By William Gowland F.S.A., F.I.C. 



43 



have been lost within the area of the excavations, and if so lost, it 

 would certainly have been found together with the stone tools. 

 Further, the employment of deer's horn picks for the extensive 

 excavations made in the chalk around the base of the monoliths, 

 Nos. 55 and 56, the evidence of which I have already laid before 

 you, also tends to support the view that bronze implements cannot 

 have been in common use. If they had it would seem not un- 

 reasonable to assume that they would have been employed, as they 

 would have been so much more effective for such work than the 

 picks of deer's horn. 



Again, the chippings of the stones of Stonehenge in two of the 

 bronze age barrows 1 in its neighbourhood show that it is of earlier 

 date than they. 



The copper-stained stone found in Excavation V., is, in fact, the 

 only evidence which the excavations have yielded that copper or 

 bronze was known. It proves their existence, but it does not prove 

 that they had then been applied to any industrial uses. 



Only a comparatively small area of the ground within Stonehenge 

 was excavated (General Plan, Fig. 14), and it may be that in 

 further excavations some bronze implements may be found. 



Until such discovery is made, I shall hold that Stonehenge was 

 erected during the latter part of the neolithic age, or the period of 

 transition from stone to bronze, and before that metal had passed 

 into general practical use, and in that opinion, I think, I am fully 

 supported by the evidence afforded by the excavations. 



The difficulty of giving an exact or even approximate date to 

 that early period, in the total absence of any aid from inscriptions 

 or the records of ancient chronicles, will be evident to all. Yet I 

 think the task should not, on that account, be evaded, although I 

 approach it with the greatest diffidence. 



The date of the beginning of the bronze age has been computed 

 by several distinguished archaeologists. Sir John Evans proposes 

 1400 B.C. for Britain, but with some hesitation, and evidently is 



1 Sir Richard Colt Hoare, Ancient History of South Wiltshire (London, 

 1812,) 127; W. Stukeley, Stonehenge (London, 1740), 46. 



