. The arts in early England. the saucer or applied type which is of earlyappearance, were numerous. In his two years exploration ofFrilford cemetery, Berks, where he reported on 123 skeletons,Professor Rolleston only found a single buckle,4 and Frilford,like Long Wittenham a partly cremation cemetery, is an earlyone. Apart from these chronological considerations there isanother reason why buckles in general are less frequentlyfound than we should expect. At Fairford and at Kempstonthe explorers noticed that there was a knife in nearly everygrave, and this would make the absence of the normal b
. The arts in early England. the saucer or applied type which is of earlyappearance, were numerous. In his two years exploration ofFrilford cemetery, Berks, where he reported on 123 skeletons,Professor Rolleston only found a single buckle,4 and Frilford,like Long Wittenham a partly cremation cemetery, is an earlyone. Apart from these chronological considerations there isanother reason why buckles in general are less frequentlyfound than we should expect. At Fairford and at Kempstonthe explorers noticed that there was a knife in nearly everygrave, and this would make the absence of the normal beltfastenings somewhat surprising, but it may be partly accountedfor on the following grounds. While the fibula was normallyof bronze and was in most cases ornamented, the buckle was 1 Neville, Saxon Obsequies, Lond., 1852, graves 26, 28, 35, 46, 73, 151,160, 168, 169. 2 Associated Societies Reports, 1864, p. 293. 3 Fairford Graves, Oxford, 1852. 4 Archaeologia, xlii, 483. LXXIII facing p. 355 BRONZE AND IRON BUCKLES LXXIII. t, 2, are j natural sizeJ, 4, are Continental IRON AND BRONZE BUCKLES 355 very commonly of iron, and, as was noticed above (p. 245),was plainer and more utilitarian. Buckles made of iron mustvery commonly have perished, or, lying, as they would, notconspicuously by the head but about the middle of the body,have escaped notice owing to their reduction by rust to anindistinct mass. On PI. lxxv No. 3 shows a rusted ironbuckle of the kind from the early cemetery at Mitcham,Surrey, and one or two in the same sort of condition fromBifrons are in the K. A. S. Museum at Maidstone. A moreornate specimen in the same metal PL lxxv, 4, comes fromCroydon, Surrey. Kent was undoubtedly one of the richestparts of the country, and buckles were more likely to be madeof bronze there than in other districts. If iron elsewhere werethe normal material for the buckle we should obtain a reasonfor its very partial survival, and should at the same time findthe key to a curious morph
Size: 1288px × 1940px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksub, booksubjectarchitecture
