116 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Unfortunately, only a few broken fragments have in most 

 cases been preserved (iig. 22). 



Very rarely have bronze articles been met with in 

 these burial mounds. Only two instances of bone 

 implements are recorded. Of the very few silver ornaments 

 found in the Island some may possibly belong to this 

 period, but in the absence of any direct evidence it would 

 not be safe to speak with certainty. 



It is, in the present stage of our knowledge, difficult 

 to say whether there was a distinct Age of Iron in the Isle 

 of Man, and, if there were, when it merged into the 

 Historic Period. A few of the pre-Christian burials, 

 however, would seem to belong to this division, of which 

 they constitute the most satisfactory evidence. Although 

 cremation was still carried on in the Iron Age in Britain, 

 a change began in the burials, and the dead were 

 frequently interred laid at full length in a stone chamber, 

 or shallow pit, along with articles used in the daily life. 



A tumulus at Lhergy-rhenny, on the S.W. shoulder of 

 Snaefell, levelled in order to obtain material for fencing* 

 in 1883, may have belonged to this period. The mound 

 was between four and five feet high, and over 16ft. 

 diameter. On its N.TT. side was a small cist of flat stones 

 set on edge, with some minute fragments of pottery on a 

 layer of ashes. Near the centre was a chamber built of 

 stones carefully laid flat, with sods between them, covered 

 by a capstone a few inches below the top of the mound. 

 The chamber measured 5 feet long by 2J feet wide, and 

 2 \ feet deep, but nothing was found in it. Just below, 

 and at a different angle, was a similar wall of another 

 chamber on a layer of wood ashes, resting on flat stones, 

 which appeared to have been laid on the original surface. 

 Here and there in the mound were pockets of broken red 

 quartz and small fragments of baked pottery. 



