EARLY MAN 



but it proved also that that era was of immense duration, with clearly 

 marked periods, during which there ' were successive races of men ex- 

 hibiting a progressive civilization,' the whole however being late Pleisto- 

 cene or post-Glacial, according to Professor Boyd Dawkins. 1 



II. POST-PLEISTOCENE TIME 

 NEOLITHIC, BRONZE AND EARLY-!RON MAN 



The dawn of this era opened with the temperate climate we still 

 enjoy, and a fauna and flora substantially those with which we are sur- 

 rounded. Throughout its course, human culture has advanced to its 

 present position with an unbroken progression, so that the ages Neo- 

 lithic, Bronze and Early Iron into which its pre-historic portion is 

 usually divided must not be regarded as sharply defined from one another, 

 nor even in any given locality as necessarily consecutive ; they represent 

 stages in an evolution. 



The vestiges of this era in Derbyshire consist mostly of burial 

 mounds 2 and other sepulchral remains, of which the county possesses an 

 unusual wealth, but it is impossible to form an estimate of their num- 

 ber. The experienced eye will often detect on the Peak moorlands, the 

 slight rise of the surface which may represent an ancient burial-place, 

 unmarked on the Ordnance Survey and unrecognized as of possible 

 archaeological interest. As already intimated, these mounds have been 

 plundered in a wholesale manner of their stone for building and other 

 purposes. In many cases only the finer debris and mould have remained, 

 and as these are liable to be spread beyond the limits of the mound in 

 the process of despoliation, a few years vegetable growth is sufficient to 

 obliterate any remaining indications of the nature of the site. Such 

 unmarked graves have been found from time to time, and there is little 

 doubt that there are hundreds more. The number of the pre-historic 

 burial-places which have been opened in the interests of science in this 

 county is little short of 300, and this sufficiently shows how important 

 an element they are in the local archaeology. 



In Derbyshire the pre-historic folk almost invariably raised mounds 

 over the resting-places of their dead. The first impression the literature 

 of these remains gives rise to is their great diversity, a diversity which 

 the reader will not unnaturally connect with differences of age or of race, 

 or of both combined ; but he will soon find their classification a difficult 

 task. Very few of those which have been explored were in a reasonably 



1 Full reports of the work by Mr. Mello supplemented by others on the 'finds,' first by Prof. 

 Busk and afterwards by Prof. Dawkins, appeared in the "Journal of the Geological Society for 18757 (vols. 

 xxxi.-xxxiii.). An account by the first mentioned gentleman also appeared in the Journal of the Derby- 

 shire Archaeological and Natural History Society, vol. i. ; and another by Mr. Heath in vol. iv. of the 

 same journal, who was also the author of a brochure, An Abstract Description and History of the Bone 

 Caves of Cre swell Crags. 



2 The common term for a burial-mound in this county is ' low,' from the Anglo-Saxon hltew, a 

 small hill or heap. It occurs abundantly as a suffix in the place-names. Many of these place-names 

 refer to existing barrows, but how far the rest can be regarded as evidence for the former presence of 

 these burial-mounds is uncertain. 



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