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The Chronology of the Stone Age

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 October 2013

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Extract

The object of this paper is to call attention to certain facts in connection with flint implements, both Palæolithic and Neolithic, which have been hitherto overlooked, and to attempt to find an explanation for them. This explanation must inevitably run counter to the generally received opinions of geologists as to the sequence of events in the Pleistocene period, and also to a large extent to the views hitherto held by prehistoric archælogists regarding the Neolithic, and in a less degree the Palæolithic ages of man. I therefore approach the task, not indeed with misgiving, but with a deep sense of the gravity of the issues involved, and I would ask both geologists and prehistoric archæologists to do me the honour of giving their very careful attention to the matters I am bringing forward; to put for the moment on one side any preconceived views on the subject, and to suspend judgment until they have had the opportunity of examining for themselves the data upon which my conclusions are founded. These conclusions are the result of many years of work and observation. Starting from the orthodox standpoint and without any bias whatever against the generally received opinions as to the ice age of the Northern hemisphere, I have been, drawn on wholly by the observation of facts to my present position.

Type
Original Papers
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1911

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References

page 44 note * I have not gone through the large series in my collection to ascertain the exact percentage, but I should put it roughly at 12 to 15 per cent, for the London gravels and 6 to 8 per cent, for the Suffolk gravels.

page 47 note * For a good description of the “breck-lands,” vide the article on “Breckland Characteristics,” by Clarke, W. G., in Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society, Vol. VIII., pp. 555578Google Scholar.

page 74 note * It is an interesting question as to whether this extensive denudation took place during the course of the later Drift period, or whether it was at the very end of that period, and just before Mousterian man appeared on the scene. One important piece of evidence has come to my knowledge which points to the former conclusion; but before publishing it I am waiting to see whether further confirmatory evidence is forthcoming.

page 74 note † It would be of equal interest to know whether this glaciation took place immediately after Mousterian time, or at some later period, eg., between the Magdalenian and Neolithic Ages. Here also evidence is coming to hand which seems to point to the former conclusion. I abstain for the present from attempting any correlation of these glaciations with those described by geologists in other countries. Those who are familiar with the work of Penck, Rutot, Obermaier, and others, will however probably detect in what is written above some suggestive points in this connection.

page 83 note * Further experience has shown me that I was rather too emphatic in confining the occurrence of white scratches to my No. 4 Class. They also occur in the No. 3 Class and to a much less extert in No. 2. In some of the instances in which they occur on No. 3 flints, the white would seem to date from the later No. 4 period, during which the No. 3's would have been exposed to scratching if they happened still to lie on the surface. Some of these white scratches on No. 3's would appear, however, to date from the No. 3 period of scratching. There is nothing, after all, very surprising in this; for the struggle for supremacy between the upper and the lower flints must have always gone on; and the resistance of the lower flint, if of very fine quality, must even in No. 3 period have occasionally led to “chattering” scratches such as I am here describing.

page 85 note * I am getting some rather remarkable evidence that these “Esquimaux” conditions recurred each time that man came back after the retreat of the ice-sheet. Dec, 1910.

page 91 note * It might seem more logical to begin the scratched period with this class; but I had already numbered my periods before I found these “old whites.” I have refrained from changing the numbers, because from my No. 1 to No. 6 we have a steady advance in the phases of culture; whilst from No. 1 to the “old whites” and the earliest polished class it is a progress in the opposite direction, increased culture as we go backwards.

page 99 note * Since this paper was originally written an important article by M. Commont has appeared in “L'Anthropologie” for November–December, 1908. In this article he describes the section at a new excavation at St. Acheul. In the lowest part of the section were gravels containing the older types of “Drift” implements. Several feet above the upper layer of these gravels was a deposit of sandy clay, in which occurred large numbers of finely-made implements, chiefly ovates. About 40 per cent, of these ovates had a peculiar twist well known to collectors as occurring amongst the later implements of “Drift” type. This twist occurs in about the same proportion amongst the ovates of Elveden and of Ipswich.

page 103 note * December, 1910.