Chartham Down Grave G
Creators: name: Hamerow, Helena
Publisher: name: University of Oxford
Year: 2021
Subjects: Archaeology

description: In all the rest of the barrows which have been opened (to the number of about twenty), there was nothing particular observed. They were, all of them, nearly of the same depth; and in each of them a single skeleton entire, lying with the head toward the west and the feet toward the east. About the waist of the skeletons were found, in several barrows, two, three, or four silver buckles,[1] about half an inch broad; and to some, part of the straps is still adhering. Among the leather which was found here there is one piece about half an inch broad, very nicely punched in form of lozenges. The shank of one of the small silver buckles, whereby it was fastened on to the leather, is set with small garnets set in gold. There were also two or three silver staples, to pass the end of the leather strap under, when it was buckled.A copper buckle, one inch broad, with a shank two inches long, has a very particular contrivance of a round piece joined to the hinge of the tongue, by which means the tongue cannot be lifted up, but the ring part must be depressed in order to pass the leather through.In another tumulus were found a pair of square brass hinges, two and a half inches long and one inch broad.[2] In others were found rings of silver wire of about three-quarters of an inch diameter. One of them had a blue glass bead, half an inch diameter, on it. A silver pin two inches long, with a rivet at each end; and with these a small silver hook.In all the tumuli, except those where the urns were found, were several pieces of rusty iron; most of them so much decayed that it was impossible to ascertain [3] what they were. In two barrows were found two heads of spears pretty entire; one of them is six inches and a half long and one inch and three-quarters broad at the head, the shank seven inches long, wherein some wood was still remaining. The other is eight inches long and two inches broad. They lay even with the heads of the skeletons on the right side; and, by some small splinters of rotten wood, seem to have been laid in the right hand of the corpses.Among the rubbish, in another, was found the head of a javelin seven inches long and two inches broad, the shank six inches long with the wood in it. As, likewise, the head of an arrow, two inches long and one inch broad; and the shank, in which was some wood, two inches long. And, besides these, several pieces of rusty iron, not so entire, but yet whole enough to know that they were parts of the like weapons.[4] One of them, which ends in a round sharp point, was probably the bottom or ferule of a spike.In others were found blades of knives, in shape like our common penknives, having thick backs and sharp points with strait edges. The biggest, beside what went into the handle, is five inches long and one inch broad: the smallest, three inches long and half an inch broad.There were also found a piece of iron, round at top, two inches and a half long and one inch and a half broad, in form like a modern spatula, with two holes in it; and part of a small iron handle, two inches long.[5]In another was found a pair iron shears, eleven inches long, like those our cloth-dressers use.[6]In two others were found, lying at the head of the skeleton, two bosses or umboes of shields: one of them is an almost exact hemisphere, six inches in diameter, with a spike in the centre. The brim is turned up half an inch, in which are the remains of four rivets by which it was fastened to the shield. Near this were found several nails with heads one inch and a half broad, and which had been evidently riveted into wood; whence I conclude that the whole shield was of wood, closely studded[7] with three broad-headed nails, which stood so close that their heads touched each other. The other umbo is conical, five inches high and five and a half inches diameter, with the brim turned up half an inch, wherein were the remains of three rivets.Among the rubbish of several tumuli, were found parts of ordinary fibulas without plates.[8] These consist of a semicircle and a tongue, joined together by a hinge at one end and a hook at the other, under which the tongue is to be hitched.There were besides several fragments of iron, which seemed to be parts of such like things. On the rust of one was the impression of the threads of some coarse linen. Another had an iron ring and an eye; and one was rusty iron enclosed in decayed wood: to one a small cockle-shell was adhering. With these was dug up an iron hook two inches and a half long, resembling the hook of a sword now in use.And, lastly, we found two iron buckles, like those we wear with buff belts; one of them is one inch and a quarter broad, and is of an oval shape; the other is one inch and three quarters broad, and hath square corners.In some of these graves we lighted on glass beads, about the size of peas, red, green, and white; and one larger, made of brick, red striped with yellow. In another were some pieces of blue glass: in another a single amethyst bead. In most of them were pieces of charcoal.[9] No medals were found.The skeletons were very entire; but the small bones would not bear removing. The heads were mostly whole; and the jaws full of sound teeth. One of the skulls seemed crushed as if a cart wheel had gone over it: another had a sliver off it, by which means there were four holes, of about an inch diameter, cut through the os occipitis.[1] I have found a great many small buckles of this sort and shape, but all of brass; of which metal I take these mentioned here to be, for I have often examined them. They are chiefly found in women's and children's graves, and near the middle of the skeletons. - B. F.[2] These hinges are never found but in the graves of women and children. They belonged to little wooden chests, or boxes, like our modem tea-chests, which were placed at the feet of the deceased. - B.F.[3] Among these pieces of rusty iron are (for they are still preserved at Mystole) three or four, which I have discovered to be the bolts of the locks of boxes. See Ash, No. 42; Kingston, Nos. 142, 169, 205; Sibertswold, Nos. 10, 69, 151, 180. - B. F.[4] I take this to be mere conjecture. I never yet found any heads of any of these weapons so corroded, but that they were plainly to be known for what they were; their substantial make and form enabling them to withstand the injuries of time and rust much longer than almost anything of the same metal usually met with in such researches. - B. F.[5] The former is a bolt of a lock that has lost one of its ends; the latter is one of the handles fixed upon the lids of small boxes. - B.F.[6] These shears are never found but in women's graves: though I have several of them, I never found any so long as eleven inches; they are usually between five and seven inches in length. They appear to have hung by slender chains from the waist. - B. F.[7] I have no reason to think they were set so thick on the shield as the Doctor imagines. I never met with above five to an umbo. - B. F.[8] For an entire one, see Crundale, No. 9. - B.F.[9] What the Doctor took for charcoal, was certainly nothing more than the remains of such of the coffins as had, us usual, passed the fire. And I make no doubt, but that, if he had thought of such a thing, he might have plainly discovered that by far the greatest part, if not the whole, of the skeletons were actually buried in coffins, or troughs, of wood; as I myself did in this very place, and indeed in all others, wherever I have yet dug. The end proposed by burning them was to make them more durable. - B. F.