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XIX.—Further Researches in an Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Frilford, with Remarks on the Northern Limit of Anglo-Saxon Cremation in England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2012

George Rolleston
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Extract

The first discovery in the cemetery at Frilford, subsequent to those already recorded in the Archæologia, XLII. p. 417–485, was made on March 22, 1869, when a leaden coffin was found, containing the bones of a young woman, with a toilet comb at the right of the back of her head. This brings the number of leaden coffins found at Frilford up to five; one of them has already been figured in Archæologia, XLII. pl. xxiv. figures 7 and 8.

Type
Research Article
Information
Archaeologia , Volume 45 , Issue 2 , 1880 , pp. 405 - 410
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1880

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References

page 405 note a For difference between toilet and other combs, see Anderson, Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. June 10, 1872 p. 551. and woodcut in loco.

page 405 note b The fragment, which with a triangular apex pointing upwards, occupies about the middle point in the front upper border of the urn figured above, is the same fragment which is figured with its apex pointing downwards, pl. xxiii. fig. 2, Archæologia xlii.

page 406 note a Sussex Archæological Collections, vol. xvi. p. 58.

page 406 note b For figures of similar tweezers, see Lindenschmit, Alterthümer, Bd. ii. Hft. v. Taf. vi. where they are said to be found usually in men's graves, but sometimes in women's. Neville, Saxon Obsequies, pl. ii. Cochet, Normandie Souterraine p. 219, pl. vii. fig. 35.

page 406 note c For the greater fineness of workmanship in these smaller vessels, see Kemble, Horse Ferales, p.225 ; Roach Smith, Collect. Antiq. iv. 161–196.

page 407 note a It was thus as given by Cochet l.c., “Corpus ponitur in spelunkâ in qua … ponitur aqua benedicta … Aqua benedicta ne dæmones qui multum earn timent ad corpus accedant: solent namque desævire in corpora mortuorum, ut quod nequiverunt in vita saltern post mortem agant.” Cochet's own words are, “Tons les cimetières mèrovingiens et même carlovingiens que nous retrouvons … montrent toujours aux pieds du mort un vase vide dont les hommes d'aujourdhui nous demandent le sens et le mystêre. Nous croyons l'avoir trouvé dans la piété náive et grossière, peutêtre même materielle et superstiticuse, de nos pères. Nous supposons done, non sans fondement, qu'ils auront mis dans ce vase une eau sacrée préservatvice des obsessions et des possessions démoniaques si fréquentes chez les vivants et dont les morts ne leur paraissaient ni exempts ni affranchis.

page 407 note b For the general literature, see Cochet, Arch. Cer. p. 14, ibique citata ; Normandie Souterraine, pp. 199, 267 ; La Seine Inferieure, p. 530 ; Tombeau de Childeric, p. 391, ibique citata; Akerman, Researches at Long Wittenham, Archæologia xxxviii. pp. 342, 346, 352, (note) 330, 333, 342, 352 ; pl. xx. fig. 2 ; Pagan Saxondom, pl. xxii. where an urn eight inches high is described as containing tweezers, shears, comb, and knife, though it is not stated whether any bones were found in it or not. See also Inventorium Sepulchrale, 1856, Introd. p. xxvi. and Neville's Saxon Obsequies, p. 9, where vessels like these are said to have been very frequently, as regards the entire number (viz. three or four times out of twelve), found with infant skeletons, and to have been found either at head or foot, “though in the grave of an adult two small vases were found, one on each side of the former.” This difference in placing seems to me to favour my view as above stated. The Selzen vases were, it is true, or nearly always, at the feet, and those found in the French interments of the same period, always, according to Cochet I. c. But at Hallstatt (see V. Sacken, Das Grabfeld von Hallstatt, 1868, p. 107) the position of these vases was most variable, “bald standen sie zur rechten, bald zur linken Seite des Skelettes, neben dem Kopfe, bei dem Hüften oder zur den Füssen, bei Verbrennungen in der Regel neben den Brandresten, selten auf denselben.”

page 408 note a These four skeletons, with the relics accompanying them, were presented to the Cornell University Ithaca, United States. A more detailed account of these objects than that given above may be found in the “Register “of that University for 1870–1871, pp. 50–54.

page 408 note b For figure of a skeleton with skull similarly raised, see Grabfeld von Hallstatt, tab. iii. fig. 4.

page 410 note a For statements as to this littleness, see Stubbs, Constitutional History, p. 61 ; Freeman, Norman Conquest, i. 25, 26.