STONEHENGE — STEVENS 471 



"SOUIH barrow" 



Deer antler pick, flint hammer, adz and scraper, parts of three 

 Prescelly stone axes, portion of the cutting edge of perforated 

 axhammer. 



On reviewing the above discoveries, from every part of the south- 

 eastern half of Stonehenge, it will be at once noticed that flints, 

 Prescelly axes and hammers, and Beaker pottery are widely distrib- 

 uted and a normal result of excavation. More special and of equal 

 importance are the Middle Bronze Age "incense cup" and the perfo- 

 rated ax from the Aubrey Hole cremation. The predominance of the 

 tools of Prescelly stone seems to indicate that they belong to a time 

 when those stones were dressed and when Stonehenge was erected. 

 The greater number of the discoveries lie between the late Neolithic 

 and the Early Iron Age. There is a very considerable amount of 

 Beaker pottery and a certain number of later Bronze Age objects, but 

 they are not very plentiful. The same may be said for the Early Iron 

 Age remains. Roman, Saxon, and other objects seem to have no bear- 

 ing upon the date of the monument. 



The flint and stone implements are found throughout the excava- 

 tions at all depths, and even under the foundation of one of the 

 Prescelly stones. Further antler picks, similar to those used at Stone- 

 henge, have been found in the Beaker flint mines at Easton Down, 

 not many miles from Stonehenge, where they were u,sed to win flint 

 for the manufacture of implements which are identical in their work- 

 ing with those found at Stonehenge. The Easton Down Settlement 

 throws an important sidelight on Stonehenge, since it yields not only 

 flints and Beaker fragments, but also pottery of the earliest known 

 type known as Windmill Hill pottery, which can be dated as about 

 2000 B. C. The similarity, therefore, between the Stonehenge tools 

 and tho^e in use at Easton Down, to which a period has been assigned, 

 indicates that the date of the building of Stonehenge may fairly be 

 placed at a time when the use of stone was contemporary with a partial 

 use of bronze, and that, if Stonehenge is not a late Neolithic structure, 

 it must certainly belong to the Early Bronze period. 



It may be urged that the roughness of the tools and the almost com- 

 plete absence of bronze would indicate an even earlier period. It 

 should, however, be remembered that the form of the tool is governed 

 very largely by the work it is called upon to perform. Bronze tool^ 

 would have been useless to deal with the compact stones at Stone- 

 henge. The crushing weight of a heavy maul or stone hammer ax 

 would have been more effective than a light bronze tool, which would 

 be liable to bend or buckle. 



