CONCERNING THE AGE OF THINGS 141
I will conclude hy saying that other and perhaps even
more accurate clocks may exist, as yet undiscovered, within
the remains of antiquity, but it does not seem likely that
their discovery will occur by chance. To take a possible
example : the phenomenon known as flint patination, the
gradual acquisition by buried flint of a coloured or whitish
coating : I did not refer earlier to this phenomenon, because
by itself it does not serve to date the flint. But, if it could
be shown that the molecular modification of the flint surface,
which leads to patination, proceeded at a constant rate, then
we could know at least the time-interval since a man-made
flake was chipped from its parent core. Perhaps the X-ray
diffraction-pattern technique, or the still more recent
electron diffraction technique, could help us here. I put
this forward without close consideration, merely as an
example of possible future developments.
Recent subtle methods of dating have fired the imagin-
ation of archaeologically-minded scientists, and many acute
intellects are bent on finding other dating techniques.
However, it is for members of the Essex Field Club
interested in this field of study to use their greatest mental
gift, controlled imagination, and to seek to add lustre to their
own reputation and that of the Club by discovering new ways
to knowledge concerning the Age of Things.