A HISTORY OF KENT 



bronze balance and nineteen weights, chiefly in the form of Roman 

 imperial coins. Similar discoveries have been made at Gilton and 

 Ozingell, and are noticed elsewhere. In another grave were small 

 bronze rivets with the worm of the screw still apparent ; and elsewhere 

 were ring-brooches, two lobed beakers of brown glass, a jug of black 

 pottery, and a fine jewelled buckle with triangular plate covered by 

 interlaced filigree (as pi. ii. fig. 7) ; also a bowl on trivet in a soldier's 

 grave, and on a woman's skeleton gold braid of the kind mentioned 

 above but round the skull, and a gold bracteate of the same type as 

 before. More than one characteristic sword-pommel of the cocked- 

 hat shape was found, and chief among the brooches is a long square- 

 headed specimen, gilt and set with garnets, almost identical with one 

 found in the Prankish cemetery of Herpes, in the Charente. Mr. 

 John Brent was no doubt right in supposing that certain types of 

 the brooch, with garnet cell-work covering the entire front, signified 

 a comparatively early date ; and comparison with some in the 

 tomb of Childeric (d. 481) suggests the beginning of the sixth 

 century. One grave containing such a brooch had the head at the east 

 end, but nearly all in this cemetery were in the opposite direction, as 

 usual in Kent. 



The following year saw the conclusion of the work, 272 graves 

 having been opened. A second grave was found containing draughtsmen 

 or counters, and two dice ; fifteen of the total number of about forty 

 had a pair of holes in the flat side that have earned them the curious 

 name of pulley-beads, but were much more probably for fixing the bone 

 to the lathe-centre for turning. Similar specimens have been found in 

 Norfolk (Broome and Castle Acre) and Sussex (Alfriston). Unopened 

 oysters suggest that it was the custom to place food in the grave, and in 

 one grave as many as eighty clench-bolts were found which had perfor- 

 ated wood about three inches thick : similarly thick coffins were noticed 

 at Kingston and elsewhere. Oblong bronze plates^ from a belt in 

 grave 233 give a very fair representation of the quadruped used at this 

 time as a decorative motive in Anglo-Saxon art, but it needs a practised 

 eye to discern its limbs on some of the bracteates. A jewelled pyramid 

 (as pi. i. fig. 7) occurred with a sword and sheath in one grave as 

 at Broomfield, Essex." 



A summary of the excavations shows that about one grave in ten 

 contained a sword, one quarter of the total containing weapons, and 

 one-third of these graves contained swords. While there are certain 

 signs of early date, two sceattas' found together suggest that the cemetery 

 continued in use after 600, as these coins are not considered earlier than 

 the seventh century. 



With small square-headed brooches, bird and button brooches, and 

 silver earrings from Sarre, comes also a handsome specimen of silver- 



> Figured in Arch. Cant. vii. 313. 

 ' V.C.H. Essex, i. 320, where references are given, 

 s Figured by Rev. Daniel Haigh, Arch. Cant. viii. 171. 

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