A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



having been found here at various periods, but especially in the spring 

 of 1847. . . . Many perfect skeletons had apparently been interred 

 with great regularity, and nine or ten were thus disclosed, but scores 

 were noticed. There was no appearance of heaped earth. In some 

 cases the face was placed downwards, others on the side, and three were 

 headless, these last having stones in place of the head ; and at the foot of 

 one was a Druidical drinking cup. Spearheads, daggers and portions of 

 other warlike implements, necklaces and ornaments were found near 

 some of the skeletons.'' In 1866 while gravel was being dug on the 

 same site six complete skeletons and an iron dagger were found, also 

 two stone coffins which were preserved in the church and church- 

 yard. The direction in which the graves were cut is nowhere stated ; 

 but as in Anglo-Saxon burials the skeletons usually lie face upwards, 

 those placed otherwise may perhaps on this site be considered the 

 remains of Britons of a much earlier date ; the ' Druidical ' cup, probably 

 the ' drinking cup ' commonly found in barrows, lending some support 

 to this view. From the regularity of some of the burials however, and 

 the relics discovered, it is permissible to infer an early Anglo-Saxon 

 occupation of the site, and its proximity to Ecton, Islip and Cransley 

 may be held to justify the inclusion of this cemetery among those 

 in which the Christian orientation is observed. The same may per- 

 haps be said of Twywell, only two miles distant from both Islip and 

 Great Addington. In the middle of the eighteenth century an entire 

 human skeleton was found on the north side of the road from Thrapston 

 to Market Harborough, with a spear and what is described as an iron 

 helmet.^ This was no doubt the boss of the shield which had been 

 placed on the head of the deceased warrior as at Holdenby ; but nothing 

 is said of the direction of the grave, and the inclusion of this site in the 

 group now under consideration is therefore conjectural. 



A remarkable jug-shaped urn* in which cremated remains had been 

 deposited, may here be noticed. It was found in 1883 near the road 

 from Ringstead to Great Addington, 6 feet deep in blue lias clay, on a 

 hill overlooking the Nene, and differs from the usual cinerary urns of the 

 pagan period in form, decoration and fabric. Comparison with certain 

 continental specimens shows it to be a relic of the early time when 

 the great migrations of the Teutonic peoples were still in progress, and 

 the English kingdoms had not yet taken shape. It is possible that this 

 form was adopted by one only of the many tribes that left the Baltic for 

 our eastern shores, as it certainly is not one that would readily occur to 

 the potter ; and it is interesting to find that the Kabyle population of 

 Algeria, who are said to preserve the Mykensan tradition, still have 

 vessels exhibiting the same peculiarity, namely, a perforated handle, 

 serving also as a spout. The Addington specimen is 7I inches high 

 with an extreme diameter of 7 inches, and most closely resembles one * 



> Whellan's Gazetteer of Northants (1874), p. 741. * Gentleman's Magazine, 1757, p. 20. 



3 Figured in Proceedings, Society of Antiquaries, vol. ix. p. 322. 



* J. H. Muller, A'or- und friihgeschichtliche Altertumer der frovinz Hannover, pi. xxl. fig. 200. 



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