ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



of ' Barrow Field,' while in the adjoining parish of Peering the ' Barrow 

 Hills' may also point to some tradition of ancient burials there. These 

 remains were presented to the Colchester Museum by the excavator, 

 and a further exploration of the site led to similar results, which how- 

 ever have not been fully published. This is particularly unfortunate, as 

 the Peering cemetery included several Roman or Romano-British burials, 

 which might have thrown some light on the transition period of the 

 fifth century. One of them was of special interest, as showing the 

 sequence of events in Essex. 1 Above a stone coffin now in the Castle 

 museum a Saxon had been buried unburnt ; but it would be idle- to 

 speculate on the interval that separated the two interments, as there 

 were no characteristic ornaments in the upper burial, and there is little 

 to indicate the latest possible date for the sarcophagus. 



Isolated discoveries have been made from time to time elsewhere 

 in the county, and may be included here to show in what localities 

 traces of the pagan Saxon inhabitants may be looked for. In all the 

 Roman cemeteries in and around Colchester Saxon burials have been 

 discovered,* and from one of them came a pale green glass cup (fig. 3) 

 of peculiar form now preserved in the national collection ; but most 

 have been found at St. Botolph's Gate, the southern entrance to the 

 Roman town, where most of the shield bosses in the Joslin collection, 

 now preserved at the Castle museum, were discovered. At West 

 Bergholt near Colchester was found a gold ring (fig. 1 2) now preserved 

 in the British Museum. It was exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries J 

 by Rev. J. H. Pollexfen in 1863, and consists of two tapering strands, 

 intertwined with which is a slender twisted ribbon of the same metal 

 in a manner characteristic of the Viking period. Another gold ring 

 (fig. 1 6), consisting of a simple twisted ribbon, has been found at 

 Colchester itself, and is now in the museum there. To these may be 

 added a bracelet (fig. 11) of the same metal, now in the collection of 

 Sir John Evans, K.C.B. ; it was found at Brightlingsea, and consists 

 of two strands, of which the tapering ends are rather clumsily joined 

 together. 



A finger-ring of a different character is described * from Coggeshall 

 (fig. 15); it is of pale gold, the hoop consisting of two bands of finely 

 plaited wire, like that on the Broomfield jewel (fig. 13), expanding 

 on one side to enclose a length of thicker wire arranged in a series 

 of scrolls. It was found in 1851, and in default of evidence to the 

 contrary may be referred on technical grounds to some time before the 

 eighth century, while the other gold rings here enumerated more probably 

 date from the ninth to eleventh century. 



Certain graves at Shoeburyness have been described as Saxon ; and 



1 References to other examples at Colchester are to be found in Roach Smith's Introduction to 

 Inventorium Sepukhrale, p. 50 ; T. Wright, Celt, Reman and Saxon, ed. 4, p. 470. 



* These and other particulars hitherto unpublished have been kindly communicated by Dr. Henry 

 Laver, F.S.A. 



Procttdingi, ser. z, ii. 247 (fig.). 



4 Journal of Britiib Arclucokpcal AitociaA<m t xiii. 313, pi. 39, fig. I. 



327 



