ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



discovery was made in 1830 during the construction of the winding 

 road which avoids the steep ascent of Mailing Hill. At a point opposite 

 the first mile-stone from the county town, upwards of twenty human 

 skeletons were laid bare, associated with iron spear-heads, sword-blades, 

 knives or daggers and shield-bosses. The greater number were destroyed, 

 but Dr. Gideon Mantel! ^ secured some swords, the longest 34 inches 

 and 2 inches wide ; spear-heads from 8-12 inches long ; knives, bosses, 

 iron buckles, two small pottery vases, and the green glass bracelet now 

 in the British Museum, which still encircled the bones of the fore- 

 arm, no doubt of a woman. These skeletons were very near the sur- 

 face, the mounds (if any) which originally covered them having been 

 levelled by the plough ; and as there were indications of similar remains 

 many yards round the spot excavated, this may be included among the 

 cemeteries of the South Saxons. It was noticed here as elsewhere that 

 no coffins were used, and that the sword was on the left of the warrior, 

 the spear on the right, though not necessarily in the same grave. The 

 direction of the interments is unfortunately not recorded, but by analogy 

 they were probably east-and-west. 



Anglo-Saxon remains were discovered in 1891 while excavations 

 were in progress for the foundations of a house called ' Saxonbury ' and 

 in the grounds adjoining. The site is in the parish of Kingston, near 

 the west end of the parish of Southover, in a field at the rear of the 

 Sussex Artillery Volunteer depot, not far from the Brighton and Lewes 

 railway line. The discoveries were spread over a period of some 

 months and at first recorded by various members of the Sussex Archaeo- 

 logical Society, a complete account being afterwards compiled by Mr. 

 John Sawyer ^ ; and the objects recovered from the soil were presented 

 to the Lewes Museum by the owner of the site, Mr. Aubrey Hillman. 

 In all about thirty-two skeletons were found in an area of 1 30 ft. by 50 ft., 

 and with few exceptions were lying east-and-west, the head being 

 at the west end of the grave, and so facing the east. A few graves were 

 quite empty, the bones having perished, while in several no relics 

 of any kind were found with the skeletons. About the same number 

 of graves contained no furniture beyond the common iron knife, but 

 three swords were found along the left thigh, and several spear-heads of 

 iron either on the right or left side of the head. Shields, or remains of 

 them, were found in four or more cases, over the middle of the skeleton ; 

 and brooches, some in pairs, were found in the graves of women. Of 

 two pairs of shallow 'saucer ' brooches, one had a diameter of ij inches 

 with concentric rings separated by short radiating lines ; and the other 

 pair, slightly smaller, was decorated with the debased animal forms char- 

 acteristic of the period. Half of a bronze-gilt clasp, probably for a 

 bracelet, belongs to a type common in East Anglia, but quite out of 

 place in Sussex ; and four beads, with part of a bronze dish not further 

 described, practically complete the list of finds. 



' J Day's Ramble in and about Lewes, p. 134. 



3 Sussex Arch. Colitis, xxxviii. 177, with plan of the graves. 



339 



