EARLY MAN but it proved also that that era was of immense duration, with clearly marked periods, during which there ' were successive races of men ex- hibiting a progressive civilization,' the whole however being late Pleisto- cene or post-Glacial, according to Professor Boyd Dawkins. 1 II. POST-PLEISTOCENE TIME NEOLITHIC, BRONZE AND EARLY-!RON MAN The dawn of this era opened with the temperate climate we still enjoy, and a fauna and flora substantially those with which we are sur- rounded. Throughout its course, human culture has advanced to its present position with an unbroken progression, so that the ages Neo- lithic, Bronze and Early Iron into which its pre-historic portion is usually divided must not be regarded as sharply defined from one another, nor even in any given locality as necessarily consecutive ; they represent stages in an evolution. The vestiges of this era in Derbyshire consist mostly of burial mounds 2 and other sepulchral remains, of which the county possesses an unusual wealth, but it is impossible to form an estimate of their num- ber. The experienced eye will often detect on the Peak moorlands, the slight rise of the surface which may represent an ancient burial-place, unmarked on the Ordnance Survey and unrecognized as of possible archaeological interest. As already intimated, these mounds have been plundered in a wholesale manner of their stone for building and other purposes. In many cases only the finer debris and mould have remained, and as these are liable to be spread beyond the limits of the mound in the process of despoliation, a few years vegetable growth is sufficient to obliterate any remaining indications of the nature of the site. Such unmarked graves have been found from time to time, and there is little doubt that there are hundreds more. The number of the pre-historic burial-places which have been opened in the interests of science in this county is little short of 300, and this sufficiently shows how important an element they are in the local archaeology. In Derbyshire the pre-historic folk almost invariably raised mounds over the resting-places of their dead. The first impression the literature of these remains gives rise to is their great diversity, a diversity which the reader will not unnaturally connect with differences of age or of race, or of both combined ; but he will soon find their classification a difficult task. Very few of those which have been explored were in a reasonably 1 Full reports of the work by Mr. Mello supplemented by others on the 'finds,' first by Prof. Busk and afterwards by Prof. Dawkins, appeared in the "Journal of the Geological Society for 18757 (vols. xxxi.-xxxiii.). An account by the first mentioned gentleman also appeared in the Journal of the Derby- shire Archaeological and Natural History Society, vol. i. ; and another by Mr. Heath in vol. iv. of the same journal, who was also the author of a brochure, An Abstract Description and History of the Bone Caves of Cre swell Crags. 2 The common term for a burial-mound in this county is ' low,' from the Anglo-Saxon hltew, a small hill or heap. It occurs abundantly as a suffix in the place-names. Many of these place-names refer to existing barrows, but how far the rest can be regarded as evidence for the former presence of these burial-mounds is uncertain. 165
