A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



scarce, and one feels inclined rather to regard them as indications of a 

 period when bronze was procurable in some plenty. 



Hoards of bronze are among the most suggestive and important as 

 they are also the most characteristic of the remains of the Bronze age. 



Bronze Tools found at Carlton Rode. 



These hoards are capable of being divided into three groups. First 

 there are the collections of broken, damaged and worn-out implements, 

 formed perhaps by an individual for the purpose of barter with a bronze- 

 worker. Doubtless such a hoard represents considerable wealth. Another 

 class consists of hoards that consist solely of broken implements, to- 

 gether with broken lumps of copper. Others again consist entirely of 

 new and unworn tools. From the fact that these implements sometimes- 

 have not been freed from the irregularities and excrescences arising from 

 the operation of casting, it is obvious that the hoards of this kind repre- 

 sent the stock of a worker in 

 bronze. The occurrence of bronze 

 hoards of these classes is of con- 

 siderable importance as showing, 

 first that the metal was of great 

 value, and when an implement 

 was damaged or worn out it was 

 saved in order to be melted down 

 again ; secondly it shows that the 

 founding of articles of bronze was 

 the special trade of certain in- 

 dividuals ; and lastly it indicates 

 that no sufficiently strong build- 

 ing existed in which the metal 

 could be safely stored, and that as 

 a consequence the possessor was 

 compelled to hide it in a secret 

 place underground. 

 Among the remains of the Bronze age in Norfolk we find examples 

 of both classes of hoards. One of the most important discoveries of its 



268 



Bronze Tools found at Carlton Rode. 



