald Smith has called ' the general
uniformity of East Anglian burial grounds ' suggesting ' a
common origin for the population of the 6th century, different
from that of the Saxon occupants of Essex and the Thames
valley, though not far removed from that of the Midland
Angles.' ^ If other cemeteries of the same character as that at
Ipswich existed along the eastern coast there would be strong
grounds for holding that the two sides of the district had
been colonized independently, but the other coastal discoveries
have been rather of a caisual kind, producing in many cases
obviously late and perhaps imported objects, so that general
conclusions bearing upon the original settlement cannot easily
be drawn. Ipswich must in the meantime remain exceptional,
1 Victoria History, Suffolk, i, 333.
IV 2^
790
EAST ANGLIA
and the other East Anglian sites be regarded as on the whole
of uniform character.
Notice has already been taken (p. 598) of the fact that the
Ipswich cemetery was wanting in clasps and in cruciform
brooches, while Kentish objects and those suggesting a connec-
tion with the South were in evidence. It was to all seeming a
pagan cemetery of VI, in which inhumation prevailed but
cremation was represented, and it can hardly be held to repre-
sent the first landing of the Teutonic immigrants, and still less
a settlement on the ' Saxon Shore ' before the orthodox era of
the conquest.^ If coins of Marcus Aurelius and of Faustina of
about 160 A.D. made their appearance, these are not uncommon
finds at Ipswich, and the pieces may have been picked up and
appropriated by the settlers. There is no reason to suppose
that they brought them to this country as current coins.
The bronze buckle with oval chape, figured PI. lxxi, 6
(p. 349), is remarkable ; there was a good collection of glass
which is a southern feature, and the beads were very numerous.
Among the 159 interments no swords were found but the
spears numbered nearly 50, the umbos about a score, and a
couple of these were of the conical form. There was one axe
head and this was of the * socketed ' kind in which the handle
is inserted into the iron as into a sheath. Among the orna-
ments, square headed brooches of the larger kind but of sober
patterns were most conspicuous, and the round disc on the
extrados of the bow was a feature, PI. lxv, 4 (p. 23^)- Eight
specimens made their appearance and it is noteworthy that
one of these was found in situ with the foot pointing upwards,
and this lay in the centre of the breast. Miss Layard super-
intended the excavations in 1906 and reported on the results,^
^ It may be repeated here that there is no support from the side of
archaeology for the idea that the portion of England called the ' Saxon
Shore ' was colonized by early Teutonic settlers before the time of the
migrations proper (pp. 577, 674).
'^ Archaeohgia, lx, 325. See also Troc, Soc. Ant., xxi, 242.
WEST STOW HEATH, ETC. 791
and her remarks on the position of the fibulae in relation to
the bodies have been already referred to (p. 382).
With Ipswich may be compared a large probably mixed
cemetery on the other side of the county by the river Lark.
The site is West Stow Heath, where about 100 bodies were
disinterred about the middle of the last century, with abund-
ant tomb furniture that is described and illustrated in the
Proceedings of the Bury and West Suffolk Archaeological Institute^
vol. I. There is a good summary in the Victoria History^
Suffolk, I, 338 f. A few miles further down the Lark is
another cemetery at Warren Hill near Mildenhall and there,
as on other sites in the vicinity such as Mildenhall, Ick-
LINGHAM, LaKENHEATH, ExNING, LaCKFORD, TuDDENHAM,
abundant relics have been found. Some of these cemeteries
may have been like the Ipswich one partly cremation, but
inhumation as a rule decidedly prevailed. The prevailing
form of brooch in this region is the cruciform, which occurs
in the simple early three knobbed variety, and also in more
ornate forms that carry us towards the latter part of VI. A
fine example of the ornate type, that has not yet degenerated
into the flat sprawling forms which are the final stage of
development of the species, is illustrated PI. xlv, i (p. 269).
It was found at West Stow Heath and is at the Moyses Hall
Museum, Bury St. Edmunds. The simpler brooches are of
more importance chronologically, as some of them with the
detached side knobs look towards V and show that this par-
ticular part of the county was not only abundantly peopled
but received settlers at an early date. PI. xl, 4 (p. 259) is
one of these very early Suffolk pieces, and PI. xliii, 2, from
Exning is more advanced but still has the detached knobs.
One technical detail distinguishes the long brooches of this
region and is quite an East Anglian speciality, this is the use
of enamel, of the champleve kind. An example is seen in the
Mildenhall piece in Mr. S. G. Fenton's collection, PI. xli, 7
(p. 268) where the sunk rings on the head plate and the top
792 EAST ANGLIA
of the foot are filled with coloured vitreous pastes. Enrich-
ment of the kind on long fibulae will not be observed in any-
other Anglo-Saxon region, though, as we have seen, other
uses for enamel are found occasionally in all parts and at all our
periods. The enamelled bronze scutcheons for the suspended
bowls will always be borne in mind, and Mildenhall has
furnished fine examples of these to the Museum at Cambridge.
Clasps are also a feature of the tomb inventories of this pro-
lific region, and if it be linked by these and by the forms of
the fibulae to Mid Anglia, the use of enamel on the long
brooches is a striking point of difference. The remarkable and
probably early ' swastika ' brooch from Mildenhall is figured
PI. XLviii, 3 (p. 279).
On the other side of Thetford from Mildenhall, and across
the Norfolk border, we find another important inhumation
cemetery at Kenninghall, where so far as is known crema-
tion was not practised at all. Part of the objects recovered
are in the British Museum, and one of the large severely
designed square headed fibulae discussed (p. 334 f.) passed
thither from the site, PI. lxiv, 2, and was accompanied by
a spiral wire clasp of the kind illustrated from Leicestershire,
PI. Lxxvi, 5. Florid cruciform fibulae of a later type than
the piece just mentioned also occurred, as well as examples of
the normal three knobbed kind both in its earlier shape with
detached knobs and in its later developments. PL clvii
exhibits a case with a selection of Kenninghall objects in
the Fitch Room in the Museum at Norwich, where these
cruciform brooches are fully in evidence. There was also
found an applique in the form of a fish, similar to the Suffolk
example shown PI. xxiv, i (p. 202) and to one discovered at
Kempston.
In the extreme north of East Anglia cemeteries, mixed,
but for the most part presenting inhumation, were opened long
ago at HoLKHAM and quite recently in Hunstanton Park,
where interesting discoveries have been made. At Sporle,
CLVII
facing p. 792
NORFOLK CREMATION URNS 793
near SwafFham, in an Inhumation cemetery some long brooches
and girdle hangers came to light. Akerman figures three of
the brooches, Pagan Saxondom^ pll. xxxiv, xxxix, xl, and one
half of a pair of girdle hangers, a good specimen with orna-
mentation all over the expanded end, is figured in the Norwich
volume of the Archaeological Institute, p. xxvl.
On numerous sites alike in Norfolk and in Suffolk, a
pretty complete list of which will be found in the Victoria
History^ urns of the characteristic ' Anglian ' form and orna-
mentation have been discovered with burnt bones actually
within them and In many cases with fragmentary objects that
represent the tomb furniture which belongs to the epoch.
There are extensive urn cemeteries and also sporadic finds.
In 1857^ and again in 1891^ urns In considerable numbers
were found on two sites near Castle Acre. They were
irregularly placed and at so shallow a depth that the plough-
share had In many cases mutilated or destroyed them. They
were ' evidently made of the sandy clay of the district,' and
sometimes had rough stones laid across the mouth as covers.
Within the urns, besides cremated bones, there were at times
a few small objects, such as beads, portions of combs, bone
counters or draughtsmen, fragments of glass vessels, and above
all some minute iron shears and tweezers of bronze together
with some bronze needles. On these minute Implements,
which are rare in this country though much in evidence In
some of the Museums of North Germany, objects In which
so often resemble our own, something has already been said
(P- 393)) see PL Lxxxvii (p. 391).
The cremation urns of Norfolk have a special interest of
a literary kind, as some of them Inspired Sir Thomas Browne's
famous treatise entitled Hydriotaphia^ Urne-Buriall^ or a Dis-
course of the Sepulchral Urnes lately found in Norfolk. In this
the eloquent seventeenth century moralist writes at large on
^ Proc. Soc. Ant., 2nd Ser., iv, 172, report by G. A. Carthew, F.S.A.
^ Norjolk Archaeology, xii, 100.
794 EAST ANGLIA
the subject of mortality and introduces some interesting para-
graphs on the special objects that furnish him with a text —
the ' sad and sepulchral Pitchers, . . . silently expressing old
mortality, the ruines of forgotten times.' At Walsingham
forty or fifty had been dug up just before the time of his
writing, 1658, and apart from the bones in them 'with fresh
impressions of their combustion,' he notes the presence of
' extraneous substances ' such as combs, ' peeces of small
boxes,' ' long brasse plates overwrought like the handles of
neat implements ' (long fibulae), ' brazen nippers to pull away
hair,' ' a kind of Opale yet maintaining a blewish colour '
(a glass bead). An acute observation is also made to the
effect that ' near the same plot of ground, for about six yards
compasse were digged up coals and incinerated substances,
which begat conjecture that this was the Ustrina or place of
burning their bodies.'^ He notices too the grains of mica
in the clay, ' some of these Urnes were thought to have been
silvered over, from sparklings in several pots, with small
Tinsel parcels,' and it is curious that a recent writer ^ makes
this a reason for thinking that some of the pots were not of
East Anglian make but imported as ' there are larger flakes
of mica in the ware than are found in any of the clays of
the district.'
There are characteristic urns in the Norwich Museum
from Castle Acre,^ Markshall close to the Roman camp
at Caister south of Norwich,* Pensthorpe near Fakenham*
PI. cxxxiii, 4 (p. 497), Sedgeford near Hunstanton.* From
Shropham between Norwich and Thetford comes the hand-
some urn in the British Museum, PI. cxxxii, 2, which was
1 The Works of Sir Thomas Brozvne, ed. Charles Sayle, Edinburgh, 1907,
ni, 104 f.
2 Mr. M'Kenny Hughes on 'The Early Potter's Art in Britain,' in
Arch. Journ., lix, 231.
•^ Norfolk Archaeology, xii, 100.
* References in the Catalogue oj Antiquities, Norwich Castle Museum,
1909, p. 51 f.
SUMMARY ON EAST ANGLIA 795
probably cinerary. Urns with bones in them were found
hard by at Hargham. J. Y. Akerman in his Pagan Saxondom
illustrates on his pi. xxii a cinerary urn with its contents from
Eye in Suffolk, now in the British Museum. With the burnt
bones there were a comb, a small pair of iron shears 2^ in.
long, tweezers, and a curved iron knife with handle in the
form of a loop. Redgrave near Diss close to the border
between Suffolk and Norfolk is the place of origin of the
urn at Bury St. Edmunds, PI. cxxxvi, 8 (p. 501). From
Fakenham came a fine urn in the Ipswich Museum, and
there was other evidence of cremation on the site. The finds
at Snape have been already noticed (p. 590). Close by
North Elmham cremation urns were discovered in XVIII.
The above are only a few out of many examples alike of
inhumation cemeteries, of mixed ones, and of cremation
burials, which might be enumerated from this prolific area.
The region is furthermore remarkable for the number of
isolated finds of interest that have come to light sporadically
and not as a rule obviously connected with an interment.
One or two have already been figured in the plates. For
example, the Wilton pendant, PI. cxl, i, 2 (p. 509) is only
one of several jewels of East Anglian provenance, some of
which have been enumerated in the paragraphs devoted to this
class of objects (p. 539 f). Mr. Fenton's ' swastika' brooch,
PI. XLViii, 3 (p. 279), which is an early object, and the
triangular fibula from Lakenheath, a late one (PL xlviii, 4),
are notable 'unica.' On an early plate were figured two
very interesting bronze objects of a somewhat puzzling kind,
PI. IX, 1,4 (p. 103), from the prolific corner of Suffolk between
the Lark and the Brandon. A brooch shaped like a bee
reminding us of Hungarian models was found somewhere in
Suffolk.-^ It is impossible however here to signalize a tithe of
the objects worth noting in East Anglia, which is in truth one
of the most prolific regions in the whole country. As regards
1 Victoria History, Suffolk, i, 349.
796 LINDSEY
the chronology of the cemeteries, over and above the pre-
valence of cremation in the area there are early indications in
the tomb furniture, and the faceted bronze disc of the
romanizing kind, PL clii, 4 (p. 558), must not be forgotten.
There are sufficient objects of an early character found in the
region to justify the suggestion supported by the story from
Procopius, quoted (p. 764 f.), that East Anglia was first settled
before the end of V.
THE SETTLEMENTS OF THE LINDISWARAS
Students of Anglo-Saxon architecture know Lincoln-
shire as the most prolific of all the English counties in monu-
ments representing the style, and it might be expected to
provide corresponding material from the earlier period. This
is not however the case, and the abundant Saxon churches, all
it must be pointed out of a comparatively late period, only
serve to make more apparent the paucity of pagan Saxon
cemeteries. One of these is however of the very first
importance, but its site, Sleaford, in the low lying southern
part of the county, seems to bring it more naturally into
connection with the Gyrwas of the fen country than with
the ' Lindisfari ' of Bede who, as their name implies, were the
inhabitants of the larger and more northerly part of the
county still called 'Lindsey.' The old appellation of Lincoln,
Lindum Colonia, gives of course the etymology. This region
belonged to Northumbria in the time of Edwin, but the
Lindisfari had once princes of their own and a passage in Bede
indicates that they possessed some independent local feeling.^
The discoveries, such as they are, that have been made in the
northern portion of the county may certainly be held to
represent this section of the invaders.
On the question how they entered it, the following may be
quoted from the Victoria History} ' The English conquest of
1 Betiae Opera Historic^, ed. Plummer, 11, 108. ^ Lincolnshire, 11, 246.
SLEAFORD 797
Lincolnshire can only be stated as a fact ; it cannot be
described, for all details are lacking. On a coast fringed with
dangerous sands there was little risk of any landing in force
betwixt Boston Deeps or Wainfleet and Tetney Haven ' (at
the mouth of the Humber) ' and we may reasonably suppose
that at these places the invaders entered. Though they were
mainly Anglians in race, an admixture of Frisians has been
inferred from certain place names.' There is a Friesthorpe
north-west from Lincoln and Frieston, Friskney and Firsby
between Boston and Wainfleet. The Witham, discharging
into the Wash by Boston, would lead by low lying lands to
Lincoln hill and then in a curious southward curve to near
the Trent at Newark. Lincoln itself has furnished provok-
ingly little Anglo-Saxon material to place beside its Roman
remains, and the facts here are the same as those which meet
us on other Roman sites such as Canterbury and London, on
all of which sites, save only York and perhaps Colchester and
Leicester, continuity between Roman and Saxon civilization
is hardly to be discerned (p. 137 f.). Lincoln and its
neighbourhood make up for this dearth of early remains, it
should be said, by furnishing some excellent weapons of the
Danish period that will subsequently be noticed.
At a point a short distance up its valley the Witham
receives from the south-west a tributary the Slea, and on this,
at Sleaford, we find the most prolific of all the Lincolnshire
sites, and one of the most remarkable cemeteries in the whole
country. Peculiarities of the cemetery and its furniture have
already formed the subject of comment (pp. 131, 145, 154,
364, 383, 435, etc.) and it must be said that if these represent
the customs of the Gyrwas should there not be more
resemblance between the phenomena at Sleaford and those of
Woodstone on the Nene, opposite Peterborough which Bede
tells us was in the country of the Gyrwas ^
There were of course represented at Woodstone many of the
objects found at Sleaford, but this general resemblance runs
798 LINDSEY
through the cemeteries of all this region, whereas the
peculiarities of Sleaford, such as the crouching position of the
skeletons, the use of cists, the festoon-like arrangement of the
beads, the placing of the brooches, have not been signalized at
Woodstone.
The Sleaford cemetery, the whole number of interments
in which were reckoned at about 600, was well described by-
Mr. G. W, Thomas in vol, l of Archaeologia, and he states
that he would never allow any excavation beyond a foot in
depth without his presence, and no bone or relic of any
description to be removed from its site except by his own
hands. It was partly a cremation cemetery, for there were
six cases of the burning of the body and urns are described
containing a quart or a pint of calcined bones and ashes. In
grave 183, for example, was a 'stone cist containing a small
urn with carbonaceous earth, fragments of bone, and stains of
bronze and iron among the ashes,' No sword appeared, but
there were 48 spear heads or ferules and 14 shield bosses in the
242 graves inventorized. One umbo was of a tall shape like
that of the early Herpaly boss at Budapest figured PI. liii, 10
(p. 305). The exceptionally large bucket has been noticed
(p. 463), and there was a large bronze bowl with loops for
suspension in the form of heads of swans or serpents, cf.
PI. cxv, 2 (p. 474). The curious arrangement on the person
of the fibulae and the beads has been referred to (pp. 383,
435)-
Special features in the tomb inventory were the very
numerous clasps (p. 362 f.), the girdle hangers which were
abundant and ornate and were sometimes connected with
ivory rings, a spiral wire clasp in grave 121 like PI. lxxvi, 5,
from Leicestershire (p. 359), and more particularly the fibulae.
We are reminded in these of the wealth in different forms of
the brooch which was a feature in the Kentish cemetery at
Bifrons, for many types are represented. The large florid
square headed or cruciform is found here as in so many
SLEAFORD AND SEARBY 799
cemeteries of the Mid Anglian region, with the small long
brooch and the true cruciform, which we should also expect
to find at home here. Annular and penannular brooches were
much in evidence and of the latter there were 19 examples.
Besides these more normal types there were exceptional pieces,
such as a Romano-British enamelled brooch, a round headed
radiating one, an S shaped fibula with two animals' heads, one
saucer brooch with a central stud, an iron flat annular brooch,
a ring made of the tine of a deer's horn that may have served
as a brooch like the Londesborough piece, PI. li, 5 (p. 287),
and a fibula marked with the swastika, like PL xlviii, 3, 5, 6
(p. 279). The undoubtedly early objects found on the site
make it probable that the settlement at Sleaford is an early
one and that the cemetery was in use from about the end
ofV.
Next to Sleaford the Lincolnshire site that has made the
most interesting contribution to our subject is the wold site of
Searby to the north of Caistor, and here again early objects
suggesting V have been found. A pin with ' Klapperschmuck,'
after the pattern of that from Leagrave, Beds, PL lxxx, 2
(p. 369), was found in company with a radiating round headed
fibula ending below in a horse's head, a recognized V form.-'^
These are in the British Museum together with some fine
girdle hangers figured PL xc, 2 (p. 397). Still better is a pair
from the site in the Lincoln Museum with the small rings
which suggest that objects were really hung from them, Fig. 13
(p. 399). Altogether Sleaford and Searby have contributed,
with Little Wilbraham, about the best specimens of this par-
ticular product in the country. Searby also was prolific in
round and flat sectioned annular brooches, one of the former, at
Lincoln, has two animals' heads that resemble what we have
found in Kent and Yorkshire, PL li (p. 287). There were also
clasps, small long brooches, beads, etc., and — a rare object —
^ The radiating fibulae from Woodstone and from Sleaford will be
remembered.
8oo LINDSEY
a bone die of parallelepiped form marked with numbers. The
fact is that there is more resemblance between Sleaford and
Searby than between Sleaford and Woodstone, so that the
Gyrwas theory noticed above (p. 797) finds no support in the
finds.
Caistor has gifted to the Lincoln Museum a fine speci-
men of the bronze bowl for suspension with two rings and
scutcheons still in position, and a good set of the ornate inlaid
beads that are rather a late indication.
The discovery of a cemetery, apparently of pure cremation,
in the parish of Kirton-in-Lindsey, was described in the
Archaeological Journal^ vol. xiv, by the Rev. Edward Trollope,
whose name is well known in connection with Lincolnshire
antiquities. In 1856 in operations of road-making a cut was
driven * through a slightly rising mound, situated on a high
ridge of ground running north and south through the greater
part of the county called the " Cliff," ' and 50 to 60 urns were
found all filled with bones. Unfortunately most of them were
broken up forthwith in search for gold, but half a dozen were
saved, and the British Museum has some specimens. They
are of the Anglian type, and combs, tweezers, etc., were duly
found in them amidst the bones. This is an interesting dis-
covery on account of the site, which is near the edge of the
oolitic escarpment under which nestle so many ancient villages.
Is it possible that the cemeteries belonging to these villages,
so many of which have Anglo-Saxon churches, were situated
on the high ground above, and that Kirton-in-Lindsey repre-
sents one of them .? Further to the south along the 'Cliff'
between Lincoln and Grantham, by the Roman road there
called High Dyke, in the parish of Welbourn, finds are
recorded that include a large Anglo-Saxon square headed
fibula of the plain type but of inferior style, and a pair of
clasps, now at Alnwick Castle Museum. These may be
similarly explained. They are figured Pll. lxiv, 3 (p. '}i'}>S) \
LXXVIII, T (p. n^(i^.
NOTES ON MAP VIII
The comparatively small number of names in the Northumbrian
region, and the fact that, though Anglian Northumbria once
extended to the Forth, there are no names given north of the
Tyne, is the subject of comment in the text (p. 758 f.).
If account had been taken of later finds of the Danish period
the number of names would have been sensibly increased.
The Wolds of the East Riding of Yorkshire have been fertile
in discoveries in the period covered by these Volumes but only the
principal localities have been named on the Map.
OTHER LINCOLNSHIRE FINDS 8oi
Finds of a more or less sporadic kind are to be noted from
different parts of the county. Quarrington close to Slea-
ford, Candlesby by Firsby on the south-eastern edge of the
wolds, Flixborough by the Trent, may be mentioned. At
the Roman site of Ancaster an Anglian cinerary urn was
found with burnt bones in it and part of a bone comb, and
this may be held a piece of evidence in favour of continuity in
sepulchral usages between Roman and Saxon. Lastly there is
the interesting find, evidently of a late epoch in a tumulus at
Caen BY to the north of Lincoln from which came the plaque
with animal ornament figured PI. lxiii, 3 (p. 329). The
objects discovered are illustrated by Akerman on plate xv of
Pagan Saxondom^ and are in the British Museum. They
probably date from the first half of VII.
DEIRA AND BERNICIA
The geographical conditions are quite favourable for the
establishment of an Anglian principality at an early date in
Deira with its centre at York, for the stream of the Ouse
offers an open waterway to the northern capital. If bodies of
Anglian immigrants found their way in V up the Trent there
was nothing to prevent others from ascending at the same
period the Ouse, which was for a long distance quite equally
navigable. In XI the fleet of Harold Hardrada ascended the
Ouse with a very large number of ships as far as Riccall.-"- We
need not attach much importance in themselves to the traditions
or theories of Celtic writers, but at any rate they are in accord-
ance with natural likelihood and fit not only the geographical
but also the archaeological facts of the situation.
It is of course not easy to fix the date of cremation
cemeteries for the tomb furniture is generally of the scantiest
description, but all that we know about the cremation burials
1 Flor. Wig., ad ann. 1066.
8o2 DEIRA AND BERNICIA
in the immediate vicinity of York goes to indicate an early-
epoch. On the south-west of the city the Roman road from
Tadcaster approaches it over a sort of raised ridge of gravel
known as ' The Mount,' and here Anglian cinerary urns were
found in such close conjunction with Roman funereal objects
that there is no doubt about the continuous use by the settlers
of the older cemetery.^ Several of these urns are in the
Museum of the Philosophical Society at York, and together
with the shears found in one of these urns, PL lxxxv, i on the
left, there came to light a coin of Julia Domna, the wife of
Septimius Severus who died at York in 211 a.d. The coin
must have been found and treasured as a curiosity. At the
Mount too was found the fine and well preserved glass bowl
figured PI. cxxv, 3 (p. 485). The fact that an almost exact
replica of it came to light in North Germany where the
cemeteries rule earlier than ours suggests a date perhaps in V.
On the other side of the city about a mile from its centre
in the direction of Malton we come upon another cremation
cemetery at Heworth. The site is a gravel ridge like the
Mount raised a little above the water meadows, and here a
pure cremation burial ground yielded up about 200 urns that
had been arranged in regular rows. About 40 are exhibited
in the York Museum, and there are also an immense number
of pieces not put together, in the Museum magazine. One of
the urns has been figured on PL cxxxv. They are of a pro-
nounced Anglian type, and lend themselves admirably to
comparison with the urns from the Hanoverian-Dutch districts
on the Continent. A few of the usual small objects were
found in them, and among these were the tweezers figured on
the right hand side of No. i on PI. lxxxv (p. 391). These
are beautifully finished and are faceted quite in the Roman
fashion so that a V date would suit them very well. They
have evidently not been in connection with the fire. On the
whole these cremation burials at York present an early aspect
^ Archaeologia, xlii, 433.
SANCTON AND HORNSEA 803
and bear out the historical indications of an early seizure of the
old Roman military capital.
Another purely cremation cemetery occurred at Sancton
near Market Weighton, not far from a distinct burying ground
where inhumation was in use. The two have to be kept
separate. Here again the urns, some of which are in the
Ashmolean and others at Hull/ were an interesting set, bold
in design and ornament, and the cemetery was noteworthy for
the amount of tomb furniture found in the urns, sometimes in
a calcined condition and at other times well preserved. Long
brooches, bronze clasps, shears, tweezers, beads, etc., may be
singled out. A collection of half- fused objects from these
urns is to be seen in the Ashmolean.
At Sancton however we are on the edge of the wold
district the numerous burials in which will presently be noticed.
Before we come to these notice may be taken of a quite recent
discovery of an inhumation cemetery on the sea coast at
Hornsea.^ In the summer of 19 13 some slight excavations
connected with the new Hydropathic at Hornsea revealed a
dozen inhumed skeletons, laid in a row with most of the feet
pointing to the north. There were however in the dozen
three instances of contracted burial, a fashion in interment
rather common in Yorkshire. No cremation urns appeared,
but there was a goodly array of tomb furniture, many of the
objects being of a fairly early type. The cruciform fibula was
specially in evidence, and it is curious that with this small
number of a dozen skeletons lying close together there should
be differences among the fibulae from adjacent graves which
might at first sight suggest marked differences of date. The
cruciform brooches PI. xliii, i, 3 and PL xlv, 3, together with
a specimen without wings below the bow but with three fixed
knobs, were all found on skeletons in this same short row of
^ Hull Museum Publications, Nos. 66, 6j.
2 An Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Hornsea, by T. Sheppard, F.G.S., in
Transactions of the Hull Scientific and Field Naturalists' Club, vol. iv, pt. v, 191 3.
8o4 DEIRA AND BERNICIA
interments to all appearance about contemporary. In the two
first mentioned the presence of the wings beneath the bow
neutralizes as chronological evidence the absence of side knobs,
and this last is thereby shown to be in itself no absolute
criterion of early date. The whole four brooches probably
belong to the middle or latter half of VI. Wrist clasps were
present and so too were annular and quoit brooches. The
bronze bell has been noticed, PI. xcviii, i (p. 415).
Inhumation burials at Londesborough, a little north of
Market Weighton and near the wold country, opened at
various times from 1870 to 1895, ^^^^ produced a good
assortment of objects, especially in the form of cruciform
fibulae and clasps of a handsome kind resembling those from
Bifrons and Lewes, PI. lxxvii, 4, 5 (p. 361), as well as
square headed fibulae of an ornate pattern. The Museums at
York and at Hull have good examples. From an inhumation
burial in the same neighbourhood the Hull Museum was
enriched about 1905 with the abundant tomb furniture accom-
panying a female skeleton in a crouching position,^ including
the singularly fine piece, one of a pair, PI. xliv (p. 268).
There was a third cruciform fibula, girdle hangers, PI. xc, 4
(p. 397), clasps, beads, and other objects. The date seems
about the same as that of the Hornsea burials.
There now fall to be noticed the large number of burials,
mostly of a secondary kind in earlier barrows, on the Wolds
OF THE East Riding. The situation and character of these
have already received attention in connection with the general
subject of the cemetery (p. 134 f.), and it is only necessary to
indicate the most notable objects in the tomb furniture. As
these were all inhumation burials the objects are far more
numerous than in the case of the cremation cemeteries first
reviewed. They are practically all described and figured in
Mr. Mortimer's Forty Years Researches, and a large number
of the objects found were displayed in this antiquary's private
1 Hull Museum Publkatms, No. 33.
WOLD BURIALS, UNCLEBY 805
Museum at Driffield. The valuable collection is now being
transferred to the Museum at Hull.
On Aclam Wold which looks towards Castle Howard
and Malton some dozen interments near old chalk pits yielded
a golden bracteate-like pendant set with garnets now in the
British Museum, a fine sword with hilt and pommel of early-
type and of the great length over all of nearly 40 in., and a
curious object in the form of an iron bowl or ladle, 4|- in.
deep by 8 in. in diameter, with a handle over 18 in. long, the
last 4 in. of which is bent down so as to serve as a rest,
enabling the ladle to stand without spilling its contents.
The secondary interments on Painsthorpe Wold, which
Canon Greenwell thought were those of the Anglian inhabi-
tants of Kirby Underdale, furnished a bronze ring fibula, one
of the little round bronze workboxes of which several have
been found in Yorkshire, and some other small objects.
The ' Beacon Hill ' barrow on Garrowby Wold, a little further
to the south, contained a spear head and iron shears, and
another barrow a shield. The most important discoveries how-
ever on this side of the wolds were made at Uncle by close
to Kirby Underdale. With about seventy secondary Anglian
burials in a British barrow enlarged for the purpose were
found amongst other objects two of the round bronze work-
boxes, for one of which see PI. xcvi, 4 (p. 411), a ring brooch
in which animals' heads occur at each end of the ring beside
the hinge of the pin, as in an example at Maidstone, PI. li, i i
(p. 287), another such ring brooch of curious section with a
garnet en cabochon set in each of the heads, PI. li, 7, two
bracteate-like pendants of gold ornamented with filigree work,
and inlaid, one with a central garnet mounted in Kentish
fashion on a button of a white substance, amethyst beads, and
other ornaments. A bronze bowl was also found 13^ in.
in diameter. There were no fewer than a dozen whetstones
for sharpening tools or weapons, a type of object often met
with in Yorkshire but very rare in other parts. No. 5 on
IV 2 D
8o6 DEIRA AND BERNICIA
PI. xcvii shows a specimen. Lastly the weapons included a
sword imperfectly preserved, and some scramasaxes, which
are rather more common in Yorkshire than elsewhere, see
PI. XXVIII, 7 (p. 227).
Mr. Reginald Smith in the Victoria History^ Yorkshire,
II, 90, notices the curious affinities which some of these
objects show with Kentish tomb furniture, and remarks on
the absence of the long brooch generally characteristic of the
North. The presence of whetstones on the other hand and
the position of the bodies, which in most cases were contracted,
are non-Kentish traits.
By Driffield on the other side of the wolds some good
tomb furniture was found with secondary burials in tumuli
upon low ground near the town. Mr. Mortimer gives the
account on p. 271 f. of his book, and illustrates the objects
on his plates xcv to cxiv. Shield bosses and spears were in
evidence with the usual ornaments in the form of beads (some
small triple and multiform ones have an early appearance,
pi. cxii), clasps, strap ends, quoit brooches, cruciform brooches
of VI types, of which an example in the Sheffield Museum is
characteristic. It is J. 93, 629, and is from near Driffield but
not actually one of the Mortimer specimens. There was also
a badge in the form of a fish, pi. cxii, a bracteate with debased
animal ornament, pi. cii, and a near approach to an applied
brooch, described on p. 288 as ' a circular fibula, formed of a
concave disc of bronze, of more than i|- inches in diameter,
presenting traces of what appeared to be gold foil on the
interior surface.' A unicum was what appeared to be a cook-
ing pot, of a flat shape quite unusual and bearing traces of fire
on its lower part, pi. xcviii.
The last of these finds in the wold district are the most
interesting of all as they carry with them distinct indications
of an early date. The two sites are on the south-eastern limit
of the wold country in the direction of Bridlington, at Kil-
HAM and at P^udston. From the latter place come two long
CLVIII
facing p. 807
MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS
/,, J, are Continental
RUDSTON, KILHAM 807
brooches in the British Museum with detached side knobs and
a simple treatment of the horse's head. Typologically they may
be placed in V. In respect to Kilham, Mr. Mortimer quotes
some sentences from the Scarborough Repository"^ for 1824,
describing the exploration there of a place that seemed to have
been a cemetery. A skeleton was found with feet to the south-
east and near it a brass buckle, two pairs of brass clasps, some
beads, etc., and ' a fine piece of neatly- worked brass about
5 inches in length and varying in breadth from i to 3 inches,
with a kind of hook or catch on the nether side.' This last
may have been one of three remarkable fibulae found on the
site. One, not shown, is a good specimen of the cruciform
* long ' brooch in which the side knobs are cast in one piece
with the head and may date about 550. Of the other two, one,
PI. CLviii, 7, is a radiating fibula of V, one of a type common
in Merovingian Gaul and possibly for that reason to be
regarded as an imported object. The third, PI. clv, 7, is
almost unique in western European finds, but is of a kind
very numerously represented in the district of Russia of which
Kiev is the culture-centre. The Museum of that city is full of
examples showing the open work characteristic of the type, and
some of these are shown PI. clv, 8, 9, 10. The occurrence of
an example in so distant a region as Yorkshire is a remarkable
fact, for the type is very local, and is sought for in vain in the
rich repertory of Hungary on the south-west and of the
Crimea on the south-east of ' Little Russia.' Baron de Baye
has noticed these open work fibulae which he regards as
peculiar to the Ukraine ^ region and he derives them from the
Gothic fibulae of the Crimea with projecting heads of birds,
themselves a modification of the round headed radiatinp-
brooches that have their home there. Various examples in the
Kiev Museum show the stages of derivation, certain of them
being intermediate between the ordinary radiating fibula and
1 Fort;j Years , etc., p. 344.
2 Les Fibiiles de V Epoque Barbare sp'eclaks a P Ukraine, Caen, 1908.
8o8 DEIRA AND BERNICIA
the open work ones, the influence of which has been trans-
mitted as far as Kilham in Yorkshire,
The Kilham burials furnished also a good assortment of
the enriched bronze clasps that are characteristic products of
Anglian cemeteries. A sign of early date was the appearance
of the small double and multiple-lobed beads which have so
often been recognized in early cemeteries alike in the South, the
Midland district, and the North.
The most northerly of all the Yorkshire ' finds ' is only
just to the south of the boundary of Deira. The locality is
Saltburn-on-Sea in the north-east corner of the county.
Here, only a year or two ago there came to light a number of
cremated as well as some inhumed burials, accompanied by
interesting tomb furniture. The site is on an eminence 300 ft.
above the sea which it overlooks at a distance of more than
a mile. Here in 1909 and 19 10 about forty cremated bodies
came to light, the bones being generally though not always
collected in cinerary urns that were in general disposed in
rows running north and south. With these there was a
considerable number of beads, some partly fused and others
showing no trace of the action of the fire. Among these
beads were some small triplet ones which we have just seen
to be a mark of early date. Another object of special interest
and also carrying the same suggestion was a ' francisca ' or
axe head of Frankish type belonging in Gaul to V or VI and
found occasionally in the south of England. A large square
headed brooch of the florid type common in the northern
midlands was found in a mutilated condition, and might be
ascribed to a later date than the beads and the ' Francisca,'
but a date that would still fall within VI.
Taking the Yorkshire finds of the Anglo-Saxon period as
a whole we are struck with the large number of remains from
the later Viking or Danish period, a considerable proportion
of which were found in and about York itself and are pre-
served in the Museum of the Philosophical Society by St.
SCATTERED YORKSHIRE FINDS 809
Mary's Abbey. The consideration of these must of course be
deferred. Though the extent of the modern county is so
great the area in which finds have come to light is circum-
scribed by the fact that the moors and hills of the West
Riding, to the west of the great Roman highway from
Doncaster through Tadcaster to Boroughbridge and Catterick,
have furnished no sepulchral remains. A few scattered
discoveries may here be noted to supplement the account just
given of the cemeteries. For example, at Hawnby to the
south of the Cleveland district there was found a specimen of
the bronze bowls with attachments for suspension that is of
special interest owing to its possession of the three scutcheons
ending in hooks complete and in their original positions.
They are however not enamelled as is so often elsewhere
the case and are only adorned with some punctured dots,
PL cxvii, 6 (p. 473). A bracteate-like gold pendant of VII
with cruciform pattern and garnet inlays in the Sheffield Museum
was found at Womersley near Pontefract. At Seamer near
Scarborough some more examples of garnet inlay on small
objects of gold came to light. The Castle Yard at York
produced another example of the bronze bowl something like
the Hawnby one but with scutcheons in the form of birds,
PI. cxv. 2 (p. 474).
We have already seen that in the case of the Teutonic
peoples who made themselves masters of Britain cremation
was the earlier rite while inhumation gradually came in to take
its place, the former custom descending from the north while
the latter ascended to meet it from the south. In Yorkshire,
as we shall presently see, the rite of cremation was in full use
though as a rule not exclusive use. North of the Tees no
assured instance of Anglian cremation is known, and this
would bear out the view expressed early in this chapter, that
Deira, the southern part of Northumbria, was settled earlier
than the more northern Bernicia, however much this may have
been * raided' in the earlier epochs of the migration.
8io DEIRA AND BERNICIA
It has been noticed already (p. 760 f.) that in Bernicia as
compared with Deira finds from the pagan Anglo-Saxon period
are extremely rare. North of the Tees there is really only
one cemetery worthy of the name, the few other discoveries
between the Tees and the Tweed being of a somewhat
accidental character, while beyond the Tweed we have seen
that discoveries of the pagan period are practically non-
existent.
At Darlington a few miles north of the Tees, within the
limits of the present town and on comparatively elevated
ground there were discovered in 1876 about a dozen skeletons
of men, women and children, laid with their feet to the east
and accompanied by tomb furniture. Iron swords, spear
heads, and shield bosses were in evidence as well as beads and
several brooches of different forms. Three spear heads and
a cruciform bronze fibula, in the collection of Mr. Edward
Wooler of Darlington, are shown Pll. xxxi, 4 (p. 235);
CLViii, 8. The latter is of a VI type, dating about 550 a.d.,
and the interments were in all probability of the pagan period.
The next most important find in the southern part of
Bernicia was one at Hurbuck near Lanchester in County
Durham, where a non-sepulchral deposit of iron weapons
came to light in 1870. These arms, which are now in the
British Museum, are shown by their forms to belong to the
Danish period in which connection they will be treated in a sub-
sequent Volume. The fine glass vessel of the ' tear ' pattern,
shown PI. cxxiv, was found in connection with an interment
at Castle Eden, and in a more northerly part of the county
East Boldon was the place of discovery of the small bronze
buckle with encrusted chape shown on an enlarged scale
PI. Lxxi, 5 (p. 349). Portable objects connected with the burial
of St. Cuthbert at Lindisfarne in the last years of VII were
found at Durham when the tomb to which the body of the
saint had been transferred was opened there in 1827. The
pectoral cross carried by the saint beneath his ecclesiastical
NORTHUMBERLAND FINDS 8ii
robes has been already noticed as a specimen of gold and
garnet work of the middle or latter half of VII, PL cxl, 3
(p. 509). The other objects then brought to light, a small
portable altar or rather the covering of one in the form of an
embossed silver plate, and the wooden coffin made by the
monks of Holy Island for the re-interment of the body of
the saint in 698, on which are incised figure designs and
inscriptions, are so distinctively Christian that the consideration
of them must be deferred. The same of course applies to
the world-famous illuminated manuscript, the Gospels of
Lindisfarne, as well as to any carved stones that may be
located in the same period. The cemetery at Hartlepool with
its inscribed tombstones is also purely Christian and probably
dates early in VIII.
In Northumberland there may be signalized the appear-
ance at Whitehill near Tynemouth of a large late cruciform
fibula of the florid type similar to one found at Hornsea in
Yorkshire, see PL xlv, 6 (p. 2,69), and on the line of the
Roman VV^all one or two interesting discoveries have been
made. The barbed spear head from Carvoran, PL xxxii, 11
(p. 237), and the trefoil headed fibula found in the Roman
station of Birdoswald across the Cumberland border, PL
XXXVII, 10 (p. 247), have been already mentioned as well as
the finds on Coquet Island, PL l, 4 (p. 285), that are of
dubious date. By far the most important of these casual
Anglo-Saxon discoveries was that made in 1908 in the great
Roman station Corstopitum, by the modern Corbridge on the
Tyne. In the course of the excavations on this site which
have been carried on for a number of years, there were dis-
covered a pair of bronze cruciform fibulae of an early type,
a string of beads, and two fragments of a small urn of dully
polished black ware, with ornamentation which if not very
distinctively Anglian is more like Anglian work than any-
thing known in the pre-Saxon period. The fibulae, one of
which was shown PL xli, 4 (p. 261), are not an exact pair
8i2 DEIRA AND BERNICIA
for one measures 3|- in. in length the other ^g ''^^••> ^^'^ ^^^
details are somewhat different. Both are cast hollow, the
underside of the head plate being concave, and have the catch
at the back reaching up from the foot to the bow, while the
two side knobs are cast in separate pieces and attached by
means of a groove to the head plate. The type is one fixed
by Haakon Schetelig in his typological study of the cruciform
fibulae to before or about the year 500.
The beads, PI. civ, 2 (p. 429), which are small and of
early form, coupled with the fact that the fibulae are evidently
meant to be worn as a pair, show that the owner of them was
a woman, while the presence of the fragments of the urn would
in themselves suggest a burial, though no bones nor indications
of cremation are reported by the discoverers. The whole find
is of such interest that the fibulae and the beads have been
shown together PI. clviii, 9, and the fragments of urn added.
No. 10, from the engraving in Proc. Soc. Ant., xxiii, p. 12.
Finally PI. clviii, i i figures the urn of Anglian type, 5 in.
high, said to have been found at Buchan in Aberdeenshire,
mentioned on an earlier page (p. 759). A search among the
records of the Scottish Museum of Antiquities in Edinburgh
has failed to find any contemporary record of its discovery,
and of the words on the label affixed to the piece ' Found in
Buchan, Aberdeenshire, J. Gordon, 1827,' the date and name
of donor are erroneous and should be deleted. All that can
be said is that in the Synopsis of the Museum of the Society of
Antiquaries of Scotland^ Edinburgh, 1849, at p. 30 there is
an entry with the aforesaid label, and the compiler of the
Synopsis, Sir Daniel Wilson, apparently saw no reason to
question the indication of locality. The shape and character
of the urn are such that it would easily pass muster in any
collection of Anglian vessels.
As a postscript it is worth recording that in January, 191 5,
in the course of some excavations for military purposes on the
NEW DISCOVERY BY THE FORTH 813
shores of the Firth of Forth, an early grave was broken up.
The orientation of it was east and west, and the body had
been protected by slabs of laminated sandstone after the
manner of some Anglo-Saxon burials (p. 151). The skeleton
had disappeared with the exception of some teeth that attested
its former presence, and there were found in the grave a dozen
glass beads, shown Fig. 30,^ of a character that would be con-
sistent with an early Anglian origin for the interment. The
colours of the beads, which are shown the natural size, are
white, pale blue, dark red, and green, and the triple one, the
second from the right, is solid, not a blown bead. The centre
piece is a portion of the rim of a Roman glass vessel, where
Fig, 29, — Beads found January 191 5 in a grave on the shore
of the Firth of Forth.
the edge has been turned over leaving a hollow through which
the morsel has been strung. It has been ground down to fit
it for its purpose. Such an oddity as the central ornament of
a string is quite possible in Anglo-Saxon times (p. 432), and
the beads can all be paralleled from the plates of beads in
Nevile's Saxon Obsequies^ while they are not unlike the early
set found at Corbridge. A burial on this site might conceiv-
ably be that of an early Anglian sea-rover (p. 757 f.), but on
the other hand the beads are not distinctively Anglo-Saxon,
and indeed similar ones were found not long ago in a broch
in Skye.
^ Thanks are due to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland for per-
mission to describe and figure this quite recent find.
INDEX
The Arabic numerals refer to the pages. There is continuous
pagination through the two volumes. For the Anglo-Saxon
cemeteries see the List of Cemeteries which follows the List of
Illustrations at the beginning of this volume.
Abbeville (Homblieres), cemetery at,
149, 164, 166, 451, 549.
Adam of Bremen, 578 f.
^lla, 673 f.
Aesica, fibula from, 12, 292.
ji^thelberht j of East Anglia, 94, i lO; of
Kent, 37, 335, 548, 598 f.
^thelfrith, 760.
^thelred of Mercia, 79, 98 j .^thelred
11, 228.
-^thelstan, Laws of, 202.
^thelthryth, abbess of Ely, 149.
Agathias, quoted, 238.
Akerman, J. Y. ; quoted, 126, 178, 648,
659 f . j referred to, 132, 178, 189, 223,
331, 350, 467,485,774.
Alamanni, the, 196, 378, 420, 607.
Albans, St., discoveries near in xii, 120 f.
Alclyde (Dumbarton), 755.
Alfred jewel, the, 6, 519.
Allen, J. Romilly; quoted, 8, 2865 re-
ferred to, 17, 247, 478 f., 771.
Alten Buls, finds from, 277,
Alten Elsing, find from, 323.
Altenwalde, urn from, 499.
'Amazon shield,' 554.
Amber, 406, 436 f . ; mystical, etc., vir-
tues of, 438, 450. See also 'Beads.'
Amethysts, 427, 444, 699, 723.
Ammianus Marcellinus ; quoted, 5775
referred to, 139, 195, 575 f., 607.
Amulets, 438, 449 f. See also ' Amber,'
* Crystal spheres,' ' shells, Cypraea.'
Anderida, 50, 673.
Anderlecht, objects from, 390, 492.
Andredsweald, 671.
Angle, use of the term, 569.
Angles 5 on the Continent, 567, 581 j in
Britain, 752 f. See also 'Saxons.'
Anglian specialities in tomb furniture,
622 f., 767.
Anglo-Saxon Chronicles ; quoted, 52, 612,
614, 617, 753; referred to, 608, 612.
Anglo-Saxons, general racial unity, 183,
evidence from bones, 1S4. See also
' Architecture,' ' Art,' ' Cemeteries,'
and passim.
Animals in Germanic and other art. See
' Ornament, zoomorphic'
Apahida, buckle from, 532.
Appliques, 202 f.
' Ara Pacis Augusti,' 297.
Archaeologia, quoted or referred to,
passim.
Architecture, Anglo-Saxon, 2, 541.
' Ardashir,' Pahlavi inscription, 522.
Armlets, 435, 456 f . ; of glass, 458, 683.
Arms; Roman, 211, 217, 376, 559;
Teutonic, 193 f., 376.
Coat of mail, 194.
Helmet, 194, 196.
Shield, 196 f. ; boss of or umbo, 198 f.,
633 f-> 655 f., 658, 664, 708, 782 ;
appliques on, 202 f., 708.
Sword, 204 f . ; blade, 210 f. ; hilt, 216
f., 330 ; knot, 221, 430, 660.
Spatha, 210 f., 660; weight of, 633,
685.
Roman 'gladlus,' 211 f., 217; Vik-
ing sword, 213 f., 217 f . ; from
Wallingford, 648.
Scramasax, 218, 225 f., 376, 655,
657; ' langsax,' 226, 228, 230;
sword-knife, 228.
Dagger, 226, 231, 642, 710, 717;
pommel of, 311, 538 f., 727.
Knife, 226 f., 352, 354; handle of,
227, 408, 565.
Axe, 231 f. ; Danish or Viking, 233 f. ;
'Francisca,' 231, 628, 685, 697, 701,
748, 808.
Spear, 234 f. ; light javelin, 242, 706,
722; make of sockets, 235, 682;
shafts, 240 f . ; ferules, 241; barbs,
239.
Angon, 238 f., 628, 631, 639, 681,
^97? 703? 74"^ ) compared with
pilum, 239.
Bow and arrows, 194, 205, 241 f., 708,
717, 722, 740, 747 f.
815
8i6
INDEX
Art (characteristics of different styles) j
Anglo-Saxon, 4 f., lyf., 113,455,474,
498; Carolingian, 298 ; Celtic, 8, 17,
no; Early Christian, 13; Germanic,
7 f., 13, 17 f. ; Greek, 8 ; Japanese, 8 ;
Late-Celtic, 9 f., 12, 350, 466, 475 f . ;
Provincial-Roman, 10 ; Teutonic, see
' Germanic'
Aurei, see 'Solidi.'
Aylesford, objects from, 466, 471.
Babelon, M., referred to, 63.
Bally holme. Viking burial at, 478.
Bangles, see ' Bracelets.'
' Barbaric,' meaning of the term, 515.
Barriere-Flavy, M.j quoted, 421, 446;
referred to, 142.
Bastelaer, M. van, quoted, 368.
Bateman, Thomas; quoted, 195, 769;
referred to, 771 f.
Battens, for weaving, 419.
Beads, of migration period, 429 f ;
Douglas on, 125, 438 ; provenance
and date, 438 f., 447 ; distribution,
430; in male interments, 435 ; num-
bers found, 436; how worn, 435 ;
festoons of, 435; for sword knots, see
'Arms, sword, knot'; as spindle
whorls, 430.
Materials (other than glass) ; amber,
436 f . ; amethyst, 432, 444;
bronze, 433 ; cornelian, 171 ;
fossils, 432, 710; gold, 433; shell,
432; silver, 171, 433 f.; terra
cotta, 431.
Glass beads ; methods of fabrica-
tion, 440 f. ; blown beads (double
or triple), 445 f , 600, 656, 664,
699» 703» 713 f-..75o, 808, gilding
in, 433, 447 ; millefiori beads, 442
f., 448, 750; mosaic, 442 f.
Roman 'melon' beads, 440 f, 651, 667,
681, 703, 713 f, 738.
Late-Celtic beads, 441 ; eyes in, 441.
Beddoe, Dr.; quoted, 613; referred to,
622, 759.
Bede ; quoted, no, 481, 603, 753; re-
ferred to, 191, 566 f., 594, 598, 742,
752._
Bel Air, cemetery at, 171 f, 207.
Bells, 418 f.
Belts, 352, 749 ; in relation to other
fastenings, 244, 379; adjuncts of, 358,
434, 637; golden, 424.
Beoivulf-, quoted, 195, 206, 209; referred
to, 194, 226, 567.
Bernay, find at, 87.
Bernicia, 760, 810 f
Besson, M., referred to, 14, 117.
Bewcastle Cross, loi, 108, 181, 297, 330.
Bezants, 59.
Bird ; as ^coin device, 85 f., 90 f., 98,
108; on tomb furniture, 105 f., 450, 526,
736; pecking at grapes, 92 f., 113.
Bits, horses', 422, 776, 786.
Blekinge, Sweden, buckle from, 322.
Bloxam, M. H.; quoted, 139 ; his collec-
tion at Rugby, 103, 398, 538.
Boats, see ' Ships.'
Boltersen, find at, 200.
Boniface, St.; his burial, 190 ; quoted,
191.
Borgstedt, Schleswig, cemetery at, 259,
265, 501, 5S6.
Boulanger, M. C. ; quoted, 272,446,493,
550; referred to, 170, 398.
Bouvines, battle of, 229.
Bow and Arrows, see 'Arms.'
Bowl, bronze, with cremated remains,
147.
Bowls, bronze, 18, 466 f. ; history of,
469 f. ; cast, 470, 707, 771 ; beaten,
471 f., 707; cordoned, 473; 'cas-
serole' shaped, 471 f . ; pail shaped,
467.
Arranged for suspension, 473 f . ;
'scutcheons' of, 428, 474 f., 723,
771 ; found in Norway, 478.
Of Hallstatt epoch, 472 £ ; Late-Celtic,
469,471 f ; provincial-Roman, 469,
472.
With hazel nuts, 468, 497, 737.
Bracelets ; 247, 454, 706, 730, 739 f ; in
bangle form, 457 f , 601 ; of glass, 683,
739-
Bracteates, 105, 306, 309, 451 f., 668,
704, 719, 730, 743, 806.
Braun, Father, referred to, 73.
Brent, John; quoted, 702, 714; referred
to, 701.
Bretwaldaship, 6i8 ; of lEWs., 673 f ;
of ^thelberht, 37, 595, 618 ; of Red-
wald, 599.
Bridges, Roman, at the time of the con-
quest, 607, 609.
' Briquet,' see ' Strike-a-lights.'
Britford, Wilts, 52.
British population and the Anglo-Saxons,
50 f, 140 f., 184, 650, 656. See also
' Celtic survivals.'
Bronze Age, see ' Cemeteries.'
Bronze objects of Romanizing type, 45,
554 f-> 584 f-, 632, 646, 681, 719, 738.
Bronze tubes, flattened, 434.
Brooches, see ' Fibulae.'
Browne, Sir Thomas, 121, 793 f
INDEX
817
* Buckelurnen,' 490.
Buckets, 462 f . ; archaeology of, 465;
distribution of, 465 ; Celtic, 465 f.
Date of, 466 ; use of, 466 ; discs at-
tached to, 463 f.
Buckle, the ; in relation to other fasten-
ings, 243 f. ; its history, 244 f.
Buckles, 244 f., 346 f. ; materials of, 245 ;
sizes of, 360; compared with fibulae,
243 f., 286, 347 ; simplest form of,
347 ; plate buckles, 552 £, 557 ;
large iron buckles, 174, 355, 710;
Chape of, 347 ; round or oval, 349 f.,
712, 790 j 'Amazon shield' form,
554 ; rectangular, 350 f . ; triangular,
352, 704, 725; with open work, 350
f. ; round headed studs on, 355 ;
Adjuncts of, 356 f. ; complementary
plates, 356 f.
Roman, 245, 317, 346; from S.
Russia, 348 ; Frankish and Bur-
gundian, 319, 347 ; from Apahida,
532. _ _
Romanizing, 554 f. ; with animals'
heads on ring, 554 f.
Anglo-Saxon, 352, and passim j dis-
tribution of, 352 f.
Byrnie, see ' Arms, coat of mail.'
Canterbury, its fate after the A.S.
conquest, 138.
Capua, bronze industry at, 469.
Carbuncles, see ' Garnets.'
Carolingian Renaissance, 94, no, 171.
Cassiodorus, quoted, 215.
Castel Trosino, cemetery at, 165, 207,
532.
Ceawlin, West Saxon King, 52, 610,
612 f., 645, 665 f., 761.
Celtic survivals in Anglo-Saxon art, 5 1 f.,
424 f., 479.
Cemeteries ; Bronze Age, 23, 52, 120,
133 f-> 137, 142, 151? 158, 162,
177 f., 676, 695, 737; Early Iron
Age, 142, 162, 695, 705 f. ; Romano-
British, 52, 137, 648, 695, 726, 731;
Franco-Roman, 549 f.
Teutonic, their democratic character,
188.
Frankish, 43, 129, 130, 149, 164,
170, 174, 207, 228, 233, 493, of
the Rhineland, 742 f. j Frisian,
492, 495 ; Alamannic, 130, 163,
207, 228, 245, 400 ; Burgundian,
165, 171, 174, 207 J in Hun-
gary, 27, 130, 149, 163, 207, 233,
235; Lombardic, 151, 165,207;
Viking, 137, 139, 171.
Anglo-Saxon. [See List of Ceme-
teries (p. xxxi)], 21 f., 114 f.,
589 f . ; limits of date of, 114 f.,
172 J Christian objects in, 115 f. ;
system in exploration of, 126 f . j
extent, 130, 172 ; relation to the
villages, 131 ; pits and trenches
in, 136 ; elevation of sites, 142 f.,
146, 649, 662, 675, 735 ; riparian,
145; cremation, see 'Cinerary
urns'; exclusively cremation, 146,
769 f, 800, 802 f . ; 'mixed,' 146,
783, 786; arrangement, 155, 721.
Monastic, 115, 181.
Cenotaph, an Anglo-Saxon, 720.
Centaur, the Greek, 67 ; female, in clas-
sical art, 87 ; as Anglo-Saxon coin de-
vice, 86 f.
Chains for chatelaines, 401 f.
Chalices, pewter, from Anglo-Saxon
cemeteries, 118, 644.
Chape; of a scabbard, 210, 224; of a
buckle, see ' Buckles.'
Charles the Great; his dress, 373 f.; his
burial, 20 ; coins of found at Bel Air,
171.
Charnay, cemetery at, 165, 207.
Chatelaines, 399 f.
Childeric i, grave of, 61, 207, 218, 225,
236, 252, 403, 533.
Children, special treatment of the bodies
of, 189, 654, 662 f., 679.
Chosroes, cup of, 522.
Chronicon Imperiale, 578.
Churchyard, the, 115, 173; Anglo-Saxon
burials in, 119 f.
Cinerary urns, 461, 493; objects found
in, 393.
Roman or Romano-British, 504, 695,
699, 726, 732; Germanic, 582;
N. German, 508 ; Frisian, 495, 505.
Anglo-Saxon, 147, 155, 505, 597/- 5
Anglian, 769 f. ; East Anglian,
793 f-5 Jutish (?), 677, 696, 711,
741 ; South Saxon, 676, 678 f. ;
West Saxon, 622 f., 627, 631, 634,
638, 643, 646, 648, 659 f., 661, 663.
Circle, burials in a, 158, 600, 659.
Cirencester, 53, 662, 665.
Cists, stone, 151, 813.
Civezzano, grave at, 151.
Clasps, 360 f . ; compared with other
fastenings, 243 ; continental writers on,
366 f . ; of spiral wire, 360 f., 777 f.,
792 ; Anglo-Saxon and continental,
364-
For belts, etc., 107, in, 331, 361 f.,
640.
INDEX
Clasps — continued.
For sleeves, 363 f . ; adjuncts to, 365 ;
mode of wearing, 364, 383 ;
Distribution of, 363, 366 f., 384, 598,
623, 625, 767, 779, 784-
Clovis, 61.
Cochet, the Abbe; quoted, 234, 243;
referred to, 175, 232, 353.
Codex Diplo7naticus, 120.
Coffins, wooden, 148 f., 1S6 f., 602, 664,
677, 725, of split tree trunks, 151, 180.
Coins (see also ' Aurel,' ' Pennies,' ' Sce-
attas,' 'Solidi,' 'Stycas,' 'Trientes');
placed in mouth or hand of a corpse,
451, 551; mounted for suspension,
119, 426, 444, 451 f, 510 f., 539.
Greek, 65 f.; Roman or Byzantine, 59
f., 80, 510 f., 660,719,721,728, 732,
740, 745, 790, 802 ; imitated Roman
or Byzantine, iii, 539, 701, 706.
Of barbarian issues, 60 ; Gallo-British,
65 f.; Prankish, 61 f., 426; Anglo-
Saxon, 3, 19, 30, 56 f., 759 ; Gothic,
113; Renaissance, 113.
Collectanea Antiqua, quoted and referred
to, passim.
Combs, 389 f.
Complementary plates, see ' Buckles/
Concevreux, find at, 221.
Continuity in burial customs, 52, 683,
732, 741, 802.
Cornelian, 171, 520.
Costume, see ' Dress.'
Counters, 413 f., 641, 705.
Crania Britattnica, quoted, 651.
Craniological evidence, 51, 1S4 f., 650.
Cremation, 46, 146, 164, 186 f., 335,
344, 494 f., 582 f. ; partial or cere-
monial, 148; of children, 189; its
distribution in England, 583 f., 597,
622 f., 636, 677 f., 696, 765, 767. See
also ' Cinerary urns.'
Crimea, the, obje'cts from, 335.
Crissier, buckle from at Lausanne, 555.
Crondall hoard, 69 f.
Cross, the ; its chronological significance,
73, 117, 164, 223, 343, 425, 429, 486,
511, 633, 660, 681, 722, 730, 735; as
a coin device, 64 f., 73, 80, 83, 85 f.,
89, 105, 429; on objects of tomb furni-
ture, 196, 223, 234, 257, 309, 343,
424 f., 450, 462, 730; carved in stone,
loi, 105, 161, 308, 453, see also
♦Bewcastle'j wooden, portable, 89;
pectoral, of St. Cuthbert, 20, 509, 546,
810.
Cross motive, the ; in design without
Christian significance, 73, 117 f., 257,
404. 453» 513* 629, 703, 735, 740; as
prophylactic, 118, 196, 223.
Crouching position in burial, 153, 677,
683, 699, 710, 804.
Crown, the, use of, 62.
Crowns, votive, 532.
Christian subjects on tomb furniture,
115 f., 646.
Crystal, rock ; 405 f., 415, 515, 669; as
sword pommel, 405, 735 ; as buckle,
405 ; as beads, 171, 406.
Crystal spheres, 403 f., 704, 750, 784;
magical virtues of, 404 f., 450.
Culinary objects, 416, 730, 805, S06.
' Cure-oreille,' 393.
Cuthbert, St., his coffin and its contents,
6, 15, 20, 152, 390, 810 f . ; Gospels
of, 15; reliquary cross of, 20, 509, 810.
Dahshur, jewellery from, 520.
Danish or Viking period, the, art of and
objects from, 21, 172, 390, 422, 456,
478, 601, 808 f.
De Baye, Baron, referred to, 235, 353,
465, 641, 807.
Dechelette, M., referred to, 472.
' Degradation ;' its meaning in relation to
design, 67; examples of, 66, 88, 90,
95' 113-
Deira, 761, 801.
Delamain, M., on Herpes, 226, 233.
Denmark ; Bronze Age finds in, 162 ;
Roman finds in, 10 ; Viking age finds
in, 172, 396.
Dice, 414, 800.
Dirks, J., on sceattas, 76 f., 96.
Discs, bronze, attached to buckets, 463 f.
Dismemberment of skeletons, 154, 183.
Domburg, finds at, 76, 85.
Dorchester-on-Thames, early finds at,
261, 557 f., 647 f.
Douglas, Rev. James, 122; his perspi-
cacity, 123 f . j referred to, 405, 738.
Dress, 372 f., 749 f. ; materials of, 380;
classical, oriental, and Teutonic, 244 ;
Germanic, 372 f . ; sources of informa-
tion on, 373 f . ; Anglo-Saxon and
Lombard, 377.
Durandus of Mende, quoted, 160.
Duurstede, Wijk bij, 79; finds at, 76.
Eagle motive, 526, 531.
Earconuald, bishop of London, 74.
Ear pendants, 435, 454, 459 f.; Prankish,
460 ; Hungarian, 460.
East Angles, 763 f., 789 f.
East Saxons, 47, 594 f.
Eck, M. Theophile, referred to, 78.
INDEX
819
Eloi, St., 71.
Enamelling; history of the art, 518 f . ;
Techniques, encrusted, 279, champlev^,
279, 791, cloisonne, 519.
Celtic, 423,425,476; Germanic, 278
f. ; Gothic, 530 ; provincial-Roman
or Romano-British, 278, 445, 651,
746 ; in Anglo-Saxon tomb furni-
ture, 268, 281, 475, 519, 537, 658 ;
mediaeval, 287.
Engel et Serrure, MM., quoted, 59.
Engelhardt, Denmark in the Early Iron
Age, referred to, 360, 379.
Enigmatical objects, 419 f., 748.
Enlart, M. Camille, referred to, 6.
^feprave, cemeteiy at, 130, 164.
Evans, Sir John, referred to, 95, 311.
Fabrics, textile, 152, 380, 385 £, 413,
629, 640.
Falcon, falconry, 92, 526.
Family burials, see ' Plural interments.'
Faussett, Rev. Bryan ; his life and work,
122 f . ; his merits and shortcomings,
123 ; quoted or referred to, passim.
Fetigny, buckle from, 1 74 f.
Fibula, the ; in relation to other fasten-
ings, 243 f. ; history of, 246 f.
Fibulae, 30 f. ; with 'returned foot,' 258 ;
of sheet metal, 253.
Germanic, 246; Greek, 274; East
Prussian, 264; Etruscan, 274; La
Tene, 250, 258; Late Celtic, 12,
285 ; Lombard, 247 ,• Pesciera type,
250; Primitive, 249, 722; Provin-
cial-Roman and Romano-British,
252, 254, 258, 272, 278, 554, 649,
651* 655, 731 f., 784, 799 ; Roman,
274; Scandinavian, 271, 333; South-
Russian, 259, 525 ; Viking, 247, 284.
Anglo-Saxon, 246 f., and passim ; use
of in pairs, 381 ; modes of wearing,
270, 380 f., 749, 790; united or
fastened by chains, 247.
Cross on foot of, 257 ; enamelling
on, 268, 278 f., 519, 537 ; horse's
head on foot of, 262 f., 300, 669,
735, 799 ; plaque on bow of, 257,
322, 332, 336, 790; studs, pro-
jecting, on, 276, 339 ; wings below
bow of, 267 f.
Fibulae, types of Anglo-Saxon, 246 f.
Safety pin type, 248 f . :
Sub-types of safety pin, 248 ; cruci-
form, 246, 258 f., 525, 635, 664,
669, 712, 735, its distribution,
333, 586 f., 598, 6n, 624, 650,
718, 767, 786;
Equal armed and ' anst^e,' 247,
271 U _554> 5^1 f-, 749» 787,
its distribution, 587 ;
Round headed, 246, radiating or
digitated, 246, 255 f., 397, 547,
603, 668, 697, 709, 712, 735,
740, 745, 749, 783, 787;
'Small long,' 265 f. ;
Square headed, 246, 256 f., 332 f.,
668 f., 706, its distribution,
333, 598;
Trefoil headed, 248, 264 f.
Plate type, 272 f . :
Sub-types of plate type, 273 ; applied
(see also 'saucer'), 246, 275 f.,
309, 312 f., 553, 600, 611, 647;
Bird, 246, 273, 280, 531, 665,
681, 749;
Button (see also 'saucer'), 276,
yZ, 321, 647, 688;
Disc, 246, 274 f., 303, 'Kentish,'
273, 508 f., 511 f., 535 f., 704,
706, 736, close set, 533 f., 540,
5+5, 701, 703, 714, 718, 735;
Saucer (see also ' applied,' ' but-
ton '), 37, 246, 275 f., 337, 629,
681, with central boss or stud,
276, origin of, 322, distribution
of, 312 f., 321, 600, 622, 628,
688.
Ring type, 282 f. :
Sub-types of ring type, 248 ; annular,
246, 284 f., 396, 402 ;
Penannular, 247, 284 f., pseudo-
penannular, 288 f . ;
Quoit, 246, 282, 303, 402, 564,
688.
Miscellaneous Anglo-Saxon types ;
fibula of iron, 175, of pewter, 280,
644; 'S* shaped, 280, 799; 'swas-
tika,' 281, 351, 686, 795; triangular,
281, 795 ; of the tine of a stag's
horn, 28 7, 79 9; shaped like a bee, 795.
Miscellaneous non-Saxon types, 552,
553 f-
Fish, as a Christian symbol, 202, 204,
352,477, 733-
Flonheim, finds at, 207, 390.
Floral ornament, see ' Ornament, floral.'
Foliage; in Book of Kells, loi, See
also ' Ornament, floral.'
Foot-gear, 377, 384.
Foster, W. K., on Barrington, 136.
Franks, Sir A. Wollaston, referred to,
431, 473-
Franks, the, 43, 49, 196.
Franks Casket, 194, 205, 373, 377, 408,
411.
820
INDEX
Friesen, Professor von, on runes, 69.
Fridolfing, cemetery at, 130.
Frisia, Frisians, 68 f., 76 f, 570, 57+>
742, 797. See also ' Terpen.'
' Frisian sea,' 754 f.
Funeral feast, the, 191, 663.
Furfooz, cemetery at, 164, 391.
'Futhorc,' 524 f.
'Gabata,' 473.
Gammertingen, cemetery at, 163, 193,
421.
Garnet inlays; technique of, 511 f . ;
history of, 518 f. ; a Gothic speciality,
527; on 'Kentish' disc fibulae, 508
f . ; on other objects, 221, 273, 276,
289> 335. 344. 3+8, 349, 35°. 37}, 404.
409, 424 f., 445, 449, 530, 538 f., 554,
598, 706, 773 ; close set, 533 f., 540,
545, 701, 703, 714, 718, 735; imita-
tions of, 335, 340, 344 ; See also
'Technical processes; inlaying.'
Garnets, tests for, 516 ; when called
'carbuncles,' 514.
Gentleman s Magazine, quoted, 779, 785.
Geoffrey of Monmouth ; quoted, 754 f. ;
referred to, 592, 754 f.
' Gesichtsurne,' 499.
'Gewissae,' 610 f. See also 'West
Saxons.'
Gildas, referred to, 53, 756.
Girdles, see ' Belts.'
'Girdle hangers,' 37, 394 f., 398 f., 799 ;
distribution of, 398, 669, 737, 768.
Glass ; original home of the industry,
438 f . ; use of for other purposes
besides vessels, for armlets, 458, 683,
for pendants, 427 f., 444, for beads,
429 f., see also 'Beads.'
Vessels of glass, 480 f. : of the pre-
Teutonic period, 480, 551 ;
Of the migration period, iridescence
on, 485, provenance, 481 f., 485,
colours, 480, ornamentation, 4S2,
handles, 480, ' tumbler ' form, 48 3,
'lobed ' or 'tear' glasses, 483, 633,
641, 665, 699, 704, 706, 716, 785,
810, funnel shaped, 487, 682,
fluted, 485, with Greek inscrip-
tion, 486, 682 ;
Similarity of British and continental
specimens, 33, 482, 484.
Glass pastes for inlaying, 513, 520, 530,
535, 541 f. ; how distinguished from
garnets, 516.
Gold Jewellery; Anglo-Saxon, 311;
'barbaric,' 386 f . ; central European,
310; Egyptian, 520; Etruscan, 310 ;
Frankish, 312; Greco-Scythian, 524;
Greek, 310, 520; oriental, 11, 521;
Persian, 521; Roman, 310; Scandi-
navian, 310; Siberian, 523 f.
Gold used in textile fabrics, 385 f., 640,
714.717-
Goldsmiths ; Anglo-Saxon, 34 ; in Hun-
gaiy, 35, 528 ; Rugian, 35 ; relation of
to moneyers, 70, 72.
Gomme, Sir Laurence ; quoted, 606 f. ;
referred to, 605 f., 653.
Goths; their rich attire, 385; artistic
importance of, 520, 524.
Gotland, art of, 10.
Gregory of Tours; quoted, 225; referred
to, 576.
Griffin ; origin of the type, 299 ; on
coins, 91, 526; on tomb furniture,
526.
Grimm, Jacob, referred to, 160.
Gyrwas, 767, 796 f.
Hair; how worn, 378, 389 ; treatment
of on coins, 85.
Halberstadt, diptych at, 270, 373, 375 f.,
381.
'Hallelujah' campaign, 578, 757.
Hallstatt, culture of, 9, 367, 369.
Ham Hill, find from, 285.
Hammoor B, Holstein, cemetery at, 260,
500, 586.
Hampel, Professor, xiii ; quoted, 206,
209, 367, 438; referred to, 27, 255,
305. 516, 531.
Handles, 420, 463, 467 f., 480, 501 ;
hinged, 105.
Hanger, for supporting pot over fire, 730.
Hardenthum, objects from, 400.
Harmignies, objects from, 277, 492.
Hartlepool, 161, 181.
Hazel nuts, in funereal vessels, 468, 497,
737-
Heldenbuch, the German, quoted, 205.
Hemp, 435.
Herodotus, referred to, 530.
Herpaly shield-boss, 200, 306.
Herpes, cemetery at, 130, 165, 226, 233,
409, 491.
Hillier, G., on Isle of Wight ; quoted,
409, 747; referred to, 151, 255, 403,
423, 434, 746 f.
Hinges, etc., 417.
Holland, its numismatic importance, 75 f.
Homblieres (Abbeville), cemetery at, see
* Abbeville.'
Hoog Halen, urn from, 500.
Hooks and Eyes, 360, 366.
Hornelund, find at, 172.
INDEX
821
Horse, bones of in cemeteries, 420 f.,
776, 780, 786.
Horse's Head motive, see ' Ornament,
zoomorphic'
Horse trappings ; Anglo-Saxon, 420 f.,
750, 776, 786; Late-Celtic, 288, 423.
Hungary, antiquities of, 26 f.
Hunsbury, Late-Celtic finds at, 200.
Immolation at graves, evidence of, 183.
' Ing' theory, 187.
Inhumation, 494 f. See also ' Cremation/
International Congress of Historical
Studies, 40.
In'ventorium Sepulchrale, 122; quoted or
referred to, passim.
Ivories ; imported, 302 ; from Nimrud,
520.
Ivory, 544 ; walrus, 544 ; rings of, 400,
458 f.
Jalalabad, reliquary from, 521.
Jardin Dieu, cemetery at, 149.
Joceline of Furness, referred to, 755.
Johnson, Samuel, quoted, 23.
Jouy le Comte, fibulae from, 352.
Jutes, as settlers in Kent, 42, 47, 507,
509, 568.
* Jutish question,' the, 742 f.
Kaiser Augst, objects from, 400.
Kastel by Mainz, find at, 221.
Kells, Book of, 101.
Kemble, John M. ; quoted, 2045 referred
to, 120, 493.
Kent, antiquities of, 42, 690 f.
Keszthely, cemetery at, 130, 149.
Keys, 394 f. ; form and material, 395 f. ;
Roman, 395 f., 730; Scandinavian,
396.
Kisa, Professor; quoted, 439, 4835 re-
ferred to, 438 f., 483 f.
' Klapperschmuck,' 369, 397, 552, 799.
Knives, see ' Arms, knife.'
Knobs, on the heads of fibulae, 255,
260 f., 718.
Knobs, or bosses, on rings and horse
trappings, 288 f., 423, 664, 701 f., 748.
Knot work, 85. See 'Ornament, inter-
lacings.'
Koenen, K., Gefdsskunde, 148.
Krom, Dr., referred to, 570.
Lapis lazuli, 520.
Late-Celtic art, see 'Art, Late-Celtic'
Latin ; use of the language in Anglo-
Saxon England, i8i, 5425 on brac-
teates, 45a.
IV 2
La Tene ; culture of, 9; finds at, 212.
See also 'Late-Celtic'
Laws, of^thelberht of Kent, 75.
Leather work, 384, 719.
Leeuwarden, 70 f., 496, 500 f., 743.
Lelewel, quoted, 58, 102.
Lindenschmit, his Handbuch ; quoted,
129, 420, 526 ; referred to, 130, 142,
207, 229, 347 f., 357, 378, 398, 405,
411,436,472.
Lindenschmit, Altertumer unserer heidni-
schen Forzeit, referred to, 221.
Lindenschmit, Tracht und Be^waffnung
des Komischen Heeres, referred to, 238.
Lindisfarne, 760; Gospels of, 5 f., 15,
.479-
Lindiswaras, 763, 796 f.
Line, feeling for in art, 1 7.
'Litus Saxonicum,' 576 f., 673 f.
Livy, quoted, 212.
London ; its position at the A.-S. Con-
quest, 46, 604 f., in VII, 594 ; early
finds in, 6n, 630; later finds in, 230,
630; settlements round, 607, 630; its
mint, 72, 79, 80, 85, no, 595.
'Long' fibulae, see ' Fibulae, types, safety
pin type.'
Lowlands, the Scottish, Angles in, 759 f.
LiJneburg, urns from, 493.
Lussy, objects from, 218, 409.
Maitland, Professor, quoted, 140.
Malmesbury, William of, referred to, 595,
6x0, 753, 764.
Mam men, axe head from, 234.
Marchelepot, cemetery at, 130.
Marks, distinguishing, for graves, i8o.
Maroeuil, brooch from, 277, 553.
Maros river, in Hungary, 35.
Martyrs' graves, supposed, opened in xii,
121.
Meckenheim, objects from, 400.
Medallions, Roman, of gold, 306, 324,
528 f.
Medusa Head, 322.
' Melian ' vases, 497.
Merchants, 36, 323, 412.
Mercians, 761 f.; their specialities in art,
774/-
Merwings, their long hair, 378.
Mestorf, Professor, referred to, 259, 367,
496.
Metz, 62.
Mid-Angles, 762.
Middelburg, 77.
Minute objects; axe heads, 232; toilet
objects, etc., 393, 412, 651, 793.
'Mixed' cemeteries, 146.
822
INDEX
Moneyers; Anglo-Saxon, 34, 418 ; Prank-
ish, 63 ; relation of to goldsmiths, 70,
72.
' Monster' type, on coins, 82, 90 f.
Mortimer, J. R., referred to, 134, 804 f.
Moustache, as Teutonic, 62, 81, 86, 323.
Miiller, Dr. Sophus; quoted, 13 ; referred
to, 148, 496, 515,555' 591-
Necklets; bead, 383; silver (lunular),
424 ; gold with garnet pendants, 424 f.,
657, 772 f. J fastenings of, 434.
Needle cases, 411. Needles, 412 f.
Nenia Britannica, 122 ; referred to,
passim.
Nennius, Historia Britonum, referred to,
753 f-
Newgrange, Ireland, spiral ornament at,
292.
Nienbiittel, find at, 200.
North, the, as sacred to the Teutons,
160 f.
Northumbria ; its historical position, 48 ;
Anglo-Saxon remains in, 48, 796 f.
Notitia Dignitatum, the, 574 f.
Nydam, finds at, 198, 212 f., 235, 239,
261, 300, 360, 408, 586.
Oberflacht, cemetery at, 163.
Obverse and reverse coin types, 86, 93.
Offa of Mercia, 56, 58, 94.
Open work, 107, 350 f., 361, 401, 565.
See also 'Plaques Ajourees.'
' Opus Barbaricum,' 305.
Orientation, 158 f., 623,661,664, 677,
705» 731, 739-
Ormside bowl, the, at York, 5 f. 205, 307.
Ornament ; aesthetic character of Anglo-
Saxon, 17 f. ; rotarj- motives in, 100,
no, 341.
Grouping of ornamental motives: —
Linear or geometrical, its definition,
290 ; dots, 306 ; chevrons, 302 ;
triangles, 305 f, 450 ; chip-carving
patterns, 294; interlacings, 85,
89, no, 294, 317, 329 f., 425,
apparent, 329, 340 t., date of,
329 f., 345, 356, 477.5 lattice
work patterns, 503 f. ; spirals 171,
293, close coiled, 292, 475, 515,
divergent (trumpet pattern), 292,
475 ; concentric circles, 293, 303,
503 ; step-pattern, 89, 104, 425,
543 f-
Conventional, 314 f . ; meanmg ot
term, 290; egg and dart, 315,
341 ,• guilloche, 314 ; interlacings,
see above; scroll patterns, 316 f,
475, of floral character, 316 f.,
used to cover a surface, 317 f.,
552; spirals, see above; star pat-
terns, 314, 503 ; 'swastika'
motive, 281, 351, 358, 497, 555,
686, 735, 799; triquetra pattern,
477; 'vitta' or sacrificial fillet
motive, 315.
Floral, 296 f. ; its use in Germanic
and classical art, 107, 297; in the
Book of Kells, loi ; acanthus, 8,
loi, 297 f., 316; Roman, 107,
298; Anglo-Saxon, loi f,, 297 f.,
316 f . ; 'foliated,' 172; rosette
motive, 89, no, 496 f. ; vine
motive, 92, loi, 297; foliated
scrolls, 316 f. ; on coins, loi f . ;
on tomb furniture, 102, X07.
Zoomorphic or animal, 296 f. ; in
Germanic and classical art, 13,
104 f., 298 f., 325; on coins, 14,
68, 72, 82 f., 103 ; on carved
stones, 105, 107 ;
Naturalistic, 13, 103, io6, 224,
282,552,687;
Teutonic, 13, 104, 203, 298 f.,
324 f., its origin, 298, 556 f.,
its history, 301, 325 f, early
examples of, 530 ;
Crouchinganimals, 224, 299, 325 f,
3 37» 364, 408, 556 f., 660, 686 f.,
689; interlacing animals, 311,
329 f., 704, 706, 725 ; birds, 91
f., 101, 203, 255, 299, 343, 526 ;
heads of the horse, 262 f., 300,
408, 425, 428, 735, of the wolf,
99 f,, 105, of the serpent, 100,
311; TTpoKpoaaoi, 299, 391, 464,
558;patternof legs,34i,689; fish
motive, 202, 204, 352, 477, 733.
Anthropomorphic, 302, 319 f. ;
Human figure, on coins, Ch. II,
passim, 302, on tomb furniture,
302, 319 f., 454;
Human head, on coins, Ch. II,
passim ; in Roman art, 322, 324,
in Scandinavian art, 322, in Ger-
many, 323, on tomb furniture,
302, 319, 3 3S f., 45 3» 464, 629 ;
histojy of the motive, 322 ; as a
continuous border, 3 24, 5 2 9, 644.
Otho, the Emperor, 229.
Oxus, the, treasure from, 521.
Oyer, finds at, 207.
Pails, see 'Buckets.'
Pairs of objects, absence of exact corre-
spondence, 248, 315, 398, 536, 811 f.
INDEX
823
Pall, the, chronology of, 73.
Paulus Diaconus, referred to, 377.
Peada of Mercia, 80, 84.
Penda of Mercia, 618, 762.
Pendants, 424 f., 444, 449 f., 657, 772 f.,
805.
Pennies; Anglo Saxon, 56, 58, 77, 84;
Carolingian, 78.
Petrossa, treasure of, 247, 273, 299, 517,
527 f., 545.
Pewter, 118, 280, 553, 644.
Pierced plaques, 401, 654. See also
'Plaques ajourees' and 'Open work.'
Pierpont Morgan Collection, 257, 534.
Pilloy, M. Jules ; quoted, 318, 332, 337,
399' 5505 referred to, 149, 153, 164,
218, 221, 237, 366, 368, 370, 446, 451,
.516, 559 f-
Pilum, the Roman, 238.
Pin, the, 366 f . 5 compared with other
fastenings, 243.
Its history, 367; its use, 368; ' styli-
form,' 370 5 forms of the head, 370 f.,
538, 603, 655, 736, with heads in
the form of axes, 234, 371 ;
Of the Hallstatt period, 367, Greek,
368, Roman, 370, Celtic, 370, of
Danish period, 370.
Pin suites, 371 f., 387, 428, 657, dd'j,
,773-.
Pitt Rivers, General; quoted, 189; re-
ferred to, 133, 140, 185, 654.
' Plaques ajourees,' 399 f.
Plural interments, 154 f., 188 f., 701 f.,
714, 721, 726, 747.
Polybius, referred to, 212.
Posta, Professor, referred to, 200, 324,
3+9' 350.
Pottery; 40 f., 488 f., 581 f. ; distribu-
tion of, 492, 580 f.
Neolithic, 506; Celtic, 695, 725;
Roman, 504, 506, 663, 702 ; Ger-
manic, 490,499 f.; Prankish, 490 f.,
493, 704; Anglo-Saxon, 498 f. ;
Kentish or bottle shaped, 506 f.,
_583» 704-
Size of vessels, 489 ; methods of fabri-
cation, 489, 502 f., use of the wheel,
491, 504, 506; colour, 489; orna-
mentation, 489, 503 f. ; feet, 500 f. ;
handles, 500 f., 506, 587, 704.
Unornamented urns, 504 f.
Pouan, find at, 207, 218, 225.
Pouches, see ' Sporrans.'
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries,
referred to, passim.
Procopius, referred to, 36, 61 f., 570,
579' 595' 764 f.
Prou, M.; quoted, 64, 91 ; referred to, 63.
Pry, cemetery at, 164 f.
Ptolemy, quoted, 567.
Punch, referred to, 50.
Purse mounts, 394, 408 f.
Pyrites, iron, 417, 683, 686, 725.
QuADi, their breastplates, 195.
'Randthiere,' 556 f., 561.
Ravenna, eagle filoulafrom near, 531, 533.
Red inlays, their nature, 516.
Reichenhall, cemetery at, 130, 149, 165,
188, 207, 229, 235, 436, 457.
Reineke Fuc/is, referred to, 160.
Riegl, Alois, referred to, 11, 244, 295,
518 f.
Rings, finger, 454 f., 459 f., 738 f., 750 ;
of wire with threaded beads, 455, 460,
740.
Roach Smith, Charles, see ' Smith,
Charles Roach.'
Rock-cut tombs, 157.
Roger of Wendover ; quoted, 121; re-
ferred to, 229.
Rolleston, Professor, referred to, 134,
151,647.
Roman roads; burials in, 139, 171, 624,
769, 774 ; as used by the invaders,
140, 592, 689, 691.
Romanizing bronzes, see ' Bronze objects.'
Rostowzew, Professor, referred to, 523.
Rotary motives, see ' Ornament, rotary
motives.'
Runes, 7, 68, 77, 84, 181 f., 205, 206,
213, 230, 295, 377, 524 f.
Russia, southern, 11, 300, 405, 523. See
also ' Crimea, the.'
Ruthwell Cross, see 'Bewcastle.'
Sackrau, finds at, 253.
Safety pin, 246, 248 f. See also ' Fibulae.'
Salin, Bernhard ; quoted, 13, 254, 300;
referred to, 14, 45, 107, 222, 254, 255,
257, 273, 295, 306, 322, 333, 362, 549,
563 ; his scheme of animal ornament,
327 f.
Samson, cemetery at, 164, 366.
Sandwich, tombstones found at, 181 f.
Sarcophagi, stone, 149.
Sarmatians, 195.
Sasanian objects, 522.
Sax, Seax, meaning of, 227, 596.
Saxon, use of the term, 569 f.
Saxons ; their relation to the Chauci, 573 ;
their relation to the Angles, 597 f.,
617,626; their character, 574 f.; their
history, 576 f.; the Old, 578.
824
INDEX
Saxon Shore, see 'Litus Saxonicum.'
Scales, see ' Weights and scales/
Sceattas, 56 f., see also 'Coins, Anglo-
Saxon '5 pronunciation, 57; date of
them, 75, 102 f., 108, 112; size, 30,
65; importance of them, 1125 art of
them, 1 13, 452.
' Scheibenfibeln,' 279.
Schetelig, Haakon, referred to, 260, 264,
268 f.,_337, 339,557, 812.
Scholarship, Prankish and Anglo-Saxon,
510 f.
Scissors, 392.
Scutcheons, on bronze bowls, 428, 474 f.,
723.
Seamanship, Saxon, 575, 589 f., 765.
Selzen, cemetery at, 164, 421.
Sepulchral urns, see ' Cinerary urns.'
Severinus, St., Life of, 35.
Shears, 391 f.
Shell; used with beads, 432; as inlays,
544; Cypraea, 417, 450, 705; cowrie,
686.
* Shilling,' meaning of, 75.
Ships, Saxon and Viking, 85, 574, 590 f.
Siberian gold work, 523 f.
Sidonius Apollinaris, quoted, 574 f.
'Sigillum Davidis' device, 78, 89.
Sigy, brooch from, 277, 553, 650.
Silk, 412.
Slag, iron, 417.
Sleeves, 379, 381 f. See also ' Clasps.'
Smith, Charles Roach; quoted, 190, 369,
402, 422; referred to, 109, 119, 195,
349, 418, 740 f.
Solidi, Roman coins, 59, 65.
' Southumbrians,' 761.
Spatha, the, see ' Arms.'
Spindles, 411, Spindle whorls, 406, 411,
43°;
Spontin, cemetery at, 165.
Spoons ; Anglo-Saxon, 5, 403 f., 406 f.,
547, 750 ; possible uses of, 406 ;
Roman, 254, 406 f., 655, 665 ; small
trough shaped, 419.
Sporans or girdle pouches, 410 f., 559 f.
Spurs, 421 f., 738.
♦Standard' type on coins, 60, 84, 88,
108 f.
'Statistik,' a, of Anglo-Saxon finds, 38.
Stature of skeletons, 185, 633, 645, 660,
661, 681, 711, 717.
Stirrups, 422.
Stole, the, chronology of it, 73.
Stones, sculptured, 3, 5 f., 21, 105, 108,
III, 302, 330-
Strap ends, 358 f., 558.
Strike-a-lights, 394, 408 f.
Studs; projecting, on fibulae, 276, 339;
shoe-shaped, 204, 359 ; inlaid (for
sword knots ?) 538.
Stycas, Northumbrian, 57, 64, 76, 77, 80,
467.
'Stylus,' 370, 730.
Succinite (amber) 437.
Susa, inlaid objects from, 521.
Swastika, see ' Ornament, conventional.'
Sword, the, see ' Arms.'
Syrian glass workers in the West, 487.
Szilagy Somlyo, finds at, 253, 274, 306,
519, 527 f., 545.
Tacitus ; quoted, 199, 249; referred
to, 141, 211, 420.
Tag, see ' strap end.'
Talismans, see ' Amulets.'
Talnotrie, find at, 172, 759.
Tara brooch, 286.
Technical processes; enumeration of,
291;
Beating over, 35, beating up, see be-
low 'embossing'; burnishing, 522;
carving in stone, 3, 302, 306 ; cast-
ing, 275» 303,, 308, 319; chasing,
275, 303 ; coiling, 502 ; damascen-
ing, 213 f., 442; die sinking, 309;
embossing, 199, 275, 305, 307 f.;
enamelling, see 'Enamelling'; en-
crusting, 279, see also below, 'inlay-
ing ' ; engraving, see below, ' incis-
ing'; faceting, 287 f., 371, 392,
406, 552, 563, 565 ; filigree work,
309'. 312, 342, imitated, 311, 455;
forging, 201, 212 f., 235; gem
cutting, 516 £, 528, 548; gilding,
318 ; glass working, 440 f., 445 f.,
4S3 f • ; granulated work, 280, 309,
imitated, 309 f, 349 ; incising, 2S2,
295. 303, 304, 3i9» 390; inlaying,
i75» 5" f-> 519 ^-j 'a jour,' 522,
528. See also 'Garnet inlays';
'mud pie' technique, 502; niello,
303, 304, 455, 537 f.; plating, 174,
199, 224, 318 i., 736; polishing,
514; punching, 282, 305; repouss6
process, see above, ' embossing ' ;
riveting, 324, 410, 473 f.; 'slit-
ting,' 514 f.; soldering, 275 f., 311,
477, 513; stamping, 305,452,490,
513; tinning, 284, 303, 319;
tracing, 283, 304, 515; welding,
235-
' Terpen,' Frisian, 70 f., 454, 492 f.
Testona, cemetery at, 235.
Theodahad, 62.
Theodebert i, 61, 765 ; his coins, 62, 69.
INDEX
825
Theodoric the Great, 215.
Theodoric, king of the Visigoths, 392.
Theodulf, bishop of Orleans, 87.
Thomas, G. W., on Sleaford, referred to,
1305383,435-
Thorpe, B., his Diplomat orium Anglicum
referred to, 209.
Thorsberg, finds at, 198, 324, 367, 379,
386.
Tischler, Otto, referred to, 438, 443, 516.
Tomb furniture, Anglo-Saxon ; limits of
date for, 173 f . ; general review of,
1765 place of objects in the grave,
176.
Tombstones, 180 f.
Tools, 414 f.
Touchstone, 418.
Traveller's Song, the, see * fVidsith.'
Trews, the, 379, 384.
Trientes, 59 f., 63, 66.
Trivieres, urn at Brussels from, 507.
Tromso, beads from, 448.
Tumuli, 120, 156, 177 f., 600, 629, 643,
653 f., 662, 676, 702, 723, 728, 771 f.
Tweezers, 392 f.
Typology, the science of, 25.
Ukraine, fibulae from, 807.
Ulm, cemetery near, 163.
Umbo, see * Arms.'
Urns; use of them in cremated burials,
147, see also 'Cinerary urns'; with
glass let in, 779. See also 'Pottery.'
Vandals, 215, 253, 532.
Vendel, Sweden, graves at, 527.
Vermand ; Franco-Roman tomb at, 78,
193, 200, 550; early cemetery at, 116,
164, 457» 549, 558-
Vessels, materials of, 460 ; of bronze,
466 f., 602 ; of clay, see ' Pottery ' ;
of glass, 470, 480 f.; of horn, 461 f.,
602, 641; of iron, 461, 602 ; of leather,
462; of pewter, 118, 462, 644; of
wood, 462, 602, 641, 727.
Vettersfeld, objects from, 10, 524.
Victoria History of the Counties of EfiglanJ,
quoted, 382, 540, 796 f . ; referred to,
38 f-, 129, 335, 336, 338,^679.
Viking period, see 'Danish.'
Vine, as motive, 92.
'Vitta,' the, 385.
Waben, find from, 278.
Walluf, near Mainz, bowl from, 468.
W^ancennes, buckle from, 356.
Water-clock, 419.
Watersheds as boundaries, 621, 636.
Watling Street, finds on, 139, 289, 564,
see also ' Roman Roads.'
Wehden, urns from, 499.
Weights and scales, 417 f., 647, 705.
' Wessex,' perverted use of the term, 619.
West Saxons, 609 f., 764 ; in Hants,
Wilts and Dorset, 619, 653 f.; in Isle
of Wight, 751.
Westerwanna, objects from, 499.
Westtninster Gazette, the, quoted, 4.
Whetstones, 414, 805 f.
White substance used in Kentish jewel-
lery, 514, 539, 544 f-
' Whorl ' motive, see ' Ornament, rotary
motives in.'
mdsith, 566 f.
Wiltshire Magazine, the, referred to, 133.
Winding sheets, 152, 368.
Wittislingen, Bavaria, finds at, 157, 181,
535, 541 f-
Wodan-Monster, see * Monster type.'
Wolf, on coins, 90.
Wolf, she-, and twins, on coins, 94 ; on
the 'Franks' casket, 94.
Wolfsheim, Sasanian object found at,
522.
' Wolvin ' type on coins, 96.
Work-boxes, 411.
Wright, Thomas, quoted, 696, 719 f.
Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologie, referred to,
502.
Printed by T. and A. Constable, Printers to His Majesty
at the Edinburgh University Press, Scotland
Hi.im
&»ff^
'A-
3 5002 00114 8381
Brown, Gerard Baldwin
The arts in early England,
Art NA 963 . B9 1903 4
Brown, G. Baldwin 1849-1932,
The arts in early England
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11