Page:VCH Suffolk 1.djvu/293

 EARLY MAN categories — so there are many varieties of striated implements, which can similarly be referred to six or seven categories. 1. The most ancient class of neolithic implements would appear to be represented by a group of exceedingly rough pieces, the humanly-made surfaces of which are scratched all over ; in typical specimens the scratches are so numerous and so criss-crossed over the whole surface that it would be difficult to put more than the point of a pin between them. 2. The next class in apparent age is mainly composed of deep blue or deep blue-black highly lustrous pieces. The scratches though less numerous than in Class i are yet very well marked, generally large and deep ; and striae thus made go right into the substance of the flint and are more or less of uniform depth. The bulbar side of the implement or flake is the one chiefly affected, and the bulb is especially liable to be scratched, apparently as being the part that is most prominent. Implements of this class are generally rough in make, but they are quite different in shape from those of Class i. Occasionally an implement of Class 2 has been made from one of Class i. In that case the two periods of work on the same stone are sharply defined from one another by quality of workmanship, by patina, and by the kind of scratching on the surfaces. 3. This class resembles Class 2 in its main features ; but differs from it in degree of patination, in the smaller number and depth of the scratches, and in the greater variety of forms and greater delicacy in the make of the implements. 4. This is a numerous class, composed of implements in which the patina is much less developed than in either of the preceding classes ; or of implements without colour patina but on which a lustred surface of a high degree of intensity has been produced. These implements are scratched in a different way from those in the first three classes. The scratches are large, but instead of being of the same colour as the surrounding flint they stand out white, and are prominently visible when seen at a distance of some feet. There is a strong tendency to parallelism in these white scratches. In the scratching of the first three classes, though parallelism is sometimes seen, yet on the whole it is not a striking feature. In the white scratches of this class the parallelism is one of the points that at once attract attention. Examination with a lens will reveal the cause of the whiteness. The scratches will then be seen to differ from those on stones of the first three classes in this respect : it has been remarked that in those classes the scratches go with fair uniformity into the substance of the flint from end to end of the scratch. These white scratches will be seen to be composed not of a single straight furrow on the flint, but of a number of little digs into the flint separated by minute intervals of un- broken surface ; or if the surface be broken throughout, the scratch is by no means of uniform depth, and the surface of the scratch is bruised rather than cut cleanly through. It is to this lack of uniformity of depth, combined with the bruising of the flint, that the whiteness of the scratch is due. 5. This class, which is very curious but quite well defined, is met with less frequently in the valley itself than in some of the neighbouring districts. The characteristic of the scratching on the implements is that instead of large scratches the surfaces show a number of very fine hair-like scratches. These fine scratches occur in groups of from four or five up to forty or fifty ; the 251