A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



accompanied by a bow 5 ft. in length. Examples are fairly numerous in 

 Kentish graves, but there are generally indications that the graves containing 

 them were of children, and the weapon may have been regarded as a mere 

 toy, though it was an important arm in some continental areas. Small iron 

 knives appear to have been carried by old and young of both sexes for use at 

 meals, and appear regularly in the graves, though their wooden handles and 

 leather sheaths are seldom preserved. The two buckets found are of normal 

 appearance, though rather smaller than usual, being only 4 in. high ; and 

 girdle-hangers or chatelaines, tweezers, and hairpins need only be mentioned 

 as ordinary items of grave furniture. Beads were of amber, glass, pebble, and 

 jet, those described as terra-cotta being in all probability opaque glass of 

 various colours ; but special mention should be made of what are called 

 triplet beads, such as have been found also at Marston St. Lawrence, 

 Northants ; Bassett Down, Wiltshire ; and Driffield, E.R. Yorks. 



Perforated Roman coins for use as pendants were found here, as in 

 several Anglo-Saxon cemeteries ; though in themselves useless for dating the 

 cemeteries, they are useful as showing that imperial coins had become scarce 

 and were looked upon as curiosities. They are generally all of the Constantine 

 period," and show signs of wear. Two silver disks were found, one with a 

 boss in the centre and a stamped design round the edge (as at N. Luffenham, 

 Rutland ; Sleaford, Lines. ; and again at Warren Hill and Ipswich), and the 

 other resembling a bracteate ; these were normally of gold. Both bracteate 

 and punched silver disk appeared in a woman's grave at Longbridge, War- 

 wick." Pairs of bronze clasps are frequently found in graves of the Anglian 

 district, and were probably for bracelets, as they have been noticed, some- 

 times with remains of leather, on the wrists of skeletons at Sleaford, Lines. ; 

 Barrington, Cambridgeshire ; Marston St. Lawrence, Northants ; and again 

 in Suffolk at Warren Hill. Buckles of iron and bronze occurred, and two 

 retained traces of the cloth that they originally fastened, or on which they lay in 

 the grave. Iron strike-a-lights for use with flint are by no means common, 

 but one was found at West Stow, and others similar are known from Ipswich. 

 It only remains to mention the brooches, which include broad annular 

 specimens of a common type, some having lost their pins, small square- 

 headed and trefoil- headed with spreading foot, a typical long brooch of the 

 late 6th century, and two remarkable specimens that must be described in 

 more detail. 



Though possibly made within a few years of each other, they represent 

 two different stages in the evolution of the true cruciform brooch from the 

 long brooch of Scandinavia. The illustration of the earlier (pi. v, fig. 2) 

 shows that while the salient features of the long brooch were retained, the 

 square head was furnished with a border of ' spectacle ' and other patterns, 

 with circular perforations at intervals round the head-plate. In the other 

 specimen, from West Stow,"^ the three knobs projecting from the edges of the 

 head-plate are not only flattened out as before, but thrust outwards to form 

 the arms and upper limb of the ' cruciform ' type. The extravagant length 



** Specimens of Valens (364.-78) and Gratian (367-83) are recorded from this site, both perforated ; 

 Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc, v, 360 (excavations of 184.9-50). 



" F.C.H. fVarw. \, pp. 263-4, ^g^- 7. ' I. 0° coloured plate. 

 "' Bury and W. Suff. Arch. Soc. Proc. i, pi. xli A. 



