PREHISTORIC ARCHAEOLOGY IN YORKSHIRE 47 



to Section H. Potsherds from hearths within it are identical with those 

 associated with Late Bronze Age implements in the Heathery Burn Cave, 

 Co. Durham, an association not observed at Eston Nab. 



The Bronze Age of West Yorkshire has been studied by Raistrick, 

 who gives plans of stone circles ; also of two disc barrows (near Askrigg 

 inWensleydale), the first that appear to have been noted in the county (32). 

 These structures all seem to date from the Mid Bronze Age. Urns have 

 been found within stone circles (Danby, N.R.),^ and earthen circles 

 (Todmorden, W.R.).® The impressive Thornborough and Hutton Moor 

 circles near Ripon were assigned to a late phase of the Early Bronze Age 

 by Crawford (17) on the evidence of a single food-vessel from a barrow 

 situated between two of the Thornborough circles. A Mid Bronze Age 

 date is equally probable, because cremations and urns have more frequently 

 been found in the neighbourhood. 



Even Yorkshire's greatest megaliths — the Devil's Arrows near Borough- 

 bridge in the same region — may be no earlier than the Mid Bronze Age. 

 There is no evidence of a large Neolithic or Early Bronze Age settlement 

 there, for only a large community would have erected such colossal stones. 

 The megaliths of the Eastern Moorlands also occur in a region rich in 

 Mid Bronze Age remains. In this region they take the form of monoliths 

 on or near barrows, circles (with urns), rows, and groups of three stones 

 adjoining urn barrows (18). There is no evidence that the Yorkshire 

 megaliths were erected by metal or jet traders, nor that there was any 

 far-flung trade in Whitby jet (i8). The excursion on September 3 will 

 give members the opportunity of seeing many prehistoric remains on the 

 Eastern Moorlands. 



Raistrick has dealt with the dispersion of bronze implements and has 

 shown how they were carried from the Wold area across the morainic 

 ridges at York and Escrick into West Yorkshire (32). Kitson Clark first 

 called attention to this route by which flint was conveyed from East to 

 West Yorkshire, where in its natural state it is unknown (11). The main 

 route led through the Aire Gap, and evidence is accumulating to show that 

 it formed a cross-country trade-route between Ireland and Denmark 

 in the Bronze Age. 



Elgee has also studied the distribution of bronze implements, especially 

 the socketed axe and leaf-shaped sword of the Late Bronze Age. It 

 shows that the chief settlement areas of this age were Holderness, the 

 northern margin of the Vale of Pickering — both lowland areas — and, to 

 a less extent, Calderdale, Airedale, and round Ripon. As these imple- 

 ments have never been found with urns, or on the surface of the Eastern 

 Moorlands where the urn culture was dominant, he follows Crawford and 

 Peake in ascribing their introduction to invaders. He also suggests that 

 the pressure of these and later invaders drove the urn people into the 

 Moorland country where they may have survived into the Iron Age or 

 even later (18). 



Further discoveries of bronze implements, chiefly late, have from time 

 to time been made. Many have been recorded by Sheppard, who has 



' Atkinson, Gent. Mag., xiv, 440-4, 1863. 

 * Proc. Yorks. Geol. Soc, xiii, 447. 



