A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



An important discovery made at Little Cressingham ' in 1 849, 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 

 j^L of an equally early period have been recorded at 



jj^H Broome and Ditchingham,^ and Salthouse^ near 



^^ ^S Another discovery of personal ornaments con- 



^^3H sisting of parts of a bone necklace is worth record- 



l^i^M ing here. It was made at Feltwell Fen in the year 



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



flHjHl scribing it mentions that it may be referred to the 



¥'m^^m There is reason to think that many forms of 



^^pH^A stone implements suoh as hammer-stones and flint 



nUL^I^M arrowheads survived during a considerable part of 



I'i/i/BMwM the Bronze age, if not indeed until the prehistoric 



ftslP^^^M Norfolk in the Prehistoric Iron Age 



^rHj^^^B The introduction of the knowledge of work- 



^^^^^^^^mk i"g ii"°ri which succeeded the age of Bronze is 

 Wf^^^^^^k closely associated with the appearance in these 

 j^jPy^^a^Bl islands of the Brythons, a race of Celtic origin 

 |^^^^^^^^n| who gave the name of Britain to the chief island 



l-jdMiPlFWHiMWa The remains of this period in Norfolk as 



mSS^ V ^^l^fflS^ indeed throughout the country are rare, and 



■BK 1 ^r n^Mw ^^^^ ^^y ^^ accounted for by two simple but 



/''^^^' 1 % lli«wl sufficient reasons. One is the perishable 



^T^' jF^^TP* "'" '-■iir"^ - ' ''\ character of articles composed of iron, and 



(J^^^^^l^^^* ^^^^^''^ilr]^ ^^0 the other is that the period, when compared 



l-____Ji:l5— ^'^ with the duration of the Bronze age or the 



Bronze Dagger found at Ncolithic age, was Comparatively short. 



Little Cressingham. ,_„ . ° . , , ' , . .•' - , 



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 



* Norfolk Archaohg), iii. pp. 1,2; Evans, Ancient Stone Implements, ed. 2, p. 460. 



* Norfolk Jrchaology, v. pp. 361, 362. 

 ' Op. cit. V. pp. 263-67. 



* Op. cit. viii. pp. 319-25. 



272 



