EARLY MAN 



furnished with two or three more urns containing cremated human 

 remains, lay in groups forming more or less irregular circles. 



Two sets or 

 types of burials were 

 identified at Ayles- 

 ford. In the case of | 

 the earlier burials, 

 marking a period 

 before continental 

 influence set in, the 

 pottery was doubt- 

 less of native manu- 

 facture, and based 

 on models supplied 

 by Bronze Age ex- 

 amples. In the other 

 type of burials the 

 pottery was clearly 

 made under strong 

 continental influence, 

 and its characteristic 

 forms and ornamen- 

 tations point to in- GRAVE-PtT, AtLESFORD. 



tercourse between 



Europe and the Britons. Some may have been imported, but it is more 

 probable that setders from Gaul, etc., resided at Aylesford. The urns 

 of this second type of burial are pear-shaped, pedestalled, cordoned, and 

 zoned, features which Dr. Evans identifies with those of the pottery of 

 the more eastern parts of Gaul and the Alpine and Italic region about 

 the head of the Adriatic Sea. Burials of this second type occurred in 



the form of irregular circles. 

 One of the most im- 

 portant points established 

 by this discovery is the ex- 

 istence of a wholly new style 

 of ancient British ceramic 

 art. Dr. Evans, on this 

 point, writes : ' The handi- 

 work of the British potters 

 of pre-Roman times has 

 been hitherto almost exclu- 

 sively associated with the 

 coarse-grained hand -made 

 vessels that represent the 

 direct tradition of the cups 

 and urns of our neolithic barrows. It is now generally recognized 

 that the origin of this ruder class of vessels is to be sought in early 



327 



Sketch-plan of Grave-Pits, Aylesford. 



