72 ARBOR LOW EXCAVATIONS IN I9OI AND 1902. 



probably not particularly late. If the " finds " from this 

 tumulus* on the vallum of Arbor Low are to be regarded as 

 belonging to the Early Bronze period, " then," as Mr. Henry 

 Balfour said at Belfast, " the probability of the cirqle being 

 of Neolithic date is much increased." 



The absence of finds on the old surface line under the 

 vallum in the parts examined unfortunately does not help 

 towards the solution of the problem of date. Our conclusions, 

 in the present state of our knowledge, have to be deduced 

 on somewhat meagre evidence as regards the quantity and 

 nature of the relics found. The. discoveries made in 1902 

 correspond in the main with those made in 1901. 



In conclusion, it remains to be said that the date of the 

 construction of the Arbor Low Stone Circle should be located, 

 in accordance with the evidence derived from these explorations, 

 within the period covered by the Late Neolithic and Early 

 Bronze periods ; in other words, the period of transition from 

 stone to bronze, f 



APPENDIX I. 



Short Descriptions of the Stones at Arbor Low as numbered 



on the Plan. 



Note. — The length and breadth of the Stones can be ascertained from the 

 Plan. 



Stone I. — In centre, nearly flat, broken in two at N.W. end. Slopes 

 a little to W. At E. point and on W. side it stands I J foot from turf. 

 There is a trench along the W. side. Surface fairly smooth. There is a 

 small flat stone to E. (not numbered). 



Stone II. — Near No. I., nearly flat, but sloping a little towards W. to 

 turf line. It is about 10 inches above turf on E. side. The slab is rather 

 thicker at the N. end than at the S. end. 



* The absence of bronze in this interment does not necessarily give an Early 

 Bronze Age date for the burial, for bronze was rarely found with interments 

 even in the fully-developed Bronze Age. The two pots found in the tumulus 

 (figs. 1 and 2) are not " beakers," or drinking-vessels, which the Hon. John 

 Abercromby has recently classified as being the oldest Bronze Age ceramic type 

 in Britain. (Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxii. 373.) 



t The date of construction of Arbor Low appears to tally precisely with Mr. 

 Gowland's deductions as to the date of the erection of Stonehenge, from evi- 

 dence derived from his excavations there in 1901. [Archaologia, lviii. 85, 86.) 



