746 



STONE-CHAT 



STONE CIRCLES 



domestic animals we now possess. The presence 

 in the refuse heaps of their ttcacoast settlements 

 of tlie remain- of deep-sea fishes shows tliat they 

 must have possessed boats and fishing-lines, an 

 was also the case with the stone-age inhabitants 

 of the Lake-dwellings (q.v. ). The estimates that 

 have beeu made of the antiquity of the stone age 

 in Europe are necessarily very various and all 

 equally conjectural, but 'it has been considered 

 that the close of the neolithic period or the time 

 when the use of stone began to be superseded by 

 that of bronze in northern Europe cannot have 

 been much later than from 1000 to 1500 B.C. See 

 works cited at ARCHEOLOGY. 



Stone-chat (Pratincola riibifola; nee CHAT), 

 one of the most common of the liritish Tnrdidse, a 

 pretty little bird, rather smaller than the red- 



Stone-chat (1'ratincola rubicola). 



breast, black on the npper parts and throat in 

 cummer ; the In-cast of a dark reddish colour ; some 

 white on the rides of the neck, tint wings, and the 

 tail. It makes its nest of dry grans and moss lined 

 with bents, hair, and feathers on the ground or at 

 the foot of a low bush. It is resident in the 

 British Isles, but a few may migrate southwards 

 in cold winters, when there i- also an influx of 

 others from the colder continental regions. It is 

 somewhat local and erratic in its distribution, fre- 

 quenting a place for a few seasons and then sud- 

 denly abandoning it. It feeds on insects, grubs, 

 worms, lieetles, and seeds. The Wheat-ear (q.v.) 

 is, however, the true Stone-chat 



Stone Circles, or Circles of Standing Stones 

 (q.v. ), popularly, but erroneously, 

 called Druidical Circles in l!iit:i!n, 

 Dom-ringx or Thing-stead- in 

 Scatulinavia, and known as Crom- 

 lechs in France, consist of unhewn 

 stones set up at intervals round 

 t In- circii inference of a circular area 

 usually of level ground, though 

 they arc siimct inics found on tin? 

 (lightly slu|iing side of a hill. 

 The ami thus marked oil 'from the 

 surrounding ground varies in size 

 from less than 20 to more tlian 

 100 feet in diameter. The number 

 of stones com|HMiiiig the circle also 

 varies greatly, hut as most stone 

 circles exist now in a condition of 

 i in less dilapidation it is 

 often impos-ili].- to :i . ii.iin with 

 certainty what the original num- 

 liei may have Iwcn. Sometimes 

 they are mere iMiulders rolled into 

 position, at other times they are pillar-stones, evi- 

 dently chosen for their length, and wedged upright 

 fiy smaller stones inserted round their bases in the 

 cavity in the subsoil prepared for their reception. 

 Sometimes there is a single circle only, at other 

 times one or two smaller circles are contained con- 



centrically within the interior circle. Occasionally 

 the area on which the circle stands is further 

 marked off from the surrounding ground by a 

 trench, or by a trench and rampart of earth sur- 

 rounding the whole, except where a narrow path- 

 way gives access to the interior on the original 

 level. In the district of Scotland between the Dee 

 and the S|>ey there are numerous examples of a 

 special variety of stone circle distinguished by the 

 presence of a great flat block placed on edge so as 

 to fill one of the intervals l>etween two of the up- 

 right pillars, usually on the south-west side of the 

 circle. Circles of small boulder stones placed close 

 together and scarcely showing above the turf are 

 also found in many parts of Europe, indicating 

 that the space thus enclosed has been reserved foi 

 burial deposits in prehistoric times. Hut the circles 

 < IJKNMMI of large stones set at considerable inter- 

 vals apart are linked with the burial customs of 

 the builders of the chambered cairns of the stone 



rA great circle of standing stones encircled 

 gigantic chambered cairn of New Grange in 

 Ireland, and the smaller cairns of Clava in Strath- 

 nairn near Inverness are similarly encircled by 

 pillar-stones. As a rule the cairns* which covered 

 the cremation interments of the bronze age are 

 smaller than those of the preceding period, and the 

 custom of placing the burnt bones in a cavity in 

 the soil, covered only by an inverted urn of clay, 

 dispensed with the cairn altogether, while "it 

 retained the circle of standing stones as a visible 

 mark or fence of the grave-ground. In alxmt 

 twenty instances in winch there lias been syste- 

 matic excavation of stone circles in Scotland the 

 examination of the interior space has disclosed 

 burials of the bronze age, mostly after cremation, 

 but occasionally unburnt. The cremated remains 

 were deposited with cinerary urns placed either in 

 an inverted position over the burnt lx>nes or up- 

 right and containing the burnt bones, at the 

 bottom of a shallow pit excavated in the subsoil. 

 These cinerary urns exhibit the forms and orna- 

 mentation characteristic of the age of bronze. 

 Sometimes the burials have been placed in ciste of 

 unhewn slabs of stone, covered by small cairns of 

 loose stones, underneath the surface level ; at other 

 times the burnt bones of many burials have been 

 found placed in shallow cavities excavated in the 

 soil of the interior area of the circle, near the liases 

 of the upright stones. From these circumstances 



Stone Circle, Stcnnis, Orkney. 



it is conclusively demonstrated that the common 



varieties of stone circles in Scotland are circular 

 < -emcieries of bronze-age burials. It may l>e that 

 the greater circles, like those of Stcnnis, Avebury, 

 and Stonchenge, may have had a different origin 

 and purpose, but there is no evidence more conclu- 



