PALAEOLITHIC INDUSTRIES, CLACTON AND DOVERCOURT. 11
closed for many years. The deposit is situated very slightly
below the highest level of the coastal plateau of Essex, on the
edge of the Stour Valley, and to the west of the road leading
from Upper Dovercourt to Ramsey Rey and Parkeston Quay ;
the site is less than 1/4 mile to the E.N.E, of Upper Dovercourt
Church.
This site was extraordinarily rich for a Palaeolithic gravel,
and in every respect stands alone among all the discoveries that
have been made in Eastern Essex. In technique the Dover-
court industry presents a remarkable contrast to the primitive
Palaeoliths that one usually finds sparingly in gravels at about
this level. One may confidently consider that it is later than
the Grays Inn Lane group; in fact, Prof. H. Breuil considered
it to be later than the twisted-ovate group. The technique
closely resembles that of the best twisted-ovates, but the twist
has been corrected, or even over-corrected, by a slight modifi-
cation in the technique, as will be explained presently. I think
one must provisionally class the Dovercourt industry as a local
development of the Micoque group.
The dating of the Dovercourt industry raises one of those
difficult problems in the succession of the river gravels, as it
appears to be out of its normal place. Unfortunately there has
been no opportunity to re-examine the deposit during recent
years.
There can be no doubt that the Dovercourt implements
represent the relics of a local living site that were all swept up
together in a bank of sand and gravel ; possibly during an
exceptionally high flood, or it might be as an outwash fan far
above the valley floor, as the result of a "cloud-burst," or from
the melting of snow during the vicissitudes of the Pleistocene
climate.
An explanation of this nature is in accordance with the
unanimous testimony of the workmen that the implements
were found indifferently at all depths from top to bottom of the
deposit. I am not able to confirm that from my own observa-
tion, but as one would expect from their appearance that the
implements must have come from a floor, I repeatedly cross-
questioned the gravel-diggers on the point, and got them to
write in pencil on the specimens the depth at which they found
them.