A HISTORY OF KENT 



from this country and Norway.' Another burial contained, also at the 

 feet, an iron trivet, resembling one of bronze which supported the bowl 

 just referred to. 



Arms were not numerous on this site : only one sword is mentioned 

 and nine shield-bosses,'' one of which was with the sword. Of eleven 

 spears noted (not always with the shield) ten lay outside the coffin on 

 the right, some being wrapped in fabric. What is called by the 

 excavator a ' pilum ' (probably a lance) occurred in twenty-six cases, on 

 the right or left indifferently. In one case the weapon had been 

 wrapped in some material and reversed, while two others were found to 

 have been 4 feet long, by the position of the head and ferrule. The 

 shield, as at Gilton, was shown by the rivets to have had a thickness of 

 i inch. 



Glass vessels appeared near the head in five graves, and ivory was 

 used to some extent for ornament. Several earrings were found in women's 

 graves, and armlets in seven instances ; but the principal feature was the 

 comparative abundance of amethyst beads of the usual pattern (as pi. ii. fig. 

 12), fourteen graves containing one or more specimens. Another peculi- 

 arity was the occurrence in seven graves of iron arrow heads,^ which are 

 scarce on Anglo-Saxon sites, but have been found in the Jutish cemetery 

 on Chessell Down in the Isle of Wight.* Six interments included keys 

 or girdle-hangers, and the same number iron shears, evidently used by 

 women, as were the cylindrical thread-boxes of which one was found on 

 this site ; one of the spindle-whorls recovered was associated with two 

 ivory spindles.^ Among other relics may be mentioned a touchstone 

 with gold marks in a woman's grave, and six Roman coins, of Claudius 

 (d. 54), Gallienus (d. 268), Probus (d. 282), and Carausius (d. 293), 

 and two of Constantine (d. 337). In view of similar finds elsewhere it 

 may be stated here that one grave contained the skull of a polecat and 

 bones (but no skulls) of a number of birds, moles, or mice. Three 

 brooches of excellent workmanship must be noticed, having a three- 

 pointed star on filigree ground (as pi. i. fig. i), keystone (as pi. i. fig. 

 4), and T-shaped garnets (pi. i. fig. 14) respectively, the first two being 

 from the same grave ; but a detailed description is necessary of the 

 remarkable grave that contained the ' Kingston brooch.' 



This was one of ten or eleven double burials noticed in this 

 cemetery, and deserves special mention. Its dimensions were alto- 

 gether abnormal — 6 feet deep, 10 feet long, and 8 feet broad — and the 

 iron-bound coffin appeared to have fitted the grave, but the skull was 

 remarkably small, and was apparently that of a woman whose child had 

 been buried at her feet outside the coffin. Near the right shoulder was 

 the finest Anglo-Saxon brooch " hitherto discovered (pi. i. fig. 10). It 

 is of gold, the face being covered with cell-work of garnets and blue glass 

 pastes intermingled with filigree panels of much debased animal forms, 



> For list and illustrations see Archaeologia, vol. 56, p. 39. 



2 A conical boss is figured in Hone Ferales, plate xxvii. fig. 23. ' Itiv. Sep. p. 60, fig. I. 



* V.C.H. Hants, i. 388. ^ Jnv. Sep. p. 93. « Inv. Sep. pi. i. fig. I (coloured). 



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