ROMANO-BRITISH BRICK-KILN, ETC. 133 



of the deceased might have had a fetish character in the estimation 

 of superstitious relatives, and great sanctity attached to it. The 

 flints so frequently found mixed up with the burnt bones had a 

 value in the mind of the Briton in connection with fire, which was 

 held in great veneration and awe, and is so now among barbarous 

 nations. 



Sepulchral pottery is often the only conclusive evidence to enable 

 the anthropologist to distinguish between the intruding conqueror 

 and the aboriginal occupant, and sometimes is the only evidence of 

 the limits of ancient empire. The boundaries of Roman dominion 

 have been traced by the red Samian and other distinguishing fictile 

 wares. None more conclusively establishes the traces of the Roman 

 period than their pottery. The depth at which potsherds have been 

 discovered in the alluvium of the Nile has been the basis of specu- 

 lation on the antiquity of civilisation. 



We owe much of our knowledge of the races of man to the 

 grave-mounds and their contents. Although the British barrows 

 do not define the limits of a prehistoric period they distinguish the 

 Palaeolithic from the Neolithic Age, for, as far as is yet ascertained, 

 pottery was not associated with prehistoric man until after the 

 Paleolithic Age. The later Neolithic Age of Great Britain lapped 

 over the period of the Roman occupation, at least during the earlier 

 part of it. 



It has been questioned which of the two arts, brick-making or 

 pottery, has the precedence in time. Both are generally admitted 

 to be the earliest efforts of human ingenuity, as also the potter's 

 wheel. The Egyptian possessed the art of brick-making in a high 

 state of perfection at a period contemporary with the Neolithic Age 

 of the West. Bricks for building purposes were introduced into 

 England from Northern Germany ; the art of making them had 

 been lost since the departure of the Romans. A breke Icylne is 

 mentioned in 1442 in connection with Eton College, which 

 Henry VI. was then founding. 



In the vast tracts of alluvial soil where quarries are not within 

 reach clay is everywhere found. Babylon was built of brick on 



