50 On Deneholes.
found, but they were not numerous.4 The object there also
was to work out a better flint-band than any nearer the sur-
face. The depth of the shafts appears to have been about
twenty to thirty feet.
We have thus ill these two important ancient flint-working
stations an essential identity of plan, purpose, and geological
position. It is true that, as to this last point, we found
thirteen feet of sand on the surface at Brandon, while only a
few inches of soil covered the chalk at Cissbury. But in the
thirteen feet of sand were many unworn flint nodules identical
in character with those found elsewhere at the top of the
chalk, and indicating by their presence the close proximity of
that formation. At Cissbury there were signs that the pits
had been used more or less for habitation, but the primary
intention of the original excavators was undoubtedly to work
out a particular flint-band. This is as evident as that the
arrangements at a modern colliery are primarily adapted to
the working out of a particular coal.
I now pass from these ancient flint-working stations to the
equally remarkable artificial caves with vertical entrances,
which are known as Deneholes, a word meaning (few-holes.
Strange to say, these pits, though mentioned by Camden,
Lambarde, and Hasted, have received extremely little atten-
tion from the scientific observers of the present century,
Mr. P. C. J. Spurrell being indeed the only person who
deserves to be considered an authority upon them. And as
Mr. Spurrell's first paper ou the subject, of any importance,
was read before the Archaeological Institute so recently as
April 7th, 1881, the result is that, while almost all geologists
and anthropologists know more or less about Grimes Graves
and Cissbury, the Deneholes of Bexley and Grays remain
comparatively unknown. I may illustrate the neglect with
which they have been treated by the following example.
The late Dr. Buckland, the very eminent geologist, remarks,
in his paper on the "Plastic Clay," written in 18176:—" The
4"Additional Discoveries at Cissbury," .by J. Park Harrison, M.A.
Journ. Anthrop. Inst., May, 1878. Cissbury is 31/2 miles N. of Worthing,
Sussex. There is a model of the workings in the Pitt-Rivers Anthrop. Coll.
» Trans. Geol. Soc, vol. iv. (1817).