134 PROF. PEESTWICH ON" THR AGE, FOEMATIOX, AND 



Lane, and a few better made specimens occur at Ash. Some might 

 pass as specimens of the valley-drifts, but there is so far an almost 

 entire absence of the highly-finished spear-head forms so common 

 at those levels *. Nineteen out of twenty or more are rude ill- 

 shapen stained flints with a small amount of work at the edges. 

 Those figured in Plate YIII. are characteristic forms typical of this 

 plateau-group. (See Explanation of Plate, p. 160 t.) 



Pig. 1 in that Plate is merely the broken half of a Tertiary 

 flint-pebble slightly trimmed at the edges for cutting or chip- 

 ping. Another common form (fig. 2) is a piece of tabular or flat 

 flint with flat edges, notched as though it had been used for 

 breaking or shaping other flints. Others (fig. 3) are rude or 

 natural flakes J worked at the end for graving and scraping. Fig, 4 

 is a thick natural flake chipped at the edges and brought to a point ; 

 this specimen is interesting, as the type out of which the more 

 highlj'-worked pointed implements so common in the later valley- 

 drifts would seem to have been evolved. A very common form is a 

 scraper in the shape of a crook, sometimes single (fig. 5), sometimes 

 double (fig. 6), such as might have been used for scraping round 

 surfaces like bones or sticks. There are other forms besides, 

 but, with the few exceptions before mentioned, they are all merely 

 rough natural fragments, picked out of the gravel, and more or 

 less worked at the edges to adapt them to the simple wants of a 

 people who seem at that time to have hardly been acquainted 

 with the art of obtaining flints direct from the Chalk, as was done 

 in later Paloeolithic times. Such specimens exhibit the very 

 rudiments of artificial work, and are often difficult to distinguish 

 from natural forms. The interest which attaches to them is that 

 they point to the very infancy of the ajt, and the application 

 of the most common and readily available surface-materials to the 

 fashioning of tools or weapons for use by early Palaeolithic man. 



It may be objected that the sites in the valleys of the Somme, 

 Thames, &c., yielded so many finished specimens that the ruder forms 

 have been overlooked ; but this does not apply to those in this 

 district, where the valley-specimens and plateau-specimens have 

 received equal attention at the hands of Mr. A. M. Bell and Mr. 

 Harrison, and none, however rude, have been rejected. Each series 

 is completely represented in every respect. 



The peculiarity of type by itself might not be sufficient, but taken 

 in conjunction with the geological evidence, and subject to the 

 reservation before mentioned, the evidence in favour of the great 



* I see no force in the objection that, because a few rare well-finished speci- 

 mens are found, the whole group must be judged by them. It only shows that 

 there were a few superior workmen among the xmskilled many. The suggestion 

 that similar rude specimens may be found in the valley-gravels is at present 

 without any proof. 



t Both the rude implements and the brown natural flints with which they 

 are associated are so alike stained, worn, and abraded, that it has even occurred 

 to me whether they might not all have been washed down together Irom the 

 old Wealden uplands. 



I Artificial flakes are extremely rare on the Chalk Plateau. This implies the 

 use of natural fragments, as the breaking down of blocks of flint from the 

 Chalk would have led to scattered heaps of waste fragments and flakes. 



