DISCOVERY OF THE PILTDOWN SKULL 301 
before even the Miocene period began ; it is supposed 
to have been dislodged from some ancient stratum and 
redeposited here during the denudation of the Weald. 
More remarkable still, Dr Smith Woodward was able 
to identify two unrolled fragments of a molar tooth 
belonging to Stegodon — a form of elephant whose 
remains are known to occur in Indian deposits of the 
Pliocene period, but never before found in Western 
Europe. The shallow pocket of gravel at Piltdown, 
Sussex, yielded not only a new form of man, but an 
elephant which was new to the fauna of ancient England. 
The same stratum also yielded portions of two teeth 
of a hippopotamus, and two molar teeth of a beaver 
which has not yet been found in deposits older than the 
Pleistocene. The beaver may have been in existence 
during the Miocene period, but we have no evidence 
of that. The contents of the pocket of gravel at 
Piltdown was a surprise to geologists. The animal 
remains indicate that the bottom layer of gravel was 
laid down in the Pliocene period — a very remote age 
if we try to count by years. 
In the gravel, just above the bottom or dark layer, 
were found worked flints of a more highly evolved type 
than eoliths. They are not stained brown as are the 
eoliths, but are " brilliantly coloured iron-red." Mr 
Dawson regards them as belonging to that stage of 
Palaeolithic culture known as the " Chellean," or to an 
indefinite and older period, which saw the early evolution 
of the Chellean culture — the " pre-Chellean." Now, as 
we have already seen, the Chellean period of culture is 
assigned to the middle third — to an early part of the 
midcile third — of the Pleistocene period. It has to be 
noted, however, that these flints did not occur in the 
bottom layer in which the human and animal remains 
were found ; they are not stained dark brown as are the 
eoliths and bones. Mr Lewis Abbot, whose opinion in 
all that pertains to the geology of the Weald deserves 
serious consideration, has no hesitation in regarding the 
bottom stratum as Pliocene in the date of its formation, 
