Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-10-28

DNHE ultimate retreat OF the stone
age has been tracked down at
last. Archaeologists had dug
4 and probed the old earth over
in search of the haunts of pre-
historic man. Countless stories and
illustrations have been reconstructed
from facts and finds to portray this
dawn man, his Stone-and-bone knives
and implements, his cavelike hut, his
fur-clad progeny Sprawling around an
open fire in the midst of the weird
abode while gigantic beasts howled out
side. Roughly. science had established,
to its own satisfaction at least, that
the stone age human had his earthly
being all the way from 100000 to 50,-
900 years ago.
Now comes Prof. " Gordon Childe
with the seemingly miraculous proof
that the stone age, as such, persisted
in the world until 1900 to 1,400 years
ago. The "Stone-and-bone" man was
replaced all over the world by the man
| who used bronze and iron, according
to the professor, save along the bleak
and storm-swept Bay of Skail, or Skara
Brae, in the Orkney Islands off the
northern coast Of Scotland. Rome rose
and fell, Christ pleaded His eternal
message and died. but the stone age
men of the Orkneys lived their primi-
century until some unknown cataclysm
descended on their village, or villages,
killed or drove them out and buried
their homes for the professor to un-
cover in this enlightening day.
Amazing as all this is, the more
astonishing fact is that in all proba-
bility the Bay of Skail buried village
is the best preserved of all our stone age
relics.
| TT,5o,,L+odI,, ,I;r .o+4Ior.o,o4 was
established by the forerunners of the
Picts, branch of the great Celtic
race which played so important part
| in laying the foundations of civilization
all over Europe While the work has
| just been begun, already six hutS have
been found built of fiat stone slabs
laid on top of each other without any
cement. The walls are 10 feet high,
and while the roofs have long since
disappeared, 1t is believed that they
were covered with whalebone or some
rough kind of thatch.
The houses have rounded corners,
skillfully hewn, paved floors, walls with
shelves, and cleverly designed beehive
cells leading of to where the inhabi-
tantS probably slept when the nights
have already been found and one has
| been excavated completely
l. The town was eXcavated, probably in
great haste, when a great tidal wave
swept over the town, for in 1t are the
remains just as If it had been aban-
doned yesterday. On the floor are scraps
of bones, broken pottery and ornaments
and tools which have been abandoned
there. Cooking pots containing bones
were found IN the corners and on the
hearth. A number of beads evidently
amulets, were found in little hole in
the wall where they had been concealed
In the center was the hearth, in
closed by the stone slabs, set on edge.
Just behind it was a block of stone
which served as a seat. Against the
rear wall, in the center, was a two
stored structure of stone slabs re-
sembling a dresser. On the right were
number of slate-lined boxes, sunk
in the floor, which may have been
filled with sea water for keeping limpets
alive, for these people used these she'll
fish as their staple food The joints Of
the boxes were calked with clay sc
that they would be watertight.
Along the side walls we're Enclosures
made of great stone slabs set on edge
In the floor of one of these a grave
had been dug and in the tomb lay two
skeletons with the legs drawn up. The
stone covering the grave is built into
the wall, showing that the burial took
place when the house was built. Prof
Childe holds that these skeletons be-
long to human victims sacrificed to in