The Palaeoliths of Boyn Hill, Maidenhead

Abstract

By this communication to the Society, the author aims at drawing attention to the Palaeolithic archaeology of Boyn Hill, the western and highest part of the Berkshire town of Maidenhead. The name of this area is of course familiar to all geologists and to many antiquaries because it has so long been applied to most significant features of the Thames valley. Curiously enough, although Boyn Hill is held as classic ground, the Pleistocene deposits here have only been broadly studied, and of their archaeological contents little has been made and no specimen ever illustrated. Recently the place has given scope for more intensive researches than before, and if the work in the field, which will be described, has not been very rewarding, it has at least been the means of bringing together several loose threads. In a sense, too, this paper is a record of eleventh-hour rescue operations undertaken for information and for securing specimens to relate with past discoveries.