EARLY MAN 



within them it is evident that cooking was carried on in neolithic 

 times in much the same way as among some modern savages, the ground 

 being made sufficiently hot by long continued firing to cook whole 

 animals. 



The methods of hut building varied in different places according 

 to the nature of the soil and the supply of materials. 



There are in Surrey various stretches of dry ground often too poor 

 to pay for the trouble of cultivation and too remote from the railway 

 systems for residential purposes, which have therefore never been touched 

 by the plough or the builder, and remain practically in the same 

 condition as in neolithic times. These spaces of virgin forest land 

 contain numerous traces of human dwellings of the neolithic age, and 

 in two of them these remains have been examined and described, 1 and 

 there is no reason to doubt that many other commons in the county 

 would furnish similar remains if carefully explored. 



The two particular localities to which we refer are Shirley Com- 

 mon and Croham Hurst, two eminences near Croydon, both composed 

 of pebble beds and remarkable for the dryness of their soil. Perhaps 

 the hut floors at Croham Hurst are the more remarkable because 

 some of them have been placed in such a position as to be sheltered 

 from the winds blowing from the east and north. They present certain 

 features which remind one of the rock shelters to be found in other 

 places. Flint implements, mainly in the form of flakes and chips, and 

 accompanied by cores of flint, are found in abundance around the hut 

 floors, and the significance of their presence is increased by the fact that 

 no chalk flints occur naturally either at Croham Hurst or Shirley. All 

 these chalk flints must have been brought from the outcrop of the 

 chalk at a considerably lower level. The flints too, almost without 

 exception, bear traces, sometimes very pronounced, of having been 

 worked. 



At Shirley Common flakes and chips of flint have also been found 

 near the hut floors, but in smaller numbers. 



The inhabitants of Surrey in the neolithic age were farmers and 

 herdsmen, and the sheltered southern side of Croham Hurst probably 

 formed the winter quarters of some of the families or a small tribe and 

 their herds. In the neolithic age man possessed domesticated animals 

 which furnished one of the most constant sources of food supply. 



There are several hilltop defensive earthworks in Surrey which, 

 although their precise age is doubtful, may be reasonably considered to 

 be of neolithic origin. The space enclosed is often of considerable 

 extent, and the works may be considered to represent the strongholds in 

 which early tribes entrenched themselves, their families and their cattle, 

 rather than purely military camps. The difficulty of determining the 

 period to which they belong is much increased by the fact that they 

 have been occupied by successive races, but roughly speaking the 



1 ' Prehistoric Man in the neighbourhood of the Kent and Surrey Border,' Journal of the Antbro- 

 pobgicat Inttitute, n.s. ii. 127 et seq. 



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