ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



able. Competent authorities declared at the time that the remains were 

 of Saxon origin, and it may here be added that the piece of jet or amber 

 was in all probability a specimen of the so-called ' pulley-beads,' which 

 have been noticed in cremated burials at Castle Acre and Pensthorpe in 

 Norfolk,' and in an unburnt burial at Sarre, Kent.' They may have 

 been used in a game resembling the modern backgammon, dice having 

 been found with them in Kent ; and the holes were possibly for fixing 

 the rough material on the lathe centre. 



Already in 1824 the distinction between the prehistoric and Anglo- 

 Saxon barrows or sepulchral mounds in the vicinity of Lewes was clear 

 to the local historian ; and it is a rare pleasure to quote a paragraph 

 which well represents the present view : ' While the larger barrows 

 (of the pre-Roman population) are more thinly scattered than the 

 smaller ones and scarcely ever occur in groups of more than three or 

 four, the small barrows are generally in large groups, but occasionally 

 they are to be found separate. According to Dr. Douglas (the author 

 oi Neiiia Britannica, 1793, and at one time vicar of Preston, Brighton), 

 these owe their origin to the period included between the fifth and the 

 latter part of the seventh centuries, after which time burial on the waste 

 lands ceased, as cemeteries became connected with churches when the 

 inhabitants were converted to Christianity. In these were occasionally 

 discovered military weapons of iron, swords, spear-heads, and the bosses 

 of shields. Graves of women and children contained beads of glass, 

 amber and amethyst, brooches inlaid with garnets and other gems, gold 

 and silver amulets, buckles and other curious relics ; and in barrows of 

 this class were occasionally found coins of the Christian emperors, 

 Valentinian, Anthemius (467—472), etc.'' 



Very few Anglo-Saxon finds are, however, recorded by Horsfield, 

 and essential details are generally wanting ; but there seems little doubt 

 as to the nature of a barrow on the hill overlooking Glynde Bourne, a 

 socketed spear-head of iron * being found on the right side of a skeleton. 

 On the same hill among barrows containing urn-burials of earlier date, 

 were found six or seven skeletons lying in separate excavations in the 

 chalk but near each other. They had been carefully interred at a depth 

 of 4 or 5 feet, and each had a knife ^ in the left hand, while most 

 of them were surrounded by a circle of large flints, placed with great 

 care around the body. An umbo (shield-boss) in good preservation is 

 casually mentioned ^ as having been discovered at Hammond Place, near 

 St. John's Common ; but more interest attaches to a find, now preserved 

 in the British Museum. Three circular specimens are illustrated ' of a 

 considerable number of bronze brooches found in a barrow on Bedding- 

 ham Hill, some being oblong though not further described ; but a 

 buckle from the same barrow ° is more determinate. 



' V.C.H. Norfolk, i. p. 335. 2 Arch. Cant. vii. 308, grave 198. 



3 Rev. T. W. Horsfield, History and Antiquities of Lewes, p. 42. 



* Op. cit. pi. iii. fig. 13 and p. 46. * Op. cit. pi. iv. fig. 3. 



8 Op. cit. p. 49, note 2. ' Op. cit. p. 48, pi. v. figs. 10, 11, 12. 



8 Op. cit. pi. iii. fig. 3. 



I 337 43 



