Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/477

Rh sedimentary deposit from turbid but tranquil water—a fact of much significance in regard to the time occupied in the deposit of the bed.

"Towards the base of this brick-earth, and, consequently, of a considerably more recent date than the implements found in the gravel at the higher level, remains of the cave-lion, cave-hyæna, mammoth, rhinoceros, musk-sheep, and reindeer occur; and in this brick-earth a Palæolithic implement was actually found beneath remains of the mammoth. Any calculation, therefore, us to the probable antiquity of the flint implements found in the gravel must be based upon these considerations. I may add that the conditions at Salisbury do not greatly differ from those observed elsewhere.

"It cannot be attended with much advantage to attempt to measure the period by years which would have been required to deepen our Salisbury valleys some 80 or 90 ft.; and then, further, to calculate how long a time must be still allowed for the quiet deposit of a buttress-like accumulation of brick-earth, 30 ft. in thickness, against the side of one of these eroded valleys. But however remote this period may be, we have in it the measure of the antiquity of the flint implements found in the gravels at Bemerton and Milford Hill. We can, at all events, establish the comparative, if not the positive, antiquity of Palæolithic implements, and this is all that is absolutely needed by the archæologist.

"A passing word on the supposed non-artificial character of Palæolithic implements. It was only when geology demonstrated the immense antiquity of these objects, that the slightest doubt of their human workmanship was manifested. The Palæolithic implements found at Hoxne, in 1797, by Mr. Frere were figured in the 'Archæologia.' and Mr. Frere's account of them was duly published by the Society of Antiquaries without doubt or question. And a similar Palæolithic implement, now in the British Museum, 'found with elephant's tooth opposite to Black Mary's, near Grayes Inn Lane,' London, was preserved, and classed, for more than a century and a half, as a British stone weapon.

"A glance at the rudely-chipped Palæolithic implements in your temporary museum—and they fairly represent their class—will show you how little remains to tell us of the habits and customs of the people who fashioned them.

"There are no arrow-heads, no corn-crushers, no pottery, not a particle of worked bone. To learn something of the habits of the people of the Palæolithic Period we have to explore the caves and rock-shelters which served for their homes, and we must in these break up the solid floor of stalagmite which seals over the remnants of their feasts, and the thousand and one objects which were in daily use by them. There is then no lack of information; we find that these Palæolithic men— these men who lived contemporary with the mammoth, were hunters, taking to their caves the fleshy parts only of the larger animals they had killed in the chase. They do not appear to have made pottery, and as we do not find any implements with which corn is likely to have been ground, they were probably unacquainted with agriculture. They, perhaps, clothed themselves with skins: at all events among the myriads of flint implements found in the caves there are very many precisely like the flint 'scrapers' still in use by the Esquimaux for dressing hides. Then there are delicate bone-needles, each with a neatly drlled eye,