men, or men of the New Stone Age. Their stone implements were better shaped, more highly finished, were often ground smooth, and even polished. They also made a rude kind of pottery. These men were, doubtless, of the race called Iberians.
PLATE 1.
(Fig. 1): Flint hand-hammer or axe found in Gray’s Inn Lane. This was the earliest form, roughly chipped into shape, with unsharpened edges. (Figs. 2 and 3): A dagger in the British Museum (front and side views). The dagger is one of the commonest weapons of the Stone Age, being simple in form and easy of construction. (Fig. 4): A javelin head; a simple, elongated splinter of flint, shaped to a small stem, which was inserted in the end of a shaft and fastened by means of ligaments. (Figs. 5 and 6): A stone celt (pronounced selt) or axe of the simplest form. This is ground, probably by the use of sand and water into a regular and sharp edge. (Fig. 7): A flint flake, probably used as a scraper. (Fig. 8): A stemmed arrow-head. (Fig. 9): A barbed arrow-head (a later development). (Fig. 10): A lozenge-shaped arrow-head. (Fig. 11): A polished stone axe, fixed in a stag’s horn socket. (Fig. 12): A perforated hammer found at Scarborough. (Figs. 13 and 14): A perforated axe (two views) found in Yorkshire. (Both Figs. 12 and 13 show a very high degree of skill in the shaping of the form, in the drilling, and in general finish.) (Fig. 15): A polished celt fixed in its original handle, found in Cumberland. (Fig. 16): A flint chisel-shaped tool. (Fig. 17): A flint borer, used for making holes in wood, bone, or stone, found in the Yorkshire Wolds.
THE BRONZE AGE.
The Iberians were succeeded by the Celts, who conquered, and probably intermarried with, the former.
They had a knowledge of the use of metals, and employed copper first for the manufacture of their weapons and tools. Then they learned that, by mixing tin with copper, a harder metal was obtained, which we call bronze, and this period is, consequently, called the Bronze Age. The early bronze weapons were of the same form as the flint weapons, for probably the latter were used as “patterns” for forming the mould. Later, in the case of the celt, flanges were formed at the side, and, finally, a socketed celt was made, showing a considerable skill in its manufacture. “The knowledge of bronze must have affected the warfare of the time in the same way as the introduction of gunpowder affected the warfare of the Middle Ages.” It has been estimated that the Bronze Age commenced in Britain about 1500 B.C.
PLATE 2.
(Fig. 1): A bronze spear head—Later Celtic—in the British Museum. It is probable that the flint spear-head continued in use into the Bronze Age, and that the spear-head with a socket was not invented until socketed celts were made. (Fig. 2): An ornamental bronze celt or axe found in Suffolk. The simpler form of the celt has been improved upon by the addition of flanges. (Figs. 3 and 4) show how they were probably fixed in handles. (Fig. 5): A bronze knife dagger found in the Isle of Wight (British Museum). (Fig. 6): A bronze arrow-head. (Fig. 7): A bronze socketed celt. (Fig. 8): The same, with the probable method of fastening to a handle. (Fig. 9): A bronze cauldron found in Ireland. (Fig. 10): A late Celtic Helmet, ornamented and showing generally in its structure a very advanced skill in manufacture; found in the Thames; now in the British Museum. (Fig. 11): A bronze dagger in the British Museum. (Fig. 12): A bronze spear-head (elongated form), found at Stanwick in Yorkshire; now in the British Museum. Both the spear heads in Figs. 1 and 12 tend towards a leaf form. (Fig. 13): A bronze sword, narrow and leaf-shaped, in the Guildhall Museum, London; showing rivet holes. The sword of the Bronze Age is remarkable for the beauty of its form. The average length of the blade was about two feet, the handle being made of horn or wood, split and rivetted on either, side. The sword was probably encased in a scabbard of leather, wood or bronze.
PREHISTORIC POTTERY AND FUNERAL CUSTOMS.
Neolithic men (of the Later Stone Age) buried their dead in the caves which they had used for dwellings, or in stone chambers, probably representing the huts in which they lived. Each of these was used as a vault, common to the family or tribe, for they are found containing skeletons of all ages. The dead were buried in the tomb as they died, in a contracted or crouching position, laid upon their sides, probably due to their sleeping in that position, and not at full length on a bed. Implements of various kinds, arrow heads, celts and pottery, were frequently placed in the tombs, and were probably intended for the use of the dead. The tombs were then covered with stones and earth, forming mounds (also known as barrows and tumuli), which were usually long and oval in plan.
Domestic animals were slaughtered, and a feast was made after the interment in honour of the dead.
In the Bronze Age, there was a striking change in the custom of burial, probably the sign of the introduction of a new faith. The dead were burned on a funeral pile, and with them were burned their belongings—the various articles and implements of daily use—and the burnt remains were gathered up with the calcined bones and ashes and placed in an urn. Sometimes this urn was placed upright, and at other times it was inverted over the ashes.
As in former times, a mound was carefully raised, covering the urn and its contents, and the memory of the dead was preserved by periodic feasts, after each of which earth or stone was added to the top of the mound, each feast being represented by a layer of the broken and burnt bones of the animals consumed. These barrows of the Bronze Age were generally circular in plan.
Cremation did not, however, altogether abolish the older practice of burying. It is evident that both customs were carried on simultaneously. Hundreds of these mounds have been carefully opened at various times and the contents investigated, and, in almost every case, earthen-ware vessels of various forms and sizes have been found. It is entirely to these grave mounds that we are indebted for the examples of prehistoric pottery that are preserved in our museums.
There are four classes of pottery of these early times:—
1. Sepulchral or Cinerary Urns, which have been made for, and have contained or been inverted over, calcined human bones.
2. Drinking Cups, which are supposed to have contained some liquid to be placed in the grave.
3. Food vessels (so called), which are supposed to have contained an offering of food, and which are more usually found with unburnt bodies than along with interments by cremation.
4. Immolation Urns (or Incense Cups), very small vessels found only with burnt bones, and usually containing bones and ashes also, placed in the mouths of, or close by, the larger cinerary urns. It has been suggested that these were simply small urns, intended to receive the ashes of the infant, perhaps sacrificed at the death of its mother. They are also known as incense cups, and are supposed by some to have been used to carry the sacred fire with which to light the funeral pile, or as censers in the funeral ceremonies.
These vessels differ much in size and ornamentation, and in the quality of the clay from which they are formed.
In the examination of barrows, the spot where the funeral pyre has been made can often be detected by the burnt soil there. It is considered probable that, while the body was burning, the clay urn was placed on the funeral fire and then baked.
“Drinking Cups” are usually burnt much harder than the other vessels.
Most of the vessels are decorated in a rude fashion with lines or figures, probably drawn by a pointed instrument or comb whilst the clay was soft.
They were made by hand, and are often very uneven and crudely formed.
PLATE 3.