Part 9

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 Palaeolithic 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 Caesar, 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 archaeologist. 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 Archaeological 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 archaeologist 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 "Archaeologia," 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 Archaeological 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 archaeologist. 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.