'5 = 



NA TURE 



[June 14, 1906 



it 



ARCH.^OLOGY IN THE ISLE OF MAN.' 

 'T'HESE notes form a useful handbook to the 

 ■*• geology and antiquities of the Isle of Man, and 

 those responsible for persuading the authors to re- 

 print and amplify their scattered notices have con- 

 ferred a benefit on the public. Although the little 

 volume runs to little more than loo pages, it includes 

 a good survey of both branches of the subject, and 

 emphasises the interest of the island in the two aspects 

 of its remoteness in some respects from its neigh- 

 bours and as a meeting place of the arts of the Celt 

 and the Northman. The evidences of man's presence 

 in the island naturally begin with the Neolithic 

 period, the climatic conditions of the Pleistocene age 

 effectually preventing him from reaching so far 

 north ; but from Neolithic times onwards the story 

 of the island can be traced by its archseolog)'. Flint 

 appears only to e.xist in the form of nodules washed 

 from the Boulder-clay, and the " factories " of flint 

 implements are always on actual deposits of Boulder- 

 clay. Some of the implements figured are, as the 

 authors admit, of very rude make, 

 as well as of very curious types 

 (Fig. .4)- 



It is perhaps hardly surprising 

 that signs of dwellings are not 

 found near these Neolithic " floors "' 

 or factories. Stone-age man, here 

 as elsewhere, chose his dwelling for 

 reasons of security or shelter from 

 • the weather rather than from the 

 proximity of a good store of flint 

 nodules. Dwellings in the form of 

 hut circles have, however, been 

 found in fair numbers, and though 

 it is by no means improbable thai 

 they date from Neolithic times, the 

 authors are justly cautious in dog- 

 matising on their age. No type of 

 exploration is more difiicult than 

 that presented by the ordinary hut 

 circle, and often the principal evi- 

 dence is that of analogy. Such re- 

 mains, moreover, share with stone 

 circles the danger of having been 

 disturbed by treasure seekers, with 

 the result that stratigraphical de- 

 ductions cease to be of value. It 

 cannot be too often insisted upon 

 that the class of exploration that 

 produces the fewest objects of in- 113. i.— Crcs; 



trinsic value, viz. those of pre- 

 historic times, should be excavated with most care 

 and attention to detail. The reason is a simple one. 

 The elucidation of the problems of early man depends 

 solely upon such explorations, for no other docu- 

 ments can possibly exist to help in the solution of 

 the puzzle. In later historic times the helps to know- 

 ledge are endless. Both Mr. Kermode and Dr. Herd- 

 man clearly recognise the importance of careful work, 

 but, like most students of the earlier periods, they 

 will doubtless admit the need of this warning to the 

 unwary or careless explorer. 



Apart from the interest to those who study the 

 Manks antiquities as part of the general archaeo- 

 logical scheme, this little book can "scarcely fail to 

 have a good effect in the island itself. It is to be 

 hoped that all the relics that may come to light in 

 future will be deposited in Castle Rushen, where they 

 will be available for comparison and study. It is sad 

 to read of such things going astray when a little tact 

 or trouble might have preserved them. 



The Bronze age in the Isle of Man was evidently 

 a time of considerable communication with the main- 

 land. The types of urns, as well as the fact that 

 all the stone axes are of foreign material, show that 

 trade must have been fairly brisk. The urn shown 

 in Fig. 23 is, for instance, nearly related to the 

 Scottish urns of the same time. This fact has, of 

 course, an important bearing on the relative date of 

 this and other periods when such communication 

 existed. If the same types of funeral furniture are 

 found here as on the mainland, it not only shows 

 intercommunication, but also, as a necessary con- 

 sequence, proves the contemporary existence of the 

 same burial customs in the two places. Thus 

 although it may well be that the remoteness of the 

 island prevented its inhabitants from being quite as 

 advanced as the continental dwellers, yet the differ- 

 ence in time can only have been slight. The authors 

 seem to lay rather more stress than the facts justify 

 upon the retarding eft'ect of the inaccessibility of the 

 island. It is probable that the civilisation was re- 







•I io> ^ I ' t— 



from Calf of M.i 



I Manks .\ntiquil 



1 " Illustrated Notes 

 W.A. Herdman. Pp. 



NO. 1911, VOL. 74] 



I Manks Antiquities." By P. M. C. Kermode a 

 1. (Liverpool : Tinling and Co., Ltd., r9o4.) 



latively further behind the rest of England during the 

 eighteenth century, for instance, than it was in the 

 Bronze age. The similarity of stone implements in 

 parts of the world widely separated is not always 

 easy to explain, though the similarity of need has a 

 good deal to do with it. But an elaborated and more 

 complex object, such as an ornamented pottery vase, 

 can scarcely be reproduced in all its details without 

 some relations between the two makers. Common- 

 place though such an observation may be, it is very 

 necessary to bear such facts in mind in discussing 

 an island civilisation like that of the Isle of Man, or 

 even of Britain. 



The most characteristic, and in some respects the 

 most interesting, antiquities of the island are the 

 Scandinavian and Celtic carved stones of Christian 

 times. It is very useful to note how the Northmen 

 appreciated the delightful complicated designs of 

 their Celtic forerunners. The respective shares of 

 Scandinavian and Celt in the motives of these curious 

 monuments, and even in the finest Celtic manuscripts, 

 have never been adequately elucidated. The genius 



