A HISTORY OF WORCESTERSHIRE funeral customs, and it would be unwise to assign all distinctly West Saxon burials in Hwiccia to the period before its conquest by Penda. But on the other hand there are sufficient grounds for classing all burials that display a Mercian or Anglian influence as belonging at the earliest to the second half of the seventh century ; for as communication with Wessex ceased, closer contact with the midlands would lead to the intro- duction of foreign elements which would to some extent be represented in the contents of the graves. If Worcestershire were rich enough in relics to make a thorough classification possible, we might expect to find the earliest graves exclu- sively West Saxon, perhaps with traces of the earlier British civiliza- tion ; while a mixture of West Saxon and Anglian ornaments, or the latter occurring alone, would betoken a burial subsequent to the middle of the seventh century. So far as the discoveries go historical evidence is supported by archsological results, but it would be idle to assert that a complete vindication of the records is as yet possible on these lines, for the value of the few excavations already made is much impaired by defective observation and description. To pass to an enumeration of the relics recovered from pagan or semi-pagan burials in the county, the first site that claims notice is Upton Snodsbury, which lies about six miles east of the county town. Here was apparently a cemetery, from which some objects were exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries^ in 1866, but a fuller and more accurate account of the find was communicated to the Archaeological Institute ^ in the following year by Mr. Pouting of Worcester. To borrow from his paper, it appears that the local field club had rejected two crystal ' spindle-whorls ' (figs. 4, 5) as modern before any archasological exam- ination of the site had been undertaken, and many interesting relics were no doubt lost in the interval. In digging gravel labourers had come upon iron spearheads and numerous amber beads (fig. 3), many of which were subsequently recovered from cottagers in the vicinity. A broad, two-edged iron sword, 3 feet long and evidently of the usual pattern, was discovered, as well as ' three bronze brooches of cruciform type (figs. 6, 7, 8) and a pair of scyphate or saucer form (fig. 9) ornamented with concentric circles.' A trench about 30 feet in length, 6 feet deep and 3 to 4 feet wide was noticed and yielded many objects which were thrown aside as of no value and irrecoverably lost. The brooches and amber necklaces just mentioned were however found, not in the trench, but lying apart at a short distance, and the site was on a bank with a warm south-western aspect and a brook flowing below. All the objects figured are preserved in the Victoria Institute at Worcester, and have been specially drawn for the present chapter by kind per- mission of the committee. In the critical remarks that follow the account, the Anglo-Saxon character of these remains is regarded as obvious. The spindle-whorls 1 Proceedings, new series, iii. 342 ; Llewellynn Jewitt's Relifuary, April, 1873, xiii. 206.
- Journal, xxiv. 351.
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