Page:Archaeologia volume 38 part 1.djvu/100

 VII. Second Report of Researches in a Cemetery of the Anglo-Saxon period at Brighthampton, Oxon. Addressed to the EARL STANHOPE, President, by JOHN YONOE AKERMAN, Secretary. Read November 25, 1857. MY LORD, I HAVE the honour to report to the Society of Antiquaries the result of renewed researches during the present autumn in the Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at IJriuhthampton. The reliqucs on the table are evidence that on the former occasion this ancient burialplace was but partially explored. I have now the gratification of exhibiting a series of ancient remains inferior in interest to none that research or accident lias brought to light in this country. In my former Report* I called the attention of the Society to the fact of the discovery of unmistakeable evidence of the early occupation of this portion of the noble valley of the Thames by people of the Anglo-Saxon race. The indications of early possession are plainly recognised in their observance of what must be con- sidered the most ancient form of sepulture that by cremation. Whether this usage was observed by all the Germanic people who invaded Britain, and whether its abandonment dates from their conversion to Christianity, are problems which the researches of the archaeologist may possibly solve by further and continued inves- tigation. My own conviction is, that information must still be sought by means similar to the present. That cremation was the older and inveterate heathen rite of sepulture cannot be denied ; but we have yet to learn how far the practice was modified after the arrival of the Saxons in England ; for the total expulsion or extinction of the Romano-British population by the invaders will scarcely be insisted upon in this age of inquiry. On the present occasion, the traces of sepulture by cremation were more numerous: several urns were discovered in situ, some of them ornamented in a manner that the student of our Anglo-Saxon antiquities will not fail to recognise. A con- siderable portion of the area excavated appears to have been occupied by urns deposited just below the surface ; so that, when at some distant period the land was stripped of its greensward, and brought under tillage, many scores of them Archwologia, Vol. XXXVII. p. 391.