About the year 1827 two silver bracelets or armlets, exhibiting certain features of late Celtic character, were found by a farmer at Burtles Hill, in the parish of Castle Thorpe.[1] A small black earthen pot, in which they had been deposited, was struck and broken by the coulter of a plough. 
Bronze Fibula Found at Datchet Old Ford.It was then discovered that numerous coins had been contained in the pot. No less than twenty silver coins and thirty-five large brass coins, together with a massive silver ring set with a cornelian, were picked up in the plough furrow. The coins included some of Antoninus Pius, Faustina and Verus in the finest condition, so it is probable that the time of the deposit was during the reign of Verus, A.D. 161–169.
The armlets are of great interest on account of their zoomorphic terminations and the decorative work all round their external surfaces. Mr. Thomas Bateman, into whose possession they subsequently passed, considered that they represent the heads of serpents, but the treatment is perhaps of a too conventional character to allow of identification of the precise species of creature intended to be represented.
From the fact that these treasures were found enclosed in an earthen vessel showing traces of fire it seems probable that they represent the remains of the cremation of some individual during the period of the Roman occupation of Britain. The discovery of a skull during a subsequent irregular search by servants is noteworthy, although it would not of itself be sufficient evidence that this was a sepulchral deposit. The association may have been purely accidental.
It is a remarkable fact that two other silver armlets of very similar character to these were found in a cavern at Carleswark, in Middleton Dale, Derbyshire.[2] The Derbyshire specimens, as well as those from Buckinghamshire, may be referred to a period not later than the second century A.D.
Other examples were found with the burnt remains of a cremated interment at Slay Hill Saltings, Upchurch, Kent, and, like those from Castle Thorpe, are now in the British Museum.
Judged by their broad general characters one would be inclined to place these armlets within the region of Roman art, as they unquestionably are in respect of the date of their manufacture. The evidence of
188
