MR. W. G. CLARKE ON REMAINS OF THE NEOLITHIC AGE. 25 
III. 
REMAINS OF THE NEOLITHIC AGE IN THETFORD 
DISTRICT. 
By W. G. Clarke. 
Read 31 si January, 1905. 
In the ten years that have elapsed since I read a paper to 
the members of this Society on the subject of Prehistoric 
Man in Thetford District, my own collection of Neolithic flint 
implements has been largely increased, and I have examined 
many hundreds of other specimens found in the district, 
and tested the value of certain theories as to the local 
distribution of remains of the Neolithic Age. With but few 
exceptions these implements are found on the surface of 
existing heaths and “ brecks,” or of cultivated fields which 
were heath-land until the Enclosure Acts of about a century 
ago. The Neolithic land-surface appears to be about eighteen 
inches or two feet below the present, and on the primeval 
heath the only possibility of getting the implements results 
from the labours of rabbits and moles. On the “ brecks,” 
however, which were in most instances broken up towards 
the end of the iSth century and ceased to be cultivated when 
the price of corn made it unprofitable, the plough has trans- 
posed the ancient and modern land-surfaces, bringing to light 
large numbers of chipped flints, including a fairly large 
proportion of finished implements. There are, however, 
exceptions to this. On Rushford Heath, for example, the 
newly ploughed “ brecks ” yield no implements whatever, 
in spite of the fact that the abundance of stones makes the 
whole area appear, from a distance, as though it had been 
white-washed. Nearer the river, and not many feet above 
