ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



and acquired by Sir John Evans." The most famous examples of this type 

 were found in the so-called tomb of Childeric, king of the Franks (d. 481), 

 near Tournai ; but several are known from localities extending from the 

 Caucasus to France. Many of these have been 

 published with the Suffolk specimen by Baron de 

 Baye,°*who connects them with the migrating Goihs 

 of the 5th and 6th centuries, but has no explana- 

 tion of the pattern, which seems in some cases to 

 represent a bee, but in most is strangely conven- 

 tionalized. The type may have been derived from 

 the Greek colonies, on the north coast of the Black 

 Sea, and various forms of garnet settings show that 

 it had a wide popularity amone the barbarians. ^ „ 'T' 



r r ./ o . TT *^'°' '7' — Bronze Brooch tw 



Such brooches are specially numerous m Hungary, Form of Bee, Suffolk (J) 

 and the bee is sometimes found applied to other 



forms of jewellery, such as a circular filigree brooch supposed to have 

 been found in Kent, but clearly of continental workmanship.'* 



Other Suffolk relics of which the precise locality is not recorded may 

 be mentioned briefly. In 1878 Mr, Henry Prigg (later Trigg) exhibited 

 to the British Archaeological Association '' a square-headed brooch 6 in. long 

 with silver plates at the angles of the head and on the terminal of the foot, 

 but the ' cable pattern ' and absence of ' grotesque masks ' are evidence of 

 a comparatively early, and not late, date as he supposed. The exhibition 

 included a richly gilt fragment of late Saxon work, ' either a girdle-clasp or 

 book-clasp, flowers of a simple form being prominent in the design ' ; and part 

 of a girdle-hanger more ornate than usual. A ring-brooch with cruciform 

 ring-and-dot pattern is also illustrated.'* 



Finger-rings figure conspicuously in the list of Anglo-Saxon remains 

 from Suffolk, and the most interesting is doubtless one of silver now in the 

 Moyses Hall Museum at Bury St. Edmunds. It is of plain silver, somewhat 

 flat and broad like a modern wedding-ring, and is deeply engraved inside 

 and out with a legend purporting to connect it with King ^thelstan, but the 

 inscription does not inspire confidence. 



Another specimen of silver,'"^ formerly in the collection of Sir John 

 Evans, is engraved round the outside, sigerie het mea gewircan, or, 

 in modern English, 'Sigerie ordered me to be made.' The formula is 

 familiar from its occurrence on the Alfred jewel," and as there is no objection 

 to connecting the latter with the great English king, this ring may be 

 referred to the same period (850-950). 



Several finger-rings, apparently of late Saxon origin, were collected by 

 Mr. Joseph Warren from Ixworth and published from time to time, but not 

 fully illustrated. One of silver,'' found in a field there in 1852, is evidently 



'* Proc. Sec. Anti<i. xi, 99. 



^ Bulletin et Mimoires de la Societe nationale des Antiquaires de France, Ser. 6, vol. iv (1893), 137 (with 

 ■coloured plate). 



" F.C.H. Kent, \, 380, pi. i, fig. 11 (Canterbury Museum). 



" Joum. Brit. Arch. Assoc, xxxiv, 132 ; brooch compared to one from grave 158, at Little Wilbraham, 

 Cambs. figured in Neville, Saxon Obsequies, pi. 10. 



'« Bury and W. Suff. Proc. i, 223, fig. 2 on plate. ^ Bury and IV. Suff. Proc. i, 223, figs. 7, 8. 



" f^.C.H. Som. i, 378, figs. A, B, c, D, on coloured plate. 



^ Jeurn. Brit. Arch. Assoc, xi, 80, pi. 6, fig. 2 ; gold ring, fig. 3 ; cf. viii, 159. 



