EARLY MAN 



less than twenty-two lines of dotted ornament running horizontally round 

 the outside of the vessel. These hut floors, or ' pit-dwellings ' were formed 

 by sinking a floor 3-7 feet and throwing out the earth round the opening 

 which was 14-20 feet in diameter ; on the bank thus formed were placed 

 stakes leaning towards the centre and supporting a roof of turf, bracken, 

 or other material. Associated with the ' drinking-cups ' were cinerary 

 and other vessels, also fragments of ornamented pottery, bones of domestic 

 animals, and part of a polished stone axe. 



A hoard of bronze-age objects was found at New Bradwell in the 

 year 1879. This hoard, which was contained in a deep cist filled with 

 black earth and about i foot 6 inches deep, consisted of sixteen objects, 

 namely, 9 socketed celts, 3 

 broken celts, i palstave, 2 

 spear-heads, and a leaf-shaped 

 sword broken into four pieces. 

 The site of the discovery is 

 now occupied by the County 

 Arms Hotel. 



In the British Museum is 

 a bronze palstave, 1 6 inches 

 long, and not of uncommon 

 type. It has sides and stop 

 ridges, and a raised rib on the 

 blade. It is of interest as hav- 

 ing been found in Bucking- 

 hamshire, but the exact locality 

 is not known. 



Sir John Evans, in his 

 treatise on the Ancient Bronze 

 Implements, Weapons and Orna- 

 ments of Great Britain (page 

 333), records the discovery in 

 the Thames near Datchet of an 

 ' eyed ' spear-head no less than 

 22 inches long; also of another 

 spear -head (page 330) 22^- 

 inches long in the same local- 

 ity, and now preserved in the 

 British Museum. 



The river-bed near Taplow, which may be considered to be as 

 intimately related to Buckinghamshire as to Berkshire, has furnished some 

 bronze-age weapons, etc., of an unusually interesting character. The 

 British Museum possesses an important collection procured here, and 

 presented in 1898 by Mrs. Ada Benson. The articles include five 

 socketed spear-heads and two broken swords. One of the spear-heads 



1 It is inadequately figured in one of the lithographed plates in Horce Ferales (Plate iv. fig. 26 

 and page 145). 



I8 3 



BRONZE PALSTAVE FOUND IN BUCKINGHAMSHIRE. 



(Now in the British Museum.) 



