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 ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS kiln at Earley contained thirteen or fourteen interments, more than half of which were by way of cremation, while the unburnt bodies lay east and west, the head no doubt to the west. The surface was irregular but without any indications of sepulchral mounds, though such probably existed at one time to mark the burials. Fragments of calcined bone still remained in the larger urns, and part of a bone comb was also found in one instance, suggesting an Anglian connection. 1 Another imperfect specimen of more ornate character was found with an iron spearhead in the grave of a stalwart warrior. With one or two of the skeletons had been placed small pot- tery vases, no doubt of ceremonial significance, and among the smaller objects from the graves may be noticed a circular bronze brooch of common type, ornamented with seven engraved rings ; and larger speci- mens with an embossed gilt plate attached to the front, such as have been found in some quantity at Kempston, Beds. The close agreement be- tween the relics discovered at Reading and at Long Wittenham will not be overlooked, and a bronze saucer brooch (like fig. 6) found in the Thames not far from this cemetery may be further mentioned in this connection. It is not improbable that the type of brooch with an embossed plate mentioned above was an imitation of a sumptuous Kentish pattern, of which remarkable examples have been found in Berkshire. The two well-known jewelled brooches* from the neighbourhood of Abingdon are among the finest examples of the Anglo-Saxon goldsmith's craft. There is a striking similarity in their size, ornamentation and general appearance, and both have evidently come from the same manufacturing centre. Neither is quite complete, but that in the national collection here illus- trated (fig. 10) has only lost part of the rim and the central stud, which is intact on its fellow. It is conjectured that both jewels were brought to light during the opening of some graves at Milton North Field in 1832, where the Ashmolean specimen was certainly found on the breast of a skeleton lying due north and south, 2 feet below the surface. Both are constructed in the same manner ; to a silver disc, which bears the hinged pin and catch, is cemented a thicker bronze plate, above which is the ornamented face of the brooch resting on a cement founda- tion. The broad band, which is bounded by a double row of inlaid glass, contains four bosses and is intersected by four arms radiating from the inlaid setting of the centre ; the rope-pattern filagree work being applied to the gold plate by means of pressure. The bosses, which may be of ivory, are now much decayed but mostly retain a slab of ruby glass at the summit. There can be little doubt that these jewels came originally from Kent, where similar examples are numerous. Some spearheads from the same cemetery in Milton Field are in the British Museum, and several antiquities of iron from Cookham, lower 1 Bone combs are frequent in cinerary urns, as at Eye, Suffolk ; Brixworth, Northants. 2 That in the British Museum is figured in colours in Akerman's Pagan SaxonJom, pi. iii. ; the other is in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, and is figured in the Arch. Journ. iv. 253. I 241 3 I