Sarre Anglo-Saxon Cemetery
- Grave 159
To
Sarre Cemetery Introduction
GRAVE 159 -
Finds An iron bolt, some keys, two knives,
and a small pair of bronze tweezers. A very large and fine cruciform
fibula (Plate VI., Fig. 1) lay edgeways by the left side, and
separated from it the recurved catch which received the acus.
1. This fibula is about five inches long, and of bronze
gilt, (the reverse, however, has apparently been silvered.) The four
corners of its upper compartment are set with square garnets, and an
oblong garnet forms the centre, surrounded with a thin edging of
silver. Elaborate devices not uncommon in these relics are chased
along its edges and borders. The lower part is of a complicated and
very elegant pattern. An edging of thick chased silver wire has
apparently once run round its outer edge, as is the case with other
fibulae of this pattern. Only part of this remains. These large
cruciform fibulae are not uncommon in Anglo-Saxon Cemeteries; the
greater number are of bronze, sometimes washed with gold, but mostly
without the addition of stones or ivory.
2. I am inclined to think it a misnomer to call these
"tweezers" by that name. I cannot but believe them to have
been used for sewing purposes, and to form, in fact, a complement to
those collections of pins, bodkins, and scissors, which, found as they
are with decayed wood attached to bronze and iron plating, and with
the bolts of small locks, seem to have been stored in the work-boxes
of Saxon ladies. Of the many pins and bodkins in bronze and ivory
found at Sarr one or two had slight indentations round the head, but
apparently for ornament only, and none were pierced through; indeed,
were they pierced, the large size of the head would render them
useless for sewing.
They were more probably used to puncture the work, after
which the tweezers would take the thread and draw it through; for
needles are almost unknown in our Kentish Saxon graves. The tweezers
from Grave LXXXVI. (absurdly large if really tweezers with our modern
use) were found in a man’s grave, and probably served in this way
for his coarser work in leather, hides, or canvas.