Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 5.djvu/394

 294 DISCOVERY OF A SAXON INTERMENT. It may not be uninteresting to add that Douglas describes the umbo of this shield as four inches in diameter, and four studs were found near it. The Saxon shield he supposes to have been small and orbicular, with a boss in the centre, the whole diameter not exceeding eighteen inches^; the spear- head was fifteen inches long, the shaft having been of ash. The sword, 35 J inches long, two inches broad, flat, double-edged, and sharp pointed, apparently had been inclosed in a wooden sheath, covered with leather ; while that at Wittenham must have had precisely the same dimensions, as the cross-piece at the extreme end for seeming the handle is lost. Neither, ac- cording to the peculiarity of Saxon swords, had any guard to the handle. The knife also was in a wooden sheath, and had impressions of cloth discernible upon it. The bottle of red earth is described as twelve inches in height, and five inches in its largest diameter. It appears to have been of precisely the same fashion and material in both cases ; and was pro- bably part of the military equipment, and tied at the back, like our knapsack. Mr. Dongkas refers (p. 128, note) to the representation of a Saxon foot-soldier's dress, given in an illuminated MS. of Au- relius Prudentius, marked Cleopatra, c. viii. in the Cottonian Library, and attempts to give a date by observing that the Saxon Heptarchy was established in 582, and burials within the walls and near to churches (even " in tumulis paganorum") commenced in 742. These Saxon interments must have taken place in the interval. If so, the remains at Wittenham may. have been deposited about the year 600, as there is nothing whatever to denote that the individual was a Christian. It may be added that a curious Saxon fibula, from the Ashmolean Museum, engraved in vol. iv. p. 253 of the Archae- ological Journal, was found in the breast of a skeleton in Mil- ton North field, near Abingdon, which is not far from Long Wittenham ; and that as the camp on Sinodun Hill, which almost adjoins Wittenham, is of the description called Danish, this individual may possibly have fallen in an encounter with that people, such contests having been very frequent in the ncighbom-hood. • Nenia, Obs., p. 128.