ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



was a gold stud set with garnets and provided at the back with a loop 

 which passed through a piece of bone or ivory. This stud resembled 

 that figured from the county, and the discovery renders it probable 

 that the peculiar pyramidal jewels (pi. i. fig. 7) sometimes found in 

 this country and abroad were also sword-knots. A fine buckle, with 

 garnet cell-work at the base of its tongue and its triangular plate of gold 

 ornamented with interlacing, was found near the stud already mentioned, 

 and near the sword point was a lobed cup of blue glass. 



Finds at Stodmarsh, three miles from Wingham, are of special 

 interest, and are now in the national collection, A grave-mound over- 

 looking the Stour and facing Stodmarsh Court was removed about 1847 

 and human remains were found, evidently of a man and woman. A 

 bronze bowl and weapons were lost, but the following series was 

 recovered^ : — A square-headed brooch (like pi. ii. fig. 2), a silver brooch 

 with oblong head ornamented with garnet and filigree, a fine buckle 

 with triangular gold plate and three bosses, a 'button' brooch with garnet 

 centre (as pi. i. fig. 16), a spoon with five holes in bowl and garnet on the 

 stem, a filigree stud with green paste, bronze buckles and a pair of shoe- 

 shaped rivets. The spoon may be compared with those from Chatham, 

 Bifrons and Sarre. 



In the Pagan period, some fourteen centuries ago, the low-lying 

 ground drained by the Stour and its tributaries can have been little more 

 than a swamp ; but one important site stands well within that area, on 

 the road between Canterbury and Ramsgate, this route having evidently 

 been in use at the date in question. The village and neighbourhood of 

 Sarre have proved most prolific in antiquities of the early Anglo-Saxon 

 period, and valuable jewellery has been recovered from time to time. 

 One of the richest finds is now in the national collection and has been 

 well published.' The discovery took place in i860, 6 feet below the 

 surface of chalk land, where a grave had been cut, the skeleton lying 

 with the head to the north-west. A fine jewelled brooch of circular 

 form, 2| inches across, lay on the left breast, and closely resembles 

 two found at Abingdon, Berks (now in the British and Ashmolean 

 Museums) : it has one large central boss of pearl surrounded by four 

 smaller bosses, all surrounded by garnet cell-work, on a gold filigree 

 ground, A bronze bowl of the usual pattern with openwork foot, but 

 of unusual dimensions, contained bones, but these were doubtless of 

 animals and do not point to cremation. The necklace consisted of coloured 

 glass beads with a central pendant of mosaic glass (pi. i. fig. 5), and four 

 looped gold coins of the emperors Mauricius Tiberius (d. 602) and 

 Heraclius (d. 641), with one of Chlotaire II., King of the Franks 

 (d. 628). These were all barbarous imitations of the solidus, but serve 

 to date the burial between 613 and about 650 a.d. Besides a few 

 minor objects there was an iron object in the grave which was described 



1 Arch, xxxvi. pi. xvi. pp. 179-81 ; Horae Ferales, pi. xxviii. figs. 7, 8 (coloured). 

 ' Arch. Cant. iii. plates ii. iii. iv. ; Gent. Mag. Nov. i860, vol. 155, p. 533 ; Numismatic Chronicle, 

 new ser. vol. i. (1861) p. 58, pi. iii. 



357 



