EARLY MAN 



THE county of Suffolk offers the nearest approach to an epitome of 

 the Stone Age of man that is probably to be found in the whole 

 world. In this respect it holds to the Stone Age much the same 

 relation that the county of Gloucester does to geology. Probably 

 nowhere in the world is there such a concatenation of geological periods to 

 be met with in a relatively small area as in Gloucestershire. Similarly 

 nowhere probably are so many periods and sub-periods of the Palaeolithic and 

 Neolithic Ages represented as in Suffolk, and more especially in the north- 

 western part of the county. It is true that one important division of the 

 Palaeolithic Period is absent : viz. the MagdaleniaYi, so splendidly represented 

 in Central and Southern France. But this is probably due to the absence 

 of caves in the county. In the Neolithic Period there is an absence of the 

 megalithic monuments so characteristic of the later stages of that period in 

 certain parts of this and of other countries. Absence of the necessary prime 

 material would account for this. But with these two exceptions the whole 

 panorama of the Stone Age is exhibited with extraordinary fullness, and 

 under conditions which raise hopes for the solution of some of the many 

 obscure problems associated with it. To treat of the whole county in detail 

 would require a volume rather than an article. It will therefore be better 

 to confine the main portion of this article to one division of the county, 

 leaving the rest to be described more briefly in the topographical index at 

 the end. For this purpose the north-western section, comprised within 

 the limits of a line drawn from Thetford to Bury St. Edmunds, thence to 

 Mildenhall, Lakenheath, Brandon, and back to Thetford, has been selected. 

 Within this line are comprised some of the richest deposits of the Palaeolithic 

 Age in England, if not in the world, and within it have probably been found 

 a larger number and greater variety of neolithic implements of beautiful 

 workmanship and of fine material than in any other part of the world of 

 equal area. 



The Palaeolithic Age 



It will be well to begin with the earlier main division of the great 

 Palaeolithic Age commonly known as the ' Drift ' Period. The name ' drift ' 

 is derived from the fact that with very few exceptions the implements of 

 this period, so far as England and the western half of Europe are concerned, 

 are found in gravels which have been formed at one or more epochs of vast 

 diluvial action, by which the stones lying on the surface of the land have 

 been washed down to form deposits of gravel in valleys ; which valleys may 

 still exist as such, or may by subsequent changes of the surface have ceased 



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