82 Stonekenge arid its Barrows. 



Flint Flakes found within the Stone Circles at Stonehenge. 



Mr. W. Cunnington, in his " Stonehenge Notes/-' printed at the 

 end of the eleventh volume of the Magazine of the Wilts A. and N. 

 H. Society, 1869, says : " During a visit to Stonehenge in the 

 summer of last year, Mr. Henry Cunnington found in rabbits^ holes 

 round the edge of the altar-stone, and at the edge of the large stone 

 E 2 in Hoare's plan, several flint flakes and a fragment of pottery. 

 The latter is of rude make, slightly burnt, and though evidently very 

 ancient, is not sufficiently distinct to be of much importance. Most 

 of the flakes are decidedly artificial. 'The circular piece,-" says Mr. 

 Evans, Ms of a rare form and belongs to the class to which the name 

 of sling stones has been applied.'' One flake is undoubtedly ancient, 

 and bears marks of having been well used ; but the general appear- 

 ance of the specimens, with this one exception, is so fresh that sus- 

 picions must he entertained as to their authenticity," ' 



Colonel Lane Fox found several worked flints in the rubbish around 

 the trilithons in 1869 : " Observing that two or three bare places 

 had been scratched in the soil, apparently by animals, at the foot of 

 the stones, I examined the loose earth carefully, and succeeded in 

 finding the four flints which are exhibited to the meeting [that of 

 the Ethnological Society of London, Nov. 9th, 18G9]. Two of these, 

 it will be seen, are perfect flakes, having bulbs of percussion, with 

 ribs and facets at the back" . . . "Besides the flakes, I observed 

 numerous small splinters of flint, such as might well have resulted 

 from the fracture of flint tools, had such been used in the process of 

 dressing the great blocks." Colonel Lane Fox found as many as 

 twenty worked flints in one place close to Stonehenge, " where a 

 small tumulus had been scored by the plough." ' 



Diggings within the Precincts of Stonehenge, and their results. 



Mr. Webb, in " Stoneheng Restored," p. 66, says: " But the 

 sacrifices anciently offered at Stoneheng (already remembered) were 



^Note by Mr. CunniDgton, 1876.—"! believe that all the flakes found in 

 1869 were purposely placed there. ' Flint Jack ' is known to have been at 

 Stonehenge aboiit this time." 



''■ Journal of the Ethnological Society, vol. ii., pp. 2, 3. 



