Cylchgronau Cymru

Chwiliwch trwy dros 450 o deitlau a 1.2 miliwn o dudalennau

DISTRIBUTION OF NEOLITHIC IMPLEMENTS IN NORTHERN FLINTSHIRE By THOMAS ALLEN GLENN IT has been remarked that the presence of stone imple- ments is not necessarily proof that their fabricators lived in the true Neolithic period in Britain, insomuch as stone weapons and tools continued to be used after the advent of bronze. This, at first sight, appears obvious from the finding of both bronze and stone objects in tombs of the Bronze Age. In Wales at least, however, the association of stone artefacts with Bronze-Age inhumations cannot always be accepted as adequate evidence that stone was in use when the interment was made. For such inhumations are fre- quently found on the sites of Neolithic settlements which, in some cases, may have been superimposed upon those of even vast antiquity and stone imple- ments might well have been scooped up with the earth excavated to construct the tumuli. It would thus be possible to find both early and late Neolithic artefacts at any level in any mound. In a round tumulus near Prestatyn, opened in October, 1912, by the writer (at the suggestion and with the co-operation of Mr. John H. Morris), the tip of an arrow-head (or pointed tool) and a scraper (fractured), both of flint, were found near the surface a flint chip below the cist. Excava- tions adjacent to the tumulus brought to light quan- tities of worked flints, splinters, and chips. In this case, for instance, the flints found in the mound belong to an earlier culture than that which can be assigned to the archaeological horizon of the tumulus. We may be permitted to wonder how many of the so-called "bronze" implements reported are actually only of pure copper. Perhaps copper tools for some purposes, as well as articles of personal adornment of