by 187 pages which describe the various cultures,
in a wide-ranging manner, not just the well-known
type sites as is too often the case. The author
wisely draws attention to the paucity of human
fossil remains, and brings out well the various
dates on which the Neolithic made its appearance.
Two pages are devoted to the Clactonian. The
book is well illustrated and the pictures are
keyed to the text by marginal numbers. Excellent
value for the price.
Second and more important is "Flint," by
Walter Shepherd (Faber & Faber, 1972, £5.00).
Starting with the story of chalk, the book goes
on to review the various theories of the
segregation of flint, and this section incorporates
a useful description of the associated fossils.
It is rather technical, but there is nothing in
it which cannot be understood by anybody who has
a little geological knowledge. There follows an
adequate summary of flint implements, and a
chapter on the later uses of flint has a full
account of gun flints of various types, and
mentions that some 25 of the old flint-knapping
sites are known in England. Interesting to East
Anglian readers is an analysis of the use of
flint in building.
There are 32 plates. The often partially
hidden and distorted fossils embedded in the
flints figured are identified with considerable
skill. As far as I know there is no other book
on this very abundant mineral, and although the
price is a bit daunting in these hard times, the
book is really a "must" for all serious students
of the recent geology on these Isles. Both the
above books have full bibliographies.
A useful little pamphlet is "South East Essex
in the Pre-historic Period," by Donald G. Macleod
(The Museum, Southend-on-Sea, 1971.) This gives
what is presumably the latest system of dating
the various periods, a thing which seems to vary
with every book one reads. It has short but
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