A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



Its total length is 33! in., the guard being straight and the pommel 

 proportionately heavy ; but nothing of interest was found with it. 



A somewhat disappointing discovery must here be noticed, as afford- 

 ing evidence of Anglo-Saxon burial just within the forest area of the 

 county ; and it is fortunate that the few antiquities discovered were illus- 

 trated at the time, for the description 1 leaves much to be desired. In 1790 

 Major Hayman Rooke reported to the Society of Antiquaries the results 

 of his excavations in the previous year about a mile north of Oxton. 

 The smallest of three grave-mounds (tumult) within little more than half a 

 mile measured i 59 ft. in diameter, and consisted of very fine mould to 

 the depth of j\ ft., from the top to a little below the natural soil, where a 

 layer of grey sand mixed with clay, about five inches thick, was met with. 

 On this layer lay what was described as ' an urn (later found to be of 

 iron) half full of ashes, and covered with a piece of coarse baked earth, 

 which broke when taken up.' The engraving, rough as it is, proves this 

 to have been a shield-boss of ordinary Anglo-Saxon type, and the ashes 

 within it can have been nothing but the decayed remnants of the wooden 

 framework of the shield, which appears to have been uppermost. On 

 one side and at the bottom was a piece of wood adhering to the iron, 

 and several small pieces were found near it which were hollowed out, 

 and had evidently taken the curve of the boss ; hence it was inferred 

 that the boss had been deposited in the barrow in a wooden casing which 

 had in time become fixed to the metal by oxidation. Near this was 

 a sword in a wooden scabbard, 30 in. long and 4 in. broad, the breadth 

 applying no doubt more to the scabbard than the sword, which should 

 have measured about two inches from edge to edge. The sheathed sword 

 broke into seven pieces on being lifted from the earth, and the total 

 thickness where least decayed was above half an inch. ' Near the end of 

 the sword fifteen glass beads were picked up, some green, others clouded 

 with yellow, and some of a deep yellow.' The illustration of specimens 

 shows these to have been not beads but discs, with one flat and one 

 convex face, used apparently for gaming, as draughtsmen ; and it is 

 expressly stated that they were not perforated. Beads are an almost 

 invariable mark of a female interment, and the occurrence of these discs 

 with a sword perplexed the excavator ; but later discoveries have made 

 it clear that these draughtsmen were frequently placed in the graves of 

 warriors, and it will suffice to mention a bone set of twenty-eight, with 

 varying numbers of dots on the convex surface, found at Cold Eaton in 

 the neighbouring county of Derby,* and specimens found with a die 

 at Faversham, Kent. 3 Dice in association with glass and bone draughts- 

 men are also known from Scandinavia.* 



The Oxton barrow further yielded some objects of iron which may 

 to some extent be identified from the illustrations. An iron knife is 



1 Arch, x, 381, pi. xxxv ; details of the site in ix, 20 1 ; Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc. viii, 1 8 8. 



1 Jewitt, Grave-mounds and their Contents, p. 293, fig. 484. 



* Roach Smith, Collectanea Antiqua, vi, 138 (made of horse- teeth) ; other bone specimens from 

 Sarre, Archaeologta Cantiana, vi, 157 ; vii, 308. 



4 Sophus Mailer, Nordische Altertumskunde, ii, 108 (Denmark) ; Rygh, Nonke Qldsagcr, figs. 474, 

 475 (Taasen, Akershus, Norway). 



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