As has already been seen, the environmental evidence suggests that there was an intensification of forest clearance in Cumbria (along with an increase in cereal type pollen) in the centuries before the 4th millennium BC. By 3800 BC, there began to be significant changes in material culture as well. The ‘British Neolithic package’, as it is known, consisted of leaf shaped arrowheads and polished stone axes, along with pottery. Pottery finds are poorly represented in Cumbria due to the possibility of continued mobile occupation and the wet, humid conditions of the Cumbrian climate (Barrowclough 2007; Barrowclough 2010, 75). However, during the Neolithic in Cumbria, rather than a ‘package’ arriving all at once, the overall evidence suggest changes in material culture occurring more at a protected pace, with many elements of the Mesolithic remaining.
The lithic evidence shows that established communities used coastal resources and developed a highly specialised microlithic technology during, the Mesolithic. As the Mesolithic began to turn into the Neolithic, the quality of microlithic technology declined. This point should not be overstated, as in Cumbria a continuation of flint working styles from the Mesolithic, into the Neolithic, can be identified. Cumbrian sites often contain both Mesolithic flint works, along with Neolithic artefacts (Cherry & Cherry 1987). A big change during the Neolithic was the utilisation of extra regional flint, along with the use of tuff or flint technologies, from outside the region (Barrowclough 2010, 74). The search for flint and the emergence of Neolithic exchange networks (with other regions that had flint) for example, in Yorkshire, suggests a possible motivation for the movement into the central Cumbrian massif, as people may have needed some to be able to exchange. Prior to 4000 BC, flint production, and possibly occupation, would have remained close to the coast and river estuaries, as Cumbria is entirely absent of flint (except for flint pebbles and tuff that can be found in rivers). The beginning of the 4th millennium BC saw increasing use of non-local flint, which would suggest that either
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Cumbrian groups were going to other regions to collect flint, or that (as suggested by Sharpe) the Eden Valley became an important centre for the exchange of Yorkshire Tuff (Sharpe 2007a, 390). However, Middleton (1996) and Barrowclough (2010) suggest that the range of raw materials used for flint became more restricted, as Pendleside chert is no longer found after 4000 BC.
These developments may have stimulated polished stone axe production. The smoothed and polished stones (Figure 4.5) are thought to have originated from stone quarried at Great Langdale, with processing sites located around the county (especially the south), on the coasts and in the Eden Valley. The earlier phases of production may be linked to southern and western polishing and depositional sites- whilst later production and, more importantly, exchange, seems to have taken place more towards the Eden Valley. The axe production reached its peak by the end of the 4th millennium BC in Cumbria (Barrowclough 2010, 93). Furthermore like
the similar ‘axe factories’ in North Wales and Cornwall, the finished axes can be found many hundreds of miles away from their original source. Most of these are single finds, on high ground and above either a peat moss or a river. The wetland location of most finds, along with evidence from other regions, suggest a ritual pattern of axe deposition- rather than simply being chance finds of domestic settlements or production (Barrowclough 2010, 83).
Another important aspect of the polished stone axes is their role in establishing wider Neolithic exchange networks. Axe exchange and rock-art will be investigated in more detail in chapter 8, but, here, the focus will be on the historical build up to axe production. As the Neolithic began, transitional Mesolithic-Neolithic groups seem to have moved further inland towards the Central Fells. Bradley and Edmonds show that tuff was being used as a flint substitute in the late Mesolithic and thus its collection would have been as small pebbles that would have been transported from its origins in the Central Fells, to the coastal areas (Bradley & Edmonds 1993, 141-142). This means that communities on the south coast during the Late Mesolithic/Early
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Neolithic could have followed the ‘trail’ of tuff to its source at Langdale, Dungeon Ghyll, Troughton Beck, South Scree, Loft Crag, Scarfell Pike and Glaramara. This is one possible explanation for the beginnings of greenstone quarrying, in central Lakeland.
Looking at axe production in more detail, the collection of stone has two phases- an earlier and a later phase. The first phase consisted of a more ad hoc collection of stone from Langdale, where it was moved to processing sites between 12 and 20km away (Bradley & Edmonds 1993, 144). The best evidence of this initial processing comes from the site of Ehenside Tarn, on the west coast (Darbishire 1873; Barrowclough 2010, 91). The second and latter stages of production seem to be more organised, with less waste, and are centred at the quarrying sites to the east-with possible connections to ritual monuments of the Eden Valley. In contrast, Dungeon Ghyll, shows how, during the earlier period of axe working, the process was less specialised, and that it was not until the second phase, that a degree of proficiency developed (Bradley & Edmonds 1993, 91).
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Figure 4.5 Cumbrian stone axes from North West England (Bradley & Edmonds 1993, Figure 7.8).
4.1.4 Summary
The historical evidence concerning the environmental and material cultural evidence shows us that once communities and groups of people began to inhabit Cumbria, on a more permanent basis, they began to change their surroundings by altering the landscape and the stone that it contained. Barrowclough suggests that Mesolithic modes of seasonality, between the lowlands and uplands, seemed to have continued in Cumbria until, possibly, the Later Neolithic period (Barrowclough 2010, 103). In the lower regions there is evidence of farming and agriculture around the coast and up the River Eden, with small-scale clearances. The remote uplands would, possibly, have continued to be used as hunting regions, with a new development in
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stone quarrying. Finally, hunting along, and in, the forested uplands is evident by the distribution of Neolithic arrowheads in the Central Cumbrian uplands (Barrowclough 2010, 103). This may have been considered a symbolic and ritual act away from the everyday activities, at lower levels (Bradley 2000, 87). Thus, the symbolism and ritual connected to the hunting of animals may have been also connected to the ‘hunting’ for stone.