25 



paring these specimens with the sketch of the pot found by Dr. 

 Thurnam and with the two fragments of Stone Age pottery, I 

 think we may reasonably conclude the Neolithic potter must have 

 given these productions a somewhat analogous if not a similar 

 treatment in making them. 



The Bronze Age. — We now pass on to the time of the sub- 

 stitution of bronze tools for those of stone. Bronze tools appear 

 to have been fabricated on the Continent long before the use of 

 this metal was known in Britain ; and its introduction to this 

 country was due to the conquest of the Neolithic Iberians by the 

 continental Celtic tribes among whom it was in common use. We 

 have, also, ample proof afforded by archagological research that the 

 transition from the use of stone tools to those of bronze was 

 gradual, and that the Stone and Bronze Ages considerably over- 

 lapped each other. 



The principal remains of Bronze Age man which exist at the 

 present day are his burial mounds, his fortified camps, and the 

 remnants of the pile-dwellings which he erected in lakes and 

 morasses. The barrows or burial mounds, which are abundant, 

 have received most attention from archseologists ; and the study of 

 the remains associated with the interments has shown the Bronze 

 Age capable of being divided into an early and a late stage. The 

 first was the transitional or overlapping jieriod, when the stone 

 tools were being superseded by wedge-shaped bionze axes 

 originally modelled from a prototype in stone, and by bronze 

 daggers. By far the greater number of the Bronze Age tumuli or 

 barrows in this country belong to this early stage. The latter 

 division is marked by the presence of swords, palstaves, socketed 

 celts, and elaborate bronze ornaments. 



Pottery. — The pottery of the Bronze Age is of great in- 

 terest. Our Museum possesses but three poor specimens, and I 

 shall, for want of better illustrations, have to treat this period in a 

 somewhat cursory manner. The majority of the best examples 

 have been found associated with the interments in the burial 

 mounds, and all specimens hitherto discovered are of the hand- 

 made type. From negative evidence we may therefore assume that 

 the use of the potter's wheel was unknown to the Early Bronze 

 Age Briton. 



When considering the Stone Age we saw that inhumation was 

 the chief mode of burial. In the Bronze Age, however, the pre- 

 vailing custom was cremation, though burial by inhumation still 

 obtained, such interments being by no means rare, and the 

 bodies having been buried in a crouched or contracted posture as 

 is the custom among so many savage races of to-day. 



CiNER.^RV Urns. — After the dead body had been consumed 

 on the funeral pile, its ashes were carefully collected and placed 

 in a special pot which we now term a cinerary urn ; a grave was 

 then made just large enough to contain the urn, generally in a 



