Page:VCH Norfolk 1.djvu/409

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS Threxton.' This is of circular form, having in the centre an engraved lozenge with incurved sides branching into knotwork that occupies the field. It probably dates from the eighth century, but there is no descrip- tion of the silver coins found with a sword at Reepham.* Passing now to later times, we have to inquire whether any Danish relics have been found in this part of East Anglia, which belonged to the Danelagh and was in fact the earliest Danish kingdom. It may be inferred from certain social indications 'that Guthrum's Danes did not, like their northern kindred, drive out a portion of the earlier population and estab- lish themselves as a superior class above the remainder, but settled amongst the original East Anglians on a footing of comparative equality.' ' This view is supported by an examination of physical traits in the population of Norfolk. There is, according to Dr. Beddoe,* sufficient evidence to show that this region was very densely settled by a population almost exclusively Teutonic ; that is to say, it is more Anglian than either Danish or British, though a Scandinavian district is marked not only by the local place-names but also by a remarkably tall blonde race occupying the hundreds of Flegg in the north-east of the county. Christianized through Alfred's influence, the Danes have left us little in their graves, but one or two interesting finds of this period have occurred in other parts of the county. 'During the course of the year 1867 some men employed in raising gravel at Santon, found a skeleton laid at full length about two feet below the surface. The spot where the burial had taken place is on the slope of the hill to the north of the church, and at no great distance from the river Ouse.' With the skeleton were found an iron sword, afterwards presented to the British Museum by Rev. W. Weller Foley, and two characteristic Scandinavian brooches (fig. 12), also in the national collec- tion by the gift of Mrs. Weller Foley and Rev. Canon Greenwell. The shape and ornamentation of the brooches leave no doubt of their origin, as specimens of the type are often found in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, and occasionally in the British Isles. Canon Greenwell, who contributed a complete account of this discovery to the Proceedings of the local archxological society," brings together for comparison a number of similar instances from Orkney, Caithness, Sangay or Sanderay near Harris, the Isle of Barra in the Hebrides, and Islay in North Britain ; from the neighbourhoods of Garstang, Lanes, and Bedale, Yorks. ; and from Fhoenix Park, Dublin. To these may be added several found on the mainland and islands of Scotland, which have been brought together in a lecture* on ' Viking Burials ' by Dr. Joseph Anderson of Edinburgh. » Vorfolk Archieologj, vol. iv. p. 363, and p. 358, fig. 5 ; Roach Smith's Colkctanea Ant'tqua, vol. iii. p. 209.

  • Journal of Archteohgical Institute, vol. xxvi. p. 364.

^ Robertson's Scotland under her early Kings, vol. ii. pp. 435, 240.

  • Races of Britain, pp. 64, 254.

^ Bury and West Suffolk Jrchaoloffcal Society, vol. iv. (1874) p. 208, where one of the brooches is figured.

  • Scotland in Pagan Times (Iron Age), chap. i.

347