Hand-Axes later than the Main Coombe-Rock of the Lower Thames Valley

Archaeologists in France have for many years recognized hand-axes of St. Acheul facies in association with flake-implements of Levallois type, which are contemporary with the mid-Pleistocene deposits of the Somme valley. Their place in the culture-sequence is after the cold period that produced the main Coombe-rock of South-East England, and the Little Eastern or Upper Chalky Boulder-clay of East Anglia. The Coombe-rock referred to overwhelmed the Levallois II factory-site at Baker's Hole, Northfleet, Kent.In England, however, it has taken much longer to trace these mid-Pleistocene hand-axes in contemporary beds. The first was found by the late F. G. Spurrell on the classic ‘floor’ at the base of the Crayford Brickearth, though it was not until quite recently that the correct age of the Crayford series was determined. This specimen is now in the British Museum (Natural History), but is not figured in the present note.

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The Geological Age of the Cromer Forest Bed

Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society ◽

10.1017/s0079497x0001865x ◽

1951 ◽

Vol 17 (2) ◽

pp. 168-170 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Augusto Azzaroli

Keyword(s):

Natural History ◽

British Museum ◽

The Other ◽

Present Writer ◽

Early Pleistocene ◽

Faunal Assemblage ◽

East Anglia ◽

Modern Species ◽

Geological Age ◽

Primitive Species

The present writer has had recently the opportunity to carry out a revision of the deer of the Cromer Forest Bed series of East Anglia. The entire work is to be published in the Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History). The stratigraphical conclusions will be summarized here.The occurrence of relatively archaic species together with more modern species in the Forest Bed fauna has puzzled many palaeontologists. Whereas the older authors concluded that it was wholly Pliocene (Reid, 1890, with bibliography) or partially or totally derived (Dubois, 1905), more recently a tendency has become prevalent to attribute the whole fauna to the early Pleistocene, and to explain the more archaic species as relics (Osborn, 1922; Zeuner, 1945). It may be shown that all these interpretations are untenable.A Pliocene age is ruled out by the presence of species which immigrated into Europe after the close of the Villafranchian. On the other hand, the older representatives, once attributed to the Pliocene but actually of Upper Villafranchian age, do not constitute isolated relics: an entire faunal assemblage characteristic of that epoch is present. Moreover, primitive species occur in the Forest Bed fauna together with their more advanced descendants, and the fauna is richer in species than in any other locality.

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On a compact chlorite from Bernstein, Austria

Mineralogical Magazine and Journal of the Mineralogical Society ◽

10.1180/minmag.1924.020.106.03 ◽

1924 ◽

Vol 20 (106) ◽

pp. 241-244 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

W. Campbell Smith

Keyword(s):

Natural History ◽

Present Note ◽

British Museum ◽

Upper Austria ◽

Treaty Of Versailles ◽

The Subject

The material which is the subject of the present note was presented to the British Museum (Natural History) in November 1923, by Captain Eric C. Palmer, of the Styrian Jade Company, Bernstein, Burgenland, Austria. Bernstein is situated 92 kilometres south of Vienna, on the present borders of Styria and Upper Austria, and 22 kilometres west of the frontier town of Guns. Previous to the Treaty of Versailles, Bernstein was in Hungary, Comitat Vas (Eisenburg). Its Hungarian name is Borostytánkő.In 1854, Johann Cžjžek, in a paper entitled ‘Das Rosaliengebirge und der Wechsel in Niederösterreich’, had described the geology of the district, and given some account of the rocks, including a description of the occurrence at Bernstein of serpentine in the midst of an area of hornblende-schists, chlorite-schists, and gneiss.

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A Supposed Implement of Quartzite from beneath the Boulder Clay of the Durham Coast

Geological Magazine ◽

10.1017/s0016756800102560 ◽

1928 ◽

Vol 65 (1) ◽

pp. 25-29 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

C. T. Trechmann

Keyword(s):

British Museum ◽

East Anglia ◽

The North ◽

North Eastern ◽

Boulder Clay ◽

Relationship Of ◽

The Relationship

Having always been much interested in any evidence that might throw light on the relationship of early man to the glacial drifts, I have for twenty-five years or more watched the various beds of gravel that occur above, among, and below the Boulder Clays in the north-eastern counties for anything resembling a Palaeolithic implement. I had no approach to success, however, till about a year ago, when in a bed of water-deposited gravel at a place called Limekiln Gill on the Durham coast, between the entrance of Hesleden Dene and Blackhall Rocks, some 4 miles northwest of Hartlepool, I found in the gravel cliff about 4 feet above the level of the beach a piece of yellow quartzite, which seemed to be artificially chipped. A short while ago I sent the specimen to Mr. Reginald A. Smith, B.A., F.S.A., of the British Museum, for his opinion, and somewhat to my surprise received the following reply: “I have little doubt about your implement, and Mr. Reid Moir, who saw it yesterday, agrees that it is definitely human. It is, indeed, interesting to find such a thing in situ, and one might expect to find it in some margin between the two principal boulder clays (Interglacial of East Anglia).” Such being the opinion of these experts, the specimen becomes one of very considerable significance, since the bed in which it was found underlies the main Cheviot and Northern drift or Purple clay, which at this spot is at least 70 feet thick and consists very largely of typical boulder clay.

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