Archceologia. 223 



ARCHIE OLOGIA. 



Among several discoveries of Anglo-Saxon cemeteries announced 

 within the last few weeks, one appears to present some features of 

 special interest. In the parish of Woodstone, within a mile of the 

 city of Peterborough, a spot was dug for the purpose of obtaining 

 gravel, in the course of which operation about twenty skeletons 

 were disinterred, accompanied with the usual objects found in the 

 Anglo-Saxon cemeteries, especially within the limits of East Anglia. 

 Among these are to be remarked the cruciform fibulas, of which there 

 were a certain number, but of rather plain design. Among the 

 circular fibulas some were saucer-shaped, a class which is now con- 

 sidered to have been peculiar to the West Saxons, and therefore 

 the circumstance of finding them in a cemetery in the neighbour- 

 hood of Peterborough is worthy of remark. Other round fibulas 

 were mere round plates of bronze, but with simple and rather 

 peculiar ornament, with hinges on the reverse side. Bosses of 

 shields, small spear-heads, and knives, were found in abundance, but 

 not a single example of the long sword. Among other objects were 

 several small buckles, and many beads in amber, earthenware, and 

 glass, the latter chiefly green and blue. We have often had occasion 

 to remark, that among our early Anglo-Saxon forefathers beads 

 were worn by the men equally with the women, and we have found 

 more than once a regular necklace round a man's neck. Perhaps 

 they were considered as carrying with them something of dignity, 

 as well as being objects of finery. We are informed that in one 

 case, in the cemetery found at Woodstone, a string of beads was 

 suspended across the bosom, one end attached to a fibula on each 

 breast. The bodies appear to have been all interred entire, whereas 

 cremation and urn-burial appear more usually to have prevailed 

 among the Angles. They lay for the most part east and west, but 

 some lay exactly north and south. Two urns of earthenware were 

 found, but they were plain, and without ornament or pattern. 



The exploration of the Tbeveneage Cave, near Penzance, has 

 been concluded for the present ; chiefly, we fear, because the funds 

 in hand were expended. Among the miscellaneous objects last 

 turned up was an earthenware spindle- whorl, an object much more 

 rarely found of this material than of stone. It resembles, in 

 appearance and size, one of similar material figured in Sir John 

 Lubbock's Pre-Mstoric Times, which came from a Swiss Lake-dwell- 

 ing. Many more fragments of pottery also have been found, but 

 not a sufficient number of any one suite to form a complete vessel, 

 though the shape of three have been tolerably well determined by 

 the fragments. One of these, about nine inches in its greatest 

 diameter, made of fine light brown clay, highly finished on the 

 wheel, and glazed black without, is evidently Roman. The second, 

 which is fifteen inches high, of rather coarse clay, and also wheel- 

 formed, is of a form which is not very characteristic of a period, 

 but appears to be copied from Roman. The third, which is glazed 

 black on both sides, suggests strongly the notion of Anglo-Saxon. 



