A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



Saxon specimens ; it is all the more remarkable therefore that almost an 

 exact duplicate 1 of this vase was found at Faversham, Kent, in the rich 

 and extensive cemetery known as the King's Field ; and another, 2 of red 



earth, with the famous Kingston 

 brooch near Canterbury. 



Nothing further was noticed 

 except a good deal of very dark 

 matter, charcoal, fragments of wood 

 and parts of flat iron bars and angle- 

 irons with rivets, all in the west- 

 ern half of the grave. Though no 

 traces of bones were met with, it 

 seemed evident that the body had 

 been placed in a stout coffin and 

 burnt as it lay in the ground. The 

 appearance of the sides point to 



POTTERY VASE FROM GRAVE AT BROOMFIELD. thig conc l us i ori) though Combustion 



under such circumstances must have been slow and imperfect, and if 

 any bones were left unconsumed they must have decayed completely 

 in the interval. 



According to the plan given in the original account of the dis- 

 covery, the grave was 8 feet in length with rounded projections at each 

 corner ; and though the form and section are peculiar, the contents are 

 sufficient to show that this, like the majority of graves with relics, 

 belonged to the pagan period. 



Discoveries in Essex have not been plentiful enough to decide 

 whether this or any other kind of burial was characteristic of the East 

 Saxons. It will be observed that the discovery at Broomfield presents 

 several novel features in the way of funeral accessories that cannot be 

 classified as Anglian. Whether they are indeed Saxon in the strict 

 sense of the term is another question ; but further discoveries may one 

 day point to a connection with Kent or disclose a continental trait that 

 may justify a more exact attribution of these important relics of the past. 

 The remarkable size and variety of the objects discovered in the Broom- 

 field grave may indeed find a parallel in two well-known interments, but 

 the treatment of the body differed in each of the three cases. At Bourne 

 Park near Canterbury was found a grave, nearly 14 feet long and half as 

 wide, cut carefully in the solid chalk and filled with fine mould brought 

 from a distance. In one corner had stood a bucket with bronze hoops, 

 and nearer the centre a shield, with horse's bit, buckle and several nails ; 

 while at the head was a bronze bowl, thickly gilt, with two handles of 

 iron. So far the analogy is fairly complete, but the appearance of the 

 grave as well as the absence of the sword and knife showed that the 



1 In the Gibbs Collection, British Museum ; figured in de Baye's Industrial Arts of the Anglo-Saxons, 

 pi. xvi. fig. 6. 



8 Inventorium Sefulcbrale, p. 78 and pi. xx. fig. 6. 



324 



