Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/132

96 distributed. Near to the bottom of the pit, besides the various fragments of pottery, a portion of an ancient shoe and a bucket were found. The whole of these remains were discovered between the 18th of July and the 4th of September, 1850. The pit was sunk as deep as could be accomplished without the aid of pumps, the men having been kept at work until it became unsafe for them to continue their work. Two transverse sections of the pit, showing the description of the strata passed through, are here given.

A saucer-shaped Saxon brooch, found in the vicarage orchard about 1840, was also exhibited by the Rev. J. B. Reade, Vicar of Stone, remarkable on account of its size, its diameter being nearly 3 inches; and it bears the symbol of the cross, with chased lines apparently intended to represent a nimbus. This remarkable type of fibula may have been derived, as Mr. Akerman has suggested, from the nummi scyphati, or cup-shaped money, common after the reign of Basilius II. An engraving of it is given in the Archæologia, vol. xxx., p. 546. Mr. Reade sent with this an iron spear-head and knife, and the skull of a skeleton with which they were found, near Stone, about two years since. The umbo of the shield was found, but had been lost. At the feet was a small urn of dark black ware, sent for examination. These relics appeared to be Saxon.

Several specimens of this kind of fibula have been brought before the Institute, especially those now in Mr. Neville's museum, figured in the Journal of the Archæological Association, vol. v., p. 113, and one exhibited by the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, Journal, vol. vi., p. 71.

, in reference to some conversation at the previous meeting regarding the adjustment of fibulæ, and the use of some kind of tube, called by the Greeks, to receive the acus, made the following observa-