56 THE DATING OF EARLY HUMAN REMAINS.
plane, but undulates very considerably. In eastern Essex it
is last seen disappearing below low tide level, and we do not know
how far the downward slope may be continued. In theoretical
discussions upon the geological relations of sites of this kind,
I think that too much importance is often given to differences of
level. One would almost think that our prehistoric ancestors
of various periods were confined to certain levels, and that they
could neither walk up hill, nor down hill! There is no reason
why two interments separated from each other by a vertical
height of some twenty feet or so need also be separated from each
other in time by many thousands of years.
The theory of a slow and uniform submergence at a rate of a
foot or less per thousand years, cannot be applied to this sub-
merged prehistoric surface. If such had been the case, every
part of the land surface would have been successively exposed—
and for a period of several centuries—to the wave action of high-
water mark. Thus the incoherent surface of the land would
have been almost entirely eroded away. This is not the case.
The prehistoric surface was so rapidly submerged that we do not
find evidence of prolonged wave-action.
In eastern Essex this submerged surface belongs to the dawn
of the Bronze Age, that is to say, somewhere about 2500 B.C.
Recent excavations for the Albert Docks extension have exposed
the same deposits as those seen at Tilbury in 1883. The evidence
that I have been able to obtain here through the kindness of
Mr. G. Barrow points to the surface there being of the same date,
although the evidence is less complete than in eastern Essex.
THE IPSWICH SKELETON.
Although not within the borders of Essex, this discovery is
at least East Anglian and sufficiently near our county to demand
special attention. The claims that it makes are dramatic, as
it would push back the reign of modern man to a period anterior
to the Chalky Boulder Clay.38
This claim rests upon two conclusions, namely (1), that the
skeleton is a contemporary fossil and not an artificial interment;
(2) that the deposit in which it was found is undisturbed Boulder
Clay. Both these conclusions may be open to challenge.
The skeleton was found within four feet from the surface in a
33 J. Reid Moir and A. Keith, Journ. X. Anthrop. Inst., 1911, vol. xlii, p. 345.