FLOOR.] 
BRITISH AND MEDIEVAL ROOM. 
135 
the Heptarchy. They show that both burying and burning the 
dead were practised in England by the Saxons. 
Cases 76-80. On the upper shelves are black sepulchral urns, found 
chiefly in Norfolk and Suffolk. On the middle shelf, groups of an- 
tiquities discovered together in Anglo-Saxon cemeteries. On the lower 
shelf of these and the following Cases are antiquities discovered by 
Dr. Bahr in Livonia and Courland, of about the same age as the 
Saxon antiquities, and placed here for comparison. 
Cases 81-86. Various Saxon weapons, such as swords, spear-heads, 
and bosses of shields. A bucket of wood with bronze mountings. 
A bronze bucket, which was discovered at Hexham full of coins of the 
kings of Northumbria. 
In Table Case G are placed personal ornaments of various kinds, 
and a series of swords and spears discovered in the Thames. Among 
them a sword with a Runic alphabet. There is also a remarkable 
casket of whale's bone, with various subjects and Runic inscriptions, 
probably made in Northumbria in the 9th centuiy. 
EARLY CHRISTIAN COLLECTION. 
This is a small Collection occupying one end of Table Case 
G, and Case 17. Among the specimens are numerous lamps 
with the XP, crosses, and subjects from the Old and New 
Testaments. The most remarkable part of it, a number of 
pieces of glass vases with ornaments in gold leaf, discovered 
in the Catacombs of Rome, has been removed to the Glass 
Collection in. the Second Egyptian Room. 
In an upright Case P, in the centre of the room, are arranged 
caskets and ornaments of various kinds, found at Rome in 1793, and 
obtained with the Blacas Collection. 
MEDIEVAL COLLECTION. 
This Collection is arranged with reference partly to the 
material of which the objects are formed, partly to the use 
for which they were intended. 
Cases 88-97. Sculpture and Carving, in various materials, but 
chiefly in ivory, the specimens of which are arranged, as far as prac- 
ticable, in chronological order. The earlier examples are generally 
writing tablets or portions of the bindings of books. Those of the 13th, 
1 1th, and 15th centuries arc principally tablets for devotional purposes. 
The later carvings are of a miscellaneous character. 
In Table Case II are placed other specimens of Sculpture: on one 
