A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



many years ago in the Victoria Cave, Settle, Yorkshire.* In one of these, 

 which represents a dragon, the eye is made of red enamel. 



Other Early Iron-Age brooches found in Suffolk are now in the Museum 

 of Archaeology at Cambridge. 



Mr. Fenton also possesses a charming little bronze finger-ring displaying 

 strong Celtic influence in the scroll-work, which ornaments and partially fills 

 a longitudinal opening extending for about an inch. On either side of this 

 opening there are lines of beaded ornament pointing, perhaps, to Roman 

 influence. The Late Celtic scroll-work, however, is quite definite enough to 

 prove its close relation to native British art. The ring is quite small and 

 clearly intended for a lady. It was found in the neighbourhood of Mildenhall. 

 An interesting group of Early Iron-Age objects was discovered in 1854, 

 during the process of draining a field at Westhall, a Suffolk village situated 

 about 3 miles north-east of Halesworth. Details of the discovery were 

 communicated to the Society of Antiquaries of London by Mr. Henry Harrod, 

 F.S.A., in 1855, and this paper, published in Archaeologia^ is the authority 

 for the following account : — 



A farmer engaged in draining Millpost Field caused the trenches to be 

 carried to a depth of between 2 ft. and 3 ft. below the surface, revealing a 

 stiff, clayey soil. In the lowest part of the field, adjoining a water-course, it 

 was observed that there was an area of about 2 acres of much darker soil 

 than that of the other part of the field. This peculiarity was visible when 

 the field was turned up by the plough, but when the drained trenches were 

 cut, much burnt earth and many fragments of pottery were discovered. 



Near the centre of this dark patch of earth, and about 2 ft. below the 

 surface, the workmen came upon a number of bronze rings and other 

 fragments, which the farmer gave to Mr. Hylton, a Norfolk farmer. The 

 discovery led to the careful examination of the site, and upon digging over 

 the surface with a spade it was found that throughout the blackened area the 

 soil contained evidences of the action of fire to a depth below the surface 

 varying from i ft. 6 in. to 3 ft. The soil also contained much charcoal and 

 very many fragments of broken pottery, all of the commonest and plainest 

 kind, but in great variety. All the pottery was broken, but so abundant 

 were the fragments that each spadeful of earth contained a dozen fragments 

 of a dozen different urns. Mr. Harrod found a solitary fragment of a plain 

 Samian patera^ but he seems to have been convinced that all the rest was of 

 ' Roman-British manufacture.' 



The more important objects were contained in a bronze vessel, of which 

 the bottom and part of the side remained. Over them was found a thin 

 bronze plate or cover which was of ruder workmanship than the other 

 bronzes, and it had, in its centre, a circular plate or disc 

 embossed with an animal recalling the forms found on 

 the Late Celtic bucket from Aylesford. The cover 

 itself, although considerably damaged, appears to have 

 been ornamented with a species of elongated cross patee, 

 between the limbs of which were conventional branches 

 r> „" T ,„ „„ of palm, the whole inclosed in (i) a circle of oval 



CjRNAMENT ON JjID OF / . V ' 



Bronze Box projections arranged diametrically, and (2) five concentric 



* See Boyd-Dawkins, Cave Hunting, 98. * Op. cit. rxxvi, 454-6. 



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