A SURVEY OF FALLACIES IN CHELMSFORD
163
acceptance that thunder can turn milk sour there seems to be no
reasonable explanation for any of these beliefs.
It would be interesting to test these fallacies in other places and we
hope others will attempt this.
We wish to thank Mr. E. M. Holroyd for his help with the mathe-
matics involved, those persons who helped so much by asking the ques-
tions and also all those who so kindly answered them.
Excavations at a Mesolithic site near
High Beach, Epping Forest
BY KENNETH MARSHALL
Excavations were carried out during the second week of April,
1959. at a site on the small plateau to the west of the tea hut which
is situated on the road from the Robin Hood public house to High
Beach.
The presence of a flint industry at this site was first recorded in the
Essex Naturalist, 17, page 292, by Mr. S. Hazzledine Warren, the
discovery apparently being made when sand or clay was worked in the
vicinity.
The humus covering the area worked is extremely thin, varying in
depth from half an inch to three inches, and below this organic layer
lies a stratum of brown loam, apparently composed of weathered
material from the yellow Claygate Beds which lie below in their turn.
The brown loam is eight to nine inches in thickness and it is in this
level that the flint material occurs.
The number of flints recovered from the eleven square yards which
were excavated number, on a first count, more than eight hundred and
all these showed signs of human workmanship. They included nine
cores, twelve microliths, three microburins, two possible burins, three
possible hammerstones and fifteen possible scrapers.
The bulk of the material consisted of fragments of flakes and blades
and marked concentrations were found in certain areas. It is also known
that tranchet axes have been recovered from this site and the general
appearance of the industry as a whole suggests something which resem-
bles the British facies of the Maglemosian. The recorded site at
Broxbourne further up the Lee Valley is a possible source for com-
parison. However, a great deal more work will be required before the
total extent of the site is known and its significance understood.