A HISTORY OF NORFOLK the same in both cases, they do not exhibit the same style of art. The Bacton wreath of garnets bears some analogy to a piece in the Wieuwerd find,* in which the intertwined foliage or plaited cord appears, not carried out in cell-work but in gold filigree. Such applied wire-work is usually characteristic of a later period, but there is every reason to concur in the date assigned, which coincides with that of the East Anglian specimens. Such an archsological survey of the northern part of East Anglia brings into prominence three main features which may to a certain extent be correlated with the written history of the time. These are the practice of cremation, the signs of Kentish influence, and a partial adoption of a different method of burial. As already observed, the extensive traces of urn-burial in East Anglia render it necessary to regard this as the primary method of inter- ment among the Anglian peoples. In Norfolk indeed the rite of fire was not exclusively observed, for undoubted unburnt burials have been found, and it is here that the fallacy of observation has to be reckoned with. The farm labourer is not as a rule attracted by bits of bone and crocks the colour of the earth turned up by the ploughshare, but a shower of rain may often lead to a discovery by laying bare a gilded brooch that never passed the fire, but was buried on its owner's breast more than a thousand years ago. Other things being equal the instances of cremation must be considerably added to in order to strike a proper average ; and if this be done, urn-burial will be certainly acknowledged as the rule in early Norfolk. But the two chief reUcs of the Anglo- Saxon period found in this county rather caution us against the opposite error of supposing that even the most attractive relics may readily be traced to the graves in which they were originally deposited. Observa- tion in both these cases was not acute or fortunate enough to discover traces of a cemetery, and it is hard to think that either object had not been buried with an unburnt body somewhere in the immediate neigh- bourhood. The circumstances at Wilton and Bacton were alike in one important respect, for in both cases the jewel was picked up at the base of a declivity which in all Hkelihood had been receding regularly for some space of time. Burials on the higher level such as the early races loved may well have passed unnoticed, for the fragile bones would be shattered by the fall and the relics scattered far and wide. Though nothing further seems to have come to light at either spot a keen and practised eye would perhaps have found enough to prove a burial and possibly a cemetery ; and the Norfolk jewels, with the third at Ixworth, suggest the thought, how many less attractive ornaments have been lost to archaeology. Any one would be struck with the appearance of the precious metal, and its intrinsic value would ensure its preservation as a relic, or at least its acquisition by some one capable of appraising it ; while on the other hand the much more usual brooch of bronze is of little interest or value to the casual finder, and passes out of history. • In Friesland, not far from the coast. Bonner Jahrbiicher, 1867, heft 43, pp. 67, 81. 344
