8 PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 1912 



have not been thoroughly examined. This is a subject which 

 I may commend to our field-workers, who will find a useful 

 contribution to the study in two recent papers by Sir Ray 

 Lankester.' 



Meanwhile, I would draw attention to a more sober in- 

 vestigation of prehistoric chronology, by Professor SoUas, in 

 the admirable work to which I have already referred. His 

 views will not satisfy those who demand a period of, at least, 

 100,000 years for the Neolithic period alone, much less do they 

 corroborate the theories of Dr Allen Sturge. He allows no 

 more than 17,000 years for the interval between our time and 

 the close of the glacial episode, and he assigns the Magda- 

 lenian period to the time when the ice was retreating, about 

 12,000 years ago. 



Since Professor Sollas formulated these conclusions, a 

 most important piece of new evidence has been obtained, 

 which throws fresh light on the problems of prehistoric man 

 in these islands, and proves, if proof were needed, that in a 

 rapidly advancing science no finahty is to be expected, and 

 that a sudden discovery may seriously affect the best con- 

 sidered theories. 



In October last, Mr J. Reid Moir discovered beneath an 

 undisturbed layer of chalky clay, rather more than a mile 

 north of Ipswich, a skeleton which, in the opinion of those best 

 qualified to express an opinion, constitutes not only the oldest 

 remains of man hitherto discovered in England, but, with the 

 exception of the Heidelberg jaw, the earliest yet found in 

 Europe. The stratum in which it was found is supposed to 

 antedate the period of the Neanderthal man whose remains 

 are so abundant in France. The parts of the skeleton which 

 were preserved indicate a tall man, about 5 ft. 10 in. in height. 

 The jaws were lost, but the isolated teeth were small, much 

 worn, not differing materially from those of modern man. and 

 very unlike the Neanderthal type. The skull was small, 

 especially for a man of such stature, and it was peculiar in 

 shape — flat and broad in its posterior part, in this respect 

 recalling Neanderthal man ; but the bones of the thigh, fore- 

 arms and hands were absolutely identical with those of a 



I. The Daily Telegraph, i6th and 23rd January, 1912. Also in S. Hazzledine Warren's 

 "Problems of Flint Fracture," Man xiii. (1913). PP 37 «' ««?• 



