Stop 12 Stone and Bronze Age
10,000BC the last Ice Age (Devensian)finished in Cumbria. This destroyed all evidence
of humans prior to this.
1st people: Paleolithic, Old Stone Age. Hunter-gatherers who lived in caves. Some
evidence near Grange-over-Sands at Lindale, where caves have been found in the
limestone cliffs. Axes found there. Elk, lynxes, wolves were hunted. Landscape was
tundra, similar to Cairngorms.
7,000BC Mesolithic, Middle Stone Age. The landscape had changed, more like central
Norway today with birch/pine woodlands and open fells. It was warmer and more
hospitable. Nomads following the food – salmon, deer, etc. Grazed animals on the hills.
Mainly living on coastal sites and river estuaries.
Recently a big Mesolithic area has been discovered under the new Carlisle Northern
Relief Road. 290,000 stone blades, microliths, barbs from spears and harpoons, made of
flint and set in wood.
So far no evidence for huts in Cumbria, though found in Northumbria and Dumfriesshire.
Silt in the bottom of Barfield Tarn shows how the climate has changed by looking at the
layers of pollen.
4,000/3,000BC Neolithic, New Stone Age man existed in the area. Hunter-gatherers start
becoming farmers. They had stock, plus crops in fields. Sheep and cattle. Started
wearing wool instead of skins. Pottery starts.
Great excitement about 100 years ago when Ehenside Tarn was drained and they found
many Stone Age tools – hand axes and adzes.
Stone was fine-grained greenish-grey tuff of the Borrowdale Volcanic Group. It is made
of tiny crystals, so can be sharpened. Originally the stone had been used by Mesolithic
man (Middle Stone Age) to make barbs and tips of fish-spears, arrowheads, etc. Neolithic
man then progressed to axe heads, chisels and mattocks, to be used for tree felling, house
building, dug-out canoes and breaking the ground for fields. (Keswick Museum is built of
tuff).
Stone Age factories, where the stones were ‘roughed out’ have been found. Brian
Bunch, an architect on holiday in 1947 found the factory on the screes below Pike
O’Stickle. Other workings have now been found on Harrison Stickle, Glaramara, Scafell
Pike and Scafell.
Axes and other tools made in the area were traded widely, 2,500-2,000BC. Langdale axes
have been found as far away as Germany and Poland!
The ‘rough outs’ were then taken to areas for further work. Flakes have been found at
Portinscale and Mossgarth, between Derwentwater and Bassenthwaite Lake. Also
Ehenside Tarn, Maryport. Take a hammer stone, which fits in the palm of the hand, often
Shap rock. The axes would then be taken to the coast and smoothed with sandstone,
before being finished with leather.
Axe head strapped to the haft with strips of leather. To fell a tree: use a diagonal
downward motion, not horizontal. Langdale was wooded up to 700/750mt high.
Best collection of stone axes is at Tullie House Museum, Carlisle.
On view: a selection of rough outs of axes from Langdale area in boxes below. Display
case: Stone axe heads found in the Coniston area. Stone mace head. Stone pestle.
Collection of bones from extinct and other animals, e.g. horse and deer.
Stone Circles: 30+ Neolithic circles in Cumbria. The Neolithic ones are larger and the
Bronze Age ones are smaller. Long Meg and her Daughters, Castlerigg, Swinside.
Bronze Age, 1,800 - 800 BC. The climate has warmed up, so humans could live higher
on the fells. Field cairns, where they have cleared stones from the land. Only evidence is
higher, as lower evidence has been destroyed. Field walls and circular hut walls near
Devoke Water (Duddon/Eskdale). Bronze is an alloy of tin and copper mixed. Tin came
from Cornwall. Copper from Coniston, Newlands Valley and the Pennines. Burnmoor
Tarn (SE of Wast Water) has lots of Bronze Age circles, field cairns and hut circles. Cup
and ring markings are Bronze Age.
Display case: basal-looped spearhead found in the wall at Dalton Castle, Furness,
1,500BC. Replica bronze axe head.
Burials: Cremations and ashes placed in pots. Pots are locally made and decorated.
On display: Cinerary burial urns.
Isolated Stone Age axes have been found in Hawkshead, Grasmere, Rydal, Troutbeck
Bridge and Nibthwaite, showing that man was moving through the area. Woodland
clearing probably only used for a few years before they moved on to fresh ground. On the
Cumbrian coast the forests have never recovered from the original clearing.
Grizedale Boar: made by Sally Matthews. Mud and roots on a wire armature. Grizedale
name: Old Norse for ‘valley of the pigs’. Grizedale Forest is run by the Forestry
Commission. There is a Sculpture Trail to see over 60 sculptures. Red deer, roe deer,
buzzards and barn owls. Red kite have been released 2010 to reintroduce them. Mountain
biking and Go Ape!