Mortimer : Jvt OrminietUs Jruiit East Yorkshire. 207 



Bronze Age, on Rigg's farm, near Thixendale. These pieces 

 had formed part of a dwellingf, made apparently of wattle work, 

 plastered with clay.'"' 



Reasoning- from the variable and wide range of skill dis- 

 played in the manufacture of these jet articles it may be safely 

 inferred that man}- of those most rudely made are of British 

 workmanship, the jet having for the most part been locally 

 obtained. Some oS. it maj- probably have been obtained direct 

 from the cliff sections in the neighbourhood of Whitby, whilst 

 some may have peen picked from the beds of drift. On the 

 other hand, I think it highly probable that the more skilfuUv- 

 made articles are of foreign origin, having been imported 

 from countries more advanced in metallurgy and the arts 

 generally. 



To-day foreign jet almost entirely supersedes the English 

 article, and it is highly probable that in the Bronze Age it was 

 imported into this country in the form of manufactured articles. 

 It is also very likely that our earliest bronze tools and weapons 

 were similarly obtained from a foreign source. There were 

 commercial interchanges with this island at a very early period ; 

 and, as always in commercial dealings with uncivilised tribes, 

 beads and other attractive ornaments would be much in request, 

 jet and amber being- amoiig the most valued. 



Dr. Thurnamt says ' By the ancients jet and amber were not 

 only sought after for ornaments, but found a place among drugs 

 and amulets. They were believed to exert a wonderful power 

 over the brain, nerves, and uterine system, and were believed to 

 afford a test of female chastity.' It is possible that a belief of 

 this kind may have been held by the East Yorkshire Britons. 

 The virtue of jet as a charm seems to have survived into 

 Romano-British times, but during the later Anglo-Saxon period 

 amber appears to have superseded jet, judging- from the frequent 

 presence of the former and the almost entire absence of the 

 latter in the graves of this period in East Yorkshire. 



For the loan of the blocks of East Yorkshire jet ornaments, 

 accompanying these notes, I am indebted to the Clarendon Press, 

 Rev. Canon Greenwell, F.R.S., Sir John Evans, K.C.B., F.R.S., 

 and the Archaeological Institute. 



* Presumably one of the occupants o'i this dwellinjj; had been buried out- 

 side the entrance of the hut, which had subsequently been pulled down and 

 a large mound raised over the debris. 



tArchaeolog-ia, \'ol. XLIII. 



■90.1 June '• 



