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the deceased; amber, especially the bright red-coloured
sort, being much esteemed and prized by the ancient people of Europe, not
only as a charm against evil influences and poisons, but as being supposed
to possess a preventative quality against certain diseases. In our further
researches, although beads of a great variety were discovered, amber beads
were comparatively rare.1
Amber is found on the shores of the Baltic, and
occasionally in our own coasts.
The ring found in this grave is of a common type, made of
thin silver wire, and ornamented with a circular twist of the same wire.
Unless worn on the thumb, it would indicate a woman of unusual size, a
fact which the few bones preserved do not appear to corroborate.
I have every reason to believe the little "echinus"
was a charm or curiosity stored by the deceased, and not a native fossil
of the chalk, from its polished appearance, as well as from
the fact that similar relics have been |
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found in graves. M. L. F.
Jehan,
in his work on Brittany,2 I think, mentions such things as
occurring in Celtic interments.
The evidence, as far as I may yet decide, favours the
supposition that the occupant of this grave was a female,—a lady
probably of rank and position. To name the race to which she belonged,
or to decide upon her date or religion, would be premature until I have
laid before the reader the facts which I have gathered from the opening
of the 183 graves which follow.
1 [A curious little fragment of flat glass was also found
in this grave, stained entirely through, and of that ruby colour which
is supposed to be producible only by the use of gold, and to have been
unknown till centuries after the date of this grave. The evidence for
its having formed part of the original deposit of the grave is perhaps
not complete: it may have been dropped later into the soil. If, however,
it was originally there, it was probably of Roman manufacture, and
treasured as a jewel.—T.G.F.]
2 ‘La Bretagne, Esquisses Pittoresques et Archéologiques.’ |