EARLY MAN 



Dr. Evans, in some general conclusions at the end of his impor- 

 tant paper,' placed the date of the Aylesford cemetery at about the 

 middle of the first century b.c, and points out that 

 not a single object of purely Roman fabric has been 

 found among the sepulchral remains there. 



The Prehistoric Age of Iron witnessed the in- 

 troduction and development of a style of ornament of 

 peculiar grace and delicacy, known as Late Celtic art. 

 The foliaged ornament on the Aylesford pail is in fact 

 particularly interesting as an 

 example of this form of decora- 

 tive art. Originally the forms 

 seem to have been adapted 

 from those of natural foliage, 

 but in process of time they be- 

 came conventionalized, and the 

 main idea seems to have been 

 to produce a number of more 

 or less curved trumpet-shaped 

 figures arranged in various 

 combinations. 



In the accompanying 

 figure is shown a metal disc 

 found at Greenwich,^ which has 

 been ornamented in this way. 

 Bronze discs of this character were generally enamelled and applied as 

 decorative mountings to metal bowls, some of which are of the Saxon 

 period. An important article on this subject was communicated in 1898 

 to the Society of Antiquaries ' by Mr. J. Romilly Allen, F.S.A., in which 

 it is shown that such discs must be referred to the end of the Late 

 Celtic period and the beginning of the Saxon period. Other objects 

 bearing evidence of Late Celtic art have been found at Canterbury, 

 Faversham, Folkestone, Hartlip and Lullingstone. 

 In the Marden hoard of bronze antiquities 

 already described a torques of Late Celtic character 

 was discovered. 



Another important site where antiquities of 

 this age have been procured is Bigberry Hill in 

 the parish of Harbledown. Mr. John Brent,* in 

 the year 1861, communicated to the Kent Arch- 

 seological Society an account of certain ' relics 

 apparently Roman ' found at that place, compris- 

 ing a plough-share, coulter, cattle goad, an iron 

 tyre of a plough or chariot wheel, an iron bit, and links or traces. 

 In a letter written to Mr. Charles Roach Smith in 1866 he records 



RONZE, Aylesford. 



it n inches.) 



Metal Disc founc 

 Greenwich. 



Arch. lii. 382. 

 Jrch. Ivi. 39-56. 



Proc. Soc. Antiq. (ser. 2), ii. 202. 



Arch. Cant. iv. 33. Coll. Antiq. vi. 261- 



329 



42 



