ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



before interment. It consists of a gold disc if in. across covered with bands 

 of filigree in S and C scrolls and having four hollow^ settings round a larger 

 setting, arranged in a manner characteristic of a Kentish type,*'" and similar 

 in all essentials to the brooch found near Woodbridge. The five bosses now 

 missing were perhaps of ivory, though the material of existing specimens is 

 generally described as pearl or shell. 



Further discoveries made in 1871 showed that Mr. Rogers' meadow 

 was the site of a cemetery, for among the relics was an iron sword in three 

 pieces, which measured together about 2 ft. 2 in. (the normal length from 

 tip to pommel being 3 ft.), and bore traces of the wooden scabbard ; also a 

 spear-head, knife, and three shield-bosses of the usual form, two still retaining 

 their handles. These remains imply at least three unburnt burials on this 

 site, possibly somewhat earlier than the richly furnished grave described above 

 which should date from the early part of the 7th century, as the Wilton 

 cross-pendant contained a gold coin of Heraclius I (613-641). 



In the same meadow was found a pleasing example of later Anglo-Saxon 

 art. It consists of a copper disc with slightly convex front, which is richly 

 gilt and engraved in four quadrants leaving a 

 plain cross between them.*"" In each of the 

 spaces is an animal form, suggestive of a horse, 

 with interlacings in the field ; and the rivet- 

 holes show that the disk was not the face of 

 a brooch, but the head of a pin like one found 

 in the Witham at Lincoln and now in the 

 British Museum.*^ 



At Pakenham, 2 miles south of Ixworth, 

 was found in i 843 a curious bronze prick-spur 

 that passed into the possession of Sir John Evans 

 and has been published." It seems to have 

 been an isolated find in a ploughed field, and, 

 though no close parallels are known, probably 

 belongs to the late Anglo-Saxon period. The animal-heads that ornament the 

 centre and the ends where the strap joined are evidently derived from models 

 in use during the pagan period, but cannot be more precisely dated. The eyes 

 of the three heads were filled with blue glass in a manner recalling the seal- 

 matrix found at Eye (p. 352), and a bronze fragment inscribed with runes 

 found in the Thames at Westminster.'" This is an obvious way of indicating 

 the eye, and is not by any means confined to one period or country. The 

 prick-spur was used by the Romans in Britain, but is seldom found, and 

 Anglo-Saxon specimens are still rarer. Farther up the valley, on land called 

 the Leys at Tostock, a discovery was made about 1843 that points to Kentish 

 influence in the 6th or early 7th century. It consists of a bronze buckle^"" with 

 an oblong plate, the latter filled with one large slab of garnet. A smaller slab 

 is shaped to fit the space at the base of the tongue, and the specimen is very 



"' As Inventorium Sepulchrale, pi. ii, fig. 4 ; F.C.H. Kent, i, 354, pi. i, fig. 17. 

 *"' Journ. Bril. Arch. Assoc, xxvii, 259, fig. 3 (Mr. S. Fenton's collection). 

 '* Reliquary, 1904, p. 52, frontispiece. The date is probably ninth century. 

 '' Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc, iii, 119. '» F.C.H. London, \, 1 67. 



"^ Figured in colours by Akcrman, Pagan Saxondom, pi. i, fig. 9 ; Proc. Soc. Antiq. xv, 268 ; for Gilton 

 buckle, see Arch, xxx, pi. ii, fig. 5 ; Arch. Index, pi. xvii, fig. 10. 



Fig. 7. — Bronze-gilt Disc-head of 

 Pin, Ixworth (J) 



337 



43 



