A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE at whose side was a pewter chalice (see fig.) 4 inches high, resting on his hand. As the head lay towards the west there is reason to believe that this was the body of a Christian priest, 1 and it is remarkable that a similar chalice, from an Anglo-Saxon grave in Kent, is to be seen in the Royal Museum at Canterbury. Close by, at a depth of 3! feet, was found a rectangular cist of Roman roofing-tiles set edgewise like the stone slabs round the fifth class of interments at Frilford. Nothing was found within but some finger bones, and a bronze ring-brooch of a peculiar heavy type (as fig. p. 240), examples of which have been found at Audley End, Essex, in Kent, and in Berkshire on the Lambourn Downs. Another interesting discovery on this site, with a male skeleton rather deeper than the last, was a heavy brooch or pendant over 5 inches long, of lead or pewter much corroded. In form this resembles the bronze-gilt brooches of cruciform type which are common in graves throughout the Anglian district, 2 but do not occur in the neighbourhood of Berkshire. Two feet distant a smaller pewter specimen was found with another male skeleton, but laid in a different direction. Pewter was in common use for household utensils among the Romans in Britain, and large hoards have been found at Icklingham, Suffolk, at Appleshaw, Hants, and elsewhere, but it is difficult to account for the discovery, almost on the Roman level of the cemetery, of a pewter copy of an Anglian pattern ; and the presence of a cross of this form, not to mention a crucifix, would be quite unprecedented in a grave of the early Anglo- Saxon period. The cemetery also contained a burial which may be of some interest as affording an example of early surgery ; at the 5 feet level was found a female skeleton with the right arm necrosed and placed in bronze splints, with a dressing of ivy leaves. In one part of the ground the bodies lay so close together that the exact level could not be determined of a skeleton with which had been buried two pieces of glass, 2 inches square, the central portion being of rich purple blue, with a square of gold glass on either side. The colours may to some extent be due to natural decay, but the gilded glasses 3 of the Roman catacombs, dating generally from the fourth century, are suggested by this discovery. On the whole, the cemetery is shown to have been a place of general interment for an entirely civil population, and the variety of relics points to its continued use from the period of the Roman occupation to the settlement of a Teutonic race, whose longer, broader and generally more capacious skulls are well represented on the upper levels. A smaller discovery in the county may mark a somewhat later stage in the conversion of the Saxon inhabitants. In 1862 a cemetery was discovered at Arne Hill near Lockinge and not far from Wantage, 1 The common custom of burying ecclesiastical dignitaries with their chalice and paten, jewels and vestments may be quoted in this connection.
- See for example Akerman's Pagan Saxon Jam, pi. xx. fig. 2, pi. xl. fig. I, for specimens from
Leicestershire and Norfolk respectively. 3 O. M. Dalton, Journ. Arch. Imt. Iviii. 225. 238
