A HISTORY OF RUTLAND The Neolithic Age The Neolithic people were quite a distinct race from their predecessors, and show in most respects a great advance on them. We now find the first germs of social life, when men and women formed themselves into com- munities for mutual protection. Man, moreover, brought animals, such as doo^s, oxen, sheep and goats, into a state of domestication ; he cultivated cereals, the grain of which he reduced to flour by means of primitive querns or grindstones ; nor were the arts of the potter, the spinner and the weaver beyond the reach of his skill. The fact that the dead were buried in a ceremonial fashion suggests that men had now acquired a certain elementary notion of religion and some belief in a future state. As we might expect from their state of culture, the Neolithic people show a great superiority over the Palaeolithic race in their manipulative skill as applied to implement-making. They reduced the science of flint-chipping to a fine art, and introduced the method of sharpening the edges of their tools by grinding, the whole surface of the implement being frequently finished with a fine polish. With regard to local finds of this period we may note that there are no available records of any discoveries previous to 1900, but the number of finds which have occurred since that time go to prove that it is to a lack of investigators and not to a dearth of material that we must attribute the absence of earlier records for the county. One of the most industrious and successful local implement-hunters has been Mr. G. W. Abbott, who during his residence at Oakham School formed a considerable collection, comprising scrapers and other worked flints, as well as two good arrow-heads and a damaged specimen of larger size. These relics were found fairly widely distributed over the Oakham district, the principal settlement having apparently been close to the present site of Oak- ham, with another minor settlement near the neighbouring hamlet of Brooke. Other similar finds have also been made from time to time by other searchers in this district. Mr. W. H. Wing, F.S.A., has found two arrow-heads near Market Overton, and the neighbourhood of Empingham has produced two others, as well as a well-clipped thumb-flint. In 1905 an interesting find occurred consisting of a Neolithic celt or axe-head 7 in. long, roughly flaked and unpolished but of very symmetrical form. This specimen came to light in the course of some drainage opera- tions in Dean's Lane, Oakham. The most noteworthy discovery, however, which has hitherto been made in the county took place in August 1905, in a stone quarry in the parish of Great Casterton. Here was found near the bottom of a clay-filled fissure in the OoUte, at a depth of 17 ft. 6 in. from the surface, a human skeleton accompanied by a polished and ground celt, a muUer or triturating stone and three flat fabricating stones for the manufacture of horn or bone needles, etc. Although owing to the circumstances of the find there is some uncertainty as to whether the skeleton and the other objects can legitimately be associated together, yet all have been pronounced on competent authority to belong to the Neolithic period. The skull is of the long-oval Iberic type, 82
