116 



INTRODUCTION. 



calves, a necessity which most probably arose from the milk of the 

 mothers being used by the people themselves, though it might 

 also have arisen from a scarcity of winter food. 



Their dress, the use of metal, their weapons, implements, orna- 

 ments, and pottery have already been treated of at some length, 

 so that it is only necessary here to give a slight account of them. 

 That woollen, and probably linen, fabrics were manufactured is 

 evident from the remains of such which have been discovered. 

 The evidence is indeed but scanty, as might be expected, on 

 account of the perishable nature of the material ; portions, how- 

 ever, of woven stuffs have been found with deposits of burnt 

 bones, either the remainder of the dress of the person or of 

 some wrapping in which the bones had been collected from the 

 funeral pile. In one of the barrows at Weaverthorpe [No. xliii], 

 the half of a clay spindle-whorl was met with, which may be 

 supposed to indicate a knowledge of spinning. They further 

 appear to have been clothed in garments which had made some 

 considerable advance beyond such as were merely wrapped round 

 the body ; for, in a grave at Butterwick [No. xxxix], six 

 buttons of jet and stone were found placed in a line in front of 

 the chest of the buried man, showing that the vestment was to 

 some extent fitted to the form of the wearer, and had been fashioned 

 into shape with somewhat of sartorial skill. Their dress appears 

 to have been fastened in a variety of ways. Buttons and pins 

 have occurred in many instances ; and a ring with perforations on 

 the side [fig. 5, p. 34] has sometimes been met with, usually in 

 connection with buttons. An oblong narrow article, made of jet 

 or other lignite, having a slit, which widens towards the middle, 

 and occupies about two-thirds of the whole length, has been found 

 on the wolds accompanying a body [fig. 6, p. 34] ; and also in 

 other places in Britain 1 . They have probably been used in some 

 way for fastening the dress, a belt perhaps having been passed 

 through the slit. A ring of jet from a barrow at Rudstone [No. Ixiii], 

 which is too small for an armlet, had possibly been made for the 

 same purpose, though its form is not quite so suitable as the oblong 

 one would be. Sir R. Colt Hoare discovered, in a barrow at Upton 

 Lovell, what he considered to be gold boxes 2 ; and somewhat 

 similar objects, though smaller, were found in a barrow at Cres- 



1 One from the Isle of Skye is figured in Wilson's Prehistoric Annals of Scotland, 

 vol. i. p. 441. 



2 Ancient Wilts, vol. i. p. 99. pi. x. 



