Page:VCH Lancaster 1.djvu/306

A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE lacking the decoration characteristic of the advanced Bronze Age. With them were found two small scrapers and other objects of flint, including a barbed arrow-head, an excellent specimen. Apparently near to these urns was another tumulus of sand with a chamber of hewn stones. These vary in size from about 3 ft. by 2 ft. to about 6 ft. by 5 ft. There may have been more of them, but early last century they were removed to their present position where by the name of the Calderstones they are preserved at the foot of Druids' Cross Road. The arrangement of the stones, as has been suggested, must have been dolmen-wise. The large flat stones probably formed the cover of a chamber or chambers formed by the smaller ones. Within, there is record of the discovery of several urns and general evidence of burials by cremation. The suggestion of tradition implies that the urns found did not and would not contain all the ashes uncovered. An additional interest is lent to these stones by the 'cup and ring' markings, designs of spiraloid form, incised upon them. It is difficult to believe that these are earlier than a Celtic age, but they are not necessarily contemporary with the construction of the tomb. The general character of the burial and construction of the tumulus accords with an early date, based upon the results of study in other places of Britain and the Continent. Considering the local history also, probably there is no error in assigning it to a date at least as early as the overlap of Neolithic Age and Bronze Age. Some burials found at Stretton, near Warrington, seem somewhat analogous. 'The bodies lay in sand, each surrounded with ashlars placed at the side and head and feet, the bones being 16 in. below the surface. The side bones had not been placed perpendicularly, but inclining to one another like the roof of a house.' Two small urns of baked clay, about 4 in. deep and 3 in. in diameter, were found, with black ashes, charcoal, and general indications of firing. One of the urns had a pinched ornament on the neck, and another is quite plain.

2. Winwick, in the neighbourhood of Warrington, has yielded up, in some of the interments which have been recorded, evidence of real importance to archæology. That period early in the Bronze Age when as yet only simple weapons and implements were fashioned of that material seems to be indicated by a deposit found in one of the tumuli at Highfield Lane. In it were found a small bronze dagger, with rivet-hole in tang (described above in Plate IV. No. 7), and a small polished stone hammer (Plate 11. No. 5), both within an urn. The decoration of some pottery from the site shows a simple linear design resembling parallel veins of a leaf. The dagger is of a type found in the Yorkshire 'Round Barrows,' and the association of a polished stone implement is not uncommon. The Bronze Age has certainly begun, and it provides a better example of a stone implement than anything of the Neolithic Age. The terminology is obviously not adequate; the word 'chalcolithic' might be used to represent this phase. At Winwick also, and