132 The Paleolithic Implements and Gravels of Knowle, Wilts. 
them, and with the mineral condition of the gravels in which they 
occur, that render a further investigation desirable. 
The pit is some 40 or 50 feet above the level of the turnpike 
road from Marlborough to Hungerford, near the summit of a piece 
of rising ground, 460 feet above the sea. It exists as a semicircular 
cutting into the side of the hill, some 10 to 14 feet in depth, with 
coarse flints above, and smaller stones embedded in a ferruginous 
sand, below. It may be noted that extremely few pebbles occur 
in the pit, and that the implements are principally found in the 
lower and more sandy layers. In this district an abundant supply 
of good workable flint must have been ready to hand, since denu- 
dation has proceeded so far that little of the Upper Chalk (in 
which alone flint occurs) is left. 
Another point of interest is afforded by the composition of the 
gravel, It has been spoken of by a geologist of much experience 
as the purest flint gravel he has ever seen. As the result of five 
days working in the pit he found five quartz pebbles, one lump of 
iron pyrites, four of ferruginous lower greensand, and six pieces 
of quartzite and sarsen, but no other examples of foreign rock. 
The implements found at Knowle have chiefly been made of 
flints derived apparently from gravels of still older date. Where 
there are portions of the old chalk crust remaining, they have 
generally been much worn down. 
All the flints from the Knowle pit are free from the dark brown 
ferruginous stain which is so distinctive a feature of the Kentish 
plateau gravels. This does not imply the entire absence of iron 
oxide. A considerable amount is in fact present, particularly in 
the sand, and many of the flints themselves show thin patches of 
ferruginous deposit. It is, however, specially to be remarked that 
the worked surfaces of the Knowle paloliths are altogether free 
from ferruginous deposit, or indeed from any stain. 
In the dark-coloured sand from the bottom of the pit, there is 
also a noticeable proportion of manganese dioxide, and small patches 


We should here state on the authority of Prof. Boyd Dawkins, that there 
are two or three chert implements, among those from Knowle, in the Brighton 
Museum. 
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