For many years past Mr Mogridge, of the Winchester Museum, has been indefatigable in collecting Lower Palaeolithic flint implements from a number of gravel pits lying between the villages of Warsash and Hook, in the district of the Lower Hamble river, Hampshire. From time to time he has brought up selected specimens to meetings of the Prehistoric Society in London, and exhibited them to members at the conclusion of the formal lectures. These Warsash finds are extremely numerous, show very fine workmanship, and exhibit certain special features which make them of exceptional importance to all students of Lower Palaeolithic cultures in England. Some time ago I suggested to Mr Mogridge that his valuable finds ought to be placed more permanently on record. He at once consented to the writing of a joint article for our Proceedings, and placed all his information at my disposal. Together we visited the sites, examined the sections, and talked to the workmen, from whom, of course, most of the implements are in the first instance obtained. I also consulted with my former pupil, and now colleague, Mr T. T. Paterson, and he very kindly consented himself to study the Quaternary geology on the spot, and to write a brief account. The drawings are from my wife's pen.
These studies constitute part of the geographical results of the Wordie Arctic Expedition, led by Mr. J. M. Wordie of St. John's College, Cambridge, to Melville Bay and the east coast of Baffin Land in the summer of 1934. It was found that some of the arctic soil forms had strong similarities to structures observed in the Pleistocene gravels of the Cambridge area, and that, treated together, these forms and structures would throw new light on the mechanics involved in their formation. The studies are divisible into three portions: frost cracking, polygonal structures, and solifluxion. I. Frost Cracking Travellers in northern and eastern Siberia report that the tundra, in places, is scarred and seamed by ramifying linear depressions flanked by low ridges, the depressions being marked out by a darker growth of mosses, generally interlacing to form roughly polygonal features many feet across. They have not, so far as is known, been excavated (Sukatchev 1911, Nikoroff 1928). Leffingwell (1919) observed frost cracks occurring in Alaska only in “muck”, though Smith (1909, p. 272), writing on the Nome deposits, noted a “series of ramifying streaks of a black peaty material cut in irregular directions across the layers of sand and gravel”, which streaks he attributed to frost cracking. Leffingwell (1919, p. 211) also noted “frequently straight lines leading across the gentle undulations of sandspits”, though he saw no polygonal forms in such places. However, his classic treatment of the theory of the formation of ground ice led him to generalize on
The excavations here under review were undertaken on behalf of the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. We have to express our deep gratitude to the Earl of Iveagh, on whose estate the brickyard lies, for his kind permission to excavate and his generosity in providing the whole time services of two workmen during the seven weeks of the excavations. Mr Dow, the Estate Manager, was always a source of help and his interest was constantly a stimulation to effort throughout the work.The Elveden brickyard began production in the late nineties primarily to supply material for the new Elveden Hall which was finished in 1900. So successful was the brickyard that it continued to be worked until the war of 1914–1918, when it finally fell into disuse. It was in the first three years of production 1897–1900, that the greatest number of specimens was found. The vast majority of specimens saved were bifaces of very obvious and attractive shape, for each of which there were probably discarded at least a hundred flakes, as well as cores.The present condition of the brickyard bears full evidence of twenty-five years' neglect. Large silver birches and smaller trees and shrubs have grown in the pit and a large section of the cliff face has been overgrown with ferns and infested with rabbits. Much of the cliff surface has collapsed and there are spoil heaps in one or two places. The condition of the pit has in fact inhibited easy excavation except in the small areas which were actually dug.
The discovery of a prolific palaeolithic site near Cambridge, led to an examination of its relationship to other sites in England, and it seemed that the time was approaching for a general survey of the palaeolithic succession in this country concerned with open stations of a period prior to that already dealt with by Dr Garrod and Dr Grahame Clark. To this end it is intended to devote a series of papers, to be published consecutively in this journal, descriptive of various industries in the light of the latest evidence, both geological and prehistoric.The first paper, hereunder, is given over to a description and analysis of the palaeolithic site mentioned, for, as will be demonstrated, it has been found essential to the main thesis on succession. The sequence in East Anglia will be chosen for initial study, partly because it is a region with which the author is best acquainted, and also because it has been found to form a distinct cultural province, more nearly related, indeed, to Belgium and Germany than to southern England and France. The contacts between these provinces are many and it will be the whole purpose of one of this series of articles to show these connections by cultural and geological correlations. Therefore, references to comparable industries will be left out of the discussion of the finds following the description, and will be treated fully in an appropriate chapter at a later date.
Palaeolithic artifacts were recorded from a terrace on the Great Ouse, near St. Neots, Huntingdonshire, in 1927, the chief source being a group of pits dug in what was formerly part of Paxton Park, on the left bank of the river in the parish of Little Paxton. Mr Tebbutt has since recovered many more artifacts from this site. Taken together, the material constitutes a working industry, which will be described in this paper.A twelve-foot section, fig. 1, shows a basal layer (1) of boulders and large pebbles resting upon undisturbed Oxford Clay. One boulder of limestone measured two feet in length, and many other erratics showed the derivation of this layer from drift deposits of a preceding glacial stage. Bones and teeth of Elephas primigenius, Rhinoceros antiquitatis, Rangifer tarandus, and Equus caballus were found here. This basal bed is not a solifluxion level in place, though it may represent a solifluxion layer which has been re-washed and sorted. Certainly the Oxford Clay has not been caught up into it, and the elements are uniformly water-laid, passing up, without break, into nine feet of compact, well-bedded, fluviatile gravels.
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