The next race that entered our island found the temperature much as it
is now. They were comparatively civilised. They still used flint
implements, but of a very superior type, and far better finished than
those of the earlier race. Moreover they were agricultural, grew corn,
had cows and sheep and dogs, and made pottery. This race it was which
erected the so-called cromlechs, stone circles, and tall upright stones.
The remains of their villages of circular stone huts are very numerous
on the moors. This period is called the Neolithic, or New Stone Age.
After a time bronze was introduced, by trade, and was at first as
valuable as gold is to us. But after a while it became much more common.
Its introduction marked the commencement of the Bronze Age.
To the Bronze Age succeeded the Iron Age. This metal was introduced by
the conquering Celts, of whom there existed two branches, one called
Brythonic, of which were the Britons, now represented by the Welsh, the
Cornish, the Cumbrians, and the Bretons of Brittany; the other called
Goidelic, and now represented by the Irish, the natives of the Isle of
Man, and the Scots. The Celts with their iron weapons speedily overcame
and enslaved the earlier race, usually called Ivernian. The latter was
dusky and dark haired, but the Celt probably had yellow or red hair,
blue or grey eyes, and a fair complexion.
No satisfactory evidence has been produced that Palaeolithic man
occupied Cornwall, but the traces of Neolithic man at the stage when he
became acquainted with the use of bronze are abundant. By him were
erected the rude stone monuments that are scattered over the county, and
he had his favourite sites for trimming flints into scrapers and
arrow-heads. One of the most notable of these was the shore of Dozmare
Pool.
Of the rude stone monuments the dolmen or cromlech is sepulchral, the
dolmen when large having been a tribal or family mausoleum, and the
kistvaen, which is far smaller, contained the bones of one individual
alone. The dolmen is composed of three or more upright stones sustaining
one or more coverers, and was often buried under a cairn. The finest in
Cornwall are Zennor and Lanyon Quoits, the Trethevy Stone, and Chûn
Quoit.
Stone circles are numerous. Their purpose has not been determined, but
on Dartmoor, where they have been examined, they exhibit a floor strewn
with charcoal. They have, moreover, usually numerous cairns or barrows
associated with them. The finest sacred circle is that of the Stripple
Stones on the Bodmin moors, but this has of late years been sadly
mutilated. The "Merry Maidens," in St Buryan's parish near Penzance, is
a magnificent circle. Other circles are those of Boscawen-ûn, Dauns Môr,
Wendron, the Trippet Stones on Blisland moor, Fernacre and Stannon on
the St Breward moors, the Hurlers near the Cheesewring, the Nine Maidens
in St Columb Major, Duloe, etc.
[Illustration: Lanyon Cromlech]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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