Page:VCH Berkshire 1.djvu/323

 ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS Romanized Britons already mentioned. They were comparatively deep and had the Christian orientation, but presented certain features dis- tinguishing them from graves of the first and second classes. In place of the Roman coffin of lead or timber, slabs of stone were set round these graves in a vertical position, and in some cases a pillow-stone was placed beneath the head, incidentally proving the absence of a coffin. On no occasion did Professor Rolleston find such slabs of stone round any grave that was not approximately orientated and did not contain characteristic Anglo-Saxon relics. A striking parallel to the conditions at Frilford is afforded by discoveries made at Reading in 1890, and described by the late Dr. Joseph Stevens. 1 During excavations for the laying of foundations in a small meadow alongside the King's Road, about 450 yards south of the Kennet and immediately opposite the Jack-of-both-Sides Inn, only a superficial examination of the ground was possible, but interments of interest were disclosed, with some important relics and a series of skulls now preserved in the Reading Museum. In all, fifty-one skeletons were uncovered, and these were found at three different levels, viz. 2 feet 6 inches, 34 feet and 6 feet below the surface, the lowest being on a floor of gravel. It was noticed that the deepest graves were orientated, and as this agrees well with the observations at Frilford, it is permissible to speak of these as Romano-British, especially as about thirty stout iron nails were found at this level, though never more than three in each grave. These may have belonged to coffins or been used for fastening planks together to protect the body, and were recognized as being of Romano-British manufacture. In one of the lowest graves were also found charcoal ashes and fragments of Roman pottery, and it is conceiv- able that a cremated body had been buried here, adjoining another interment. At the 6 feet level practically no relics were found, and the uniformity of the graves is in complete accordance with Professor Rolleston's second class at Frilford ; the skeletons on this level were of good stature, with globular skulls, powerful jaws and high cheek- bones, all regarded as ' Celtic ' features. Nearer the surface bodies were found laid in various directions, and it was with these that most of the relics were associated. At a depth of 2 1 feet a body was found lying nearly east and west, with a leaden plate nearly 6 inches long, under the left shoulder. This was perhaps originally affixed to a board, though there seems to have been no coffin here. Inscribed on the metal were (originally) three simple crosses of the Greek form, and it is fair to conclude that they marked a Christian interment. Twelve feet to the north, on the same level, had been buried a very old woman with part of a small quern or mealing-stone, 2 and near her, but a few inches deeper, was found a male skeleton of middle age, 1 Berks, Bucks and Oxon Archetological Journal, i. 100. 2 A quern was found in an Anglo-Saxon grave-mound at Winster, Derbyshire (illustrated in Journal of British Archttok&cal Association, xiii. 228) ; also at Hartington and Taddington in the same county, and at Holme Pierpoint, Notts. 237