EARLY MAN 



be so rich in early remains, has also yielded a rare specimen in the 

 form of a handled cup of reddish-coloured earthenware which belongs 

 to this age ; this cup bears diamond-shaped patterns incised upon the 

 body, made apparently by the impressions of a thumb nail. The only 

 other handled cups of this period of which the writer has been able 

 to obtain any information are but four in number : the first from a 

 barrow at Goodmanham Wold in Yorkshire, which bears a different 

 decoration from the others ; out of 220 barrows opened by Canon 

 Greenwell this was the only handled cup he obtained. One which 

 is called the Denzell cup and is now in the British Museum was found 

 in a barrow in Cornwall. The third was found in a cairn near Picker- 

 ing in Yorkshire by Mr. Thomas Bateman' in 1850, and the fourth 

 at Ely. This is apparently of superior make and ornamentation. It 

 is of interest to note that these last three cups, though found in such 

 widely separated parts of England as Cornwall, Cambridgeshire and 

 Yorkshire, are ornamented with a diamond-shaped design very similar 

 to that on our cup from Brixworth. 



Of the weapons and implements of bronze our county has yielded 

 few in number. There is a well preserved leaf-shaped sword dug up 

 from land belonging to an old manor called Wolfage in Brixworth 

 parish about the year 1846. Remains of two rapier-shaped blades 

 have been discovered, one at Marston Trussel and the other at Pytchley 

 near Kettering. The latter was found underneath the parish church 

 when it was undergoing alteration, and at the same time some ' kist- 

 vaens ' were discovered. Palstaves of bronze have been picked up at 

 Aynho, Staverton, Aston-le-Walls and Thenford ; socketed celts or axes 

 which are supposed to have been used quite late in this period have 

 been obtained from near Daventry, from Dallington, Castor, Rushden, 

 Eye near Peterborough, and from the precincts of Peterborough itself, 

 Naseby, Wappenham, etc., and there is preserved at the Hall at Canon's 

 Ashby a fine specimen of a leaf-shaped spearhead found in the neighbour- 

 hood. A small but early form of a drinking cup, marked with a 

 herring-bone pattern which perhaps belongs to this age, was found in 

 the parish of Fotheringhay in the surface soil above the gravels which 

 yielded a Palaeolithic flint implement. 



Mention may be made here of the discovery of two hoards of 

 bronze, though they occurred just outside the county : one at Wyming- 

 ton in Bedfordshire, where more than sixty socketed celts were found 

 on Mr. Goosey's farm in i860 ; and a few years ago Mr. Whitbread 

 of Roade purchased at a sale at Stantonbury in Bucks a lot of broken 

 bronze weapons, etc., which he has since learnt were found at Stanton- 

 bury. In this lot (bought at the sale for is.) were portions of seven 

 socketed celts, one complete palstave, a leaf-shaped sword in four pieces 

 and the remains of two spearheads. 



To obtain a fuller knowledge of man in the Bronze age we must 



* Ten fears' Diggings in Celtic and Saxon Grave Hills in the Counties of Derby, Staffiird end fori, 

 from 18+8 to 1858, by Thomas Bateman (1868). 



143 



