Page:Surrey Archaeological Collections Volume 1.djvu/158

 and a flint hatchet-head, or celt; also the bones of an adult, superficially buried; but these had no connection with the interment already described, which was doubtless that over which the mound was first raised.

The bronze dagger-blade, if not belonging to the very earliest period, must yet be referred to a very remote age; and the individual whose obsequies had thus been celebrated by the rite of cremation, was probably a person of some rank and consideration among the primeval inhabitants of the southern district of Britain, long previous to the advent of Cæsar.

Mr. Quekett, of the Royal College of Surgeons, has inspected the calcined bones, which he states are those of an adult. He has detected among them portions of the cranium, portions of the upper and lower maxilla, the fang of an incisor tooth, and a fragment of a phalangal bone of a finger. The whole had been reduced by great heat, and with free access of air during combustion.

The dagger may be compared with the examples figured in Akerman's "Archæological Index," Plate V. Nos. 40, 41, 42. The handle, of bone, wood, or horn, has perished; but traces of its form are yet observable on the blade. It is represented in the plate of two-thirds the actual size.