ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS again revealed but was reduced to half the size mentioned by Mr. Babington. Mortaria of heavy yellowish pottery, for instance, are not likely to have been deposited with the dead, though the other wares mentioned are frequently found in Roman graves. The Anglo-Saxon pottery is not described accurately, but some of the incised patterns can be recognized in the Leicester Museum, which also contains a few plain vases from this site. There can, however, be no hesitation in assigning two brooches 1B to that period ; one, measuring 5} in. in length, is of the large square-headed variety with gilt and engraved front (plate I, fig. i,) common in the midlands and East Anglia, and probably dates from about A.D. 600 ; the other is of Scandi- navian type with stout bronze stem and square head-plate, the latter having a knob at the top moulded in one piece with it, the other two knobs, originally attached to the edges, having disappeared. According to the workmen, the skull was in each case lying at some considerable distance from the remainder of the skeleton, but in the absence of precise details it is not necessary to suppose that the bodies had been decapitated before burial. Some of the skulls, though fragmentary, were investigated by Mr. Inchly at Cambridge, and the longitudinal indices of three determined as 8o'8, 79-82, and 73. The third is the only one likely to have been Anglo-Saxon " ; and comparison with the Frilford and Reading series 17 suggests that the others belonged to Roman or Celtic subjects. It should be noted that two complete querns or hand-mills for grain were found during the railway excavations. They might be as early as the Bronze Age or as late as the Anglo-Saxon period, but it may be remarked that a large number were found in the Late-Celtic camp at Hunsbury, Northamptonshire ; and examples have been found in a grave of somewhat uncertain date at Reading, 18 and in Anglo-Saxon interments on three sites in Derbyshire and at Holme Pierrepont, Nottinghamshire. Five miles further up the valley we arrive at the centre of the county town, where several isolated discoveries have been made, though no cemeteries have hitherto been brought to light. The antiquities now in the Municipal Museum include two urns from the town : one of rather graceful form (plate II, fig. 3), found in 1866, 3 ft. deep, at the back of Court A, Church- gate, 18 * contains burnt human bones and is of grey ware with four incised lines round the shoulder. The height and diameter are both 8 in., and the vessel is said to have been covered by an iron shield-boss of the usual Saxon pattern, and to have stood between the heads of two skeletons buried at the same depth. It is quite distinct in character from the other, which was found on the site of Messrs. Stead & Simpson's factory, Belgrave Gate. It has a wide mouth and rounded body, the ornament consisting of lines round the neck and incised chevrons of triple lines on the shoulder. Both these urns point to the practice of cremation in post-Roman times. Another object worthy of notice is of black glass, resembling a large unpierced bead, with red and white circular spots irregularly placed. It was found near Jewry Wall, and resembles somewhat closely a specimen in the " Plates i & iii accompanying Mr. Tucker's paper. 16 This is illustrated by Mr. Tucker, pi. ii. " V.C.H. Berks, i, 237. 18 Ibid, with references ; V. C.H.Notts, i, 195. 18i Leic. Trans, iii, 122, fig. 4, is another from the same site. 227
