EARLY MAN 



from 20 feet to 65 feet in diameter, and situated about 25 feet apart. 

 For some time these pits were regarded by antiquaries as the floors of 

 primitive dwellings similar to if not identical with those hut-sites of 

 Neolithic age which have been known as hut-circles or pit-dwellings. It 

 was evident to some however that their size was so much greater than 

 that of the usual Neolithic hut-circles as to suggest a doubt if they were 

 really the sites of ancient dwellings. 



Careful examination of one of these pits, and the evidence of the 

 objects discovered within it, as well as on the surface of the ground, 

 have enabled us to understand how the pits were originally made and by 

 whom and for what purpose. The pit selected for examination was 

 found to be an ancient excavation 39 feet deep and 28 feet in diameter, 

 but like the other specimens near it had been filled up with waste 

 material to within about 4 feet from the surface. It had been cut 

 through a bed of dark yellow sand i 3 feet thick, which at this point 

 overlies the chalk. The sand contains several irregularly shaped nodules 

 of flint, but the quality of the stone was not sufficiently good for the 

 purposes of implement-making, and the pit had therefore been carried 

 to a greater depth where two bands of flint were reached. The lower 

 of these bands, occurring at a depth of 39 feet from the surface, was 

 found to be of the average thickness of 7 inches and of the finest quality 

 in every respect. It was clear that this was the band of flint sought for 

 with so much labour by men in Neolithic times, and the excavations 

 made for the purpose of reaching it had come in the course of time to 

 be regarded as graves. 



The same band of flint occurs much nearer the surface about a 

 mile to the south-west of Grime's Graves, where it is now worked for 

 flint-knapping, but the bed is thinner than that at Grime's Graves and 

 the flint is of inferior quality. The fact that man in the Neolithic age 

 made a large number of shafts about 40 feet deep in order to procure 

 the special kind of raw material that was most suitable for implement- 

 making is a valuable testimony to the skill and energy of that ancient 

 race. It also proves a familiarity with the structure of the earth for 

 which otherwise we should hardly have been prepared. 



All the evidence that has been collected concerning Grime's Graves 

 goes to show that the pits have in every case been nearly filled up with 

 removed material. It is pretty clear that this was done in Neolithic 

 times, and was simply a convenient method of disposing of the waste 

 material resulting from fresh excavations. In removing this old material 

 from the pit during the course of Canon Greenwell's examination numerous 

 bones of animals were met with, and these had in most cases been 

 broken open in order that the marrow might be extracted, presumably 

 for human food. Other objects found included charcoal, chippings and 

 cores of flints, pebbles for flaking and bruised by having been so used, 

 and tools of deer's horn. The last consisted chiefly of picks and 

 hammers made from the antlers of the red deer, and those found during 

 the work of exploration bore many marks of severe wear, being splin- 



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