A HISTORY OF DERBYSHIRE 



the burial of Ophelia, refers. Other objects than these very rarely occur 

 in these barrows, and they mostly relate to the personal attire of the 

 dead. Two bronze dagger-blades and a pin, and a bone pin or two, have 

 been found, all burnt ; but the most remarkable ' find ' consisted of 

 twenty-eight convex bone objects marked with dots, and described as 

 draftsmen, and two ornamented bone combs, which also had passed 

 through the fire. 1 Fragments of iron, a Roman coin of the Lower 

 Empire, and the upper stone of a quern have also been found. The only 

 earthen vessel noted was a diminutive incense cup decorated in the usual 

 manner, which was laid upon a deposit of burnt bones within a circular 

 hole under one of these barrows.* 



The exact age of these barrows is an interesting question. While 

 the incense cup on the one hand links them with the Bronze age, the 

 Roman coin on the other carries the series far into the Roman period. 

 Querns and the use of iron are admittedly of late introduction. The 

 bone combs have a distinct Roman fades. The two bronze dagger- 

 blades are mentioned as different from the ordinary type found in the 

 Bronze-age series. The terms in which the potsherds are described, 

 as ' wheel-made,' ' hard,' ' firmly baked,' ' compact,' and ' Romano- 

 British,' suggest the period of the occupation or its near approach. 



Since the barrows of the second class are by a consensus of opinion 

 assigned to the earlier portion of the Bronze age, these of the third 

 class extend, it would seem from the above evidence, from that time far 

 into the Roman period. Their small number, however, is a difficulty. 

 While the former may be counted by the hundred in Derbyshire, less 

 than two dozen of the latter have been observed. This would seem to 

 indicate that the period of these barrows was very short, whereas the 

 large number of socketed axes (the characteristic implement of the later 

 Bronze age) which have been found in Britain seems to contradict this, 

 implying that their portion alone of this period was of considerable 

 duration. It may have been that the use of bronze was far more 

 common in the later than in the earlier portion of the age, so that the 

 relative abundance of the ' finds ' is no test of time. The pre-Roman 

 Iron age too may have been very short, and have been overlapped by 

 the socketed axes. Again, while there can be no question that many, 

 perhaps most, of the interments of the second class belong to the period 

 of the flat and the flanged axes, some as the inurned cremated deposits 

 may have witnessed the introduction of their socketed successors. It was 

 observed above that as the Bronze age advanced there was a tendency for 

 the * grave goods ' to become fewer, and less such as would be used in 

 life. The general absence, therefore, of bronze axes of any kind from 

 these inurned interments is what might be expected. Another tendency 

 has been noticed that in the direction of small mounds and slight 

 circles enclosing diminutive mounds. These may have been numerous, 

 and may represent a common type of burial in the later Bronze age ; 



1 Digging, p. 179. * Ibid. p. 130. 



188 



