EARLY MAN Ornamentation, especially when freely used, as in the case of these three pots, is generally considered to be the chief distinguishing mark of sepulchral as opposed to culinary pottery of this period. The Bronze Age method of burial was probably accompanied by cremation, but it is pretty certain that the earlier neolithic custom of inhumation survived among certain tribes or families throughout the Bronze Age. It also seems highly probable that the burial of pottery with the cremated remains of Bronze Age folk may have been a custom borrowed from the neolithic races. There are good reasons to believe that as far as Kent is concerned the Bronze Age, especially in its latter part, was a period characterized by considerable wealth and refinement. The remarkable ornaments composed of pure gold, to which reference will now be made, may not indeed represent exactly the same degree or proportion of wealth which they would have at the present time because the standards of metallic value are doubtless different ; but they certainly may be regarded as evidence of refinement and appreciation of the beautiful. The fact that gold occurs in some places naturally in a pure state has led to the inference that this was the first metal discovered by man.* In view of this, and also taking into consideration the ease with which natural gold may be shaped, it is a very difficult task to pronounce upon the age of objects of gold unless one is aided by some characteristic form or ornamentation upon them. Among the antiquities of gold found in Kent, however, there are some which may undoubtedly be referred to the Bronze Age. In 1861 three armlets and a trumpet-shaped object, perhaps part of a fourth armlet, or possibly a portion of a mammillary fibula, were found in the Medway,^ below Aylesford. Each armlet weighs somewhat over 2 oz., and has been formed by hammering. One is quite plain, another is slightly ornamented, and the third is rather elaborately marked with ornament of characteristic Bronze Age form. Fortunately these gold ornaments belong to the Kent Archsological Society, and are preserved at Maidstone. Another armilla formed of four pieces of solid gold wire, and weighing altogether upwards of 2 oz., was found at Canterbury * in i860. The wire was clearly made by hammering and not by draw- ing, as its form is thick in the middle and tapering towards the ends, where they are welded together. No less than seven examples of gold armills were subsequently discovered in the Aylesford district, and they were described and figured by Mr. C. Roach Smith, F.S.A. in Archceologia Cantiana!' From the accompanying engravings, which have been courteously lent by the Kent Archseological Society, the general character of these interesting objects can be gathered, but it is unfortunate that the precise details as to the localities of all the finds are not given. The larger twisted ornament is 1 Evans, Bron~e Imp. 418. ^ Arch. Cant. v. 41-2. » Op. cit. V. 43-4. * Arch. Cant. is. i-ii. 325
