recognised. We may instance the Bronze Age rockcarvings of large ships in Sweden and Ireland.)

(b) The natural advantages of well-elevated and open ground.

(c) The existence of prehistoric camps (e.g., Castell Moeddin, where fairies, dressed in green, used to dance every May) similar to the Bronze Age camps of North Cardiganshire.3

(d) The prevalence, in names of fields or places, of the words Castell, Crug, Gaer, Carn, in many of which sepulchral urns have been discovered.

For instance, on the north side of the Clettwr Fawr we have Whilgarn, Caer Esgair Wen, Carn Glandwr, Crug Maen, Maes y garn, Pant Cruglas-the last three close to the vanished lake-Crug yr Udon, Carn Phylip Gwyddel, and Crug y Whyl, near Llanwenog.*

On the south side we have, near Capel Cynon, Crug Cau, Crug Las, Crug Du, Crug Bach and Garn wen.

Besides these, the map to the "History of Llangeler and Penboyr," by Mr. D. E. Jones, shows no less than fourteen Carnau and Crugiau.

The words Castell, Caer, or Maen occur in thirteen other place-names.

Unfortunately no such local maps are given with the histories of the parishes of Llangunllo and Llandyssul, but seven so-called castles are referred to in the latter parish, and a number of cairns, but only two by name, from each of which an urn has been removed. A thorough examination of old Tithe and Ordnance Maps should not fail to add to this number of significant place-names, and excavation would doubtless be rewarded by the discovery of urns in those spots which have not been disturbed.

Very little has as yet come to hand in Cardiganshire

1 C. H. Read, Guide to Bronze Age, pp. 104, 146.

2 Rhys, Celtic Folk-Lore, i, 245.

3 Arch. Camb., 1906, p. 114.

4 See Horsfall Turner's Wanderings in Cardiganshire.

5 E. Davies, 1905.

6 W. J. Davies, 1896.

to help us to form some estimate of the civilization and the real date of the folk who practised cremation. The Bronze Age in Britain is guessed to have begun at the latest about 1500 B.C., and cremation to have been introduced 1000 B.C., about the time when Solomon was reigning in Israel and Homer composing his Epic. The close of the Barrow Period is dated by Sir John Evans circa 900 B.C.

Burials of the Bronze Age, in contrast to those of the Stone Age, tell us very little of the social condition of the people. The only bronze implements as yet discovered in British interments are small pins, drills, knives and axe-hammers. On the other hand, the hoards found in caves and holes contain a large variety of bronze weapons, but lack the articles associated with burial, and seem to belong to a later age. Canon Greenwell, in his classic account of British Barrows, considers that the marked absence of bronze in barrows indicates a date before it had become common and cheap. Out of 435 burials, burnt or unburnt, in round barrows, only 17 contained metal, whereas 73 had flint or stone articles. In burials by cremation, only 3 per cent. contained any articles at all. Canon Greenwell leaves unexplained the natural question: "Where then are the graves of the later Bronze Age periods, after the metal had become cheap?"

Comparing the Past with the Present, the answer may be that a wave of scepticism had passed over the land, and people ceased for a time to supply their dead with implements because, owing to closer contact with the destructive criticism of Continental tribes, the traditional doctrine of a Hereafter and Happy Hunting Grounds had been exploded; so that it was only the old Orthodox section--a contemptible minority-who continued to practise cremation at all.

But to return to Gors Goch, and to confine ourselves to facts, not theories, and to the details of its prehistoric burials. All that can be learnt here is something of the method of disposal of the bodies, as no

trace of habitations and no hoards have been found, nor has careful enquiry elicited a scrap of information, or unearthed any local tradition about the discovery of submerged piles and lake-dwellers. An occasional rotten bough or log and a few nuts, invariably empty when opened, are all that have been noticed in the peat.

We learn from the burial-ground at Gors Goch that, after cremation, the remains, together with small stones, charcoal and what now appears as dark, greasy mould, were interred in five different ways, two of which (A and B) are at present only known from one example.

A. Fifty years ago a man ran his plough into a pile of stones at Blaenau Gwenog, which, when cleared, revealed flagstones lying across two rows of uprights and forming a coffin-shaped cistfaen about 6 ft. long, with nothing inside except a small heap of black earth. As everything was moved away at the time, it is impossible to say more than to mention the bare facts, and deplore the absence of a scientific record.

B. A pavement of flat stones, set in the local greygreen clay, was laid down in a shallow hole, upon which the cremated remains were carefully deposited. The details are as follows:-Eight inches below the present surface a deposit of bone-fragments, charcoal and small white and other stones, was found heaped up on the top of four flat stones. This floor was photographed in situ and measured 30 in. by 17 in.

The soil all around was undisturbed, and the stones had been fitted closely together and lay only 4 in. below the original surface. The interstices were filled in with black earth, bone-ash and charcoal-dust. The stones on their underside were stained in dark patches, doubtless owing to rain having filtered thither through the dark earth above. The earth beneath the stones was only similarly stained to the depth of a fraction of an inch.

C. A small circular pile of large stones, stained and

fire-marked, placed anyhow, some flat, some slanting, some on end, was built up on the surface of the ground, sometimes banked up, as in Yorkshire, with clay, and sometimes capped, like the urns, with a flag-stone. The deposits of one or more cremations were placed in the middle of the pile and at various spots and depths in the pile. In one case, over a dozen stones and much dark earth were removed before the discovery of a mass of calcined bones and black earth, lying underneath the lowest stone of the pile, and 18 in. below the present surface of the ground.

D. A circular hole was scooped out to a depth of 8. in. to 14 in., probably by means of a stake or pointed stone, such as the one found lying loose at the bottom of the hole beneath an interment.'

E. The Use of Urns.-The calcined bones, together with the débris of the burning, were put inside an urn, which was then filled up with something which has become a layer of dark oily earth mixed with charcoal. In every case a flat capstone above the urn and a stone slab beneath (in one instance set in clay) have been found, probably part of an original cistfaen, or box-shaped tomb of stones, built round the urns, like those at Capel Cynon, illustrated in Arch. Camb. 1905. (Nothing nearly so perfect has been seen at Gors Goch as the Capel Cynon cistfaens, if indeed they were so found and not rebuilt theoretically after excavation.) The urns are found inverted or otherwise. In two cases it was evident that they had been sealed with clay, although one of them was not inverted. Only one of the five Gors Goch urns was ornamented,2 but the presence or absence of decoration does not imply that the vessels are necessarily of a different date, as both rude and fine ware have been found lying together in Yorkshire in primary interments. In this urn the bones lay clean and white, with a few small stones mixed together in a mass, underneath a 3-in. layer of greasy earth.

1 Arch. Camb., 1910, p. 375

2 Ibid., p. 378.

Cardiganshire Urns.-Three cinerary urns and a small vessel, found at Gors Goch, have been referred to in Arch. Camb., 1910. A fourth was found by Mr. Jenkin Davies in October, 1910, shattered, and its contents scattered and absorbed in the surrounding soil. A fifth was found in April, 1911. This, although crushed, is complete with all its contents. A sixth was unearthed at Bryn Granod, on the other side of the ancient lake. A seventh was found twenty years ago at Y Banc, in the parish of Pencarreg, and reburied. A fragment of an eighth was picked up by Dr. Davies of Lampeter, at Carnau in Craig Twrch, near Cellan. These, with the five vessels found at Capel Cynon in 1905, make a total of fourteen to be added to the list of recorded Cardiganshire urns (doubtful cases omitted), as given by Sir Edward Anwyl in Arch. Camb., 1906.

The list referred to, however, does not go back further than 1840, and a careful study of references to Cardiganshire in early periodicals and other literature connected with the county, might unearth notices of many more urns found in the county or just over the borders besides the following:

"Three earthen jars" from Llandyssul, found by Meyrick; see his History of Cardiganshire, ed. 1907, p. 192.

Two cinerary urns, one containing what Mr. W. J. Davies styles a "Nodwydd dur" (steel needle) in his History of Llandyssul, p. 13.

Unfortunately, neither writer adds dates or details. Three rows of urns, found at Nant y garn, in the parish of Conwyl Elved, and many others in neighbouring cairns, mentioned in Yr Haul, 1845, p. 245. This writer also mentions a buckler, taken in 1805 from the peat of Waun yr Adwyth, in the parish of Llangeler, and a sword and staff, with a head of ivory and bronze, from Garnwen on Bryn Geler. Reference is also made in Arch. Camb. to a "local tradition of frequent discoveries of sepulchral urns at 1 Arch. Camb., 1910, p. 373.