NEOLITHIC CHIPPING-SITES 75 



Neolithic Remains on the Durham Coast. 



Neolithic remains can be traced at various points along the 

 Durham and Northumberland coast, and at several places 

 there is evidence of the existence of well defined working 

 sites. 



These appear to be the remains of true kitchen-midden or 

 coast finds, debris left by tribes of flint chippers attracted by 

 the quantity of food to be found along the shore, and as such, 

 can be present only on those parts of the coast which have 

 been protected from denudation since Neolithic times. This 

 is more particularly the case along the wide and open bay 

 stretching from Hartlepool northwards to Seaham Harbour. 

 North of this, where the magnesian limestone is very soft and 

 friable and much coast erosion takes place, I have failed to 

 find any working sites, and the flakes only occur very 

 sparingly. The implements also differ in many aspects, as I 

 shall show, from those described from the fells of the western 

 parts of the county. 



Several of the finds, together with figures of some of the 

 implements, appeared in the "Naturalist" for 1904 and 1905, 

 and I propose here to give a resume and extension of my 

 research in this district. 



Between Seaton Carew and West Hartlepool a kitchen- 

 midden of Romano-British times occurs which has yielded 

 some flint fragments, in addition to remains such as a Roman 

 fibula, Samian pottery, etc. I have to record a curious flake 

 i^- inches in length worked round the edges to a somewhat 

 crescent-shaped outline. The site of the kitchen-midden is 

 now covered up. 



On the promontory of Hartlepool, which seems to have 

 undergone much denudation since historical times, I have 

 failed to find any traces of flint remains. 



Between Hartlepool and the mouth of Crimden beck, about 

 three miles, the coast is covered with ballast and sandbanks, 

 and it is hopeless to look for prehistoric remains. 



