Page:VCH Essex 1.djvu/398

 A HISTORY OF ESSEX Walden, which probably belongs, at least in part, to a comparatively late period, as was indeed pointed out at the time of its first publication. In the north-west angle of the British ' camp ' fifty or sixty human skeletons were dug up within a few yards of the western bank in the year 1830, and traces of other burials noticed in other parts of the enclosure ; but it was not till 1876 that a systematic excavation of the site was undertaken by the owner, the late Mr. G. S. Gibson, with the assistance of Mr. Ecroyd Smith who wrote a report for the Essex Archaeological Society. 1 About 150 skeletons were met with on this occasion at various depths owing to a surface alteration in later times ; but it was evident that the usual practice had been to remove the upper soil to a depth of 2 to 3 feet, and then to excavate the solid chalk another foot for the reception of the body, which was usually placed on its back at full length, with the head pointing to the west. In most cases the interments had been made with reverential care, but no remains of coffins were found and only a few traces on pottery or bronze ornaments of the cerecloth in which the more wealthy seem to have been buried. A reference to the plan published with the report shows that the graves had been cut for the most part in rows from north-east to south-west, and in some cases the intervals are so regular as to suggest that each burial was dis- tinguished by a mound or some other mark to avoid overlapping. It may here be mentioned that the discovery of pits in the chalk dug prior to the Anglo-Saxon interments shows that the site had been occupied in the remote past ; and a very systematic and laborious super- intendence would have been necessary to keep the relics of the different periods apart. There seems no doubt however that Anglo-Saxon pottery, made without the wheel and ornamented with impressed devices, was plentiful, but whether in the form of cinerary or domestic vessels is uncertain. Closer observation of such particulars would in this case have been specially welcome as bearing on the question whether the Anglian rite of cremation prevailed here to any extent. The East Saxons must have guarded their borders jealously indeed if such an unimportant river as the Stour, 12 miles from Walden and there only a stream, remained throughout a barrier between the Angle and Saxon whose nationality is declared not only by the territorial divisions of to-day, but by the difference in their funeral customs estab- lished by archaeological inquiry. In what is called the best part of the cemetery the graves were close together and arranged with some system, but elsewhere, especially to the south, instances occurred that imply some difference of race, condition or period. Skeletons were here found sometimes without a grave and sometimes lying confusedly in pits ; while others had been deliberately buried with the head to the south, the contrast to the majority being very noticeable on the plan. Whether the orientated graves may be referred to Christians and the others to their pagan contemporaries, or whether these features 1 Transactions, new ser. ii. 284, 311. 330