X PEOCEEDIXGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [April 1914, 



If archaeology is ever to become a science, it will be by dividing 

 the objects discovered into three groups : — (a) those unmistakably 

 proved to be of human origin, and of clearly-defined geological date ; 

 (b) those which are non-proven, and go to ' the suspense account ' 

 suggested by the late Lord Avebury ; and (c) those which are not 

 worth further consideration, and may be thrown on the refuse- 

 heap. The first group alone can be used for scientific purposes, 

 and in illustration of the last we may take the flint-nodules simu- 

 lating quadrupeds, birds, and fishes, considered by Auberon Herbert 

 and others as the work of Palaeolithic Man. 



Mr. J. R. Mont emphasized the difference in f orm and flaking of 

 the flints from the sub-Red Crag detritus-bed, the Middle Glacial 

 gravel, Chalky Boulder Clay, and Glacial gravel. He added that, 

 if Man had not been the producing agent responsible for these 

 specimens, then it must be supposed that Nature had broken flints 

 in distinct and different manners at different periods in the past — 

 a view which he was quite unable to entertain. 



The speaker explained how it was possible to produce a true 

 rostro-carinate implement by the ordinary process of flint-flaking, 

 and asked those who believed Nature to have been responsible for 

 these forms to produce, by some unguided natural force, flaked 

 flints which would also simulate the true rostro-carinate t} r pe. This, 

 however, they had, up to the present, been quite unable to do. 



He dealt with the specimens exhibited by Prof. Sollas, and found 

 b} T him on the beach at Selsey Bill. The speaker explained how, 

 after a visit to this site, he had noticed that many of the flints 

 there, which are apparently of different ages, were in process of 

 disintegration, and were easily broken up by the waves. The 

 fractures thus produced were entirely unlike those formed by 

 human blows ; and, though he was of opinion that some of the 

 Selsey flints were humanly shaped, none of them showed the same 

 form of flaking as the true rostro-carinate implements that were 

 exhibited. 



Regarding the geological position of the flints claimed to be of 

 pre-Red Crag age, he wished it to be known that flaked specimens, 

 of exactly the same order as those found first at Messrs. Bolton & 

 Laughlin's pit, had now been found beneath undisturbed shelly Red 

 Crag at Thorington Hall, the Back Hamlet (Ipswich), Greenwich 

 Farm (Ipswich), Marblesham near Woodbridge, and at Sutton in 

 East Suffolk. 



The statement that the decalcified Crag at Messrs. Bolton & 

 Laughlin's pit was undisturbed and in its original position, though 

 supported by Mr. W. Whitaker and Dr. Marr, had been disputed 

 by some Ipswich geologists; but the speaker persisted in holding 

 the view that the Crag at this spot was in situ. 



To anyone familiar with the sub-Crag flints, it was quite obvious 

 that those found in Messrs. Bolton & Laughlin's pit could only 

 have come from the sub-Cras; detritus-bed. The suggestion that, 

 because the London Clay at this pit had been contorted by pressure, 

 this pressure had been able to act through the fine sand overlying 



