EARLY MAN Bronze Age), is unfortunately unlabelled with any more definite locality than ' Suffolk.' A perfectly preserved gold torque, measuring about 5 in. in external diameter, was discovered at Boy ton ^ in the year 1835. The torque, as one might expect from its name, is twisted, whilst the ends, which are made of straight pieces of thick gold wire or bar, are turned sharp back, so as to produce acute hook-like fastenings. The total weight, including a link of gold ring money attached, as an additional security, to the fastening, is 2 oz. 4 dwt. The torque was found in a loam-pit embedded in the soil 1 2 ft. below the sur- face, and unfortunately in washing it one of the pieces of ring-money (there were originally two) was lost. The other is now in the British Museum. The period of this beautiful specimen of personal ornament is probably somewhat late in the Bronze Age. The charming effect produced by the twisting of the gold is due to the fact that the bar of metal was built up into a kind of rod or wire of a cruciform section. There does not appear to be much available evidence as to the forms of human dwellings during the Bronze Age. In times of civil or tribal strife, possibly also in very severe weather, the Bronze-Age folk retired to caves and other natural fortresses, just as at a much later period the Scottish Covenanters fled to caves and forests during the persecutions which they underwent. The antiquities discovered in Heathery Burn Cave, in the county of Durham, furnish evidence of the presence of human residents extending over a considerable period, but residence was probably intermittent and interrupted. In other parts of the country rock shelters as well as caves may have been made use of for dwelling purposes. It is significant, however, that the small clay sepulchral receptacles known as hut urns, found in Italy, which are of the Bronze-Age, are shaped exactly like small wooden houses or huts with square plan, gabled roofs, timber-rafters, and rectangular or nearly rectangular windows and doors. We may possibly conclude from this that the houses of the Bronze Age in Britain, as elsewhere, were constructed of shaped timbers. The tools formed of bronze would doubtless be equal to the work of cutting, cleaving, and shaping the timbers necessary for the building of such houses. Certain remains of Bronze-Age houses in this country have been found, although they are distinctly rare. On Dartmoor, where stones for the purpose are abundant, there are several low circular walls or foundations of habitations which belonged to this period. In other parts of the kingdom where rivers, lakes, or marshy land were available, the dwellings were constructed upon piles driven into the bed of the stream or lake. These pile-dwellings, whilst perhaps having certain disadvantages arising from dampness, afforded valuable protection from wolves as well as from human enemies. There is every reason to believe that there are still existing below the soil, in places where lakes and marshes have been dried up or river-courses have been diverted, several remains of pile-dwellings of the Bronze Age. Possibly there are some such in Suffolk, a county which presents many of the requisite physical conditions for structures of this character. At least one spot where remains of pile-dwellings have been found in Suffolk is recorded ; this is in Barton Mere, at Great Barton. Here, it is pretty ' Arch, xxvi, 471. 269
