from High Level Terraces of Thames Valley. 51 



sufficed to prove that there was a sequence of palaeolithic types 

 corresponding to a succession of Pleistocene deposits. 



The beds of the lower gravel contained many large flakes without 

 secondary working, and a few cylindrical nodules either chipped 

 into a chisel edge or roughly pointed at one end. These resemble 

 some of the implements discovered by Dr. A. Rutot from a locality 

 known as Strepy, in Belgium. No true palaeolithic implements, 

 however, were found in this gravel. 



The Midole Gravel contained a large number of true implements, 

 those found near the base being of rougher workmanship than the 

 smaller number lying at the higher levels. From the lower part 

 nearly all were of "pear" shape, many carefully worked and devoid 

 of cortex, while others were rougher, with much cortex remaining 

 at the butt end. There was also a large number of chips and flakes 

 without signs of trimming or usage, many closely resembling, except 

 in size, the flakes from the Lower Gravel. Only four worked 

 scrapers were afterwards found at this horizon, two round scrapers 

 and two pointed forms (see PI. II, Figs. 1, 3, 5, 6). None of the 

 implements shows the slightest mark of abrasion, a fact which seems 

 to indicate that they had not travelled far, but had rather been 

 dropped into the river somewhere in the neighbourhood during the 

 time the gravel was collecting. They are strictly contemporaneous, 

 therefore, with the gravel and not derived from an older source. 

 Moreover, as no forms characteristic of higher levels occurred with 

 them the gravel in question may be assigned to one period. 



In the Upper Gravel no implements were found, but the workmen 

 stated that implements of ovate form and white patination had been 

 found in the clay of this gravel-bed. On the eastern side of a road 

 (Craylands Lane) bounding the Barnfield Pit, a small gravel-working 

 had been opened. This deposit, which lies at a slightly higher level 

 than most of the Middle Gravel, is current-bedded and overlain by 

 even-bedded gravel with clots of clay and pebbles filling channels in 

 its surface. 



At the top of the current-bedded gravel some sixteen implements 

 have been found. They are all ovates, most with the edge curved 

 like a reversed S and patinated white. In other words, they are 

 typical St. Acheul forms, and being practically unrolled must be 

 contemporaneous with the gravel in which they were discovered. 



All these deposits lie on a widespread terrace-platform cut by the 

 Thames in the Chalk and Thanet Sand. The base of the Pleistocene 

 beds is about 90 feet above the Ordnance Survey datum, and the 

 deposits are described as those of the 100 ft. terrace of the Thames. 



To summarize the evidence derived from these stone implements 

 for a complete "Drift" sequence in the deposits of this terrace it 

 has been seen that the lowest gravel contains nd true palaeolithic 

 form. In the Middle Gravel all the forms may be assigned to the 

 Chelles type of the Somme Valley, and especially to those of the 

 lower series at St. Acheul. • ■' ' 



The small collection of ovate forms from the pit east of Craylands 

 Lane can be assigned provisionally to the St.. Acheul type, as they 

 are all of ovate form ; sevei'al have a characteristic pronounced twist 



