Page:VCH Sussex 1.djvu/375

 EARLY MAN of the regular Bronze Age type makes it equally impossible to doubt that the burial belonged to the period of bronze. A fourth object, a shaped and perforated piece of stone, evidently intended for a whetstone, is interesting as pointing to the sharpening of metal edges. Another remarkable series of Bronze Age antiquities was found in 1825 at Hollingbury Hill, an eminence of nearly 600 ft. situated 2.', miles north of Brighton. The series included four massive objects of bronze curved in a form approaching a circle, and considered by some' to be bracelets. These were placed regularly on the outside of a hand- some torques, also of bronze, without hooks, twisted, and ornamented with spiral rings of bronze. A broken palstave was placed within the circle of the torques. These objects, arranged in their original relative position, are now ex- hibited in the British Museum. The regu- larity of this deposit of bronze articles and the fact that two of the num- ber had been broken, apparently with a special purpose, suggests that this was a votive or funereal offering. The great weight and generally unsuitable shape of two of the four articles referred to seem opposed to the idea that they can ever have been intended to serve as brace- lets. The extremely limited range of the dis- tribution of the heavier type of these objects is another difficulty ; be- cause, whilst such articles have not been found out of Sussex (with one doubtful exception), several examples have been found in the Brighton district.* It seems clear that an adequate and satisfactory explanation of their purpose has yet to be found. Bracelets of similar character, but much thinner and lighter, have however been found in more northern parts of England and in Wales. Both the lighter and heavier types of these articles were shaped in the same way. Each is formed of a long bar of bronze, square or circular in section, which is bent double, leaving a rather open loop at the bent end. The two free ends are then to- JECTS OF THE koNZE Age found at Hollingbury Hill, Brighton. ' Mr. Martin F. Tupper quaintly suggested that they were ' meant to steady the wrists of the young druidess, or other sacred damsel,' etc. {Susst-x Arch. Coll. ii. 266 ff.) - Proc. Soc. Antiq. (ser. 2), xviii. 409-11.