ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS The iron pan itself also finds a close parallel in Kent, and a passage from Rev. Bryan Faussett's record may here be of interest. In 1760 he excavated a woman's grave at Gilton near Sandwich, and found near the feet a round bronze trivet on which stood a flat bronze pan 1 18 inches wide and about 4 inches deep. It had two handles, was much broken and decayed, and had been patched and mended in several places. It was plain that the body had been buried in a large and very thick chest or coffin, which had either been excavated by fire or perhaps been burnt to a certain degree in order to make it more durable. The bones were greatly decayed, and there were many shapeless pieces of iron near the head. Near this group of vessels, but towards the south side of the grave, were found two wooden buckets with iron mounts, sunk in the earth so that the upper edges were level with the floor of the grave. They con- tained nothing of interest, but iron bands were noticed at the mouth, the middle and bottom, and both had overarching handles of the same metal. The wooden staves were clearly visible in the earth, and showed that the buckets had a diameter of 12 inches and a depth of 10 inches. At the middle of the south side was found a hemispherical iron cup containing a compact mass of sand, and supported on a tall stem terminating in four feet. The total height was originally just over 1 1 inches, but nothing quite similar appears to have been met with in graves or elsewhere, and that it was a lamp or brazier is merely a conjecture. In the south-west corner the excavators came upon a deep cylindrical cauldron of iron with a stout flat handle and a capacity of about 2 gallons. It was much broken, and though of unusual size no doubt served the same purpose as other large vessels found in graves of the same period in different parts of England. A much more usual article of sepulchral furniture is the iron shield- boss which was taken from the east end of the grave where the sword and certain other objects had been previously found. A circle of a darker colour than the earth showed where the wooden shield had been, but was not definite enough to prove the dimensions. Scattered about in this part of the grave were fragments of a vase of dense grey ware, well baked and made on the wheel, the ornament consisting of impressed chevrons. It is quite unlike the ware usually found with such interments in Kent, and is perhaps more nearly related to the Merovingian than to the Roman civilization, which is not indicated by any other object in the grave. The Merovingian pottery is fairly uniform in quality and size, and is quite distinct both in form and texture from Roman and Anglo- 1 Both are figured in Inventorium Sefukhrale, pi. xv. figs, i, a ; for description of the grave, see p. 1 6 and reference there. 323 IRON STANDING-CUP FROM GRAVE AT BROOMFIELD.
