EARLY MAN until the secret of producing a comparatively hard combination of tin and copper had been discovered. This combination of metals which we call bronze involved the knowledge of working two very dissimilar metals, and, from remains which have been found, we know that gold also was used during the Bronze Age. A primitive race holding the secret of working three distinct metals must have possessed immense advantages over a race which was still in its stone age, and when the Goidelic branch of the great Celtic race first brought this valuable knowledge to Britain, a new era in civilization was inaugurated. The new race was probably welcomed by the neolithic inhabitants of Britain, and both seem to have lived together in some degree of harmony for a considerable period. This is indicated generally in Britain by the characteristic interments of the two peoples. The neolithic races buried their dead by the process known as inhumation, without first partially consuming them by fire, and usually in a contracted position. The bronze-using race, the Celts, on the other hand, seem always to have practised cremation. It is by the association of these two forms of burial, often side by side, on the one hand, and by certain anthropo- logical evidence in the actual remains of man himself on the other, that the mixture of the two races is indicated. The pottery of the Bronze Age shows a great advance on that of the Neolithic Age, and although the wheel does not appear to have been used in its production, a development in forms and the skilful use of ornament are manifest. The distribution of population during the Bronze Age, as far as it is represented by the various discoveries of bronze celts and other typical weapons and implements of the time, is clearly shown by the arch^o- logical map which accompanies this paper. It will there be seen that a much greater proportion of antiquities of this period have been found on and near the sea-coast than in the more central regions. It is not difficult indeed to identify distinct centres of population at Brighton, Lewes, Eastbourne, etc., by the groups of X-shaped symbols on the map. The distribution of isolated finds is equally suggestive, and points clearly to the preference which the Bronze Age people exhibited for the sea-side and the country bordering it as a place of residence. The following are brief particulars of the more important dis- coveries, a full list of every discovery being given as far as possible in the topographical list at the end of the article. In Brighton itself a socketed celt of Gaulish type, and a palstave with broad and well-curved cutting edge were found many years ago ; but the more important finds have been made a little outside Brighton. Thus at Hove a very important Bronze Age sepulchral deposit' was uncovered during some building operations in 1856. The remains comprised a rude oaken coffin containing pieces of charcoal, fragments of partially decayed bone, an amber cup of hemispherical form and furnished with a handle, a bronze knife or dagger blade, a whetstone ' Sussex .-trek. Coll. ix. lig-24.
