NOT A SAVAGE.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 126, 13 May 1911, Page 3 (Supplement)

NOT A SAVAGE.

NEW LIGHT ON THE ANCIENT BRITON. Professor Boyd Dav. kin-, of the Manchester Univcrsitj-, has thrown an interesting light on the discovery of ancient British relics at L'ckleys Manor Welwyn. Hertfordshire, the residence of the late Mr. George Edward Dering. The discovery was duo to the latter’s desire to lire the life of n hermit He had a deep road cut. with the object of securing greater privacy and seclusion in his residence. •jHie excavation exposed tea e; of in-in in the earliest stages of his existence —is fossil elephant’s tooth, and palaeolithic implements that would in t'emfelves fill the archwologist with d•>iiglrt. The firs’ expert eye to gaze ii[>on the objects was that of Prof Rovd Dawkins who gave interesting details ot the find in an interview with e representative of ‘The Dailv News.’’ ‘‘The ivi es.” said the Professor, ‘were obtained from two distinct • burials—graves dug in the gravel about four or five feet down. In one rf the graves were found a pair of iron ‘dogs.’ I found that these merely formed a part of an iron framework, and in this framework were a series of amphorae, or vine jars. So that the Biitish chief” th° Professor added, with a smile, "was buried in h’s wine cellar or rather, hi-, wine cellar was t.uriod with him " “There was abo.” he cont in nod. “a most beautiful Greek <up exquisitely <”iased cf silver gilt. It seems clear that these beautiful works of are were made in (.'recce The nrc-cncc of the » emphorae Ido nor know whether thev ere Roman or Greek, but no doubt thev camo from the Mediterranean—impli-s Ml intercourse smfi.-ii ntlv close Intwi those lands and anci mt Briton to allow the importation of wino.” Bv the potto’y and the met d-work hoops around , one of the bm-k. r< th-' imfmTyis fixed as the period known in ait Tate Celtic, and in rirelmooh>g:\:d classification as the prehistoric iron ar-e The relics hive no doubt lain buried since tlm centurv before the Christian E-a. Tim view that the iron dogs and th- 1 iron "crad! ■” found in the graves w. re n.nrt of the ftting of a fire idacm and that there was p srmholi-TU attaobmg to thus-' ns these was to the chariot buried w’t’i earlier warriors, was scanted hv the ProG-s<or. “This gr up of remains." b> «i ; d. "Is of enormous importance. It brings home to us that Britain h-fore th? time ef t K c Roma-'- was i n far <-los->r fnu-h with the - ivilised noonlos cf the Meditermn-'an thin has hitherto l>o<m si-p-sosoj. Tn-'identaHv ft shows that the idea that th" ancient Briton of th" period was a panted ‘3rag- i; pnre non«otise.”