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Kent Archaeological Society's Archaeological Collection - to Collections Introduction

Bifrons Anglo-Saxon Cemetery - Grave 41

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GRAVE 41 - 
   Finds  By the left side a knife,


 an iron key,


 and two iron rings,


 and near them an iron buckle with a bronze ferrule on the tongue as in Grave 30. 


On the chest towards the right side a large hammer-shaped bronze brooch elaborately embossed, which came out of the grave in the three pieces in which it had been originally manufactured, the soldering or cement having decayed. The three divisions are given in the engraving of its reverse side.


large hammer-shaped bronze brooch elaborately embossed


engraving of its reverse side

Two smaller brooches of the same shape, of bronze much gilt and set with pieces of red glass ; one of these had lost its point, apparently before burial. 


Near them lay too another very small brooch of bronze, shaped to represent an eagle, or other bird with a hooked beak. Its pin points to the bird's head, confirming my remark in the preface, derived from the position in which hammer-shaped brooches are found, that the longer brooches pointed their pins upwards. 


Also a buckle, a strap-tongue, and a small tag or rivet, all of bronze, and four small brass Roman coins. At the feet a few beads, mostly of bugle shape, and near them a flat circular disc or counter, apparently of a black stone polished, which may possibly have been a touchstone for assaying gold. At the head another series of beads, principally amber, and among them a few links of a bronze chain ; one of these beads is a large one of green glass nearly an inch in diameter, and a very beautiful specimen. Here also was some gold wire, woven as part of a riband. On a left finger a silver ring spirally shaped. 


Somewhere in the grave was a small fragment of green glass, 


and by the head a very beautiful and delicate glass cup, 4 inches in height and 2¾ inches in diameter at the mouth, and tapering in bell-shaped form to a point at the other end. (Pl. II.) The other end however seems to be broken at the tip, and not improbably once ended in a small circular boss, like that similar but more elaborate cup from Grave iv. in the Sarre Cemetery, figured at p. 316 of our Fifth Volume.


delicate glass cup

 

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