STONE 



5559 



STONEEENGE 



Related Subjects. The reader is referred to 

 the following articles in these volumes : 



Abdomen 

 Alimentary Canal 

 Digestion 



Intestine 

 Pepsin 



STONE. See ROCK. 



STONE AGE, a period in the history of a 

 people when they knew nothing of metals, but 

 used weapons and instruments made of stone, 

 bone and horn. There are people in remote 

 regions to-day who are still in their Stone Age 

 savages of the South Seas, Eskimos of the 

 Polar regions who use only the implements of 

 the era long passed by enlightened people. In 

 Europe men emerged from the Stone Age many 

 thousands of years ago, when animals now ex- 

 tinct -roamed the forests the mammoth, the 

 woolly rhinoceros, the cave lion and the cave 

 bear. In Asia and in Africa the Stone Age 

 came still earlier. All that is known of these 

 people of other ages is learned from the relics 

 that are found in caves and river gravel and 

 burial mounds. There are axes and axham- 

 me/s, knives, daggers, spear tips and arrow- 

 heads, saws and chisels, the earliest ones of 

 chipped flint, the later ones of polished stone. 

 Carved bits of bone and horn are found with 

 them and sometimes very crude pottery. These 

 people cultivated the ground and had domes- 

 tic animals; those who lived on the seacoast 

 had boats and fishing lines. 



Scientists divide the Stone Age into two 

 divisions the Paleolithic and the Neolithic 



Stanley Waterloo has written a fascinating 

 book called The Story of Ab, in which he de- 

 scribes the life of a boy in the Stone Age. Con- 

 sult Osbom's Men of the Stone Age. 



Related Subjects. In this connection the fol- 

 lowing articles in these volumes provide helpful 

 material : 



Age Human Period 



Bronze Age Iron Age 



STONECHAT, a small European bird of the 

 warbler family, taking its name from its pecul- 

 iar note, a sound like that of two pebbles 

 struck together. It is restless and active in 

 habits and is usually found in open, grassy lo- 



FLINT AND STONE IMPLEMENTS 

 These were among man's earliest weapons, 

 (a) Specimens of the Paleolithic period; (b) of 

 the Neolithic period. 



periods. The former corresponds roughly to 

 the geologic past, and is sometimes called the 

 "age of chipped stone." The Neolithic is the 

 period of highly finished stone implements. 



THE 

 STONECHAT 



cations, where it builds its nest on the ground, 

 under a tuft of grass. The eggs are four to six 

 in number, of a greenish-blue color, faintly 

 spotted. The bird migrates in winter to Africa. 

 It feeds on insect larvae, worms, beetles and 

 seeds. The stonechat is the blue titmouse of 

 Ireland. 



STONEHENGE, stone' 'henj, an impressive 

 prehistoric monument, now in ruins, consisting 

 of a group of huge, roughhewn stones. Stone- 

 henge is on Salisbury Plain, in Wiltshire, Eng- 

 land, a mile and a half from Amesbury. Some 

 of the stones have been carried away to make 

 bridges and milldams, and the structure has 

 also been worn down by time, but scientists, 

 who have found the ruin a subject of absorb- 

 ing interest, agree that originally it was ar- 

 ranged according to the following plan: The 

 entire monument was surrounded by a circular 

 earthwork, 300 feet in diameter. Within were 

 two concentric circles of standing stones, the 



