nAU.i COMMENTS BY SIMPSON AND TATE. 81 



I am not aware that we have yet sufficient evidence to consider as of tlie 

 same family with these ancient Cave-men, or as of a race still anterior to 

 them, the Flint-folk of the southern counties of England, whose unpolished 

 flint hatchets — besides being found in great abundance on the banks of the 

 Somme and Loire — have been discovered in various parts in the river-drifts 

 of South England, and an excellent specimen of which, along with the 

 bones of an elephant, was dug up, in the last century, from a gravel-pit 

 near Gray's Inn Lane, in the centre of London itself."* 



The question to which of these races of man the first sculpturings of 

 cups and rings are to be referred, is one which. Professor Simpson thinks, 

 cannot be positively answered in the present state of archaeological knowl- 

 edge. He wants further data as to their distribution in Europe and in 

 other parts of the world. Admitting the fact that such carvings were 

 executed by the "Megalithic Builders" of the age oi polislied stone, he thinks 

 the practice may possibly have antedated the era of that race, and, further, 

 expresses his belief in its continuance through the bronze period and even 

 later times, f 



Mr. Tate arrives at somewhat different conclusions. He infers from 

 the wide distribution of the cup and circle-carvings over the British Islands 

 " that at the period when they were made, the whole of Britain was peopled 

 by tribes of one race, who were imbued with the same superstitions, and 

 expressed them by the same symbols." He refers to the invariable asso- 

 ciation of these carvings with ancient British forts, oppida, villages and 

 sepulchres as an evidence of all having been the work of the people who 

 dwelt in these places, and were buried in these tombs. Though alluding 

 to the existence of ante-Celticraces in Britain, he thinks it may be inferred 

 " that the old remains in Northumberland, the sculptures included, belong 

 to the Celtic race, though they may tell the liistory of many centuries prior 

 to the Christian era." The Northumbrian sculptures being executed on 

 sandstone, he does not deny the possibility of their having been carved 

 with stone instruments ; yet he is of opinion that metal was known in the 

 district when the sculptures were made, as bronze and copper objects occur 



* This of ten-mentioned specimen, preserved in tho British Museum, is figured on j). 522 of Evans's 

 "Ancient Stone Implements, etc., of Great Britain." 

 t Simpson : Arcliaic SculiJtnre.s, etc.; p. 79-134. 

 G L S 



