268 YORKSHIRE. EAST RIDING. 



have made the discovery of the possibility of smelting- it, if we did 

 not bear in mind that the different pyritie ores are intractable 

 enough to bid defiance to the appliances of modern science. 



Although perhaps not of equal value as evidence touching the 

 condition of the people of this early period with the discovery 

 just passed under notice, still the occurrence of a bronze implement 

 associated with one of stone is not without its interest. It is well 

 known that during the bronze age flint and other varieties of stone 

 were used for the fabrication of such weapons and tools as would 

 have been made of metal had it been more readily procurable ; 

 still, every additional fact illustrative of this point is important^ as 

 adding one more to a number which is by no means too great. The 

 stone implement^ exclusive of the smaller articles of flint, which has 

 been most commonly found associated with bronze, is (as was the 

 case in the barrow now under notice) the perforated axe-hammer, 

 an implement which must I think be classed as a weapon of war, 

 for which purpose it would obviously at such a period be almost as 

 eflicacious as if made of bronze. 



The jet articles, especially the ring and one of the buttons, are 

 of great beauty, and show not only considerable skill in their 

 manufacture, but much taste in the style of ornament adopted in 

 each case. The ring, with the parallel lines engraved upon its faces 

 and side, is really a very pretty object ; and the pattern with which 

 it is decorated is so well suited to the art-requirements of such an 

 article as to show that the person who made it must have been not 

 only well acquainted with, but much under the influence of, the true 

 principles of ornamentation as applied to objects of personal use. 

 The same may be said of the engraved button, the simple orna- 

 mentation upon which is just such as to add to its beauty without 

 overloading it, while the conical form of the upper surface of the 

 button seems fittingly to call for the application of such a pattern 

 as has been placed upon it. The cross in this case is most probably 

 simply decorative, and although it is certain that from a very early 

 time this figure was used as a symbol, and although it occurs 

 frequently upon various manufactured articles of the bronze period, 

 and more especially on the bottoms of fictile vessels, I should not be 

 inclined to suppose that anything more than an ornamental purpose 

 was intended in the cases just referred to\ 



' Two previous instances where the cross has occurred on buttons in the wold 

 barrows may be refen-ed to; at Butterwick [No. xxxix] on a stone button, and at 

 Thwing [No. Ix] on one of jet. Sir E. Colt Hoare found two thin gold disks, which 



