SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS— H. 37 i 



as the crow flies of some 120 miles. They are closely related to the natural 

 division between highland and lowland, and are the work of the lowlanders. 



The chief work is Offa's Dyke. This is duplicated in the north of the 

 frontier by Wat's Dyke, which extends for some 30 miles. In addition, 

 short cross-valley and cross-ridge dykes are widespread in the central 

 region crossed by the main work. 



Evidence supporting the attribution of this main work to King Offa, 

 757-796, has been obtained by excavation. It is held to be probable that 

 the whole series are Mercian, and of the period c. A.D. 700-850. 



Interesting facts bearing on the distribution of forest and agricultural 

 land in the eighth century in the Welsh Marches, and on the constructional 

 technique of these running earthworks have been obtained in the course 

 of the survey and will be referred to. 



Mr. J. P. Williams- Freeman .^ — The Chichester earthworks. 



Miss G. Caton-Thompson. — Recent discoveries in Kharga Oasis. 



Field work has established a long Palaeolithic sequence covering Acheulean, 

 Acheuleo-Levallois, Middle Palaeolithic (pre-Sebilian), Aterian, Capsian 

 to Capso-Tardenoisean, and Neolithic. The pre-Sebilian is an interesting 

 and apparently new fades of Mousterian culture. These industries were 

 all found in situ, in dead springs, gravels, or silts, enabling close relative 

 dating for local physiographic stages throughout the Pleistocene. Thus 

 tufa deposits, hitherto undated in Egypt, are shown to synchronise with 

 Acheulean to pre-Sebilian times, but to extend no later. Moister conditions 

 undoubtedly prevailed from the Acheulean to Aterian (early Upper Palaeo- 

 lithic) period, when reversion to a norm of aridity, witnessed for pre-human 

 times by breccias and loess-like deposits, and suitable to lat. 25° N., becomes 

 marked. The oncoming of the dune-belts occurs between Aterian and 

 Capsian times. Neolithic man, whose great flint-mines and hearth- 

 mounds were explored, was finally driven from the depression by failure 

 of the Pleistocene springs, discovered in 1930-31 and re-examined last 

 season. The region appears to have been abandoned until the sixth 

 century B.C., when the Persians refertilised it by means of deep artesian 

 borings, and inaugurated the classical period of Kharga's prosperity. 



Tuesday, September 6. 



Mr. J. G. D. Clark. — The Mesolithic Age in Britain. 



Mr. A. Leslie Armstrong. — The pre-Tardenois and Tardenois cultures of 

 North Lincolnshire. 



Researches in North Lincolnshire have revealed a series of stratified 

 sections and occupation sites, forming a continuous sequence of industries, 

 embracing late Upper Palaeolithic and the whole of the Mesolithic periods. 

 The earliest of these is a late Developed Aurignacian (Creswellian) station, 

 discovered by Mrs. E. H. Rudkin, on the western escarpment of the 

 Lincolnshire Cliff, above Willoughton, excavated in February of this year, 

 and which yielded a wide range of characteristic tools and other evidence. 



Sheffield's Hill, near Scunthorpe, is a similar occupation site, but of later 

 date than that of Willoughton, evidencing the final phase of the native 

 Developed Aurignacian culture upon which the early Tardenois culture 

 was imposed. Risby Warren, Scunthorpe, as a result of eleven years' 



