Page:VCH Suffolk 1.djvu/420

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A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK Holywell Row, some eight or nine miles north-west, beyond Mildenhall, another Anglo-Saxon burial was indicated by the discovery of a string of clay (glass-paste) beads, a Saxon brooch, and a Roman coin,"^ the last being often found in graves of the post-Roman period, pierced for suspension on a necklace. In the valley of the Lark, a little above Icklingham, has been found a cup- shaped urn (pi. iv, fig. A), that points to a burial after cremation at Lackford. Farther west the finds at Tuddenham now in the Cambridge Museum include a large square-headed brooch with crenellated head, in the style of the 6th century, annular and other brooches of ordinary types ; bracelet clasps, spear- heads, knives, a pot-hook, ferrule, and small urn with S stamps ; a small axe-head of Prankish form, perhaps for the use of a child; and twelve bone draughtsmen (burnt and evidently from a cinerary urn), with two holes on the flat face where the prong-centre of the lathe was fixed.* Of special interest is a small hollow pyramid of bronze set with garnets in cell-work on the four faces and furnished with a cross-bar across the base. The use of these jewels is still uncertain, but a fair number have been found in this country,^"' and a plain example of bronze, now in private hands, comes from Lackford. The above relics must be mainly from graves, and Professor Ridgeway " publishes a long brooch, without the two side knobs, found buried with a warrior in association with another of nearly the same size, an iron shield- boss, spear, sword, and knife, the ordinary grave-furniture of the period. A pair of small square-headed brooches in the Cambridge Museum from Preckenham are not only evidence of an unburnt burial there, but also of intercourse with the Jutish area ; for the type is practically confined to Kent and the Isle of Wight,"' where it occurs very frequently. Exning, a village in the detached portion of Suffolk north of New- market, is also well represented by finds of the pagan period in the Cambridge Museum. Two silver finger-rings were found on a skeleton there in 1894 ; and among other finds, no doubt from a burial ground of the 6th century, are two pairs of ' horned ' brooches as from Lakenheath ; a long brooch with wings and three knobs that has lost its foot, but otherwise so closely resembles one from St. John's College in the same collection that they might have come from the same mould. A gilt cruciform brooch with large expanding foot illustrates the development of the long brooch, and resembles specimens from Sleaford, Lincolnshire,'^*" while another brooch, of unusual form, has circular projections from the upper angles of the head. A typical ' long ' brooch also from Exning is in the Norwich Museum. The numerous specimens from Lakenheath in the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology are sufficient evidence of Anglo-Saxon burials there, though a precise record is wanting. Besides glass and amber beads were found small bronze cylinders, probably worn as a necklace; a spear-head 12 in. long of unusual form, with unsplit socket, and a vase of Prankish character with rows of stamped patterns round the shoulder. Among numerous brooches should be mentioned a large and elaborate cruciform specimen with enamel round

    • " Bury and W. Suff. Proc. i, 305. '" Compare specimens from Norfolk {F.C.H. Nor/, i, 336).

'"' Compare V.C.H. Essex, , 321 (fig. B on coloured plate), where several references are given ; F.C.H. ATM/, i, 357 (pi. i, fig. 7)- " Early Age of Greece, 587, fig. 142. "= V.C.H. Hants, i, 388 (fig. 2 on coloured plate). '"■ Arch. 50, pi. xxiv, fig. 2.