ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



are also a number of white bronze buckles of the heavy Gaulish pattern, 

 while the jewelled gold-plated buckles (pi. ii. fig. 7) and hair-pins with 

 heads in the form of birds are of rarer occurrence. The glass in the 

 Gibbs collection is particularly fine, and two typical pieces are illustrated 

 (see fig. 21, and No. 11, plate ii.), the colours 

 being dark blue, pale green, and olive ; and two 

 crystal spheres, the larger retaining its metal 

 mount and ring, belong to a type well known in 

 Kent but as yet unexplained. 



A richly furnished grave was discovered in 

 April 1894, near Teynham (see list). No parti- 

 culars of the excavations are forthcoming, but the 

 jewels tell their own tale. A bronze-gilt brooch 

 with a star centre set with garnets and blue glass 

 in gold and ivory (.?) was nearly 2 inches in 

 diameter. A gold pendant, looped and in perfect 

 condition, had a diameter of 1 inch, and was also 

 set with garnets and blue pastes, enclosed by 

 bands of a braided pattern. A similar pendant, 

 just over | inch in diameter, had a braided cross 

 in the centre with a ball of gold at each point, 

 but the field left plain. A ring of porphyritic 

 marble of the same size and threaded with a 

 silver wire may have been worn as an earring, a 

 similar ring being found in fragments.' 



Within a small area known as Huggen's 

 Fields, north-west of Sittingbourne church, re- 

 mains of various periods were found between the 

 years 1825 and 1828. They were described by 

 Rev. Wm. Vallance, and published by Mr. Roach 

 Smith, with additional remarks and a map of the 



excavations.^ A hoard of bronze implements in an urn and several 

 cineraries of the Bronze period showed that the place had been occupied 

 centuries before the Anglo-Saxons buried their dead here with the jewels 

 and weapons they had worn in their lifetime. 



Though the ground had not been ploughed within the memory of 

 man, there were no signs of grave-mounds, and the discovery was made 

 during excavations of brick-earth. Several articles of value were lost to 

 science, but among those collected were some of peculiar interest, even 

 in the absence of details as to the graves containing them. A circular 

 brooch, presented to the Dover Museum,' is a splendid example of the 

 Kentish type, the central design being a double star with four studs 



Olive-green Glass 

 Faversham (i). 



» Ptoc. Soc. Antiq. rv. 184. 



» Coll. Ant. i. 97, repeated in Canterbury vol. of Brit. Arch. Assoc. (1S44), p. 336; PajTie, Coll. 

 Cant. 103. 



' Coloured illustration in the Archaeological Album, pi. ii. and in Akerman's Pagan Saxondom, pi. 

 xxix. fig. 5 ; fig. 4 of the latter plate represents a bronze buckle from Sittingbourne, now in Dover 

 Museum. 



373 



