T 



EARLY MAN 



f ^HE rarity of prehistoric antiquities in the county of Durham is a 

 circumstance to which more than one writer on the subject has 

 called attention. The county of Durham, though it lies between 

 districts which abound in the various remains of pre-Roman 

 times, and though it presents natural features apparently well adapting it 

 for early occupation, is markedly deficient in discoveries of weapons and 

 implements of the stone and bronze ages, as it is also wanting in fortified sites 

 and places of burial, of which latter only thirteen have been met with during 

 the various operations of agricultural and other work. 1 No remains of the 

 palaeolithic age have been found within the county, though the bones of 

 animals associated with that period have in a very few cases been discovered. 

 Nothing has ever come to light to prove that man occupied any part of 

 England as far north as Durham, or within a great distance south of it, in 

 palaeolithic times, and even at a very much later date, during the neolithic and 

 bronze periods, everything goes to show that Durham was a sparsely-populated 

 district. Nevertheless, some of the discoveries belonging to pre-Roman times, 

 particularly two of the bronze age, are of the highest importance, and have 

 furnished data of a very valuable kind. 



THE NEOLITHIC AGE 



The various stone implements and other objects which may be referred 

 to the neolithic age are not numerous, and many of them may belong to the 

 bronze age. These remains consist of ground or polished axes made of basalt 

 and other hard stone; axe-hammers of stone, quartzite hammer-stones, and 

 arrowheads of flint, some beautifully formed and finished ; and knives and 

 scrapers of the same material. One scraper of flint, now in the British 

 Museum, was associated with an interment at Copt Hill, Houghton le Spring; 

 it was found in a cinerary urn, and probably belonged to the bronze age. 



The following is a list of stone weapons and implements found in the 

 county : 



DURHAM COUNTY. Two ground axes, respectively 7} inches and 5^- inches in length. 



GAINFORD. Perforated stone hammer. (Proc. Sac. Antiq. Newcastle, ser. iii. vol. ii. p. 74.) 



HAMSTERLEY. Many arrowheads, scrapers, flakes, etc., of flint. 



HOLLY BUSH (parish of Lanchester). Leaf-shape arrow-head of flint. 



JARROW. Two axes with surfaces entirely ground, 7^- inches and 5$ inches long respectively. 



(Archttologia Mliana, N.S. vol. v. p. 1 02 ; Evans, Stont Imp!, and ed. p. i o I .) 

 LANCHESTER COMMON. Arrow-head with square-ended barbs, now in the museum of the Soc. of 



Antiq. of Ncwcastle-upon-Tyne. (Evans, Stone Im/>/., p. 383.) 

 MILNE HOUSE (near Frosterley). Perforated hammer made of micaceous sandstone. 

 NEWTON KETTON. Large numbers of flint arrow-heads and other flint implements. 

 QUEBEC. Polished stone axe belonging to Rev. F. G. Wesley, Hamsterley. 

 RABY CASTLE. Dark grey stone axe, ground, but of somewhat rough workmanship, nearly 7 inches 



in length. (Evans, Stone Imp/. 2nd ed. p. 105.) 

 REDWORTH. A large axe-hammer. 



1 Greenwell, British Barrows, p. 440. 

 199 



