A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



derived. Some of the pebbles bear very clear marks of having been 

 used as hammers for flint-chipping. It is worthy of note as an indica- 

 tion of the methods employed by the toolmaker in the Neolithic age, 

 that many of these used pebbles w^ere quite small, one being only an inch 

 and a half long. Possibly they may have been used as punches, and so 

 helped to produce those elastic blows which are generally considered to 

 be an essential condition of successful flaking. Several large fragments 

 of flint, apparently disused cores, were found which had been used as 

 hammer-stones, and it is not unlikely that they were used in connection 

 with the quartzite pebbles in the manufacture of implements. 



In the course of Canon Greenwell's excavations the discovery was 

 made of some fragments of chalk which had been sculptured in the 

 form of a human leg or arm, etc. These had been shaped by means of 

 flint flakes, and they certainly present an interesting piece of evidence of 

 the state of artistic skill of man in Neolithic times. 



Bones broken in order that the marrow might be extracted, have 

 been mentioned among the objects discovered. Upon close examination 

 they were found to be those of a small species of ox, probably Bos 

 longifrons. Moreover they were found to be the bones of very young 

 calves, and this circumstance is of great importance as it tends to show 

 that milk formed a large part of the food of the ancient people associated 

 with the digging of these pits. It was this which led them to kill 

 the calves at such an early age. Bones of other animals include those of 

 the goat or sheep, horse, pig and red deer. The dog was represented 

 by several bones, apparently those of old animals, and the inference 

 is that when on account of their age they were no longer useful for 

 hunting they were made to serve as food. 



The importance of the evidence afforded by the discoveries at 

 Grime's Graves is so great, especially as illustrating early man's methods 

 of obtaining flint and making implements, that a few further deductions 

 may not improperly be given. 



The period to which the excavations may be unhesitatingly referred 

 is that known as the Neolithic age, and probably it was towards the end 

 of that age. Had it been early in the Neolithic age we should hardly 

 have expected to find evidences of so extensive and so elaborate flint- 

 mining. On the other hand if it had been the work of the Bronze age 

 it is inconceivable that some articles of bronze, bartered for the excellent 

 flint for which the place must have acquired a wide reputation, should 

 not have been found. 



Again all the evidence shows that the operations of flint-mining 

 were carried on for a long period. The antlers used as picks point to a 

 tedious and laborious method of excavating, whilst the contents of the 

 fiUed-up pits are so much mixed with broken bones and other refuse as 

 to lead to the conclusion that they were in fact used as receptacles for 

 rubbish from the human dwellings situated close by them. 



The sites selected for habitations in the Neolithic age seem to have 

 been always such as were naturally well drained. The summits of hills 



