1897] PRIMEVAL REFUSE HEAPS AT HASTINGS 95 



are sometimes thirty acres in extent, but more frequently are not 

 more than a hundred yards square. 



THE WORKED BONES 



One or two of the fragments of bone showed signs of carving. 

 One was a well-made stiletto ; another a portion of a needle. A 

 third specimen was probably a potter's tool, as by its use the marks 

 seen round the rim of the pots could have been readily made. The 

 most interesting circumstance connected with the bones was, that in 

 two cases the flint wedges were found in situ in the bones, as they 

 were used for splitting them. Oue of these is shown in Plate VI., 

 left lower figure. The whole of the marrow bones were thus split 

 up for marrow, and the skulls for the brains ; and even bones 

 which contain no marrow were often similarly reduced, possibly for 

 either boiling to extract grease or for use in making bone tools. 

 Several other flint wedges similar to the above illustration were 

 also found ; and numerous bones showed deep cuts connected with 

 the death of the auimals, or those that were made in cutting up 

 the trophy of the chase. 



THE POTTERY 



The pottery of the refuse heaps is of special interest, as it 

 represents probably the oldest domestic utensils with which we are 

 acquainted. Canon Greenwell has called attention to the fact that 

 most of our Neolithic pottery is funereal or associated with burials: 

 it is always of well-known special types, and none of these were 

 found at Hastings. Some of the pottery here was made from a 

 black, coarse, gritty, carbonaceous clay fairly well baked ; some was 

 better burnt and quite red. The majority of the vessels are of one 

 of these kinds. There was a much coarser kind of a deep red 

 colour, apparently composed of coarsely pounded flint, quartz, and 

 clay-iron-stone ; from this large utensils were made, and these were 

 often | of an inch thick. The vessels were for the most part of two 

 types — the cauldron and the dish ; they were all hand-made, none 

 showing a sign of the use of the wheel. The cauldrons were very 

 like the modern tar-kettle, with a flat bottom and no feet, the 

 reflected rim-flange reaching out nearly as far as the widest part of 

 the vessel. Several of these which I have restored give the 

 following measurements: — Height, 9 cm.; widest part of rim, 16 

 cm.; widest part of body, 17 cm.; bottom slightly convex outwards, 

 13 cm. Another gives in the same directions 12, 20, 22, and 16 

 cm. respectively. A flat dish gave height, 3*5 cm.; width of rim, 

 23 cm.; width of flat bottom, 18 cm. Two fragments of rims 

 showed decoration upon their upper edges. The first consisted of 



