EARLY MAN 



position of the gravels or brick-earths in which they are found. Prehistoric 

 archaeologists have hitherto rated the significance of patina changes at too low 

 a value. Certain patinas, it is true, are not of great value, for instance, the 

 chalky-white patina that forms on many flints that have been exposed to the 

 action of easily decomposed limestone, such as chalk and the softer oolites. But 

 where flints have been lying in contact with the harder limestones, with soils 

 other than limestone, and especially with sand, the surface changes become of 

 the greatest help in determining relative age. In North-west Suffolk the ground 

 is covered, over very large tracts of country, by sand which in most places protects 

 the flints from the action of the underlying chalk, where the latter is not also 

 covered by great thicknesses of boulder clay. By this means the large numbers 

 of neolithic flints found in this part of the county are protected from the more 

 or less rapid decomposition induced by the presence of carbonic acid in con- 

 siderable quantity ; and the changes produced in the flint by prolonged exposure 

 to moisture, sun, and air are allowed to show themselves uncomplicated by 

 other considerations. Reasons will be presently given for believing that these 

 changes take place in flint of good quality with extraordinary slowness ; and 

 that in such flint a high degree of patination predicates great age. 



It is proposed to take for the discussion of neoliths a little valley in the 

 parish of Icklingham which forms a part of the Lark system of drainage 

 (see plan, p. 237). As with the valleys referred to in the first part of 

 this article, so here there is now no water in the valley, and there is no sign 

 of there having been any within the historic period. 



The valley in question is about a mile in length and runs from the 

 plateau of Elveden straight down to the main valley of the Lark, which it 

 enters at a right angle. The valley is in the shape of a wide and shallow 

 V ; the highest points of the V being about half a mile apart ; and the per- 

 pendicular depth of the valley about 50 ft. to 60 ft. The plateau where the 

 valley starts is about 170 ft. above the Ordnance datum and the River Lark 

 at the point where the valley debouches is about 40 ft. above the same 

 datum. The lateral boundaries of the valley consist on each side of a ridge 

 about 300 yds. wide ; each ridge descending on its opposite side into a 

 wider and longer valley, which two valleys also sweep down from the plateau 

 into the main valley of the Lark. 



When we consider the matter, it is rather strange that so short a valley 

 as this should have such great relative width ; that it should start flush from 

 the plateau with no sign of any special collecting ground ; and that it should 

 enter the main valley at a right angle, with no sign that the water, which 

 presumably hollowed it out, made any attempt to swirl round in the direction 

 of the current of the main stream, as is usually the case at the junction of rivers. 

 We will, however, not follow these points further just now, but proceed to the 

 examination of the valley. 



From the neolithic point of view the valley is probably one of the 

 richest districts in the world. Though its area includes not more than some 

 300 acres, many thousands of implements have already come out of it ; and 

 there probably remain quite as many yet to be found. The implements are 

 by no means all of high quality, the majority indeed are rough ; but none the 

 less are they full of instruction. Many patinas are represented, too many to 

 be described in detail. But they may be summed up as follows: — (i) A deep 

 I 240 32 



