EARLY MAN 



to assign some of them, particularly those which bear marks of very 

 elaborate work, to the Bronze age rather than to the Neolithic age. 



Arrowheads are recorded as having been found at the following 

 places in Norfolk : Attleborough,' Aylsham,^ Necton,' Panxworth,* 

 Thetford^ and Weeting.'^ The last example was found upon a barrow in 

 which it had probably been deposited. 



Norfolk in the Bronze Age 



Of the various changes which have occurred in the social and 

 industrial phases of the history of the human race in ancient times 

 probably none was greater than that which was produced by the intro- 

 duction of metal and the knowledge of the art of working it. The 

 discovery of the secret of extracting copper and tin from their natural 

 ores produced results which revolutionized the earlier methods of war- 

 fare and the chase, and the arts of the carpenter and the builder, and 

 many other pursuits.^ 



Hitherto the inhabitants of our island during what is known as the 

 Neolithic age had lived without the knowledge of metals, and with but 

 limited means of intercourse with the people who inhabited the conti- 

 nent of Europe. When bronze was introduced into their island however 

 it was by a new race of Aryan origin, the Goidels or Gaels, an import- 

 ant branch of that great Celtic family of which many traces remain in 

 the present inhabitants of Scotland, Ireland, Wales and the Isle of Man. 



Everything points to the conclusion that when bronze implements 

 were introduced, the earliest forms of which were flat celts, and 

 perhaps small hand daggers, the art of working and successfully blend- 

 ing copper and tin, so as to produce hard bronze, had reached some 

 degree of perfection. When this secret became known, the discovery 

 of the metallic ores in their natural state probably soon followed, 

 but in the earlier part of the Bronze age the metal was doubtless 

 scarce and regarded as a valuable possession. In process of time when 

 bronze could be procured in sufficient quantity, it would be a natural 

 desire to reproduce in metal the heavy stone celts which had hitherto 

 been the common form of large weapon in use. For this purpose it 

 was natural to use an actual stone celt to serve as the model for 

 a mould for the bronze casting ; and as some knowledge of casting 

 was already possessed it would be a comparatively easy task to pro- 

 duce metal celts of this kind. The remains of the Bronze age com- 

 prise celts of metal which have evidently been cast in this way from 

 stone originals, and they have been considered to represent the earliest 

 form in which metal celts were made.® The objection to such a theory 

 is that they would require a large amount of metal at a time when it was 



1 Evans, Ancient Stone Implements, ed. 2, p. 390. * Op. at. p. 381. ^ Op. cit. p. 307. 



* Norfolk Jrchaology, viii. p. 327. ^ Evans, Ancient Stone Implements, ed. 2, p. 385. 

 ^ Norfolk Archa-ology, iv. p. 361. '' Munro, Prehistoric Scotland, -p. 177. 



* Wilde, Catalogue of the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, p. 366 ; Evans, Ancient Bronze 

 Implements, p. 40. 



267 



