907, and the plains of Lancashire lay open to the invader.[70] This western advance of the Northumbrians was completed by the conquest of Elmet, in 616, by Eadwine, and the whole district from Edinburgh, as far south as the Humber, and as far west as Chester, became subject to his rule.[71] The latest possible date, therefore, that can be assigned for the occupation of these caves by the Brit-Welsh is determined by that event. It cannot be later than the first quarter of the seventh century, or the time when what remained of Roman art and civilization in that district was swept away by the ancestors of the present dalesmen. The relics in the caves must have been accumulated in the two centuries which elapsed between the recall of the legions in the days of Honorius and the English conquest. They are traces of the anarchy which existed in those times, and they tell a tale of woe, wrought on the Brit-Welsh, by Pict, Scot, or Englishman, as eloquently as the lament of Gildas, or the mournful verses of Talliesin. They complete the picture of the desolation of those times revealed by the ashes of the villas and cities which were burned by the invaders. We have now examined the evidence as to date offered by the contents of these caves, and we have seen that it agrees with the contemporary history. It may therefore be concluded that it lies in the fifth and sixth centuries, possibly the first quarter of the seventh. _The Neolithic Stratum._ [Illustration: FIG. 26.--Bone Harpoon (natural size).]