A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE
interest in investigations of this kind. Men, women and children had here been laid to rest, and the burial ground had evidently been in use for a considerable time, as in all probability different rites were in observance at different periods. Of the 188 unburnt burials, all but 11 were sufficiently preserved to indicate the direction in which the body had been laid in the grave. In 96 cases the head was placed to the west, while 54 pointed to the south-west and 27 in other directions. As the excavations proceeded towards the north end of the field, the orien-
tation of the graves became more exact, and an obviously Christian interment was found to be strictly east-and-west. Of the 27 irregular burials, 15 were with the head towards the south; and it was observed throughout that the position of children's skeletons differed generally
from that of the adults, being usually from north to south.
Of the graves in which no relics were discovered, 29 were of children and 19 of adults; and though it is possible that articles of perishable
BRONZE PANELS OF STOUP, LONG WITTENHAM.
material were deposited with the dead, the absence of metallic objects such as weapons and brooches is in any case significant. As bearing on the religious beliefs of the persons so interred, it may be noted that 27 out of the total of 48 were laid with the head towards the west, and of the remainder 15 were children or young persons. The omission of grave furniture in the case of those who had not reached a mature age is not surprising, but the cemetery contained a notable exception, which also throws a good deal of light on the question of orientation. A grave less than 4 feet in length contained the body of a boy, whose head lay at the west end. At the feet was found a bronze cauldron [1] resting on a slab of wood, by the side of which was a spearhead about 6 inches long, with the point downwards. A small iron knife lay on the breast, and to the right of the head stood a beaker or stoup (see
230
- ↑ Arch., xxxviii. pi. xviii. fig. 2.
