299 



lju()estigatioii$ at |^nofole J[avm Ipit/ 



By the Rev. H. G. 0. Kendall. 



I am not aware to what extent other people have had the 

 opportunity of studying in detail the gravel, &c., and the lie of 

 the implements and other Haked and chipped stones at the famous 

 Knowle Farm Pit, Savernake: but, finding myself now within reach 

 of the spot, I have given a considerable number of hours during 

 the past year and more to the investigation of the gravel, &c., and 

 to digging out the implements with my own hands. In case, 

 therefore, the resultant observations may contain some element of 

 usefulness in the attempt to solve the difficult problems connected 

 with Palaeolithic man and the various deposits in which and under 

 which his tools are found, I venture to set forth a few broad facts. 



A considerable space has now been cleared of gravel by the 

 workmen. They have thus formed a kind of platform at the 

 shoulder or bank of the old river valley, now dry. This platform 

 is backed by a face of gravel, not yet dug away. 



For some time past the men have not found any great quantity 

 of implements, and for this reason : the implements were originally 

 found in great numbers in a bed of river silt which ran along the 

 edge, so to speak, of the platform. This bed has been largely dug 

 away, and the workmen are now digging the deeply ochreous 

 gravel which lies further inland, as it were. It must be noted 

 that sandy river drift overlies the ochreous gravel at this spot for 

 a space of some yards, at any rate, as well as at the edge of the 

 artificial platform, but it contains but a small proportion of im- 

 plements at this place. The ancient river bank bends back so as 



' The greater part of this paper is reprinted from " Man," March, 1906, 

 pp.38 — 41, by kind permission of the Anthropological Institute, to whom our 

 Society is also indebted for the loan of the blocks used in the text. 



