A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



this rare type of spear-head being the pair of barbs that usually lie along 

 the shaft and the disproportionate length and slender make of the metal 

 stem, which was provided with a socket for a wooden shaft, though 

 itself 30 inches long. About one grave in every ten contained the 

 ordinary iron spear-head which is usually considered the mark of the 

 Saxon warrior, but no spear could be found in the grave which con- 

 tained one of the two swords met with in the cemetery, a fact in 

 support of the view that the thane wielded the sword on horseback 

 while the ceorl fought on foot, armed with the spear. On the other 

 hand it was observed that four of the thirteen graves known to have 

 been those of men, contained no spear-head. Any distribution of the 

 entire number of graves between the sexes cannot now be attempted, 

 but about ten per cent, were the interments of children. An analysis 

 of the relics does, however, indicate that men alone were buried with 



strike-a-lights, tweezers,' and 

 vessels of glass, pottery or 

 wood ; while beads and other 

 ornaments were confined to 

 the other sex. 



Special attention must 

 be drawn to the vases, which 

 occur in twenty-two graves. 

 Only one bucket was found, 

 and that had hoops of iron 6 

 inches in diameter, which lay 

 at the right of the head. The 

 more customary bucket with 

 bronze mounts was not re- 

 presented except by a solitary 

 fragment in the grave of a 

 woman. Pottery vases, to be 

 distinguished from the cinerary urns found in cremation districts, were 

 found in twelve graves, all of men or boys, and included a Roman 

 ' thumb-pot ' of New Forest ware like one found at Hassocks. In one 

 grave two vases were discovered in association with a plain conical glass 

 drinking horn, 5I inches high, and three other glasses of this type were 

 found in the cemetery, the decoration consisting of applied glass threads, 

 either encircling the cup (fig. 8) or in vertical loops (fig. 9). Two cups 

 of ' mammiform ' type were recovered : one ornamented with threads, 

 lay beneath a spear-head at the right shoulder, and the other, unfortu- 

 nately shattered by the spade, had a bold quatrefoil design on the bottom, 

 originally traced with applied threads. Of quite another pattern were 

 the other three glasses, which brought the total up to nine. Two of 

 these were of modern appearance, but were peculiar in having the foot 

 hollow, while the third is at present without a parallel in this country. 



* It is sometime'! asserted that these implements were used in sewing, to draw the thread through 

 holes made by a stiletto. 



Pottery Vase, High Down Cemetery 



