ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS of ' Barrow Field,' while in the adjoining parish of Peering the ' Barrow Hills' may also point to some tradition of ancient burials there. These remains were presented to the Colchester Museum by the excavator, and a further exploration of the site led to similar results, which how- ever have not been fully published. This is particularly unfortunate, as the Peering cemetery included several Roman or Romano-British burials, which might have thrown some light on the transition period of the fifth century. One of them was of special interest, as showing the sequence of events in Essex. 1 Above a stone coffin now in the Castle museum a Saxon had been buried unburnt ; but it would be idle- to speculate on the interval that separated the two interments, as there were no characteristic ornaments in the upper burial, and there is little to indicate the latest possible date for the sarcophagus. Isolated discoveries have been made from time to time elsewhere in the county, and may be included here to show in what localities traces of the pagan Saxon inhabitants may be looked for. In all the Roman cemeteries in and around Colchester Saxon burials have been discovered,* and from one of them came a pale green glass cup (fig. 3) of peculiar form now preserved in the national collection ; but most have been found at St. Botolph's Gate, the southern entrance to the Roman town, where most of the shield bosses in the Joslin collection, now preserved at the Castle museum, were discovered. At West Bergholt near Colchester was found a gold ring (fig. 1 2) now preserved in the British Museum. It was exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries J by Rev. J. H. Pollexfen in 1863, and consists of two tapering strands, intertwined with which is a slender twisted ribbon of the same metal in a manner characteristic of the Viking period. Another gold ring (fig. 1 6), consisting of a simple twisted ribbon, has been found at Colchester itself, and is now in the museum there. To these may be added a bracelet (fig. 11) of the same metal, now in the collection of Sir John Evans, K.C.B. ; it was found at Brightlingsea, and consists of two strands, of which the tapering ends are rather clumsily joined together. A finger-ring of a different character is described * from Coggeshall (fig. 15); it is of pale gold, the hoop consisting of two bands of finely plaited wire, like that on the Broomfield jewel (fig. 13), expanding on one side to enclose a length of thicker wire arranged in a series of scrolls. It was found in 1851, and in default of evidence to the contrary may be referred on technical grounds to some time before the eighth century, while the other gold rings here enumerated more probably date from the ninth to eleventh century. Certain graves at Shoeburyness have been described as Saxon ; and 1 References to other examples at Colchester are to be found in Roach Smith's Introduction to Inventorium Sepukhrale, p. 50 ; T. Wright, Celt, Reman and Saxon, ed. 4, p. 470.
- These and other particulars hitherto unpublished have been kindly communicated by Dr. Henry
Laver, F.S.A. Procttdingi, ser. z, ii. 247 (fig.). 4 Journal of Britiib Arclucokpcal AitociaA<m t xiii. 313, pi. 39, fig. I. 327
