122 me. c. dawson on the discoveey oe [March 1 9 13, 



Flint-Implements. 



The brown flints appear to be in every way similar to the 

 plateau flints of Ightham (Kent), and generally to those of the 

 High-Plateau gravels of the North and (South Downs. Thera is 

 the same appearance of tabular and prismatic structure, ' frost 

 fractures,' thick iron-stained patina, and often the same tendency 

 to assume the well-known 'Eolithic' forms (PI. XVII). There 

 ■also occur more occasionally certain brilliantly-coloured iron-red 

 flints, presumably more highly oxidized than the prevailing flints, 

 which are of a brown colour. Among the flints Ave found several 

 undoubted flint-implements, 1 besides numerous ' Eoliths.' The 

 workmanship of the former (PI. XVI) is similar to that of the 

 'Chellean or pre-Chellean stage"; but in the majority of the Piltdown 

 specimens the work appears chiefly on one face of the implements. 

 They have been very slightly rolled or worn, and, although iron- 

 stained, their patina is not so strong and thick as that of the 

 other flints in the bed. Their form is thick, and the flaking is 

 broad and sparing, the original ' bark,' or surface, of the flint, 

 frequently remaining at the grasp, the whole implement thus 

 having a very rude and massive form. Some of them were found 

 on the surface of a ploughed field adjacent to the gravel-bed, 

 which is also strewn with brown and red flints ; but, on the 

 surface of the neighbouring plough-lands there occur, in places, 

 flint-implements of various ages, all more or less stained with the 

 iron which abounds in this part of the Weald. In our plates we 

 have confined ourselves to the representation of flints found in the 

 gravel-pit at Piltdown. 



As to the ' Eoliths,' 3 it is necessary to speak of them with due 

 reserve and caution. The commonest types belong to the 'borer' 

 and ' hollow-scraper ' forms. They occur both in the gravel-bed 

 and on the surface of the plough-lands, and are found in both a 

 rolled and an unrolled (or very slightly rolled) condition. PI. XVII 



1 Father P. Teilhard, S.J., who accompanied us on one occasion, discovered 

 one of the implements (PL XVI, fig. 2) in situ in the middle stratum of the 

 gravel-bed, also a portion of the tooth of a Pliocene elephant (PL XXI, fig. 2) 

 from the lowest bed. 



2 Implements of this stage are difficult to classify with certainty, owing to 

 the rudeness of their workmanship. The Piltdown specimens may be com- 

 pared with an example from Chelles, figured in Piette's ' L'Art pendant l'Age 

 du Renne ' p. 36. They resemble certain rude implements occasionally found 

 on the surface of the Chalk Downs near Lewes, which are not iron-stained. 



3 The flints, which so nearly resemble those of the plateau gravels of the 

 North Downs, occur sporadically over the South Downs and over many of 

 the older rocks of the Weald. They have lately been discovered in the fields 

 close to the signal-station at Fairlight Down on the summit of the Wealden 

 Anticline (base of the Ashdown Beds and top of the Fairlight Clay) by 

 Mr. W. Ruskin Bntterfield, of the Hastings Museum. They occur in the 

 surface-deposits only, mingled with Neolithic implements and certain iron- 

 stained implements which Mr. Reginald Smith, F.S.A., identifies with the 

 early cave types. The last-named are not rolled. Mr. Lewis Abbott, F.G.S., 

 has given considerable attention to this subject, and possesses a large series of 

 implements which we may hope will some day be described in detail. 



