Pigmy Burins in Surrey and Sussex

Extract

One very common, if not the commonest, type of burin on the majority of microlithic sites in these two counties is the micro-burin or beaked graver. In the course of the last two years I have collected, chiefly from the surface, upwards of 70 specimens of this type on Surrey sites, and as many more from the same number of sites in Sussex. The Surrey sites lie on the lower greensand belt which, crossing the southern portion of the county from east to west, broadens out in the south-west into a wide expanse of picturesque uplands studded with heaths and commons, and terminating in a bold escarpment overlooking the Weald. The pigmy-bearing grounds are widely scattered over the beds of this formation, and range from the valleys and comparatively low-lying heaths between 200-300 feet O.D., at the foot of its northern slopes to the extreme edge of the escarpment, which at Leith Hill reaches a height of 965 feet O.D. On these sites the micro-burin is almost invariably present in greater or less numbers. A description of this curious implement by Capt. F. Buckley appeared in the Society's Proceedings 1921-22. As regards his statement that the marks of usage invariably appear along the edge opposite the notch formed by the removal of the back flake, my experience differs from his. Several of my specimens lack any marks of usage along this edge, and the beak rather than the edge appears in these examples to have been the working portion of the tool.