2i6 Neolithic Settlement near Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire. 



being driven hither and thither by the varying winds, has 

 been heaped into hummocky hillocks and hollows, somewhat 

 resembling the sand dunes of the sea coast. A few scattered 

 trees, chiefly elder, maintain a precarious existence before 

 eventually succumbing to the undermining of their roots by 

 the wind and rain, which are gradually removing the loose, 

 sandy surface to the valleys below. Bracken is the chief 

 cover of the higher ground, where rabbits abound. Lower 

 down, thick with rushes and mosses, are marshy levels and 

 shallow pools, the haunt of the moor hen and black-headed 

 gull. 



Underneath the yellow svirface sand of the ' Camp ' is a 

 layer of dark peaty sand, from which most of the flint imple- 

 ments are obtained, and when this in its turn is removed in 

 the general denudation, patches of loose Oohtic rubble are 

 exposed. 



Crossing the plan is a long bank or wall. This earthwork 

 is composed mainly of Oolitic debris, and considerable numbers 

 of implements have been picked up from its sloping sides. 

 The large circular mould just outside the wall is roughly about 

 seventeen yards in diameter by about five feet high. It is 

 remarkable for the quantities of rough implements of white 

 flint which are from time to time exposed, and these are of 

 quite a different character from any found elsewhere on this 

 settlement, being of an altogether rougher type. Both the 

 earthworks in question are undoubtedly of artificial origin, 

 but the writer prefers not to speculate as to the time or nature 

 of their construction. 



The outlook, from a defensive point of view, could not be 

 much better. On the one hand are extensive views of the 

 Ancholme Valley as far as .South Ferriby and Brough on the 

 Humber, and on the other is an uninterrupted view right across 

 the shelving plain formed by the Frodingham Ironstone to its 

 outcrop above the river Trent. The steep hill on the western 

 side would be an important factor in the successful defence of 

 the place. 



The whole district for several miles around Scunthorpe is 

 fairly rich in Neolithic implements, but these occur chieflj^ 

 as isolated, finished flints, whereas the Risby Warren site is 

 notable for the large numbers of cores and flakes which are 

 obtained. There can be little doubt that this settlement was 

 to all intents and purposes a factory which supplied the sur- 

 rounding country with warlike and domestic implements, and 

 evidently each man, or group of men, specialised in a particular 

 t\'-pe of implement. One individual was apparently a veritable 

 artist in the manufacture .;f ' Thumb-flints,' another turned 

 out quantities of delicate, pointed borers, and yet another 

 fashioned rough scrapers of quite a different type. The writer 



Naturalist, 



