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being laid bare by each tide, which, at that part of the coast, is quickly 

 washing away the soil. On examination, then and at many other times 

 during the last few years, it was found that these oyster shells, each of 

 which was chipped by being opened by some rude implement, were 

 associated with rude pottery, implements of flint, early barbaric pottery 

 in the lower strata, and pottery of a decided Roman type as the strata 

 of the midden approached the surface of the soil. An invariable rule 

 in this midden at Easington, and others— in a low cliff on the Humber 

 bank, near Kilnsea— is that the lowest layers contained the rudest pottery, 

 mixed with oyster shells in profusion and many land shells, these latter being 

 perforated by a small hole to extract the animal. Associated with the pottery 

 and some burnt earth, were the bones of many animals, and possibly birds, 

 several species of Deer, Wild Boars (whose tusks were found), Dogs or 

 "Wolves. The middens were evidently deep trenches cut in the glacial 

 drift, the edges being sharply defined ; and these trenches bad been used 

 by the early Britons first, and then by their first conquerors, just as our 

 middens are used at the present time for kitchen refuse. The lower layers 

 giving evidence by the ruder character of their contents that they were the 

 remains left by a people in a much lower grade of civilisation than the 

 more superficial deposits, which gave evidence in the refinement of the 

 pottery remains of a more cultivated people — probably Eoman. In close 

 proximity to a kitchen midden, Mr. Hewetson discovered a ground oven in 

 the cliff, about 2 feet 10 inches deep and 18 inches in width ; the bottom 

 was paved by three large stones which showed plainly the action of fire, 

 and on these stones stood, crushed into twenty-eight fragments, an ancient 

 and very rude urn, the whole of the circular excavation being filled by 

 charcoal and burnt earth : this was evidently a cooking oven with the urn 

 or pot in situ. In the various middens proper were secured (from time to 

 time, as the lecturer visited them, as they were laid bare by the action of 

 the sea) one fine flint arrow, discovered by Mr. Armistead in the lower 

 layers, a bone arrow-head and awl, probably for marking the lines on 

 pottery ; and the shafts of long bones of animals, all of which had been 

 split to obtain the marrow. A few years ago a discovery of much interest 

 was made, viz., the head of a human femur, which showed evidences of 

 haviag been gnawed by Dogs or Hyenas, whose canine teeth had left deep 

 marks on the extremely hard bone of the "head," the cancellous bone 

 structure having been as easily crushed away. Mr. Hewetson, in con- 

 clusion, related how that occasional search for some years at last revealed, 

 to his delight, the orbits of a human skull, whose frontal bone of low 

 type was staring at him from amongst the culinary refuse in the lower 

 layers of a midden at Kilnsea. These are believed to be the first 

 records of the discovery of human remains in kitchen middens in 

 England, certainly in Yorkshire, which go, it is feared, very far 

 towards showing that our ancestors were, if not actually confirmed 

 cannibals, at all events in times of war might occasionally make a meal of 

 a vanquished foe. 



