1S97] PRIMEVAL REFUSE HEAPS AT HASTINGS 99 



knowledge of the wheel. It was also fairly well baked, and would 

 stand the fire, as is shown by the deposit of soot upon some of the 

 fragments. They appear to have known nothing about the art of 

 polishing flint or the barbing of arrow heads. In none of the settle- 

 ments where the characteristic implements have been found, has 

 anything been obtained to conflict with the evidence of the Middens 

 in any way. The barrow at Sevenoaks, which contained similar 

 relics, it is true, was nearly round, pointing to the close of the Neo- 

 lithic period ; but further research induces me to consider that these 

 people might nevertheless have preceded the days of the barbed 

 arrow and the polished axe, and this conclusion is strengthened by the 

 geological evidence of Dr Colley March in Lancashire. It is prob- 

 able that the ox, the ' sheep,' and the pig were confined in en- 

 closures, where they lived in a semi-domesticated state. Man also 

 seems to have domesticated the dog, which possibly assisted 

 in keeping the cattle, although the canine bones sometimes look 

 as if they had been gnawed. It is certain from the large 

 quantities of bones present that animal food was indulged in 

 whenever obtainable, perhaps even more so than was the case with 

 the Baltic Midden men. But the motley group of animals repre- 

 sented at Hastings show T the men there to have been anything but 

 epicures, as they appear to have eaten anything upon which they 

 could lay their hands. 



The occurrence of these implements thirty or forty miles inland 

 in a number of places, suggests their being the work of a Nomadic 

 people, but whether or not the trans-European localities can be taken 

 to indicate the line of original migration, further researches will alone 

 decide. This much is however proved, that the Midden men will 

 henceforth have to be added to the pre-historic races of Britain. 



W. J. Lewis Abbott. 



