A HISTORY OF NORFOLK Britain perhaps afford an explanation. Similar objects, both of bone and differently coloured glass,* may be seen in any large collection, and the suggestion that they were used like the modern draughtsmen has not been improved upon. The Romans have left behind them wheel-made pottery, and also hundreds of 'chucks' or waste-pieces from the turned bowls and bracelets of Kimmeridge shale in common use during their occupation of our island. These too have been saddled with an unfortunate name, that of 'coal-money.' The square socket at the centre noticeable in every case is to fix the rough lump on the lathe for turning, and a clue is thereby afforded to the meaning of the pairs of holes on the Anglian specimens : they are bored for fixing to a prong-centre.^ In mentioning the sites in Norfolk where traces of both methods of interment have been noticed, it must be realized that such discoveries are scarce, but might perhaps have been multiplied by a more diligent or extended search on occasions when skeletons or cinerary urns have come to light separately in other localities. The evidence with regard to Broome Heath is defective, but the presence of charcoal in some quanti- ties suggests that the rite of cremation had not been quite forgotten, even if it had dwindled down into a merely symbolical act. On the borders of Broome and Ditchingham several mounds existed about fifty years ago, and excavations in one of them were attended with the following results.^ At the depth of about three feet from the surface fragments of"* charcoal appeared sparingly distributed through the loose soil of which the mound was composed. At the depth of about six feet from the top were discovered the remains of a large human skeleton lying on a bed of gravel at the level of the natural soil. This skeleton was much decayed. The skull was tolerably perfect when first touched, and was of large dimensions. Adhering to it was found a small quantity of reddish brown hair. One side of the skull was stained with a bright green colour, which must have been caused by the slow decay of some object of brass or copper. The body lay nearly north-east and south- west, the head being towards the south-west. No fragment of metal or pottery appeared during the excavations, but a quantity of charcoal was discovered in removing some of the neighbouring mounds. At Fakenham the signs are clearer. An interment had taken place at the bottom of an ancient gravel-pit, and the bones rested on the marl, covered by about four feet of the refuse soil and gravel. Not far distant runs an early trackway, now called the Long Lane, deflected in its course by the later growth of Fakenham. Upon this trackway exists an ex- tensive cemetery, indicated by traces of mounds long since levelled, where the plough brings to light occasionally bronze tweezers, sepulchral urns, and evidence of burial by cremation. This was not the case with the interment now under notice, where the bones lay irregularly though dis- tinct, associated with an iron blade or dagger, a cruciform brooch of 1 Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, under the word ' latrunculus.' ^ See, however, M^moires, Antiquaires du Nord, 1878-83, p. 128. ' Norfolk Architohgy, vol. v. p. 361 ; and Proceedings, Society of Antiquaries, vol. iii. p. 287. 336
