ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



Romanized Britons already mentioned. They were comparatively deep 

 and had the Christian orientation, but presented certain features dis- 

 tinguishing them from graves of the first and second classes. In place 

 of the Roman coffin of lead or timber, slabs of stone were set round 

 these graves in a vertical position, and in some cases a pillow-stone was 

 placed beneath the head, incidentally proving the absence of a coffin. 

 On no occasion did Professor Rolleston find such slabs of stone round 

 any grave that was not approximately orientated and did not contain 

 characteristic Anglo-Saxon relics. 



A striking parallel to the conditions at Frilford is afforded by 

 discoveries made at Reading in 1890, and described by the late 

 Dr. Joseph Stevens. 1 During excavations for the laying of foundations 

 in a small meadow alongside the King's Road, about 450 yards south of 

 the Kennet and immediately opposite the Jack-of-both-Sides Inn, only a 

 superficial examination of the ground was possible, but interments of 

 interest were disclosed, with some important relics and a series of skulls 

 now preserved in the Reading Museum. In all, fifty-one skeletons were 

 uncovered, and these were found at three different levels, viz. 2 feet 

 6 inches, 34 feet and 6 feet below the surface, the lowest being on 

 a floor of gravel. It was noticed that the deepest graves were orientated, 

 and as this agrees well with the observations at Frilford, it is permissible 

 to speak of these as Romano-British, especially as about thirty stout iron 

 nails were found at this level, though never more than three in each 

 grave. These may have belonged to coffins or been used for fastening 

 planks together to protect the body, and were recognized as being of 

 Romano-British manufacture. In one of the lowest graves were also 

 found charcoal ashes and fragments of Roman pottery, and it is conceiv- 

 able that a cremated body had been buried here, adjoining another 

 interment. At the 6 feet level practically no relics were found, and the 

 uniformity of the graves is in complete accordance with Professor 

 Rolleston's second class at Frilford ; the skeletons on this level were 

 of good stature, with globular skulls, powerful jaws and high cheek- 

 bones, all regarded as ' Celtic ' features. 



Nearer the surface bodies were found laid in various directions, and 

 it was with these that most of the relics were associated. At a depth of 

 2 1 feet a body was found lying nearly east and west, with a leaden plate 

 nearly 6 inches long, under the left shoulder. This was perhaps originally 

 affixed to a board, though there seems to have been no coffin here. 

 Inscribed on the metal were (originally) three simple crosses of the 

 Greek form, and it is fair to conclude that they marked a Christian 

 interment. Twelve feet to the north, on the same level, had been buried 

 a very old woman with part of a small quern or mealing-stone, 2 and near 

 her, but a few inches deeper, was found a male skeleton of middle age, 



1 Berks, Bucks and Oxon Archetological Journal, i. 100. 



2 A quern was found in an Anglo-Saxon grave-mound at Winster, Derbyshire (illustrated in 

 Journal of British Archttok&cal Association, xiii. 228) ; also at Hartington and Taddington in the same 

 county, and at Holme Pierpoint, Notts. 



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