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DESCRIPTIONS OP CRANIA.
a ring of red amber, more than an inch and a half in diameter; and a radiated fibula and oircular
pendent ornament to match, of good and cui-ious workmanship, in bronze, which had been
covered or mounted with a kind of "paste," or, as appeared to the writer when he saw these
objects, more probably ivory, arranged in concentric roUs or mouldings (figs. 18 a, 18 J, 19).
There were also two massy bracelets set mth paste, a small ring, a pan- of tweezers, and an
ornamental pin for the hair or di-ess, with a moveable ring at the end (fig. 20), aU of bronze, finely
patiaated; and to crown aU, a gold finger-ring of good workmanship, weighing nearly four
dwts., chased and clasped in front with a kind of rose or quatrefoil.
The situation of these tumuli has generally been regarded as within the district of the
Brigantes. There can, however, be little doubt that it is reaUy within that of the smaU tribe of
the Parisii, who appear to have occupied the whole of Holdemess, and iadeed the greater part of
the present East Riding. Ptolemy places " the Parisii, with the city Petouaria, around the weUhavened
bay of the Gabrantuici." That the bay with the good hai-bour here spoken of is Piley
Bay, and that OceUum Promontorium is Plamborough Head, can hardly be doubted. That
Petouaria is Beverley, was suspected by Camden, and shown to be probable by Professor
PhiUips, who derives the Greek name from the Cymric 'pedioar-lleoli (four stones), so caUed, he
thinks, from the sacred stones, in this instance stones of sanctuary, which, as at other British
towns, Isurium for instance, seem to have marked the sites of such settlements*. The natm-al
limits of the Parisii to the north and west would be the hilly range of the Wolds, but it can
hardly be doubted that part, at least, of these hills was retained by this tribe as huntinggrounds
and for other purposes. The barrows at Arras and HeSsleskew are but seven miles to the
west of Beverley, and their contents are so distinct from those of aU other tumuli hitherto opened
worthy of notice : 1st, the absence of lead ; 2ndly, the presence
of copper. The absence of lead best explains the difficulty
with which the glass was fused." Professor Buckman
has found lead in many Roman glass heads, and suggests
that the absence of it in ancient British beads may explain
their frequent better preservation. As to the colouring matter,
he observes, that in all the examples of blue glass he had obtained
from the site of Roman Corinium (Cirencester), the colour
is entirely due to copper; and Dr. Voelclter found the same to
be the case with all examples of ancient blue glass, whether
Roman or not, which he had examined. Agamst this uniformity
of result, it must be observed, whilst Sir Humphry
Davy always found that the blue Egyptian pastes derived
their colour from copper, that in nine specimens of ancient
Roman and Greek transparent blue glass, chiefly from tombs
in Magna Grajcia, the colouring matter, he says, was cobalt,
and not copper. It does not appear that Sir Humphry
Davy examined any blue glass heads, on the place of manufacture
of which, the analyses here recorded may throw some
light. Doubtless they were not made in Britain, and were
probably Eastern, of Phcenician or Egjptian, rather than of
Roman or Gaulish manufacture. In support of this opinion
may he named the very rare type of these beads in Britain
not found in any other of our known collections, or figured in
the large plate of glass heads, from British and foreign localities,
in the possession of Mr. B. Nightingale. (Archaiologia,
1851, vol. xxxiv. plate 5. The finest of the Arras beads most
6, 7.
nearly resemble the blue bead with yellow circlets. No. 35 in
this plate, from a continental collection.) On the other hand,
they resemble very closely several in the collection of Egyptian
antiquities in the British Museum. The beads in this collection,
purchased with other Egyptian objects, and numbered
6287 6, andc, 7f | 1 9 , and 5f|19, particularly the
two former, are of a more dingy colour than the Arras beads,
hut like them are ornamented in a good bold style, with three
circlets of white paste. Sidon and Alexandria were the places
where such objects were manufactured for the greater part of
the ancient world.
* Camden, ed.lSOfi, vol. iii. p. 247. Philhps, "Mountains,
&c. of iorkshire," p. 105, 201, 230. Smith, "Dictionary of
Greek and Roman Geography," articles " Gabrantovici" and
"Parisii." "Walker, Archseologia, 1834, vol. xxv. p. 127. The
relative positions of Ocellum Promontorium and the Sinus
Gabrantuicorum are determined by the latitudes, as given by
Ptolemy. The former must clearly have been to the south of
the latter. May Petouria have had the same etymology as
the -wotA petorritum, and have been the town of the carriages,
or as we familiarly say, the "four-wheels"? Pedwar rhod
comes nearer to Petouaria than pedmur-Uech. The same
Celtic root, rhod, as Camden hints (vol. i. p. Ixi.), may probably
be traced in the name of Eporedia, a town of Cisalpine
Gaul, which Pliny (lib. iii. § 21) says had its name from a
Gaulish word signifymg " a tamer of horses"—for use, we
may conjecture, in the rhedie or petorrita.
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ANCIENT BRITISH—ARRAS, E. R. YORKSHIRE.
on the Yorkshire Wolds, at Acklam and elsewhere, that it is most probable that the two classes
formed the burial-places of distinct tribes; the one of the so-called aboriginal Brigantes, the
other of the much smaller and less powerful, though perhaps more civiKzcd, tribe of the Parisii.
This small tribe may not improbably be derived from the Parisi of North Gaul, a tribe on the
islands of the Seine*, who, if not strictly within the limits of the Belgic Gauls, may likely enough
have been joined with, or succeeded them, in those invasions of the maritime parts of Britain
of which Caesar teUs us; and which occm-red, as would appear, not very long before his timet.
The very name of Arras reminds us of the Belgse J.
The objects foxmd in these barrows are, for many reasons, the most remarkable yet obtained
from any tumuli which may fairly be attributed to the pre-Roman period in Britain. The
presence, and even abundance, of objects of bronze, the presence of iron, and the variety of
ornaments of various material, glass, jet, amber, gold, &c., are sufficient to separate these
barrows, perhaps by many centuries, from those containing no metal whatever, but with objects
only of stone or bone ; whilst the mode of interment, and the absence of objects characteristic of
Roman or of Anglo-Saxon, or other Teutonic art, faiily establish their British origin. That they
did not form the cemetery of a Teutonic people, though this has sometimes been suggested §,
can scarcely be supposed, when the character of the objects foimd in them is considered.
The ornaments of Kimmeridge coal, or more probably jet, the " gagates nigro splendore," for
which Britain was celebrated by different ancient writers, are common in British tumuli; as
in those of Derbyshire, examined by Mr. Bateman, and of Wiltshire, by Sir R. C. Hoare.
Such beads, however, are not found in Anglo-Saxon graves or barrows, except as a most unusual
circumstance. The miniatm-e bronze " celt" is clearly of the British and Celtic, not the Teutonic
period. The fibula, radiated at the lower end, is we beUeve unique : its general type, however,
is clearly Roman, and it was probably imported from Gaul and manufactured in that country
or in Italy.
The bits and rings, horse-trappings and chariot ornaments of bronze, are similar to others
found at Polden HiU, Somersetshire, Hagbourne HiU, Berkshire, and -ndthin the entrenchments
at Stanwick in Yorkshire ||. The wheels and other remains of war-chariots are objects which
* Lutetia was the " civitas Parisiomm,"—their metropolis,
as it now is that of France.
t Csesar, B. G. lib. v. c. 12; hb. ii. c. 4.
t Whether, m regard to this question, the name of Arras,
that of the farm on which the greater number of these barrows
are found, can be considered as affording any evidence, is
doubtful. It is, however, worthy of remark that this is identical
with the name of a city of Artois, in the nortli of France,
Arras, the ancient Nemetacum, which was the capital of one
of the most powerful tribes of Belgic Gaul, the Atrebates, a
name by which the city itself was known at a later period, and
of which its modern name is hut a corruption.
§ Mr. Kemble suggests that the Arras tumuli were of
Norse origin, though ho admits that " the evidence is insufficient
to decide that the interments were in fact Scandinavian."
—Archieological Journal, 1856, vol. xhi. p. 93.
II Archieologia, vol. xiv. p. 70 ; vol. xvi. p. 348. Proceedings
of the Arclioeologioal Institute at York, 1846, p. 10.
plates 2, 3 and 4. Similar objects have been found in Annandale,
Dumfriesshire ; and in Norfolk and Suffolk. See
Wilson's " Prehistoric Annals," &c., 1851, p. 458. Norfolk
6. 7.
Archaeology, vol. i. p. 398. Archseologia, vol. xxxvi. p. 454.
The doubt which has hitherto existed, among the most experienced
Enghsh antiquaries, as to the attribution of the
more unusual objects found at Polden Hill, Stanwick, and the
other places referred to, requires some notice. Mr. Birch, m
his memoir "On the Tore of the Celts" (Arch®ological
Journal, 1846, vol. iii. pp. 30, 31), says of the Polden Hill
ornaments that they are " probably Anglo-Saxon" of a late
period. The compiler of the Catalogue of Antiquities exhibited
at York in 1846, says of similar objects found
at Stanwick, "The date of these has not been satisfactorily
ascertained : some have regarded them as accoutrements of the
auxiliary foreign cavalry, the ate, in the Roman armies at a
late period in the empire. It is remarkable, however, that
neither Roman coins nor pottery have been found within the
earth-works at Stanwick." (York Volume, p. 10.) Mr. Akerman
asserts that the Polden Hill ornaments are neither Roman
nor Anglo-Saxon, and thinks that their " style may reasonably
be denominated Romano-British." (ArchiEologia, vol.
xxxiii. p. 182.) Mr. Franks, writing of the remains from both
these localities, says, " though not apparently the work of the
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