1897] PRIMEVAL EFFUSE HEAPS AT HASTINGS 43 



here he lit his fire, heated his pot or roasted the pony or deer he 

 had captured in the chase ; here he changed his broken flint tip 

 snapped in the chase, replaced it by a new one, and threw the 

 broken butt end upon the Midden. Here he also sat and split his 

 marrow bones, and feasted right royally upon the contained luscious 

 grease ; and here he piled up his refuse heaps of everything with 

 which he for the time being had done. 



It is difficult to say which are the most interesting, the fauna of 

 the period, the relics of which have been stored up in these old 

 heaps, or the fossils of man's civilization in the form of flint and 

 bone implements, pottery, etc, We will take the latter first, as 

 belonging to the highest of the mammals represented. 



THE WORKED FLINTS. 



Being away from the chalk, the supply of flint had to be drawn 

 from the pebbles on the sea shore. These were taken up to the 

 settlement, and in several places heaps of these were found : they 

 were sometimes ' quartered ' when flat flakes were required, at 

 others they were flaked into long narrow flakes, which required but 

 little, if anything, done to them to make them fit for use. The 

 almost absence of the ordinary more or less circular-edged skin- 

 scraper- — the commonest of all Neolithic implements — is very 

 remarkable ; but some spatulate forms were found, several of which 

 were tanged for hafting. There were no large axes or adzes found, 

 nor even the small triangular form, which exist in such profusion in 

 the Danish Kitchen Middens, and no flint bore the slightest trace 

 of polishing. One of the most remarkable and interesting features 

 of the flints was the variety of forms of the chisels, gouges, and 

 gravers, the cutting edges being always well worked, and either 

 rounded or rectangular, turning now to the left and now to the 

 right. A peculiar feature which strikes one in connection with 

 these is, that they differ entirely from the majority of flint tools one 

 sees in museums, in which is shown the expenditure of extensive 

 trouble and work to bring the implement into an orthodox shape, 

 although the cutting or operating edge is confined to an exceedingly 

 small spot, and is entirely independent of the elaborate work of the 

 other part of the implement. In these, on the other hand, it is just 

 a simple flake, which is usually untouched, except at the point, 

 where it is worked in a straight or oblique inward or outward curve 

 or line ; occasionally they are large, but not very often. With 

 such a variety of carving tools in the possession of these old people, 

 one is disposed to feel disappointed at finding so little evidence of the 

 practice of carving. Still, it must be borne in mind that the 

 Kitchen Middens after all were only waste heaps, and nothing of 

 any value would be likely to be found in them, except an occa- 



