Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 5.djvu/393

 AT LONG WITTENHAM. 293 inches, was deposited at the left side, and the spear at the right, the point in a line with the head, as if the weapon had been placed in the right hand of the deceased warrior. Occasionally the spear-head measnrcs as much as fifteen inches in length. The single-edged knife is commonly found at the right side, in the same position as the dagger of later times ; the shield was evidently laid upon the body, and the umbo, attached by several Hat circular studs, is sometimes found between the thigh bones. At the feet occasionally may be noticed a fictile vessel*. Several examples have been recorded, shewing that the fashion of plating with sil- ver the blunted point of the umbo, as also the studs with which it was attached to the shield, probably of wood, was not unusual. Douglas gives a representation of an vmho thus ornamented, found near Ash, in Kent''. Another ex- ample is supplied by an interment described by Sir Richard Hoare, discovered in a small tumulus on Rodmcad Down, Wiltshire. Mr. Cuhnington notices a fragment of thin silver, which possibly had been destined for a similar purpose, found, with an umbo and remains of the " iron-period," in another barrow in the same county, near the village of Codford ". Fictile urns have been found, but not very frequently, in the tombs of this period. In form, they are distinct from the peculiar cinerary urns of the British age, and they are mostly ornamented with zigzag impressed patterns. A good example of coarse red clay, is given by Douglas, found in a tumulus on Barham Downs, near Canterbury '^. The opinion that these remains are Anglo-Saxon is also confirmed by the representation, given in Douglas's Nenia, plate I., of remains found in a tunudus opened on Chatham Lines, in Kent, in the month of September, 1779. The body was deposited entire, and with the head to the south, as that at Wittenham, but in a cist : the sword, knife, and spear were in the same relative position, and precisely of the same make ; the earthenware bottle, also of the same fashion, and described as of the same material, viz., red earth, was at the feet, in- stead of being by the head, and the boss of the shield between the thigh bones. a Compare Stukeley's account of remains <= Ancient Wilts, vol. i. p. 47; Arcliae- found near Charteris, in the Isle of Ely, ologia, vol. xv. p. 345. Gent. Mag., March, 1776. '' Nenia, pi. 11. p. 47. i* Nenia Britannica, pi. 7. p. 26, VOL. V. Q q