A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



Britain perhaps afford an explanation. Similar objects, both of bone and 

 differently coloured glass,* may be seen in any large collection, and the 

 suggestion that they were used like the modern draughtsmen has not 

 been improved upon. The Romans have left behind them wheel-made 

 pottery, and also hundreds of 'chucks' or waste-pieces from the turned 

 bowls and bracelets of Kimmeridge shale in common use during their 

 occupation of our island. These too have been saddled with an unfortunate 

 name, that of 'coal-money.' The square socket at the centre noticeable 

 in every case is to fix the rough lump on the lathe for turning, and a 

 clue is thereby afforded to the meaning of the pairs of holes on the 

 Anglian specimens : they are bored for fixing to a prong-centre.^ 



In mentioning the sites in Norfolk where traces of both methods of 

 interment have been noticed, it must be realized that such discoveries are 

 scarce, but might perhaps have been multiplied by a more diligent or 

 extended search on occasions when skeletons or cinerary urns have come 

 to light separately in other localities. The evidence with regard to 

 Broome Heath is defective, but the presence of charcoal in some quanti- 

 ties suggests that the rite of cremation had not been quite forgotten, even 

 if it had dwindled down into a merely symbolical act. 



On the borders of Broome and Ditchingham several mounds existed 

 about fifty years ago, and excavations in one of them were attended with 

 the following results.^ At the depth of about three feet from the surface 

 fragments of"* charcoal appeared sparingly distributed through the loose 

 soil of which the mound was composed. At the depth of about six feet 

 from the top were discovered the remains of a large human skeleton lying 

 on a bed of gravel at the level of the natural soil. This skeleton was 

 much decayed. The skull was tolerably perfect when first touched, and 

 was of large dimensions. Adhering to it was found a small quantity of 

 reddish brown hair. One side of the skull was stained with a bright 

 green colour, which must have been caused by the slow decay of some 

 object of brass or copper. The body lay nearly north-east and south- 

 west, the head being towards the south-west. No fragment of metal or 

 pottery appeared during the excavations, but a quantity of charcoal was 

 discovered in removing some of the neighbouring mounds. 



At Fakenham the signs are clearer. An interment had taken place 

 at the bottom of an ancient gravel-pit, and the bones rested on the marl, 

 covered by about four feet of the refuse soil and gravel. Not far distant 

 runs an early trackway, now called the Long Lane, deflected in its course 

 by the later growth of Fakenham. Upon this trackway exists an ex- 

 tensive cemetery, indicated by traces of mounds long since levelled, where 

 the plough brings to light occasionally bronze tweezers, sepulchral urns, 

 and evidence of burial by cremation. This was not the case with the 

 interment now under notice, where the bones lay irregularly though dis- 

 tinct, associated with an iron blade or dagger, a cruciform brooch of 



1 Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, under the word ' latrunculus.' 

 ^ See, however, M^moires, Antiquaires du Nord, 1878-83, p. 128. 



' Norfolk Architohgy, vol. v. p. 361 ; and Proceedings, Society of Antiquaries, vol. iii. p. 287. 



336 



