EARLY MAN 



Ornamentation, especially when freely used, as in the case of these 

 three pots, is generally considered to be the chief distinguishing mark 

 of sepulchral as opposed to culinary pottery of this period. 



The Bronze Age method of burial was probably accompanied by 

 cremation, but it is pretty certain that the earlier neolithic custom of 

 inhumation survived among certain tribes or families throughout the 

 Bronze Age. It also seems highly probable that the burial of pottery 

 with the cremated remains of Bronze Age folk may have been a custom 

 borrowed from the neolithic races. 



There are good reasons to believe that as far as Kent is concerned 

 the Bronze Age, especially in its latter part, was a period characterized 

 by considerable wealth and refinement. The remarkable ornaments 

 composed of pure gold, to which reference will now be made, may not 

 indeed represent exactly the same degree or proportion of wealth which 

 they would have at the present time because the standards of metallic 

 value are doubtless different ; but they certainly may be regarded as 

 evidence of refinement and appreciation of the beautiful. 



The fact that gold occurs in some places naturally in a pure state 

 has led to the inference that this was the first metal discovered by man.* 

 In view of this, and also taking into consideration the ease with which 

 natural gold may be shaped, it is a very difficult task to pronounce upon 

 the age of objects of gold unless one is aided by some characteristic 

 form or ornamentation upon them. 



Among the antiquities of gold found in Kent, however, there are 

 some which may undoubtedly be referred to the Bronze Age. In 1861 

 three armlets and a trumpet-shaped object, perhaps part of a fourth 

 armlet, or possibly a portion of a mammillary fibula, were found in the 

 Medway,^ below Aylesford. Each armlet weighs somewhat over 

 2 oz., and has been formed by hammering. One is quite plain, 

 another is slightly ornamented, and the third is rather elaborately 

 marked with ornament of characteristic Bronze Age form. Fortunately 

 these gold ornaments belong to the Kent Archsological Society, and are 

 preserved at Maidstone. 



Another armilla formed of four pieces of solid gold wire, and 

 weighing altogether upwards of 2 oz., was found at Canterbury * 

 in i860. The wire was clearly made by hammering and not by draw- 

 ing, as its form is thick in the middle and tapering towards the ends, 

 where they are welded together. 



No less than seven examples of gold armills were subsequently 

 discovered in the Aylesford district, and they were described and figured 

 by Mr. C. Roach Smith, F.S.A. in Archceologia Cantiana!' From the 

 accompanying engravings, which have been courteously lent by the Kent 

 Archseological Society, the general character of these interesting objects 

 can be gathered, but it is unfortunate that the precise details as to the 

 localities of all the finds are not given. The larger twisted ornament is 



1 Evans, Bron~e Imp. 418. ^ Arch. Cant. v. 41-2. 



» Op. cit. V. 43-4. * Arch. Cant. is. i-ii. 



325 



