ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



kiln at Earley contained thirteen or fourteen interments, more than half 

 of which were by way of cremation, while the unburnt bodies lay east 

 and west, the head no doubt to the west. The surface was irregular but 

 without any indications of sepulchral mounds, though such probably 

 existed at one time to mark the burials. 



Fragments of calcined bone still remained in the larger urns, and 

 part of a bone comb was also found in one instance, suggesting an 

 Anglian connection. 1 Another imperfect specimen of more ornate 

 character was found with an iron spearhead in the grave of a stalwart 

 warrior. With one or two of the skeletons had been placed small pot- 

 tery vases, no doubt of ceremonial significance, and among the smaller 

 objects from the graves may be noticed a circular bronze brooch of 

 common type, ornamented with seven engraved rings ; and larger speci- 

 mens with an embossed gilt plate attached to the front, such as have been 

 found in some quantity at Kempston, Beds. The close agreement be- 

 tween the relics discovered at Reading and at Long Wittenham will 

 not be overlooked, and a bronze saucer brooch (like fig. 6) found in 

 the Thames not far from this cemetery may be further mentioned in this 

 connection. 



It is not improbable that the type of brooch with an embossed 

 plate mentioned above was an imitation of a sumptuous Kentish pattern, 

 of which remarkable examples have been found in Berkshire. The two 

 well-known jewelled brooches* from the neighbourhood of Abingdon are 

 among the finest examples of the Anglo-Saxon goldsmith's craft. There 

 is a striking similarity in their size, ornamentation and general appearance, 

 and both have evidently come from the same manufacturing centre. 

 Neither is quite complete, but that in the national collection here illus- 

 trated (fig. 10) has only lost part of the rim and the central stud, which 

 is intact on its fellow. It is conjectured that both jewels were brought 

 to light during the opening of some graves at Milton North Field in 

 1832, where the Ashmolean specimen was certainly found on the breast 

 of a skeleton lying due north and south, 2 feet below the surface. 

 Both are constructed in the same manner ; to a silver disc, which bears 

 the hinged pin and catch, is cemented a thicker bronze plate, above 

 which is the ornamented face of the brooch resting on a cement founda- 

 tion. The broad band, which is bounded by a double row of inlaid 

 glass, contains four bosses and is intersected by four arms radiating from 

 the inlaid setting of the centre ; the rope-pattern filagree work being 

 applied to the gold plate by means of pressure. The bosses, which may 

 be of ivory, are now much decayed but mostly retain a slab of ruby 

 glass at the summit. There can be little doubt that these jewels came 

 originally from Kent, where similar examples are numerous. 



Some spearheads from the same cemetery in Milton Field are in the 

 British Museum, and several antiquities of iron from Cookham, lower 



1 Bone combs are frequent in cinerary urns, as at Eye, Suffolk ; Brixworth, Northants. 



2 That in the British Museum is figured in colours in Akerman's Pagan SaxonJom, pi. iii. ; the 

 other is in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, and is figured in the Arch. Journ. iv. 253. 



I 241 3 I 



