ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



of a rich interment beneath. In the centre of the area covered by the 

 mound, and below the yew tree, was found a rectangular grave that had 

 been cut in the gravel about 6 feet below the original level of the church- 

 yard ; and measured 1 2 feet in length and 8 feet in width. There can 

 be no doubt that this was the principal interment in the mound, and the 

 grave-furniture proved it to be of Anglo-Saxon date, though there is 

 absolutely no foundation for the belief that it was the tomb of a Viking. 

 Of the skeleton but little remained, but in a straight line, running 

 parallel with the longer sides of the graves approximately east and west, 1 

 several vertebra? were discovered a little to the south of the centre. 

 These with part of a thigh-bone to the west, and a fragment of jaw-bone 

 containing a tooth to the east, may be taken to prove that the interment 

 was not orientated in the Christian manner. The position of the gold 

 braid, spreading north-west and south-west from a point near the top of 

 the vertebral column, supports this view ; though the iron spearhead 

 which is usually found beside the skull must have been inverted when the 

 burial took place, as the point was found only a few inches from the west 

 end of the grave. At the side of the body had been placed an iron 

 sword, ^\ inches wide and 32 inches long, in a wooden scabbard, with 

 the grip under the arm. In one account this weapon is said to have 

 been on the warrior's left hand, 2 but it is more generally held to have 

 been on the north side, and is so located on a plan of the grave prepared 

 during the excavation. In this connection more than one writer has 

 called attention to Roman sepulchral monuments 3 in the Rhine district 

 representing a horseman spearing a prostrate foe, his sword girt high 

 upon his right side ; and the Roman brooch worn on the shoulder is 

 perhaps represented in the Taplow barrow by a remarkable buckle 

 (fig. i), which seems to have fastened the gold- embroidered garment of 

 wool. It is of gold, in almost perfect preservation, and bears a very 

 close resemblance to more than one specimen from the richer graves of 

 Kent. 4 The hoop is set with garnets backed with gold foil, and two of 

 the cells or cloisons are filled with an opaque substance resembling lapis 

 lazuli. The plate is triangular, two of the corners being marked with 

 cabochon garnets, and the end with a large cell-work boss with slabs of 

 the same stone ; while the central space, round which is a raised border 

 of applied gold wires, is filled with a filagree design representing in a 

 very imperfect and confused manner the animal forms affected by Teu- 

 tonic artists in metal during the pagan period. 5 In the fifth century the 

 treatment was fairly naturalistic, though examples of that date are scarce 



1 The exact bearings are not given, but 'a little south of east to a little north of west' closely 

 corresponds to the direction of the grave at Broomfield, Essex, which was W.N.W. and E.S.E. 



3 Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc. xl. 66 (Dr. Joseph Stevens). There seems to have been no strict rule 

 on the subject. 



3 Lindenschmit, Akerthlimer unserer heidmschen Vorzelt, vol. iii. pt. viii. pi. 4. 



4 Compare illustrations in Arch. Cantiana, vi. 169 and xix. 32 of the contents of a warrior's 

 grave at Sarre, Kent. 



5 For examples of the gradual degeneration of the animal forms see Dr. Sophus Miiller's Die 

 Thier-ornamentik im Norden. 



I 201 26 



