ARTICLES 95 



and half or more of the erosion period must have elapsed before 

 the factories above mentioned can have been formed ; so that 

 so far as the Thames valley is concerned there is a considerable 

 gap in our knowledge. Perhaps, however, this can be partly 

 filled by some implements from Farnham, which are pronounced 

 by Mr. Reginald Smith and Mr. Reid Moir to be of Mousterian 

 age. They were found under a fluviatile gravel about 120 ft. 

 above the river Wey, but there are reasons for regarding this 

 as the equivalent of a 70 or 80 ft. level in the Thames valley. 

 Although there are no cores and the butts are not facetted, the 

 secondary edge chipping is typically Mousterian, and they 

 differ both in sharpness and patina from the late Acheulean 

 hand-axes found at the same level : both archseologically and 

 "geologically, therefore, they seem to occupy an intermediate 

 position between the end of the Acheulean period and the fully 

 established Mousterian industry of Northfleet, etc. 



Mention has already been made of certain hand-axes, of 

 late Acheulean form, but possibly Mousterian age, found in 

 one of the lowest of the Farnham gravels. They are important 

 as proving that the river reached this low level before the 

 end of the Mousterian period, if not even in Acheulean times. 

 The occurrence of the latter industry in such a position would 

 be of great importance, but unfortunately the specimens are 

 few in number, and until more are found it will be rash to 

 come to a decision as to their age. 



Many implements of undoubted Mousterian age have been 

 found at elevations greatly above the 100 ft. terrace (e.g. by 

 Mr. Worthington Smith at Caddington and elsewhere), and 

 they are often buried under gravel ; but there is good reason 

 to believe that the gravel flowed over them at that subsequent 

 period of intense cold and violent floods to which the Coombe 

 Rock is due. It is commonly assumed that this cold spell 

 drove Mousterian man (at any rate for a time) out of England ; 

 but it is not at all clear that he had not already ceased to 

 occupy the Thames valley before the formation of the Crayford 

 brick-earth ; for while there is good first-hand evidence of 

 Mousterian flakes having been found under that deposit, there 

 is none at all (except that of workmen) that they occur in the 

 brick-earth. The specimens obtained by Mr. Brice Higgins, 1 

 if they really came from above the floor, may quite well have 



1 Man, vol. xiv. (1914), Nos. 4 and 31. 



