Page:VCH Kent 1.djvu/454

 A HISTORY OF KENT but this has little bearing on the date of the burial. The decayed wood mentioned was probably what remained of the usual coffer, and the iron chain is of quite common occurrence in Kent. A diminutive chatelaine and small amber beads are also characteristic, but the orientation is the reverse of that usual in Anglo-Saxon graves of the district. It is possible to see in this a blend of British and Teutonic custom, at a time when the Anglo-Saxon was not yet firmly established in the land of the Cantii. Of special interest, both as a work of art and an indication of date, is the sword-pommel (fig. 15) from Crundale preserved in the British Museum. The blade is incomplete, but of the usual outline, and the interest centres in the hilt, which had two gilt bands, of pointed oval plan, with excellent interlaced work in relief. The pommel is virtually intact, and consists of a silver-gilt terminal of cocked-hat form affixed (originally) by two rivets to the wooden cross-bar. The ornamenta- tion on both faces is carried out with infinite care and taste, and consists of two interlaced animals with ribbon- like bodies which are held in their elongated jaws. Though not identi- cal with any animal forms charac- teristic of the seventh century on the G,LT s'oRD-roMMEL, Crundale Coutinent, thcy are undoubtedly re- DowN (J). lated, as indeed is indicated by the form of the handle itself, to specimens from Ultuna* (Uppland, Sweden) and the Isle of Gothland ^ in the Baltic, while close similarity of the sword to a complete specimen ^ from Bildso Moss (Fyen, Denmark) would justify a restoration on those lines. Dr. Salin has recently published the Crundale specimen, and assigns it to the seventh century, to which the Kingston brooch also belongs ; but the bearing of these analogies on the nationality or commercial relations of settlers in Kent must be dealt with subsequently. In 1858 Roach Smith and Rev. L. B. Larking opened two of a number of grave-mounds on the summit of Wye Hill, to the left of the Dover road : most had been previously disturbed. One contained the bones of a child, the other those of a very tall adult, lying with the head SW., a spear-head by the right shoulder, and a small knife on the breast.* The national collection includes several objects of interest from the downs between Wye and Crundale, but full details of their discovery are not available.'' From one grave came part of a keystone brooch, earrings, a pin with garnet head and a silver finger- ring, and, above all, a gold bracteate with applied cruciform design and • Bernhard Salin, Die AUgermamiche Thierornamenlik, figs. 575, 588, 589; Crundale pommel, fig. 709, p. 328. - Ibid. fig. 580. 3 Figured in Arch. Cant. viii. pi. 21, p. 262. 5 List in Proc. Soc. Antiq. xiv. 313-5: some found in 1858. 368
 * Davis and Thurnam, Crania Britannica, vol. ii., where the skull is noticed,