EARLY MAN 



woollen homespun in the form of cloaks, caps, leggings and sandals. 

 Personal ornaments consisted of golden beads and earrings, necklaces, 

 bracelets, collars and coronets made of stone, glass, bronze or bone. 



The graves or sepulchral barrows of this age were generally speak- 

 ing circular in form, and intended for the interment of the cremated 

 remains of only one person, whilst the oval barrows of the neolithic 

 age had been constructed for several interments, and sometimes fur- 

 nished with a central chamber of stone. 



THE PREHISTORIC IRON AGE 



The introduction of iron which succeeded the bronze age is closely 

 associated with the appearance in these islands of the Brythons, a race of 

 Celtic language from which the name of the chief island of the group is 

 derived. There are two good reasons which account for the rarity of 

 antiquities of this age. One, which is obvious to all, is the perishable 

 nature of objects composed of iron, and the other is the comparatively 

 short duration of the period when compared with that of the bronze or 

 of the neolithic age. The circumstance however which gives so much 

 interest to everything connected with this period is that it witnessed 

 the origin and partial development of a very remarkable form of decora- 

 tive art, which has received the designation of Late Celtic art. 



During the bronze age attempts at ornament were feeble and inef- 

 fective, and consisted of little more than circles, pellets, zigzags and 

 parallel lines or dashes. In the Late Celtic art, on the contrary, we 

 find introduced for the first time curved forms of a remarkable and 

 peculiarly elegant character, consisting in the main of spirals and curved 

 trumpet-shaped forms, the origin of which is involved in some obscurity, 

 but may perhaps have been derived originally from natural foliage. 

 This form of art survived long after the appearance of the Romans 

 in Britain, upon whom it exercised considerable 

 influence, and indeed it survived as a living art 

 during the pagan times of Britain. 1 



Surrey has furnished but few examples of 

 Late Celtic art. Among a number of enamelled 

 bronze objects found at Farley Heath, and 

 described some years ago by Mr. Martin F. 

 Tupper, 2 was a fibula, 3 inches in length, of the 

 safety-pin type which is probably of late Celtic 

 workmanship. Other objects found at the same 



. ,, r j Hi- i i_ i LATE CELTIC FlBULA > FARLEY 



place included enamelled circular fibulae and two HEATH (two views). 



enamelled four-legged stands, which are now in 



the British Museum. These however are probably of the Roman period. 



During the prehistoric iron age of course iron was in general use, 



but bronze was used for ornaments, and it is not improbable that some 



1 Charles H. Read, F.S.A., Parliamentary Return en Celtic Ornaments found in Ireland (1899), p. 8 ; 

 and Mr. Arthur Evans's Monographs. 



' Farley Heath : A Record of its Roman Remains and other Antiquities (1850), p. 25. 



247 



