PREHISTORIC ARCHiEOLOGY IN YORKSHIRE 49 



about 5 ft. deep, of elongated form, a few even being 40 ft. long by 

 9-10 ft. wide. They were all excavated in boulder-clay, and were filled 

 with a hardened blackish mud overlain by soil. Rough stone hearths 

 occurred in them, round which lay potsherds ; broken bones of ox, 

 horse, sheep or goat, pig, red deer, and in one instance the complete 

 skeleton of a dog ; heavy stone pounders ; and rude flint knives and 

 flakes. 



La Tene culture is sparingly represented on the limestone hills near 

 Pickering. Elsewhere in North-East Yorkshire it is practically unknown. 



Recent research is revealing that Iron Age sites are numerous and 

 widespread in West Yorkshire. On the plateau of the Great Scar Lime- 

 stone in Wharfedale, Raistrick finds saucer-shaped barrows, often 

 encircled by a trench, up to 30 yards in diameter. They have yielded 

 iron knives, coarse pottery, bronze and iron ornaments, and multiple 

 burials. Adjoining the barrows are extensive lynchets and cultivation 

 plots of Celtic type. Twelve lynchet groups occur in Upper Wharfedale, 

 one of the best preserved in the High Close Pasture north of Grass- 

 ington (16). The cultivators lived in huts, the circular foundations of 

 which can be seen in Grass Wood and elsewhere. In them iron knives 

 with deer- horn hafts, like those from the barrows, have been found ; 

 also spindle-whorls of stone, pottery and lead (one of Roman type), 

 saddleback querns, pounders and charred barley, the most ancient 

 evidence of this cereal in Yorkshire (35). 



In Littondale, Celtic fields are associated with regular enclosures of 

 rough masonry 5 ft. wide at the base, and in places still 3 ft. high — the 

 ruins of circular and rectangular dwellings or chambers, ranged round 

 a rectangular space with two entrances (35). 



The folk who lived on these sites must have been the Brigantes who 

 dominated West Yorkshire in Roman times. Their origins are obscure. 

 Most probably they were descended from the urn folk of Yorkshire 

 who had been subjugated by the Late Bronze Age invaders and amongst 

 whom La Tene culture spread after the invasion of the Parisii. 



In the 19 12 volume of the Victoria County History there is an admirable 

 survey and list of earthworks, with many plans (2). This account 

 stripped our earthworks of much error and pedantic lumber that had 

 gathered round them. They are chiefly classified under types, for the 

 age of many was, and still is, unknown. The survey clearly demonstrated 

 the mediasval age of such works as Skipsea Brough, E.R., long regarded 

 as prehistoric on little or no satisfactory evidence. 



Other works are shown to have been mediaeval boundary banks or 

 park enclosures. To the latter class the great earthworks at Forcett 

 and Stanwick Parks, N.R., almost certainly belong, though they are still 

 often supposed to be Brigantian strongholds of the first century. This 

 ascription was based solely on the statement that Early Iron Age antiquities '' 

 were discovered within them, whereas they actually occurred at Langdale, 

 a mile to the south outside them (2). Nothing has been found within 

 the works to prove their Brigantian origin. 



In all probability the Brigantes constructed hill-top camps like the 



' In the British Museum. 



