NOTICE OF REMAINS OF THE ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD,

DISCOVERED AT LITTLE WILBRAHAM, CAMBRIDGESHIRE.

COMMUNICATED BY MR. DECK, F.G.S.**

IN the line of the direct Roman road forming part of the Ickling Street-way from Royston to Caistor, and passing through the well-known Devil's Dyke on Newmarket Heath, is a considerable elevation formed by the clunch or lower chalk marl. This is in the parish of Little Wilbraham, about six miles from Cambridge, and is well known to the villagers by the Anglo-Roman name of "Streetway-hill." The whole line abounds with tumuli, as may be observed on the map of the Ordnance Survey, marking the places of sepulture of the honoured dead of the warlike Iceni, the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons, as appears by the explorations made; and at various periods the plough and the spade have turned up numerous interesting relics, showing the successive occupation of the spot by these different races.

About four years since several remarkable fibulæ, armillæ, amulets, coins, and beads, some of which were exhibited at the Oxford Meeting of the Institute, were found, and successive operations have brought to light many other relics and numerous human remains. Early in the last year (1850), the summit of the hill was lowered, and, in effecting this, an escarpment of the chalk marl cut through exhibited the difference of soil that had upon former occasions suggested the probability of a deposit, and which, in many instances, proved to be correct. Upon carefully removing this soil, which was easily effected by the section made in sloping down the cutting, there was found a rectangular grave, 6 ft. 4 in. long, by 2 ft. 8 in. wide, in which was deposited, with much apparent care, a human skeleton of great stature. From the comparative measurement of the femur and tibia, the tenant of this tomb must have exceeded by some inches. the height of six feet. The body was laid with the face downwards, and with the feet towards the east.

Partly upon the occipital portion of the cranium, and the cervicular vertebræ, was placed a curious and apparently unique object, the form of which is shown by the accompanying representation. This, I am disposed to regard as a headpiece or kind of crown, intended as a mark of honour

to the illustrious dead. It is composed of a frame-work of wood, surrounded and kept together by three circlets of fine bronze metal, 14 in. wide, the lower rim skilfully turned up at the edge and well finished. These are held in their places by four uprights, of the same metal, placed at equal distances, ornamented at intervals by recurved horn-shaped pieces of

metal, with curious grotesque

terminations, and rivetted in a workman-like manner to the upright parts. The lower rim was surrounded by stamped metal of thin bronze, 2 in. high, terminating in a series of decorative triangular plates of thin bronze, as seen in the plate; the whole forming an ellipsis of 82 in. by 7, and 8 in. high. Under the breast was found a spear-head of iron, not differing in form from those of the period to which these remains have been attributed; and on the right side the small iron knife or dagger (see Plate) often found to be characteristic of this mode of sepulture. Upon the tibia lay an iron umbo, or boss, the only remnant of the shield. This, with the peculiar markings of the bronze ornaments, led to the conclusion that this interesting relic was of early Saxon date.

The cranium, of which the whole portion, from the occipital to the frontal bone, is entire, presents a remarkable conformation, and has excited the attention of the members of the medical profession to whom it has been submitted. The measurement from each extremity is largely out of proportion, forming an elongated oval of extraordinary dimensions; this curious relic of mortality will, with three others of similar malformation, which have been found in Cambridgeshire within the last ten years, form a subject of interesting investigation. They have been submitted to Dr. Thurnam, who is about to favour us with the result of his discriminating observations upon these and other distortions of the human cranium.

That this bronze ornament was intended as the insignia of honour-as a crown to the illustrious dead, I have no doubt; although this assertion is in opposition to the ideas

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of several archaeologists, for whose opinions I entertain high respect, and who consider it to have been a vessel in the form of a bucket or situla, similar to one which was found at Hexham, and is now deposited in the British Museum, or to that found at Northfleet, in 1847.2 My objections to this opinion are, that in this instance this object was deposited on a portion of the body where it would obviously be placed as a mark of honour. As a situla, the position in which it was found was an inverted one, whereas, if intended as a crown, it was in its proper direction. If it had served as a vessel, such as has been supposed, it must have had a bottom; but the most accurate search failed in discovering the slightest trace of such an adjunct, although the decayed portions of the upright staves were collected; and, lastly, it is not probable that it would have been deposited empty, as those in the instances already cited were filled with relics, that found at Hexham containing some thousands of Anglo-Saxon coins, and it may be presumed that, had this contained any object, some vestiges of its contents must have been discovered.

It is probable that a tumulus once crowned the summit of this sepulchral deposit, although no such tradition is handed down; but, as it is a highly cultivated part of the country, the successive operations of the husbandman have no doubt reduced it to its present level. The site is one worthy of those suitably selected for the tomb of a warrior -its elevation commanding a complete panoramic view of the whole surrounding country, forming an important military station either for attack or defence; the traces of the outworks, with the warlike relics constantly found, determine it to have been a position of considerable importance, as well as the scene of many successive military operations.

These relics will be deposited in the British Museum-in the "British Room," recently completed-where they may supply an important link in the chain of historical vestiges about to be chronologically arranged in the new department, so desirably appropriated to the exclusive illustration of British antiquities.

In April of the present year (1851), some labourers employed in digging chalk on Streetway Hill, within a few feet of the spot where the above-noticed discovery took place, came upon an extensive deposit of human remains,

1 See Archæologia, vol. xxv., p. 279.

2 Journal of the Archæol. Assoc., vol. iii., p. 235.