A HISTORY OF DERBYSHIRE 



many animals' teeth and bones, mostly showing the action of fire. The 

 indications of fire are not uncommon in these late graves. There was 

 an abundance of charcoal and burnt earth around the Winster interments 

 above referred to ; and other Derbyshire examples have been met with. 1 

 The following is a summary of the objects associated with these 

 inhumated interments : 



(1) Nine vessels of the dark hand-made and ill-fired pottery of the period. Several of 

 these were taller and better finished than the rest, and are distinguished as drinking-cups. 



(2) Fourteen articles of iron, consisting of i spear-head, 3 javelin-heads, 5 knives, I 

 buckle, I umbo of shield, and 3 ' lumps.' 



(3) Twelve bronze objects : the frame of a bag (?), 3 brooches, 3 buckles, I pair of 

 tweezers, I pin, and several fragments. 



(4) About thirty-four beads of various kinds amber, glass (many of Roman character), 

 terracotta, drilled garnet, etc. The two finest were of coloured pastes, and were supposed to 

 be of Egyptian origin. 



(5) Potsherds and flints : not found with the first seven or eight interments, probably 

 through being overlooked, but more careful search proved their presence with all the 

 remaining interments by inhumation. 



(6) Miscellaneous objects : spindle-whorl of Kimmeridge coal, wooden 'wedge,' and 

 Roman coin of the Constantine period. 



We may thus distinguish two classes of articles in these graves : (i) 

 those which were useless in themselves, as the potsherds and flints, or 

 which appear to have been made solely for funeral purposes, as the occa- 

 sional vessels found with the dead ; and (2) those which were obviously 

 of use in life, as the brooches and buckles introduced into the grave with 

 the apparel of the deceased, or the spears and shields, the jewellery and 

 other trinkets, placed by his or her side with probably no other motive 

 than that they were his or her cherished possessions. 



The potsherds were ' some of Roman, others of Saxon manufacture, 

 all old and weathered,' and evidently had been buried as sherds. The 

 flints, too, appear to have been mere shapeless fragments. The presence 

 of these potsherds and flints had doubtless, as was stated in the ' Early 

 Man ' section, a symbolic meaning. 



As was mentioned above, only three cremated interments were 

 found in this Stapenhill cemetery. The large cinerary urns which 

 enclosed these appear to have been precisely similar to those of King's 

 Newton ; but instead of the contents of all three urns being human 

 remains only, as was the case there, two contained, in addition, the 

 following : in the one, a deer-horn spindle whorl or amulet, decor- 

 ated with concentric circles ; and in the other, thirty-six beads, some 

 of glass of Roman type, some of coloured pastes and one of amber, and 

 a circular bronze brooch. These interments were so distributed among 

 the inhumated interments that the contemporaneity of the two can 

 scarcely be questioned ; and this applies with equal force to the two 

 varieties of the inhumated burials, the extended and the flexed. 



A curious feature of the cemetery, and one which has been observed 

 in similar cemeteries elsewhere, was a ditch 92 feet long and about 5 



1 Festigti,?. jz ; Diggings, pp. 46, 86. 



274 



