Kingston Down Grave 127

Middle-sized tumulus; grave about three feet deep, with its feet pointing to the east. The bones were much decayed; very old teeth. The head of a pilum on the left side: a conical umbo of a shield, as at No. 124: three broad-headed iron studs: a fine brass buckle and shank [M 6176];[1] a smaller brass buckle [M 6177]: the blade of a knife: the iron spike, ferrule, or bottom of the pilum; which, by the situation in the grave, shewed that the pilum was much about four feet long. The coffin did not appear to have passed the fire. Here were also some nails and other bits of iron.[1]Buckles of this form, from the Kentish barrows, are by no means numerous; neither are they common in other parts of England. In the extensive cemetery at Little Wilbraham, where nearly two hundred skeletons were found, only one example was discovered. In the Frankish graves they are very common; the material being usually copper and iron elaborately damascened. See Normandie Souterraine, by the Abbé Cochet; and Tombeaux de Bel-Air, by M. Frederic Troyon.- C.R.S.