EARLY MAN for if the larger tumuli have suffered so severely from the hand of time it is reasonable to think that comparatively few of these slighter memo- rials could have escaped sufficiently unscathed to be recognizable at the present day. On the other hand, these barrows of the third class show no sign of having been derived from those of the second class. They appear suddenly upon the scene, large in size as a rule, and of earth or other fine materials. They seem to have been imported into our area from with- out, ready-made, so to speak. For anything we know to the contrary, they may be the tombs of a new aristocracy introduced by conquest or otherwise, contrasting in size and structure with those of the natives. There is another group of Derbyshire burials which may be of late pre-Roman date. They consist of inhumated interments contracted or flexed like those of the Bronze age, but accompanied by iron objects, usually knives ; and they are mostly found at high levels in the older cairns. As however they are usually regarded as post-Roman, they will be described in that section. ' Finds ' of Implements. In Derbyshire large numbers of ancient implements have been found on or near the surface. Most of these were, with little doubt, casually lost, and so have little archaeological interest beyond their intrinsic worth. Flint implements especially are abundant in certain localities. The writer knows of farmers in the western portion of the county who in a remarkably short time picked up considerable numbers from their ploughed fields one in particular, near Brassington, who obtained from several fields quite a large and varied collection, con- taining many finely worked examples. 1 But to attempt to enumerate these sporadic ' finds ' would lead to no useful result. On the other hand, the conditions under which the objects occurred have sometimes a distinct archaeological significance. For instance, Mr. Salt has observed that while flint implements and chippings are generally diffused throughout his district, they are occasionally congregated in large numbers in comparatively small areas. Within a space of a quarter of an acre, z miles south-east of Buxton, he found nearly 400 pieces of flint associated with many coarse potsherds. As flint is not indigenous to the county, he has wisely preserved all the fragments found upon these sites. These, upon examination, are found to contain perfect imple- ments, pieces more or less worked, suggestive of unfinished implements or implements spoiled in the making, and rough cores; the residue, forming by far the larger proportion, being mere chippings. The infer- ence is that flint implements were made on these sites. Mr. Turner designates them ' pre-historic workshops,' but the ' wasters ' are too few to indicate a lengthened manufacture, or a manufactory comparable with that at Cissbury. Nothing of the nature of a founder's hoard of newly-cast bronze 1 Journ. Derb. Arch, and Nat. Hist. Soc. xi. 41. 189
