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 interest and at another occasion his examination revealed more pottery and mixed up with the fragments were the bones of animals.  Some piles forming two parallel rows about 4 feet apart were also discovered crossing the stream at right angles to its course.

The diagram given here shows the position of the piles as far as they were revealed in one of the excavations and it also shows their presumed continuation, but no reliance can be placed on anything but those actually dug out and indicated with a solid black spot.  The piles were made of oak, birch and alder, with very rough pointed ends, and they measured from 6 to 10 inches in diameter.  Three other rows cross the Costa in the same neighbourhood separated by a few hundred yards and as they lie at right angles to the stream which there forms a concave bend, they appear to converge upon one point.  This would be what may roughly be termed an island between the Costa and a large drain where water in ancient times probably accumulated or flowed.