iS94. PLATEAU MAN IN KENT. 265 



as would have been a fossil boomerang had its use died out with 

 Palaeolithic man. 



Coming now to the reality of Plateau man, the question, to our 

 mind, is a very simple one. It matters not to us whether many of the 

 cherished treasures of Benjamin Harrison are the work of Nature. 

 We are certain that very many hundreds of them are not. Even if of 

 the 2,625 collected, the odd five can be shown to be the work of 

 man, and their stratigraphical position established, then Plateau man 

 becomes a real being, to whom the modern world was first introduced 

 by the Ightham shopkeeper. At the time of Professor Prestwich's 

 paper the horizon of these implements was not susceptible of exact 

 definition ; since then a number of important finds have been made 

 and facts discovered which will go a very long way to settle the 

 question of age. But we dare not enter upon this question now, 

 although we hope to do so shortly, and to prove Plateau man to have 

 been Pliocene. 



There is also another great work which Harrison has accom- 

 plished at the suggestion of Professor Prestwich since the papers of 

 ithe latter on this subject. At the date of these papers, the Hill-men 

 were not clearly defined, and implements found at certain heights 

 were associated with them. This group of implements was first 

 noticed by Mr. F. C. J. Spurrell, and he called them the Cave Group 

 ,(" Palaeolithic Implements found in Kent," ArchcBologia Cantiana, 

 1883). But, so far as we remember, Mr. Allen Brown was the only 

 •one to notice that they were of far more modern facies than those of 

 the Hill-men. These have since been proved to have been the work 

 of the Rock-shelter men, and for the purpose of making the necessary 

 excavations the British Association have made grants of money to 

 Mr. Harrison. Anyone who visits this spot will admire the skill 

 displayed in his mode of procedure. Since the occupation of these 

 shelters, the configuration of the country has been so altered that 

 Xhe ground just in front of them, which one would naturally expect 

 .to prove fruitful, was not worth working ; but, seeing an unwasted 

 ridge about two hundred yards off, Harrison successfully excavated 

 it, obtaining some fifty implements and six hundred flakes. On this 

 .ground, and round about the shelters, he had found remains for 

 many years. The implements of this period constitute a distinct 

 group in which the work is of the highest quality ever reached 

 before Neolithic times, indeed the skill displayed in one of the 

 :specimens is so great that, when first submitted to Professor 

 Prestwich, despite its shape and altered surface, he was doubtful as 

 to its claim to be called Palaeolithic. Many years ago a superb 

 weapon was found in a garden near Sevenoaks Station, beautifully 

 pohshed all over, which in outline was exactly similar to one of 

 Harrison's finds drawn out half as long again. One of Harrison's 

 specimens, of the Rock-shelter group, was illustrated by Mr. Spurrell 

 {{loc. cit.). Especial reference may be made to this, as it helps to 



