A HISTORY OF NORFOLK scarce, and one feels inclined rather to regard them as indications of a period when bronze was procurable in some plenty. Hoards of bronze are among the most suggestive and important as they are also the most characteristic of the remains of the Bronze age. Bronze Tools found at Carlton Rode. These hoards are capable of being divided into three groups. First there are the collections of broken, damaged and worn-out implements, formed perhaps by an individual for the purpose of barter with a bronze- worker. Doubtless such a hoard represents considerable wealth. Another class consists of hoards that consist solely of broken implements, to- gether with broken lumps of copper. Others again consist entirely of new and unworn tools. From the fact that these implements sometimes- have not been freed from the irregularities and excrescences arising from the operation of casting, it is obvious that the hoards of this kind repre- sent the stock of a worker in bronze. The occurrence of bronze hoards of these classes is of con- siderable importance as showing, first that the metal was of great value, and when an implement was damaged or worn out it was saved in order to be melted down again ; secondly it shows that the founding of articles of bronze was the special trade of certain in- dividuals ; and lastly it indicates that no sufficiently strong build- ing existed in which the metal could be safely stored, and that as a consequence the possessor was compelled to hide it in a secret place underground. Among the remains of the Bronze age in Norfolk we find examples of both classes of hoards. One of the most important discoveries of its 268 Bronze Tools found at Carlton Rode.
