25 



beneath the head of the third skeleton ; the jaws of a boar, the antlers 

 of a deer, the tooth of a horse and the bones of other animals were 

 found in different parts of the tumulus. Mr. Procter concluded from 

 the various indications offered by these remains, that the tumulus was 

 neither British nor Roman but Saxon. The boss of the shield was 

 decidedly indicative of a Teutonic tribe ; the spear and the dagger 

 are the usual accompaniments of a Saxon interment, as seen in the 

 Driffield graves opened by the Antiquarian Club. It is true the 

 pottery and the coins are Roman, but the Saxons at this time 

 generally used the Roman pottery, and Roman and Byzantine coins 

 are frequently found in graves, which other circumstances prove 

 to be Saxon. The presence of the bones of animals is an indication of 

 the feasts which our pagan ancestors celebrated over the graves of 

 their dead. The Germans, as we learn from Tacitus, committed the 

 warrior's horse along with his own body, to the flames. The Sowerby 

 tumulus presented traces both of cremation and interment, and Mr. 

 Procter was therefore disposed to refer it to the sixth or seventh 

 century, when cremation, which had been the general practice of the 

 Saxons, began to give way to interment, as practised by the Christians 

 and later Romans. The remains found in the tumulus by Lady 

 Frankland Russell and the Yorkshire Antiquarian Club, have been 

 presented to the Society, and will be placed in its Museum, beside 

 the similar objects derived from the Driffield graves. 



