A HISTORY OF KENT 



black, one at the feet, it is clear they were merely accessory, and 

 not cinerary, vessels. It may be added that a pair of bronze brooches 

 found at Horton Kirby, and now in the Kent Archaeological Society's 

 collection at Maidstone, belong to the saucer type, which seems practic- 

 ally confined to the West Saxon area. Another pair from the King's 

 Field, Faversham, are in the same collection ;' others from this site and 

 one said to be from Dover are in the British Museum. 



Further up the valley of the Darenth, one of the most interesting 

 relics of the early Anglo-Saxon period was discovered in i860 by 

 labourers digging for brick-earth near the railway north of Lulling- 

 stone, and is now in the possession of Sir Wm. Hart Dyke. It consists 

 of a bronze bowl' 10 inches in diameter, with various bronze ornaments 

 attached to the outside ' and was associated with human skulls and 

 bones, as well as fragments of iron and pottery. The profile closely 

 resembles that of the bowl found in Lochar Moss, Dumfriesshire, con- 

 taining a beaded collar of Late Celtic work, and similar bowls are 

 known from Ireland as well as from South Britain. The four discs 

 which serve to attach the chain-hooks to the outside of the bowl are 

 ornamented with the Celtic trumpet pattern ; and several discoveries 

 of the kind seem to show that native British art was not entirely sup- 

 pressed, even in Kent, by four centuries of Roman domination. The 

 exact date of the Lullingstone and similar bowls cannot at present be 

 determined, but the cruciform character' of the openwork disc outside 

 the bottom of the bowl may well be due to Christian influence ; and 

 the stag-like animals resemble in style the symbol of St. Luke in the 

 Book of Durrow,* an Irish illuminated MS. attributed to the seventh 

 century, but probably later. 



An interesting group of grave-mounds (barrows or tumult) can still 

 be seen in Greenwich Park' south-west of the Observatory, and the 

 depressions at their summit show that the excavator has been at work. 

 The footpath that now runs through them is at a mean distance of 

 100 yards north of the reservoir, for which twelve other grave-mounds 

 were cleared away, but on representations from the Archaeological 

 Institute" and at a sacrifice of ^^850, the present site (SE. of the existing 

 group) was substituted in 1844. Fifty had been thoroughly explored 

 by Rev. James Douglas' in 1784, but comparatively few relics were 

 recovered. The graves were shallow, being in the gravel about 18 inches 

 below the original surface, and the decayed remains of coffins were 

 noticed. Iron knives, a shield-boss, and spear-heads measuring 10 and 

 15 inches, were taken from some of the graves, others evidently being 

 those of women, and containing well-preserved locks of hair as well as 

 linen and woollen fabric. 



« Proc. Soc. Antiq. Land. xv. 123. 



» Arch. Cant. iii. pi. i. p. 44 ; Proc. Soc. Antiq. and ser. i. 187 ; Archaeologia, Ivi. 41. 

 3 Compare the Kingston bowls {Inv. Sep. pi. xvi. figs. 6, 8 : grave 205), but the cross is not alto- 

 gether convincing. 



« Westwood, Facsimiles, etc., pi. v. p. 22. s pjan in Arch. Cant. xiii. 15. 



• Journal, i. 166, 168, 249. ' Nen. Brit. 89, 56 (note). 



378 



