Page:VCH Kent 1.djvu/448

 A HISTORY OF KENT In the Isle of Thanet much of interest has been found from time to time at Ozingell (Osengal) about 2 miles from Ramsgate. What appears to have been a sword-knife ' 1 6| inches long with wooden handle, iron tang and pommel was found in i 846 with a short knife, spear and shield-boss in the grave of a warrior/ A bunch of Anglo-Saxon keys,^ such as were often attached to a matron's girdle, were found with brooches in a grave disturbed by railway excavations, and a radiated brooch is published from this site' ; besides these a buckle of base silver was found in a grave hard by at St. Lawrence/ Mr. Rolfe, of Sand- wich, watched excavations here in 1846-7, and added several articles to his own collection (afterwards transferred to Mr. Joseph Mayer) ; but more satisfactory excavations are recorded by Roach Smith.* These were conducted in 1845 on an open tract of down crossed by the Canterbury road as well as by the Ramsgate and Deal railway, and bounded on the west by low ground called Holland Bottom. From the nature of the case, very little systematic excavation could be undertaken on the site, but a well-illustrated account of all the finds then in Mr. Rolfe's possession was published in 1854. A plan of one out of thirteen graves cut in the chalk and sometimes covered with sandstone slabs shows that a round shield had been placed on the breast of the dead warrior, a spear 6 feet long point upward on his right side, and an earthen- ware bottle at the left shoulder ; while a knife and short sword lay at the waist. Another grave, of unusual width, contained a male and female adult and a child, evidently of one family. Beads of amber surrounded the necks of the woman and child, and the dress of the former had apparently been fastened in front by a long metal pin. Most of the graves, however, contained single skeletons, and, to judge from the weapons, all of the male sex. Spear-heads were numerous, and two iron axe-heads were found, one being of the ' francisca ' type ; while three double-edged swords of the ordinary dimensions were recovered. The pottery comprised vases and bottles that in part betray Roman influence, being quite distinct from the cinerary urns of Anglian districts, and some dishes of the Gaulish red-ware were included, as elsewhere in Kent. A conical ' tumbler ' of pale green glass exactly corresponds to one from Kempston, Beds' ; and a pair of scales, with a series of weights composed mostly of Roman coins, recalls similar discoveries at Gilton and Sarre, though the marks on the weights hardly bring us nearer to a determin- ation of the system then in use. A purse-guard belongs to a type more frequent in France, and a chatelaine with keys is better preserved than usual. The ornaments included two bronzes ' that look like brooches without their heads and pins, of a type intermediate between the Roman > This and two others from- the cemetery are illustrated in Coll. Ant. ii. pi. Iviii. figs. 5, 6, 7. 2 Joum. Brit. Arch. Assoc, ii. 338. 3 Pagan Saxondom, pi. xxviii. fig. I ; brooch found in 1845, ibid. pi. sxxiv. fig. 6 ; and tab of girdle pi. XXXV. fig. 7. « Coll. Ant. iii. p. I, plates 1-6 ; Joiirn. Brit. Arch. Assoc, i. 242-3 ; Davis and Thurnam, Crania Britannica, vol. ii. ■• y.C.H. Beds, i. 181, fig. 3. 8 Coll. Ant. iii. p. 17. 362
 * Joum. Brit. Arch. Assoc, iii. 246, 120. s Pag. Sax. pi. xxxix. fig. 5.