307 



CYPR^A PANTHERINA (Solander MS.), Dillwyn, 

 IN SAXON GRAVES. 



By J. WILFRID JACKSON, F.G.S. 



(Read before the Society, January loth, 1912). 



With reference to Mr. Tomlin's recent note on the finding of a 

 CyprcBii tigris in prehistoric pit-dweUings at St. Mary Bourne, Hants, 

 (ante p. 251), it may be of interest to call attention to the fact of 

 Cowries having been met with in Saxon graves in this country. 



In Faussett's "Inventorium Sepulchrale," (1856), several records 

 are given of the finding of Cowries associated with various other 

 objects in Saxon women's graves, excavated on Kingston Down 

 (pp. 68 and 92), and Sibertswold Down (p. 133) in Kent. In each 

 case the shell is referred to as Coficka veneris, but the species is not 

 defined. Another specimen of evidently the same form appears to 

 have been met with in a grave near Wingham, Kent (see " Archseo- 

 logia," vol. 30, p. 551). 



In a footnote to one of the Kingston Down specimens (p. 68), the 

 editor (Mr. Charles Roach Smith) states: — "This is one of the 

 large Indian Cowries, classed by Linngeus under the generic name 

 of Cyprcea. They were brought from the east by the Romans, and 

 together with other kinds of Indian shells, are not infrequently found 

 with Roman remains. The more beautiful kinds of sea-shells have, 

 doubtless from remote antiquity, been often used as personal orna- 

 ments, and as amulets, and hoarded as objects of curiosity. In Africa, 

 the small Cowries are at the present day used as a medium of traffic. 

 Douglas, who has engraved this very shell, classes it with the 

 Ithyphallica of the ancients, and refers to the use of shells by the 

 Romans, and by the lower class in the neighbourhood of Naples at 

 the present day as amulets and charms. These customs are well 

 known ; but they do not seem to explain the presence of the Indian 

 shell in the Saxon grave, which may probably be more simply and 

 naturally accounted for by viewing it as an ornament, either personal 

 or domestic." 



The two examples from the Kingston Down graves are in the 

 " Mayer Collection " at the Liverpool Public Museum, and whilst on 

 a visit there recently, I examined the specimens, and found them to 

 be referable to the well-known Red Sea form, Cyprcea pantherina 

 (Sol.), Dill. 



