A HISTORY OF KENT 



already mentioned. A green glass cup with pointed base and spreading 

 lip, a finger-ring of silver wire with a spiral coil as bezel, and a debased 

 example of the radiated brooch with diamond-shaped foot accompanied 

 a crystal sphere with silver mounts and two loops. Among the Roman 

 coins was one of Valentinian II. (375—92). The northern position of 

 the head was the rule in this cemetery, and the following four graves 

 [Nen. Brit. pis. vii. viii. xv.) contained skeletons so placed. The 

 first contained brooches almost identical with those in a female grave 

 with head south already referred to, of eminently Jutish appearance, 

 while several bronze tubes of oval section belong to a not uncommon 

 type, but are of unknown use. The second included what is described 

 as a bow-brace, but was probably the handle of a shield with extensions 

 to the circumference of the disc ; but it must be added that arrow-heads 

 are stated to have been found in these mounds. Another grave was that 

 of a young subject, including a necklace of beads and a fine jewelled 

 brooch of the keystone variety (as pi. i.fig. 4) ; and the fourth was regarded 

 as a companion grave to one containing nothing but pure Roman orna- 

 ments and pointing also north and south. Its contents, however, cannot 

 be mistaken, and the small square-headed brooch with diamond design 

 on the foot, the white-metal studs of shoe pattern, and the woven gold 

 thread are all familiar in female graves, though the radiated brooch in 

 this case was of the continental type, rare in this country. A few Roman 

 objects were found in other graves, and among the coins was one 

 ascribed to Valentinian III. (d. 455). Bottles and vases of undoubted 

 Roman ware occurred in the Chatham grave-mounds, but only one 

 urn,^ which was found with a skeleton, at all resembled the cinerary 

 urns found in the Anglian parts of England. 



Mr. Geo. Payne superintended the excavation of several graves in 

 1892 at Watts' Avenue," on the south side of Rochester, near St. 

 Margaret's Church. The bodies had been placed in cists cut in the 

 chalk, all with the head at the west end of the grave ; and it was 

 observed that most were females. The customary iron knife was found 

 with most, but little else of note with the exception of a gold kite- 

 shaped pendant set with a carbuncle. Forty years before this discovery, 

 twenty skeletons had been brought to light during excavations for 

 cottages on Star Hill, Eastgate.' Five spear-heads were recovered, also 

 a bronze bracelet of Roman work, an oblong bronze-gilt buckle-plate 

 set with garnet and engraved with the usual animal design, a keystone 

 brooch of ordinary type, and a number of beads. 



An iron spear-head and knives found 7 feet deep with a skeleton 

 between Strood and Temple Farm in 1846 were preserved by the late 

 Mr. Humphrey Wickham, ' and the skull examined by Dr. Davis, who 

 pronounced it that of a man about sixty years of age." Six years later a 



' Nen. Brit. pi. xxiii. fig. i, p. 93 ; a bottle is given as fig. 2, 



* Coll. Cant. p. 121 : a few objects in the British Museum. 



' Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc, ix. 408 (4 figs.). * Ibid. ii. 192. 



» Coll. Antiq. v. 136. 



376 



