ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



more described by Mr. Briggs, it would seem that, as a rule, they were in 

 rows generally resting upon flat stones about 2 feet below the surface. 

 They were nearly all upright, and their mouths were usually covered 

 with thin stones ; but in one or two instances ' the calcined bones were 

 placed upon a small flat stone and the urn inverted over them.' No grave 

 furniture was found with these interments. Immediately north of the 

 burial ground, which ' covered perhaps fifty square yards,' were traces of 

 an oblong enclosure 498 feet long (east and west) and 195 feet wide 

 (north and south) within the surrounding bank. Its rectangular shape 

 is suggestive of a Roman encampment, but nothing to indicate such an 

 origin was found. 



The distribution of these different modes of burial in groups sug- 

 gests two explanations. The groups may relate to different tribes whose 

 funeral practices differed ; or these practices may have been consecutive, 

 each tolerably uniform throughout the region for the time being. 

 The general trend of evidence both within and without the county is in 

 favour of the former hypothesis, but the cemetery of this period at Sta- 

 penhill 1 shows that it must not be pushed to an extreme. 



From this remarkable burial ground thirty-one inhumated and five 

 cremated interments were obtained, all found in simple graves un- 

 marked by any external features. Taking the inhumated examples first, 

 fourteen were extended on the back and two on the side, five were 

 flexed and lying on the left side, 3 while the positions of the remaining 

 ten were undetermined. The heads of these skeletons (which were 

 mostly of adults) pointed in various directions, but the majority had a 

 westerly direction, or, to be strict, ranged from north-west lowest ; a fair 

 proportion, however, pointed south-south-east. 



The most interesting interment was that of a lady whose skeleton 

 lay at full length with the head to the west. Close to the head was a 

 richly embossed and decorated drinking cup of pottery ; on either shoul- 

 der a cruciform brooch of bronze gilt ; round the neck a chaplet of 

 twenty or more beads of glass, amber, garnet and terracotta inlaid with 

 coloured pastes ; near the waist an iron buckle and two bronze articles 

 supposed to be part of the framework of a leathern bag or portions of a 

 chatelaine ; and near the right arm a spindle-whorl of Kimmeridge 

 coal. In another grave a man had been laid at full length on his 

 back, with his spear at his right side and his shield placed over the 

 middle of his body. In another were the remains of a child who seems 

 to have undergone partial burning. Near the head was a small vessel ; 

 near the neck, four beads, two of the Roman melon form and two 

 of coloured pastes ; and apparently at the shoulder, a small gilt bronze 

 fibula. Three skeletons occupied another grave, all apparently interred 

 at the same time. They were more or less burnt, and were in fact sur- 

 rounded with charcoal, burnt earth and charred cloth. With them were 

 also associated several worn Romano-British and Saxon potsherds, and 



1 Trans. Burton Nat. Hist, and Arch. Soc. i. 156 ; Antiquary, iii. 229. 

 8 See V.C.H. Nortkants, i. 229. 



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