removed before the chief discoveries were made, consisted of about 8 or 10
inches of cultivated soil, below which came about 2 feet 6 inches of stiff
blue clay, and then about 6 feet of peat resting on the Kimmeridge clay
that formed the bottom of Lake Pickering. Most of the relics were found
resting on the clay so they must have remained there for a sufficient time
to have allowed these thick deposits to have formed, and it is possible
that they may be associated with some of the Neolithic people who took to
this mode of living when the Celtic invaders with their bronze weapons
were steadily driving them northwards or reducing them to a state of
slavery. A complete account of the discoveries was in 1898 read by Captain
Cecil Duncombe at a meeting of the members of the Anthropological
Institute and in the discussion which followed,[1] Mr C.H. Reid gave it as
his opinion that the pottery probably belonged to a period not much
earlier than the Roman occupation. Against this idea we have a most
interesting statement made on another occasion by Professor Boyd Dawkins
concerning one of the human bones; on examining the femur illustrated here
he said that it could only have belonged to an individual possessing
prehensile toes, and he also pointed out that the ends of this bone show
signs of having been gnawed by dogs or similar animals. Captain Duncombe,
who was to some extent quoting Professor Boyd Dawkins, said that the bones
were "apparently those of a very small race." The complete skeleton of a
young woman was found with the exception of the skull. "Though an adult,"
he says, "she could not, judging from the thigh-bones, have exceeded 4
feet 6 inches in height, and the owner of the longest thigh-bone would not
have exceeded 5 feet. Though the bones are those of a people of short
stature they are remarkable for their very prominent ridges for the
attachment of the muscles, such as are quite unknown at the present day in
England. They denote a race inured to hard toil, or one leading a life of
constant activity." On the breast bone of the woman were found the two
ornaments illustrated. They were made from the tines of a red deer's horn.