ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



with blunt blade may also be mentioned. 1 During the excavations it was 

 noticed that the urns were placed too deep to be damaged by the plough- 

 share, and it was surmised that they were disturbed from time to time 

 in digging the ordinary graves. In one case an urn had apparently been 

 replaced above an unburnt body which rested, according to the rule 

 observed in this cemetery, on the drift-gravel two or three feet from the 

 surface. And it may have been a feeling of respect that suffered the 

 ashes of the dead to remain in the base of an urn even when the 

 upper part had been shattered. 



These surmises however throw but little light on the connection 

 between those who practised the different rites of burial. The urns do 

 not appear to have been confined to any one part of the cemetery, 

 though there were areas in which one or other method prevailed. It is 

 highly probable that cremation was the earlier practice, but it has yet to 

 be proved whether the change was due to the arrival of another tribe or 

 to the growth of a new religion. Some important evidence on this 

 point has been furnished by the excavation of another burial-ground in 

 Berkshire at Frilford, only 7 miles from Long Wittenham. 



The importance of the discoveries made at Frilford by Mr. Akerman 

 is mainly due to the able manner in which they were described by 

 Professor Rolleston of Oxford, who, in a memoir published ; by the Society 

 of Antiquaries, 2 furnished all necessary particulars as to the graves and 

 the anatomical peculiarities of their occupants. The site may on this 

 account be said to rank with Long Wittenham and Fairford as affording 

 a valuable clue to conditions of life in the southern midlands during the 

 post-Roman period. 



The cemetery, which was excavated between 1864 and 1868, was 

 situated in the angle between the left bank of the river Ock and the 

 road from Frilford to Wantage ; and there was ample evidence that 

 Roman civilization had taken firm root in this locality. The inventory 

 of the relics brought to light is unhappily not complete, 3 but sundry 

 details of special interest may be noted. Many skeletons lying with the 

 head westward were found to be destitute of relics, a point in favour of 

 the common interpretation of orientated graves. As at Long Wittenham, 

 the saucer type of brooch was plentiful, and an oval specimen of Roman 

 character set with a glass-paste or carbuncle once more appeared. 



Among the thirty-eight graves discovered, Professor Rolleston dis- 

 tinguished five classes, and there can be no doubt that the first, comprising 

 five interments in leaden coffins * cased with oak, belongs to the period 

 of Roman domination. An indication of their date is afforded by the 

 discovery, in one or other of the coffins, of coins of the Roman emperors 

 Constantine the Great (died 337), Valens (died 378) and Gratian (died 



1 Knives without a cutting edge have been found in graves of men at Kempston, Beds (Roach 

 Smith, Collectanea Antiqua, vi. 1 71), and on the downs near Lewes (Castle Museum). 



3 Arch. xlii. 417 ; xlv. 405. See also Cornell University Register, 1870-1, p. 50. 

 8 Pnc. Soc. Antlq. ser. z, iii. 136. 



4 Part of one is preserved in Reading Museum. All were placed with the feet E.S.E. (Archceobgpa, 

 zlii. 421). 



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