ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



also the bodies appeared to have been buried regardless of position, and 

 the personal ornaments were in many respects almost identical. For 

 instance, some iron rings of various sizes found with female skeletons 

 at Holdenby correspond with bronze examples at Longbridge, which 

 may thus be considered part of a woman's costume at the time. Signs 

 of wear on the inside go to show that the ring was firmly attached to 

 the clothing to hold something that hung from the waist. Again, some 

 of the brooches are strikingly similar, and are all represented in the 

 Holdenby find, as are also the key, commonly known as a girdle hanger, 

 and the small brooch of horseshoe form (fig. 4). 



The sword and bronze-mounted buckets from Longbridge find no 

 parallel in the Northants cemetery already referred to, but are not of 

 unusual occurrence in that and other counties of England. The view 

 that swords were carried exclusively by the thane while the spear marked 

 the ceorl who fought on foot has never been disproved, and is in fact 

 supported by documentary evidence as well as by the comparative rarity 

 and magnificence of graves containing the sword. In this particular 

 case the weapon retained traces of the wooden scabbard and its orna- 

 mentation, and while at Bransford Bridge the bronze chape alone 

 remained, here the remains were sufficient to show the original form of 

 the handle and scabbard. The total length was 2 feet 10 inches, and 

 the blade was a| inches broad from the guard almost to the point. The 

 pommel seems to have consisted of two parts : a wooden bar surmounted 

 by a square piece of bronze brought to a point. Such pyramidal buttons 

 are rarely met with but are uniform in size and construction, and a 

 notable example may be seen in the British Museum from a grave at 

 Broomfield, Essex. The hilt and guard had decayed, but the narrow 

 bands of bronze at the mouth of the scabbard still remained in position, 

 as on specimens from Kempston, Beds, and the Isle of Wight in the 

 national collection. 



The buckets, which are generally supposed to have contained food 

 or drink for the benefit of the dead, had certain peculiarities. In one 

 the ordinary staves of wood were replaced by bronze, ornamented on 

 both sides with beading and held in position by three hoops of the same 

 metal. Of the other two buckets, the larger one was j\ inches high : 

 its five hoops of bronze were fastened to the upright strips of plain 

 bronze by square-headed rivets, producing a chequered appearance, and 

 inside a piece of linen about an inch square was fastened to one of the 

 staves. The fabric was of excellent thread finely woven, and adhered 

 firmly to the wood, which was also in good condition and appeared to 

 be yew. Vessels of this kind are found either at the head or feet of 

 the dead, and are most frequent in the central parts of the country, from 

 Fairford to Peterborough and from Warwick to Devizes. Little how- 

 ever can be deduced from their geographical distribution, and it may 

 be that some future explanation of the linen patches will decide the 

 ceremonial significance of the buckets themselves. 



The brooches however seem to furnish more exact indications of 



261 



