4 



The Museum Gazette 



SCHEDULE OF PREHISTORIC TIMES IN 

 BRITAIN. 



The Schedule given on the next page must not be taken as 

 anything more than a suggestion of what may have been. 

 In no sense can it claim to be historical, for the data do not 

 exist which would justify precise statements. It is arranged 

 on the " space-for-time " method, which has the advantage of 

 compelling recognition of the lapse of years without leaving 

 any out. The spaces between the lines are all of the same 

 duration, and include in each instance no fewer than ten 

 thousand years. The reader's attention will be at once 

 attracted to the fact that in the last ten thousand — or less 

 than a twentieth of the whole — -is crowded all that we have 

 been accustomed to count as ancient British history. It is 

 within this comparatively short period — or at most but little 

 before it — that we must place such records of our forefathers 

 as are supplied by the ruins of Stonehenge, cromlechs, 

 barrows, the remains of villages, cemeteries, and potteries. 

 For the yet earlier ages almost the only data which we 

 possess are implements of imperishable flint. With very rare 

 exceptions, all that was susceptible of decay has perished. 

 These flint tools, however, afford indisputable proof of many 

 important facts. From them we learn, in the first place, that 

 human beings really were present on the land which is now 

 called Britain, as long ago as a quarter of a million of years. 

 It is with this fundamental fact that our Schedule starts. 

 The dates assigned to the other events must be admitted to 

 be in the main conjectural. It will be obvious, however, that 

 the time here scheduled must have been occupied, and it is 

 exceedingly probable that the events named occurred pretty 

 much in the order given. It is certain, for instance, that 

 Ireland was at one time joined to England, and England to 



