Eev. B. A. Bullen — Eoliths from S. Sf S.W. England. 103 



On the gravelly soils, and in the gravels of certain areas of the 

 Chalk Plateau above Ightham, have been found some deeply stained 

 implements, of either the same kind as those of St. Acheul or those 

 of Chelles in France, " for the most part of oval or ovate forms, but 

 not unfrequently pointed." ^ 



M. Morfcillet regarded this gravel at Chelles as a high-level river- 

 drift, equal to the oldest of St. Acheul (see also C. H. Eead's " Guide 

 to the Antiquities of the Stone Age," British Museum, 1902, p. 9). 

 It may be noticed that two of these ovoidal implements from the 

 Chalk Plateau are figured by Professor Prestwich in his " Contro- 

 verted Questions, etc.," 1895, pi. xi, figs. 38 and 39, which are 

 referred to by him as being of the St. Acheul type, but either shaped 

 by the same people that made the plateau specimens, by individual 

 progress in the art of shaping tools, or probably by some later valley 

 folk passing over the hills and dropping their weapons and tools 

 (p. 64) .2 



Associated with these implements there occur very abundantly 

 on the Chalk Plateau, as carefully exploited by Mr. B, Harrison, 

 other flints of definite shapes, and deeply coloured, known as 

 'eoliths' and 'old brownies,' which have been subject to much 

 diversity of opinion among some, especially inexperienced observers. 

 In certain localities, these probably earlier implements occur 

 without being associated with the large ovate forms. 



II. Character of the Eoliths. 



The general features of the eoliths,^ as we shall continue to 

 designate these ruder and earlier forms, are well marked and 

 distinct. 



They are made of flint flakes (sometimes tabular), probably broken 

 off by natural forces, but some are formed of split Eocene pebbles. 

 They rarely show the bulb of percussion. Advantage has been 

 taken by the original worker of natural curves, concave or convex, 

 and these have been modified by well-defined small flakings. In 

 some cases smaller flakes have modified these; in many instances 

 the edges have been further modified by local pressure being used 

 (which we may distinguish as abrasion), or in other cases the edge 

 has been rubbed and rounded by contusion with other flints in the 

 ordinary course of trituration or wearing away by rolling in a river 

 bed, or in a rough downward passage from higher to lower ground. 



The edges of many of the eoliths discovered by Dr. Blackmore in 

 Wiltshire are quite sharp, and cannot have travelled far. I have 

 also one from Hinton Admiral Common, Hants, and another from 



1 Evans: " Ancient Stone Implements," 1897, 2nd ed., p. 608. 



2 I have in my collection one such deeply stained ochreous specimen from Currie 

 Farm, Kent (fig. 6 of pi. xxi, PrestAvich, ' ' Primitive Characters, etc. , " p. 246) . Two 

 others, one ovate (St. Acheul type), and the other (referred to by Prestwich, " Drift 

 Stages, etc.," p. 133) of the sharp-pointed high-level type, with massive butt (tip 

 broken off), are both white and patinated, and are the implements referred to in 

 the text. 



^ They have been termed ' plateauliths ' by Mr. Lewis Abbott. 



