Page:VCH Bedfordshire 1.djvu/227

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ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS From the unburnt burials the brooches are the most interesting and instructive relics. They appear to have been found even in the graves of men at Kempston, 1 and were generally worn in pairs by the other sex. First must be mentioned two brooches which are undoubtedly Cinerary Urns from Cemetery, Kempston. (J «") earlier than the bulk of the collection, and have been referred by Dr. Bernhard Salin to the first half of the fifth century. 2 The claws at the head of one of these (see fig.) are survivals of the fastenings by which the long spiral spring of the pin was secured, and the facetting of the lower part is evidently derived from brooches and other ornaments of the Bronze Brooch, Kempston. ngraved Bronze Brooch, Kempston. late Roman period, that is prior to the fall of the western empire in the middle of the fifth century. The second brooch (see fig.) is of a peculiar form hardly represented in this country, only two other speci- mens being published, 3 both from Cambridgeshire. Behind the broad 1 Roach Smith, Coll. Antiq. vi. 169, 171. 2 Kongl. Vitterkets Historic och Antiquitets Akademiens Mdnadsblhd (1894), pp. 23, 29. 3 Op. cit. fig. 9, from Haslingfield ; and Hon. R. C. Neville, Saxon Obsequies, pi. 2, from grave 35 at Little Wilbraham. 179