EARLY MAN 



of nearly an acre. The objects found in the chambers during the 

 careful examination by Messrs. Dawson and Lewis are of a remark- 

 able and miscellaneous character. They include neolithic implements, 

 cores, etc., Romano-British pottery and some metallic objects of the 

 Roman and subsequent periods ; also a portion of an antler of the 

 red deer, fragments of human teeth, and charred wheat. It must be 

 explained that the floor of the chambers was covered by two layers ; 

 the lower layer, in which these objects were found, consisted of finely 

 broken chalk nearly 3 ft. thick, and the upper, made up of large 

 loose fragments of chalk, was of various thicknesses at different parts. 

 As some of the objects in this lower level, such as leaden seals or 

 badges, were of seventeenth century date, it follows that the caves 

 were open and this part of the floor was being built up at least as late as 

 that period. The pieces of Roman pottery, etc., seem sufficiently 

 numerous to point to the conclusion that the excavation is as old as the 

 Roman times. Generally speaking, however, the evidence which has 

 so far been produced does not seem to be very convincing. There is a 

 curious mixture of objects which suggests contact with external influences; 

 and the only thing that can at present be made out is that the excavations 

 are of considerable age and were constructed for some economic purpose. 

 Probably they have been put to the secondary purpose of hiding-places. 



The extensive caves near Hastings Castle known as St. Clement's 

 Caves are doubtless to a very large extent and in their origin the result 

 of natural forces. The large fissures in the rock are too extensive to 

 have been produced by artificial means. But it is clear that the passages 

 and chambers have undergone considerable modification at the hand of 

 man. The local tradition that these subterranean chambers have been 

 used as hiding-places for smuggled goods lacks confirmation. Much of 

 the sand removed from the caves has been dug for the purpose of sand- 

 ing floors in Hastings. Without a systematic examination of the 

 caves, however, it seems useless to speculate as to the period to which 

 they should be assigned. 



Ancient boats, possibly of British age, have been discovered 

 buried in the soil at Bexhill, Burpham, and North Stoke. 



In the Dawson Loan Collection exhibited at the Brassey Institute, 

 Hastings, are several local discoveries of Neolithic and Bronze Age 

 antiquities of considerable interest. Among tliem are two articles, the 

 period of which appears to be somewhat uncertain. They comprise 

 (i) a socketed piece of bronze evidently only a part of a larger 

 implement and ending in a kind of reversed shield found at St. 

 Leonards Marina, and (2) a piece of stag-horn 1 1 inches long, 

 pierced in the middle by a nearly square hole. This object is 

 described on its label as a hammer, for which purpose it does not 

 seem to be particularly fitted, and it is said to have been found m 

 the submarine forest at Bulverhythe, half-way between St. Leonards 

 and Bexhill. It seems rather closely related to those objects made of 

 the tines and beams of the red deer antlers which, it has been suggested, 



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