464 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



it is only in a very qualified sense that this war can be given 

 any racial meaning whatsoever. 



Of the younger scientific societies of Great Britain, none 

 is more active than the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia. 

 In the first half of 19 14 this society carried out some extensive 

 excavations at Grime's Graves, Weeting, Norfolk, and the 

 report on these researches is now published in a special volume 

 of 250 pages (not in the Society's Proceedings), priced at 55. 

 The word " grave," in this connection, means not a burial- 

 place, but any hollow or pit, and " Grime," or " Grim," is 

 the old Anglo-Norse synonym for witch or watersprite. Our 

 forefathers, not knowing who made the graves, attributed 

 them to the work of preternatural beings. In point of fact, 

 the Grime's Graves are ancient flint mines, and are almost 

 certainly earl y Neolithic in date. Several excavations were 

 made, and the results obtained are described in detail by 

 various specialists. The general account is written by A. E. 

 Peake, the human remains are described by Prof. Keith, the 

 mammalian and other bones by Dr. C. W. Andrews, the 

 Mollusca by B. B. Woodward and A. S. Kennard, and the 

 flints and other artifacts by Reginald A. Smith, whilst shorter 

 chapters are contributed by other scholars. So far as the 

 human remains are concerned, there is nothing definitely to 

 prove the date — they might be either Neolithic or late Paleolithic 

 (though probably the former), but the age of the mines is 

 proved by the mammifauna, which is exclusively Holocene. 

 No trace of a Pleistocene mammal was found. This is con- 

 firmed by the molluscs, which are described in a masterly 

 manner. Indeed, it appears to be possible to give a more 

 exact date to the mines on the strength of the molluscan evi- 

 dence, and to attribute them to Geikie's " Lower Turbarian " 

 age — the cool epoch which succeeded the first warm phase 

 of the Holocene. Pottery was also found. In view of all 

 this, it is surprising to find Reginald Smith arguing for a 

 Mid-Paleolithic (Mousterian-Aurignacian) date for the workings, 

 albeit he eschews dogmatism. He relies upon the form of 

 the flints, but the fact is that the specialists have overreached 

 themselves on the question of flints, the types being more 

 mixed up in the different ages than enthusiasts would have 

 us believe. The evidence of the fauna is conclusive in favour 

 of a Post-Pleistocene dating. 



