EARLY MAN 



of the regular Bronze Age type makes it equally impossible to doubt 

 that the burial belonged to the period of bronze. A fourth object, a 

 shaped and perforated piece of stone, evidently intended for a whetstone, 

 is interesting as pointing to the sharpening of metal edges. 



Another remarkable series of Bronze Age antiquities was found in 

 1825 at Hollingbury Hill, an eminence of nearly 600 ft. situated 2.', 

 miles north of Brighton. The series included four massive objects of 

 bronze curved in a form approaching a circle, and considered by some' 

 to be bracelets. These were placed regularly on the outside of a hand- 

 some torques, also of bronze, without hooks, twisted, and ornamented 

 with spiral rings of bronze. A broken palstave was placed within the 

 circle of the torques. These objects, arranged in their original relative 

 position, are now ex- 

 hibited in the British 

 Museum. The regu- 

 larity of this deposit of 

 bronze articles and the 

 fact that two of the num- 

 ber had been broken, 

 apparently with a special 

 purpose, suggests that this 

 was a votive or funereal 

 offering. 



The great weight 

 and generally unsuitable 

 shape of two of the four 

 articles referred to seem 

 opposed to the idea that 

 they can ever have been 

 intended to serve as brace- 

 lets. The extremely 

 limited range of the dis- 

 tribution of the heavier 

 type of these objects is 

 another difficulty ; be- 

 cause, whilst such articles have not been found out of Sussex (with one 

 doubtful exception), several examples have been found in the Brighton 

 district.* It seems clear that an adequate and satisfactory explanation of 

 their purpose has yet to be found. Bracelets of similar character, but 

 much thinner and lighter, have however been found in more northern 

 parts of England and in Wales. Both the lighter and heavier types of 

 these articles were shaped in the same way. Each is formed of a long 

 bar of bronze, square or circular in section, which is bent double, leaving 

 a rather open loop at the bent end. The two free ends are then to- 



JECTS OF THE 



koNZE Age found at Hollingbury Hill, 

 Brighton. 



' Mr. Martin F. Tupper quaintly suggested that they were ' meant to steady the wrists of the young 

 druidess, or other sacred damsel,' etc. {Susst-x Arch. Coll. ii. 266 ff.) 

 - Proc. Soc. Antiq. (ser. 2), xviii. 409-11. 



