88 Notes on a Roman Cross-bow, 8fc., fonnd at Burhage. 



Planehe, Cyclojmdki of Costume, i., 10, quotes Sir S. R. Meyrick 

 as saying : — 



" The cross-bow was an invention of tlie Roman Empire in the East, suggested 

 by the more ancient military engines used in besieging fortresses, hence its name 

 ' arcubalist,' or ' arbalist,' compounded of Greek and Latin words. It was 

 introduced into England at the Norman Conquest, but Richard Cceur de Lion is 

 said first to have brought it into general fashion." Skelton's Engraved Speci- 

 mens, vol. ii. In Domesday Book Odo ' the arbalister,' holds land in Yorkshire, 

 and Robert, ' the cross-bowman,' in Norfolk." 



The various articles found in tlie grave, and now deposited on 

 loan in the Society's Museum, are as follows : — 



1. The iron head of a small hammer, 2|in. long, without claws. 

 A portion of the wooden handle remains in the hole in the head. 



2. Part of the handle of a dagger, or knife, of bone. The end 

 of the iron tang of the blade still remains fixed in it. It measures 

 Ifin. in length, by Ifin. in diameter at the butt. Apparently 

 formed by hand, and not turned. 



3. A hollow tubular article of bone, which has been turned, 

 If in. long and 1 -jg-in. in diameter, part of a handle — possibly of 

 the same dagger as No. 2. 



4. Strips of bone, measuring in all IGJin. in length by fin. in 

 breadth. Whether these all belong to one strip or not is not clear 

 — only one end is preserved, that at the upper end of the strip 

 figured, which has a notch cut in it to fit something. These strips 

 are ornamented with a border of three irregular grooved lines on 

 either side, and in the centre a row of double concentric cii'cles, cut 

 apparently with a centre-bit. These circles are very carelessly 

 struck at unequal distances and out of the straight line. Ornamen- 

 tation of an exactly similar character is to be seen on a bone comb 

 of Saxon date, found at Eye, in SufPolk, and figui-ed in Akerman's 

 Pagan Saxondom, p. 43. The strips were fastened to the substance 

 beneath them by small iron rivets, of which two remain. Mr. Read 

 suggests that possibly they may have ornamented the sides of the 

 cross-bow stock. 



There is also a fi-agment of flat bone pierced -ndth a hole, and a 

 plug or wedge of bone fin. long, which had been in contact with 

 iron. 



