A HISTORY OF DERBYSHIRE the burial of Ophelia, refers. Other objects than these very rarely occur in these barrows, and they mostly relate to the personal attire of the dead. Two bronze dagger-blades and a pin, and a bone pin or two, have been found, all burnt ; but the most remarkable ' find ' consisted of twenty-eight convex bone objects marked with dots, and described as draftsmen, and two ornamented bone combs, which also had passed through the fire. 1 Fragments of iron, a Roman coin of the Lower Empire, and the upper stone of a quern have also been found. The only earthen vessel noted was a diminutive incense cup decorated in the usual manner, which was laid upon a deposit of burnt bones within a circular hole under one of these barrows.* The exact age of these barrows is an interesting question. While the incense cup on the one hand links them with the Bronze age, the Roman coin on the other carries the series far into the Roman period. Querns and the use of iron are admittedly of late introduction. The bone combs have a distinct Roman fades. The two bronze dagger- blades are mentioned as different from the ordinary type found in the Bronze-age series. The terms in which the potsherds are described, as ' wheel-made,' ' hard,' ' firmly baked,' ' compact,' and ' Romano- British,' suggest the period of the occupation or its near approach. Since the barrows of the second class are by a consensus of opinion assigned to the earlier portion of the Bronze age, these of the third class extend, it would seem from the above evidence, from that time far into the Roman period. Their small number, however, is a difficulty. While the former may be counted by the hundred in Derbyshire, less than two dozen of the latter have been observed. This would seem to indicate that the period of these barrows was very short, whereas the large number of socketed axes (the characteristic implement of the later Bronze age) which have been found in Britain seems to contradict this, implying that their portion alone of this period was of considerable duration. It may have been that the use of bronze was far more common in the later than in the earlier portion of the age, so that the relative abundance of the ' finds ' is no test of time. The pre-Roman Iron age too may have been very short, and have been overlapped by the socketed axes. Again, while there can be no question that many, perhaps most, of the interments of the second class belong to the period of the flat and the flanged axes, some as the inurned cremated deposits may have witnessed the introduction of their socketed successors. It was observed above that as the Bronze age advanced there was a tendency for the * grave goods ' to become fewer, and less such as would be used in life. The general absence, therefore, of bronze axes of any kind from these inurned interments is what might be expected. Another tendency has been noticed that in the direction of small mounds and slight circles enclosing diminutive mounds. These may have been numerous, and may represent a common type of burial in the later Bronze age ; 1 Digging, p. 179. * Ibid. p. 130. 188
