264 DR. C. B. PLOWRIGHT ON NEOLITHIC MAN IN WEST NORFOLK. 
considerably greater in their recent state than it now is, affords 
convincing evidence to the contrary. These hollows are so large 
and so scattered that they could hardly have suggested the idea of 
a village to any one’s mind ; neither are they sufficiently numerous 
to have attracted attention had it not been for the flakes and 
worked stones brought to light by the working of the pit first 
mentioned. Dr. Brown and myself tramped about the common, 
which is an extensive one, on several occasions, in search of traces 
of the so-called village without success. One afternoon, however, 
we were led by a happy accident to the object of our search. It 
was during the winter, after we had measured the above-described 
depressions, standing on the higher ground, on the north side of 
the Grimston road, that we saw by the slanting rays of the 
setting sun a number of hollows on the south side of the road. 
The sun had sunk just low enough to cause the edge of each 
hollow to cast a shadow into its interior. Plainly displayed before 
us, on the opposite hill, were a number of round shadows, which 
marked the objects of our search. These consisted of a cluster of 
about a dozen small round depressions, from fifteen to twenty feet 
across, not more than a foot or two deep, occupying the summit 
of a small eminence, within a hundred yards of the main road 
from Grimston to Great Massingham : this eminence is on the 
south side of the road, and is the first high ground approaching 
the road beyond Little Massingham Belt, on the road from Lynn 
to Great Massingham. I have taken the opportunity of visiting 
other sites of acknowledged ancient British villages for the 
purpose of comparison — notably those on the Dunstable Downs, 
where my friend Mr. Worthington G. Smith, who kindly piloted me, 
has opened several of these hut-dwellings. As far as one can 
judge from external appearance the hollows are identical. It is 
quite possible that the inhabitants of this village were the same 
men who chipped the flints they had previously mined from the 
before-mentioned shafts. At present the traces of the village are 
plain enough ; but there may come a time when the plough of the 
agriculturist, in one short day, will obliterate this interesting relic 
of the past. May this day be long distant ! 
P.S. — The figures are to scale one-half the natural size, from figures 
by my friend Mr. Worthington G. Smith. 
