22 



ARCHEOLOGY. (ENGLAND.) 



the evidence obtained that the sarsen stones were 

 erected in the Paleolithic times that was to say, 

 before the age of bronze or, at all events, before 

 bronze had been used for any ordinary kind of 

 work in that part of England. Before the exca- 

 vations were begun Mr. F. C. Penrose and he 

 had been occupying themselves with Stone- 

 henge from a slightly different point of view. 

 Tlu-v had been very anxious to determine its age, 

 n ml' it had been found much easier to get certain 

 a-troimmical data from Stonehenge, owing to its 

 position, than from other ancient monuments. 

 A number of astronomical data presented by the 

 -pi-aki-r >ii]>|>orted the conclusion that Stone-- 

 lu-nge was a solar temple and was used for obser- 

 \ :it ion in the height of summer. From their 

 l.-rrvations he and Mr. Penrose came to the 

 .-..in -lii-inn that the avenue which was associ- 

 ated with the sarsen stones was laid down about 

 the year 1680 B. C. Such temples as Stonehenge 

 \M-IV erected in the very first blush of civiliza- 

 tiuii. in order that the people should be able to 

 fix the time for performing agricultural opera- 

 tions. It seemed certain 

 that we had in Stone- 

 henge a temple for de- 

 termining the length of 

 the year by observing 

 the rising of the sun on 

 its longest day; while in 

 other parts of England 

 there were temples for 

 observing the sun not on 

 June 21, but early in 

 May and early in Au- 

 gust. 



In the course of exca- 

 vations for a new road 

 in Enfield, England, a 

 layer of dark soil from 

 2 to 6 feet in breadth 

 was come upon, in which 

 many fragments of pot- 

 tery and jewelry were 

 embedded. Several coins 

 were also found of the 

 periods of Trajan, Clau- 



A STATUETTE, ACTUAL SIZE. diu8 > AlectuS, and Con- 



atantine. About a half- 

 mile from this spot a statuette was found lying 

 upon the ground. The dark color of the stratum 

 in which the principal relics were found is sup- 

 posed to have been due to burning. 



Three papers relating to underground struc- 

 tures, ehjUDDen, and dwellings were read at the 

 Belfast meeting of the British Association. Some 

 " souterrains " existing in the northeast corner 

 of Ireland were described by Mr. William J. 

 Fennell as being very numerous, and were re- 

 garded as showing the primeval architecture of 

 the country. A souterram might be defined as a 

 subterranean place of refuge, and, in that sense 

 only, a dwelling. The entrance was either natu- 

 rally difficult of approach or cunningly hid, and 

 the interior was generally long, low, narrow, and 

 winding, and beset with frequent barriers locally 

 known as " difficulties," through which only one 

 parson could pass at a time, and then, only by 

 creeping. Nothing was found in them to indicate 

 that they had been used for burial. They were 

 not burrows, but vaulted chambers connected by 

 passages, well defended, and built of dry masonry 

 walls and roofs, and afterward covered up by 

 earth, and eventually hidden by vegetation. 

 The exterior covering was always very thin. The 

 construction was invariably of rough unhewn 

 stones from the neighborhood, and the roof was 



formed by the overhanging of one stone on an- 

 other. The barriers were formed of walls, rising 

 from the foot almost to the roof, then a space 

 of 12 or more inches to the next wall, which 

 descended from the ceiling to within 15 inches 

 of the floor. They led in some cases to a long, 

 low tunnel 16 or 18 inches high, with a similar 

 barrier at the other end. No two souterrains 

 were alike in plan; some were straight, or almost 

 so, with chambers branching off. Some were ex- 

 tremely short, while others were considerably 

 more than 100 feet long. One example was men- 

 tioned of a two-story building, entered from the 

 field level to the upper floor, and from that to 

 the lower one. 



Three subterranean chambers cut in a bed of 

 Thanet sand were described by Mr. George Clinch 

 as having been discovered during the excavations 

 for a sewer at Waddon, near Croydon. They were 

 partly filled with fallen sand, but in each cham- 

 ber a compact floor was found about 15 feet 

 below the surface. The chambers were of bee- 

 hive shape, about 7 feet high and 12 feet or less 

 in diameter. Each had its independent entrance 

 opening on the south-southeast side, but no other 

 mode of access. Flint chips and fragments of 

 pottery and of Romano-British pottery were 

 found in them. They were distinguished by vari- 

 ous characteristics from other British subter- 

 ranean structures, and on the Continent of Eu- 

 rope the most similar chambers were those at 

 Palmella, Portugal, which Cartailhac had as- 

 cribed to sepulchral purposes in the latter part 

 of the polished-stone age. Similar chambers 

 had been noticed in Brittany and elsewhere, and 

 the subterranean beehive trunks at Mycenae were 

 identical in plan, though different in dimensions 

 and material. Southeast and east of Waddon 

 were many hut circles which had been attributed 

 to the Neolithic age. They had marks of en- 

 trance on the east and southeast side, and ex- 

 hibited general resemblance in dimensions and 

 plan with the Waddon chambers. The \Vaddon 

 discovery was therefore of some importance as 

 evidence for the size, shape, and plan of prehis- 

 toric dwellings, the vaulted roofs cut in hard 

 sand reproducing in general form the interlaced 

 boughs, benders, and wickerwork of the ordi- 

 nary surface hut, and the lateral passage the 

 doorway of the Neolithic dwelling. The same 

 idea of interment within a house survived during 

 the bronze age. 



In the third paper certain primitive under- 

 ground habitations were described by Mr. David 

 MacRitchie as typical of a class of structures 

 apparently existing at one time throughout the 

 British Isles, though the greater part of the 

 specimens now remaining were found in Ireland 

 and Scotland. The occurrence in two of these 

 dwellings of a number of dressed stones with 

 Roman ornamentation which had been used in 

 their construction indicated that they must have 

 been built after the arrival of the Romans in 

 Britain. Their use as places of human abode 

 was obvious, because they contained domestic 

 utensils, such as hand-mills and personal orna- 

 ments, as well as the broken bones of animals 

 used by man as food. In a few instances they 

 had a fireplace, but this was exceptional, as they 

 were so well protected from the cold that an 

 oil-lamp would suffice to keep them comfortable. 

 From their characteristics, therefore, they quite 

 justified the name of " earth-house," which was 

 yiven to them in the Norse sagas and also in 

 living popular speech. They varied considerably 

 in appearance, but most of them had their roofs 

 about a foot or two below the surface of the 



