In January, 1916, we discovered the east end of a “Cissbury type,” station at Great Melton, Norfolk, on the south bank of the River Yare, and at the same time Mr. J. E. Sainty, B.Sc., discovered the west end, including a pit in which flakes were exposed in a layer about a foot from the surface, resting on a stiff loam into which the flakes had sunk in some places. The layer was not continuous, but at one place there was a solid mass of cores and flakes, the latter ranging in size from huge specimens to quite minute pieces. The flakes, with which were mingled several potboilers, varied in colour from blue to white, and were so tightly packed together as only to be extracted with difficulty. In a very few cases the striking platforms were facetted.
During the last year or two I have obtained some 1262 flint implements of varying types and patinas from a small area of the parish of Cranwich in South-West Norfolk. The implements may with comparative ease be divided into three groups according to patina, white, blue, and black, the last-named including those having miscellaneous colourings that are neither blue nor white, or with no appreciable patina. According to these divisions I have 351 white, 268 blue, 604 black and 12 implements with totally different patinas on the two sides.The white patinated implements are found on a rich loam on which water rests in wet weather. This is only from four to eight inches thick, and the subsoil is locally known as “cobbles chalk,” that is, chalk broken into small lumps by glacial action. These lumps are about the size of plums quite white, and in a foot or so pass into undisturbed chalk. The blue patinated implements are mainly found on a sandy area resting on chalk, and the black on a sand and gravel area with chalk as the subsoil, though a few hollows are filled with chalky boulder clay. On the sandy area the surface soil is somewhat deeper, averaging from nine inches to a foot.
Though Sir John Evans described a series of flint implements as “single-barbed arrowheads,” the shape of the majority precluded any such explanation of their use, and it was not until Dr. A. E. Relph put forward the suggestion in “The Antiquary” for September, 1907, that these implements were in reality harpoon-barbs, that students of prehistoric archæology were satisfied that their nomenclature was correct. They are all triangular, the longest edge being thin and unworked, and this, it is suggested, was fixed in the side of a bone or wooden shaft, probably tipped by a triangular or tanged and barbed arrowhead. In most of the specimens the remaining two edges are carefully chipped, the longer being usually straight, and the shorter concave. This curved portion would be fixed pointing to the handle of the harpoon, the long sloping edge enabling the weapon to pierce the object aimed at, while the curved barb would prevent it slipping out.
While searching the well known “Cissbury” site at Ringland (Vide Proc. P. S. E. A., Vol. 1, pp. 340–1, Vol. 2, pp. 340–1, 145–151) in December last, I found a white Cone with a natural base 1½ inches by 1¼ inches, formed by a line of cleavage in the flint.On one side the implement has a flat face 4 inches in length by I¾ inches in width. The other face is convex, and has been formed by the removal of eight flakes, six of these extending for a distance of 2½ inches leaving I½ inches on which the cortex of the flint remains. In ordinary circumstances this portion would have been removed by a transverse blow in order to form the top of the cone, but the natural peculiarities of the flint led to its retention and further retouching in order to form a representation of an animal. A natural hole and protuberance, associated with the formation of the flint as a ventriculite, were in the proper position for an eye, and the removal of part of the cortex revealed the inner rind so as to form a pupil.
Early this year we discovered a station, apparently with a homogeneous culture, on an arable field in the parish of Hellesdon, about half-a-mile above Norwich. The field, which has an area of about 12 acres, is on the north side of the river Wensum, from which it is about 74 yards distant at the south-east corner of the field, and 150 yards distant at the south-west corner. Between the field and the river is alluvium 12 ft. above O.D., and the field is 2—3 ft. higher. Flint implements, flakes and potboilers are very abundant on the lower part of the field, thin out rapidly on the higher part, and occur sporadically on the more elevated ground in the immediate vicinity.Several thousand cones, flakes and chips were examined on the spot, but the number of implements retained was 482. The flint of which they are made is easily divisible into three groups.
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