Following the Medway northward as it leaves the Weald at the opening of the funnel-shaped gorge in the Chalk, near Snodland, it takes a general N.E. course as far as Rochester, (Fig. 1.)

Less than half a mile below Rochester bridge it is turned eastward, perhaps by some hard beds in the chalk; then a S.E. course is followed for a mile, when turning again, opposite Chatham, it runs due N. for another two miles. Reaching the London Clay hills at Upnor it is again deflected, and finally, meandering in an easterly direction through the low alluvial plains, reaches the Thames estuary.

Thus the course of the Medway opposite Rochester takes the form of a V-shaped bend, and the land flanking the river within the bend forms a promonitory of chalk jutting southward, the surface of which rises from the edge of the marshes on either side to a height above 100-ft. O.D. (Fig. 2.)

This Paper is the outcome of a very long standing hope of proving the existence of “Eoliths” “in situ,” under the surface position where in 1866, Benjamin Harrison first found what he thought must be the very rude earliest forms of humanly worked flints, which in the “nineties” became known as “Eoliths.”

He felt pretty sure of his own opinion but no one to whom he showed his finds was at that time bold enough to accept them; this discouraged but did not deter him; for though he put them away to “Suspense Account.” he always had them in his mind and at all opportunities tried to advance his belief and convert others for many years with but very little success indeed; till 1884 when Mr. H. Walker agreed with him that they were human artefacts. In April, 1887, I became acquainted with Harrison; he lectured particularly on the “Rudes” doubtless hoping to find a tyro whom he hoped to educate to be a supporter.

He took me to South Ash and his other “Red Spreads” on which we found many specimens.

In 1900 an implement was found on the surface at Broom Covert, Higham, Suffolk, which has generously been presented to the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge, by F. H. Barclay, Esq., M.A., F.G.S., the Warren, Cromer.

It is of considerable interest, and I propose briefly to describe it. It is slightly lustrous, milk-white with some light indigo-coloured mottlings, quite unworn, and presumably a true surface-find not derived from a deposit.

The specimen, which is 4½-in. long and 1½-in. across at the widest part is a well-formed lateral burin (Fig. 1). The working edge has been renewed, probably more than once. At the final renewal, after striking the burin-blow, the face then produced was modified by the removal of some small flakes at the anterior end (Fig. 1 c). The striking platform was reduced by subsequent trimming, giving the butt-end a neat semi-oval outline.

The site occupies the top and upper slope of the gravel plateau O.D. 200 feet, ¾ mile West by South of Weybourne Station. (See Ordnance Datum Map, Norfolk, Sheet X., S.W., 6-ins. to 1 mile). It consists of unploughed heathland, mainly undisturbed, though during the war some trenches were dug, whilst, at some past date, heather “turves” have been cut for the making of a turf bank, possibly an old boundary bank. As a result stony patches occur among the heather, and it was the discovery in August, 1923, by my daughter, Olive, of a worked point (Fig. 11) on one of these patches that led to the investigation of the site.

The parish boundary between Weybourne and Kelling lies at the foot of the eastern slope of the plateau at this spot. 1,100 yards East by South is a tumulus, adjoining which are the “Weybourne Pits,” whilst just over a mile west by north lie a series of tumuli on Salthouse Heath.

Whilst engaged in arranging the Stone Age collections of the Cambridge University Museum of Archæology and Ethnology a series of implements from Naivasha “turned up.” This locality lies a little to the East of lake Victoria Nyanza. The tools shew certain Upper Palæolithic characters and it is therefore important to note their existence. Some folk consider the continent of Africa to be a museum of cultures, others a cradle. In either case it is necessary to collect any information as to the possible lines of cultural movement. The paintings of the Spanish group 2 in rock shelters in Eastern Spain are in all probability quaternary in age and date from some moment in Upper Palæolithic times; but the Bushman art of South Africa bears such a remarkable resemblance to this Eastern Spanish group, both generally and in detail, that some connection between the artists who made them seems probable—perhaps both were derived from the same late Palæolithic stock, the Bushman being a survival to our own day.

Having lately returned from Czecho-Slovakia, where I was attending an Anthropological Congress and studying museum collections, I thought perhaps it might interest members of the P.S.E.A. to have a note on what appears to be the succession of prehistoric cultures in that country.

There seems to be nothing so far found corresponding to our Lower Palæolithic or earlier industries. It is true that there is one solitary lump of flint, roughly chipped, with large flake-scars and an ochreous patina that has been claimed as Lower Palæolithic in date, but it is really very little to go on. A poor kind of Mousterian, mostly not made of good flint, seems fairly common in Moravia although it has not been found near Prague. On the other hand, many of the tools in an undoubted Upper Palæolithic series recall by their technique and shape the industry of La Quina.

The excavations described in the Preliminary Report were, through the generosity of the Trustees of the Percy Sladen Memorial Fund, and with the co-operation of Dr. R. V. Favell, resumed in 1924 and further efforts made to discover evidence of the earliest mining activities at Grimes' Graves. Summarised briefly the work of 1923 had already established the following facts:—

(1) The existence on the southern slope of the valley, north of the Graves, of primitive flint mines roughly circular in shape and sunk to the Floor-stone, at that point 12 feet 6 inches deep.

(2) That the two pits examined were devoid of galleries, the shafts being belled out at the base to obtain as much flint as possible.

(3) That Hand Picks of a form not hitherto recognised and formed of the long bones of animals, had been used for excavation purposes assisted by wedges and choppers of flint.

(4) That Deer-antler picks, or fragments of deer antler were entirely absent.

(5) That access had been gained to the pits by rude staircases cut in the shaft walls.

(6) The nature of the valley deposits was established by a series of sections and the almost complete erosion there of the Floor-stone, by glacial agencies, proved.

(7) The limits within which Floor-stone exists in situ on the south side of the valley was defined and an outcrop of contorted Floor-stone discovered.

Further excavations on Floor 85, at the end of July, 1922, increased the total area of this important floor, carefully dug over and examined, to 109 square yards. Previous observations have been confirmed and a further series of implements recovered, including engraved pieces of flint crust and pieces bearing incised lines, similar in character, though of minor importance, to those described in the “Proceedings,” Vol. 3, p. 434 and 548.

Dr. R. V. Favell again co-operated and the work was principally concentrated upon the S., SE., and E. sides of the previous excavation.

Upon the S. side Floor A was absent, Floors B and C well marked, though Floor C proved to be thin in places and towards the termination of the dig showed signs of giving out, whereas Floor B was becoming thicker. The sterile layer separating B from C, latterly became so thin that the B floor in places was resting immediately upon the red sand layer and almost indistinguishable from Floor C, except by the most careful observation.

In January, 1912, Mr. Reginald Smith read a paper before the Society of Antiquaries entitled “Flint Implements of Special Interest,” in which figured an implement of the Thames pick type— the author relegating it to the palæolithic period. I will read an extract from this paper describing the “pick.”

“The implement in question was found during the War by the late Captain Harvey Webb while searching the coastal gravel near Netley Hospital. It is a flint rod of roughly triangular section, with one face chipped flat; one end is nosed with bold fluting, the other is crusted and therefore, not functional. The whole is patinated an ochreus colour and the ridges are much battered by rolling.

Length 6 inches—the flat face 2 inches across. It was submitted to the British Museum in November, 1916, with other (obviously palæolithic) specimens from the same deposits: a large pear-shaped hand-axe with brown patina; a white St. Acheul ovate much rolled; a cordate brown St. Acheul implement; unrolled; a pointed triangular hand-axe; and a brown chert ovate, this last being from the top of the loam beneath the gravel.”

It is remarkable that so few attempts have been made to illustrate continuity of settlement on a given site through successive culture phases in East Anglia. No more valuable study could be undertaken by any field archæologist, than the careful examination of successive deposits on such a site. Especially useful would be the analysis of the transitional phases, showing the extent to which the art and craft-workers of one period influenced the technique and style of their successors and descendants; such a study should also throw light on the material, social and economic effects on the peasantry of the district of invasion and conquest, an evil from which East Anglia seems to have suffered every 500 years or so from about 1000 B.C. onwards. I cannot offer you, first hand, such a study; but it may be worth while, as an approach to the ideal, to illustrate a collection of objects from a settlement which seems to have been occupied during three (or four) culture phases for a total period of some 2,000 years.

The object of this paper is to draw attention to certain archæological problems which, at the present time, have an important bearing upon the study of prehistoric man in England.

Most archæologists are familiar with the pieces of tabular flint exhibiting human flaking, of a rough and primitive kind, along one or other of their edges, which Benjamin Harrison found, many years ago, in and upon the highest portions of the plateau of Kent. It is my purpose in this note, to discuss the geological, and cultural age of these specimens, and to endeavour to show that they represent the most ancient as well as the most primitive flint implements yet discovered.

Though there is very good reason to suppose that the eoliths of the Kent Plateau (the term “eolith” should be confined solely to these specimens, and to those of the same type found elsewhere), as is the case with others found in similar situations in different parts of the country, are of a great antiquity, it is nevertheless clear that, having not yet been discovered at these places, under any geologically datable deposit, the exact measure of that antiquity remains unknown.