His request was carried out, the funeral pile raised, and every preparation befitting his deeds was made. The pile was—

The body of the hero having been consumed by the wood-fire, in the midst of weeping friends, the people began to raise the barrow over his ashes. This mound—

When the burial was simply by inhumation, the body appears usually to have been placed in a shallow grave, over which the mound was raised. The graves were of rectangular form, and of various depths. On the floor of the grave or pit the body was laid flat on its back, the arms straight down by its sides, the hands resting on the pelvis, and the feet close together. It was buried in full dress, and surrounded by a number of articles pertaining to the deceased—both personal ornaments, domestic instruments and vessels, and other things—and that had been used or valued by him or her. Sometimes the body was enclosed in a wooden chest or coffin before being placed in the grave. The grave, in either of these cases, was then filled in—usually with a tempered or “puddled” earth, which formed a close and extremely compact mass—and the mound raised over it. This mound or hillock was called a hlœw, or a beorh, beorgh, or bearw, from the first of which the name now commonly used, low, is derived, and from the last the equally common name barrow originates.

With the females, necklaces, rings, ear-rings, brooches, chatelaines, keys, buckets, caskets, beads, combs, pins, needles, bracelets, thread-boxes, tumblers, and a variety of other articles were found. With the males, swords, spears, knives, shields, buckles, brooches, querns, draught-men, etc., etc., are found. The warrior was usually laid, in his full dress, flat on his back (as already spoken of); his spears lying on his right side, his sword and knife on his left, and his shield laid on the centre of his body. The accompanying engraving (fig. 325) of a grave opened by the late Mr. Bateman, on Lapwing Hill, will pretty tolerably illustrate this mode of Anglo-Saxon burial. Beneath the bones of the skeleton were “traces of light-coloured hair, as if from a hide, resting upon a considerable quantity of decayed wood, indicating a plank of some thickness, or the bottom of a coffin. At the left of the body was a long and broad iron sword, enclosed in a sheath made of thin wood covered with ornamental leather. Under or by the hilt of the sword was a short iron knife, and a little way above the right shoulder were two small javelin heads, four and a half inches long, of the same metal, which had lain so near each other as to become united by corrosion. Among the stones which filled the grave, and about a foot from the bottom, were many objects of corroded iron, including nine loops of hoop iron (as shown in the engraving) about an inch broad, which had been fixed to thick wood by long nails; eight staples, or eyes, which had been driven through a plank, and clenched; and one or two other objects of more uncertain application, all which were dispersed at intervals round the corpse throughout the length of the grave, and which may therefore have been attached to a bier or coffin in which the deceased was conveyed to the grave from some distant place. Indications existed of the shield having been placed in its usual position over the centre of the body, but no umbone was in this instance found. The mounds are usually, as in this instance, very low, frequently not being raised more than a foot above the natural surface of the ground. The earth was, as I have stated, usually “puddled” or tempered with water, and thus the body in the grave became closely imbedded in a compact and tenacious mass.”

That the tempering, or puddling, was accompanied with some corrosive preparation, there can be little doubt; for it is a fact, though a very remarkable one, that whilst the skeletons of the Celtic period are found in good condition, and in some instances perfect and sound, those of the Anglo-Saxons have, almost invariably, entirely disappeared. Thus, in a Celtic barrow, the primary interment of that period may be found in perfect condition, while the secondary interment, that of the Anglo-Saxon, although some centuries later in date, and some three or four feet nearer the surface, will have decayed away and completely disappeared. Thus, in a barrow at Wyaston, which had been raised over the body of a Saxon lady, every indication of the body had disappeared, with the exception of the enamel coating of the teeth, while a splendid necklace of beads, a silver ring, silver ear-rings, and a silver brooch or fibula, remained in situ where the flesh and bones had once been. Another instance (to which I shall have occasion again to allude) which may be named, was the barrow at Benty Grange—a mound not more than two feet in elevation, but of considerable dimensions, and surrounded by a small fosse or trench, raised over the remains of a Saxon of high rank. In this mound, although a curious and unique helmet, the silver mountings of a leather drinking-cup, some highly interesting and beautiful enamelled ornaments, and other objects, as well as indications of the garments, remained, not a vestige of the body, with the exception of some of the hair, was to be seen. The lovely and delicate form of the female and the form of the stalwart warrior or noble had alike returned to their parent earth, leaving no trace behind, save the enamel of her teeth and traces of his hair alone, while the ornaments they wore and took pride in, and the surroundings of their stations, remained to tell their tale at this distant date. In a barrow at Tissington, in which the primary (Celtic) interment was perfect, the later Saxon one had entirely disappeared, while the sword and umbone of the shield remained as they had been placed.

The mode of interment with the funeral fire, as well as the raising of the barrow, is curiously illustrated by the opening of two Saxon graves at Winster. A large wood fire had, apparently, been made upon the natural surface of the ground. In this a part of the stones to be used for covering the body, and some of the weapons of the deceased, were burned. After the fire was exhausted the body was laid on the spot where it had been kindled, the spear, sword, or what not, placed about it, and the stones which had been burnt piled over it. The soil was then heaped up to the required height to form the mound.

Usually, of course, the graves contain only one body, but instances occasionally occur in which two or more bodies have been buried at the same time. For instance, at Ozengal a grave has been opened which was found to contain two skeletons. They were those of a man and a woman who were laid close together, side by side, with their faces to each other. In another were three skeletons, those of a man, a woman, and a little girl. The lady lay in the middle, her husband on her right hand, and their little daughter on her left; they lay arm in arm. In other cases two or more interments have been found, usually lying side by side, on their backs.

In many Anglo-Saxon barrows, bones, thrown in indiscriminate heaps or otherwise, are found at the top, over the original interments. These are, very plausibly, conjectured to be the remains of slaves or captives slain at the funeral, and thrown on the graves of their master or mistress.

When the burial has been by cremation, the ashes, after the burning of the body which is so graphically described in the extract I have given from Beowulf, were collected together and placed in urns. These were usually buried in small graves, and their mouths not unfrequently covered with flat stones. Some very extensive cemeteries where the burials have been by this mode, have been discovered in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire, and other counties. With these it is very unusual to find any remains of personal ornaments or weapons. Two extensive and remarkable cemeteries of this kind have been discovered at Kingston and at King’s Newton, both near Derby. At the first of these places an extensive cemetery was uncovered in 1844, and resulted in the exhumation of a large number of urns—indeed, so large a number that, unfortunately, at least two hundred were totally destroyed by the workmen before the fact of the discovery became known. On the surface no indication of burials existed; but as the ground had, some sixty years before, for a long period been under plough cultivation, and as the mounds would originally have been very low, this is not remarkable. The urns had been placed on the ground in shallow pits or trenches. They were filled with burnt bones, and the mouth of each had been covered with a flat stone. They were, when found, close to the surface, so that the mounds could only have been slightly elevated when first formed. Of the form of the urns I shall have to speak later on. The cemetery at King’s Newton was discovered during the autumn of 1867, and a large number of fragmentary urns were exhumed. The mode of interment was precisely similar to that at Kingston, and the urns were of the same character as those there discovered. There were no traces, in either instance, of mounds having been raised, although most probably they had originally existed. To the pottery found in these cemeteries I shall refer later on. Cremation was the predominating practice among the Angles, including Mercia, and the modes of burning the body, and of interment of the calcined bones in ornamental urns, which I have described in the two cemeteries just spoken of, are characteristic of that kingdom. King’s Newton is within three miles of Repton (Repandune), the capital of the kingdom of Mercia, and the burial place of Mercian kings, and Kingston is also but a few miles distant.

In some cases the burial has been without urns—the ashes being simply gathered together in a small heap in the grave, or on the surface, and the mound raised over it.

I will now, as in the previous divisions, proceed to speak of the more usual descriptions of relics which are found in the grave-mounds of the Anglo-Saxons, and I will, as in those divisions, commence with the fictile remains.

CHAPTER XII.

Anglo-Saxon Period—Pottery, general characteristics of—Cinerary Urns—Saxon Urn with Roman Inscription—Frankish and other Urns—Cemeteries at King’s Newton, etc.—Mode of Manufacture—Impressed Ornaments.

The pottery of the Anglo-Saxon period, so far as examples have come down to us, are almost, if not entirely, confined to sepulchral urns. We know, from the illuminated MSS. of the period, to which we are accustomed to turn for information upon almost any point, that other vessels—pitchers, dishes, etc.—were made and used, but for those which have come down to us we are indebted to the grave-mounds; and, in these, sepulchral vessels, almost exclusively, are found to occur. Cinerary urns are, therefore, almost the only known productions of the Saxon potteries, and these, like those of the Celtic period, were doubtless, in most cases, made near the spot where the burial took place, and were formed of the clays of the neighbourhood. This is proved, incontestably, in the case of the urns found at King’s Newton, where the bed of clay still exists, and has very recently been used for common pottery purposes.

The shapes of the cinerary urns are somewhat peculiar, and partake largely of the Frankish form. Instead of being wide at the mouth, like the Celtic urns, they are contracted, and have a kind of neck instead of the overhanging lip or rim which characterizes so much of the sepulchral pottery of that period. The urns are formed by hand, not on the wheel, like so many of the Romano-British period, and they are, as a rule, perhaps, more firmly fired than the Celtic ones. They are usually of a dark-coloured clay, sometimes nearly black, at other times they are dark brown, and occasionally of a slate or greenish tint, produced by surface colouring. The general form of these interesting fictile vessels will be best understood by reference to the engravings which follow. One of these (on fig. 326) will be seen to have projecting knobs or bosses, which have been formed by simply pressing out the pliant clay from the inside with the hand. In other examples these raised bosses take the form of ribs gradually swelling out from the bottom, till, at the top they expand into semi-egg-shaped protuberances. The ornamentation on the urns from these cemeteries usually consists of encircling incised lines in bands or otherwise, and vertical or zigzag lines arranged in a variety of ways, and not unfrequently the knobs or protuberances of which I have just spoken. Sometimes, also, they present evident attempts at imitation of the Roman egg-and-tongue ornament. The marked features of the pottery of this period are the frequency of small punctured or impressed ornaments, which are introduced along with the lines or bands with very good effect. These ornaments were evidently produced by the end of a stick cut and notched across in different directions so as to produce crosses and other patterns. In some districts—especially in the East Angles—these vessels are ornamented with simple patterns painted upon their surface in white; but so far as my knowledge goes, no example of this kind of decoration has been found in the Mercian cemeteries.

Of these urns—the East Anglian, etc.—Mr. Wright (to whom, and to Mr. Roach Smith, is mainly due the credit of having correctly appropriated them to the Anglo-Saxon period), thus speaks:—

“The pottery is usually made of a rather dark clay, coloured outside brown or dark slate colour, which has sometimes a tint of green, and is sometimes black. These urns appear often to have been made with the hand, without the employment of the lathe; the texture of the clay is rather coarse, and they are rarely well baked. The favourite ornaments are bands of parallel lines encircling the vessel, or vertical and zigzags, sometimes arranged in small bands, and sometimes on a larger scale covering half the elevation of the urn; and in this latter case the spaces are filled up with small circles and crosses, and other marks, stamped or painted in white. Other ornaments are met with, some of which are evidently unskilful attempts at imitating the well-known egg-and-tongue and other ornaments of the Roman Samian ware, which, from the specimens, and even fragments, found in their graves, appear to have been much admired and valued by the Anglo-Saxons. But a still more characteristic peculiarity of the pottery of the Anglo-Saxon burial urns consists in raised knobs or bosses, arranged symmetrically round them, and sometimes forming a sort of ribs, while in the ruder examples they become mere round lumps, or even present only a slight swelling of the surface of the vessel.

“That these vessels belong to the early Anglo-Saxon period is proved beyond any doubt by the various objects, such as arms, personal ornaments, etc., which are found with them, and they present evident imitations both of Roman forms and of Roman ornamentation. But one of these urns has been found accompanied with remarkable circumstances, which not only show its relative date, but illustrate a fact in the ethnological history of this early period. Among the Faussett collection of Anglo-Saxon antiquities is an urn which Bryan Faussett appears to have obtained from North Elmham, in Norfolk, and which contained the bones of a child. It is represented in the accompanying engraving (fig. 327), and will be seen at once to be perfectly identical in character with the East Anglian sepulchral urns. But Mr. Roach Smith, in examining the various objects in the Faussett collection, preparatory to his edition of Bryan Faussett’s ‘Inventorum Sepulchrale,’ discovered on one side of this urn a Roman sepulchral inscription, which is easily read as follows:—

To this Roman girl, with a purely Roman name, belonged, no doubt, the few bones which were found in the Anglo-Saxon burial urn when Bryan Faussett received it, and this circumstance illustrates several important as well as interesting questions relating to our early history. It proves, in the first place, what no judicious historian now doubts, that the Roman population remained in the island after the withdrawal of the Roman power, and mixed with the Anglo-Saxon conquerors; that they continued to retain for some time at least their old manners and language, and even their Paganism and their burial ceremonies, for this is the purely Roman form of sepulchral inscriptions; and that, with their own ceremonies, they buried in the common cemetery of the new Anglo-Saxon possessors of the land, for this urn was found in an Anglo-Saxon burial ground. This last circumstance had already been suspected by antiquaries, for traces of Roman interment in the well-known Roman leaden coffins had been found in the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Ozingell, in the Isle of Thanet; and other similar discoveries have, I believe, been made elsewhere. The fact of this Roman inscription on an Anglo-Saxon burial urn, found immediately in the district of the Anglo-Saxon cemeteries, which have produced so many of these East Anglian urns, proves further that these urns belong to a period following immediately upon the close of what we call the Roman period.”

The sepulchral vases found in the district of the middle Angles vary but slightly in form from the East Anglian burial urns. An example is given in fig. 328, from Chestersovers, in Warwickshire, where it was found with an iron sword, a spear-head, and other articles of Anglo-Saxon character.

“If we had not abundant proofs of the Anglo-Saxon character of this pottery at home,” continues Mr. Wright, “we should find sufficient evidences of it among the remains of the kindred tribes on the Continent, the old Germans, or Alemanni, and the Franks. Some years ago an early cemetery, belonging to the Germans, or Alemanni, who then occupied the banks of the Upper Rhine, was discovered near a hamlet called Selzen, on the northern bank of that river, not far above Mayence, and the rather numerous objects found in it are, I believe, preserved in the Mayence Museum. They were communicated to the public by the brothers Lindenschmit, in a well-illustrated volume published in 1848, under the title ‘Das Germanische Todtenlager bei Selzen in der Provinz Reinhessen.’ When this book appeared in England, our antiquaries were astonished to find in the objects discovered in the Alemannic cemeteries of the country bordering on the Rhine a character entirely identical with that of their own Anglo-Saxon antiquities, by which the close affinity of the two races was strikingly illustrated. More recently, the subject has been further illustrated in the description by Ludwig Lindenschmit of the collection of the national antiquities in the Ducal Museum of Hohenzollern, and in other publications. About the same time with the first labours of the Lindenschmits, a French antiquary, Dr. Rigollot, was calling attention in France to similar discoveries in the cemeteries which the Teutonic invaders of Picardy had left behind them, and in which he recognized the same character as that displayed by the similar remains of the Anglo-Saxons in our island. Similar discoveries have been made in Burgundy and in Switzerland, the ancient country of the Helvetii; and it is hardly necessary here to do more than mention the great and valuable researches carried on by the Abbé Cochet among the Frankish graves in Normandy. It has thus become an established fact that the varied remains of the tribes, all of Teutonic descent, who settled on the borders of the Roman empire along the whole extent of the country from Great Britain to Switzerland, present the same character and bear a close resemblance.”

A few figures will be sufficient to illustrate this resemblance as far as regards the pottery, and these are here given, in which figs. 330 and 332 are Alemannic vases from the cemetery of Selzen. It will be seen that they resemble exactly in form those East Anglian urns we have given in our plate, and the same ornamentation is also found among our Anglo-Saxon pottery. These urns are described as being usually made of the clay of the neighbourhood, in most cases turned on a lathe, but many of them imperfectly baked. They are found in graves where the body had not undergone cremation, and were used for containing articles of a miscellaneous description. In one grave, at the feet of the skeleton of a gigantic warrior, was found one of these urns, containing two bronze fibulæ, a comb, a number of beads, a pair of shears, flints and steel, and a bronze ring. Fig. 334 is an urn procured at Cologne, and is slate-coloured, with an ornament of circular stamps.

Figs. 331 and 333 are Frankish urns obtained by the Abbé Cochet from Londinières in Normandy, and show at a glance the identity of the Frankish pottery with the Germanic as well as with the Anglo-Saxon. The first of these is surrounded with a row of the well-known bosses, which are equally characteristic of the three divisions of this Teutonic pottery, Anglo-Saxon, Frankish, and Alemannic. Above these bosses is an ornament identical with that of the East Anglian urn with the sepulchral inscription, given on fig. 327. The urn represented in fig. 331 has an ornament which is evidently an imitation of the egg-and-tongue ornament so common on the Roman pottery. The Abbé Cochet collected in the course of his excavations in Normandy several hundreds of these Frankish urns, which all present the same general character.

The next four examples are earthen vessels found in the lacustrine habitations of Switzerland, of which so much has been written during the last few years. Figs. 335, 336, and 337, are taken from the plates illustrative of the communications of Dr. Ferdinand Keller to the Transactions of the Antiquarian Society of Zurich, and fig. 338, also from the Zurich Transactions, and found in a Pfahlbau, near Allensbach on the Untersee, on the borders of Switzerland and Germany. A single glance will show a great similarity of form with those of the Anglo-Saxons from our own country.

The following engravings will exhibit a striking variety of cinerary urns of the Anglo-Saxon period, from the Mercian cemetery at King’s Newton. Fig. 339 is six and a quarter inches in height. It is ornamented with encircling bands or lines and impressed ornaments. In the upper band is a series of small circular indentations, with a dot in the centre of each, and in the lower band are three rows of dots. Between these bands is a series of indented crosses, which may be described as in some degree approaching to crosses patée in form. At the bottom are also small square indentations, with diagonal lines. Fig. 342 is seven inches in height. It is ornamented with encircling lines, the central band bearing a double row of dots; the band at the bottom of the neck a series of small indented quatre-foil flowers; and the lower one a series of square indentations with diagonal lines. Fig. 341 is one of the most elaborately ornamented urns which has ever been discovered.51 The remainder of the examples vary from these and from each other, in point both of form and decoration. Some of these have herring-bone lines, others simple punctures, and others, again, encircling lines only. The marked features of the pottery of this period is the frequency of small punctured or impressed ornaments, which are introduced along with the lines or bands, with very good effect. These ornaments were evidently produced by the end of a stick, cut and notched across in different directions, so as to produce crosses and other patterns, and by twisted slips of metal, etc. In the annexed woodcut I have endeavoured to show two of the notched stick “punches,” such as I have reason to believe were used for pressing into the soft clay, and also two of the impressed patterns produced by it.

Other varieties of pottery found in the Anglo-Saxon graves are a species of cup, and upright vessels, one of which is shown on fig. 327. Fragments of pitchers have also occasionally been found, as also have portions of coarse dishes. In the Kentish graves, most of the pottery is of the Roman period, and consists of Samian pateræ and other vessels of that manufacture; and cups, etc., of the Upchurch and Castor wares, etc.

CHAPTER XIII.

Anglo-Saxon Period—Glass Vessels—Drinking-glasses—Tumblers—Ale-glasses—Beads—Necklaces—Ear-rings—Coins, etc.

The glass vessels found in the grave-mounds of the Anglo-Saxon period are principally drinking-cups of different forms, and decanter-shaped vessels, which are closely analogous in shape to our common glass toilet water-bottles. The Anglo-Saxons are supposed by most writers to have derived their knowledge of the art of glass-making from their Roman predecessors, but of this more proof is wanting. So very different in most of its characteristics is the Saxon glass from the Roman, that it is difficult to believe that the one is but an imitation of the other. The forms are in many instances similar to those found in Frankish graves, and it is certain that the art was practised simultaneously in the Saxon period in Germany, France, and our own country. The drinking-cups of glass were formed either rounded or pointed at the bottom, so that they could not stand, and thus when filled the liquor was obliged to be drunk off before the cup could be set down inverted on the table. From this circumstance our modern name for drinking-glasses—tumblers—takes its origin, although not now in the original sense, our present “tumblers” being particularly safe and firm when set on the table, and not necessitating the whole of the contents being quaffed at once. Figs. 353 and 354 exhibit two drinking-glasses of this kind, the first of which is ribbed. They are from the Kentish graves. Fig. 355 is a glass cup from Cow-Low, Derbyshire, found by the late Mr. Bateman, and which, from the care which had been taken in enclosing it in a wooden box, must have been no little prized by the deceased lady. The cup, of thick green glass, a bone comb, some small instruments of iron, a piece of perforated bone, and a necklace with pendant ornaments, with other articles, were found enclosed in a box, or casket, made of ash wood, half an inch in thickness, with two hinges and a small lock, which had, when placed in the grave, been carefully wrapped in woollen cloth. The interment was in many respects a highly interesting one. A cup of similar form is shown on fig. 358, and other examples of glasses are shown on the same group.

These examples, it will be seen, must have been held in the open palms of the hand, as is seen so frequently represented in illuminations, and must have been emptied of their contents before being returned, inverted, to the board.

Another form, figs. 356 and 357, is the long ale-glass, the shape of which is probably derived from the drinking-horns which were in use. They, and other of the Saxon glasses, were often ornamented with a raised thread or band on their outer surface, arranged either spirally or otherwise. In Beowulf these glasses are spoken of—

This form of glass is well illustrated in the next engraving, fig. 359, from a MS. of the twelfth century. In it the cup-bearer holds the glass in one hand and the jug in the other, from which he has just filled it. As an accompaniment to this I give another engraving, which shows the cellarer with the barrels and two large earthenware pitchers, which, it will be observed, are ornamented in precisely the same manner as some of the urns I have engraved. Another excellent example of the use of these glasses at a banquet is shown on fig. 361, where a mixed company of males and females are seated at a banquet, and pledging each other in them. It is from the Cottonian MSS. in the British Museum.

The next two figures (362 and 363) show two of the decanter-shaped vessels to which I have alluded, and figs. 364, 365, and 366 again exhibit a different variety—one in which the ornament is formed of a number of what may almost be called handles—hollow protuberances, or claws, attached at the upper and lower ends. Many specimens of these curious glasses have been found in graves in different districts.

Among the most profuse of Anglo-Saxon remains are the beads and necklaces of glass, of amber, and of other materials, many of which are of extreme beauty. The greater part of the beads which are found are composed of glass, transparent and opaque; variegated clays of different colours; and of amber. Less frequently beads of amethystine quartz, of crystal, and of other rare natural substances are found. Sometimes the beads are formed singly, and at other times they are in couplets or triplets. Beads of metal—gold and silver—and of stones set in the same precious metals, have also been exhumed. Beads mounted on rings, or, more properly speaking, threaded on rings, are of not unfrequent occurrence, and appear, in many instances, to have been intended for the ears. The three engravings (figs. 367, 368, and 369) will serve as examples of beads. The first, engraved full size, is of glass, and is ornamented with red, white, and yellow waves. The other two are of clay, with yellow stripes. They are from Sibertswold. The beads from the Kentish barrows are perhaps the most extensive in number, as well as the most varied in form, material, and ornamentation, of any. The next illustration (fig. 370) shows a series of twenty-seven beads, which formed the necklace of an Anglo-Saxon lady, whose grave was opened by Mr. Bateman at Wyaston. In this barrow, which was thirty-three feet in diameter, and four feet high in the centre, were discovered the remains of a human skeleton, consisting merely of the enamel crowns of the teeth, which, though themselves but scanty mementoes of female loveliness, were accompanied by several articles indicating that the deceased was not unaccustomed to add the ornaments of dress to the charms of nature. These comprise a handsome necklace of twenty-seven beads, a silver finger-ring, silver ear-rings, and a circular brooch or fibula. Five of the beads are of amber, carefully rounded into a globular shape, the largest an inch diameter; the remaining twenty-two (two of which are broken) are mostly small, and made of porcelain or opaque glass, very prettily variegated with blue, yellow, or red, on a white or red ground. The finger-ring is made of thick silver wire, twisted into an ornamental knot at the junction of the ends. The ear-rings are too slight and fragmentary for description. The fibula is a circular ring, ribbed on the front, an inch and a half diameter, composed of a doubtful substance. The remains of the teeth show the person to have been rather youthful, and afford another instance of the extreme decay of the skeleton usual in Saxon deposits in this part of the country, whilst those which we have reason to reckon centuries more ancient are mostly well preserved. Rings of silver, with cylindrical, or globular, or flattened beads attached, are of common occurrence in the Kentish and other graves. Of pendants I shall speak a little later on.

Coins have only occasionally been discovered with Anglo-Saxon interments, and these have, in most instances, been of the preceding Roman period. Byzantine, Frankish, and Merovingian coins have likewise been found in the graves. Coins, to which loops are attached, so as to be worn as personal ornaments, are also found.

CHAPTER XIV.

Anglo-Saxon Period—Arms—Swords—Knives—Spears—Shields—Umbones of Shields—Buckles—Helmets—Benty-Grange Tumulus—The Sacred Boar—Grave at Barlaston—Enamelled Discs and pendant Ornaments, etc.—Horse Shoes.

The arms of the Anglo-Saxons, so far as is known from the contents of their graves, consisted of swords, spears, knives, shields, daggers, etc., and occasionally with the men, besides these things, are found remains of helmets, ornaments from horse-trappings, buckles, axes, and many other articles.

The swords are straight-bladed, usually double-edged, with hilts of metal or wood. The scabbards were sometimes of wood, sometimes of leather, and sometimes again of bronze, and are often elaborately ornamented at the chape. The sword here engraved (fig. 372) was found in a barrow at Tissington, in Derbyshire. It had originally been enclosed in a wooden scabbard or sheath, which had apparently been covered with leather, and mounted with ornamented silver. Most of this ornamentation was decayed and lost, but sufficient remained to show that the sword had been of no ordinary beauty and value, and must have belonged to some person of note. The traces of silver ornamentation at the head are indicated on the engraving. The chape, which is simply rounded, is of silver, and the rivets still remain, as do also those by which the leather was attached to the wood. The sword is thirty-four inches in length, and two inches and a half in breadth. Across its upper part lay a small fragment of the shield, and near it, spread about, were a few pieces of iron, some of which, when joined together, proved to be a spear-head of the usual form of the period. It had doubtless been broken and disturbed at the time when the bones were dispersed by the planting of the trees.