Special Exhibit at Ipswich Museum

Abstract

IN 1917, Mr. Reid Moir announced the discovery of flint implements, mammalian and human bones, and fragments of rough pottery, in the lower of two superposed ‘floors' in a brickfield of Messrs. Bolton & Co. at Ipswich. These occupation levels occurred in sand, and were overlain by a considerable thickness of hill-wash, while the excavations carried out showed that the now dry valley in which the discoveries were made has been deepened by erosion since the floors were occupied by man. Similar results were obtained, at a later date, by Mr. J. P. T. Burchell, in his researches at Ingress Vale in the lower Thames Valley. Here, at the base of an extensive section of sub-aerial loam, surmounted by a hill-wash containing rafts of Coombe Rock, was found a prolific floor, with flint implements, flakes, and fragments of primitive pottery. The third site, where a similar association of relics occurred, was discovered and investigated by Mr. and Mrs. MacAlpine Woods in a dry valley at Bovey Lane, Beer, Devon. In this case, a hill-wash, some 11 ft. in thickness, contained large numbers of flint artefacts, a few examples of bones and teeth of animals, and some pieces of rough pottery. Through the kindness of the discoverers, the Ipswich Museum now possesses representative series of the specimens mentioned, and is making a special exhibition of them. The matter is of considerable interest to archaeologists as, in each case, the flint implements may be said to resemble, in their forms, those of Lower and Upper Aurignacian times, and are not associated with any microliths. Moreover, there seems good reason to believe that the widespread deposits in which the relics were embedded are of relatively considerable antiquity, and represent the results of geological activity, including an epoch of low temperature, in eastern and southern England.