THE IPSWICH MAN 
19 
mid-glacial sands below. He and those who worked 
with him satisfied themselves that the overlying stratum 
was continuous and unbroken. We have already seen 
the measures he took to prove the continuity of the 
stratum with the main sheet of chalky boulder clay. 
We now turn to the skeleton itself to see what 
evidence may be obtained of its antiquity by a close 
examination of its state of preservation and of its 
structure. When the blocks of matrix containing the 
fragmentary remains of the skeleton came to the 
museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, v/e set to 
work and slowly dissected away the boulder clay, leaving 
the fragments implanted on a matrix of glacial sands. 
By placing the blocks together it was easy to reconstruct 
the original posture of the skeleton. From fig. 76 it 
will be seen that a whole skeleton was represented, and 
that it was placed on the right side in the ultra-contracted 
posture. We have already discussed the significance 
which is usually attached to the discovery of a complete 
human skeleton, with all . the parts in their natural 
position. The most reasonable explanation is to suppose 
that it has been placed where found by burial. In this 
case, unfortunately, we have no clear idea of the con- 
ditions under which the chalky boulder clay was deposited 
— whether in deep water or on an old land surface. If, 
as Mr Moir supposes, it was laid down on an old land 
surface, then it is possible that the burial was made from 
that surface. At least it was not made from the present 
land surface, for the overlying stratum was intact. The 
contracted posture scarcely helps us in fixing a date. 
Contracted burials occur at all periods — -Neolithic and 
Palaeolithic. It will thus be seen that it is necessary to 
believe, if a pre-boulder clay date is accepted, that the 
custom of burial may even go back to the earliest part 
of the Pleistocene period. 
Nothing was found with or near the skeleton to give 
a clue to date. If the conditions were such as to secure 
the preservation of a human skeleton, it is also probable 
that remains of animals of the same period should be 
