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 ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS The actual area of the brickfield examined was about 150 ft. by 96 ft., its length being approximately on an east-and-west line. While excavating for brick-earth the workmen came upon two large earthenware urns, and straightway destroyed them in the vain hope of finding treasure. The frag- ments show their Anglo-Saxon origin, and one, if not both, contained in- cinerated human remains. Near the spot was found an iron javelin head, 6 in. long, which may safely be attributed to the same era. Two skeletons laid at full length were next discovered, and others were subsequently un- earthed, but further investigations were entrusted to the society by the pro- prietor, and proved most successful. As many as thirty-one skeletons were noticed, in various conditions, and five cases of cremation are recorded, the ashes having been collected and placed in rudely-made cinerary urns of the ordinary type. In nineteen cases the direction of the interment could be determined, the head in five cases being at the west end of the grave, as was customary in early Christian times. Six more were approximately north- west, and four inclined towards south-west, showing that the western position was by far the most usual here ; and the variations to the north or south may pos- sibly be due to the interments having been made at different seasons, bearings being no doubt taken at sunrise or sunset for the purpose of orientation. The head in one case, however, was at the east end, another lay east-north-east, and two more south- south-east, so that uniformity was not enforced ; and it would in any case be rash to infer that the east-and-west burials were necessarily Christian. Cremation, which appears to have been practised side by side with inhumation on this site, was frankly pagan, and even apart from signs of partial cremation noticed in some cases, the pre- sence of weapons, ornaments, and utensils in several of the graves shows that the Christian rule was not rigidly observed. The richest and most interesting grave was that of a woman of middle age, whose height was 5 ft. 10 in. The bones were in excellent preser- vation, and the body had been laid on the back with the head towards the west ; the right arm was by the side, the left across the chest, and the legs straight. Close to the left side of the head was a vase of dark pottery decorated in the usual manner, with groups of incised lines and a band of stamped star pattern (fig. 2). It measured 5^ in. in height, with a maximum diameter of 5 in., being somewhat smaller than the average cinerary urn. On either shoulder was a brooch of bronze-gilt, with trefoil or cruciform head and punched borders (fig. i). It belongs to a type fairly common in this country, and related to the ' long ' brooch of Scandinavia, though the latter terminates at the foot in a conventional horse's head. The spreading foot of the Stapenhill example points rather to Prussia as the centre of dis- persion,' but it is clear that the evolution of the brooch was not uniform in 5 Haakon Schetelig, Cructfirm Brooches of Norway, 49, 50, 86, 146. 26 FIG. 2. VASE FOUND AT STAPENHILL (J) 2OI