the interments were clearly not Roman. Some clue, however, is afforded by the discovery of the gold cup shown in Fig. 366, not unlike this in form, in a barrow at Rillaton,[1] Cornwall, accompanied by what appears to have been a bronze dagger;[2] but the best evidence as to the date to be assigned to this class of cups is probably that of the very remarkable and beautiful specimen formed of amber, and found in a barrow at Hove,[3] near Brighton.
Handle of Cup.
Fig. 367.—Hove.
In this instance an interment in a rude oaken coffin was accompanied by the amber cup, here, by the kindness of the Sussex Archæological Society, reproduced, a double-edged battle-axe of stone (see Fig. 119, p. 186), a bronze dagger, and a whetstone. This cup is 312 inches in diameter and 212 high, about 110 inch in thickness, and its capacity rather more than half a pint. It is perfectly smooth inside and out, and, so far as I could judge from seeing it through glass in the Brighton Museum, it was turned in a lathe. It has been suggested by Mr. Barclay Phillips that some process like that of boiling amber in spirits of turpentine may have been known by which it would be rendered plastic; but this seems hardly probable.
It is, of course, possible that such an object as this may have come by commerce into Britain; and, indeed, amber is one of the articles mentioned by Strabo as exported from Celtic Gaul to this country. In