Man and the Glacial PeriodWright, G. Frederick (George Frederick)
History
Man and the Glacial Period
Wright, G. Frederick (George Frederick)
Glacial epoch; Prehistoric peoples
The valley of the Ouse is bordered on either side by sections of a
superficial blanket of glacial drift containing many transported boulders
of considerable size. The valley is here about two miles wide, and ninety
feet deep. The gravel deposit, however, in which the implements were
found, is only about thirty feet above the present level of the river,
and hence represents the middle period of the work of the river in
erosion.
Another locality in England in which similar discoveries have been made,
is at Hoxne, about five miles from Diss, in Suffolk County. Like that
in the valley of the Thames, however, the implements were found a long
time before the significance of the discovery was recognized. Mr. John
Frere reported the discovery to the Society of Antiquaries in 1801,
and gave some of the implements both to the society and to the British
Museum, in whose collections they are still preserved. The implements are
of the true palæolithic type, and existed in such abundance, and were
so free from signs of wear, that the conclusion seemed probable that a
manufactory of them had been uncovered. As many as five or six to the
square yard are said to have been found. Indeed, their numbers were so
great that the workmen "had emptied baskets of them into the ruts of the
adjoining road before becoming aware of their value."
The deposit in which they are found is situated in the valley of Gold
Brook, a tributary of the Waveney. The implements occurred about twelve
feet below the surface, in fresh-water deposits, filling a hollow eroded
in the glacial deposit covering that part of England. This, therefore, is
clearly either of post-glacial or of late glacial age.
Still another locality in which similar palæolithic implements were found
in undisturbed gravel of this same age in eastern England is Icklingham,
in the valley of the Lark, where the situation is quite similar to that
already described at Bedford, on the Ouse.
The last place we will stop to mention in England which was visited
by palæolithic man, during or soon after the Glacial epoch, is to be
found in the vicinity of Southampton. At this time the Isle of Wight
was joined to the mainland, and not improbably England itself to the
Continent. The river, then flowing through the depression of the Solent
and the Southampton Water, occupied a much higher level than now, leaving
terraces along the shore at various places, in which the tools of
palæolithic man have been discovered.
Though these are the best authenticated discoveries connecting man with
the Glacial period in England, they are by no means the only probable
cases. Almost every valley of southern England furnishes evidence of a
similar but less demonstrative character.
_In Cave Deposits._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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