'53 



PRE-HISTORIC REMAINS IN EAST YORKSHIRE. 



For some time the interest in evidences of the pre-historic 

 occupants of these islands has been manifest, and as years go 

 on, more and more attention is devoted to the study of the past. 

 The time has now gone when arrow points were looked upon as 

 fairy darts, and stone axes as thunderbolts. Researches into 

 the manners and customs of recent and modern savage and 

 semi-savage tribes have resulted in many analogies being drawn 

 betw^een present-day practices and those in vogue 2,000 or more 

 years ago. 



In this country there have been many workers who have 

 considerably added to our knowledge of the pre-Roman occu- 

 pants. Some authors have devoted special attention to certain 

 phases of art of the ancient Britons or to other similarly definite 

 subjects. Our principal knowledge of the Britons, however, 

 depends upon the researches of those archaeologists who have 

 carefully excavated and examined the burial mounds of British 

 chiefs. Therein lie the implements, weapons of war, ornaments, 

 and earthenware vessels, which more than anything give us an 

 idea of the mode of living of these people. 



Thos. Bateman, in his ' Ten Years' Diggings,' so long ago 

 as 1 861, described the results of his excavations in a number of 

 tumuli in Yorkshire and Derbyshire, etc. Other districts were 

 dealt with by Sir R. Colt Hoare, Mr. Warne, and Mr. W. C. 

 Borlase. Later, Canon Greenwell, in 1877, produced his classical 

 'British Barrows,' in which a general resume of our knowledge 

 up to that time of the contents of British tumuli in general, and 

 those of North-East Yorkshire in particular, was given. Later 

 still, the well-known and lavishly-illustrated volumes by Major- 

 General Pitt-Rivers appeared. 



We now have the pleasure of recording the appearance of 

 a book, which for excellence of illustration, for care as regards 

 the accuracy and details of the excavations it records, has not 

 been excelled, and, in view of the fact that so few British 

 unopened tumuli exist in the country, the probability is that no 

 work of the kind will ever again be produced. 



In ' Forty Years' Researches in the British and Anglo-Saxon 

 Burial Mounds of East Y^orkshire '^ Mr. J. R. Mortimer has just 

 produced the results of his life's work as an antiquary. Situated 

 in what has proved to be a district of exeptional antiquarian 



* A. Brown & Sons, 5, Farringdon Avenue, E.C. Price 50s. net. 

 1905 May I. 



