Page:VCH Suffolk 1.djvu/317

EARLY MAN

Cinerary Urn found at
Snape

It will be observed that straight lines only are employed. Spiral forms, which gave such beauty to Late Celtic art, are here entirely wanting, and, with the exception of the circles found on the bottoms of some of the incense cups, curves form no part of the decoration of Bronze-Age pottery. Although the incisions are somewhat irregular they are evidently intended for, and must be regarded as, straight lines.

One of the characteristics of the Bronze-Age beakers or 'drinking-cups' of Essex is the use of parallel horizontal lines.

A cinerary urn of the regular Bronze-Age type with over-hanging rim was found at Snape (see annexed illustration).

There are a few pieces of Bronze-Age pottery of some interest, which were probably found in Suffolk, now preserved in the archaeological museum at Ipswich. One is a vase, or urn, of drinking-cup form, about 5 in. high, decorated with a rather coarse series of dots arranged in the form of horizontal lines between which, in alternate zones, are dotted lines in the form of lattice-work with diamond-shaped openings. Another similar vessel is beside that just described. Both are somewhat mutilated by hard wear.

There is a third vessel of flatter, smaller, and more globular form. It is ornamented with incised horizontal lines.

There are certain ornamental features on some of the cast-bronze implements found in Suffolk which give distinctly valuable illustrations of the kind of artistic efforts made by the worker in bronze of this early period of time. These differ essentially from the styles of ornamentation found on sepulchral pottery of this period. In the pottery we have many different combinations of horizontal, perpendicular, and oblique lines, generally forming some kind of cheveron design. Everything of the nature of a regular curve is wanting. If a line approaches a curved form it is almost certainly the result of carelessness or accident. In the objects formed of cast bronze, however, as will be observed from the accompanying illustrations, this is not the case. Here we have, in the case of the socketed celt from Fornham, a series of five flattened circular pellets or roundels arranged across the celt at about the point where the hollow socket ends and the solid, business-part of the implement begins. Raised lines, or ribs, connect the roundels with the well-developed moulding which surrounds the socket end of the celt. The area near the cutting edge, it will be noted, is kept quite free from ornament.

The use to which implements of this type were applied is a matter of some uncertainty, but the fact that they have often been found broken just at the small end of the socket suggests that they were employed for levering, prising, or splitting wood, or some such use. If this is

Celt found at
Fornham

267