110 INTRODUCTION. 



the dietary of these people. The horn of the roe-deer {cervus 

 capreohis) has been met with in two barrows. The antlers 

 found in the barrows (and the same was the case at Grime's 

 Graves) are almost always shed ones, it being very rare to find 

 one which has been taken from a slain animal. The abundance 

 of the antlers shows how plentiful the beast was, the rarity of 

 any but shed horns appears to indicate how seldom it was cap- 

 tured. The evidence of the Swiss Lake Dwelling-s points in the 

 same direction. At AUensbach in the Uberlinger See, says 

 Dr. Keller, numbers of red-deer horns were met with, but 'by 

 far the largest proportion appears to have been parts of horns 

 which had been shed, pieces attached to the skull are very rare \' 



The result of a critical examination of these bones shows very 

 clearly that a different state of existence prevailed on the wolds 

 from what was generally believed to have been the case. It was com- 

 monly thought that these people subsisted principally by the chase ; 

 and though it was not doubted that they possessed domesticated 

 animals, it was scarcely believed that the flesh of such was the 

 main support of these early wold-dwellers. Such appears, however, 

 undoubtedly to have been the case, for we cannot imagine that 

 the bones found in the barrows represent other than their ordinary 

 and daily food. The chase must, however, have been followed 

 very extensively by the wold - inhabitants, as is shown by the 

 abundance of arrow-points which are found scattered about in 

 every part of the district. These were no doubt used equally 

 in war, but it is impossible to suppose that the enormous numbers 

 met with can all have been intended for solely warlike purposes. 

 Many were probably expended not in the pursuit of the larger 

 animals, but of birds, and amongst them the bustard, which 

 until quite lately was an occupant of the wolds, as it was of 

 the downs of Wiltshire. The bones which occurred at Grime's 

 Graves (a series of flint workings in Norfolk) strongly cor- 

 roborate the testimony afforded by the barrows, for they are 

 identical in the two places. The pits at Grime's Graves cor- 

 respond in point of time with the large majority of the wold 

 barrows, if not exactly, at all events substantially, and therefore 

 the evidence we obtain from them in this respect is of great 

 value as illustrating the history we learn from the barrows ^. 

 In this Introduction, as also in the detailed account of the 



^ Keller, Lake Dwellings, ed. Lee, p. 97. 



^ Grime's Graves, Journal of Ethnological Society, N. S., vol. ii. p. 419. 



