176 REPORT ON THE STAPENHILL EXPLORATIONS. 
northern Europe of this period, and that this mode of burial 
preceded that of inhumation, but the later discoveries of such 
cemeteries as those at Girton College, Cambridge ; at Stapenhill, 
and elsewhere, entirely disproves this assumption, for in these 
places, as proved by the position of the remains, both forms of 
burial must have taken place contemporaneously. 
INTERMENTS BY INHUMATION. 
The ordinary mode of Anglo-Saxon burial was the interment of 
the deceased fully-dressed, with all his arms and accoutrements. 
The most usual posture of the body was lying full-length on the 
back, but this varied considerably—the full-length on the back was 
the position of those bodies discovered in the burial-grounds ‘at 
Ozingell, and at Wye Hill in Kent, at West Harnham in 
Wilts., and at Fairford in Gloucester. Speaking generally, all the 
burials south of the Thames were in the extended position. As we 
advance northwards, we find the posture varies considerably ; for 
instance, at Stapenhill, representatives of thirty-six bodies in all 
were discovered, of these fourteen lay full-length on their backs, 
one on the right side, and six on the left side, and ten the exact 
position of which could not be determined, whilst five had been 
cremated. Of those which lay on the left side, two (Nos. 13 
and 44) were ina slightly contracted position, while three others 
(Nos. 15, 20, and 34) were in a position much more contracted ; 
but in no case was this contraction of the character so common 
to Early British or Celtic interments. That the Saxons buried 
their dead sometimes in the contracted position has been shown 
most conclusively by the researches of Greenwell, Bateman, and 
others. 
The Early British, as a rule, deposited the body in the meridian 
line with the head to the north, and, consequently, with a south 
aspect ; on the other hand, we find in Anglo-Saxon barrows and 
cemeteries of the Pagan period the head directed towards the 
south, the body being still in the meridian line; the feet, and 
consequently the face, were preferably laid towards the north, 
where was ‘‘the holy place of Teutonic heathendom.”’ Such was 
