Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 4.djvu/177

 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INTELLIGENCE. ]59 have been inclined to consider them medieval, possibly of as late a date as the fourteenth century. The position, however, of the skeletons, laid in- discriminately, appears to indicate a much earlier age, and vases of similar form, resembling these likewise in the mode by which they are ornamented, have repeatedly been found with interments assigned to the Anglo-Roman, or early Saxon period. It may deserve notice that in these instances iron wea- pons, ornaments set with garnets, and a pair of glass vases have mostly been found, not invariably of the same shape or fashion,with occasionally the remains of vessels of bronze, having handles, dissimilar indeed in form to the sitida found at Cuddesden, but apparently, like that, destined for some domestic purpose. The pair of globular glass vases, found in one of the tumuli, called Dane's Banks, on Chartham downs, near Canterbury, may especially be noticed ; in another tumulus in Kent another pair was found, of the same form, but without superficial ornament ; and two glass vases were likewise disinterred in a tumulus in Derbyshire. All these examples, judging by the objects found with them, appear to be of the same periods In a tumulus near Salisbury a pair of glass vases were found, with an iron sword and other weapons, and ornaments of the same character as those found with the interments above mentioned*. A globular vessel of glass, ornamented externally with letters in relief, was also found in the parish of Mildenhall, in Sulfolk'. Curious glass vessels, apparently drinking cups, have also been occasionally discovered, ornamented like the Cuddesden vases, with threads of glass attached to their surface, when in a molten state, forming spiral, wavy, and zig-zag lines in relief, or converging towards the centre of the bottom of the vase. Such a vessel, shaped like a bell, was discovered in Minster church-yard, in the Isle of Thanet, placed on the skull of a skeleton, the mouth downwards ; another of very singular form, was found in a similar position, at Castle Eden, Durham, and a third, of conical shape, ornamented with spiral and wavy lines in relief, was found with human remains and weapons at Denton, Buckinghamshire". A careful comparison of these facts appears to justify the conjecture that the vessels here represented may be attributed to the Saxon period, and be assigned to as early a date, possibly, as the fifth or sixth century, whilst to subsequent occupants of the spot are to be attributed relics of a later age, such as the ring, which is probably of the fifteenth century. It may be in the recollection of our readers, and deserves to be again noted in reference to this discovery at Cuddesden, that the Roman villa at Wheatley, opened under the direction of the present Dean of Westminster and Dr-. Bromet^, in the autumn of 1845, is situated about half a mile from the palace : the village of HoltonV, where other Roman remains have been found, is not more than two miles distant. The Roman road described by Professor Hussey^ passes within about the same distance. ' See Douglas' Nenia, pi. v., xvi., xvii. Archaeol. Journal, vol. ii. p. 350. Archaeol., vol. iii. p. 274. ' Ibid., vol. iii. p. 125 ; vol. iv. p. 1. ' lloare's Auiicnt Wilts, vol. ii. p. 26. » See his Essay on the Roman road in ' Archa?oloii;ia, vol. XXV. p. (jlO. the neighbourhood of Oxford, read before " Douglas' Nenia, pi. xvii. ]). 71. Arclue- the Ashmolcan Society. ologia, vol. XV. pi. 37 ; and vol. x. pi. 18.