ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



there till the rapine and slaughter of the pagan period had given place 

 to peaceful settlement. 



Seeing that for cogent geographical reasons Essex cannot be re- 

 garded as the starting point of the Saxon settlements in Britain, it is not 

 surprising to find very few relics of the pagan period in this part of the 

 country. It is perhaps to the Romano-Britons rather than to their Saxon 

 conquerors that we must attribute a deposit of bronze vessels discovered 

 nearly a century ago 3 feet below the surface in the village of Sturmere 

 on the Suffolk border and not far from a Roman station. These nine 

 bowls 1 had been packed one inside the other, with a large flat pan on 

 the top ; and all are now preserved in the museum at Saffron Walden. 

 Their forms as well as the circumstances of their discovery recall a 

 series of eight discovered at Irchester,' comprising both Roman and 

 Anglo-Saxon forms, and pointing to the transition period of the fifth 

 century. Some have the rim turned abruptly inwards, and slightly 

 thickened, while others have a projecting top which is quite horizontal. 

 Their use is quite uncertain ; but as some of them are of very thin 

 metal, they were probably intended for ceremonial use. In neither case 

 was there any sign of an interment in the vicinity ; in fact, cemeteries 

 of the early Anglo-Saxon period are very rare in Essex, and what there 

 are have not been thoroughly explored. Experience warns us against 

 expecting complete uniformity in the grave furniture and funeral rites 

 met with in any particular district, however strong the tradition of its 

 occupation by a single race ; and Essex is no exception to the rule 

 though there remains but little material for purposes of comparison. 

 It has been already remarked that the distinctive Anglian rite stops 

 short at the Suffolk border ; and with possibly one or two exceptions 

 unburnt burials are the rule among the East Saxons. 



Among the sepulchral pottery found in the county there does not 

 appear to be any undoubted example of a cinerary urn such as are com- 

 monly met with in the neighbouring Anglian district. In the Col- 

 chester Museum there is indeed one such urn, but it formed part of a 

 collection made in Suffolk and was probably discovered in that county. 

 One vase from Peering, also preserved at the Castle, is barely 3 inches 

 high and is certainly not of the size usual for the reception of calcined 

 remains ; while another originally twice that height is not of the proper 

 shape and was moreover found with two skulls on the same site. 

 Mr. G. F. Beaumont, who excavated the Peering site, states his 

 belief that several fragments of urns were found in the same field on 

 other occasions, but cannot remember that any calcined bones were 

 found there ; and his opinion that burial on that site was principally by 

 inhumation, rather confirms the suspicion that the pottery fragments 

 belonged not to cinerary urns but to ceremonial vases such as are often 

 found with unburnt burials. A more crucial instance is perhaps the 

 Heybridge urn, 6 inches high, now preserved at Colchester ; but in spite 

 of its close resemblance to the Anglian type no record can be found at 



1 Four are figured in 4rc6<ro/ogia, vol. xvi. pi. Ixix. * fiettria History of Northants, i. 239. 



