Page:VCH Sussex 1.djvu/413

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ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS the uniform orientation of so many graves, and the entire absence of reUcs in twenty-five, or about thirty per cent, of the total excavated. This is by no means unprecedented, but supports the view that burials with the head to the south or south-west, of which there are a few examples at High Down, are earlier and pagan, while the change was due to Christian influences which cannot have been very strong among the Anglo-Saxon population till the second half of the 7th century. The similarity between two flattened bronze tubes from graves at High Down and one found at Croydon, Surrey, was remarked upon ; ' but besides these three peculiar and unexplained objects there are other particulars which point to some connexion between the early Teutonic settlers north and south of the Weald. At Croydon were found several relics of remarkable interest ; and though parallels have been found for all of them, some were of such rare and peculiar form as to warrant a further inquiry into their local distribution. The most striking instance perhaps, after the tubes already mentioned, is the glass vase standing on a foot ^ which has more than a family likeness to three found at High Down, and it is seldom even in Kent that glass of this period has anything but a rounded base, constituting a true tumbler.' The ' button ' (or diminutive ' saucer ') brooch which is rarely found outside the Jutish districts occurs both at High Down and at Croydon ;* and the ring- brooch, which is such a special feature of the High Down cemetery, is also represented at Croydon,^ but hardly anywhere else, and it should be noticed that the angon occurs once on both sites. Another weapon of equal rarity in this country is the francisca, or battle-axe of peculiar type, and though it has not yet been found at High Down, specimens are known from Croydon," and one from Lewes ' is preserved in the museum of the Sussex Archaeological Society there. The orienta- tion of the High Down graves is now established ; and, though not certain, it is probable that the Croydon burials were likewise east-and- west. According to the evidence available, this was the prevailing practice in both counties,* though it involves a problem that still awaits solution. That light will before long be thrown on the ethnological relations of the tribes that carved England out of Britain, is rendered highly probable by an examination of the important series from the cemetery of Herpes, Charente, about the centre of the west coast of France. Among the objects recently acquired for the British Museum are several square-headed brooches like fig. 5, buckles like fig. i, conical glasses like figs. 8 and 9, and several with feet like that of fig. 2 ; also a button brooch like fig. 4, while bird-brooches like fig. 6 frequently occurred. Nor do the coincidences end here, for the angon and trancisca were found, the latter in some quantity, and several rare brooch-forms were represented on both sites. » Archaeologia, liv. 378. = Illustrated in V.C.H. Surrey, p. 257, fig. I. s The delicate lobed vases are a distinct class. * V.C.H. Surrey, fig. 8, and p. 261. » Op. cit. p. 262. 8 Proc. Soc. Antiq. xv. 331. ' Ptoc. Soc. Antiq. xviii. 28. ^ V_C.H. Surrey, i. 269. I 345 44