ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



same may be said of the small square-headed variety here illustrated (see 

 fig.). Another type is much more concentrated, and is well represented 

 at Long Wittenham, as in many parts of the southern midlands. The 

 bronze-gilt ornament of dish or saucer form (figs. 4, 6, 9 and 12) was 

 not confined to graves of any particular direction, though it is extremely 

 rare with cremated burials ; and out of about fifty graves in which 

 brooches of any kind occurred at Long Wittenham, eleven contained in 

 all nineteen examples of the type in question, usually in position on either 

 shoulder of the skeleton. Another pattern somewhat similar but with 

 an embossed plate of bronze-gilt applied to the front was also represented 

 on this site, associated in more than one instance with the saucer-brooch. 

 There seems indeed to be a somewhat close connection between these two 

 forms, and the important cemetery at Kempston, Beds, furnished a large 

 number of both kinds. 



Brooches at Long Wittenham were as usual confined to the graves 

 of women, and mention may be made of a Romano-British bronze speci- 

 men 1 of oval form originally set with a carbuncle belonging to a type 

 that seems to have been popular among the Anglo-Saxon population. A 

 rarity in England is a bronze buckle (fig. i) from this site ornamented 

 with animal heads in imitation of a Roman original ; this with many 

 similar found in Belgium may be assigned to the fifth century of our era, 2 

 and specimens of late Roman date have been found in the north of 

 France. 3 



In the case of men, the spear and shield are the principal items of 

 grave furniture, and call for no further remark, except that the disposition 

 of the studs found with some of the shield-bosses showed that the shields 

 were oval, not circular as seems to have been the case in the Isle of 

 Wight.* The occurrence of only two swords in so extensive a cemetery 

 was duly remarked by the excavator, who was inclined to combat the 

 widely accepted view that this weapon betokened the high rank of its 

 possessor. The thane is commonly supposed to have wielded the sword 

 on horseback, while the ceorl went into battle on foot, armed with spear 

 and shield. The graves containing the swords, and indeed the interments 

 as a whole, give no evidence of special wealth or distinction, and the 

 common opinion as to swords is certainly not supported by a recent dis- 

 covery in Hampshire,* where in what appears to have been a Jutish 

 cemetery six swords were recovered with other relics that were anything 

 but magnificent. 



Besides the small buckets already referred to, which were composed 

 of staves with bronze hoops and handles, there are in the British Museum 

 some iron hoops from a larger vessel found at Long Wittenham, such as 

 occur in a few of the more important graves in England, for example at 



pl. xi 



Arch, xxxix. pl. xi. fig. I. 



Sven Soderberg, Antiquarisk Tidsk rift /Sr Sverigi, xi. pt. v. 17, and PrZhistorisde Blatter (1894), 

 fig. 8. 



C. Boulanger, Mobi&er funiralre Gallo-nmain et Franc en Picardie et en Artois, pl. 7. 

 Hillier, History of the Isle of Wight, p. 36. 

 At Droxford (Society of Antiquaries, Proceedings, xix. 127). 



233 3 



