262 DR. C. B. PLOWRIGHT ON NEOLITHIC MAN IN WEST NORFOLK. 
stones may be called “hand-choppers.” Without examination by 
a trained eye they would readily enough be passed over as 
accidentally fractured stones. They consist of masses of flint 
of various sizes and irregular forms, which have received a certain 
number of blows, by which one side has been worked into a 
cutting-edge — a number of these are on the table. They have 
evidently been fashioned for some definite purpose, and as they 
occur with the other forms described above, it is most probable 
that they, also, were used for working the chalk. Such stones 
could, by a skilled hand, be fashioned in a few minutes, from 
any lump of flint that was valueless for other uses, and they would 
serve the purpose of the chalk worker as well as a more finished 
article, hence their frequent occurrence. 
Fabricating Tools or Hammer-Stones. — The stones used for 
working the flint after it had been mined, are technically called 
hammer-stones. It is generally thought that quartzite pebbles 
constituted the most frequently employed hammer-stone of the 
early flint workers. Numerous quartzite pebbles were found in 
and near the pit; they are of various sizes, many of them about 
the size of a hen’s egg. But much larger stones of great hardness, 
formed of some igneous rock, were also found ; they were probably 
employed for breaking up the large blocks of flint into convenient 
masses. So hard are these stones that the workmen are unable to 
break them with their hammers, so that they were thrown on one 
side and not converted into road-metal, as the rest of the stones 
from the pit are. The specimen on the table shows not only the 
blows given by the early users, but also the recent attempts to 
convert the stone into road-metal. 
For some processes in the fabrication of flint implements, 
nodules of flint were believed by many persons to have been 
employed. These nodules show evidence of battering upon them ; 
a specimen from the pit is on the table. 
From what has been stated above, it is highly improbable that 
this particular spot is the only one in Massingham where flint had 
been mined. Upon inquiry, moreover, amongst my friends, it 
came to my knowledge that a former clergyman of antiquarian 
proclivities, the Bev. C. Grenside, many years ago held the opinion 
that upon Massingham Heath there were traces of an ancient 
British village. Now it will be remembered that formerly the 
