PARISH OF BUTTON BUSCEL. 361 



contrary, flint arrow-points are most abundant; as also that heads 

 of spears or javelins of flint, of which material they might have 

 been as easily fabricated as arrow-heads, are rare l . The explanation 

 I believe is this : the articles which a man retained by him when in 

 use, such as his sword, spear, and axe, were made of the more 

 valuable material, bronze ; while such as he projected to a distance 

 from himself, and which were therefore liable to be lost, such 

 as arrow-points, were made of the commoner material, flint. 

 Knives also of a certain kind and implements for scraping hides or 

 bone would continue to be made of flint long after the introduction 

 of bronze, because for such purposes flint presented a very useful as 

 well as cheap material, and one almost as good as bronze. 



The primary interment was found on the natural surface, 

 immediately beneath the bronze dagger and flint knife, and 11 ft. 

 below the surface of the barrow. The body had been buried 

 unburnt, but all the bones were so much decomposed that the only 

 trace left of it was a thin layer of a dark-coloured substance, 

 mixed with small particles of a whitish colour, which felt greasy to 

 the touch, and proved on analysis to contain animal matter. With 

 this was discovered a small thin fragment of bronze, so much 

 oxidised that it is impossible to say what it may have been, though 

 probably it was the remains of a small knife. In the material of 

 the barrow at different parts, a few potsherds, a barbed arrow- 

 point, and some chippings of flint, as well as numerous pieces of 

 charcoal, were met with. 



CLIII. The most northern of c The Three Tremblers' was found 

 on examination to have been previously dug into at the centre, nor 

 have I been able to ascertain what was discovered there. The 

 barrow was 62ft. in diameter, 6ft. high, and made of sand. A 

 circle of stones, placed within the mound on the natural surface at 



it has been a small knife. Ancient Wilts, vol. i. pi. xxxii. fig. 1. Toy weapons and 

 implements have sometimes been found in barrows ; and indeed are very commonly 

 discovered in Denmark; a miniature bronze dagger, smaller than this object from 

 Wiltshire, will be seen figured in Worsaae, Nordiske Oldsager, pi. 33. No. 152. 

 A remarkably diminutive bronze celt, evidently a toy or ornament, found at Arras 

 in the East Riding, is engraved in the Transactions of the Archaeological Institute, 

 York Meeting, Museum Catalogue, p. 21. A bronze instrument, which seems almost 

 like an arrow-head, but having been probably a small knife, was found at Broughton, 

 Lincolnshire, and is figured in Journ. of Arch. Inst., vol. viii. p. 346. The finding of a 

 few specimens of bronze arrow-heads would not however militate against the view 

 taken in the text. 



1 I am inclined to regard most if not all of the larger flint blades, to which the 

 name of spear-head has frequently been attached, as having been intended for knives. 



