ARTICLES 87 



Acheulean implements were found by Messrs. Smith and Dewey 1 

 lying on the top of the middle (Chellean) gravel, and overlaid 

 by another gravel which certainly appears to be a river deposit. 

 At Wansunt, too, they are abundant in a clay or brick-earth, 

 which the same authors 2 regard as the last deposit of the 

 Thames at the 100 ft. level, but which Mr. Leach 3 believes to 

 belong to a later period. More perplexing are the specimens 

 alleged to have been obtained from the " shell-bed " at Ingress 

 Vale. The similar bed at Barnfield Pit (Swanscombe), at 

 practically the same level and only a few hundred yards away, 

 is dated by Messrs. Smith and Dewey as pre-Chellean ; and 

 they found at Ingress Vale nothing but flakes apparently of 

 that date. If, then, Acheulean implements can really be 

 proved to have come from this horizon, we shall have to re- 

 consider our whole chronology ; yet it must be admitted that 

 the evidence, while not eliminating all possible sources of error, 

 is remarkably strong. 4 However this may be, it is certain 

 that Acheulean implements occur at or slightly above the 

 100 ft. level in the Thames valley, at Ipswich, Farnham, Bourne- 

 mouth, and elsewhere ; and from their position and condition 

 it seems that some at least of them were deposited in true 

 river gravels or sands at that altitude. 



But while in this respect English experience is different 

 from French, yet just as in the latter country Acheulean 

 implements are found on the plateaux bounding the Somme 

 valley, so here, though seldom really common at more than 

 100-130 ft. above present river-levels, they range up to over 

 500 ft. O.D. on the Kentish plateau and at Limpsfield, while 

 at Hackpen they reach 800 ft. O.D. or more. Many of these 

 high-level implements occur in brick-earth which may be the 

 equivalent of the Unions moyens and Unions des plateaux in 

 France ; and although we know nothing of its origin (some of 

 it may be an eolian deposit modified by infiltrating water), 

 there is no reason for asserting that it is necessarily older than 

 the gravels of the 100 ft. terrace. But some implements have 

 undoubtedly been found in gravel, and in this case two dif- 



1 Archaologia, vol. lxv. (1914), p. 189. 

 3 Ibid. p. 204. 



3 Proc. Geol. Assoc, vol. xxvi. (191 5), p. 20. 



4 Archceologia, vol. lxv. p. 196; Proc. Prehist. Soc. E. Anglia, vol. ii. pt. ii. 

 p. 254- 



