134 EVIDENCE OF MAX IX GUERNSEY. 



bably contemporary with them, or of a very little later 

 date. Anyway it is a most important monument of the 

 Bronze Age. The statue-menhir of St. Martin's (Plate II., fig. 1) 

 is probably the largest and finest in existence, far surpassing 

 those of France, and the care shown in the modelling 

 of the features of the face and the breast shows that it is of 

 much later date than that of the Catel. Now, these facts prove 

 that the cult of this goddess was introduced into our island, at 

 latest, early in the Bronze Age, W and that it survived here for a 

 long period, long after it had entirely disappeared in France, for 

 this goddess of the dead had ceased already to be an object of 

 worship in France by the late Bronze Age. Further, the Catel 

 statue was found in 1878 buried beneath the pavement of the 

 Catel Church, at the entrance of the chancel, where it had 

 undoubtedly been placed, probably in the Oth century, when the 

 first Christian sanctuary was erected on the site of an old heathen 

 place of worship. This points to a continuance of tradition, a 

 continuance of worship, and these can only have been handed 

 on by man from generation to generation, from the Early Bronze 

 Age onwards. This is one of the strongest proofs of the 

 continued occupation of Guernsey by man, for as the cult of 

 this goddess disappears in France toward the end of the Bronze 

 Age, it could not have been re-introduced into Guernsey by new 

 imigrants re-peopling a deserted island at a later date. 



In the Lukis Museum we have also several polished stone 

 implements of the Bronze Age. First, we have our famous 

 grooved chert celt, found at St. Sampson's (Plate III.), which 

 closely resembles the second form of the early Bronze 

 Age fiat celts, or " haches a rebords droit." The 

 Rev. G. E. Lee was of this opinion. He considered that 

 the shallow grooves down the centre of each face of the 

 celt and the broadened cutting edge were attempts to repro- 

 duce in stone a metal implement. The same applies to the five 

 large stone axe-heads, found at La Rocque a TOr (Plate IV.),which 

 are of a type peculiar to Guernsey and Jersey, one only having 

 been found in the latter island.* 2 ) The curious raised ridge down 

 each side near the centre of the axe, and the sharp angle and 

 flattened form of the sides toward the cutting edge, pointed also, 



(1) It had already been introduced into Guernsey before the close of 

 the Neolithic period, for an anthropomorphic sculpture consisting of a 

 mouth, two eyes, two hands, with outline of the right arm, and a slightly 

 crescent shaped design below them composed of four shallow grooved 

 lines, has recently been discovered on the under surface of vhe second 

 capstone of the great chamber of the dolmen of Dehus, in the Yale 

 parish. 



(2) These five axe-heads were found in a small stone cist, and 

 were evidently placed there as a votive offering to the gods. The Rocque 

 a l'Or is supposed to have been a menhir. Another menhir, La Longue 

 Pierre, stood at a short distance to the north of it, and there were 

 several dolmens in the neighbourhood. 



