67
NEOLITHIC AND PALAEOLITHIC SCRAPERS,
REPLACED AND REWORKED.
By WORTHINGTON G. SMITH, F.L.S., M.A.I., etc.
Whilst investigating the Palaeolithic remains at Stoke Newington
from 1878 to 1885 I found in the surface soil a few Neolithic relics
such as celts, arrow-heads, scrapers, knives, and simple flakes.
Upon looking over these Neolithic
stones a few weeks ago I was struck by
the colouration of certain examples,
and by sorting them out I was enabled
to replace a Neolithic scraper on to a
larger flake from which it was originally
struck. Both the scraper and flake
were marked by me at the time of

Fig. 1.—Neolithic Scraper replaced
on to a mother flake, one-half actual
size. Stoke Newington Common.
finding, "Stoke Newington Common,
1882" I have engraved this replaced

scraper one-half the actual size in
fig. 1. The scraper is shown at A, the flake on to which it fits at
B. It will be seen that the superimposed flake has received the
necessary secondary chipping to make it a scraper, and this minor
chipping exposes part of the mother flake at B.
Three miles east of Dunstable, at Leagrave, and close to the source
of the Lea, is a British (afterwards Roman and Saxon) camp named
"Wanlud's Bank." Near this place I have found several celts,
arrow-heads, scrapers, etc., including a flake struck from Lydian
stone. One of the scrapers found by me is made from a flake of
very much older date than the re-trimming which makes a flake into
a scraper. Both the flat and faceted sides
of the original flake are covered with a
milky-white film of decomposition, whilst
the newer work is full grey in colour.
This scraper shows the great length of the
Neolithic age, as the original Neolithic
flake became whitened with antiquity

before the newer Neolithic man picked it
up and formed it by secondary chipping
into a scraper. The two thousand years

Fig. 2.—Neolithic Scraper made
from a flake of much greater
Neolithic age, one-half actual
size. Wanlud's Bank, by source
of River Lea,
or so since the scraper was made have
proved insufficient to cause any milky film to appear on the
secondary chipping. How much older, therefore, must the original