A HISTORY OF KENT 



In the Isle of Thanet much of interest has been found from time 

 to time at Ozingell (Osengal) about 2 miles from Ramsgate. What 

 appears to have been a sword-knife ' 1 6| inches long with wooden handle, 

 iron tang and pommel was found in i 846 with a short knife, spear and 

 shield-boss in the grave of a warrior/ A bunch of Anglo-Saxon 

 keys,^ such as were often attached to a matron's girdle, were found with 

 brooches in a grave disturbed by railway excavations, and a radiated 

 brooch is published from this site' ; besides these a buckle of base silver 

 was found in a grave hard by at St. Lawrence/ Mr. Rolfe, of Sand- 

 wich, watched excavations here in 1846-7, and added several articles 

 to his own collection (afterwards transferred to Mr. Joseph Mayer) ; 

 but more satisfactory excavations are recorded by Roach Smith.* 

 These were conducted in 1845 on an open tract of down crossed by 

 the Canterbury road as well as by the Ramsgate and Deal railway, and 

 bounded on the west by low ground called Holland Bottom. 



From the nature of the case, very little systematic excavation could 

 be undertaken on the site, but a well-illustrated account of all the finds 

 then in Mr. Rolfe's possession was published in 1854. A plan of one out 

 of thirteen graves cut in the chalk and sometimes covered with sandstone 

 slabs shows that a round shield had been placed on the breast of the dead 

 warrior, a spear 6 feet long point upward on his right side, and an earthen- 

 ware bottle at the left shoulder ; while a knife and short sword lay at 

 the waist. Another grave, of unusual width, contained a male and female 

 adult and a child, evidently of one family. Beads of amber surrounded 

 the necks of the woman and child, and the dress of the former had 

 apparently been fastened in front by a long metal pin. Most of the 

 graves, however, contained single skeletons, and, to judge from the 

 weapons, all of the male sex. Spear-heads were numerous, and two iron 

 axe-heads were found, one being of the ' francisca ' type ; while three 

 double-edged swords of the ordinary dimensions were recovered. The 

 pottery comprised vases and bottles that in part betray Roman influence, 

 being quite distinct from the cinerary urns of Anglian districts, and some 

 dishes of the Gaulish red-ware were included, as elsewhere in Kent. A 

 conical ' tumbler ' of pale green glass exactly corresponds to one from 

 Kempston, Beds' ; and a pair of scales, with a series of weights composed 

 mostly of Roman coins, recalls similar discoveries at Gilton and Sarre, 

 though the marks on the weights hardly bring us nearer to a determin- 

 ation of the system then in use. A purse-guard belongs to a type more 

 frequent in France, and a chatelaine with keys is better preserved than 

 usual. The ornaments included two bronzes ' that look like brooches 

 without their heads and pins, of a type intermediate between the Roman 



> This and two others from- the cemetery are illustrated in Coll. Ant. ii. pi. Iviii. figs. 5, 6, 7. 



2 Joum. Brit. Arch. Assoc, ii. 338. 



3 Pagan Saxondom, pi. xxviii. fig. I ; brooch found in 1845, ibid. pi. sxxiv. fig. 6 ; and tab of girdle 

 pi. XXXV. fig. 7. 



* Joum. Brit. Arch. Assoc, iii. 246, 120. s Pag. Sax. pi. xxxix. fig. 5. 



« Coll. Ant. iii. p. I, plates 1-6 ; Joiirn. Brit. Arch. Assoc, i. 242-3 ; Davis and Thurnam, Crania 

 Britannica, vol. ii. 



■• y.C.H. Beds, i. 181, fig. 3. 8 Coll. Ant. iii. p. 17. 



362 



