THE 



GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE 



NEW SERIES. DECADE VI. ?$L. r VI. 



ffo. II.— FEBRUARY, 1919\ fy d ^ 



I. — On some Paleolithic Flake-implements from the High Level 

 Terraces of the Thames Valley. 



By Henry Dewey, F.G.S., of H.M. Geological Survey. 

 (PLATE II.) 



OYER most of North -We stem Europe the occurrence of river- 

 terrace deposits containing Palaeolithic implements has been 

 long known, and the establishment of a sequence of forms among 

 these implements has resulted from the researches of Continental, 

 and especially of French archaeologists. With the pioneer work the 

 name of M. Boucher de Perthes, 1 of Amiens, will always be associated. 

 His was the task of convincing unwilling minds of the human work- 

 manship of the ancient flint-weapons found in the gravel-pits of the 

 Somme Valley. For the next great advance we owe a debt of 

 gratitude to another French savant, the late Professor Victor 

 Commont, 2 for his life-work was the taking up of the researches of 

 his predecessor and establishing the sequence of cultural types and 

 their relative chronology. 3 



Flint implements of the same forms had long been known to 

 occur in the gravels of the Thames Valley; but as their precise 

 stratigraphical position had never been ascertained, it was held 

 generally that the several forms occurred on one and the same 

 horizon. This assumption, based on careless collecting, became a 

 strong prejudice in the minds of some archaeologists, but no efforts 

 were made to test by proper investigations the truth of the 

 hypothesis they held. In view of the conclusions arrived at by 

 the Continental authorities, however, it was certainly desirable to 

 examine at home the validity of the stages of palaeolithic culture 

 they had found to hold good abroad. 4 Some investigations were 

 therefore undertaken in the years 1912, 1913, and 1914, by the 

 Geological Survey and the British Museum, in co-operation, at 



1 De Vindustrie antiquities Celtiques et AnUdiluviennes, Paris, 1847. 



2 L' Anthropologie, xix, pp. 527-72, 1908 ; Compte rendu de V Association 

 Frangaise, 1908, pp. 634-45 ; Assoc. Preliist. Gongres de Lille, 1909, p. 437 ; 

 Revue pre~historique, 1909, No. 10 ; Bull. Arch., 1911, p. 27 ; Congres inter- 

 national d'A? thropologie, xiv, p. 240, 1912. 



3 The names of Prestwich and Lyell, and later those of Messrs. Spurrell, 

 W. Smith, Kennard, Leach, and Chandler, should, however, be mentioned in 

 connexion with the advance in scientific classification of the Palaeolithic 

 periods. 



4 These stages are in descending order: Azilian, Magdalenian, Solutrean, 

 Aurignacian, Moustierian, Acheulian, Chellean, Strepyan. 



DECADE VI. — VOL. VI. — NO. II. 4 



