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ANGLO-SAXON SKULL.
PEOM CEMETERY AT EAIRPORD, GLOUCESTERSHIRE.
(KINGDOM OE MEKCIA OB MIDDLE-ANGLES, SIXTH TO NINTH CENTUEY A.D.)
Cranium from Cemetery at Fairford.—Quarter-size.
A CONSIDEKABIE Cemetery of the early Anglo-Saxon period was discovered in 1844, at Eairford in
Glouoestersliire, in tlie course of enclosing an old grass-field for the purpose of spade cultivation.
The village of Eairford, on the edge of the Cotswold Hills ia the south-west corner of Gloucestershire,
is situated on the little river Coin, about four miles from the spot, near Lechlade, where
this stream joins the Isis, wliich here forms the boundary between the counties of Gloucester and
"VVUts. It is about eight miles distant from Cirencester, the Corinium of the Romans,—the
capital of the ancient British tribe of the Dobuni—" Corinmm Dohimormi" of the Geographer
of Ravenna, and the Cirenceaster of the Anglo-Saxons. "Within four or five miles to the north
and to the west, are the important Roman roads, the Ermine and Ickneld Streets, the latter,
in this part of its course, often called Akeman Street, and which, after crossing the Lower Salt-
Way, unites with the Eoss-Way near Cirencester.
After the departure of the Romans, this district remained under the power of the Britons
until 577 A.D., when the West-Saxons, under Ceawlin and Cuthwine, after slaying the British
kings Comail, Condidan, and EarinmaU, in the battle of Deorham, took from them "three Chesters
—Gleawceaster, Cu-enceaster, andBathanceaster*." The earliest Anglo-Saxon settlements in this
part of Gloucestershire must thus be inferred to have been those of the West-Sexe or Gewissi.
This district, however, did not long continue under the power of Wessex, being wrested from
* Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 577 A.D. Lappenberg, "England
under the Anglo-Saxons," Engl. Ed. 1845, vol. i. p. 129.
S. Turner, "History of Anglo-Saxons," Seventh Edit. 1852,
20.
vol. i. p. 236. The Condidan of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles
seems to have been the Cyndhelan of the Welsh bards, e.g.oi
Llywarch's " Elegy on Cyndhelan."
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