ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



digging gravel at the summit of the hill. Lack of supervision reduced the 

 archaeological value of the discovery, and the statements of the labourers 

 cannot be implicitly accepted. The ordinary shield-boss, knife and 

 spearheads were found ; but the brooches, 1 as usual, form the most inter- 

 esting portion of the find. All the objects enumerated, however, may 

 well have belonged to one or two interments, and do not in themselves 

 prove the existence of a cemetery. Of the three bronze brooches figured 

 in the original account, 2 one is of peculiar type. It is circular, in the 

 form of a dish, having in the centre a flat-headed stud that projects 

 about inch, while the edge of the slightly concave face is turned up 

 at a decided angle all round. The ornament, which has been altogether 

 lost, seems to have come away all in one piece, and may have consisted 

 of enamel, mosaic glass, or garnet cell- work. It is quite distinct from 

 the common saucer brooch and the type with embossed plate applied to 

 the face ; and most resembles a specimen found in a barrow at Driffield, 

 E. R. Yorks, and preserved in York Museum, though this was smaller 

 and had no stud in the centre. The second is of a more common form 

 (fig. 3), a flat disc with a swastika in open work. This is generally 

 regarded as the sign of the god Thor, and the three brooches of this 

 kind, like several found in Cambridgeshire, 3 had no doubt been worn by 

 adherents of the old faith. 



The principal brooch (fig. 5) belongs to the ordinary square-headed 

 type, but is more richly ornamented than usual, and when gilt must have 

 been a striking addition to the costume. The chased portions present 

 the tangled succession of detached limbs of a quadruped so often seen on 

 ornaments of this period, but the attempt to represent the human 

 features in relief is unusual and in this case fairly successful. The 

 elaborate and well-executed decoration marks out this specimen as of 

 fairly early date ; but comparison with a very similar but still finer 

 example 4 found in Denmark, and attributed to the end of the sixth cen- 

 tury, 6 would justify us in assigning the brooch, and no doubt also the 

 Offchurch burial, to the middle of the succeeding century. There were 

 in addition two cruciform brooches of ordinary patterns, and a few beads 

 of amber and glass paste. Mention is also made of a small buckle of 

 silvered bronze and a girdle-tag of the same metal ; but more important, 

 as showing the currency of the period, are a number of minimi or 

 ' third brass ' coins of the Constantine period. The evidence, however, 

 is vitiated by the suspicion that these were mixed up with others found 

 near the Fosse Way on an earlier occasion ; and, in any case, coins of 



1 These have been kindly lent by the Dowager Countess of Aylesford, and two selected for 

 illustration. 



* Journal of British Arcbteokgjcal Association, xxxii. 466. As one brooch is only given in section 

 and no scale is indicated, the illustrations are somewhat misleading. 



8 Examples from Malton (British Museum), Linton Heath (Neville, Saxon Obsequies, pi. iii.) and 

 Barrington (Collectanea Antiyua, vi. pi. xxxiii.) ; also Islip, Northants (Society of Antiquaries, Proceedings, 

 ix. 90). 



4 Figured in Sophus Mailer's NorJische Alterthumskunde, ii. zio. 



5 By Sven Saderberg, who also figures the Danish brooch, in Anttquarisk Tidskrift /Sr Sverige, voL 

 xi. pt. 5, p. 28, and PrShistorische Blatter (1894), pi. xii. 



i 257 33 



