756 



NATURE 



[February io, 192 i 



Letters to the Editor. 



yi'he Editor doe" not hold himself responsible for 

 opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither 

 can he undertake to return, or to correspond with 

 the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for 

 this or any other part of Nature. No notice is 

 taken of anonymous commun'cations.] 



Flint Implements from the Cromer Forest Bed. 



The discovery to which this letter relates was 

 made towards the end of September of last year. 

 For the past eighteen months I have spent a con- 

 siderable amount of time investigating the deposits 

 forming the cliffs of the north-east coast of Norfolk, 

 and have already published a paper dealing with 

 certain humanly fashioned flints found at, and in the 

 neighbourhood of, Mundesley (Proc. Prehis. Soc. E. 

 Anglia, vol. iii., part ii., pp. 219-43). I devoted 

 my attention during last year to the district of 

 Cromer, and have now to record the discovery of a 

 flint-workshop site, which, in my opinion, is referable 

 to the lowermost division of the Pliocene Forest Bed 

 series, .^s is well known, the Cromer Forest Bed 

 is generallv regarded as of Newer Pliocene age, and 

 was laid down after the deposition 

 of the marine Weybourn Crag 

 (latest beds of the Norwich Crag), 

 and before the commencement of 

 the great Pleistocene glaciations. 

 In the Geological Survey memoir, 

 "The Pliocene Deposits of Britain," 

 Mr. Clement Reid states : " Where 

 most complete, the ' Forest Bed ' 

 consists of three divisions — an Upper 

 and a Lower Fresh-water Bed and 

 an intermediate estuarine deposit." 

 In many places along the coast the 

 upper portion of the Cromer Forest 

 Bed series can be seen in section 

 towards the base of the cliff, but the 

 lower part, being covered by beach 

 material, can seldom be observed 

 except when a succession of north- 

 westerly gales has caused the sea 

 to scour away the sand and shingle. 

 It is now, however, possible at low- 

 water to examine the basal portion 

 of the Cromer Forest Bed deposits 

 when the receding tide has laid bare certain areas 

 which only a comparatively short time ago were 

 covered by great masses of Glacial and other strata 

 in the then existing cliff. The site at Cromer where 

 the humanly fashioned flints dealt with in this letter 

 were found covers an area of foreshore about 150 

 yards long by 100 yards wide, and is almost opposite 

 the north-western termination of the sea-wall at that 

 place. 



The implementiferous horizon is exposed at low 

 water beyond the seaward extension of the shingle 

 beach, and consists of a great number of flints of 

 varying sizes which, for the most part, appear by 

 their coloration and condition to be referable to the 

 well-known Stone Bed occurring beneath the Crag 

 deposits of Norfolk. .Associated with these Stone Bed 

 flints are (a) examples of paramoudras, (b) a few 

 quartzite pebbles, (c) very numerous specimens of 

 clay-ironstone pebbles and rolled pieces of chalk (the 

 flint bed in several places rests upon solid stratified 

 chalk which often shows Pholas borings in its sur- 

 face), and (d) small pieces of mineralised bone (Mr. 

 Savin, of Cromer, informs me that two molar teeth 



NO. 2676, VOL. 106] 



of Elephas meridionalis have been recovered from thi» 

 site), belemnites, and other chalk fossils. Lastly, 

 there are to be found scattered about amongst these 

 relics numerous examples of humanly fashioned flint 

 flakes and implements which generally exhibit upon 

 their flaked surfaces a brilliant and arresting yellow- 

 ochreous coloration. It is to be remarked also that 

 many of the large blocks of .Stone Bed flint show 

 upon their surfaces flake-scars which are of the same 

 ochreous shade, and the conclusion is drawn that 

 these large flint masses represent the cores from which 

 the ancient Cromerians obtained the raw materia) 

 used in the manufacture of their artefacts. The posi- 

 tion of the workshop site at Cromer is indicated in 

 Fig'. I, which gives a diagrammatic cross-section of 

 the cliff, beach, and foreshore. 



The association upon the limited area of foreshore 

 mentioned above of cores, flakes, and implements of 

 varying sizes would appear to preclude the possibility 

 of these specimens having drifted dow'n the coast 

 from some other site, as the sorting action of the 

 tides would militate against such an association. 

 Moreover, many of the Cromer flints collected do not 

 exhibit marked signs of rolling by water. But the 

 strongest evidence in support of the view that the 

 specimens secured are referable to some period prior 



p-IG. I. — Diagrammatic cross-sfction of cliff, beach, and forcslioie at Cromer >howiny probable 

 relationship of impicmcntiterous horizon to liic cliff oeposits. (Not drawn to scale.) 



to that in which the Glacial deposits forming the 

 Cromer cliffs were laid down is afforded by the fact 

 that the ochreous artefacts have been made almost 

 exclusively from pre-Crag Stone-Bed flints. These 

 latter specimens, often very large and massive, arc, 

 to all intents and purposes, sedentary, and havt- 

 remained so ever since the epoch when they were 

 brought to their present position in pre-Crag times. 

 Thus, when it is realised that many of these large 

 sedentary specimens bear flake-scars exhibiting the 

 same ochreous colour as is to be seen upon the imple- 

 ments and flakes lying near them, it becomes clear 

 that the people who flaked the flints did so at a time 

 when the Stone Bed was exposed, and prior to the 

 deposition of the well-known "Lower Till" and 

 Contorted Drift of Norfolk, .-^nd as the coloration 

 of the pre-Crag flints is so markedly different from 

 that of the ochreous specimens, it seems equally clear 

 that the flaking of the latter is not referable to pre- 

 Crag times, but to some later epoch. 



I explain these facts in the follow-ing manner : 

 -After the laving down of the marine Weybourn Crag 

 an emergence of the land took place, and in course 



