ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



of shaped on the wheel, and imperfectly fired, but they differed in their 

 shape and decoration. They were more or less globular with contracted 

 mouths forms suggestive of being barbaric copies of the familiar jars 

 used by the Romans for cremated remains. The decoration consisted of 

 pushed-out bosses, of incised lines, and of impressed dots, circles and 

 other markings from small stamps or punches. A number of the King's 

 Newton urns were figured by Mr. Jewitt in the account of this cemetery 

 given by him in the Reliquary. The mouths were usually covered with 

 flat stones, and very rarely were the urns inverted. 



The interments occur singly, or, as just intimated, in groups or 

 cemeteries. When occurring singly they are either covered with their 

 own mounds or have been introduced into already existing mounds. In 

 the cemeteries mounds are rarely discernible, but it is probable that each 

 grave was originally covered by one. As these graves are usually close 

 together, these mounds could never have been large, and so would readily 

 fall victims to the progress of cultivation. 



There are published descriptions of about twenty isolated barrows 

 of the period which have been investigated in Derbyshire. The mound, 

 in every case where the material is stated, is described as of earth or 

 clay (always a sign of lateness in Derbyshire) with a few stones or 

 none at all ; in size ranging from 18 to 41 feet in diameter, but mostly 

 from 33 to 36 feet, so that on the average these mounds are smaller than 

 those of the Bronze Age. A slight ditch surrounded the foot of one at 

 Benty Grange, 1 a feature which may have been general in these barrows. 

 In every case the grave over and for which the mound was raised and 

 it may be mentioned here that these barrows do not appear to have been 

 used for secondary interments was a more or less shallow depression in 

 the natural soil usually in the centre of the site. Occasionally a few 

 large stones were piled over it ; more frequently it was filled or covered 

 with puddled earth or clay. It has been suggested that in the prepara- 

 tion of this earth or clay some corrosive ingredient was introduced which 

 is responsible for the frequent presence of thin ochreous seams and the 

 extremely decayed condition of the human bones when in contact with 

 it. The interments of these barrows were, so far as is known, all un- 

 burnt. Around many of them were found distinct traces of decayed 

 wood, indicating that the graves were either lined with planks, or that 

 the corpse was deposited in a chest or coffin ; and from the traces of 

 leather, woollen cloth and linen, and the presence of buckles, fibula?, 

 weapons and objects of personal adornment, we may infer that the bodies 

 were consigned to their last rest in their ordinary attire. 



A similar number of inhumated interments of this period have been 

 found as secondary burials in barrows of greater age (mostly of the Bronze 

 Age) in Derbyshire. In the mode of burial and the accompaniments 

 they precisely resembled those just described, except that their graves 

 had been cut into the pre-existing mounds instead of in the natural soil. 



1 Ten Tears' Diggings, p. 28. 

 267 



