Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Ixv. (192 1), No. 13 15 



the Fen district. He states further in the same place that in 

 Derbyshire a line drawn on the map representing the boun- 

 dary of the carboniferous limestone practically encloses all 

 the early bronze age finds, in the shape of beakers and celts, 

 of that county (op. cit., 183). It is possible to go still further 

 and to state that the same line includes almost all the stone 

 circles and chambered barrows of that county. On Sketch 

 Map No. 4 I have traced out the area occupied by ancient 

 mines in Derbyshire according to the " County History." It 

 is evident how closely it agrees with the distribution of the 

 stone circles, and the chambered barrows of the neolithic age. 

 As in Devon and Cornwall, it is hard to resist the conclusion 

 that the makers of these monuments were miners. In this 

 case the mineral sought for was lead, which occurs in the 

 carboniferous limestone in all parts of the county. Plenty 

 of surrounding districts were apparently equally suitable for 

 occupation, but the megalith-builders do not seem to have 

 been attracted to them.* 



This discussion has now ranged over the southern part of 

 England, and uniform results have been obtained. We have 

 succeeded in establishing a direct association between the 

 distribution of megaliths and certain geological formations. 

 In Devon and Cornwall the geological formation in question 

 was granite ; in Dorset and Wiltshire it was chalk with flints ; 

 in Oxford it was the Lias ; in Derbyshire the Carboniferous 

 Limestone. In the North Riding the stone circles are asso- 

 ciated with the Lias in which occurs the jet that was so highly 

 prized. This association between two distributions enables 

 us to account for such remains as Kit's Coty House, near 

 Maidstone, near which there is a large flint quarry. 



It is important to note that the concentration of megaliths 

 on the chalk is on the western margin. A glance at Sketch 

 Map No. 6 shows that there are other patches of the chalk 

 rich in flint. How is it, for example, that there was no greater 

 concentration round Brandon where were the famous Grimes' 

 Graves, those mines for flints, and near Cissbury, where 

 mining was also going on for flints? The answer seems to 

 be that the attention of the megalith-builders was mainly 



* The question naturally arises as to why they needed the lead. In later times 

 in Britain silver was often extracted from it. Lead and silver were used in 

 the Near East at a very early date, and it is quite possible that the builders of 

 the long barrows and stone circles were exploiting this form of wealth. On 

 the other hand, the galena may have been put to some other use, for example, 

 as a pigment. 



