Vol. 54.] IMPLEMENTS FROM THE PLATEAr-GEAVELS. 291 



24. On some Paleolithic Implements from the Plateaf-Geavels, 

 and their Evidence concerning * Eolithic' Man. By William 

 Cunnington, Esq., F.G.S. (Eead April 6tli, 1898.) 



[Abridged.] 



Since the publication of the late Sir Joseph Prestwich's series of 

 papers (1889-1896) on the chipped flints found by Mr. Benjamin 

 Harrison on the Chalk-plateau of Western Kent, these specimens 

 have attracted wide attention. For it was conclusively shown in 

 those papers that the chipped flints came from a gravel which was 

 much earlier than the gravels containing Palaeolithic implements in 

 the valleys of the existing rivers of the district. A British Chalk- 

 plateau, in a period of intense cold or of on-coming cold, would 

 hardly afford a comfortable cradle to the human race ; and though 

 Kent was not claimed as man's birthplace, it was held that the 

 chipped flints of that county were the earliest and most primitive 

 known specimens of his handiwork. 



The enormous antiquity of these chipped flints was deduced, in 

 the first place, from the stratigraphical relations of the gravel where 

 they occur, which was referred to the Pliocene.^ The gravels are 

 part of Prestwich's ' Southern Drift,' and were formed before the 

 erosion of the Daren t gorge or of the transverse Ightham valley. 

 The plateau-gravels are therefore older than the existing river- 

 system ; but at present there is no evidence whatever to show that 

 they are of pre-Pleistocene age. 



The main claim of the plateau-flints to notice rests on the 

 assumption that the chipping is of so primitive a character that it 

 cannot be the work of the skilled flint-flakers of the Palaeolithic 

 age. These chipped flints have accordingly been held to represent 

 the first crude attempts by man to fashion stone into serviceable 

 form.^ They have therefore been named ' Eoliths.' 



Fortunately the study of the flints has not been hampered hy 

 paucity of material. Their number is enormous. Mr. Harrison, 

 for example, collected over 2000 specimens between 1892 and 

 September 1894.^ Sir Joseph Prestwich figured a large series, 

 which may be divided into two sets — flaked Palaeolithic implements 

 and chipped ' Eoliths.' The former were not found in situ, and in 

 some cases ^ were of a colour different from that of the plateau-flints ; 

 but it is only flints of the plateau-coloured type that we need consider : 

 the rest may be dismissed as specimens of a later date, which had 

 fallen upon the surface of the^plateau-gravel, or have been found in 



1 Prestwich, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xlvii (1891) p. 129. 



2 Proc. G-eol. Assoc, vol. xiii (1893) p. 162. 



^ Prestwich, * Coll. Papers on Controv. Questions in (3t-eology,' Lojidon 1895, 

 p. 50. 



'^ Ibid. p. 64. 



