A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



tered, battered and cut by contact with the hard chalk and sharp flints 

 encountered in the work of mining for flint. 



The method of mining at Grime's Graves seems to have been this : 

 the ancient miners sunk a shaft, more or less circular in form and gradu- 

 ally decreasing in size as it descended. The descent into and the ascent 

 out of the pit was probably by means of a series of alternating ledges or 

 steps, placed at right angles. This primitive kind of stairs is still used 

 by the modern flint-miners at Brandon and in certain other parts of the 

 country where the nature of the formation will permit. When the layer 

 of flint most suitable for implement-making was reached galleries were 

 thrown out in various directions along the level of the stratum of flint. 

 In order to remove the flint the chalk above it was excavated to a height 

 of between 3 feet and 5 feet. These galleries were found to extend to 

 considerable distances, and in some cases they communicated with the 

 galleries belonging to other shafts. 



The chief tools employed in making these excavations were picks 

 made by breaking off the horns of a red deer at a distance of slightly 

 less than a foot and a half from the brow end, and afterwards removing, 

 by means of flint flakes assisted by the action of fire, the other tines ex- 

 cepting only the brow tine. Many examples of picks so fashioned were 

 discovered at difl^erent places in the shaft and also in the galleries. In 

 form these picks closely resemble the implements of wood and iron used 

 by the modern workman, but the labour of making deep pits through 

 the chalk with tools of this character must have been very great. 



It is worthy of note that picks of this kind, and apparently intended 

 for mining purposes, have been found by Canon Greenwell at Eaton and 

 Buckenham, both in Norfolk. 



Another implement used in mining for flint was a kind of hatchet 

 formed of basalt. An example of this class, 7I inches long and 2| inches 

 wide at the cutting edge, was discovered in one of the galleries, and 

 marks of its use in the work of excavating were abundant upon the sides 

 of the gallery. 



Canon Greenwell records the following remarkable discovery which 

 was made during his researches at Grime's Graves. It was in connection 

 with the working for flint by Neolithic man. The roof had given way 

 about the middle of the first gallery, and blocked up the whole width of 

 it to the roof. ' On removing this, and when the end came in view, it 

 was seen that the flint had been worked out in three places at the end, 

 forming three hollows extending beyond the chalk face at the end of the 

 gallery. In front of two of these hollows were laid two picks, the handle 

 of each towards the mouth of the gallery, the tines pointing towards each 

 other, showing in all probability that they had been used respectively by 

 a right- and a left-handed man. The day's work over, the men had laid 

 down each his tool ready for the next day's work ; meanwhile the roof 

 had fallen in, and the picks had never been recovered. I learnt from 

 the workmen that it would not have been safe to excavate further in 

 that direction, the chalk at this point being broken up by cracks so as to 



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