A HISTORY OF DERBYSHIRE spots. In fact, we have here a combination of spirals of Bronze-age or Mycenaean type with the trumpet-shaped divergent spiral of the Late- Celtic style. The almond-shaped spots, where the two trumpet-ends meet, correspond with raised knobs of the same form at terminations of the long sweeping curves seen on the repousse metal work. He considers that the bowls have a Late-Celtic ancestry, but that the treatment of the decoration is essentially Christian Celtic. For the present, the use of these beautiful bowls must remain a matter for speculation. They pro- bably had some religious purpose ; but Mr. Allen thinks that they are not connected with the ceremonies of the Christian Church. The groups of graves of this period must now receive attention. In 1860 five skeletons laid on their backs at full length with their heads to the west were discovered in as many shallow graves a few feet apart on the brow of Calver-low, but no mounds marked the sites. The only articles found with them were a small iron knife and a piece of red pot- tery. 1 The five skeletons at Overton Hall near Ashover, which the Rev. Charles Kerry described, were precisely similar, except that they were buried in low ground, and the head of one pointed towards the south- west. No implement of any sort was found with them. Differing much from this group was a ' tumular cemetery' examined by Mr. Bateman on high ground near Foremark Hall in 1855.* The mounds were about fifty in number, and varied from 21 to 30 feet in diameter. He opened five, and found that each covered the site of the funeral pile, upon which the calcined human bones remained as they were left by the fire. Upon this ashy floor ' were accumulated stones bearing marks of fire, which had been first thrown on the glowing embers, and over these earth was heaped to form the bowl-shaped tumulus.' Only a pin and an in- definite fragment of iron were met with. According to Mr. Bateman, tradition marks the place as the scene of a sanguinary conflict between the Saxons and the Danes. The excavations however showed nothing to warrant the interments being other than those of a people in quiet possession of the district. The similarity of these barrows to those which were designated ' late ' in the ' Early Man ' section of this work renders it doubtful whether they should not have been referred to there instead of here ; but this only shows the need for further comparative study. The King's Newton burials 3 also consisted of cremated remains, but otherwise were very different from those of Foremark, the burnt bones having been placed in cinerary urns, and no mounds marking the spot. Whatever doubt there may be as to the age of the Foremark burials does not apply here, for the period of these urns is well known. They are recognized as characteristically Pagan English, and are traceable to prototypes in early Teutonic cemeteries on the continent. It is probable that two hundred or more of these urns were destroyed by the navvies before the discovery was generally known ; but to judge from the positions of the thirty or
- Digging, p. 107. * Ibid. p. 92.
3 Jewitt, ReRjuary, ix. pi. I, and p. 6. 272
