condition of the bones may have been due to the pressure of the mound
above them after they had been partially burnt with the fires which were
lit at one end of the barrow and so arranged that the heat was drawn
through the interior.

As the centuries passed the Neolithic people progressed in many
directions. They improved their methods of making their weapons until they
were able to produce axe-heads so perfectly ground and polished and with
such a keen cutting edge that it would be impossible to make anything
better. These celts like the arrow-heads were always fitted into cleft
handles or shafts of wood, and it was probably at a later period that the
stone hammer, pierced with a hole, made its appearance. Spinning and
weaving in some extremely primitive fashion were evolved, so that the
people were not entirely clothed in skins. They cultivated wheat to a
small extent and kept herds of goats and horned sheep. The pottery they
made was crude and almost entirely without ornament. The skeletons of this
period show that although they led a life of great activity, probably as
hunters, they were rather short in stature, averaging, it is thought by Dr
Garson, less than 5 feet 65 inches. Their jaws were not prognathous as in
negroes, and their brow ridges were not nearly so prominent as in the men
of the Old Stone Age, and thus their facial expression must have been
mild.

[Illustration: PRE-HISTORIC WEAPONS IN THE MUSEUM AT PICKERING.

Flint arrow head of unusual shape.
Bronze Spear head.
Bronze celt found at Kirby Moorside.
Flint arrow head found at Yeddingham (_half size_).
Flint arrow heads found at Moorcock and Wrelton (_half size_).
Highly polished celt of a bluish-white stone found at Scamridge.
Bronze celt found at Scamridge.
Stone hammer found at Cawthorne.
A flint knife, 4-1/8 inches long.
]

[Illustration: Leaf-shaped arrow head found by Dr J.L. Kirk.]

A most interesting discovery of lake-dwellings was made in 1893 by Mr
James M. Mitchelson of Pickering, but although the relics brought to light
are numerous, no one has yet been able to make any definite statement as
to the period to which they belong. The Costa Beck, a stream flowing from
the huge spring at Keld Head, on the west side of Pickering, was being
cleaned out for drainage purposes at a spot a little over two miles from
the town, when several pieces of rude pottery were thrown on to the bank.
These excited Mr Mitchelson's inter