ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



restriction of burials to the consecrated ground of the churchyard. This 

 change took place about the middle of the eighth century, and by that 

 time Christianity had been professed by the South Saxons for about a 

 century, they having been converted among the last in England. Some 

 of the unfurnished graves with the Christian orientation may well belong 

 to that century of transition, but the bulk must obviously date from the 

 two hundred years preceding the conversion, if we accept the traditional 

 date ot the Teutonic conquest. It may some day be possible to make 

 further subdivisions and to distinguish the earlier from the later pagan 

 burials by an examination of the grave-goods, possibly in connexion 

 with orientation. Though the entire sequence cannot yet be formulated, 

 some points bearing on the subject may here be mentioned, in addition 

 to the comments already made on the various cemeteries. 



As might be expected in a district between two Jutish settlements, 

 there are some examples in the county of Kentish work, or at least of 

 work best represented among the Cantwara, for many of the relics may 

 have been imported ready made from the Continent. And here the 

 connexion is as much with the western coast as with the north of 

 France. The rich and extensive cemetery of Herpes in the Charente 

 includes most of the ornamental types found on High Down, while the 

 bird brooch is found not only in the Visigothic cemetery but plenti- 

 fully in Normandy and farther east. Such ornaments may indeed 

 have been traded to these shores, but it is natural to suppose that 

 some at least were brought by settlers from Gaul who would pre- 

 serve and reproduce their traditional patterns in England. They 

 would also adhere to their own burial practices, and it must be 

 remembered that the Visigoths founded a kingdom in south-west 

 France early in the fifth century, when they had been nominally 

 Christians for a hundred years. Though nothing of an unmistakably 

 religious character has been found in the early graves of Sussex, the 

 east-and-west position of the majority corresponds to the almost invari- 

 able orientation of several large cemeteries abroad, in which Christian 

 symbols are also remarkably scarce. Existing evidence is insufficient 

 to determine the actual course of events ; and graves cut in other 

 directions become increasingly difficult to explain if the east-and-west 

 position is considered to have been the rule amongst the first Teutonic 

 settlers of Sussex. 



Influence from another quarter can be traced at High Down if 

 nowhere else in the county, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle suppUes a 

 plausible explanation of West Saxon brooches in that cemetery.* In 

 607 Ceolwulf, King of Wessex, is recorded to have fought against the 

 South Saxons ; and though Sussex was evidently under Mercian pro- 

 tection in 661, twenty years later the South Saxon king was slain by 

 Caedwalla of Wessex ; and troubles began which culminated five years 

 later in the wasting of Kent and the Isle of Wight by the unconverted 

 West Saxon. The High Down graves are in all probability somewhat 



' Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i. 38. 

 347 



