21
of Essex and in some parts of France. How primitive this
method is, can be better realized when it is remembered that
fish-hooks made of bronze have been discovered in the Lake
Dwellings of Switzerland, which in shape are very little inferior
to the best steel fish-hooks of to-day.
PRE-HISTORIC OBJECTS AND REMAINS RELATING
TO ESSEX.
Palaeolithic Implements. The river gravels of Essex
have been peculiarly productive of these very early evidences of
the presence of man, the. recognition of which has done so much
to revolutionise our ideas of the duration of his existence on
the earth. The implements here exhibited have been collected
by different observers in various localities, but principally from
the gravels of the valley of the Thames and the Lea. For much
of our knowledge on this subject we are indebted to Mr.
Worthington Smith, the record of whose researches has done so
much to enrich the Transactions of the Essex Field Club. The
accompanying section and description is taken from the paper
" Primaeval Man in the valley of the Lea " published in the Essex
Field Club Trans. 1883, to illustrate Mr. 'Smith's method of
observation :—
" Of my discoveries in this Valley (the Lea) I esteem most highly
that of the ' Palaeolithic Floor' or working-place, at Stoke Newington,
for here we have three deposits of gravel and sand superimposed, each
deposit clearly marking a distinct era in the great and prolonged
Palaeolilhic age.
" The best sections, and those most familiar to me, are immediately
north and north-east of Stoke Newington Common, a position from 80
to go feet above the Ordnance datum. In the accompanying illustra-
tion the upper figure shows a section 300 feet in length through the
gardens between Alkham and Kyverdale Roads. From 4 ft. to 4 ft.
6 in. beneath the surface at this place, indicated by AAA in the upper
figure, there is a thin 5 or 6 in. stratum of subangular flints covered by
sandy loam and humus. The 6 in. stratum of subangular flints contains
many Palaeolithic weapons and tools, and innumerable artificially made
flakes ; this stratum I have termed the ' Palaeolithic Floor,' because it
is a true ' floor' or working place where the more recent Palaeolithic
men lived and made their instruments of stone. Upon this floor,
weapons, tools, flakes, hammer-stones, anvils, and bones are to be