The Celtic people were possessed of a civilisation infinitely more
advanced than that of the Neolithic or Iberian races. They were the
ancestors of the "Ancient Britons" who offered such a stout resistance to
the Roman legions under Julius Caesar.
Not only are there innumerable barrows or burial mounds constructed by
this early race on the hills above the Vale, but on Beacon Hill, the
slight eminence just to the west of Pickering Castle, at Cawthorne and
also at Cropton, there are evidences of what may be their fortifications,
while the plough is continually bringing to light more relics of the
period. A fine collection of these have been brought together and are to
be seen in Mr T. Mitchelson's private museum near Pickering Church. Two
large cases contain a most remarkable series of burial urns, incense cups
and food vessels all found in barrows in the neighbourhood. The urns are
generally ornamented with bands of diagonal or crossed markings and other
designs as well as with the impressions of twisted pieces of hide or
grasses. The bases are usually very small for the size of the urns, after
the fashion of those in Canon Greenwell's examples in the British Museum.
In that collection may be seen several cinerary urns, incense cups and
food vessels from Hutton Buscel, Ganton, Slingsby, Egton and other places
in the vicinity of Pickering. They belong to the same period as those in
Mr Mitchelson's museum and are, on account of the simplicity and
comparative rarity of the bronze implements that have been discovered with
them, considered to belong to the earliest bronze period, that is, to the
time of the first Celtic invasions.
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