XXI.—On the Excavations at Arbor Low, 1901-1902

H. St. George Gray

doi:10.1017/S0261340900009073

XXI.—On the Excavations at Arbor Low, 1901-1902

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 November 2011

H. St. George Gray

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It is my privilege to bring before you the results of the recent exploration of the Arbor Low Stone Circle. These excavations, organized by the Anthropological Section of the British Association, and carried out in 1901 and 1902, were conducted with a view of ascertaining the age of Stone Circles, a beginning, possibly, of a series of such explorations. The Committee appointed to control this work consisted of Dr. J. Gf. Grarson (Chairman), Mr. Henry Balfour (Secretary), Sir John Evans, Mr. C. H. Read, Professor R. Meldola, Mr. Arthur J. Evans, Dr. R. Munro, Professor Boyd Dawkins, and Mr. A. L. Lewis. The actual organization and direction of the work in the field was placed in my hands. The ground landlord, the Duke of Rutland, K.GL, the First Commissioner of Works (in whose charge, under the Ancient Monuments Act, the Circle is placed), and the tenant, readily gave their consent for the conducting of the exploration.

Type: Research Article
Information: Archaeologia , Volume 58 , Issue 2 , 1903 , pp. 461 - 498

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261340900009073 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1903

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^{page 461 note a} J. J. Warrilow, Green Croft Farm, Middleton.

^{page 461 note b} Arbor Low is, as a rule, considered to rank as the fourth circle in order of importance in England.

^{page 461 note c} Figured in Fergusson's, Bude Stone Monuments, 242.Google Scholar

^{page 462 note a} Fergusson's, Rude Stone Monuments, 241–2.Google Scholar

^{page 462 note b} Op. cit. 128.

^{page 462 note c} Full particulars as to the construction of a relief model of Arbor Low, the result of these excavations, will be found in Man, for October, 1903 (published by the Anthropological Institute), where illustrations are given of it, at three different stages in its manufacture.

^{page 462 note d} The surveying instruments of the late General Pitt-Rivers were kindly lent by Mr. A. E. Pitt-Rivers, F.S.A.

^{page 463 note a} The central stone No. I. is seen in the photograph, Plate XXXIX. fig. 2; see also Fig. 3.

^{page 463 note b} Detailed particulars of the stones are given in Appendix III.

^{page 463 note c} Archaeologia, vii. 142.

^{page 463 note d} The Reliquary, xx. 81-85, with view and woodcnts.

^{page 464 note a} Man (Anthropological Institute), September, 1903, No. 76.

^{page 464 note b} Journal of the British Archæological Association, xvi. plate 9Google Scholar ; and Fergusson's, Rude Stone Monuments, 140Google Scholar.

^{page 464 note c} Archaeologia, vii. 148Google Scholar.

^{page 464 note d} The italics are mine.

^{page 464 note e} Glover, Stephen, History of the County of Derby, i. 275–6.Google Scholar

^{page 464 note f} See photograph, Plate XXXIX. fig. 2.

^{page 464 note g} Carefully contoured plans of ancient earthworks will be found to be of great importance to future explorers, for the contours will afford reliable evidence of the shape of earthworks when the plans were made, and will record any subsequent mutilations that may intervene.

^{page 465 note a} Archaeologia, vii. 142Google Scholar.

^{page 465 note b} Dr. Brushfield, on “Arbor Low,” Journal of the British Archæological Association, N..S. vi. 129.Google Scholar

^{page 466 note a} It can be just seen on the left of the photograph (Plate XXXIX. fig. 1), running in the direction of the wall.

^{page 466 note b} According to my tape measurement.

^{page 466 note c} Bateman's, Vestiges of the Antiquities of Derbyshire, 31.Google Scholar

^{page 466 note d} Bateman's, Ten Years' Digging, 17–20.Google Scholar

^{page 466 note e} 23rd May and 16th June, 1845.

^{page 466 note f} “Arbor Low,” by Sir Lubbock, John, The Reliquary, xx. 81–85Google Scholar ; Bateman's, Vestiges of the Antiquities of Derbyshire, 64-66 and 74Google Scholar ; and Winchester Volume of the British Archæological Association (1845), 197-204.

^{page 466 note g} Figured in Fergusson's, Rude Stone Monuments, 141.Google Scholar

^{page 467 note a} These relics are in trie Sheffield Museum. The urns are here reproduced by kind permission of Mr. E. Howarth, the curator.

^{page 468 note a} It appears to me advisable to register the names of the workmen employed during these excavations, as such a record might prove to be of some little importance in the event of a further examination of Arbor Low taking place during the first half of the present century: 1901 and 1902, Bennett Dawson, John Shimwell, and Frank Pursglove, of Middleton; and Charles Millington, of Monyash. 1901, Charles Brassington and Francis Fearn (boy), of Middleton; and John Evans, of Youlgrave. 1902, George Hayward and Fearn (brother of above), of Middleton; Charles Birds, of Youlgrave; and Caleb Millington and Solomon Bembridge, of Monyash.

^{page 469 note a} Journal of the Ethnological Society, ii. 426.Google Scholar

^{page 469 note b} Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, x. plate ix. fig. 1.

^{page 469 note c} “Recent Excavations at Stonehenge,” Archaeologia, lviii. 49, 72, and 86.Google Scholar

^{page 469 note d} Excavations in Granborne Chase, iv. 133. See also vol. iii. 135.

^{page 469 note e} See photograph, Plate XLIII. fig. 2.

^{page 469 note f} Two of these flakes have since been found to join.

^{page 471 note a} Although belonging to this class, Mr. Knowles, does not figure an arrow-head precisely similar. Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxiii. 44–56.Google Scholar

^{page 471 note b} “43” is shown at its relative depth from the surface of the silting in the sectional diagram on the line J-L, Plate XL., but being found at a depth of 5-7 feet it does not come within the walls of the ditch in section.

^{page 472 note a} “Worked Flints from the Cromer Forest Bed,” by Abbott, W. J. Lewis, F.G.S., Natural Science, x. 92–93.Google Scholar

^{page 473 note a} See Professor Dawkins's, Boyd paper on the subject, Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, xviii. 114–124.Google Scholar

^{page 474 note a} Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, xviii. 122.

^{page 474 note b} Excavations in Cranborne Chase, iv. plate 253, fig. 1, and plate 249.

^{page 474 note c} These remarks on smooth-bottomed ditches are particularly made to remind future ditch-diggers of the desirability of making special observations on this point.

^{page 475 note a} For brevity I purpose to use this term to the end of the paper.

^{page 475 note b} Fox's, Colonel A. Lane second lecture on “Primitive Warfare,” Journal of the Royal United Service Institution, 1868, xii. No. LI.Google Scholar

^{page 476 note a} Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain (1872), 330Google Scholar; 2nd edit. 370.

^{page 477 note a} Journal of tlie Anthropological Institute, xxxiii. 52, 54.Google Scholar

^{page 477 note b} The surface of chert does not seem to alter as flint does from exposure and age; consequently it is often difficult, if not impossible, to decide whether certain fractures are ancient or quite recent.

^{page 477 note c} General Pitt-Rivers once cut four sections, 10 feet wide, through the rampart and ditch of a Bronze Age encampment without finding a relic worth mentioning; but he did not despair, and forthwith commenced to dig away the rampart and ditch all round, being rewarded by finding bronze implements and much pottery.

^{page 478 note a} Professor Boyd Dawkins visited the excavations on 2nd June, 1902; Mr. Henry Balfour, President of the Anthropological Institute, was the whole of the same day at Arbor Low, and part of the next; also on 16th August, 1901. Mr. Chas. Lynam, F.S.A., visited the excavations on two days in 1901; Dr. Garson on 22nd August, 1901, and Mr. A. L. Lewis on 9th August, 1901. On 4th June, 1902, four members of the Derbyshire Archaeological Society visited the diggings, including Mr. H. A. Hubbersty, Mr. W. R. Bryden, and Mr. W. J. Andrew, F.S.A.

^{page 478 note b} More time could not be bestowed on this particular investigation.

^{page 479 note a} This is the stone on which a drawing-board rests on the right of the photograph, Fig. 3. The depression is seen on the shadow side of the stone.

^{page 479 note b} The man stooping down in a hole in the photograph, Fig. 3, indicates the position of this excavation.

^{page 480 note a} The man standing up filling in this excavation on the left side of the photograph, Fig. 3,. indicates the position of this hole.

^{page 480 note b} This was left in situ at the completion of the excavations.

^{page 480 note c} It consisted of a fragment of rim, grey on the outside and brick-red on the inside.

^{page 481 note a} The centre of the circle is marked on the plan by a large spot on Stone III.

^{page 485 note a} Ancient Stone Implements, 2nd edit. 72.

^{page 485 note b} Op. cit. 343.

^{page 485 note c} Op. cit. 352, fig. 267.

^{page 485 note d} Grave Mounds, fig. 155.

^{page 486 note a} Since 1873.

^{page 486 note b} Reproduced here through the kindness of Mr. C. H. Read, F.S.A., Keeper of the British and Mediaeval Antiquities in the British Museum.

^{page 486 note c} It is just possible that these implements may have been procured from tumuli near Arbor Low.

^{page 487 note a} The absence of bronze in this interment does not necessarily give an Early Bi-onze Age date for the burial, for bronze was rarely found with interments even in the fully-developed Bronze Age. The two pots found in the tumulus (Figs. 1 and 2) are not “beakers,” ov drinking vessels, which the Hon. John Abercromby has recently classified as being the oldest Bronze Age ceramic type in Britain. ( Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxii. 378.)Google Scholar

^{page 487 note b} The date of construction of Arbor Low appears to tally precisely with Mr. Gowland's deductions as to the date of the erection of Stonehenge, from evidence derived from his excavations there in 1901. (Archaeologia, lviii. 85, 86.)

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XXI.—On the Excavations at Arbor Low, 1901-1902

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