Flint Cores Research Articles

On the Occurrence of Hessle Boulder Clay at Happisburgh, Norfolk, containing a Flint Core

During field work in 1938 and 1939 some new facts were discovered about the extent of the Hessle Boulder Clay in Northern Norfolk;also a flint core was found in this deposit in the coast section near Happisburgh. As this boulder clay has not been generally recognized so far south-east as Happisburgh, its main characteristics and known geographical extent in the district will be described.

Mesolithic Dwellings at Farnham, Surrey

EXHIBITS illustrating the culture of the inhabitants of mesolithic pit-dwellings at Farnham, Surrey, are now on view in the Prehistoric Galleries of the British Museum (Bloomsbury). These dwellings, on a site which is the only one of its kind as yet found in Britain, have been excavated by Dr. and Mrs. Grahame Clark. The results of the excavation, which has occupied two seasons, were described by Dr. Clark at a recent meeting of the Prehistoric Society. The site of the settlement, which is the property of the Farnham Urban District Council, consists of a number of irregularly shaped pits, three feet deep in places, which have been scraped out of the gravel of the old Blackwater River. These pits represent the chief habitations of a mesolithic people, who probably spent their summers hunting on the Lower Greensand, when they lived in temporary shelters. Four huts have been excavated. In one pit there was a hearth and near another there were signs of a post, which probably had supported some light framework arranged tent-wise. Generally, however, the roofing seems to have been of the nature of a lean-to. Large numbers of microlithic implements were discovered, with flint axes, scrapers and waste flint cores and flakes. Altogether, between forty and fifty thousand worked flints have been discovered, and fifteen thousand flints cracked by fire have been found. These houses are, as stated, the first of their kind to be found in Britain; and they probably represent the first type of habitation in use in Britain other than the cave. They are considered to date from about 3000 B.C., and support the contention that artificially constructed dwellings are more ancient than has been thought. On the Continent, evidence is accumulating that mesolithic man was nomadic, inhabiting light shelters in the summer, and more or less permanent dwellings, usually of the pit-dwelling type, in the winter. The exhibits now shown in the British Museum are drawn from two of the dwellings excavated, and include a large and representative selection of the implements found.

Research Items

A report on the continued excavation of Kent's Cavern, Torquay, presented at Aberdeen by a Research Committee of Section H (Anthropology) of the British Association, states that an area of 160 sq. ft. of floor space, one half of which is beneath the ‘Black Band’ Magdalenian hearth worked by W. Pengelly between 1865 and 1880, has been excavated, the greatest depth reached being 10 ft. 6 in. below the general floor and 16 ft. below the old stalagmite floor. Remains of large animals were found between large fallen blocks of limestone. The animals usually found in the cave were present in good number, including horse, rhinoceros, deer, Irish deer, bear, fox, ox, badger, pine-marten and mammoth. Among the more interesting finds were three foot bones of deer, tall articulating, three vertebrae of (—) rhinoceros in correct relation, a first phalanx of a human finger, 2 ft. below floor level, eight flint implements, a flint core, 3 in. by 2 in. by 2J in., at a depth of 13 ft. 6 in. below the original floor level, small tines of deer, probably used as borers, and a quartzite pounder.

Ancient Man in the Gipping—Orwell Valley, Suffolk

In the course of my investigations of the district of Ipswich, Suffolk, I have found a large series of flint implements and other remains of man, ranging in date from the pre-Chellean of the Sub-Red Crag horizon of Pliocene times to the period of the Anglo-Saxons. The majority of these discoveries, so far as those relating to the Stone Age are concerned, were made in the beds forming the plateau, or in the sides of now dry valleys tributary to the main valley of the Gipping. Some little time ago, however, I determined to make—if possible—an examination of the deeply-buried deposits of the Gipping, and this research was later on extended to the tidal portion of the river which is known as the Orwell. It is now my purpose to give an account of this work, which has resulted in the getting together of a great quantity of flint implements, flakes, and cores, mammalian bones in considerable numbers, and some fragmentary portions of the human skeleton. I would here record my thanks to the Percy Sladen Fund, the Royal Society, the Ipswich Dock Commission and their Chief Engineer, Mr. Clarke, Messrs. Warren Livingstone, Ltd., Messrs. Alfred Coe, Ltd., Messrs Packard and James Fison (Thetford), Ltd., Miss Nina Layard, Sir Arthur Keith, F.R.S., Dr. Duckworth, Dr. C. Forster Cooper, Mr. Reginald Smith, the Curator and Mr. F. M. Cullum, of Ipswich Museum, Dr. T. W. Woodhead, Mr. A. S. Barnes, and Dr. G. Erdtman, who have each given invaluable help in one way or another to the prosecution of this research.

On Flint Cores as Implements

On Flint Cores as Implements

Flint Cores from the Indus

Flint Cores from the Indus