207 



EOLITHIC IMPLEMENTS FROM THE PLAT- 

 EAU GRAVEL AROUND 'WALDERSLADE, 

 KENT. 



By J. P. JOHNSON. 



[Read March 8th, 19021 



My attention was first drawn to the occurrence on the 

 hif,dier ground around Walderslade (which is a deUghtful httle 

 place nesthng in a hollow in the North Downs near Chatham) 

 of flint implements belonging to the earliest, or Eolithic, period 

 of the Stone Age, when engaged in surveying there during the 

 latter part of last year, igoi. They were always associated with 

 characteristic plateau gravel dt-hi'is in the shape of pebbles of 

 chert, pieces of ironstone and the peculiarly stained flints. But 

 most of them came from one or two spots near the escarpment 

 where, judging from the abundance of these last in the surface 

 soil, there must still be some patches of this early drift left 

 in situ. 



It is my intention in this paper to figure and describe some 

 of the more interesting of these implements, but in order that 

 they may be more readily understood it will be necessary to 

 include a few remarks on Eolithic implements in general. 



In 1889 Sir Joseph Prestwich gave an account of some very 

 primitive flint implements which had been discovered by 

 Benjamin Harrison around the village of ^Ash on the chalk 

 plateau known as the North Downs. From their peculiar red- 

 brown colour he connected them with an old gravel of which 

 only a fev; patches now remain on the highest portions of the 

 plateau, the main mass having been removed by denudation. 

 Since then pits have been sunk in the neighbourhood and the 

 contemporaniety of the implements with the plateau gravel has 

 been established beyond doubt. " This gravel is the oldest 

 deposit' which has yielded relics of prehistoric man, and the 

 rudely trimmed pieces of flint which it contains constitute the 

 very earliest attempt of prehistoric man to make a piece of stone 

 suitable for use as an implement. 



I. The chipping on certain flints from deposits of greater age have from time to time been 

 brought forward as evidence of their use by man or a man-like animal, but they are hardly 

 convincing. A concise review of the question will be found in Mr. E. T. Newton's address 

 to the Geologists' Association in 1897, with whose impartial conclusions one is disposed to 

 agree. On the other hand it is only fair to add that Mr. A. Rutot (Bulletin de la Socicti d' 

 Anihropologie dc Biuxclles. vol. XIX., iQoi) accepts the artifical nature ot the chipped flints 

 from the Miocene strata of Thenay, Puy-Courny and Otta, and from the Pliocene deposits ot 

 Saint-Prest. The Plateau Gravel is probably ot late Pliocene age. 



