Can you Help?!! AN INTERESTING DISCOVERY.—While excavating for sewers, etc., near Norton Common, the workmen came on what has every appearance of having been a burial ground of a very early date. The remains are in too advanced a state of decomposition to learn much from them, but everything seems to point to a hasty burial after a battle, as horses and men have been buried in large pits; and from the finding of parts of stirrups, etc., amongst the horse remains, it appears that the horses were buried in harness. Horses and men were not buried in the same pits. Many of the men were cremated and the ashes buried in urns. From the appearance of the remains of the urns one is led to believe that they were made from local clay and were baked while the cremation was taking place, as they are very soft and scarcely baked through in places. All iron-ware has been transformed into mere masses of oxide of iron. Near one of the urns a small piece of ornamented hammered and turned metal has been unearthed. It appears to be of very hard brass and is in excellent preservation. Near the site for these burial pits, remains have been unearthed which point to a Roman residence having been near, as a quantity of pottery was found, and there is evidence of open sewers. The surface water draining into the open trench is almost black in places, having most probably come through a layer of soil heavily charged with organic matter. As this part of the Estate is developed, other finds of interest should be made. While excavating for the gasometer another burial vase was discovered, deep down in the chalk. Human bones were also unearthed while making the ornamental lake at the bottom of the new North-road.
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