358 



EARLY MAN IN BRITAIN. 



[CHAP. x. 



tumulus at Lake, in Wiltshire. 1 The gold beads 2 in 

 Fig. 124 show that sometimes their ornaments were 

 made of precious metals. On their arms they wore 

 bracelets, round, flat, or hollow, ornamented with various 

 designs, generally in chevrons or right lines, either con- 

 tinuous or dotted, and sometimes with circles. The 

 golden coronets or minns and collars worn in Ireland 

 in the legendary times preceding history perpetuate a 

 form of ornament in use in the Bronze age, as is proved 

 by the identity of the patterns in chevrons and right 

 lines (Fig. 146) with those on some of the bronze weap- 

 ons. Similar ornaments in gold have been discovered 

 in Brittany and Germany, and in Scandinavia in bronze, 

 as in Fig. 147. 



Lighting Fires and Woodcutting: 



Fire was obtained in the Bronze age by striking a 

 flint flake against a piece of iron pyrites, and these are 

 sometimes found together in the 

 tumuli, as in Fig. 125. 



The name of pyrites (rrvp) is it- 

 self, as Mr. Evans 

 remarks, sufficient 

 evidence of the pur- 

 pose to which the 

 mineral was applied 

 in ancient times ; 

 and the statement 

 of Pliny that fire 



FIG. 125.-Strike-a-Liglit, Seven Barrows, wag g rgt stmc k 



Lambourne, Berks, $. 



1 Thurnam, Archceolpgia, xliii. p. 501. 



Ibid, xliii. p. 525. 



