MR. W. G. CLARKE ON REMAINS OF THE NEOLITHIC AGE. 2 7 
no very great rising of the waters would convert into an 
island, there appears to have been a settlement, and some 
beautiful scrapers have been found. Both north-west and 
north-east of Langmere the “ brecks ” yield a large quantity 
of chipped flints, some of good workmanship, with rough 
pottery. Several similar instances could be given. 
Though on some of the heaths in the neighbourhood there 
are depressions which may have been pit-dwellings of pre- 
historic man, yet no exploration has ever been made. On 
Santon Downham Heath, in the spring of 1896, a sheep fell 
into a pit, domeshaped and circular, excavated out of the 
sand. The sides showed distinct traces of artificial working, 
and its diameter at the base was supposed to be 12 or 16 feet, 
but so much sand fell in that accuracy is impossible. On 
the same heath are numerous similar depressions. About 
2 feet from the surface on Barnham Cross Common I found 
two heaps of fire-marked flints, probably “ pot-boilers,” and 
between them a layer about 2 inches thick containing charcoal, 
burnt bones and some small pebbles. About equi-distant 
from the piles of stones were two lumps of clay, one grey 
and the other red, the latter rarely found in the neighbour- 
hood. About 1868 numbers of bones, urns, and burnt flints 
were found on Thetford Abbey Heath with Hint, bronze, 
and iron implements. Remains of British settlements were 
also found a few years later on the field where the gasworks 
now stand, and on another adjoining Green Lane and Melford 
Common. Both are on the course of the Icknield Way. 
Probably most of the settlements in the district were of the 
character described by the Abb6 Gaillard as stations a del 
ouvertes, that is, temporary above-ground residences of 
boughs, sods of turf, and the like. At this day the sites of 
such settlements are only to be found by the quantities of 
pottery and implements on the surface. 
Among the factors which undoubtedly influenced Neolithic 
man in choosing sites for settlements, the nearness of flint, 
and the easiness of working it, must have occupied an impor- 
tant place. Even in the comparatively small area under 
notice there are certain local peculiarities which are instructive. 
