Books, Prehistory, Iron Prehistoric Artefacts
Iron Prehistoric Artefacts is in Prehistoric Artefacts.
Books, Prehistory, Iron Prehistoric Artefacts, Iron Age Gold
Cassio Dio Roman History Book 62. 2. An excuse for the war was found in the confiscation of the sums of money that Claudius had given to the foremost Britons; for these sums, as Decianus Catus, the procurator of the island, maintained, were to be paid back. This was one reason for the uprising; another was found in the fact that Seneca, in the hope of receiving a good rate of interest, had lent to the islanders 40,000,000 sesterces that they did not want,7 and had afterwards called in this loan all at once and had resorted to severe measures in exacting it. But the person who was chiefly instrumental in rousing the natives and persuading them to fight the Romans, the person who was thought worthy to be their leader and who directed the conduct of the entire war, was Buduica,8 a Briton woman of the royal family and possessed of greater intelligence than often belongs to women. This woman assembled her army, to the number of some 120,000, and then ascended a tribunal which had been constructed of earth in the Roman fashion. In stature she was very tall, in appearance most terrifying, in the glance of her eye most fierce, and her voice was harsh; a great mass of the tawniest hair fell to her hips; around her neck was a large golden necklace; and she wore a tunic of divers colours over which a thick mantle was fastened with a brooch. This was her invariable attire. She now grasped a spear to aid her in terrifying all beholders and spoke as follows:
Note 7. The text, ἄκουσιν, does not give a very satisfactory meaning; Naber would read αἰτοῦσιν, "at their request."
Note 8. Commonly known as Boadicea.
Diary of a Dean by Merewether. 31. Portion of a gold torque found in digging flints on Allington down, near the highest point of the hills bounding the north side of Pewsey vale; size of the original, weight oz. troy. The original is in the possession of the Earl of Ilchester, who claimed it as treasure trove, being lord of the manor.
32. Iron spear-head found in digging rubble to make roads on the down, where there was no irregularity of surface, at Lower Upham, parish of Auburn.
Diary of a Dean by Merewether. 36. Portions of gold ornaments found in a barrow on Roundaway down, near Devizes. The barrow in question was opened by the orders of the late proprietor, E. F. Colston, Esq., of Roundaway Park. It is a small one, situated in the apex of the down, which, although particularly mentioned by Sir R. C. Hoare, escaped the examination of that able and indefatigable antiquary. The workmen having, at a depth of 7 feet, cut through an upper stratum of peculiarly fine dark mould, and reached the natural chalk level, came to a skeleton, much decayed, which had formerly been enclosed in a wooden chest, bound round and clamped together with strong iron plates or hoops. Several portions of this iron-work had fibres of the wood still adhering to them, and remained precisely as originally placed. The skeleton lay east and west, the head towards the latter point. At its feet, formed of about twenty triangular pieces of brass fastened together with rivets and two thin hoops of the same metal, lay a cap or helmet, which remained perfect a few minutes only, falling to pieces on the admission of air. Near the neck were several large oval garnets, among which was one, much larger than the rest, of a triangular shape. All were strongly set in gold. The ovals appeared to form, with intermediate beads made of twisted gold wire, a necklace, from which the triangular stone hung as the central pendant. There were also (with several smaller articles) two pins of gold, fastened to one another by a gold chain, with a small medallion between them; on one side of which is distinctly engraved the figure of the Cross. Unfortunately none of the parties most interested in the discovery were present at the exact time, and it is feared that they did not obtain all the remains, as it was heard that similar stones had subsequently been sold at Bath, which had been found on Roundaway down. The bones of four animals were also found in the corners, said to be of a dog and cat, a horse and a boar. A coin, small brass, of Crispus, was also found, proving the date of the interment. There is no other instance on record of a similar discovery belonging to the same period in this district.
Books, Prehistory, Iron Prehistoric Artefacts, Iron Arrow Head
Thomas Bateman 1824. On the 28th of July, 1824, a search was instituted into a barrow [Map] situate on the most northerly, as well as the most elevated, point of Middleton Moor; it measures forty feet in diameter, and is about two feet in elevation. At an early stage of the operations, which commenced by cutting through the mound from north to south, human bones, intermixed with those of the water rat, and pieces of charcoal, were met with; towards the centre the rats' bones increased in quantity, and amongst them were several dogs' teeth. Arriving at the middle, the remains of two skeletons were disclosed to view; the whole in great confusion, and mostly in fragments, many quite black frm having undergone combustion; an iron lance, or arrow-head, three inches long; a piece of iron, resembling a nail; and a singular piece of calcined flint, very neatly chipped into a circular form. Numerous examples of this instrument having been discovered in subsequent researches, they will be here-after designated as flints of the circular form, in order to simplify the accounts as much as possible. No urn was discovered, nor from the perfect search that was made is it probable that any had ever been deposited in the barrow. The remains of one skull lay upon a round sandstone which was in a decomposed state and of a red colour apparently having been burnt. Notwithstanding the confused state in which the contents of this barrow were founds they certainly had not been previously subjected to antiquarian research.
Section I Tumuli 1843. The 30th of June 1843 was occupied in examining the middle part of a large barrow on Brassington Moor, usually called Galley Lowe [Map], but formerly written Callidge Lowe, which is probably more correct. About two feet from the surface were found a few human bones mixed with rats' bones and horses' teeth; amongst these bones (which had been disturbed by a labourer digging in search of treasure) the following highly interesting and valuable articles were discovered: several pieces of iron, some in the form of rivets, others quite shapeless, having been broken on the occasion above referred to, two arrow-heads of the same metal, a piece of coarse sandstone, which was rubbed into the form of a whetstone; an ivory pin or bodkin, of very neat execution; the fragments of a large urn of well-baked earthenware, which was glazed in the interior for about an inch above the bottom; two beads, one of green glass, the other of white enamel, with a coil of blue running through it, and fourteen beautiful pendant ornaments of pure, gold, eleven of which are encircled by settings of large and brilliantly coloured garnets, two are of gold without setting, and the remaining one is of gold wire twisted in a spiral manner, from the centre towards each extremity (a gold loop of identical pattern is affixed to a barbaric copy of a gold coin of Honorius in the writer's possession); they have evidently been intended to form one ornament only, most probably a necklace, for which use their form peculiarly adapts them. It will here not be out of place to borrow some quotations relative to a remarkable superstition connected with glass beads similar to those discovered in Galley Lowe, particularly the one having "two circular lines of opaque sky-blue and white," which seem to represent a serpent entwined round a centre, which is perforated. "This was certainly one of the Glain Neidyr of the Britons, derived from glain, which is pure and holy, and neidyr, a snake. Under the word glain, Mr. Owen, in his Welsh Dictionary, has given the following article: "The Nair Glain, transparent stones, or adder stones, were worn by the different orders of the Bards, each exhibiting its appropriate colour. There is no certainty that they were worn from superstition originally; perhaps that was the circumstance which gave rise to it. Whatever might have been the cause, the notion of their rare virtues was universal in all places where the Bardic religion was taught."
These beads are thus noticed by Bishop Gibson, in his improved edition of Camden's Britannia: "In most parts of Wales, and throughout all Scotland, and in Cornwall, we find it a common opinion of the vulgar, that about Midsummer-eve (though in the time they do not all agree) it is usual for snakes to meet in companies, and that by joining heads together and hissing, a kind of bubble is formed, like a ring, about the head of one of them, which the rest, by continual hissing, blow on, until it comes off at the tail, when it immediately hardens, and resembles a glass ring, which whoever finds shall prosper in all his undertakings: the rings they supposed to be thus generated are called gleinen nadroeth, namely, gemma anguinum. They are small glass annulets, commonly about half as wide as our finger-rings, but much thicker, of a green colour usually, though some of them are blue, and others curiously waved with blue, red, and white.'' There seems to be some connexion between the glain neidyr of the Britons and the ovum anguinnm, mentioned by Pliny as being held in veneration by the Druids of Gaul and to the formation of which he gives nearly the same origin. They were probably worn as a mark of distinction, and suspended round the neck as the perforations are not large enough to admit the finger. A large portion of this barrow still remaining untouched on the south-east side, which was but little elevated above the natural soil, yet extending farther from the centre, it offered a larger area, in which interments were more likely to be found than any other part of the tumulus, it was decided on resuming the search on the 3d of July, 1843, by digging from the outside until the former excavation in the centre was reached. In carrying out this design the following interments were discovered, all of which seem to pertain to a much more remote era than the interment whose discovery has been before recorded. First, the skeleton of a child, in a state of great decay; a little farther on a lengthy skeleton, the femur of which measures nineteen and a half inches, with a rudely ornamented urn of coarse clay deposited near the head; a small article of ivory, perforated with six holes, as though for the purpose of being sewn into some article of dress or ornament (a larger one of the same kind was found in a barrow at Gristhorpe, near Scarborough, in 1832); a small arrow-head of gray flint, a piece of iron-stone, and a piece of stag's horn, artificially pointed at the thicker end, were found in the immediate neighbourhood of the urn. Between this skeleton and the centre of the barrow four more skeletons were exhumed, two of which were of young persons; there was no mode of arrangement perceptible in the positions of the bodies, excepting that the heads seemed to lie nearest to the urn before mentioned. Amongst the bones of these four skeletons a small rude incense cup was found, which is of rather unusual form, being perforated with two holes on each side, opposite each other.
Books, Prehistory, Iron Prehistoric Artefacts, Iron Buckle
Section I Brushfield Barrow 1825. About the year 1825 a tumulus, at Brushfield [Map], Derbyshire, was accidently opened by the farmer in whose land it was. It contained an iron sword, measuring thirty-two inches in length and two inches in breadth, the iron umbo of a shield, an iron knife and buckle. These articles passed into the hands of the late Mr. Birds, of Eyam; and thence, with the exception of the centre of the shield, into the author's museum.
Books, Prehistory, Iron Prehistoric Artefacts, Iron Fibula
Thomas Bateman 1824. Nearer the surface of the tumulus were found a small iron fibula which had once received a setting of some gem now lost and another piece of iron, of indeterminable form. The discovery of these articles would indicate an interment of later date than the one consisting of the calcined bones.
In the interior of the barrow were found numerous pieces of white calcined flint. This circumstance is by no means unusual, either in the Derbyshire or other barrows; that they were designedly placed there is no doubt, as pure flint is not indigenous to Derbyshire, and would have to be brought from a considerable distance.
Fosbrooke, on the authority of Pliny and Oough, tells us that the northern nations deemed them efficacious in confining the dead to their habitations. The arrow-head and celt were probably buried with the deceased under the influence of a notion similar to that under which the Laplanders, even to the present day, inter with their dead bows, arrows, hatchets, and swords, conceiving that they may be useful in a future state. The ancient northern people threw money and other valuables into the funeral pile, as a certain means of conducting the dead to the sacred Valhalla, or hall of the slain, where Odin presided.
Books, Prehistory, Iron Prehistoric Artefacts, Iron Knife
Section I Brushfield Barrow 1825. About the year 1825 a tumulus, at Brushfield [Map], Derbyshire, was accidently opened by the farmer in whose land it was. It contained an iron sword, measuring thirty-two inches in length and two inches in breadth, the iron umbo of a shield, an iron knife and buckle. These articles passed into the hands of the late Mr. Birds, of Eyam; and thence, with the exception of the centre of the shield, into the author's museum.
Section I Tumuli 1825. On the 18th of May, 1825, was opened a tumulus in the immediate neighbourhood of that situate on Kenslowe Farm, previously described. The one in question did not prove so interesting as the former one, as it merely contained a few fragments of the skull and other bones of a human skeleton, and two iron knives, about six inches in length, and one and a half in width at the broadest parts, with a fragment of the wooden shaft adhering to one of them; the grain of the wood is similar to that of ash, which it most probably was. Two smaller bits of iron were found, which, together with the knives, were much oxydized. The burial-place, or cist, appeared to be a natural depression in the rock, and contained a great deal of charcoal. It is to be observed, that the contents of this barrow, with respect to the metallic weapons and the absence of small animal bones, differ from all the others before opened at Middleton.
Section I Tumuli 1827. In December, 1827, a barrow was discovered upon the Cross Flatts, Middleton, by labourers digging holes for a plantation; on the 11th of that month it was thoroughly investigated, and was found to contain a skeleton, apparently that of a young person, deposited at full length in a natural cist in the rock, about two feet in depth; the head lay in an easterly direction; the weapons of this person consisted of an iron knife the blade five inches long with a portion of its wooden handle still remaining, and a piece of roughly chipped flint, probably a spear-head; a natural piece of stone of a remarkable form was also discovered near the body; rats' bones were apparent, though in smaller quantity than usual. A similar iron knife and part of a stone celt were found in the subsequent year within 9 few yards of this barrow; they had most probably been thrown out and overlooked at the time it was opened, or disturbed by the planters.
Books, Prehistory, Iron Prehistoric Artefacts, Iron Lance
Thomas Bateman 1824. On the 28th of July, 1824, a search was instituted into a barrow [Map] situate on the most northerly, as well as the most elevated, point of Middleton Moor; it measures forty feet in diameter, and is about two feet in elevation. At an early stage of the operations, which commenced by cutting through the mound from north to south, human bones, intermixed with those of the water rat, and pieces of charcoal, were met with; towards the centre the rats' bones increased in quantity, and amongst them were several dogs' teeth. Arriving at the middle, the remains of two skeletons were disclosed to view; the whole in great confusion, and mostly in fragments, many quite black frm having undergone combustion; an iron lance, or arrow-head, three inches long; a piece of iron, resembling a nail; and a singular piece of calcined flint, very neatly chipped into a circular form. Numerous examples of this instrument having been discovered in subsequent researches, they will be here-after designated as flints of the circular form, in order to simplify the accounts as much as possible. No urn was discovered, nor from the perfect search that was made is it probable that any had ever been deposited in the barrow. The remains of one skull lay upon a round sandstone which was in a decomposed state and of a red colour apparently having been burnt. Notwithstanding the confused state in which the contents of this barrow were founds they certainly had not been previously subjected to antiquarian research.
Books, Prehistory, Iron Prehistoric Artefacts, Iron Nail
Thomas Bateman 1824. On the 28th of July, 1824, a search was instituted into a barrow [Map] situate on the most northerly, as well as the most elevated, point of Middleton Moor; it measures forty feet in diameter, and is about two feet in elevation. At an early stage of the operations, which commenced by cutting through the mound from north to south, human bones, intermixed with those of the water rat, and pieces of charcoal, were met with; towards the centre the rats' bones increased in quantity, and amongst them were several dogs' teeth. Arriving at the middle, the remains of two skeletons were disclosed to view; the whole in great confusion, and mostly in fragments, many quite black frm having undergone combustion; an iron lance, or arrow-head, three inches long; a piece of iron, resembling a nail; and a singular piece of calcined flint, very neatly chipped into a circular form. Numerous examples of this instrument having been discovered in subsequent researches, they will be here-after designated as flints of the circular form, in order to simplify the accounts as much as possible. No urn was discovered, nor from the perfect search that was made is it probable that any had ever been deposited in the barrow. The remains of one skull lay upon a round sandstone which was in a decomposed state and of a red colour apparently having been burnt. Notwithstanding the confused state in which the contents of this barrow were founds they certainly had not been previously subjected to antiquarian research.
Books, Prehistory, Iron Prehistoric Artefacts, Iron Ore
Section I Tumuli 1844. June the 10th, 1844, was opened a barrow [Map] upon Elton Moor, for which there is no distinctive name; it was on this occasion divided into four quarters by our sections, which left very little of the mound unexplored. In the usual central situation was found a previously-disturbed interment, accompanied by a large arrow- or spear-head of flint, a piece of a small urn neatly ornamented, and some animal teeth. On the southern side of the tumulus another interment was discovered, about eighteen inches below the natural surface of the land upon which the barrow was constructed; this skeleton was certainly that of an aged person, the teeth being much worn down; near the head was a piece of spherical iron pyrites, now for the first time noticed as being occasionally found with other relics in the British tumuli. Subsequent discoveries have proved that it was prized by the Britons, and not unfrequently deposited in the grave along with the weapons and ornaments which formed the most valued part of their store; even to the present day, the same mineral is used as a personal decoration by some tribes of the South American Indians. In the rear of the skeleton was a neatly-ornamented drinking-cup, which had been crushed by the weight of the soil, with which it had in a great degree become incorporated; within this cup the following odd assemblage of articles were placed: three quartz pebbles, one of which is red, the other two of a light colour; a flat piece of polished iron ore, a small celt of flint, with the peculiarity of having a round polished edge, instead of a cutting one as is usual; a beautifully-chipped cutting tool, twenty-one circular instruments almost all neatly chipped, and seventeen pieces, or rude instruments, all of flint, which had been turned to a delicate white or gray by calcination. Scattered about in the immediate neighbourhood of this interment were a good many pieces of burnt bones, not sufficient in quantity to compose a complete deposit, and a few rats' bones as usual.
Books, Prehistory, Iron Prehistoric Artefacts, Iron Pyrites
Section I Tumuli 1844. June the 10th, 1844, was opened a barrow [Map] upon Elton Moor, for which there is no distinctive name; it was on this occasion divided into four quarters by our sections, which left very little of the mound unexplored. In the usual central situation was found a previously-disturbed interment, accompanied by a large arrow- or spear-head of flint, a piece of a small urn neatly ornamented, and some animal teeth. On the southern side of the tumulus another interment was discovered, about eighteen inches below the natural surface of the land upon which the barrow was constructed; this skeleton was certainly that of an aged person, the teeth being much worn down; near the head was a piece of spherical iron pyrites, now for the first time noticed as being occasionally found with other relics in the British tumuli. Subsequent discoveries have proved that it was prized by the Britons, and not unfrequently deposited in the grave along with the weapons and ornaments which formed the most valued part of their store; even to the present day, the same mineral is used as a personal decoration by some tribes of the South American Indians. In the rear of the skeleton was a neatly-ornamented drinking-cup, which had been crushed by the weight of the soil, with which it had in a great degree become incorporated; within this cup the following odd assemblage of articles were placed: three quartz pebbles, one of which is red, the other two of a light colour; a flat piece of polished iron ore, a small celt of flint, with the peculiarity of having a round polished edge, instead of a cutting one as is usual; a beautifully-chipped cutting tool, twenty-one circular instruments almost all neatly chipped, and seventeen pieces, or rude instruments, all of flint, which had been turned to a delicate white or gray by calcination. Scattered about in the immediate neighbourhood of this interment were a good many pieces of burnt bones, not sufficient in quantity to compose a complete deposit, and a few rats' bones as usual.
Books, Prehistory, Iron Prehistoric Artefacts, Iron Shield Umbo
Section I Brushfield Barrow 1825. About the year 1825 a tumulus, at Brushfield [Map], Derbyshire, was accidently opened by the farmer in whose land it was. It contained an iron sword, measuring thirty-two inches in length and two inches in breadth, the iron umbo of a shield, an iron knife and buckle. These articles passed into the hands of the late Mr. Birds, of Eyam; and thence, with the exception of the centre of the shield, into the author's museum.
Books, Prehistory, Iron Prehistoric Artefacts, Iron Sword
Section I Brushfield Barrow 1825. About the year 1825 a tumulus, at Brushfield [Map], Derbyshire, was accidently opened by the farmer in whose land it was. It contained an iron sword, measuring thirty-two inches in length and two inches in breadth, the iron umbo of a shield, an iron knife and buckle. These articles passed into the hands of the late Mr. Birds, of Eyam; and thence, with the exception of the centre of the shield, into the author's museum.