ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



again revealed but was reduced to half the size mentioned by Mr. Babington. 

 Mortaria of heavy yellowish pottery, for instance, are not likely to have been 

 deposited with the dead, though the other wares mentioned are frequently 

 found in Roman graves. The Anglo-Saxon pottery is not described 

 accurately, but some of the incised patterns can be recognized in the Leicester 

 Museum, which also contains a few plain vases from this site. There can, 

 however, be no hesitation in assigning two brooches 1B to that period ; one, 

 measuring 5} in. in length, is of the large square-headed variety with gilt 

 and engraved front (plate I, fig. i,) common in the midlands and East 

 Anglia, and probably dates from about A.D. 600 ; the other is of Scandi- 

 navian type with stout bronze stem and square head-plate, the latter having 

 a knob at the top moulded in one piece with it, the other two knobs, 

 originally attached to the edges, having disappeared. 



According to the workmen, the skull was in each case lying at some 

 considerable distance from the remainder of the skeleton, but in the absence 

 of precise details it is not necessary to suppose that the bodies had been 

 decapitated before burial. Some of the skulls, though fragmentary, were 

 investigated by Mr. Inchly at Cambridge, and the longitudinal indices of 

 three determined as 8o'8, 79-82, and 73. The third is the only one likely 

 to have been Anglo-Saxon " ; and comparison with the Frilford and Reading 

 series 17 suggests that the others belonged to Roman or Celtic subjects. 



It should be noted that two complete querns or hand-mills for grain 

 were found during the railway excavations. They might be as early 

 as the Bronze Age or as late as the Anglo-Saxon period, but it may 

 be remarked that a large number were found in the Late-Celtic camp 

 at Hunsbury, Northamptonshire ; and examples have been found in a grave 

 of somewhat uncertain date at Reading, 18 and in Anglo-Saxon interments on 

 three sites in Derbyshire and at Holme Pierrepont, Nottinghamshire. 



Five miles further up the valley we arrive at the centre of the county 

 town, where several isolated discoveries have been made, though no cemeteries 

 have hitherto been brought to light. The antiquities now in the Municipal 

 Museum include two urns from the town : one of rather graceful form 

 (plate II, fig. 3), found in 1866, 3 ft. deep, at the back of Court A, Church- 

 gate, 18 * contains burnt human bones and is of grey ware with four incised lines 

 round the shoulder. The height and diameter are both 8 in., and the vessel 

 is said to have been covered by an iron shield-boss of the usual Saxon pattern, 

 and to have stood between the heads of two skeletons buried at the same 

 depth. It is quite distinct in character from the other, which was found on 

 the site of Messrs. Stead & Simpson's factory, Belgrave Gate. It has a wide 

 mouth and rounded body, the ornament consisting of lines round the neck and 

 incised chevrons of triple lines on the shoulder. Both these urns point to the 

 practice of cremation in post-Roman times. 



Another object worthy of notice is of black glass, resembling a large 

 unpierced bead, with red and white circular spots irregularly placed. It was 

 found near Jewry Wall, and resembles somewhat closely a specimen in the 



" Plates i & iii accompanying Mr. Tucker's paper. 

 16 This is illustrated by Mr. Tucker, pi. ii. 

 " V.C.H. Berks, i, 237. 



18 Ibid, with references ; V. C.H.Notts, i, 195. 

 18i Leic. Trans, iii, 122, fig. 4, is another from the same site. 



227 



