362 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— H. 



in Palaeolithic times as well as in many cases in the succeeding prehistoric periods ; 

 but as yet the scientific excavation of the caves has not proceeded very far and the 

 evidence of occupation is often at present based on more or less haphazard excavations. 



The succeeding Neolithic period is so far but poorly represented until we come to 

 the closing phase of the age, but this lack of evidence is almost certainly due to want 

 of excavation, and work now proceeding is beginning to yield a firm basis for further 

 research. 



In the Bronze Age the top of the Mendips was densely populated, so densely in 

 fact that it rivals even Wiltshire, but here again much further excavation is needed 

 in order to get a full history of the occupation during this period. 



In the Iron Age the population apparently increased still further, for every possible 

 cave yields remains either of the pure Iron Age or of Romano-British times. Man is 

 using every available site for living purposes and is even spreading down into the 

 valleys and low-lying marshy moors. 



Thus it is seen that the Mendips were extensively occupied from Palaeolithic times 

 onwards through the succeeding ages up to the coming of the Romans, at which point 

 our survey ends. 



Mr. Herbert Taylor. — Excavation of King Arthur's Cave, near Whit- 

 church, in the Wye Valley. 



Intact portions of the deposits of King Arthur's Cave excavated by the University 

 of Bristol Spelaeological Society have yielded a sequence in fauna and industry from 

 Final Aurignacian or Proto-Solutrean to a late phase of the Palaeolithic. 



In a passage a deposit, probably the Upper Cave Earth of the Rev. W. S. Sj'monds, 

 lay directly upon the limestone floor and contained a small hearth ; a fauna including 

 Rhinoceros tichorinus, Cervus sps., Hyaena spelaea — all very common- — Equus sp., 

 Elephas primigenius, Bos sp., Ursus sp. ; and an Aurignaco-Solutrean industry. 



At the mouth, upon yellow clay formerly continuous with the cave contents, was 

 a talus of angular fragments of limestone. 



At its base the fauna was similar to the above, at its centre predominantly 

 microtine, and at its surface cervine, including rarely the reindeer. Besides scanty 

 industrial remains throughout the rubble contained two hearth-levels, one near the 

 base, one at the surface beneath about a foot of humus. The industry of the lower 

 approximates to that of the hearth in the passage ; that of the upper, characterised 

 by gravette-like pygmy implements and gravette points incompletely retouched and 

 sometimes shouldered, is probably comparable with that of the Base and Lower 

 Middle Zones of Mother Grundy's Parlour. 



Monday, September 5. 



Dr. J. P. Hutton. — The Significance of Head-Hunting in Assam. 



A recently published and authoritative work on Borneo suggests that the origin 

 of head-hunting in that island may be due to a desire for human hair as ornament 

 or for human beings to accompany the dead in the next world. These alternatives 

 suggest that the real significance of head-hunting in the Indonesian area is as yet 

 imperfectly understood, and the practice in Assam may throw light on the whole 

 question. 



It can be demonstrated that in the Naga Hills the souls of the dead are regarded 

 as fertilising agents for the soil, for stock and for the human population, and practices 

 connected with head-hunting go to show that this custom also is founded on the same 

 underlying belief as the customs which govern the disposal of the dead. 



In order to assist the fertilising powers of the dead, phallic stones are erected 

 either as symbolic abiding places for the soul or, more probably, as actual media for 

 the soul's exercise of its fertilising powers, and similar phallic stones are intimately 

 connected with head-hunting, the soul being apparently transferred from the head 

 to an erect stone as it is in some cases from the head of a deceased relative to a wooden 

 statue of the same. 



Head-hunting is a widespread practice, and it is possible that the custom elsewhere 

 has been based on a similar theory of the soul. 



Miss W. S. Blackman. — The Modern Egyptian Medicine Man. 



