EARLY MAN 



elsewhere, notably in the East Riding of Yorkshire, at Ham Hill, Somerset, 

 in Cambridgeshire, and at Putney, in Middlesex, and the general belief is 

 that they were in some way attached to chariots, although it must be confessed 

 that the precise method of attachment and the exact purpose equally require 

 fuller explanation. 



A horse's bit of bronze, somewhat similar to the example found near 

 Hull, was obtained during excavations in Bath Lane, Leicester, in the year 

 1876. It is of late Celtic character, and possesses three conical points on 

 the central neck, arranged triangularly. 



Part of a snaffle-bit of bronze, likewise of the late Celtic period, was 

 found at Great Easton. It was at one time regarded as the guard of a sword, 

 but the late Sir A. Wollaston Franks identified it as similar to several objects 

 found in association with horse trappings at Polden Hill, Somerset. 



It is a noteworthy fact that a large proportion of the metallic antiquities 

 of the early Iron Age are parts of the harness of horses or of the fittings and 

 mountings of chariots. 



The British Museum possesses one of the bronze harness-fittings known 

 as terrets, the purpose of which was both to serve as a guide-ring for the 

 reins, and to add some kind of ornamental enrichment to the harness. 

 Whether they actually served the purpose of the terrets of modern times in 

 acting as guides or supports of the reins affixed to the collar or saddle of a 

 horse in shafts is, however, somewhat doubtful. Generally they were loose 

 rings of bronze, ornamental in character, sometimes enamelled, attached to 

 and possibly depending from some part of the leather gear of the horse. 

 They may, indeed, have been purely ornamental accessories of the harness, 

 similar in some respects to the 

 brass ornaments with which modern 

 carters and wagoners delight to 

 bedeck the harness of their horses ; 

 but there is no reason to doubt that 

 they formed parts of horse furniture, 

 as they are usually found in associa- 

 tion with interments which con- 

 tain other clear proofs of chariot 

 burials, &c. 



Some examples, such as those 

 from Bapchild 18 and Westhall, Suf- 

 folk," are, or have been, enamelled. 

 The example in the British Museum 

 which was found at Leicester, how- 

 ever, has never been enriched in 



this way, and in general character represents a rather late development, or 

 perhaps degradation, in late Celtic art. 



Of the characteristic forms of pottery of the early Iron Age Leicester- 

 shire has furnished but few examples. Nichols, however, in his history of 

 the county, 18 figures a vessel of somewhat peculiar form, which in its general 

 appearance, and from the cordons or raised bands, and very small base, is 



BRONZE TERRET FOUND IN LEICESTERSHIRE (NOW IN 

 THE BRITISH MUSEUM) 



16 Proe. Soc. Antiq. xx, 5 7-9. 

 18 Vol. vi, pt. i, pi. Ix. 



" Arch, xxxvi, 454-6. 



173 



