25 
beneath the head of the third skeleton; the jaws of a boar, the antlers 
of a deer, the tooth of a horse and the bones of other animals were 
found in different parts of the tumulus. Mr. Procter concluded from 
the various indications offered by these remains, that the tumulus was 
neither British nor Roman but Saxon. The boss of the shield was 
decidedly indicative of a Teutonic tribe; the spear and the dagger 
are the usual accompaniments of a Saxon interment, as seen in the 
Driffield graves opened by the Antiquarian Club. It is true the 
pottery and the coins are Roman, but the Saxons at this time 
generally used the Roman pottery, and Roman and Byzantine coins 
are frequently found in graves, which other circumstances prove 
to be Saxon. The presence of the bones of animals is an indication of 
the feasts which our pagan ancestors celebrated over the graves of 
their dead. The Germans, as we learn from Tacitus, committed the 
warrior s horse along with his own body, to the flames. The Sowerby 
tumulus presented traces both of cremation and interment, and Mr. 
Procter was therefore disposed to refer it to the sixth or seventh 
century, when cremation, which had been the general practice of the 
Saxons, began to give way to interment, as practised by the Christians 
and later Romans. The remains found in the tumulus by Lady 
Frankland Russell and the Yorkshire Antiquarian Club, have been 
presented to the Society, and will be placed in its Museum, beside 
the similar objects derived from the Driffield graves. 
c 
