The Red Crag Shell Portrait: a Comment on the Report of the Committee

Extract

I have read with much interest the Report of the Committee appointed on 12th February, 1913, to examine such evidence as exists bearing upon the question whether the shell from the Red Crag of Walton-on-the-Naze (a single valve of Pectunculus glycimeris which belonged to the late Mr Henry Stopes, and has rude human features engraved upon it) is a genuine work of art of the Crag or pre-Crag period or a modern fabrication; and I desire to offer a few remarks thereon.

I may say at the outset that I have been familiar with this very puzzling shell for a long period; for I was present, on the 6th September, 1881, in the Anthropological Section of the British Association, during its Jubilee Meeting at York, when Mr. Stopes exhibited the shell and read an account of its known history. As to the Walton Cliffs and the Red Crag sections appearing therein, I knew them well years before.

The Committee has not only examined minutely and discussed fully in its Report the shell itself, the amount of staining it presents, the manner of the cutting of the lines incised upon it, the amount of sand lodged in them, and other points of interest which it presents, but has also enquired exhaustively into the history of the discovery of the shell, so far as this can now be ascertained. It has done all this with an amount of care and thoroughness which deserves high praise.