spot, while those of metal were carefully set apart for sharpening or
re-casting, and are thus seldom found in large numbers in an excavation.
We have, therefore, no means of accurately determining the date of
Stonehenge; all that can be said is that the occurrence of flint in such
large quantities points either to the neolithic age or to a
comparatively early date in the copper or bronze period. It is unlikely
that stone tools would play such a considerable rôle in the late bronze
or the iron age.

At the same time it must not be forgotten that Sir Arthur Evans has
spoken in favour of a date in the first half of the third century B.C.
He believes that the great circles are religious monuments which in form
developed out of the round barrows, and that Stonehenge is therefore
much later than some at least of the round barrows around it. That it is
earlier than others is clear from the occurrence in some of them of
chips from the sarsen stones. He therefore places its building late in
the round barrow period, and sees confirmation of this in the fact that
the round barrows which surround the monument are not grouped in regular
fashion around it, as they should have been had they been later in
date.

Many attempts have been made to date the monuments by means of
astronomy. All these start from the assumption that it was erected in
connection with the worship of the sun, or at least in order to take
certain observations with regard to the sun. Sir Norman Lockyer noticed
that the avenue at Stonehenge pointed approximately to the spot where
the sun rises at the midsummer solstice, and therefore thought that
Stonehenge was erected to observe this midsummer rising. If he could
find the exact direction of the avenue he would know where the sun rose
at midsummer in the year when the circle was built. From this he could