EARLY MAN 



Cinerary Urn found at 

 Snapb 



It will be observed that straight lines only are employed. Spiral forms, 

 which gave such beauty to Late Celtic art, are here entirely wanting, and, 

 with the exception of the circles found on the bottoms of some of the incense 

 cups, curves form no part of the decoration of 

 Bronze-Age pottery. Although the incisions are 

 somewhat irregular they are evidently intended for, 

 and must be regarded as, straight lines. 



One of the characteristics of the Bronze-Age 

 beakers or ' drinking-cups ' of Essex is the use of 

 parallel horizontal lines. 



A cinerary urn of the regular Bronze-Age 

 type with over-hanging rim was found at Snape 

 (see annexed illustration). 



There are a few pieces of Bronze-Age pottery 

 of some interest, which were probably found in 

 Suffolk, now preserved in the archaeological museum 

 at Ipswich. One is a vase, or urn, of drinking-cup 

 form, about 5 in. high, decorated with a rather 

 coarse series of dots arranged in the form of horizontal lines between which, 

 in alternate zones, are dotted lines in the form of lattice-work with diamond- 

 shaped openings. Another similar vessel is beside that just described. Both 

 are somewhat mutilated bv hard wear. 



There is a third vessel of flatter, smaller, and more globular form. It is 

 ornamented with incised horizontal lines. 



There are certain ornamental features on some of the cast-bronze imple- 

 ments found in Suffolk which give distinctly valuable illustrations of the kind 

 of artistic efforts made by the worker in bronze of this early period of 

 time. These differ essentially from the styles of ornamentation found on sepul- 

 chral pottery of this period. In the pottery we have many different combina- 

 tions of horizontal, perpendicular, and oblique lines, 

 generally forming some kind of cheveron design. Every- 

 thing of the nature of a regular curve is wanting. If a 

 line approaches a curved form it is almost certainly the 

 result of carelessness or accident. In the objects formed 

 of cast bronze, however, as will be observed from the 

 accompanying illustrations, this is not the case. Here we 

 have, in the case of the socketed celt from Fornham, a 

 series of five flattened circular pellets or roundels arranged 

 across the celt at about the point where the hollow socket 

 ends and the solid, business-part of the implement begins. 

 Raised lines, or ribs, connect the roundels with the well- 

 developed moulding which surrounds the socket end of 

 the celt. The area near the cutting edge, it will be 

 noted, is kept quite free from ornament. 



The use to which implements of this type were 

 applied is a matter of some uncertainty, but the fact that 

 they have often been found broken just at the small end 

 of the socket suggests that they were employed for levering, 

 prising, or splitting wood, or some such use. If this is 

 267 



Celt found at 

 Fornham 



