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The Palaeoliths of Boyn Hill, Maidenhead

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2011

A. D. Lacaille
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Extract

By this communication to the Society, the author aims at drawing attention to the Palaeolithic archaeology of Boyn Hill, the western and highest part of the Berkshire town of Maidenhead. The name of this area is of course familiar to all geologists and to many antiquaries because it has so long been applied to most significant features of the Thames valley. Curiously enough, although Boyn Hill is held as classic ground, the Pleistocene deposits here have only been broadly studied, and of their archaeological contents little has been made and no specimen ever illustrated. Recently the place has given scope for more intensive researches than before, and if the work in the field, which will be described, has not been very rewarding, it has at least been the means of bringing together several loose threads. In a sense, too, this paper is a record of eleventh-hour rescue operations undertaken for information and for securing specimens to relate with past discoveries.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 41 , Issue 3-4 , October 1961 , pp. 154 - 185
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1961

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References

page 154 note 1 Bromehead, C. N., ‘On Diversions of the Bourne near Chertsey’, in Summary of Progress of the Geological Survey of Great Britain and the Museum of Practical Geology for 1911 (Mem. Geol. Survey), London, 1912, pp. 74–77Google Scholar.

page 155 note 1 Hare, A. K., ‘The Geomorphology of a part of the Middle Thames’, in Proc. Geol. Assoc. lviii, 1947, 314–16Google Scholar.

page 155 note 2 Wooldridge, S. W., ‘Glaciation of the London Basin and the Evolution of the Lower Thames Drainage System’, in Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. xciv, pt. 4 [pp. 627–67], 1938, 639Google Scholar.

page 155 note 3 Bromehead, op. cit., p. 74.

page 155 note 4 Treacher, Li., ‘Excursion to Maidenhead’, in Proc. Geol. Assoc. xxi, 1909–10, 198CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 155 note 5 Taken as a round figure based on old and new Ordnance Survey readings at Liverpool and Newlyn, respectively 77–83 ft. and 76·93 ft., the mean being 77–38 ft. above O.D. at Boulter's Lock.

page 156 note 1 Op. cit., 1947, pp. 319–20. With a strong argument in support of his opinion, this author urges that his Linch Hill Terrace contains that commonly known for several years now as the Iver Terrace. No doubt this (Iver) designation follows elefrom the published results of the inquiries of the present writer and his collaborator and adviser, Dr.Oakley, K. P., whom he remembers gratefully. (‘The Palaeolithic Sequence at Iver, Bucks.’, in Antiq. Journ. xvi, 1936, 420—43Google Scholar.) In their archaeological yield, however, the gravels differ. Whereas the Palaeolithic artifacts from the gravels on the said Linch Hill, Lower Boyn Hill, or Furze Platt-Lent Rise Terrace west of Iver occur in both derived and in mint condition, so far the analogous palaeoliths have been found without exception as derived elefrom ments in the Iver gravels. This may be a factor that would point to the Iver Terrace being but a stage. On this possibility and the use of a double nomenclature Dr. Oakley spoke in the discussion that followed the reading of Professor Hare's paper on 6 Dec. 1946 (pp. 336–7).

page 157 note 1 Lacaille, A. D., ‘The Palaeolithic Contents of the Gravels at East Burnham’, Bucks., in Antiq. Journ. xix, 1939, 166–81CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 157 note 2 LI. Treacher, op. cit., 1909–10, pp. 198–9.

page 157 note 3 Lacaille, ‘The Palaeoliths from the Gravels of the Lower Boyn Hill Terrace around Maidenhead’, in ibid, xx, 1940, 245–71.

page 157 note 4 Op. cit., 1909–10, pp. 198–9.

page 157 note 5 Op. cit., 1939.

page 157 note 6 Op. cit., 1940.

page 157 note 7 Lacaille, op. cit., 1939, pp. 171 ff.

page 157 note 8 Idem, op. cit., 1940, pp. 253 ff.

page 157 note 9 Idem.

page 160 note 1 It has been a common experience when inspecting collections to find palaeoliths from the district labelled simply Furze Platt or Maidenhead without distinction. On the strength of what follows, however, most relics of industry from the district can now be fairly well assigned to one or other of the levels.

page 161 note 1 Labelled Boyn Hill by Ll. Treacher; see below, pp. 168–70.

page 161 note 2 Surveys of 1875, 1877, and 1910. O.S. 6 in. to the mile Sheet Berks. XXIV S.W.

page 162 note 1 i.e. after the publication of the author's paper in Antiq. Journ. xix, 1939, cit. supra.

page 167 note 1 Above, pp. 161–3.

page 168 note 1 ‘On the Occurrence of Stone Implements in the Thames Valley’, being no. 10 in Man, 1904, pp. 17–19.

page 169 note 1 Report on the Swanscombe Skull. Prepared by the Swanscombe Committee of the Royal Anthropological Institute. Journ. Roy. Anthrop. Inst. lxviii, 1938 [pp. 17–98], 30–58Google Scholar.

page 169 note 2 Op. cit., 1909–10, pp. 198–9

page 169 note 3 Treacher, Ll., ‘Palaeolithic Man in East Berks’, in The Berks., Bucks, & Oxon. Archaeol. Journ. ii, no. i, April 1896, p. 17Google Scholar; idem, in op. cit., 1909–10, pp. 198–9; above, pp. 158–61.

page 170 note 1 Lacaille, op. cit., 1939, pp. 171–5.

page 170 note 2 Op. cit., 1939, pp. 170 ff.

page 170 note 3 Op. cit., 1909–10, pp. 198–9.

page 171 note 1 Above, p. 163.

page 174 note 1 Op. cit., 1936, pp. 438–9 and pl. LXXIX, no. 5.

page 176 note 1 Cf. McBurney, C. M. B. in West, R. G. and McBurney, C. M. B., ‘The Quaternary Deposits at Hoxne, Suffolk, and their Archaeology’, in Proc. Prehist. Soc. xx, 1954, 143Google Scholar.

page 178 note 1 Treacher, M. S., Arkell, W. J., and Oakley, K. P., ‘On the Ancient Channel between Caversham and Henley, Oxfordshire, and its contained Palaeoliths’, in Proc. Prehist. Soc. ix, 1948, 126–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 182 note 1 Arkell, W. J., ‘Palaeoliths from the Wallingford Fan-gravels’, in Oxoniensia, viii, 1943, 1–18Google Scholar.

page 182 note 2 See, e.g., Lacaille, A. D., ‘Palaeoliths from the Lower Reaches of the Bristol Avon’, in Antiq. Journ. xxxiv, 1954, 1–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar.