1769, but the few details recorded were not published till seventeen years later. Though not in themselves of much importance, they suggest that the road existed before the interments were made, and furnished a means of communication between several early Saxon settlements on its course. More than twelve skeletons were discovered at Dinton, but many of the bones were scattered. In three cases however the direction of the graves could still be determined, the head being to the north-west, but beyond a glass cup, nothing except iron weapons of the usual kind appear to have been deposited with the bodies. Douglas published a letter from Sir John Van Hattem, the owner of the estate, briefly describing the exploration of the mounds, and illustrated three of the objects discovered.[1] An iron spear- head and knife call for no remark, but the conical glass cup, apparently from the grave of a warrior,[2] is of a form somewhat rare in England. Being footless, the vessel cannot stand upright, and the ornament consists, as usual, of loops and spirals of applied threads. Outside the more richly furnished graves of Kent, specimens have been found at Kempston, Beds, and East Shefford, Berks, and also in a Jutish cemetery on Chessell Down, Isle of Wight.[3]
Another brooch of the saucer-type has been found at Bishopstone, about 2 miles east of Dinton, and the same distance from Aylesbury ; while beside it in the museum of the Bucks Archaeological Society is ex- hibited another variety from the same locality. Instead of being made all in one piece, this brooch has an embossed gilt plate of bronze applied to the front, while a separate vertical border is attached to a stouter plate at the back to which have been affixed the pin and catch. The applied plate is very common on circular brooches from this part of England, and in the large cemetery at Kempston, Beds, many were found associ- ated with the true saucer-brooch manufactured in one piece. The latter type is also represented by a specimen in the same museum found in 1859 at Kingsey Park, another site in the Aylesbury district, but no further particulars of its discovery are on record. Yet another [4] was discovered about sixty years ago at Mentmore, where several skeletons were subsequently unearthed at different spots.[5] Some were found in a gravel pit in the centre of the village ; and others, of which two had been accom- panied by spears, were met with on the brow of the hill immediately south of the church. About twelve more burials in all were found nearer the church and kennels, but the only objects found with them were a bronze buckle-plate, a coin of Constans or Constantius (fourth century) and a few fragments of iron weapons. Those burials of which any note was taken at the time had been in an east-and-west direction, the head being to the west. At Wing, 3 miles distant, several skeletons
- ↑ Nenia Britannica, pl. xvi. figs. 4, 5 and 6, and p. 69. Records of Buckinghamshire, ii. 137-9 ; Arch. x. p. 169, pl. xviii.
- ↑ Douglas conjectures that it came from a woman's grave, but its association with a spearhead seems decisive.
- ↑ Akerman's Archaeological Index, pl. xiv. fig. 12. Journal of Brit. Arch. Assoc. i. 52, fig. 2. Others are published from Andernach, Bavaria and Rhenish Hesse.
- ↑ Figured in Arch. xxxv. 381, where the excavations are described ; see also Proc. Soc. Ant. iii. 72.
- ↑ One is marked on the 6-inch ordnance map.
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