remarkable an accompaniment of the deposit near the river Alaw; the destruction of such a relic is greatly to be regretted. It is not possible to ascertain the exact dimensions of the cup; it may have measured about 5 inches in height and 4 inches in diameter; the ornament is produced by impression of a twisted cord or fibre. The annexed woodcut may be considered a fairly accurate representation of the form and proportions. (Fig. 7). The Fig. 7.-Drinking-cup. Fragments found with Bronwen's Urn. small portion of bony remains still found in the urn having been submitted to Professor Owen, we are indebted to that distinguished anatomist for the following observations:-"The series of bones, including portions of those of the limbs and two parts of the upper jawbone, belongs to an adult, or nearly adult, female; these are from a body that has been burnt. One portion of the cranium (frontal bone) has not been subject to the action of fire; it may have been part of a female, but there is nothing against its having been part of a young man. It is from a skeleton distinct from the first or burnt remains." Professor Rolleston expressed the opinion that the fragment of a skull is of a young adult, not a female, and concurred in pronouncing the burnt bones to be those of a woman; on one of them he detected a very slight bronze stain. There were clearly two interments, possibly at different periods, one of them only after cremation. The unburnt deposit may probably have been the earliest, and to this Mr. Franks suggests that the richly ornamented drinking cup may be assigned. The vases of that class, as shown by the researches of Sir R. C. Hoare, Mr. Bateman, and other careful investigators, almost invariably accompany unburnt remains, and occur with flint weapons of superior workmanship; the deposit having been mostly in a cist, or a cavity dug in chalk and the like, and covered over by a mound. Mr. Bateman states that "there is sufficient evidence to show that they belong to a period when metal was almost unknown," but that in one or two instances a very small bronze awl has been found with such drinking cups; in an interment also at East Kennett (noticed Arch. Journ., vol. xxiv, p. 28) a skeleton was brought to light, accompanied by a broad, thin blade of bronze, a well-wrought axe-head of stone, and a cup decorated with unusual perfection. It will be obvious to any one conversant with the facts, so largely augmented by recent researches into British burials, that the relics with which so interesting a tradition has been associated must be assigned to a much earlier period than the days of Bronwen the Fair. The introduction of the use of bronze may indeed be stated, approximately, as having occurred about a thousand years before our era ; it may be inferred that some considerable interval would elapse before its extension to the distant shores of Mona. A gratifying example of good taste and patriotic feeling for an object that may be accounted almost a national monument deserves mention. In 1820 the tenant of the farm was about to plough the field where Ynys Bronwen is situated; the mound would thus have been nearly obliterated. The circumstance having come to the knowledge of the owner of the land, Mr. Davies, of the Menai Bridge, he forthwith gave directions for preserving the tumulus, and intimated his intention of protecting it from future injury.1 Of the first class, namely, the cinerary urns of large dimensions, belonging to the age when cremation prevailed, a good example found in Caernarvonshire was recently brought before the Archæological Institute by Mr. Turner, of Caernarvon, in whose possession it is now preserved. It had been exhibited by Miss Roberts, of Maentwrog, in 1860, in the Temporary Museum during the meeting of the Cambrian Association at Bangor, and is noticed in the catalogue as having been "found in a gravel-pit at Pen-y-glanau."2 We are indebted to the Fig. 8.-Urn found near Tomen y Mur, Caernarvonshire, the Roman Heriri Mons. In the possession of Thomas Turner, Esq, Caernarvon. 1 Arch. Cumb. vol. vi, Third Series, p. 334. 2 Arch. Camb. vol. vi, Third Series, p. 376. Pen-y-Glanau is about a mile and a half west of the Roman station, Heriri Mons. A consi kindness of Captain Turner, son of the present possessor, for the following information regarding the place of its discovery. The urn was found a few years since near the ancient line of way known as the Sarn Helen, and about a mile distant from the Roman Station, Heriri Mons, the site of which is now known as Tomen y Mûr, about two miles south of Ffestiniog. The urn (fig. 8) contained incinerated bones and ashes; amongst these were found three relics deserving of notice. These are, a bronze blade (fig. 9) supposed to have been a knife or small dagger, which in its perfect state may have measured about 2 inches in length and 1 inch in breadth Fig. 9. Fig. 10. Bronze blade and relic of flint found in an urn near Tomen y Mur. Original size. at the end where it was affixed by two rivets to a handle;2 and an hemispherical object, apparently of flint (fig. 10) derable quantity of pottery and Roman relics found there and in the neighbourhood was collected by the late Mr. Lloyd of Maentwrog, and bequeathed to his relative, Miss Roberts. 1 Notices of this station, and of the Sarn Helen leading towards it, are given, Arch. Camb. vol. xi, Third Series, p. 215. A centurial inscription found at Tomen y Mur has been figured, Archæologia, vol. xiv, p. 276. The course of the Roman way is shewn in the map of Britannia Secunda, accompanying a memoir by the Rev. W. Wynn Williams, Arch. Camb. vol. vi, Third Series, p. 186. See also a notice by the Rev. H. L. Jones in vol. xi, Third Series, p. 215. 2 Small bronze blades have repeatedly occurred in ancient interments. One (length, three inches) with three rivets was found by Sir R. C. Hoare with burnt remains at Wilsford. (Ancient Wilts, vol. i, p. 209, pl. 28.) A similar implement (length, three inches and a half) with two rivets, accompanied the deposit in the trunk of an oak at Gristhorpe, Yorkshire. (Gent. Mag., Dec. 1834, p. 362; Crania Brit., vol. i, p. 52.) In barrows at Broughton, Lincolnshire, excaated by Mr. Arthur Trollope, a small blade of different form was also ound. (Arch. Journ., vol. viii, p. 346.) of brown colour, the edge white or cream-coloured; it is possibly only a small broken pebble, such as occur often in river gravels, and it may have been preserved on account of the regularity of its form, or some peculiarity in its colour. Also a wooden implement (fig. 11), Fig. 11.-Wooden Bodkin found in an Urn near Tomeu y Mur, Carnarvonshire. measuring 6 inches in length, pierced with an eye like a bodkin. It has been supposed, possibly from this accompaniment of the deposit, that the remains may have been those of a female; this, however, is perhaps questionable. It seems that in urn-burials of the early occupants of the British Islands the burnt bones were sometimes collected from the ashes of the funereal fire and wrapped in some coarse tissue, fastened or held together by a pin, which in deposits of somewhat later times is of bronze. The wooden object, however, here found in remarkable preservation may doubtless have appertained to the deceased person; the conjecture is, moreover, by no means inadmissible that it was placed with the ashes as a relic associated with daily life or industry. This interesting urn, which had been much fractured, has been repaired under Mr. Ready's skilful care. The colour is reddish brown; the dimensions are 13 inches in height; 11 inches in diameter at the mouth. The ornament seems to have been produced by impressing a twisted thong or sinew; possibly a twisted rush or some vegetable fibre might thus be used. Within the lip there are four parallel lines of the like corded orna ment. Pins of bone have been repeatedly noticed in British burials. Sir R. C. Hoare describes a long pin found in a barrow, with a small lance-head of gilt bronze; the pin was perforated at the larger extremity. In 1 Hoare, Ancient Wilts, vol. ii, p. 110. Some remarkable bronze pins are figured, ibid., vol. i, p. 210, pl. 30. |