Chapter VIII: The Barrows Near Stonehenge (2)

The Cissbury Implements have been assigned "to the Stone Age, or at any rate to the Age of Flint manufacture" by General Pitt Rivers, who discovered and reported upon them. Canon Greenwell describes the Implements from Grimes Graves as belonging to "a period when both metal and stone were in use."

It is obvious, therefore, that the similarity between the tools used in the construction of Stonehenge, and those used in other parts of England for similar purposes, and definitely assigned to their period in the history of Man, demonstrates very clearly that the date of the building of Stonehenge may fairly be placed at a time when the use of stone was continuous with a partial use of bronze; and that if Stonehenge is not a Neolithic structure, it must certainly belong to the Early Bronze period. It might be urged that the roughness of the Tools, coupled with the marked absence of bronze, indicates an even earlier period than that already stated, but it must be remembered that the form of the implement is not always a criterion of its age. Moreover, bronze tools were not necessary for the dressing of the Stones, though had they been plentiful, it is more than probable that some might have been either lost or dropped during the work, and would have come to light during the excavations.

Yet another sidelight upon the date of Stonehenge is to be found in the presence of chippings of foreign stone found inside some of the neighbouring Bronze Age barrows, which prove conclusively that the barrows must have been built at a date later than the erection of Stonehenge.

To many people, the mention of a period of culture, such as the Early Bronze Age, may not convey very much. To give a date in years, on the other hand, is not always easy. The march of culture in those days was slow, and the gradation from the use of one material to another very prolonged, often reaching into centuries. Consequently any date must only be approximate and given under great reserve. The late Sir John Evans has suggested that the Bronze Age in this country might be set at 1400 B.C. Continental authorities set the age for countries in Europe somewhat earlier, at about 2000 B.C. This is a perfectly natural conclusion, for it is an ascertained fact that the flow of civilisation was from East to West, as has always been the case, and that, therefore, it is only to be expected that the Bronze Age of the Continent would ante-date that of England by some centuries.

But, it is obvious from our present knowledge of Stonehenge that the Bronze Age was hardly established in the sense as used by Sir John Evans. Probably at the time of the building of Stonehenge bronze was only known as a rare substance, whose very scarcity would make it valuable as material for ornaments. It would not, therefore, be inconsistent with existing evidence to set the date of Stonehenge roughly at from 1700-1800 years B.C.

WHAT WAS STONEHENGE?

The Megalithic Stone structures, which exist not only in this country but also throughout the Continent of Europe, are a special feature of that period known as the Neolithic Age. As has already been shown, Stonehenge represents a very late type, erected at a time when the bronze culture had begun to overlap that of polished stone (Neolithic).

These stone structures can be roughly divided into three classes.

1. Single upright stones, or _menhirs_ (Celtic = "high stone"), which may be commemorative of some great event or personage.

2. _Dolmens_ (Celtic = "table stone"), in which a stone slab is set table-wise on three or four uprights.

3. _Cromlechs_ (Celtic = "stone circle"). Circles enclosing barrows or dolmens.

Stonehenge is a highly specialised example of this last class. Round these cromlechs popular myth and superstition have crystallised themselves into tales of the devil and his works (as in the case of Stonehenge), ogres, giants, dwarfs, Sabbath breakers, and infidels, turned to stone. In nearly every case there is some story of the supernatural, which cannot be accidental, but which must have its root in past religious observance.

It is a recognised fact that the worship of stones is more widely distributed than any other primitive cult. Its almost universal distribution can be referred to the tendency of the half savage mind to confuse persons and things, and from seeming likeness of the inanimate to the animate, to endue the lifeless object with the virtue and power of the living object. This mental outlook is better understood in practice than in theory. A Melanesian native may come across a large stone, lying upon the top of a number of smaller stones. It suggests to him a sow with her litter of pigs, and he at once makes an offering to it, in the hope that he will secure pigs. In determining the function of Stonehenge, therefore, it will be useful to compare it with similar existing stone circles. The largest of these in this country is Avebury, not many miles distant from Stonehenge. Unluckily, to-day it is so ruined that its former greatness is hardly to be distinguished by the unskilled observer. Formerly comprising some hundreds of unhewn Sarsen stones, barely a score remain in position at the present day. In Avebury, as it was, can be found the early typic model of which Stonehenge is the final product. The use of the circle as a basic form is common to both. In Avebury the Sarsen is a rough unhewn monolith; in Stonehenge it is squared, dressed, and crowned with its lintel. All evidences of a slow evolution from Neolithic to Bronze culture. But whereas the circle alone is used at Avebury, Stonehenge has in addition the horseshoe series of Trilithons and foreign uprights, and in this particular differs from all other Cromlechs in this country. It is the climax of the Megalithic monument, and its use very certainly must have been connected with the religion of the race which set it up. It was, in short, a religious structure, probably used for the observation of the sun, and possibly connected with "nature worship."

The fact that the sun rises over the Hele Stone on the Summer Solstice, and that it can be observed in direct alignment with the centre of the Great Trilithon, can hardly be due to accident. Chance might bring two stones into such a position on the Solstice, but, in this case, the entire monument is so arranged as to place the rising sun in a due line with its axis on this particular day.

It will be well to consider the facts which must have been within the knowledge of the builders of Stonehenge, and to trace as far as may be their reasoning in the building of it.

To begin with, it is almost certain that at the time of building, there existed some primitive form of priesthood, or body of "wise men." This is quite compatible with the culture of the period. The existence of the Neolithic Long Barrows is sufficient evidence that man had, by this time, arrived at that particular culture which grasps the existence of a "spirit."

Death only terminated the existence of the body, and not that of the spirit. It was even able to return and enter another body, say that of a new-born infant, an animal, or tree. And being after the manner of human beings, spirits could understand human language and become accessible to human petitions. Thus a spirit might even prove a powerful friend or enemy. And the dwellings of these spirits would be those great powers which meant so much to a primitive people; the sun, moon, stars, rivers, forests, and clouds; from which arose the two great classes of spirit, the "ancestral" and the "spirit of nature." From this general body was developed a regular hierarchy of good and evil spirits, gradually ascending to the conception of one great creative spirit, or superior deity.

To these early men, therefore, there was always the problem of maintaining diplomatic relations with the unseen forces about them, and for this purpose a primitive priesthood became necessary. The chieftain would manage the temporal affairs of the tribe, those spiritual would be relegated to a special body of wise men, or intermediaries. These men would certainly, from the nature of their calling, be not so much men of action as men of learning, the recorders of history and tradition, students of the natural phenomena, and of all those signs and portents which concerned the good of the community. One of the earliest facts which impressed itself upon them must have been the horizon. It was above that horizon that the sun rose in the morning, and below that horizon that it sank to rest at night; further, when the sun had set the moon and stars peeped up from that line, and sank below it, all in due course. These were facts easily apprehended. The common people even had grasped them, but the wise men learned more. As the link between man and the spirits of the stars, sun, and moon, they came to recognise that the sun did not rise over the same spot on the horizon every day. In the summer it rose roughly in the north-east and set in the north-west. In the winter, on the other hand, it rose in the south-east and set in the south-west. Moreover, these variations would be found to be regular and recurring. The sun would appear to move every day after the Solstice towards the east, and from the east towards the south, back again towards the east, and once more northwards. A staff set in the ground would determine the range of the sun's apparent journey and its extreme limits or turning points. This would fix the Summer Solstice in the north-east, and the winter Solstice in the south-east. Even such simple learning as this was probably beyond the capacity of the tribesman, whose daily duties took him afield early and late. But it was to his interest that all such observations should be entrusted to individuals who could keep definite count, and know exactly at what part of the horizon the sun might be expected to appear. In this way the solar year might be mapped out and divided into Solstices and Equinoxes. Nor was this a mere arbitrary arrangement. The good of the community depended upon it. The agriculturalist depended upon the sun for his crops. It was essential that he should know the correct time to plough, to sow, and to reap. Without the aid of the "wise men" he had no means of knowing what day it was, or how much longer he could count upon the sun for his primitive agriculture. The "wise man," on his side, realised the importance of his knowledge, and doubtless used it to his own advantage, thus winning support and respect from his simple followers.

Temples, or stone circles corresponding to temples, might face either to the north-east or south-east, for the Summer or Winter Solstice, marking the end of the sun's journey, or they might be directed towards the east, when the sun would appear in the appointed spot twice in the year; once in his journey southward, and once on his return; in other words, at the two Equinoxes. Stonehenge is so arranged as to mark the sun at its Summer Solstice.

But, interesting as these speculations of the Sun Temple theory may be, the facts recorded by Sir Norman Lockyer in 1901 are even more so, as by independent calculations he has arrived at the same date for Stonehenge as the archæologist. Briefly his task was to calculate the extent of the change in the obliquity of the ecliptic since the building of Stonehenge. The whole process involves a certain knowledge of astronomical operations and calculations, and the reader is referred to Sir Norman Lockyer's book for the actual steps taken to arrive at his conclusion. But on astronomical grounds pure and simple he was able to fix the date of Stonehenge as "lying between 1900-1500 B.C."

It is at all events interesting that his results should tally with those of Mr. Gowland who, working on entirely different lines, came to practically the same conclusion.

Having proceeded thus far it is well, however, not to insist too strongly on the "Sun Temple" theory, on the lines already sketched out. It should be always remembered that the "Hele Stone" is an unworked stone, which stands without the circle, and does not form a symmetrical integer in the structure. Being unwrought it may have been erected at an earlier date, and might belong to an earlier culture. It is possible that Stonehenge may have been a later addition to the Hele Stone. Many of the arguments relating to the "wise men" and the observation of sunrise are matters of analogy rather than direct proof, and though coincidences are ever suggestive and fascinating, they cannot always be entirely accepted as proof. While it is quite possible that the Hele Stone was erected to mark the Solstice and to afford a definite means of determining the year, this may not justify the theory that the entire structure was an astronomical observatory and dedicated entirely to sun worship, with elaborate ramifications, and "observation" mounds for celestial phenomena. Weighing, therefore, the archæologist's and astronomer's evidence, it is fairly safe to conclude that Stonehenge can be dated at about B.C. 1700, and that its use was religious; probably a temple, in which the sun may have been adored in some way. As yet, however, the actual nature of that worship is a matter for speculation. It is of the utmost importance in dealing with a question like this, to observe the greatest caution and to maintain a strictly detached position. The astronomer, archæologist, geologist, and anthropologist have each their share in the solution of the problem, but each also has the bias due to his own special science. The mineralogist solves the problem of the Foreign Stones by suggesting a "glacial drift" without reference to the geologist, who will tell him that the local gravels contain no pebbles which belong to those classes of stones known as Foreign Stones. The astronomer, in his quest for alignments, will convert barrows into observation mounds, without reference to their uses and contents, and without allowing for the ignorance of the period, while the anthropologist often allows his imagination to carry him beyond the limits of actual fact. Time, and constant careful investigation, will pierce some of the mists which must always shroud the origin of Stonehenge, but the true solution will be for the field archæologist, rather than to the weaver of theories or the student in his library.

The circular form, the horseshoe form, the unhewn Hele Stone, all bespeak religious origin. These are actual, visual facts, as is the sunrise on the Solstice. Around these arises a clamour of conflicting claims, each possibly containing much of real importance, each probably expressing some clue to guide the future worker on his way, but none containing that element of finality which is once and for all time to quell the storm of controversy which has ever raged about this ancient monument of the plain.

THE DRUID QUESTION

Perhaps one of the most persistent traditions which has been passed on from generation to generation is that which connects Stonehenge with the Druids. There is, indeed, a vast literature on the subject of Druidism, but the actual knowledge of the subject is limited, and the entire question is very obscure. Much of the information existing is derived from a time when Christianity had long been established. The early Celtic religion has in fact been overlaid and embellished by so many later theories as to be particularly confusing to the modern student. Benedictine historians have discovered in Druidism traces of revealed religion by the simple process of confusing similarity with identity. The Gaul adored the oak tree, therefore this must have been a far-off remembrance of the plains of Mamre.

Another class of writers have invented for the Druids the mission of preserving in the West the learning of Phoenicia and Egypt. The cults of Baal and Moloch have been grafted upon them, and so forth, until the very Druid himself is lost in a mass of crystallisations from without. The insular Druids, to which our national traditions refer, were far more likely to be mere "wise men," or "witch doctors," with perhaps a spice of the conjuror. This, at all events, seems to be the case at the time when we first acquire any positive information concerning them. Theirs it would be to summon the rain clouds and to terrify the people by their charms. The Chief Druid of Tara, decked out in golden ear-clasps and his torque of heavy gold, is shown us as a "leaping juggler" as he tosses swords and balls in the air, "and like the buzzing of bees on a beautiful day is the motion of each passing the other."

Amazing as is the bulk which has been written about the Druids, their beliefs, knowledge, and ethics, it seems even more remarkable that so much should have been said to connect them with the building of the stone circles which they are credited with having constructed as astronomical observatories and temples. As has already been indicated, Stonehenge belongs to an epoch far earlier than any Druidism of which record remains. This fact rests upon the evidence of both the archæologist and the astronomer. It is, therefore, not a little puzzling that Sir Norman Lockyer, after fixing the date of Stonehenge at about 1700 B.C., should cite the Druids and their late Celtic cult in dealing with a monument which, on his own showing, was built in early Bronze times. There must exist a very wide gap of anything from seven hundred to a thousand years between the "May Year" Druids of whom he writes, and the builders of Stonehenge, and an interval possibly as great or even greater between Stonehenge and Avebury and those other north-east and south-east temples to which he attributes a Druidic form of worship. It is even a matter of grave question if the race who built the Stone Circles was not entirely different to the late Celtic inhabitants of the plain. Avebury has been classed as a Neolithic monument, built by the "long-headed" race whose remains are usually found in the Long Barrows; Stonehenge belongs to a bronze period, but at a very early date in that culture; its builders would probably belong to the round-headed type of man whose barrows are studded very closely round about it.

THE BARROWS OF SALISBURY PLAIN

It is impossible to approach Stonehenge without passing numbers of burial mounds or Barrows. North, south, east, or west they meet the eye, some singly, some in groups. In the immediate neighbourhood of Stonehenge there are two Long Barrows and three hundred Round ones, or, in other words, one-fourth of the Barrows in Wiltshire are to be found within a short distance of the Altar Stone of Stonehenge. This cannot altogether be accidental. The suggestion at once rises to the mind that these burial places clustering about the circle of Stonehenge are strongly reminiscent of the graveyard about the village church of to-day. The Rev. William Gilpin, writing in 1798, when as yet the Plain was unbroken by the plough and cultivation, recognised this fact at once. "All the Plain, at least that part of it near Stonehenge, is one vast cemetery.... From many places we counted above a hundred of them at once; sometimes as if huddled together, without any design, in other places rising in a kind of order. Most of them are placed on the more elevated parts of the Plain, and generally in sight of the great Temple." At one time it was considered that these Barrows were the monuments erected to the memory of warriors who had fallen in battle. Though this popular conception is still current, it seems hardly likely that a victorious army would tarry after the day was won to erect these laborious monuments, all of which are designed and laid out with no little skill. A far more reasonable hypothesis, and one more in accordance with fact, is that they represent the graves of exalted personages, and that their erection extended over a considerable period.

The Barrows may be roughly divided into two classes: (i) the Long Barrow; (ii) the Round Barrow, with its three variants, the Bowl, the Bell, and Disc Barrow.

The Long Barrow is the older form, and may usually be referred to the Neolithic Age. Wiltshire is specially rich in Long Barrows. There are no fewer than seventy-two within its limits, and fourteen others have been destroyed within the past century. They are usually found standing alone, and very seldom is it possible to find two of them within sight. They are also, as a rule, found upon rising ground. Their construction is somewhat curious. They vary from two to four hundred feet in length, thirty to fifty feet in breadth, and from three to twelve feet in height. The earth of which they are composed was dug out from a trench on either side of the mound. This trench did not, however, continue round the two ends of the barrow. They lie usually, but not always, east and west, and the eastern end is higher than that at the west. Within the higher end is the sepulchral deposit.

Two such Long Barrows are within a short distance of Stonehenge. No metal objects have been found in these Long Barrows, though leaf-shaped flint arrow-heads, most delicately chipped, are almost invariably met with, and occasionally rough, hand-made, undecorated pottery. Most Long Barrows have been used for "secondary interments," _i.e._ other bodies at a later date have been buried in them. These secondary interments are sometimes associated with bronze or even iron. Interesting as the Long Barrows are, however, they are only mentioned as being, so far as present information goes, the earliest form of regular sepulture in this country. It is highly improbable that they have any connection with Stonehenge, which must have been erected at an age when the Long Barrow with its inhumed body was passing away, and the plain was being peopled with a new race, the "round-headed" people, whose method of burial was considerably different.

THE ROUND BARROWS

The visitor to Stonehenge has only to turn his back to the "Friar's Heel," as he stands on the Altar Stone, and he will see a typical "group" of Round Barrows, seven in number. Let him remember, then, that Wiltshire boasts of two thousand similar sepulchral mounds; and that he can, within an easy distance of Stonehenge, find three hundred of them, while in the same radius he will only encounter two Long Barrows.

The proportion, therefore, of round to long is considerable, viz. 1:150. The figures of round and long for the entire county are eighty-six Long to two thousand Round Barrows, or 1:24. In other words there are five times more Round Barrows in the Stonehenge District, than there are anywhere else in Wiltshire, taking Long and Round Barrows together. This disproportion in distribution cannot altogether be the result of accident; it must bespeak a special attraction for the spot by the builders of the Barrows, and from the very fact that Stonehenge was erected at a time when these people were first arriving on Salisbury Plain, it does not seem extravagant to claim that they had some reason for wishing their remains finally to rest within easy distance of what must have been to them a sacred spot.

As already noted, these Round Barrows can be divided into three classes: 1. The simple Bowl-shaped Barrow, that most frequently encountered, having a diameter of from twenty to sixty feet, and a height of from three to five feet. 2. The Bell-shaped Barrow which reaches its highest development on the plain round Stonehenge, and is more common and more beautiful in Wiltshire than in any other part of England.

Indeed, the Stonehenge Bell Barrows are the very crown of the Sepulchral Mound on Salisbury Plain. Unlike the Long Barrow, they are entirely surrounded by a circular ditch, from which material for the Mound has been excavated; within the ditch is a circular area level with the turf, from which the mound rises from five to fifteen feet in a graceful conical form. The diameter will be upwards of one hundred feet, so that the entire structure is considerably larger and more impressive than the Bowl Barrow.

3. "The Disc Barrow," so named by Dr. Thurnam, the great Barrow expert, from its resemblance to a flat dish surrounded by a deep rim. It consists of a circular area, level with surrounding turf, having a diameter of about one hundred feet. This circular area is enclosed by a ditch with a bank on the outside, both usually very regular and well constructed. Within, at the centre, is a mound not more than a foot high containing the sepulchral deposit. Occasionally there are more than one of these minute mounds, which often escape notice by reason of their insignificance.

It is very significant that the Disc Barrow is more plentiful around Stonehenge than in any other part of Wiltshire. Elsewhere they are comparatively rare.

In the "Round" Barrows it is not uncommon to find that the body has been cremated before interment. In the Bowl and Bell types, about three out of every four bodies have been so disposed of. In Dorset the relative interments, by cremation or otherwise, is four out of five, while in Cornwall cremation is almost universal.

Almost without exception, however, the Disc Barrows contain only cremated remains. The existing impression is that these three forms of Round Barrow were in use at one and the same time, but that the Bowl Barrow was the earliest, followed by the Bell, and that the Disc is the latest form of all. From construction, if for no other reason, this hypothesis seems perfectly tenable.

The Barrows on the Plain were built of the materials most easily accessible, mould, chalk, and flints, with occasional fragments of Sarsen. As has already been recorded, fragments of Foreign Stone from Stonehenge have been found in one of those forming the group which lay immediately south-west of the circle, but now destroyed by cultivation. The method of procedure was simple. A grave would in many cases be dug sufficiently long to contain the body if buried by inhumation in a crouching position. This grave would vary in depth from a few inches to six feet. Sometimes blocks of Sarsen would be built over the body to protect it. The crouching posture is specially noteworthy. The knees are drawn up to the trunk and the legs bent on the thighs, while the arms are closed towards the chest, and the hands over the face. There has been some speculation as to the significance of this particular attitude. Some have seen in it that of an unborn infant, others the natural position in death, others again have maintained it was the primæval posture of sleep. It seems quite possible, however, that the position may be due to mere utilitarian motives as being more compact for the purpose of burial. The lie of the inhumed skeleton is usually with the head to the north; exceptions show that the east, south-east, and south-west, have sometimes been selected, but never due south. Interments with the head to the west, as in Christian burial, are very rare.

When burial by cremation took place, it is evident that the actual rite of burning took place elsewhere, and that the calcined remains were brought to the plain for burial. In some cases the ashes were conveyed to the spot wrapped in skins, or possibly in some rude form of cloth; more frequently in Wiltshire they were deposited in cinerary urns. The proportion of urn burial is as three to one. This method of conducting the cremation at one spot, and the subsequent removal of the ashes to another, generally considered sacred, is not uncommon, even at the present day.

The urns were sometimes placed upright, at others they were inverted, the latter being the more common custom. The mouths of these urns were frequently stopped with clay, or closely packed flints. The urns vary in size considerably from nine inches to fifteen in height, and from about a pint to more than a bushel in capacity. A veritable giant rather over two feet high, the largest of its kind hitherto found in Wiltshire, is preserved in the Salisbury and South Wilts Museum. Another only two inches less in height was recovered from a Barrow within a third of a mile from Stonehenge.

In most cases various objects were found associated with these interments, such as drinking-cups, food vessels, incense-cups, weapons and ornaments.

The fictile vessels are all of a very primitive nature, being entirely moulded by hand, and showing no trace of the use of the potter's wheel. The body consists of a mixture of clay mixed with fine pebbles, or pounded flint, and sometimes ground chalk or shells. For finer work sharp sand has been employed. The firing is most primitive and imperfect. After drying in the sun the vessel was probably baked in the ashes of a fire of brushwood piled over and about it. The decoration, like the other processes, bespeaks a simple culture. It is usually in the nature of lines, or dots, varied now and then by thumb marks, many exhibit the impress of the thumbnail. A pointed stick would produce lines on the soft body of the vessel, so would a twisted cord, while a rude comb of points inserted in a stick, gave a fine dotted line. Circles, animal forms, or arabesques do not appear at all.

The Cinerary Urns and Incense Cups were strictly sepulchral; the Food Vessels and Drinking Cups seem also to have been reserved for funeral rites, as they are not found apart from the Barrows, and placed beside the dead ceremonially, to contain provision for the Spirit in its voyage to the distant land to which it had departed. Both Food Vessels and Drinking Cups are rare in Wiltshire. Two were presented to the Salisbury Museum in 1915, both of which came from Hampshire. A similar vessel was found at Bulford in 1910, and is in the same collection.

The "finds" in the Round Barrows are not, however, confined to pottery. Weapons, some of stone, some of bronze, and occasional ornaments of gold and amber shed further light upon this departed race of Salisbury Plain. Although this people has been referred to as a "Bronze Age" people, it does not follow that their weapons were made exclusively of that material. In all ages there is a perceptible overlap from the former culture. In much later days the bow and arrow lingered on long after the introduction of fire-arms; so, too, in these early times, the stone implement was used side by side with the more recent metal one. Axes both perforated and unperforated have been found, but it is distinctly significant of an advancing culture, that the perforated axes outnumber the older form. Several of these stone hammer-axes have been found associated with bronze daggers and celts, showing that the use of stone and bronze was contemporaneous.

Dagger blades of flint have also been found in barrows, though not commonly. Four such blades, which might perhaps have been javelin heads, were found in one barrow at Winterbourne Stoke. They represent a very high standard of workmanship, and elegance of form and finish. Three are of a delicate leaf-shape, while the fourth is lozenge-shaped. Flint arrow-heads when found are always finely barbed. The bronze objects, however, are in excess of those of stone, thus showing that the new bronze was displacing the older flint implement. Moreover, all the bronze weapons are of an early type. This is of some considerable importance, since it would seem to indicate that the Barrows were erected very shortly after Stonehenge, which it will be remembered has been referred to an early period of the Bronze Age. Certainly only a very short interval separates the completion of Stonehenge and the building of the Barrows; or to put it in other words, before Stonehenge was built there only existed two, or perhaps three, Long Barrows upon the Plain; but when it was finished, Barrows to the number of three hundred grew up around it, and all these Barrows, from their contents, belong to a period almost identical with that of the Stone Circle itself.

No other Barrows in Wiltshire have been so productive of bronze daggers as those about Stonehenge. In some cases it has been possible to recover portions of the ornamental sheaths in which they lay. Their handles were of wood, strengthened occasionally with an oval pommel of bone. In some cases, gold pins have been hammered into the wood to form a zig-zag pattern.

Personal ornaments also occur among the Barrow finds; more usually they are of amber, sometimes of gold, and occasionally of bronze.

Ornaments of amber have been found in thirty-three barrows; the quality of the material is usually red and transparent, though sometimes a paler variety has been employed. These ornaments are mostly necklaces, either of beads, or of graduated plates perforated and strung together. One found at Lake consisted of nearly two hundred beads and plates, and when worn must have extended halfway down to the waist.

Ornaments of gold were found in seven barrows. Many of these were built up upon a wooden mould, the gold being hammered on, and fastened by indentation.

THE MEN OF THE BARROWS

It is only natural that the appearance of the men who lived at this remote age should attract some attention. Were they tall or short, dark or fair? What manner of man was it who went armed with the bronze dagger and wore the ornaments above described? Of the cremated remains, of course, nothing can be said; but the burials by inhumation which took place concurrently with those of the Cinerary Urn, furnish certain data from which it is possible to gather some idea as to the physical stature of the man of that day. Taking fifty-two measurements of bodies as a basis, the man of the Long Barrow would stand five feet six inches, while the man of the Round Barrow would be three inches taller. But it is in the shape of the head, even more than in the height, that the people of the Long Barrow differ from those of the Round. The man of the Long Barrow was long-headed (_dolicocephalic_) while those of the Round Barrows were round-headed (_brachycephalic_). It must not, however, be imagined that there is any special connection between a long head and a long barrow, or a round head and a round barrow. The point of special importance is that the Long-Headed Race was the earlier, and that it was followed by a Round-Headed Race. Such a state of things is after all perfectly within the range of facts as known to-day. The early race, comparatively short, and armed only with stone weapons, must in the struggle for existence, have given place to a taller and more powerful people, provided with metal and possessed of a higher culture. There is no proof that the early race was exterminated by the bronze-using people. It is far more probable that a similar condition existed to that which obtains to-day in America, where the stone-using aborigines are slowly vanishing, and giving place to an Eastern invasion which has gradually displaced them. And whence came this powerful dominant race? It may safely be assumed that it came from the East. In this country the wave of Conquest has always flowed from east to westwards. Further, the man of the Long Barrow himself came from the East and displaced the earlier Palæolithic dweller about the close of the last Glacial Epoch, only in his turn to give place to the succeeding wave of taller and more alert settlers who followed him. These again melted away before the Roman, the Saxon, the Dane, and Norman, who in due course swept westward to these Isles, and similarly displaced one another. There is a recognised "Megalithic Route," as it is called, marked by huge stone monuments of the nature of Stonehenge, which, starting in India, can be traced to Persia, Palestine, Arabia, Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, Spain, Portugal, and Brittany, finally crossing the Channel to Devon and Cornwall. It must not be understood that these circles were all of them temples, or that they all belong to the Bronze Age. Many of them were merely stones set up round a Long Barrow. Aristotle states that the Iberians were in the habit of placing as many stones round the tomb of a dead warrior as he had slain enemies. A similar practice existed among the Australian aborigines. At all events the practice of erecting circular stone structures in all parts of the world seems to link together all primitive peoples of every age into one common chain of ideas, and of those customs which are the natural outcome of them. The chain itself lengthens till it touches the higher and more specialised builders, in whose highly-finished work the early ideal may yet be traced.

The early race which built the vast circle or cromlech of Avebury finds a very fitting echo in the later race which set up Stonehenge; just as in Brittany the rude and unhewn menhir of yesterday, set up to commemorate a fallen chieftain, finds its elaborated and wrought counterpart in the Nelson column of to-day.

Some light is cast upon the existence of these two peoples, the long-headed and the round-headed, by Cæsar, who refers to the former as an aboriginal pastoral people, while the latter are described as colonists from Belgic Gaul, and agriculturists. This distinction between the herdsman and the agriculturalist is quite in accordance with the stages of culture known and recognised by the archæologist. A pastoral race is ever more primitive and lower in the scale than one which has solved the problem of husbandry and acquired the very material advantages of a settled habitation, in contradistinction to the nomadic existence of the shepherd.

Tacitus also describes these two races, and points out that while the herdsmen were fair, the tillers of the soil were dark and that their hair was curly. He was particularly struck, too, by the physical resemblance between the inhabitants of Iberia and the fair-haired race of the south and south-east of Britain, while he considered the dark-haired race was more akin to the people of the opposite coast of Gaul.

Certainly the Iberian skull inclines to length, while that of Gaul is broad and short, and these physical peculiarities, much modified perhaps, prevail even to-day. It would seem, therefore, that the practice of building stone circles originated with the fair-haired pastoral race which had passed over from Europe to the West of England, but that Stonehenge is the work of a later dark-haired people who arrived from Gaul, with a higher and more organised civilisation, and that it is due to this that Stonehenge possesses those special features of wrought stone, and the horseshoe, which are not to be found in any of the earlier monuments of the shepherd race. Having erected Stonehenge, and possessed themselves of the land, the religious associations of the spot very probably impelled them to sleep their last sleep within easy distance of it. It must not be supposed that by so doing they regarded Stonehenge as a definite Sepulchral Monument: rather would it have been somewhat of the same spirit which even at the present day led to the burial of the heart of a well-known peer in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Subsequently other forms of worship, such, for example, as Druidism, may have been practised at Stonehenge; but of these it is beyond the question to speak. These priests, whatever they may have been, were not the originators or builders of the circle, they merely used it for their own purposes; and their usages will in no way affect the central facts of the Stonehenge of Yesterday.

VALEDICTORY

There is a certain sense of relief, not untinged with reluctance, on laying down the pen after dealing seriously with so solemn a subject as Stonehenge. The feeling of relief is akin to that of the schoolboy whose task is done, and who is free to give vent to his animal spirits unchecked by the hand of his master. The feeling of reluctance is that which this same master must feel when he finally takes off his cap and gown and becomes as other men, his brief authority gone with them. Cap and gown are laid aside, and the present writer can now speak with his readers freely, and offer perhaps some few words of practical advice. The foremost question will surely be "How shall I get to Stonehenge?"

The answer largely depends upon the constitution and habits of the querist. For the motorist, the way is clear: he will choose the best road, or his chauffeur will do it for him; but it is possible even with a motor to secure a little variety on the road. An excellent route is to follow the main road from Salisbury to Amesbury, passing Old Sarum, a very considerable earthwork of Roman if not earlier origin. This road will give the motorist a fine idea of what the Plain once was, with its wide expanses of undulating land. Military requirements have broken up what the farmer had spared, but even to-day the Plain has a character of its own, and forms a fitting prelude to a visit to the "Stones." Passing through Amesbury, the circle is soon within sight. Unluckily the Stones do not appear to advantage from this approach. The best view of them is from Lake Down, which may be obtained if the return journey is made along the Avon Valley by Normanton and Wilsford, Woodford, and Durnford. In any case barrows will be seen on every side, particularly in the neighbourhood of Normanton and Wilsford.

Those who can walk, and who are able to be afoot for about ten miles, should follow the road up the valley from Stratford-sub-Castle, crossing the river either at Stratford or Upper Woodford, visiting Stonehenge and then Amesbury, thence by train to Salisbury. Allowance should be made for the fact that the railway station is some distance from the town.

Is there anything else to see? Plenty. As already stated there is Old Sarum, which is perhaps rather too big an undertaking to be crowded into the same day as Stonehenge. All the churches along the valley are interesting. Stratford has its quaint hour-glass stand in the village pulpit. Heale House, where Charles II. lay in the "hiding-hole" some four or five days. Great Durnford Church, with its fine Norman doors. Amesbury, home of the adorable Kitty Bellairs, Duchess of Queensbury, and patron of Gay, who wrote the Beggar's Opera under her roof, and the church (early English) all make pleasant breaks in the journey.

The bulk of the objects found at Stonehenge, and in the Barrows on the Plain, belong to the Wiltshire Archæological Society, and are preserved in their collection at Devizes. Visitors to Salisbury will find the journey by train somewhat lengthy, but it should not be neglected by the antiquary.

Some very fine cinerary urns and Barrow pottery from the Plain, together with models, and a reconstruction of Stonehenge after Stukeley, are to be found in the Salisbury, South Wilts, and Blackmore Collections, at Salisbury.

It is seldom that the eye of the artist, as well as that of the archæologist is to be found in one and the same individual. Mr. Heywood Sumner, F.S.A., to whom I am indebted for far more assistance in this volume than his beautiful and characteristic penwork, has seldom been so happy in his choice of illustration, for Stonehenge is one of those subjects which belongs to him of right, by virtue of that understanding draughtsmanship which he has applied with such valuable results to the "Earthworks of Cranbourne Chase" and elsewhere. Readers are specially asked to give his plans kindly attention. They are based upon the Ordnance Survey Maps, with the sanction of the Controller of H.M. Stationery Office. They are far more interesting, and less fatiguing, than the usual guide book production. The bibliography of Stonehenge is frankly too heavy a subject to attempt even briefly. A complete bibliography arranged under authors' names alphabetically by W. Jerome Harrison, F.G.S. (1901, Devizes), will be found quite solid reading in itself. Readers anxious to extend their information, would do well to study Mr. Gowland's Report in "Archæologia," 1902, side by side with Sir Norman Lockyer's Report to the Royal Society, of the same date. The two leading schools of thought can thus be contrasted at first hand. The Wilts Archæological Magazine _passim_, and particularly 1883 and 1876 should be consulted, the latter article by Mr. W. Long has stood the test of publicity for forty years, without appreciable damage. A curious writer to whom Mr. Sumner is specially indebted is Mr. H. Browne of Amesbury; whose conclusions must not be taken seriously, but who has lovingly illustrated his work with restorations and sketches: it is all the more pleasant therefore to render thanks to a painstaking but not always appreciated worker. Last of all--greatest of all--Sir Richard Colt Hoare, whose "Ancient History of South Wilts," 1812, remains to-day a classic. These grand volumes mark the dawn of the new era of the field archæologist. The foregoing names are few, but they are as old and tried friends, to whom reference can be safely made, and seldom in vain. When Hoare and Long have been digested, few authors have much else to offer, including the writer of the present lines.

A most pleasant debt of obligation is to the new owner of Stonehenge, Mr. C.H.E. Chubb, who has rendered great assistance in the compilation of this little handbook. Himself a citizen of New Sarum, and a Wiltshireman by birthright, he can well be trusted faithfully to discharge his duty to the grand old Cromlech. A constant visitor to Stonehenge, he has already given a foretaste of his policy in revising the rates of admission to the military; a very gracious act, based on a common-sense appreciation of the usual condition of the pockets of H.M. forces. Landlords are not always as liberal.

Last of all, my sincere thanks to Dr. H.P. Blackmore, Honorary Director of the Salisbury and Blackmore Museums, for reading and revising my manuscript.

FRANK STEVENS.

THE MUSEUM, SALISBURY.
_April 1, 1916._

* * * * *

PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES.

* * * * *

+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| Typographical errors corrected in text: |
| |
| Page 17: Sarson replaced with Sarsen |
| Page 43: Trithons replaced with Trilithons |
| |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+

* * * * *