ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



fig.) 6 inches high, formed of hoops and staves, and covered with thin 

 bronze plates which were embossed with scenes from the Gospel history 

 (see fig.). This remarkable relic, now in a very fragile condition, 

 is preserved in the national collection, and was happily illustrated in 

 full at the time of its discovery. It resembles in shape a modern glass 

 tumbler of more than average size, and to judge from its elaborate orna- 

 mentation was intended for ceremonial use. The four panels contain (i) 

 the monogram of Christ between the letters Alpha and Omega, the 

 whole enclosed in a nimbus ; (2) the Annunciation ; (3) the Baptism of 

 our Lord, above which appears an attempt to form the word I&ANNHC 

 (John) ; and (4) the marriage at Cana in Galilee. 



The presence of secular relics in what may perhaps be regarded as 

 a Christian burial is not unusual in this and other cemeteries of the 

 period ; and the thorough manner in which the exploration at Long 

 Wittenham was carried out enables us to ascertain the comparative fre- 

 quency of relics in graves of different directions. Though accident has 

 rendered many of the interments unavailable for such calculations, it is 

 clear that the custom of depositing weapons and ornaments with the dead 

 was less uniformly observed where the graves were orientated than in 

 other cases, the figures being : head west, without relics, 27 ; head 

 south-west, ditto, 9 ; other directions, ditto, 12. Mr. Akerman rightly 

 insisted on the exceptional character of the interment containing the 

 stoup, and suggested that the reversed spear 1 was intended to indicate 

 that the child had been devoted to some religious office and thus re- 

 nounced the martial attributes of his sex. Whatever the true explana- 

 tion, it seems probable from this interment that a converted Saxon was 

 so buried that he might rise and face the east ; and that the inclusion of 

 a weapon and other objects in a Christian grave was not impossible. 



A bucket that presents a remarkable resemblance to that from Long 

 Wittenham was found in a Merovingian cemetery at Miannay near 

 Abbeville, Dept. Somme, France, and may well have come from 

 the same workshop. On the bronze plating is embossed a representa- 

 tion of our Lord seated and trampling on the dragon, while on one 

 side stand Adam and Eve, and on the other Daniel between Habakkuk 

 and a lion. On a second fragment the figure of Habakkuk, with an 

 angel above, is repeated, while throughout the field are inscriptions 

 naming the figures, but not altogether clear. 2 It may be added that 

 Daniel among the lions is the favourite subject for the decoration of 

 bronze buckle-plates in Merovingian times, at least in the numerous 

 cemeteries of Savoy and Switzerland ; and the bucket so ornamented 

 from the north of France must be regarded as an isolated example. A 

 similar piece of an embossed bronze-plated beaker was found in Rhenish 

 Hesse, and has been published side by side with the Long Wittenham 



1 According to Prof. Soc. AnAq. iii. 34, the spear was reversed in graves of the Ripuarian Franks, 

 but among the Salians was placed as among the Saxons, except in graves where the ' francisca ' (battle- 

 axe) occurs. An example of this last case is illustrated in C. Boulanger's MobiRer funeraire, pi. 36. 



2 M. Le Slant in Revue de /'art ckrtfien, ser. 2, ii. (1875), 89 and plate, figs. I, 2 ; Bulletin de 

 la Socttti des Antiquatres de Picardie, xi. 139 and plate ; xii. (1876), 279. 



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