The view that diffuse lustre on the sharp edge of a flint indicates that the flint has been used for cutting corn, or at least grass, has often been put forward. It has recently been criticized by M. René Neuville, and these criticisms have been countered by fresh experimental evidence which has convinced the writer that this interpretation holds good. Flint flakes, some worked, some apparently unworked, are frequently found in Egypt, Palestine, and elsewhere, bearing diffuse lustre on both faces adjacent to one or more edges, and such flakes are generally recognized as having served as parts of flint sickles, for some have actually been found in their wooden mounts. The possibility of analogous implements having been used in Britain has not so far received much attention, except that the beautifully worked crescentic ‘knives’ of Scandinavian type are now generally recognized as having been sickles. A few of these latter show the characteristic corn-lustre on their concave edges.

Mynydd Craig-goch, the westernmost height of a rocky ridge of the Snowdon mountains, slopes gently down to a watershed at the head of the Afon Dwyfach, over which run the railway and the main road from Criccieth and Portmadoc to Caernarvon. Between the ninth and tenth milestones from Caernarvon, immediately to the east of the road and thus on the lowest part of the mountain slope, there lie the remains of a most extensive primitive agricultural settlement. It is not marked on the Ordnance Survey map (6 in. 26 NE.), but was known locally, and the farm within which most of it lies bears the significant name Caerau. Its recognition as a site of great possibilities on account of its excellent state of preservation is due to Mr. W. J. Hemp, F.S.A. The settlement must originally have extended north and south for a distance of about half a mile. It may, indeed, have been contiguous with other settlements on the north and north-west, thus forming part of a large area of cultivated land, since there exists in excellent preservation a house or hut-group of the same type with at least one typical field about one mile to the west on the farm of Cefn Graianog. This point, however, cannot now be determined on account of more recent agricultural developments around the farm of Bodychain.