EARLY MAN 



covered at Burnham, Great Missenden, Iver, Langley, Marlow, and 

 Taplow. 



THE NEOLITHIC AGE 



From what has been said as to the termination of the palaeolithic 

 age in this country, it will be understood that there can have been 

 no intimate relation between the people of the old stone age and 

 those of the new stone age. By the beginning of the neolithic age the 

 general appearance of the country had assumed practically the same 

 shape, form, and condition it now possesses. Forests and woodlands 

 were more abundant, but the main features of river and valley, moor- 

 land and hill, which characterise the England of the present day, had 

 already received their forms. 



Of the neolithic age, just as in the case of the palaeolithic age, the 

 most numerous and characteristic archaeological remains are implements, 

 weapons, etc., formed of stone, usually flint. There is, however, this 

 difference between the two groups : the earlier, or palaeolithic work is 

 boldly, broadly, and skilfully chipped, and this by means of a very 

 few blows : the neolithic work, on the other hand, displays, it is true, 

 a greater delicacy and elaboration of form, pointing to a somewhat 

 extensive system of specialization of use, the implements being shaped by 

 less vigorous and more numerous blows. Again, whilst the palaeolithic 

 implements never show a trace of shaping by grinding, the neolithic 

 implements frequently do so, particularly in the case of those weapons 

 or implements which approach a chisel- or axe-like form. 



The neolithic people evidently belonged to a race entirely different 

 and distinct from the palaeolithic ; and whilst an attempt has been made 

 by some writers to demonstrate the existence of a transitional period, 

 which they call mesolithic, connecting the palaeolithic and neolithic 

 periods, the theory is not generally accepted. 



Although the most numerous relics of the neolithic age are stone 

 implements, they are not by any means the only remains. Camps, hut- 

 floors, and possibly roads or trackways still remain in some parts of 

 England to testify to the civilization of the neolithic inhabitants. 



At Hitcham, in Buckinghamshire, some circular hut-floors con- 

 structed partly below the level of the ground were discovered, and whilst 

 the recorded account ' seems to suggest that they are of the bronze age, 

 the general form of the floors is strikingly like that of neolithic floors 

 elsewhere. The discovery of bronze-age pottery in and around them 

 may point to a subsequent occupation in the bronze age on the site of 

 neolithic huts. 



In the neighbourhood of Hitcham and Taplow numerous neolithic 

 implements, etc., have been discovered. These comprise flint axes, 

 lance-heads, arrow-heads, scrapers, flakes, waste chips, etc. In the 

 neighbourhood of Bledlow, which lies close to the Chiltern Hills, the 

 writer has observed numerous flint flakes and scrapers, lying on the 



1 Eighth Report of the Maidenhead and Taplow Field Club, p. 46. 



179 



