PRE-PALiEOLITHIC MAN IN ENGLAND 



467 



of flint implements. These deposits are exposed in various 

 pits sunk into the plateau in the neighbourhood of Ipswich, 

 and it is in this plateau that the present rivers have cut their 

 valleys in which they have laid down the beds of gravel, etc., 

 containing the normal palaeolithic implements. A glance at 

 fig. 1 will at once show the reader the relation of these plateau 

 beds to the valley deposits and demonstrate that the former 

 are of a much greater antiquity than the latter. In fig. 2 is 

 shown a diagrammatic vertical section of these plateau beds, 

 and we will commence by examining the lowermost and 

 oldest stratum, the sub-Red Crag detritus-bed which rests 

 upon the London Clay. The top of the London Clay was a 

 land surface in pre-Crag times, and this land surface was 



BEDS 



FCTU^iNfe- 



PtJ\TELf\U. 



BEDS 



Pu*rej\u. 



Fig. i. — Sectional drawing showing the relationship of the plateau beds to the valley 



gravels laid down by the river when eroding its bed through the plateau. 



The beds forming the plateau were at one time continuous across the space now occupied by the 



river valley. 



eventually slowly submerged beneath the waters of the Crag 

 Sea. The objects lying upon this ancient land surface, large 

 and small flints, flint implements, pieces of bone, etc., were 

 no doubt swept during this submergence into hollows or 

 pockets in the London Clay, and finally covered by the sands 

 and shells of the Red Crag Sea. The implements recovered 

 from the detritus-bed are fashioned by bold and skilful flaking, 

 and include the well-known rostro-carinate form, together with 

 scrapers, borers, choppers, etc. 1 



1 "The Flint Implements of Sub-Crag Man," J. Reid Moir, Proc. Prehis. 

 Soc. of East Anglia, vol. i. part 1, pp. 17-43 » " On the Discovery of a Novel Type 

 of Flint Implements . . ." Sir Ray Lankester, Phil. Trans. Series B, vol. ccii. pp 

 283-336 ; " On the Further Discoveries of Flint Implements beneath the Base of 

 the Red Crag of Suffolk," J. Reid Moir, Proc. Prehis. Soc. of East Anglia, vol. ii. 

 part 1, pp. 12-31 ; " Implements of Sub-Crag Man in Norfolk," W. G. Clarke, ibid. 

 vol. i. part 2, pp. 160-8. 



