Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/245

DISCOVERED AT LITTLE AVILBRAHAM, CAMBRIDGESHIRE. 177 object, apparently identical with those found at Ash and at Northfleet. It fell to pieces on admission of the air, and the remains consistid of curved plates of thin bronze, which doubtless had formed the hoops, and about twenty triangular plates, which appeared to have been attached by rivets over one of the hoops, and had probably formed a Vandyked ornament, as noticed in the other examples. These thin plates were simply ornamented with rows of dots, hammered up in the metal. Some minor objects of bronze were also noticed, seemingly parts of a kind of fastening or padlock ; and remains of two earthen cuj)s. In this discovery, it was conjectured that these remains had formed part of a helmet ; but, whilst the thin fabric of the metal plate was wholly unsuited to such a purpose, the discovery of so rich a necklace and other ornaments whh the corpse, justify the conclusion that the re- mains were those of a female ; for wliose choice appliances and ornaments this bronze-bound capsa had probably served as a receptacle. Mr. J. Y. Akkrman, who laid these interesting relics before the Society of Antiquaries, considered the interment to be of the VI. or VII. century,^ To ^Ir. Franks we are indebted for pointing out an interesting fragment lately found by him amongst the dhjecta membra of British antiquity, the arrangement of which is now in progress at the British Museum. It is a thin ornamental plate of bronze, of triangular form, found between Sandgatc and Dover, doubt- less a portion of the metal mountings of an object similar to those already described. As these ancient relics of the Anglo-Saxon age have conjecturally been regarded as connected with some kind of helmet, it may not be irrelevant to advert to the remains of certain Saxon objects of a ditferent class, hooped or bound with a frame- work of thin metal, which do appear to have composed some kind of head-piece, during that period. Of this description appears to have been the curious frame of bronze found on the skull in an interment discovered on Leckhampton Ilill, near Cheltenham. (Arcbaeol. Journ., vol. i., p. 387 ; figured in vol. iii., p. 352.) Another, found at Souldern, Oxfordshire, on the Portway, found, as described by Sir Henry Dryden, about the head of the deceased. Fragments of leather were to be seen between the thin brass plates.'* Another remarkable example is described by Mr. Bateman, found in a Saxon tumulus in Derbyshire. (Journal of Arcbaeol. Assoc, vol. iv., p. 278.) Tliis head piece was regarded by the late Sir Samuel Meyrick as the British " Penfestyn." It is highly interesting to compare with these discoveries in our own country, the assemblage of relics of the same age found in 1740, on the banks of the Mouse, near Verdun. They are represented in the " Museum Schcopflinum," (Argentorati, 1773, tab.'xvi.) Oberlin, who describes this deposit, conceived it to have been the sepulchre of some great prince, possibly King Theodebert, or Theodebald, in the sixth century. There were found a shallow vessel of bronze, an umbo and an axe-head of iron ^ See a Notice in the Minutes of the Mr. Bateman, near Buxton. Vestiges, p. 94. Society of Antiquaries, vol. i., p. 12. A •* Antiquities of Steeple Aston, by VVil- similar necklace, pins, &c., were found by liam Wing, p. 73. Plate of bronze in Brit. Mus. Orig. size.