DISCOVERED IN WORCESTERSHIRE. 87 



Tcssels. In the mass was a piece of oxidated brass or copper, two 

 inches long, which is supposed to be either the tongue of a buckle, 

 or a fibula, or a brass pin. There were also a few fragments of 

 bones in the same cist, all of which, most probably, belonged to a 

 horse, as one of them is part of the jaw-bone of that animal, with 

 several teeth in it. 



If the piece of brass were a pin, it most likely belonged to the 

 period of the ancient Britons ; for although they possessed very 

 little iron, the Phoenicians supplied them plentifully with brazen 

 wares, as articles of commerce : and it is stated in Mr. Bloxam's 

 work on monumental architecture, &c.,* that in the cists of many 

 ancient British tumuli or barrows, a single brass pin has frequently 

 been found, which fastened the cloth within which the ashes were 

 enveloped. 



It might, however, have been one of the fibulae or brooches of the 

 Romans, or of the Romanized Britons, and which were used by the 

 men to fasten the tunic, and chlamys or cloak, on the right or left 

 shoulder, and by the women the vestment in front of the breast. 

 They are differently shaped; some are of the circular form, and 

 others oblong, and not very dissimilar, (though much smaller), to 

 the guard beneath the trigger of a gun ; and, with the acus or 

 pin compressed into the socket, have been compared to a bow ready 

 strung. The one in question is of the latter form, but is destitute 

 of the acus, which probably was of iron and mouldered away. 



If it were the tongue of a buckle, it most likely belonged either 

 to the toga of the person, or to the trappings of the horse, of a Ro- 

 man or Romanized Briton. 



The relics of a horse, found in this cist, afiford strong evidence 

 that the ashes either of an ancient British, or Romanized British, or 

 early Saxon chieftain were deposited there, — ^for such costly funeral 

 sacrifices, although very common among our rude ancestors, (and 

 constituted a part of their religion,) were much restricted among the 

 Romans by the laws of the twelve tables. In some cists, in other 

 parts of the kingdom, fragments of the horns of stags have been 

 found, and from which it may be inferred that hunters were buried 

 there. 



The most ancient mode of sepulture among the ancient Britons, 

 was by simple inhumation, or deposition of the body in an entire 

 state; and it is thought that the Phoenicians introduced the mode of 



• Intitled — A Glimpse at Monumental Architecture and Sepulture of Great 

 Britain^ from the earliest period to the 18/A Century, by Matthew Holbechc 

 Bbxani, dated Rugby, Sep. 23, 1834. 



