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PREHISTORIC MAN IN SUSSEX. 



The following communication was read before the Geological 

 Society of London on December 18th, 1912* : — " On the Discovery 

 of a Palaeolithic Human Skull and Mandible in a Flint-bearing 

 Gravel overlying the Wealden (Hastings Beds) at Piltdown, Fletching 

 (Sussex)." By Charles Dawson, F.S.A., F.G.S., and Aethur Smith 

 Woodward, L.L.D., F.R.S., Sec.G.S. With an Appendix by Prof. 

 G. Elliot Smith, M.D., F.R.S. 



The gravel in which the discovery was made occurs in a field near 

 Piltdown Common, in the parish of Eletching (Sussex), and is de- 

 scribed by the first author. In the section exposed it is about 4 ft. 

 thick. It consists, for the greater part, of waterworn fragments of 

 Wealden ironstone and sandstone, with occasional pebbles of chert, 

 probably from the Greensand, and a considerable proportion of 

 chalk-flints, which are also waterworn, all deeply stained with oxide 

 of iron, and most of them tabular in shape. The human skull was 

 originally found by workmen, broken up by them, and most of the 

 pieces thrown away on the spot. As many fragments as possible 

 were recovered by the authors, and half of a human mandible was 

 also obtained by the first author from a patch of undisturbed gravel 

 close to the place where the skull occurred. Two broken pieces of the 

 molar of a Pliocene type of Elephant and a much-rolled cusp of a 

 molar of Mastodon were also found, besides teeth of Hijipopotamus 

 Castor, and Equus, and a fragment of an antler of Cervus elaphus. 

 Like the human skull and mandible, all these fossils are well minera- 

 lized with oxide of iron. Many of the waterworn iron-stained flints 

 closely resemble the " eoliths " from the North Downs, near Ightham. 

 Mingled with them were found a few Palaeolithic implements of the 

 characteristic Chellean type. The gravel at Piltdown rests upon a 

 plateau 80 ft. above the River Ouse, and at a distance of less than a 

 mile to the north of the existing stream. It appears to cover several 

 acres, but at the same level on the opposite (south) side of the river 

 it is represented only by scattered flints. Numerous iron-stained 

 tabular flints, like those of the Piltdown gravel, have been found in 

 the basin of the Ouse between the chalk escarpment and Sheffield 

 Park, and between this escarpment and Uckfield. As they are iden- 

 tical with the flints well known in the plateau deposits of the North 

 and South Downs, it may be assumed that they have been derived 

 from a plane formerly existing between those two points. 



The human skull and mandible, and the associated fossils, are 

 described by the second author. The skull (which unfortunately 

 lacks the bones of the face) exhibits all the essential features of the 

 genus Homo, with a brain capacity of not less than 1070 c.c, but 

 possibly a little more. It measures about 190 mm. in length from 



* 'Abstracts of the Proceedings,' No. 932. 

 Zool. Uh ser, vol XVII., January, 1913. D 



