Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 3.djvu/135

Rh In our various excavations many Norman coins were found, though always near the surface: one of Henry III. was the earliest. A few small, much defaced, Roman copper coins, apparently only of late and debased coinages, were turned up in the churchyard, though many, and some extremely beautiful, of all periods, (even prior to Claudius,) have been found in the fields of the parish. Fragments of coarse unglazed British and also of Roman pottery, have occurred in the deeper churchyard excavations. Close to, or within one kistvaen, was found a rude amethyst, or pink crystal oblong eardrop, about an inch long; it is perforated lengthwise, but is without metal. The kistvaen under the Norman pillar contained apparently the skeleton of a lady with an infant in her arms: about that kistvaen I myself picked up small pieces of charcoal, which no doubt had some connection with the interment, and a small fragment of peculiar pottery studded with raised dots, like some found I think on Barham downs. From another was taken a large tusk of a wild boar, much worn by whetting; it is above the average size of those now common in Germany, being a full inch broad, and of a curve which would be six inches in diameter. Probably this was the kistvaen of some celebrated hunter, and contained the treasured spoils of some huge Erymanthian boar which he had slain in the dense Coritanian forest that crossed the county of Northampton, from Whittlebury to Marham and Peterborough. But we looked in vain for traces of armour, either offensive or defensive; it was the cemetery of a peaceful nation. We saw no traces of clothing, no haircloth, such as occurs in the stone coffins properly so called, nor was there the discoloured dust of any wooden coffin or interior receptacle for the bodies. Neither did we find any thing from which to gather the existence or not of a place of worship within the cemetery; a point which would have much narrowed the difficulties of the subject.

The skeleton which we have endeavoured to preserve is that of a muscular well-proportioned young man, probably 5 feet 9 inches high; the teeth are fine, the wisdom teeth scarcely developed. The facial line in some of the sculls appeared to be very fine. In the present instance there is a deep wound over the left eye, but whether it existed before death, or was caused by the falling in of the slab covering, is not clear. A contused wound on the back of the scull is however evident,