1918.] evidence of man in guernsey. 131 



daggers appear immediately after the Neolithic Age, and are 

 found in dolmens in the south of France, and in barrows in the 

 south of England associated with caliciform vases of identical 

 form to those found by Mr. Lukis in the dolmen of Dehus. 

 These caliciform vases appear at the end of the Neolithic period 

 in France and in our own islands, and their origin is also traced 

 to Spain, whence they spread to Sardinia, Sicily and Italy, as 

 well as to France, Germany, along the Rhine Valley, and to 

 Britain. Along the northern slopes of the Pyrenees, in Spain, 

 Sicily and Italy they are generally found in dolmens associated 

 with small bronze or copper implements, or with small gold 

 ornaments, showing that at the time of their dispersion these 

 countries were already in the age of metal. In Brittany and 

 northern France they are rarely found with metal, showing that 

 these districts were still in a Neolithic stage of culture. They 

 do not reach England, however, till about 2000 B.C., and are 

 there contemporary with the first Bronze Age. The knife-dagger 

 from Dehus is of exactly the same form as one, figured by 

 Dechelette, found in the dolmen du Terrier de Cabut, Commune 

 d'Anglade, Gironde. Another very similar was found in the 

 Grotte Bounais, Commune de Fontvielle (Bouche-du-Rhone). 

 Similar copper daggers have also been found at Roundway, and 

 at Mere Down in Wiltshire, in both cases accompanied by 

 caliciform vases, stone bracers and flint arrow-heads, and at 

 Roundway by a, gold button. Dechelette states that they are 

 always found associated with stone implements whether found 

 in dolmens or tumuli, and are nearly always identical in form 

 whether found in the iEgean, Spain, or in Brittany. It must 

 not, however, be imagined that because a bronze dagger 

 has been found in the dolmen of Dehus that the dolmen 

 itself was of the Bronze Age. Such a discovery in no way 

 affects the antiquity of the dolmen, which probably dates back 

 centuries before the introduction of metal to this island. All it 

 signifies is, that the introduction of metal, as in the south of 

 France, was a peaceful invasion, and had as yet made no 

 difference in the burial customs of the original inhabitants. 



The two small bronze rings (Plate I., fig. 3-4) of which one 

 is cast and the other formed of twisted bronze wire, are said to 

 have been found in the dolmen of Dehus, but Mr. Lukis does not 

 mention their discovery in any of his accounts of the excavation 

 of this dolmen. They were found in a drawer in the Lukis 

 Museum labelled " Du Tus." They bear a resemblance to some 

 bronze rings, found with a knife-dagger and other objects, in 

 the dolmen de la Liquisse, Barraque-au-dessus, Commune de 

 Yaut, Aveyron (Dechelette Manuel II., fig. 39, p. 139). So they 

 may have formed part of the same deposit as the knife-dagger 

 just described, found by Mr. Lukis in the great chamber of 

 the dolmen of Dehus. 



