188 REPORT ON THE STAPENHILL EXPLORATIONS. 
at Fairford, bear so close a resemblance to Find Vo. 4 at Stapen- 
hill, that the same description might apply equally to all of 
them. 
We occasionally find the body of the deceased in Pagan 
English burials unaccompanied by personal relics of any kind 
whatever; this may be accounted for in three ways. We may 
suppose either that there were special reasons for the deceased 
being buried without the usual observances, or that the person 
was too poor to possess such things, or that the Teutonic race 
generally did not believe in a future state. 
Into the various arguments that can be adduced for and 
against this latter surmise I cannot now enter, but must refer 
those interested in the subject to Lubbock’s ‘‘ Prehistoric 
Times,” and Green’s ‘‘ Making of England”’; suffice it to say 
that there are very few cases of interments which have come 
under my notice in which I have found anything like approaching 
to a complete set of articles which might be of use to the 
dead in the other world, and, for my part, I choose rather 
to believe that the various articles we find in Pagan Saxon 
graves were deposited there according to the fancy of the sur- 
viving friends of the deceased, and as tokens of individual 
affection. A similar custom prevails amongst ourselves even 
now-a-days, when we place wreaths of flowers on the coffin or 
grave of our departed friends. 
But although in some cases no personal relics occur, never- 
theless, a careful examination, not only of such a grave, but 
of every grave, even though containing numerous personal relics, 
reveals the presence amongst the earth in immediate contact 
with the body, of two or three or more bits of flint, and 
usually accompanying these are found a few shards of pottery 
of an earlier period, old and water-worn. 
The graves at Fairford contained shards of pottery, chiefly 
Roman, of 7 or 8 varieties, including even Samian ware, and 
fragments of mortaria, all clearly pieces of different vessels, 
and not parts of such as had been used for the funeral 
libations, and then broken on the spot. Again, at Stapenhill, 
SS ey 
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