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.  Many of the objects in Mr Mitchelson’s museum are not labelled with the place of their origin, the manuscript catalogue made some years ago having been lost; but with a few exceptions the entire collection comes from barrows situated in the neighbourhood, having been brought together by Mr Thomas Kendall more than fifty years ago.

[Illustration:  A COMPLETE SKELETON IN A STONE CIST BELONGING TO THE EARLY BRONZE AGE.

It was discovered by a farmer in a field between Appleton-le-Moor and Spaunton, and is now in the Museum at Pickering. [Copyright reserved by Dr J.L.  Kirk.] ]

A complete skeleton in a stone cist is now lying in a glass case in the museum.  It was discovered accidentally by a farmer between Appleton-le-Moor and Spaunton.  He had decided to remove a huge stone that had been an obstacle when ploughing, and in doing so found that he had removed the top stone of a cist belonging to the early Bronze Age.  The man has a round or brachycephalic skull with the prominent brow-ridges and powerful jaws of the Celtic people, and his right arm was arranged so that the hand was beneath the skull.  By his left hand was the food vessel that is now placed on the left side of the skull, and at his feet are a number of small bronze studs or rivets.

These Bronze Age men seem to have had a very general belief in the spirit world, for the dead warrior was buried with his weapons as well as food, so that he might be sustained while he hunted in the other world with the spirit of his favourite axe or spear.  The museum contains examples of socketed bronze celts and spear heads, as well as an infinite variety of arrowheads, flint knives, stone hammers and celts, and also coloured beads and other ornaments.