ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS before interment. It consists of a gold disc if in. across covered with bands of filigree in S and C scrolls and having four hollow^ settings round a larger setting, arranged in a manner characteristic of a Kentish type,*'" and similar in all essentials to the brooch found near Woodbridge. The five bosses now missing were perhaps of ivory, though the material of existing specimens is generally described as pearl or shell. Further discoveries made in 1871 showed that Mr. Rogers' meadow was the site of a cemetery, for among the relics was an iron sword in three pieces, which measured together about 2 ft. 2 in. (the normal length from tip to pommel being 3 ft.), and bore traces of the wooden scabbard ; also a spear-head, knife, and three shield-bosses of the usual form, two still retaining their handles. These remains imply at least three unburnt burials on this site, possibly somewhat earlier than the richly furnished grave described above which should date from the early part of the 7th century, as the Wilton cross-pendant contained a gold coin of Heraclius I (613-641). In the same meadow was found a pleasing example of later Anglo-Saxon art. It consists of a copper disc with slightly convex front, which is richly gilt and engraved in four quadrants leaving a plain cross between them.*"" In each of the spaces is an animal form, suggestive of a horse, with interlacings in the field ; and the rivet- holes show that the disk was not the face of a brooch, but the head of a pin like one found in the Witham at Lincoln and now in the British Museum.*^ At Pakenham, 2 miles south of Ixworth, was found in i 843 a curious bronze prick-spur that passed into the possession of Sir John Evans and has been published." It seems to have been an isolated find in a ploughed field, and, though no close parallels are known, probably belongs to the late Anglo-Saxon period. The animal-heads that ornament the centre and the ends where the strap joined are evidently derived from models in use during the pagan period, but cannot be more precisely dated. The eyes of the three heads were filled with blue glass in a manner recalling the seal- matrix found at Eye (p. 352), and a bronze fragment inscribed with runes found in the Thames at Westminster.'" This is an obvious way of indicating the eye, and is not by any means confined to one period or country. The prick-spur was used by the Romans in Britain, but is seldom found, and Anglo-Saxon specimens are still rarer. Farther up the valley, on land called the Leys at Tostock, a discovery was made about 1843 that points to Kentish influence in the 6th or early 7th century. It consists of a bronze buckle^"" with an oblong plate, the latter filled with one large slab of garnet. A smaller slab is shaped to fit the space at the base of the tongue, and the specimen is very "' As Inventorium Sepulchrale, pi. ii, fig. 4 ; F.C.H. Kent, i, 354, pi. i, fig. 17.
- "' Journ. Bril. Arch. Assoc, xxvii, 259, fig. 3 (Mr. S. Fenton's collection).
'* Reliquary, 1904, p. 52, frontispiece. The date is probably ninth century. Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc, iii, 119. '» F.C.H. London, , 1 67. "^ Figured in colours by Akcrman, Pagan Saxondom, pi. i, fig. 9 ; Proc. Soc. Antiq. xv, 268 ; for Gilton buckle, see Arch, xxx, pi. ii, fig. 5 ; Arch. Index, pi. xvii, fig. 10. Fig. 7. — Bronze-gilt Disc-head of Pin, Ixworth (J) 337 43
