A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



Walden, which probably belongs, at least in part, to a comparatively late 

 period, as was indeed pointed out at the time of its first publication. 

 In the north-west angle of the British ' camp ' fifty or sixty human 

 skeletons were dug up within a few yards of the western bank in the year 

 1830, and traces of other burials noticed in other parts of the enclosure ; 

 but it was not till 1876 that a systematic excavation of the site was 

 undertaken by the owner, the late Mr. G. S. Gibson, with the assistance 

 of Mr. Ecroyd Smith who wrote a report for the Essex Archaeological 

 Society. 1 About 150 skeletons were met with on this occasion at various 

 depths owing to a surface alteration in later times ; but it was evident 

 that the usual practice had been to remove the upper soil to a depth of 

 2 to 3 feet, and then to excavate the solid chalk another foot for the 

 reception of the body, which was usually placed on its back at full length, 

 with the head pointing to the west. In most cases the interments had 

 been made with reverential care, but no remains of coffins were found 

 and only a few traces on pottery or bronze ornaments of the cerecloth 

 in which the more wealthy seem to have been buried. A reference to 

 the plan published with the report shows that the graves had been cut 

 for the most part in rows from north-east to south-west, and in some 

 cases the intervals are so regular as to suggest that each burial was dis- 

 tinguished by a mound or some other mark to avoid overlapping. 



It may here be mentioned that the discovery of pits in the chalk 

 dug prior to the Anglo-Saxon interments shows that the site had been 

 occupied in the remote past ; and a very systematic and laborious super- 

 intendence would have been necessary to keep the relics of the different 

 periods apart. There seems no doubt however that Anglo-Saxon 

 pottery, made without the wheel and ornamented with impressed 

 devices, was plentiful, but whether in the form of cinerary or domestic 

 vessels is uncertain. Closer observation of such particulars would in 

 this case have been specially welcome as bearing on the question 

 whether the Anglian rite of cremation prevailed here to any extent. 

 The East Saxons must have guarded their borders jealously indeed if 

 such an unimportant river as the Stour, 12 miles from Walden and 

 there only a stream, remained throughout a barrier between the Angle 

 and Saxon whose nationality is declared not only by the territorial 

 divisions of to-day, but by the difference in their funeral customs estab- 

 lished by archaeological inquiry. 



In what is called the best part of the cemetery the graves were 

 close together and arranged with some system, but elsewhere, especially 

 to the south, instances occurred that imply some difference of race, 

 condition or period. Skeletons were here found sometimes without a 

 grave and sometimes lying confusedly in pits ; while others had been 

 deliberately buried with the head to the south, the contrast to the 

 majority being very noticeable on the plan. 



Whether the orientated graves may be referred to Christians and 

 the others to their pagan contemporaries, or whether these features 



1 Transactions, new ser. ii. 284, 311. 

 330 



