After a time man learnt the use of metal. The smelting of iron was
at first beyond his power, and he employed the mixture of copper
and tin which we term bronze. Of this age specimens of winged celts
and palstaves (a narrow hatchet, with a tang or socket for a haft)
have been found in various parts of the county, as well as socketed
celts, daggers, swords, spear-heads, and the like. The most important
discovery of this nature was made in 1876 during drainage operations at
Cumberlow Green, near Baldock, when some forty bronze implements were
found in a well-like hole. Gold ornaments, probably referable to the
same epoch, have been found at Little Amwell and at Mardox, near Ware.
We now come to the early Iron Age, when man had succeeded in mastering
this metal. Of this a very brief notice must suffice. Primitive coins,
without inscription, of the type issued by Philip II of Macedon, and
hence known as Philippi, were probably coined in the county in early
British times; but after the Roman invasion a number of British coins
were struck at Verulamium, among the most interesting of which are
those of Tarciovanus, who reigned in that city from (probably) about
30 B.C. to about 5 A.D. A large number of his coins have been found at
Verulam, as well as those of other British sovereigns. Tarciovanus, it
may be added, was the father of Cunovelinus (Shakespeare’s Cymbeline),
whose capital was Camulodunum, the modern Colchester.
[Illustration: The Devil’s Dyke, Marford]
Earthworks of great but unknown antiquity are by no means uncommon
in Hertfordshire; one of the most important being Grimes-ditch, or
Grimm’s Dyke, traces of which remain on Berkhampstead common, as well
as on the opposite side of the Bulbourne valley, while a deep ditch
runs in a bold sweep from near Great Berkhampstead through Northchurch
and Wiggington to the north of Cholesbury camp, and thence into
Buckinghamshire. Beech Bottom forms another great dyke lying between
the site of Verulam and Sandridge, and is probably pre-Roman, and
possibly connected with the encampment east of Wheathampstead known
as the Moats or the Slad. The latter forms part of a great system of
earthworks of which the opposite side is marked by the Devil’s Dyke
at Marford. The great earthworks running outside of and parallel to
parts of the Roman wall at Verulam are likewise older than the latter.
Berkhampstead Castle may stand on the site of an earlier camp, as
British and Roman coins have been found there; but the mound or keep,
as at Bishop’s Stortford, Pirton, and Hertford Castles, is probably
Saxon. On the other hand, the well-preserved camp near Redbourn, known
as the Aubreys, Auberys, or Aubury, is certainly pre-Roman; and the
same is probably the case with some of the numerous other earthworks
dotted over the county, such as Arbury Banks, Ashwell. A few barrows or
tombs of pre-Roman age have been opened and examined in various parts
of the county, as at Therfield, Royston, and Easneye near Ware.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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