A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE 



was found at Woodley near Reading. This is a form which is unusual 

 in this country. A fine saw, lanceolate in shape, and probably intended 

 to be fixed in a handle, was obtained at Caversham. The last three 

 specimens are in the Reading Museum. 



The process of working flint reached a high degree of perfection 

 during the Neolithic Age, and was doubtless carried over into the next 

 stage, under which head will be noted some fine examples of flint-work 

 occurring in the burial-mounds. 1 



The presence of Neolithic man in the valley of the Kennet appears 

 to be indicated by the finding of a human skull in the peat near 

 Newbury associated with stone-implements. 3 A fine specimen of the 

 skull of the great ox (Bos primigenius) , found on Speen Moor with, it is 

 said, a flint arrow-head fixed in its skull, is in the Newbury Museum. Two 

 fine celts were found near Crookham, 4 feet from the surface in peat, with 

 a large quantity of bones. 3 A chipped instrument, somewhat gouge-like 

 in form, was found at Newbury, with flakes, etc., during the operations 

 for the sewerage. 4 Celts have been found at Thatcham, Shaw, and 

 Eling farm. 5 Various bone instruments have been found at Newbury 

 (Market Place) 6 and at Reading (Gas works). 7 Other discoveries of 

 neolithic objects in Berkshire will be found noted in the list given at 

 the end of this article. 



In and near Ashdown Park are a vast number of Sarsen stones 

 lying in a valley on the Berkshire Downs more than 500 feet above the 

 sea-level. Mr. A. L. Lewis, 8 who, in an account of them published in 

 1869, considered them to be ' Druidic monuments,' speaks of these 

 stones as being arranged in long and somewhat irregular lines. Owing 

 to their ruinous condition he doubts whether any one line can be traced 

 as running throughout from end to end. The sketch-plan which 

 accompanies his account, however, shows upwards of thirty tolerably 

 distinct lines of stones running with considerable regularity in an east- 

 and-west direction. These lines are shown within the walls of Ashdown 

 Park. Outside the arrangement is less clear, but he marks one very 

 decided series of stones in a line partly north and south with a distinct 

 tendency towards the east at the northern end. All the stones which 

 comprise this collection are what is known as Sarsen stones, or grey- 

 wethers, from their likeness when seen from a distance to sheep grazing 

 on the downs. They are considered by some to be of geological 

 origin and the remains of local beds of Tertiary age. These occupy 

 a space of about 1,600 feet north and south, and about 800 feet east 

 and west. 



The Hon. Daines Barrington," writing of the Sarsen stones in 

 1785, says they are not ' dropt in any kind of order or figure. None of 



1 A list of tumuli and barrows in Berkshire will be found in the article on Ancient Earthworks. 



2 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. (ser. 2), ii. 128. 



3 Trans. Newbury Dist. Field Club, i. 205. * Ibid. iv. 207. " Ibid. iv. 184. 

 6 Trans. Brit. Arch. Assoc. (1870). t Trans. Berks Arch. Soc. 1881. 



8 Int. Cong, of Prehistoric Arch. Norw. (1869), 37-46. The sketch plan has been reproduced in 

 Fergusson, Rude Stone Monuments. 

 Arch. (1787), viii. 442. 



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