A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE having been found here at various periods, but especially in the spring of 1847. . . . Many perfect skeletons had apparently been interred with great regularity, and nine or ten were thus disclosed, but scores were noticed. There was no appearance of heaped earth. In some cases the face was placed downwards, others on the side, and three were headless, these last having stones in place of the head ; and at the foot of one was a Druidical drinking cup. Spearheads, daggers and portions of other warlike implements, necklaces and ornaments were found near some of the skeletons. In 1866 while gravel was being dug on the same site six complete skeletons and an iron dagger were found, also two stone coffins which were preserved in the church and church- yard. The direction in which the graves were cut is nowhere stated ; but as in Anglo-Saxon burials the skeletons usually lie face upwards, those placed otherwise may perhaps on this site be considered the remains of Britons of a much earlier date ; the ' Druidical ' cup, probably the ' drinking cup ' commonly found in barrows, lending some support to this view. From the regularity of some of the burials however, and the relics discovered, it is permissible to infer an early Anglo-Saxon occupation of the site, and its proximity to Ecton, Islip and Cransley may be held to justify the inclusion of this cemetery among those in which the Christian orientation is observed. The same may per- haps be said of Twywell, only two miles distant from both Islip and Great Addington. In the middle of the eighteenth century an entire human skeleton was found on the north side of the road from Thrapston to Market Harborough, with a spear and what is described as an iron helmet.^ This was no doubt the boss of the shield which had been placed on the head of the deceased warrior as at Holdenby ; but nothing is said of the direction of the grave, and the inclusion of this site in the group now under consideration is therefore conjectural. A remarkable jug-shaped urn* in which cremated remains had been deposited, may here be noticed. It was found in 1883 near the road from Ringstead to Great Addington, 6 feet deep in blue lias clay, on a hill overlooking the Nene, and differs from the usual cinerary urns of the pagan period in form, decoration and fabric. Comparison with certain continental specimens shows it to be a relic of the early time when the great migrations of the Teutonic peoples were still in progress, and the English kingdoms had not yet taken shape. It is possible that this form was adopted by one only of the many tribes that left the Baltic for our eastern shores, as it certainly is not one that would readily occur to the potter ; and it is interesting to find that the Kabyle population of Algeria, who are said to preserve the Mykensan tradition, still have vessels exhibiting the same peculiarity, namely, a perforated handle, serving also as a spout. The Addington specimen is 7I inches high with an extreme diameter of 7 inches, and most closely resembles one * > Whellan's Gazetteer of Northants (1874), p. 741. * Gentleman's Magazine, 1757, p. 20. 3 Figured in Proceedings, Society of Antiquaries, vol. ix. p. 322.
- J. H. Muller, A'or- und friihgeschichtliche Altertumer der frovinz Hannover, pi. xxl. fig. 200.
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