In discussing the points of contact between Neolithic Britain and the Continent, it is desirable from many points of view to begin at the beginning, and to conclude with the introduction of metal. I prefer this to the method adopted in our leading text-book, even though it brings us at once into an area of conflict, where nothing should be taken for granted, and general agreement is not yet in sight. In Scandinavia there seems to be a definite terminus a quo, though even there some elements of doubt can be detected. It is generally assumed that human life began in the peninsula soon after the last or Baltic glaciation came to an end; and the first question is whether the same holds good for Britain, and if so, to what extent, for an ice-free area in the south of England is recognised by most authorities even during the severe glaciation that accounted for boulder-clay at Finchley, only three miles north of the Thames.

As will be seen later, intercourse with Scandinavia was lively during two phases of the Megalithic period, but there is nothing to shew that the Neolithic civilisations east and west of the North Sea had a common origin or began at the same date.

Some years ago the late Mr. Arthur Gordon, of Ellon, showed the writer several “anvils” found on his property on Skelmuir Hill, 7 miles north of Ellon, in Aberdeenshire. In 1914 the writer visited this place and found numerous specimens, and noticed at the same time many circular depressions in the ground. At that time it was impossible to investigate the matter further, but Mr. Gordon very kindly granted permission to excavate the depressions when the opportunity occurred. With the very kind permission of Mrs. Gordon, Mr. J. Reid Dean, trustee of the estate, and Mr. Walter Gordon, on whose farm the site is situated, some excavations were made in 1918, the results of which are described here.

Cones are distributed more or less over the surface of the Land's End district, and, in certain well-defined spots, varying in area from a few square yards to one or two acres, they occur abundantly. On the accompanying rough sketch map some of these spots are marked, letters being used for the “major” and figures for the “minor” sites, i.e., those which have hitherto yielded over or under 50 Cones respectively.

In the following list of sites, the figure after each name indicates the site's approximate height in feet above sea-level:—G, Greeb, 160; S, Stamps, 200; R, Roskestal, 200; P, Pednmên-an-mere, 180; 1, Pordenack, 180; 2, Skewjack, 250; 3, Brew, 270; 4, Trevean, 250; 5, Tolpednpenwith, 150; 6, Churchtown, 200; 7, Trewey, 290; 8, Treen, 200; 9, Boscean, 220; and 10, Trevedren, 300. Most of these sites are near to the sea and are invariably in the immediate vicinity of streams or springs.

My attention was first drawn to this locality in the summer of 1915. I exhibited the first few specimens obtained before this Society at the meeting held at Norwich on December 13th of that year, and a brief notice of the exhibit appeared in the Appendix to the “Proceedings,” Vol. II., p. 321.

The site or sites (numbered for reference purposes LV.), are in the parish of Risby, two miles West of the village, on the Cavenham road, from which village they are only distant about one mile.

The sites occupy the Northern bank and bottom of a small dry valley on Risby Poor's Heath. This little valley runs towards the (now) very small stream which crosses the main road at Roberts'-Bridge, which stream is itself a feeder of the Lark; hence the fall is from the Eastern boundary of the heath towards the West. The first site was indicated to me by numerous shallow, somewhat rectangular, excavations, apparently made, say, within the last thirty or forty years, presumably for the purpose of getting road-stone.

In 1917 the work at Grime's Graves was carried out by Mr. and Mrs. E. T. Lingwood and myself, and was limited to sections and floors, as the war prevented us from obtaining outside labour. For permission to excavate, we are again much indebted to the Trustees of the Weeting Estate, Mrs. T. S. Hall and Mr. C. Cockburn. The following paper gives the results of the work, and in it are figured some of the new implements.

The Grime's Graves culture shows a wide variety of forms, and I think it is important to illustrate as many of these as possible. This vast factory must have sent out implements far beyond the present boundaries of Britain, and no doubt many implements found on the Continent will be traced to this source. Very few industries have been sufficiently illustrated in the past, and this has led to erroneous conclusions when collections are not accessible.

It is admitted by all workers in prehistory that the human implements which are found upon the surface do not all belong to the Neolithic period, although, until recently, they have always been called Neolithic. It therefore seems better to define them clearly as a Surface Series, without prejudice to their date.

Beyond this point of general agreement, differences of opinion are strongly marked. Some workers would boldly place the majority of the Surface Series in the Later Palæolithic period, or “Cave Age,” while others are unable to accept this view.

It must be admitted that we have very little knowledge of remains belonging to a strictly-defined Neolithic period. We know that “Neolithic” implements continued to be extensively used during the Early Bronze Age, and even in later times.

Cores and chopping tools are very numerous at Windmill Hill, Avebury Down, Grime's Graves, and Cissbury. They are characteristic of the industry. In the main they differ markedly from the cores of the prism industries. True prisms are rare in the one and numerous in the other; the one shows comparatively broad, the other comparatively narrow facets and flakes; the flakes of the latter being on the whole thinner and finer. It is noteworthy that when the flints of both industries have lain near the surface, those of the one in Herts., Wilts., Sussex, Norfolk, and Suffolk are almost invariably white or light blue; whilst those of the other range from light blue, through dark blue, to unchanged black or grey; with a partial exception, easy of explanation, on the coast of Cornwall.

The “lumps” may be divided into a number of species. Some were cores only, others were tools for chopping, cutting, scraping, pecking, boring, or clearing out split marrow bones; some were cores first and tools afterwards.

Fig. 23A is a very carefully worked leaf-shaped blade identical with implements from the Solutré site of Laugerie Haute. It is from clay-with-flints gravel, at present being ploughed up by German prisoners, on the ridge between Cissbury and Sompting, O.D. 600 ft. There is nothing Neolithic about it whatever: it is a distinctly Palæolithic artefact. B, C, D, and E are “Cat Tongue” Palæoliths from such diverse localities as Grime's Graves, Cissbury, O.D. 600 ft., and from a depth of 9 feet below the surface of the so-called South Coast Brickearth, at Southsea, in a recent excavation associated with a Red Crag fossil, the Chrysodomus contraria.

Our esteemed President having been so kind as to ask me to exhibit a series of flints from the Cromer Forest Bed and the Admiralty Section, perhaps the following remarks may be permitted.

The Cromer Forest series exhibit the characteristic surface and somatic alterations which become of great value in identifying these tertiary things when found in derived positions. The peculiar brown, comparable to café au lait, with varying quantities of the milk into which a small, varying quantity of permanganate of potash has been dropped, is well seen in many, as in No. 1. Not that the amethystine blush, which is seen associated with so many hues, even in the lyditised black ones, was due to this salt, but rather to Mn O2. Opalisation is very frequently present, even after other metamorphic processes have been in operation, giving rise to the curdy appearance also seen in No. 1, which, in this case, has supervened limonetic jasperisation.

In the course of searching for flınt ımplements in South Devon and Cornwall my attention has continually been drawn to notched and perforated pieces of slate—a notch and perforation occurring in combination in some specimens. At first I did not pay much attention to these slates, thınking that perhaps the notches had been caused through the piece having come into contact with an agricultural implement of some sort, and that possibly the perforations had been made by a fork, or else that they were pieces of roofing slate containing the hole through which the nail, originally securing the slate to a roof, had passed. After a time I determined to collect and study the specimens carefully, the result being that I soon found myself greatly interested, for it became evident that my first impressions were not correct, and that the notches and perforations were not accidental but clearly intentional. At the same time I was at a loss to understand their meaning and application.

It is not necessary to dispute the existence of a Rostro-Carinate type of undoubtedly human manufacture. It occurs occasionally in the Late Stone Age. I have several in my own Collection which are probably fabricators and triangular implements of Neolithic Age.

My criticism applies solely to certain so-called “Humanly-made Implements” from the Basement Beds of East Anglia, which I consider bear only a superficial resemblance to the undoubted specimens. While the latter stand every investigation as to the characteristics of the chipping itself, the former, though they may bear some resemblance, will not, to my mind and that of many other students, stand critical examination.

Sir E. Ray Lankester, F.R.S., in his monograph on “The Test Specimen of the Rostro-Carinate Industry found beneath the Norwich Crag” (see Plate XV, E), claimed the “Rostro-Carinate” as a new type of “Implement” made by Man of a much greater antiquity than the Palæolithic Period.

In 1907 I contributed to the “Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society” a list of the localities in which implements of flint and bronze had been found in Norfolk. The only previous list was in Vol. I. of the “Victoria County History of Norfolk” (1901), in which nine localities were given for Palæolithic implements, 54 for Neolithic, and 38 for bronze. In my own list the classification and number of parishes for which records were published were:—Eolithic (Sub-Crag) 1, Palæolithic 30, “Cissbury type” 4, Early Neolithic 101, Intermediate Neolithic 100, Late Neolithic or polished 109, and Bronze 70. In that list one polished implement recorded for Rushall should have been from Runhall, and the bronze implement from Hanworth should have been from Hunworth. I also consider the records of palæoliths for Brockdish, Fritton, and Markshall doubtful.

The flint implements which are the subject of this paper were found near Mundford in Norfolk in 1918-19, and the work is still being continued on this area.

Although when thrown out by the plough the tools may be described as surface finds, strictly speaking, they belong to the red gravelly sands which immediately over-lie the chalk in this district, and which are covered by one to two feet of brown sandy loam.

The large number of true implements found in a comparatively limited space, warrants the belief that this must have been a settlement, where work had been carried on for a considerable time.

Having hitherto escaped the eye of the wandering collector, an unusually complete series has been secured.

At a Meeting of the “Prehistoric Society of East Anglia” held recently at Norwich, I heard a summary read of a paper by Mr. F. N. Haward on the Norwich Test Specimen. It is perhaps needless to say that Mr. Haward's paper purported to show that this specimen of a rostro-carinate flint implement owes its present form to certain natural agencies, and not to the purposeful blows of a human being. It is not, however, within my province to attempt a defence of the humanity of this well-known flaked flint. Sir Ray Lankester has described and illustrated the specimen in a paper published some little time ago (“Description of the Test Specimen of the Rostro-Carinate Industry found beneath the Norwich Crag,” Roy. Anth. Inst. Occasional Papers, No. 4), and prehistorians can choose whether they prefer to accept the opinion expressed in that paper, or the view of Mr. Haward. The latter gentleman's opposition, however, to the idea of the human origin of the flaking upon the Sub-Crag flints does not cease with the Norwich Test Specimen, but includes all the other specimens found in the Norwich Stone Bed.