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 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK is as true of the Bronze Age as of later parts of prehistoric time. The introduction of bronze into Britain was marked by an almost entire change in the burial customs of the people. The neolithic burial-places consisted of megalithic structures, and long or oval barrows sometimes containing chambers built up of rough stones. The dead bodies were buried some- times with and sometimes without previous burning or partial burning, and also in some cases after the skeleton had been bereft of its flesh. The bronze- using people, on the other hand, habitually burnt their dead and inclosed the remains in either (i) a cist formed of comparatively small stones, (2) a cinerary urn of rough pottery, inclosing also smaller sepulchral pottery, or (3) in an excavated hole in the ground, which was then covered by a mound. They reared low mounds, generally circular in plan, over the remains, which usually consisted of the much charred or entirely calcined frag- ments of bone accompanied by a few articles of either bronze or worked flint. Although burial by inhumation still continued to be practised during the Bronze Age, cremation was adopted for the first time, and constitutes one of the most characteristic features of Bronze-Age burial. The survival of the practice of inhumation affords, as the late Mr. J. Romilly Allen has clearly shown,^ an indication that the Bronze-Age race, or Goidels, amalgamated with the neolithic aborigines rather than exterminated them. The unburnt bodies were usually buried in a doubled-up position, and sometimes an urn was placed near the dead body ; but with the burnt interments of the Bronze Age ornamented pottery was generally deposited, and this affords ample material for studying the art of the period. This pottery derived from round barrows, which can now be examined in the more important museums of the kingdom, exhibits a remarkable variety of forms, which for the purpose of definite classification have been divided into the following classes : — 1. Cinerary urns. 3. ' Drinking-cups.' 2. ' Food-vessels.' 4. ' Incense-cups.' Of these terms, perhaps the first alone may be regarded as really descriptive of the use to which that type of vessels was put. The cinerary urn, which was used as a receptacle for the remains of burnt human bones, stood from 6 in. to 3 ft. in height. It was sometimes placed upright, and sometimes in an inverted position on a flat stone. Round the top of the vessel was usually a thick rim the purpose of which was probably to impart strength. ' Food-vessels ' are urns with fairly wide open mouths. By some autho- rities they are believed to have been used to contain food which was placed near the human remains in unburnt Bronze-Age burials. ' Drinking-cups ' are vessels of beaker-like form, the surfaces of which are ornamented by interesting incised designs. They are hardly ever associated with cremated burials, and are generally found placed near the shoulders of the skeleton of the dead. ' Incense-cups,' unlike the two types of pottery just referred to, are never found in association with unburnt burials ; they invariably accompany crema- ' CelHc Art, 23-4. 264