Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/453

 ANTIENT BRITISH AND ROMAN HEADS. 3')! degree similar ? The motive with hici the small urns were deposited in the larger ones, with the remains of the deceased, may have been for preparing their food during the transit to another world ; and the arrowdieads may have been designed to give them the means of obtaining it, as well as to enable them to follow their favourite pursuit ? The remarks of an eminent antiquary, Mr. Wilson, on flint-flakes, thus deposited, the rata material for the supply of missiles, are highly inter- esting. (Archaeology of Scotland, p. 120.) The discovery of the bronze arrow-head in the barrow (No. 3) is an unusual occurrence ; short daggers or knives of that metal are indeed found in cists and urns, where the interment was by cremation or otherwise. But arrow-heads of bronze are seldom found in barrows of the Stone Period. The shape of this singular relic being so different to that of the flint arrow-points, may seem to indicate that it might have been obtained from some tribe or peo})le in a more advanced state than themselves. These simple relics, the sole objects here discovered in the urns accompanying the cinereal deposit, appear, it must be admitted, to be regarded rather as the appliances of the peaceful hunter of the forest, than as evidence of his prowess in conflict. The urns themselves, on the other hand, indicate no slight skill in fictile manufacture, as compared w^ith many early specimens, from other parts of England. It may be hoped that the future examination of other vestiges of the Primeval Age, and especially the researches prosecuted recently w^ith so much energy and success by the antiquaries of Yorkshire, may throw light upon the antiquities of the north-eastern district of England, and lead to their scientific classification. ARTHUR TROLLOPE. ON THE CHEMICAL C0:MP0SITI0N OF SOME ANTIE.NT BRITISH AND EOMAN BEADS. BY I'KOFESSOK BUCKMAN, F.L.S., F.G.S., &c. I RECEIVED, some time since, from Dr. Thurnam a glass bead, discovered in an antient British tumulus, in Wilts, with the request that I would institute a chemical analysis of it ; I was induced, accordingly, to seek the kind co-opera-