56 THE DATING OF EARLY HUMAN RliMAINS. 
plane, but undulates very considerably. In eastern Essex it 
is last seen disappearing below low tide level, and we do not know 
how far the downward slope may be continued. In theoretical 
discussions upon the geological relations of sites of this kind, 
I think that too much importance is often given to differences of 
level. One would almost think that our prehistoric ancestors 
of various periods were confined to certain levels, and that they 
could neither walk up hill, nor down hill ! There is no reason 
why two interments separated from each other by a vertical 
height of some twenty feet or so need also be separated from each 
other in time by many thousands of years. 
The theory of a slow and uniform submergence at a rate of a 
foot or less per thousand years, cannot be applied to this sub¬ 
merged prehistoric surface. If such had been the case, every 
part of the land surface would have been successively exposed— 
and for a period of several centuries—to the wave action of high- 
water mark. Thus the incoherent surface of the land would 
have been almost entirely eroded away. This is not the case. 
The prehistoric surface was so rapidly submerged that we do not 
find evidence of prolonged wave-action. 
In eastern Essex this submerged surface belongs to the dawn 
of the Bronze Age, that is to say, somewhere about 2500 B.C. 
Recent excavations for the Albert Docks extension have exposed 
the same deposits as those seen at Tilbury in 1883. The evidence 
that I have been able to obtain here through the kindness of 
Mr. G. Barrow points to the surface there being of the same date, 
although the evidence is less complete than in eastern Essex. 
THE IPSWICH SKELETON. 
Although not within the borders of Essex, this discovery is 
at least East Anglian and sufficiently near our county to demand 
special attention. The claims that it makes are dramatic, as 
it would push back the reign of modern man to a period anterior 
to the Chalky Boulder Clay. 33 
This claim rests upon two conclusions, namely (1), that the 
skeleton is a contemporary fossil and not an artificial interment ; 
(2) that the deposit in which it was found is undisturbed Boulder 
Clay. Both these conclusions may be open to challenge. 
The skeleton was found within four feet from the surface in a 
33 J- Reid Moir and A, Keith, Joiirn. R. Anthrop, Inst,, 1912, vol- xlii , p. 345. 
