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ANGLO-SAXON SKULL.
EROM CEMETERY, EIBLE, SOUTH DOWNS, SUSSEX.
(KINGDOM OP SOTJTH SAXONS, PIFTH TO NINTH CBNTTJRT A.D.)
Cranium from Barrow near Firle, Sussex Downs.—Quarter-size.
THIS cranium, which has so much the air of a modern English skull, was discovered, January
1843, in a small cemetery on. the South Downs about six miles east of Lewes, hy Mr. Coles
ChUd, to whom we are indebted for permission to lithograph it. This is the most elevated spot
in the county. There was a cluster of more than a dozen depressed tumuli, the largest not more
than 9 ft. in diameter, each of which contained one skeleton, laid in a cist about 3 feet deep.
In every case the feet pointed to the east. No spears or ornaments of any kind were found in
the graves. By the left side of the skeleton to which this skull appertained, there were traces
of rust upon the chalk,—the last remains of an iron knife. This skeleton was the tallest in
the group, and measiu'ed 6 feet 4 inches*.
I t appeal's to have been that of a man of about the middle period of life, perhaps fi-om 35 to
40 years of age. His craniimi is remarkable for presenting a ghastly sword-cut, between four
and five inches in length, extending longitudinally backwards from just above the middle of the
left orbit, the whole length of the frontal bone, and about an inch and a half into the parietal.
It is a clean cut of a sword, received from an arm of no mean power, and has penetrated both
tables of the skull for the entii-e length of the wound. The appearances it presents leave no
room to doubt that it was inflicted before interment, and that it was the death wound of the
* Henry of Huntingdon, recounting the invasion of vEIla, A.D. 477, the founder of the kingdom of the South Saxons, says,
" Saxones vero statura et vigore m a x i m i s o abundantly confirnied by the testimony of the cemeteries.
29. (1)
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