AN EARLY NEOLITHIC KITCHEN-MIDDEN. 71 



selected. After examining 400 or 500 flakes and chips no 

 implement of any sort could be found, and not a single flake shows 

 the slightest signs of secondary chipping. This is remarkable, for 

 the flaking was evidently done on the spot, and one would expect 

 to find at least one or two damaged implements among that number. 

 Pottery also is entirely absent. Charcoal in small fragments is 

 plentiful ; and was probably blown or washed on to the wet surface 

 of the tufa from the settlement on the bank above a few yards 

 away. Bones of pig, red-deer, roe-deer, and a large ox, * used for 

 food, are found, but extinct mammals are missing, as is also, thus 

 far, all evidence of domestic animals or of cultivated plants. None 

 of the bones have been in any way carved or cut ; though the number 

 seen is too small for this negative evidence to be of much value. 



Broken marine shells are common, especially the limpet, which 

 seems to have formed a considerable part of the food of the tribe. 

 The cockle, oyster, and whelk are entirely missing, though found 

 in the soil above. The complete list of marine shells is : 

 Patella vulgata 

 Littorina littorea 



littoralis 



Trochus tumidus 

 Scrobicularia piperata 



Of these only the first two, the limpet and periwinkle, are eaten 

 at the present day. Littorina littoralis and Trochus tumidus are 

 usually considered inedible. Scrobicularia is said to have a peppery 

 flavour ; it is never eaten in the south of England. None of the 

 shells show sign of fire, so the shell-fish were probably eaten raw. 



The marine shells are all species that could be gathered between 

 tide-marks without the use of apparatus of any sort, except perhaps 

 a stone or stick, to knock off limpets and dig up the Scrobicularia. 

 The limited assemblage is such as to show clearly where they were 

 obtained. Except Scrobicularia these molluscs are all species 

 found on a rocky coast, and just such an assemblage might be 

 gathered anywhere near Chapman's Pool or Durlston without the 



* All determined by my colleague, Mr. E. T. Newton. 



