Part 2

The date of these Long Barrows is variously stated; Canon Greenwell says, “probably 1000 B.C., but may be much earlier”; others say they were probably made 3000 B.C. or 5000 years ago. The definite date cannot be given, but only probabilities stated.

It is in this Neolithic Age that the bodies of the dead were placed in a cist or stone box; that is, large stones were placed round the body, and on these upright stones was fixed a covering stone.

One such system of burial was found at Rothwell, near Caistor, and another at Dunholme.

In nearly every case of burial of this kind, which is called _Inhumation_, the body has been placed facing the sun in a contracted position; that is, with the knees drawn up to the chin and lying on its side. Some specialists think this position indicates the sleeping attitude, others think it points to the fact that as the child entered into life in a contracted position, so the dead body was similarly placed for departure from life, with the possibility of entering into a new life after death.

Frequently by the side of the dead body were placed the weapons that he used when living—axe-heads, arrow-heads, knives, and spear-heads.

LIFE OF THE NEOLITHIC PEOPLE

Naturally we may ask how did these people live? The answer undoubtedly is by hunting, fishing, and fowling. They appear to have had large flocks of sheep, goats, and cattle, and possessed dug-out canoes or boats.

Their dwelling places were probably hut circles, but no remains of these have so far been found in the county of Lincolnshire.

Their care of the dead would lead us to suppose that, by comparison with similar practices in other parts of the world, they believed in a future state or future life.

Who were the Neolithic people?

This question has been asked by many, and the answer given by Professor Boyd Dawkins[5] and others is that they were Iberians, and are represented at the present time by the surviving Basque peoples of the Western Pyrenees, on the borders of Spain and France.

“By a chain of reasoning, purely zoological, we arrive at the important conclusion that the Neolithic inhabitants of the British Isles belong to the same non-Aryan section of mankind as the Basques, and that in ancient times they were spread through Spain as far south as the Pillars of Hercules, and as far to the north-east as Germany and Denmark.”

THE PYGMY RACE OF MAN IN LINCOLNSHIRE

One of the most recent discoveries regarding Prehistoric Man in Lincolnshire is the finding of some thousands of diminutive flint implements at Scunthorpe, Manton Common, and Scotton, in North Lincolnshire. At the suggestion of the writer of this article, Mr. E. E. Brown made a careful search at Scunthorpe in A.D. 1900, and found some thirty or forty specimens.

Since then the Rev. Reginald Gatty, the Rev. Alfred Hunt, and others have found hundreds of specimens at Scunthorpe.

The Pygmy Flints are of various forms and sizes. Similar forms and shapes have been found in Lancashire, Yorkshire, Bedfordshire, Suffolk, Sussex, and elsewhere in England. On the Continent similar forms of Pygmy Flints have been found in Belgium, France, and Germany. They have also been found in Egypt, Palestine, North and Central Africa, and in great numbers on the Vindhya Mountains, India.

The bodies or bones of these Pygmy people have been found at Sohâgi Ghât, on the Vindhya Mountains, in Germany, and at Bungay, Suffolk, quite recently, by Mr. H. A. Dutt, of Lowestoft.[6]

The Pygmy Flints all show points characteristic of the work of man:—

1. The Bulb of Percussion. 2. The Conchoidal Fractures running down the flint. 3. The Dorsal Ridges on the back of the flint. 4. The Secondary Working along one edge. 5. The Patina or Skin, the result of weathering.

Their shapes have been described as—

Crescent-shaped. Triangular or Scalene. Arrow-head. Round-headed and pointed. Chisel-shaped. Trapezoid or Rhomboidal. Flint knives with serrated edges.

They are figured in the _British Museum Handbook to the Stone Age_, on p. 110, Fig. 132.

They are beautifully made, and show extraordinary keen sight in those who made them—frequently one side only shows secondary working, and the chipping is so finely done that often twenty and thirty different chips have been made on a fine thin edge of flint in the length of half an inch.

The question has been asked, how may we know Pygmy Flints are the work of mankind? Practically by the same method that we know other flint or stone implements are the handiwork of man. Examine these Pygmy Flints closely, and you will be able to trace—

1. The Bulb of Percussion, showing where the blow was struck to separate the flake from the flint nodule. 2. The Conchoidal Fracture running down the length of the flint. 3. The Dorsal Ridges on the back of the flint. 4. The Secondary Working along one edge. 5. The Patina or Skin, the result of weathering or exposure.

These distinct characteristics prove these flints are no haphazard flakings from a flint core.

When you can pick up these Pygmy Flints, and show all these peculiarities, you are able to convince reasonable men that they are the work of a race of people, who, with keen vision and clever handiwork, were able to make tools which have outlived their own age and race by many thousands of years.

SIMILARITY IN DESIGN

One point of great interest in these widely scattered Pygmy Flints is the great similarity in design. So much is this similarity carried out that, if you place a Scunthorpe specimen beside one found on the Vindhya Hills in India, it is almost impossible to say which is from the one place and which is from the other.

This similarity in design has led many specialists to think that the Pygmy Flints of Scunthorpe are the work of a migrating people, who passed over from India through Asia and Europe to Britain. Amongst those who accept this theory are Dr. Gatty and Vincent A. Smith, M.A., of the Indian Civil Service, one of the greatest specialists we have on this subject.

WHAT WAS THE USE OF THESE PYGMY FLINTS?

Various conjectures have been made as to the use of these small flint implements. They must have been made for human daily use and need.

_Arrow Points_ are easily accounted for as used in hunting—being, it is supposed, fastened to wood shafts; which is still the practice of Australian savages.

_Fishing Hooks_ is another very natural suggestion for some of the forms; when fixed with sinew or gut, the triangular form makes a specially suitable hook to catch in the throat of fish.

_Knives_ is undoubtedly another use to which some specimens are adapted; the clear cut edge would, even after the lapse of thousands of years, cut flesh of animals at the present time.

_Boring Tools_, for making holes to sew skins together for clothing purposes, is also a natural theory for other specimens of these Pygmy Flints.

_Chisels_ for scraping and shaping wood handles or hafts of their tools is also another suggestion, which is highly probable from the shape of the flints with a square cutting edge.

_Skin Scrapers_ is still another use for which some specimens of the implements may have been made by these people who lived by the chase; while it is also possible that other shapes were mounted in wood frames and used as saws, sickles, and harpoons, as shown in _British Museum Handbook_, Fig. 118.

Some of them may have been used for tattooing, as has been suggested, but certainly not a great proportion of the many thousands that have been found.

BY WHAT CLASS OF PEOPLE WERE THESE IMPLEMENTS MADE?

To begin with, these small implements were made by people with _keen vision_, the minute character of their work being more easily seen and appreciated under a magnifying glass than with the naked eye of an ordinary observer.

They were also _clever designers_, as the persistent shapes of these implements show. It is not to an ordinary person an easy matter to chip out a piece of flint in the shape of these samples; the same figures or shapes are repeated in hundreds of instances.

Again, they were _careful workers_, as is seen by the way in which these flint implements are made. To-day men would have to exercise almost the care of a jeweller if they wished to make implements equal in shape and accuracy to those found on the Scunthorpe Floor, made by these Pygmy workers.

They knew how to _make_ a _fire_, as many fragments of charcoal have been found on the floors of their dwelling places.

As regards _their clothing_, I am inclined to the idea that they clothed themselves but slightly, and what clothing they had was made of the skins of animals taken in the chase.

PYGMY SITES, STATIONS, OR DWELLING PLACES

One very interesting feature regarding Pygmy stations, sites, or dwelling places where these Flints are found is their close association with a _Peat Floor_. Monsieur de Pierpoint says: “He collected some thousands of Pygmy Flints on the high plateaux above the Meuse. Formerly a thick forest covered these mountains, and in that district the small flints are mostly found near springs and away from the east winds.” Both at Scunthorpe and on the hills of the Pennine Range, it is on or in the Peat that these diminutive Flints are discovered. Dr. Colley March found them in a bed of Peat 6 feet deep, in certain cases 10 feet deep, and at an altitude of 1350 feet above sea-level. Dr. Gatty found them at Scunthorpe on the top of the Peat and below the wind-blown sand 200 feet above sea-level.

It was on the Peat that I and my friends, the Rev. R. N. Matthews, of Tetney, in the year 1900, and the Rev. Samuel Wild, of Dunholme, found numerous examples as recently as the spring of 1907. Dr. Gatty found as many as 200 implements on the floor of one habitation. These facts lead me to the belief that the natural conditions or surroundings of Scunthorpe have completely changed since the time of the deposit of these implements.

I believe that the natural conditions at Scunthorpe were very much like the conditions at the Ituri Forest of North Africa at the present day, where we see a Peat deposit in progress; that the Pygmies lived in a warmer atmosphere at Scunthorpe than now exists in England; and that these people lived in communities in small huts, such as may be seen now among these living survivals of Pygmy people. They were in fact _Forest Dwellers_.

No pottery has been found with the Pygmy Flints in Lincolnshire, but a class of rude hand-made pottery has been found with the Indian Pygmy Flints, and entire skeletons of the Pygmy people have been found both in India and Germany. In India they dwelt in caves and rock shelters, but at Scunthorpe we have no trace of caves or rock shelters; therefore hut circles seem to be the only alternative to fall back upon as their dwelling places in Lincolnshire.

TO WHAT PERIOD IN THE STONE AGE MUST WE ATTRIBUTE THE PYGMY RACE OF MANKIND?

Here we have a problem that puzzles many at the present time. Mr. Read, of the British Museum, suggests a Neolithic Age or Bronze Period, while Mr. Vincent Smith does not agree with that, but inclines to the belief that they are to be placed at the end of the Paleolithic Age. Dr. Colley March calls it the Early Neolithic Floor of East Lancashire.

One thing is certain, we do not find any smooth or polished stone implements on the Pygmy Floor. Another thing is equally true, we do not find Pygmy Flints associated with Bronze or Copper implements, so that they were not metal workers.

The suggestion has been thrown out that the Pygmies were a weak race who were overcome by Neolithic Man. This may be true, but we have the authority of Herodotus, 2000 years ago, and modern travellers like Dr. Wollaston of 1907, pointing out that the Pygmies were, and are at the present time, rather a fighting race of people. After considering all the evidence obtainable, I am inclined to think that the Pygmy Race must be placed in the Messeolithic or Middle Stone Age.

It is true that at one period “there were giants on the earth in those days,” so also it is true that there were dwarfs on the earth in other days. Was this race the Iberic race?

It is ably argued by Mr. W. J. Knowles, Vice-President of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, that Neolithic Man is the descendant of Paleolithic Man.

The question before ethnologists to-day is: How was this transition effected? Was it through a Messeolithic Age?

Because there are no references to the Pygmy Flint Age in the standard books of thirty years ago on Prehistoric Man, such as those of Boyd Dawkins, Canon Greenwell, Sir John Evans and Mr. Mortimer of Driffield, some few people are prepared to question the reality of what are called Pygmy Flints.

To begin with, each of these authors referred to have within the last few years become thorough believers in Pygmy Flints as the product of mankind. This is shown by their speeches at the recent meetings of the British Association at York and elsewhere.

Then let the doubtful person concerning Pygmy Flints turn to recent works on Prehistoric Man, such as Mr. Charles H. Read’s _Handbook or Guide to the Stone Age_, in the British Museum, published 1902, to Prof. Windle’s book on _Remains of Prehistoric Age in England_, published 1904, to the articles by Vincent A. Smith, late of India Civil Service, to Dr. Gatty, and other works, he will then, I think, if open to conviction, be ready to admit there is more evidence for a Pygmy race than he anticipated.

HISTORICAL REFERENCE TO THE PYGMY RACES OF MANKIND

If we go back to the ancients, we have the authority of Herodotus, Book II., Chapter 33, page 51, that “the Nasamonians were captured and carried off by the Pygmy Tribe and led across extensive marshes, and finally came to a town where all the men were the height of their conductors and black complexioned under the middle height.”

Homer’s _Iliad_, Book III., line 9, refers to Pygmy nations.

Aristotle calls them Troglodytal—which would seem to indicate that they were Cave Dwellers in that age. Homer and Aristotle both place them near the sources of the Nile.

Pliny, Book VI., 19, and Philostratus, _Vit. Apoll._, Tz. III., 47, and others, place them in India, where, in modern days, many thousands of Pygmy Flints have been found.

The representation of Pygmy people is frequently met with on Greek vases and Egyptian pottery.

After two thousand years of literary silence about Pygmy people, modern travellers like Captain Harrison have brought over from the Ituri Forest Pygmy people, and exhibited them in all parts of England.

SMALL DARK-COLOURED PEOPLE UNDER THE MIDDLE HEIGHT

Major Powell Cotton, in the year 1907, gives his experience of life among the Pygmies of the Congo Forest, and describes them as “small dark-coloured people under the middle height.”

Dr. A. F. R. Wollaston, also in 1907, returned to civilisation through the Congo Forest and the volcanic region of Mfumbiro, and says the tops of the extinct volcanoes are covered with dense bamboo and inhabited by a Pygmy race.

In Central Mexico we have relics of a Pygmy people, the dried head of one being offered in Mr. Steven’s London auction room this year (1907).

The last surviving Aztecs, a very diminutive people, we remember to have seen exhibited in Manchester thirty years ago.

All these instances point to diminutive or Pygmy races of men scattered over the world.

As the literature on this subject is so limited, we venture to name the authorities quoted:—

Herodotus. Pliny. Homer. Philostratus. Aristotle. British Museum, _Guide to Stone Age_, by C. H. Read, Esq. Dr. Colley March, of Rochdale. W. H. Sutcliffe, Esq., of Littleborough, Lancashire. The Rev. Reginald A. Gatty, LL.B., of Hooton Roberts, Doncaster. Dr. Sturge, formerly of Nice, now of Mildenhall, Cambridge. The late A. C. Carlleyle, Esq., of the Archæological Survey of India. M. de Pierpoint, of Brussels. M. Thieullen, of Paris. Sir John Evans. Professor Boyd Dawkins. Professor Windle, of Birmingham. Major Powell Cotton. Dr. A. F. R. Wollaston. Vincent A. Smith, Esq., M.A.

THE BRONZE AGE IN LINCOLNSHIRE

The earliest appearance of bronze in Britain is put down at 2000 B.C.

As we have already stated this period is divided into Early and Late Periods by specialists.

Specimens of both periods have been found in many parts of the county, and so far as we have been able to trace them, we have compiled the following list of places where they have been discovered:—

Anwick. Barton-on-Humber. Billinghay. Boston, B.M. *Branston, B.M. Brigg. Broughton. Burringham. Caythorpe. Caenby. Crosby. Crowle. Crowland. Elsham. Fleet. Flixborough. Fiskerton. Gainsborough. Halton, West, B.M. *Haxey, B.M. Horncastle, B.M. Kelsey, South. Kyme, South. Langton. Leasingham. *Lincoln. *Nettleham. Newport, Lincoln. Owersby, North. *Reepham. Roxby, B.M. Scothorne. Scunthorpe, B.M. Sleaford. Toynton, B.M. Washingborough. Winghale, B.M. Winterton. Winteringham. Wrawby. *Witham River.

Those marked with an asterisk (*) are to be seen in the County Museum at Lincoln. Those marked B.M. are in the British Museum.

The objects found include swords, celts (socketed and unsocketed), arrow-heads, spear-heads, palstaves, adzes, knives, daggers, circular shields, armlets, bracelets, bridle bits, trumpet, horse trappings (probably a peytrel at Caenby).

These show progress in the art of man from rude plane castings to what may be called high art in decoration, as shown in the very elaborate shield from the river Witham, and now in the British Museum, figured in their catalogue to the Early Iron Age on page 90.

It is to this period that we must attribute many of the very fine pieces of pottery belonging to Mr. H. Preston, now deposited at the Lincoln Museum. It consists of cinerary urns, drinking cups, food vessels, incense cups, and other forms of vessels.

The places where this early class of pottery has been found in the county, so far as we have been able to compile it, is as follows:—

*Billinghay. Caythorpe. Denton. Donnington. *Dunston. Ferriby, South. Heighington. Horncastle. Kirton in Lindsey. Lincoln. Manton. Normanton. *Potterhanworth. Scotter. Willingham, North. Woolsthorpe.

Those marked with an asterisk (*) are to be seen in the County Museum at Lincoln.

All this pottery is made of burnt clay in an open fire.

CLOTHING OF THE PEOPLE IN THE BRONZE AGE

In the one instance where a body has been found with clothing at Haxey in the Isle of Axholme, it was that of a woman dressed in skins with sandals on her feet. Cæsar’s statement in Book V., paragraph 147, describes the Celts or Britons as wearing skins on their bodies for clothing, and the parts of the body not covered with skins being painted in order to render themselves more terrible in battle.

BRONZE AGE BURIALS

We have already referred to two classes of barrows or burial places. One is described as a long barrow, the other as a round barrow.

It is in this latter class of burial place that the people of the Bronze Age buried their dead.

The round barrows belong to another race of people who existed in Lincolnshire, and are described as Brachy-cephalic or round-headed people.

In these burial places bronze implements have sometimes been found, and occasionally stone implements, showing that the Stone Age overlapped or ran into the Bronze Period.

Incompleteness of the circle in the barrow points to design.

An alphabetical list of the places where in recent times the round barrow existed is as follows:—

Barrow. Bardney. Brigg. Burgh. Burgh-on-Bain. Burnham. Bully Hills, 6. Claxby by Alford. Cockerington. Cleasham. Donington-on-Bain. Falkingham. Gainsborough. Halton, West. Haugham. Horncastle. Ingoldsby. Kelstern. Langton by Spilsby, 3. Revesby. Riseholme. Spellow Hills. Temple Bruer, 2. Wainfleet, 2. Walcot. Well near Alford, 3. Welton in the Marsh. Wold Newton, 20 urns.

The barrow was considered to be the habitation of the spirits of the dead.

In the Bronze Age often the body was burnt wholly or in parts. Sometimes the ashes were collected and placed in an urn. This burning of the body seems to have been one of their sacred rites of burial. In nearly every case where the body has been burnt, holes seem to have been bored or drilled into the ground underneath the body. Sometimes these were stake holes, but the wood has perished. In these barrows was buried the chief of the clan or tribe.

A plate picture of the different kinds of skulls of the Dolicho-cephalic and the Brachy-cephalic people appears in the _British Museum Handbook to the Antiquities of the Bronze Age_, page 20.

It is considered very probable that the round-headed people were the conquerors of the long-headed race.

ENTRENCHMENTS OF THE IRON AGE

It is to this age we must refer the making of the lines of entrenchments in various parts of the county at Honington, Ingoldsby, Kingerby, Hoe Hill, Fulletby, and other places.

The Bronze Age people are generally called Celts, and have been subdivided by Professor Rhys as Goidelic and Brythonic races—the older race being the Goidels and the later race Brythons.

“Both races spoke a language that belonged to the Aryan or Indo-European family, but had certain peculiarities that point to racial divergence.”—C. H. READ.

It is to the Bronze Age Professor Boyd Dawkins would attribute the erection of the great stone circles, such as Stonehenge, Avebury, and other places, but of these stone circles no remnants exist in Lincolnshire.

THE PREHISTORIC IRON AGE, 400 B.C.

Traces of the occupation of Lincolnshire in this period are to be found in the pre-Roman smelting furnaces for iron in various parts of the county at Manton and elsewhere.

Certain iron spear-heads, daggers,[7] sheaths,[8] and swords[9] of bronze from the river Witham are also attributed to this period. The art of enamelling the surface of metal appears in the Prehistoric Iron Age, and its chief centre seems to have been the British Isles.

The shield found in the river Witham is put down to this period in the _British Museum Handbook_, pages 87 to 92. It is one of the most beautiful specimens of inlaid work yet discovered.

“With the introduction of iron a change in the burial customs took place in Britain. Cremation was carried on, but the dead were frequently interred at full length in a stone chamber, or shallow pit, along with various articles used in daily life.”

Doubtless there are many “finds” of stone and bronze and iron implements from Lincolnshire in private collections that are not described in any book or catalogue extant.

It is only by personal knowledge, and by contributing that knowledge to a common centre, that anything like a correct record can be made for the benefit of students and futurity of the Prehistoric Period in Lincolnshire.

With the coming of the Romans, B.C. 55 and 47 A.D., we enter on the Historic Iron Age, which is outside the scope of this article. As regards the Roman occupation of Lincoln, A.D. 50, we have written elsewhere.[10]

THE ROMANS IN LINCOLNSHIRE

BY THE REV. E. H. R. TATHAM, M.A.