Page:VCH Suffolk 1.djvu/400

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A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

century in south Sweden. Besides pl. ii, fig. I, which retains a rivet on the bow probably for the purpose of attaching a disc, two other specimens have been found in the county, at Finningham and Mildenhall (fig. 13), and one just over the Norfolk border at Brooke, midway between Norwich and Bungay. A similar brooch from Bury St. Edmunds in Sir John Evans' collection has a rivet hole in the bow, apparently for attaching a disc, now lost.

Another variety of the square-headed brooch (pl. ii, fig. I) shows a curious blend of styles, which must be subsequent to the middle of the 6th century, for the wings below the bow do not seem to have been intro- duced earlier. In outline it is a ' long ' brooch without the customary knobs, but with circular extensions at the angles of the head and a spreading foot of degenerate form ; but instead of the severe decoration characteristic of the ' long or cruciform ' brooch of Scandinavia, there appears on this specimen the animal-ornament of the Anglo-Saxon craftsmen that is seen more commonly on square-headed and saucer brooches. The flat annular brooches of bronze had usually pins of iron (mostly perished), but the brooch-types at Ipswich are strangely limited. There were no long or cruciform specimens of the ordinary kind found in the cemetery, none of the smaller kind with square or trefoil heads, nor any bracelet-clasps'* so common in the west of the county. On the other hand, there are two remarkable circular brooches (pi. ii, figs. 2, 3) that must be of Kentish origin. They belong to what may be called the ' keystone ' type," but the garnet slabs do not exactly conform to the regulation pattern, that of the centre stone of an arch. They were found in separate graves, and both had central studs of some substance that is well preserved in one case and has the appearance of ivory, like one from Little Wilbraham, Cam- bridgeshire, published by the Hon. R. C. Neville.'* Another remarkable find in the Ipswich cemetery was a bronze buckle of Prankish manufacture (pi. ii, fig. 5), almost unexampled in this country, but common in certain parts of France," where they are attributed, at the earliest, to the 7th century. A similar specimen was found at Bellevue near Lympne (Kent),'* and the three studs, now missing from the Ipswich speci- men, are there seen in position. A collar of silver wire"' carrying a bead is a novelty for England, but one has since been found at Desborough, Northants. Glass from this cemetery is particularly good, one vase much resembling that illustrated from Bungay, but having threads like stamens added to the petals round the base. Examples of pale green and amber-coloured cups are also given on the coloured plate (figs. 6, 7), the types being usual and well represented in Kentish finds. The peculiar iron adze, the strike-a-light, earrings, chatelaines or girdle- hangers, and iron-hooped buckets from Ipswich all find parallels in the Little Wilbraham cemetery, which lies between Newmarket and Cambridge, about six miles from the Suffolk border, and other specimens common to the two " These were closely connected with ' long ' brooches at Little Wilbraham, Cambs. " y.C.H. Kent, i, pi. i, fig. 4 (opp. p. 342) ; for other specimens see de Baye, Industrial Arts of the Anglo-Saxons, pi. x, figs. 3, 6, 7. " Saxon Obsequies, pi. 3, grave 172. " B. Flavy, Arts industriels de k Gaule, album, plates xlviii, xlii ; Bouhngei, Mobilierftneraire, text of pi. 42. •* Roach Smith, Richborough, Recuher, and Lym-.e, 264. •^ Suff. Inst. Arch. Proc. xiii, pi. iv, fig. 5, p. 6.