A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



exactly comparable, it may be suggested that the grip was enriched with 

 this and perhaps other jewelled plates somewhat in the manner observed 

 on a remarkable sword-handle of wood from Cumberland, now preserved 

 in the British Museum. 



After an interval of six years, further excavation revealed the grave, 

 the two ends of which were clearly defined in the gravel by a black line 

 starting from the bottom and curving irregularly inwards through a 

 vertical space of about 3 feet. At the extremities of the grave were 

 rows of large flint nodules, and throughout the filling were numbers of 

 flints, partly calcined, as well as fragments of Roman tiles. Somewhat 



east of the centre lay the 

 fragments of a circular 

 bronze pan about 13 

 inches in diameter, with 

 a flat projecting rim and 

 two swing-handles of iron 

 working in loops of bronze. 

 ,, Beneath was a mass of 



BRONZE PAN FROM ANGLO-SAXON GRAVE AT BROOMFIELD. .. , , , - _ 



folded woollen fabric of 



two distinct qualities, resting on logs of birchwood ; and it was evident 

 that the pan had originally contained part of a cow's horn and four 

 vessels that claim particular attention. Two (fig. 19) are of deep sap- 

 phire glass, forming a pair that in shape, size and decoration are nearly 

 identical with one found at Cuddesdon, Oxfordshire, with a remarkable 

 bronze bucket. 1 



In the pan with the glass vases were two wooden cups turned on 

 the lathe and furnished with thin rims of gilt bronze at the lips. Their 

 exact form is uncertain, as the wood which was about one-eighth of an 

 inch in thickness had not retained its shape ; but as the mouth was 

 about 2 inches wide, and the body appeared to have been little larger, 

 it is not unreasonable to suppose that these cups resembled one 2 found at 

 Farthingdown, Surrey, which originally measured -2.\ inches at the mouth 

 and was somewhat barrel-shaped, with broad gilt bands at the top and 

 bottom embossed with a serpentine pattern. A very similar mount 3 was 

 also found at Faversham in the King's Field, and is now in the Gibbs 

 collection at the British Museum. As cups of this description are of 

 rare occurrence, it should be observed that the examples given are from 

 the south-east of England, in Kent and districts that must have been in 

 communication with that kingdom from the first ; and another feature 

 that points to contact with a higher civilization south of the Thames 

 estuary is that the Broomfield wooden cups were turned on the lathe, a 

 process that was hardly known outside Kent in the pagan period when 

 Anglian potters were making urns to contain the ashes of their dead. 4 



1 These are figured in colours by Akerman, Pagan Saxondom, pis. vi. xiii. 

 * Figured in Surrey Archceokgical Collections, vi. 113. 



3 Figured in Roach Smith's Collectanea dntiqua, vol. vi. pi. xxvi. fig. I. 



4 It is pointed out by Dr. Sophus MOller that during the Migration period in Denmark the lathe 

 was used for wood but not for metal or pottery (Nordiscbe Altertumskunde, ii. 1 1 1). 



322 



