A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE 



found in an ecclesiastical connection. The small bone comb and perfor- 

 ated hone-stone, found with the seal 4 feet below the surface in association 

 with bones and an iron chain, throw no light on the date of the deposit. 



In 1763 were exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries 1 a number of 

 Anglo-Saxon coins discovered in the preceding year under the head of 

 a skeleton in the churchyard of Kintbury, about 5 miles from Newbury. 

 The parcel included pieces of Edred, Edwin and Athelstan, and it has 

 been suggested 2 that the site may be the ' holy place at Kintbury ' re- 

 ferred to in his will, dated 931, by Wulfgar, a thane in the time of King 

 Athelstan. From the character of their skulls, a number of bodies 

 found here were referred by Dr. Rolleston to the Anglo-Saxon period. 



A few more isolated discoveries may here be mentioned as showing 

 the presence of various peoples in the island. An iron spearhead, 18 

 inches long with crossbars below the blade, is now at Reading, and 

 was found in the Thames at Henley ; it appears to belong to the Carlo- 

 vingian period 3 and to have been used in hunting. The type is very 

 uncommon in this country, but one has been found at Nottingham, 4 and 

 in the national collection are two examples from London and one from 

 Amiens, France. A francisca (or battle-axe of the Franks) in the Roach 

 Smith collection was found with many Saxon spearheads, horse-shoes and 

 other objects at Pangbourne, 5 while other types of battle-axes in the 

 Reading Museum come from the mouth of the Kennet, and an excep- 

 tionally large one from a water-course at Ashbrook House, Blewbury. 

 The same locality has yielded a bone comb with thickened handle that 

 may be of Danish origin. Other examples have been found in the 

 Thames, and a certain number are in the York Museum. 



During the widening of the Great Western railway in 1891 an 

 isolated interment was disturbed at Purley, about 4 miles up the Thames 

 from Reading and a quarter of a mile from the river ; but only a few beads 

 of amber and glass were preserved, though pottery and a circular brooch 

 are said to have been found at the same time. 8 An east-and-west burial 

 about a mile west from Reading on the Oxford road contained an iron 

 spearhead, lying close to the skull, which was covered with an iron 

 shield-boss. Further down the river at Aston, in Remenham parish, a 

 gilt bronze brooch 7 was found that plainly belongs to the saucer type, 

 but has a peculiar ornament resembling one already illustrated from 

 East Shefford (fig. 8). Three small vases of pottery and some iron axe- 

 heads from the same locality are now in the British Museum. 



In the same collection is another brooch 8 from Abingdon, of Scan- 



1 Arch. viii. 430 ; Gough, Additions to Camden, i. 159. 



* Newbury District Field Club, Trans. 1872-5, p. 76. 



3 Mittheilungen der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien, xxix. (1899), p. 35 and pi. I. 



* Journ. of Arch. Inst. viii. 425 ; xi. 284. They have been compared with some figured in Csed- 

 mon's ' Paraphrase ' (see Arch. xxiv. pi. 94). 



8 Collectanea Antiqua, ii. 224. 



6 This and other information as to finds near Reading has been kindly furnished by Mr. George 

 W. Smith of that town. 



7 Figured in Baron de Baye's Industrial Arts of the Anglo-Saxons, pi. viii. fig. 5. 

 s Figured in Collectanea Antiqua, iii. pi. xxxvi. fig. 4. 



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