A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



An important discovery made at Little Cressingham ^ in 1849, con- 

 sisting of a skeleton accompanied by a dagger and javelin-head of 

 bronze, a gold breastplate, a gold armilla, and a small flat circular box 

 and portions of two other boxes all of gold, together with a large num- 

 ber of amber beads many of which were broken, is regarded as an inter- 

 ment of the Bronze age. Another explanation of these box-like objects 

 of gold is that they were ' the coverings of discs of wood perforated 

 horizontally, and thus forming large, flat, gold-plated beads' (Evans' 

 Stone Implements, ed. 2, p. 460). Other interments 

 of an equally early period have been recorded at 

 Broome and Ditchingham,^ and Salthouse^ near 

 Cromer. 



Another discovery of personal ornaments con- 

 sisting of parts of a bone necklace is worth record- 

 ing here. It was made at Feltwell Fen in the year 

 1876, and the late Rev. C. R. Manning'* in de- 

 scribing it mentions that it may be referred to the 

 Bronze age. 



There is reason to think that many forms of 

 stone implements such as hammer-stones and flint 

 arrowheads survived during a considerable part of 

 the Bronze age, if not indeed until the prehistoric 

 Iron age came in. 



Norfolk in the Prehistoric Iron Age 



The introduction of the knowledge of work- 

 ing iron which succeeded the age of Bronze is 

 closely associated with the appearance in these 

 islands of the Brythons, a race of Celtic origin 

 who gave the name of Britain to the chief island 

 of the group. 



The remains of this period in Norfolk as 

 indeed throughout the country are rare, and 

 this may be accounted for by two simple but 

 sufficient reasons. One is the perishable 

 character of articles composed of iron, and 

 the other is that the period, when compared 

 with the duration of the Bronze age or the 

 Neolithic age, was comparatively short. 



This period, the prehistoric part of the 

 age of Iron, was in England identical with what is known as the Late 

 Celtic period, our knowledge of which has been greatly increased by the 



iRONZE D\H 1 K I (H.> 



Little Cressingh;i 



Norfolk Jrchaology, iii. pp. 1,2; Evans, Ancient Slone Implements, ed. 2, p. 460. 

 N 01 folk Jrchieology, v. pp. 361, 362. 

 Op. fit. V. pp. 263-67. 

 Op. c'lt. viii. pp. 319-25. 



272 



