A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



therefore is, if only for this reason, one of the greatest interest and im- 

 portance. But this is not the only reason why it should be carefully studied ; 

 for the conditions in which the deposit has been made are such that it can 

 throw light on the Mousterian Period such as no other deposit — not even the 

 great deposit of the ' Grotte-du-Prince,' splendidly worked and studied as it 

 has been under the auspices of the Prince of Monaco — has hitherto been 

 able to do. For we now come to the most extraordinary part of the story. 

 When the workmen were digging on the side of the ridge to get at the 

 brick-earth just mentioned — the pit being sunk well to the westward of the 

 top of the ridge, and at an elevation some 20ft. below the highest point — 

 they found that they had to pass through a layer of gravel 8 ft. or 10 ft. 

 thick, before reaching the brick-earth, the gravel thus lying above the brick- 

 earth, and like it at the side, and not on the top of the ridge. From the 

 geological point of view this in itself was a strange state of things ; but 

 what made it still stranger was that this gravel contained very considerable 

 numbers of ' drift ' implements — implements of typical ' drift ' shapes and 

 of finely coloured patination. This was a discovery well calculated to puzzle 

 both archaeologist and geologist. If anything is certain in prehistoric archae- 

 ology, it is the priority of the ' drift ' period to the Mousterian ; yet here we 

 have typical Mousterian implements lying under a deposit of ' drift ' gravels. 

 The explanation of this strange anomaly is comparatively simple and exceed- 

 ingly instructive. 



When first describing the ridge it was stated that it is now no longer 

 continuous, but is cut through in several places. There is, to begin with, 

 the valley of the Lark, which has separated the ridge from the higher 

 ground to the south, whence the valley now represented by the ridge 

 originally came. Next, at a distance of about \\ miles to the north of 

 Warren Hill, which now forms the escarpment bounding the ridge towards 

 the Lark valley, is a V-shaped gully cutting the ridge from east to west, 

 and forming a clear passage from the bounding valley on the east of 

 the ridge to the fen country on the west of it. This, which may be 

 called 'the Gully,' is about 100 yds. wide at its lowest part. Then, at 

 about a mile still farther north, the ridge is again cut through by 

 another V-shaped aperture, which is about J of a mile wide at its lowest 

 part, and which also opens free communication between the eastern bounding 

 valley and the fen country to the west. This may be called ' the Vale ' — 

 which is, indeed, the name given to it on the Ordnance map. About another 

 mile to the north the ridge ends, only to reappear a mile farther on as Maid's 

 Cross Hill, Lakenheath. This breach is therefore a mile wide ; but it has 

 quite obviously been made by water flowing from east to west, for here, as in 

 the case of the other breaches, and of the lateral side valley to the east with 

 which thev communicate, the final bed of the stream as it diminished in size 

 to nothingness can quite clearly be seen. Neither in the lateral valley nor 

 in the breaches does any water flow now, nor can it have done so for a long 

 time, as the roadways of the present day are carried across them on causeways 

 in which not even a culvert has been made. This wide breach it is proposed 

 to call 'the Valley.' 



The interpretation of this state of things may be taken with some con- 

 fidence to be as follows. Before the Lark river-system had been established, 



244 



