MR. W. G. CI.ARKE ON REMAINS OF THE NEOLITHIC AGE. 29 
there can be no question, and this would seem to imply that 
the flint from which they are made was dug in the vicinity. 
Where quarried flint was not obtainable, and flint pebbles 
from the boulder clay and the margins of the streams had to 
be utilised, the chipping is far inferior. This is noticeable 
in many districts of Norfolk and Suffolk. The possibility most 
in harmony with the facts is that the weathering of several 
thousand years may have so altered the appearance of the 
flint that the present blue or yellow semi-transparent imple- 
ments may originally have been black and opaque. Evidence 
in support of this is furnished by the rechipped implements 
which number 23. Not included among these is a large 
implement, presumably an axe, which I found on Peddar’s 
Way at Fring. On this the early chipping seems, undoubtedly, 
to be Paleolithic, and the later Neolithic. On those from 
Thetford district all the chipping is certainly Neolithic. These 
implements were probably worked early in the Neolithic period, 
lost or discarded, and then weathered by very many centuries 
of exposure, with the result that a thin coating, different in 
colour to the body of the flint was formed on the surface. 
Neolithic man subsequently found them again and partially 
rechipped them. Since they were rechipped, in most cases 
there has not been the slightest weathering, the obvious 
inference being that the lapse of time between their first and 
second chippings must have been immeasurably greater than 
that between their second chipping and the present time. 
This is quite possible if we accept the duration of the Neolithic 
Age as approximately from 20.000 B.c. to 2000 R.c. 
Where such perfection could be obtained by chipping, 
polished implements are rare. In 1830 two polished axes 
were found at Barnham, and preserved on account of their 
curious shape ; a polished adze is figured in Hunt’s ‘ Ancient 
Capital of East Anglia,’ while in Evans’ ‘ Ancient Stone 
Implements of Great Britain,’ fig. 37 is of an axe ground 
at the edge only, and found at Thetford, and fig. 43 repre- 
sents a Santon Downham axe, the sides of which were slightly 
rounded by grinding. Mr. E. M. Beloc (King’s Lynn) has 
a polished axe from Thetford, and two from Thetford Warren, 
