I desire first of all to express my appreciation of the honour you have done me in electing me President of the Society. Faced with the necessity of choosing a subject suitable for a Presidential Address, it occurred to me that a brief survey of the distribution of Man in East Anglia during the Neolithic, Bronze and Early Iron Ages might be appropriate. Selection of the region wherein the Society was born, and which inspired the fruitful work of its founders and their successors, is intended as a tribute of gratitude from one who has profited by the study of the many important Papers published in its Proceedings.

The general principles, recognized as governing Man's distribution under uncivilized or semi-civilized conditions in Britain, may first be summarized.

In the Lowland area to which East Anglia belongs soil is the chief determinant. There are two main types of soil: pervious, such as that overlying chalk, sand, gravel; impervious, as that overlying clay. The pervious soils induce an open type of country, or carry forest with relatively thin undergrowth; the rapidity with which such soils dry up after rain, the ease with which a scratch agriculture can be practised on them, their suitability for pastoral life, the ease of movement on them—all these factors render them attractive to early Man. As a group they form the Area of Primary Settlement. The impervious clay soils, on the other hand, carry forest with dense undergrowth, are difficult to clear, and when cleared difficult to cultivate with primitive tools. To the physical unsuitability of such soils for settlement there is added a second deterrent; water-laden soils under the conditions of savage life produce disease in man and beast. But when cultivation of such soils is possible they are found to yield the heaviest crops to tillage, being especially good for corn-growing. They are, then, utilized when civilization reaches a certain level, and have accordingly been grouped as the Area of Secondary Settlement.

Though the terrace gravels and palaeoliths of north-west Kent are well-known, there is little published on the stratigraphy of implements elsewhere in the county, except the Sturry deposits, two miles north-east of Canterbury (Archaeologia, LXXIV, 117). The geological Drift map is old (the latest edition issued in 1875), and there is no memoir to elucidate any but the Dartford area; but in 1925 the geology of the Canterbury district was described by Messrs. Dewey, Wooldridge, Cornes and Brown in the Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, vol. XXXVI, pp. 257–290, and Messrs. Wooldridge & Kirkaldy read a paper to that Association this April on the physiographic evolution of north-east Kent, which throws much light on the problem presented by the Fordwich flints.

Formerly the port of Canterbury, Fordwich lies on the right or southern bank of the Great Stour opposite Sturry, and at the foot of a steep hill, which rises to 150 ft. and leads to an elevated plain between the valleys of the Great and Little Stour. In the angle between the road leading due southfrom Fordwich and that from Stodmarsh to Canterbury, west of Moat Cottages (6 in. O.S. map, Kent, XLVI, N.E.), gravel has been worked over a considerable area, the depth being about 7 feet on the east and over 20 feet at the west end. The nearest bench-mark is 151·4 feet and the base of the gravel on the west is therefore about 130 feet O.D., rising to the east. The tongue of high ground between the rivers is covered in patches with gravel and brick-earth resting on Thanet Sand, and forms a plateau about 5 miles long at about the 100 ft. level.

In June, 1927, Mr. H. H. Halls noticed that the footpath beside the main Cambridge line of the L.N.E.R. had been made up with gravel. With the then recent discovery of implementiferous gravels at Whitlingham fresh in his mind he scrutinised the gravel carefully and soon found definite flakes. With some difficulty the gravel was traced to its source, and proved to come from Messrs. J. &. J Colman's Carrow works, where to extensive alterations were in progress. By the courtesy of the Directors, Mr. Halls was enabled to visit the site and examine the sections exposed. No flakes were seen in situ, but the workmen were instructed what to look for, and he arranged that any find of apparent interest should be preserved for his inspection. Throughout the rest of the year Mr. Halls regularly visited the site and a number of flakes were recovered, and fragments of bone, too decayed for identification, were seen.

Early in 1928 the Rev. T. C. Rae found the end of a broken hand-axe—a promise of future discoveries—and in February a good hand-axe was recovered from a sand layer 12 feet below the top of the section. The same deposit also yielded a worked flake of Chellean type, evidently derived from an older deposit, as well as some fresh-looking flakes with prominent bulbs. Finds of coarse scrapers and worked flakes continued steadily, and early in July a mammoth tooth, too disintegrated for preservation, prepared us for the discovery of a large portion of tusk, over three feet long.

As is known, there exists a widespread deposit of what I have called the Upper Chalky Boulder Clay, on the high ground in the neighbourhood of Ipswich, Suffolk. This accumulation is especially well developed to the north and east of the town where it forms the more or less flat plateau, the surface of which lies at approximately 150 O.D. I have already recorded the discoveries of flint implements in the Upper Chalky Boulder Clay in the brickfield of Bolton & Co., Ltd., to the north of Ipswich, and elsewhere. From these discoveries, which include that of an Early Mousterian hand-axe, of necessity re-described in this paper, I have concluded that the Upper Chalky Boulder Clay was laid down by an ice-sheet present in East Anglia at the close of Acheulean times, and is to be referred to the 3rd Glacial Period of this area. It is now my purpose to illustrate and describe three further specimens of Acheulean hand-axes derived from a deposit exposed in various sections in the plateau to the east of Ipswich.

During the great drought in 1929 there came to light at Gouthwaite Reservoir in Nidderdale three sites of Upper Palaeolithic industry. In that summer the level of the water became so low that the reservoir was less than half full, thus affording an opportunity for field work. The Pleistocene deposit exposed consists of a stiff yellow clay covered with sand and gravel along the banks of the reservoir, washed out by the action of the water in rough weather, from the lateral moraines. This clay is exposed in many places when the water has fallen 4 ft. below ordinary level, and it is on this horizon that Upper Palaeolithic man apparently lived. A complete geological section across the valley in this part does not exist, but sections of trial holes were made when the construction of the dam at Gouthwaite was being undertaken and for the copies of these sections I am indebted to Mr. E. Tillotson of Leeds University. The dam is actually built at the upper end of the last, and best preserved, terminal moraine in the valley. From the section it appears that the yellow clay stretches right across the valley, forming the uppermost stratum of the terminal moraine. This being so, and if this was the horizon on which the inhabitants lived, then the terminal moraine must have been cut through by the river action, otherwise the horizon on which the Upper Palaeolithic implements are found would have been under water and not habitable.

For a distance of four miles north of Newbiggin-on-Sea, Northumberland, the coast presents a stretch of low cliffs and headlands of sandstone, alternating with shallow bays flanked by sand-dunes, the dunes usually resting visibly on a low boulder clay cliff, not usually rising more than 20 ft. above high tide level. The river Lyne reaches the coast now about two miles north of Newbiggin, at Lyne Sands, but in preglacial and early post-glacial time, entered the sea at Newbiggin bay. The old course of the river is occupied by the “Carrs,” a strip of swampy peat, proved at several places by boring, to reach a depth of over twenty feet and to be underlain by river gravel on boulder clay. The basal layers of the peat are proved by pollen analysis to be of latest Boreal age. Between this old channel and the sea, lies Newbiggin Moor, between 30 ft. and 50 ft. OD. a wide stretch of sandstone covered by thin soil, and occasional peat and blown sand. In early Boreal time this would be a headland prolonged southward between the sea on the east and the river Lyne on the west. At a subsequent period the Lyne has broken through its present course to the sea, north of Lyne Sands. The foreshore is made up by a wide stretch of sandstone, flats and skerries overlain by boulder clay, making the low cliff in the southern part, with sand dunes resting directly on the clay. Northward the sandstone gradually rises and towards Cresswell Point makes the whole cliff, with only a thin boulder clay cover on top.

The antiquities here described came to light in the course of commercial gravel digging, but though we lack stratigraphical information they appear to be of sufficient importance in themselves to be worthy of accurate record. It is entirely due to the efforts and care of Mr. Ivan Thatcher, of King's Lynn, that they were recovered at all and we would like to thank him for the great trouble he has taken to see that as much as possible became available for study. Through his generosity the greater part of the Beaker pottery and also the figured sherds of the Early Iron Age and Romano-British periods are now in the University Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Cambridge. Messrs.F. B. and G. W. Gorbould, the lessees of the pit, have co-operated patiently in the preservation of Antiquities from the site, and Mr. J. R. Gorboud has also been very helpful. We have also to thank Miss Feetham for placing a Beaker (No. 2) on deposit in the same museum. Mr. Cockle of Lynn, kindly allowed the jet bead to be drawn. Finally we have to thank Mr. L. C. G. Clarke, F.S.A., and Miss O' Reilly of the Cambridge Museum for granting facilities for studying the objects in their charge.

Runcton Holme is situated some six miles due south of King's Lynn and about a mile to the east of the river Ouse. The exact position of the site is shown by Fig. 1. It consists of a low gravel promontory averaging about 20 feet above O.D. (Newlyn) and overlooking a vast expanse of Fenland. The marginal character of the site is illustrated by the fact that, but for the embanking of the Ouse, high spring tides would approach it quite closely. There appear to have been two main periods of early settlement on the site, Peterborough-Beaker and Early Iron Age-Romano-British, with an interval roughly speaking of a millenium when, so far as we can tell, it was abandoned. Whether this gap is a real one and whether in which case it was due to some natural cause, we cannot on the evidence before us decide. It will, however, be instructive to observe whether other sites discovered in the future on this gravel edge reveal a similar break in human occupation. The objects dating from the first occupation are briefly described in this paper, while the later occupation which accounts for the bulk of the archaeological material is dealt with by Mr. Christopher Hawkes, F.S.A. , of the British Museum.

In the following study, the region dealt with is bounded on the north by the Thames, and on the west by the Avebury and Stonehenge areas. It consists therefore of Wiltshire, Hampshire, Berkshire, Surrey, Sussex and Kent, and a small portion of Dorset. The area contains about five thousand barrows, or ancient burial-mounds, about seven-eighths of which I have seen; it is believed therefore that the following details are fairly complete.

Dr. Grahame Clark has in the preceding paper recorded the discoveries at Runcton Holme attesting occupation in the ages before the introduction of iron into this country. He has explained how attention came to be drawn to the site, and has testified to the vigilance and zeal with which Mr. Ivan J. Thatcher has watched its exploitation and preserved its abundant yield of antiquities. I must first of all second his appreciation of Mr. Thatcher's energy and kindness, and acknowledge my own gratitude for his help. In October, 1932, he very generously let me examine personally at his house the whole of his very large collection from the site, as well as the site itself, and he followed this up by submitting a large series of pottery, fully representative of all the classes which we had recognized in the material, for closer study by me in the British Museum. He has since kept me in close touch with all subsequent discoveries, and his support has been indispensable in the composition, and especially in ensuring the full illustration, of this paper. The drawings are the work of Mr. F. Cottrill, whose scholarly and sympathetic work is its own best testimonial. All the pieces here figured are deposited, numbered as in these pages, in the University Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Cambridge. Mr. Thatcher's kindness has also enabled a type-series to be lodged in the British Museum.