EARLY MAN Dr. Evans, in some general conclusions at the end of his impor- tant paper,' placed the date of the Aylesford cemetery at about the middle of the first century b.c, and points out that not a single object of purely Roman fabric has been found among the sepulchral remains there. The Prehistoric Age of Iron witnessed the in- troduction and development of a style of ornament of peculiar grace and delicacy, known as Late Celtic art. The foliaged ornament on the Aylesford pail is in fact particularly interesting as an example of this form of decora- tive art. Originally the forms seem to have been adapted from those of natural foliage, but in process of time they be- came conventionalized, and the main idea seems to have been to produce a number of more or less curved trumpet-shaped figures arranged in various combinations. In the accompanying figure is shown a metal disc found at Greenwich,^ which has been ornamented in this way. Bronze discs of this character were generally enamelled and applied as decorative mountings to metal bowls, some of which are of the Saxon period. An important article on this subject was communicated in 1898 to the Society of Antiquaries ' by Mr. J. Romilly Allen, F.S.A., in which it is shown that such discs must be referred to the end of the Late Celtic period and the beginning of the Saxon period. Other objects bearing evidence of Late Celtic art have been found at Canterbury, Faversham, Folkestone, Hartlip and Lullingstone. In the Marden hoard of bronze antiquities already described a torques of Late Celtic character was discovered. Another important site where antiquities of this age have been procured is Bigberry Hill in the parish of Harbledown. Mr. John Brent,* in the year 1861, communicated to the Kent Arch- seological Society an account of certain ' relics apparently Roman ' found at that place, compris- ing a plough-share, coulter, cattle goad, an iron tyre of a plough or chariot wheel, an iron bit, and links or traces. In a letter written to Mr. Charles Roach Smith in 1866 he records RONZE, Aylesford. it n inches.) Metal Disc founc Greenwich. Arch. lii. 382. Jrch. Ivi. 39-56. Proc. Soc. Antiq. (ser. 2), ii. 202. Arch. Cant. iv. 33. Coll. Antiq. vi. 261- 329 42
