Iter J.

KEMPSEY.

Several fragments of sepulchral urns, cups, and pans of various shapes and sizes, evidently belonging to the time of the Romans and Romanized or later Britons, were, in the spring of 1835, dug out of a gravel bed at Kempsey. Some of these vessels were made of a coarse dark clay, others of common red or brick clay. The fragments, which were discovered about three feet and a half beneath the surface, were enveloped in a black ash, and deposited in a cavity or cist of about six yards in circumference, over which a roof of broken pebbles and clay had been originally formed, but which had since fallen into the cist, and probably broke the vessels. There were also a few fragments of bones in the cist,

1.

apparently the bones of a horse, one of them being part of the jaw-bone of that animal, with several teeth in it. There was likewise found there part of a bronze fibula

or brooch (vide woodcut here represented, No. 1, of the actual size); these were used by the men to fasten the tunic and chlamys, or cloak, on the shoulder, and by the women the vestment in front of the breast*. Some of the Roman fibulæ are of the circular form, others oblong, and not very dissimilar (though much smaller) to the guard beneath the trigger of a gun, and with the acus or pin compressed into the socket, have been compared to a bow ready strung. The fibula in question is of the

The scientific reader will excuse these occasional explanations, my object being that this work should be a kind of popular antiquarian history of the county.

latter form, but destitute of the acus, which probably had

mouldered away.

The remains of a horse, found in this cist, affords strong evidence that the ashes of a Romanized British chieftain were deposited there; for such costly funeral sacrifices, although very common among our rude ancestors, and constituting a part of their religion, were much restricted among the Romans by the laws of the Twelve Tables. In other parts of the kingdom, fragments of the horns of stags have been found in similar cists, from which it may be inferred that hunters were buried there.

About a dozen other cists, although not so large as the one already described, were likewise discovered in the course of the same year, near the same spot, whilst excavating for gravel; they contained ashes, broken pebbles, and various articles of broken pottery; and in 1836, and the three following years, several other cists were found there. One of them was of an oval shape, near three yards long, two yards broad, and about five feet deep in the gravel. The others were smaller, and not quite so deep. Some of the latter merely contained black ashes; others, ashes and fragments of red earth pottery (the mouth of one of the urns being twenty-eight inches in circumference); the largest cist contained black ashes, and a broken pan of rather coarse materials, which, judging from a segment, was three feet in circumference. Several of the fragments have handles, some of which are of considerable thickness. One of the cists contained a specimen with zig-zag lines thereon, and pieces of urns, cups, and pateræ, together with portions of the burnt bones and teeth of a horse. In another cist, an acus of a fibula of brass was found mixed up with similar relics (vide

2.

woodcut thereof, No. 2, actual size);

and in the gravel a coin of

Nero was discovered. The spot in question is situated about four miles from Worcester, in a ploughed field called the Moors, which belonged to the late Joseph Smith, Esq., on a ridge or precipice of ground, out of flood's-way, which skirts the flat on the east side

of the river Severn, and lies between that river and the village of Kempsey, near the northern side of the mound or agger of a Roman camp, within the site of the southern end of which Kempsey Church stands. At an adjoining place, called the Parish Gravel Pit, were found, about twelve years ago, a small Roman vase and a piece of Samian ware. Most of the articles which are here described, I from time to time obtained of the workmen upon the spot, and deposited them in the Worcestershire Museum; the others were

presented by Mr. Smith. Woodcuts of some are here given: No. 3 is of the slate coloured, and Nos. 4, 5 and 6*, of the red ware.

The most ancient mode of sepulture among the Britons was by simple inhumationt; it is thought that the Phoenicians introduced into this island the mode of burial by cremation or burning. The

A similar one to that numbered 6, was found at Diglis, near Worcester. See p. 28; and another at Droitwich. It much resembles a common flowerpot in shape, except that it has a handle.

+ Vide Mr. Bloxam's work, entitled "A Glimpse at Monumental Architecture and Sepulture of Great Britain, from the earliest period to the Eighteenth Century," dated 1834, to which I am indebted for much of the above information as to the modes of ancient sepulture.

practice amongst the ancient Britons of depositing in the sepulchres warlike instruments, drinking cups, and other articles, is likewise supposed to have been derived from the Phoenicians and Belgic Gauls. This custom is of great antiquity, and an instance of it occurs in the Book of Joshua, in a very ancient copy of the Septuagint, preserved in the Vatican, where it is stated that knives and instruments of flint were buried with his body in the tomb. The same practice is also alluded to in the Book of Ezekiel, wherein the prophet speaks of persons who were gone down to the grave with their weapons of war, and their swords laid under their heads. An instance of the practice of cremation is also recorded in the First Book of Samuel (Chap. xxxi.), wherein it is stated that the body of Saul and his sons were burnt after they had been taken down from the walls of Bethshan, and the bones were buried under a tree. There are also frequent allusions to the custom in Homer and the ancient classics.

The sepulchral urns and cups of the Celtic and Belgic Britons, differ in many respects from those of the Roman era, from which they are in general easily distinguished. Those of the ancient

Britons were coarsely formed on the wheel*, without the lathe; in shape they bear some resemblance to a common flower-pot or truncated cone. The ornaments are rude, consisting chiefly of zig-zag and short diagonal lines, and many appear to have been moulded merely by exposure to the sun, or blackened by the funereal fire. Some are of a globular, others of a cylindrical form; the latter being of the most ancient description; and although the cinerary urns and drinking cups of the Romanized Britons and early Saxons were modelled after the Roman fashion, yet they generally correspond in shape with those of the ancient Britons. Some of the specimens above described are very much in accordance with these rules.

The late Rev. Mr. Rudd, of Kempsey, had in his possession a fragment of a thick slab stone, one yard long and half a yard wide, containing a Latin inscription in honour of Constantine the

The Prophet Jeremiah, in describing the potter's tools in his time, says: "Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold he wrought a work on the wheels."-Vide C. xviii., v. 3.

Great. This was found in the camp, in the year 1818. The following is the inscription:

VAL CONST

ΑΝΤΙΝΟ

PF IN

VICTO

AV G*

The same gentleman also had pieces of Roman tiles, which were found near the same placet.

The agger of the above camp may still be easily traced, although, being a mound of gravel, it has been in many places much levelled. From what has been said, it is evident that the camp was a Roman one, and that the burial ground was likewise Roman, with the additional fact, that the ashes of Romanized British were also deposited in the same place.

Great alterations being occasionally made at the site of the Kempsey camp, I will endeavour to give an account of it, as it appeared in 1840, fearing that in a few more years almost every vestige of it will have passed away.

The western agger lay on the ridge of ground, or precipice, skirting the flat on the east side of the Severn. The north end of it commenced at the back of the garden belonging to the Parsonage farm-house, and ran in a line from thence to within about fifteen yards of the south-west corner of Kempsey churchyard, where it turned round. Judging from a measure I made by footsteps, this agger was about two hundred yards long.

The southern agger appears to have run along the south side of the churchyard, and was about ninety yards long.

The eastern agger ran along the east side of the churchyard and other property, and through the garden of Gore Cottage, into the orchard behind, and was about two hundred yards long.

The northern agger ran from the above-mentioned garden and orchard to the north-west corner of the garden of the Parsonage

* Valerio Constantino Pio Felici Invicto Augusto.

The slab and tiles were bequeathed by Mr. Rudd to the Museum of the Worcestershire Natural History Society.