ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



mens of solid construction that are apparently of Anglian origin. Both 

 terminate in a conventional horse's head, and the smaller of the two is of 

 the realistic character noticeable on the earliest Teutonic imitations of 

 the Roman brooch in vogue during the fourth century, somewhat 

 resembling a crossbow. Of the others, two have some points of resem- 

 blance with specimens from Offchurch noticed later, and there was an 

 example of the quoit-shaped brooch, as well as of the horseshoe or 

 penannular form 1 similar to specimens found at Longbridge. 



At Norton, twelve miles to the south in Northants, a very similar 

 burial place came to light about twenty years later, during the excavation 

 of a mound 2 or 3 yards wide and about a yard high, which ran by the 

 hedge along the Watling Street. The level at which the bodies had 

 been deposited was about 6 feet below the crown of the Roman road 

 and about 25 feet from its centre, just outside the original embankment. 

 The graves were in a single line, and contained, besides the skeletons 

 which it is believed lay with the heads to the south, some formless 

 pieces of metal and one rude bead of amber. 2 



The burials on the Roman road do not however belong to the main 

 Teutonic district of the county, and more characteristic remains occur on 

 the other side of Dunsmore Heath, in the valley of the Learn. During the 

 construction of the Rugby and Leamington railway, Anglo-Saxon relics 

 were found, about 1850, in an artificial mound of earth at Marton. 

 Two of the urns then brought to light were bequeathed to Rugby 

 School Art Museum by Mr. Bloxam of Rugby, who gave an account 3 

 of this and other Warwickshire finds in 1851 ; and another urn, 

 about half the size, is now in the museum at Warwick, with three 

 shield-bosses from the same site. All were quite plain and of globular 

 form, the larger specimens being 8 inches high and of about the 

 same diameter, the smaller being 2 inches less. They were not made 

 on the wheel, and could be easily distinguished from Roman pottery, 

 specimens of which have also been met with in the county. The 

 contents too showed that they belonged to another period and another 

 people ; for besides fragments of bones, there were two spearheads 

 of iron and a fragment of the same metal, which was taken to be 

 part of a sword, 2^ inches wide. Neither the Romans nor the 

 Romanized Britons buried weapons with the dead, and the presence 

 of a long broad sword of the usual Anglo-Saxon type is quite in 

 keeping with the brooches which were happily recovered from the 

 mound. One was circular, with the face ornamented by means of a 

 punch ; this type is common enough in central England, and is not 

 confined to a particular district, as the saucer-shaped brooch appears to 

 be. Of this latter description there was a single specimen, found on the 

 top of some bones in one of the urns. This direct association with the 

 rite of cremation should be noticed, as even in the mixed cemeteries of 



1 These are figured in Baron de Baye's Industrial Arts of the Anglo-Saxons, pi. ix. figs, i , 6. 



* Arch&ologia, xli. 479 ; Victoria History of Northants, i. 234. 



8 Reports of Associated Architectural Societies (1850-1), Northampton, p. 230. 



255 



