A HISTORY OF ESSEX Saxon specimens ; it is all the more remarkable therefore that almost an exact duplicate 1 of this vase was found at Faversham, Kent, in the rich and extensive cemetery known as the King's Field ; and another, 2 of red earth, with the famous Kingston brooch near Canterbury. Nothing further was noticed except a good deal of very dark matter, charcoal, fragments of wood and parts of flat iron bars and angle- irons with rivets, all in the west- ern half of the grave. Though no traces of bones were met with, it seemed evident that the body had been placed in a stout coffin and burnt as it lay in the ground. The appearance of the sides point to POTTERY VASE FROM GRAVE AT BROOMFIELD. thig conc l us i ori) though Combustion under such circumstances must have been slow and imperfect, and if any bones were left unconsumed they must have decayed completely in the interval. According to the plan given in the original account of the dis- covery, the grave was 8 feet in length with rounded projections at each corner ; and though the form and section are peculiar, the contents are sufficient to show that this, like the majority of graves with relics, belonged to the pagan period. Discoveries in Essex have not been plentiful enough to decide whether this or any other kind of burial was characteristic of the East Saxons. It will be observed that the discovery at Broomfield presents several novel features in the way of funeral accessories that cannot be classified as Anglian. Whether they are indeed Saxon in the strict sense of the term is another question ; but further discoveries may one day point to a connection with Kent or disclose a continental trait that may justify a more exact attribution of these important relics of the past. The remarkable size and variety of the objects discovered in the Broom- field grave may indeed find a parallel in two well-known interments, but the treatment of the body differed in each of the three cases. At Bourne Park near Canterbury was found a grave, nearly 14 feet long and half as wide, cut carefully in the solid chalk and filled with fine mould brought from a distance. In one corner had stood a bucket with bronze hoops, and nearer the centre a shield, with horse's bit, buckle and several nails ; while at the head was a bronze bowl, thickly gilt, with two handles of iron. So far the analogy is fairly complete, but the appearance of the grave as well as the absence of the sword and knife showed that the 1 In the Gibbs Collection, British Museum ; figured in de Baye's Industrial Arts of the Anglo-Saxons, pi. xvi. fig. 6. 8 Inventorium Sefulcbrale, p. 78 and pi. xx. fig. 6. 324
