Some Norfolk Palaeolithic Discoveries: With an Appendix on Implementiferous Gravels in East Anglia

Extract

In June, 1927, Mr. H. H. Halls noticed that the footpath beside the main Cambridge line of the L.N.E.R. had been made up with gravel. With the then recent discovery of implementiferous gravels at Whitlingham fresh in his mind he scrutinised the gravel carefully and soon found definite flakes. With some difficulty the gravel was traced to its source, and proved to come from Messrs. J. &. J Colman's Carrow works, where to extensive alterations were in progress. By the courtesy of the Directors, Mr. Halls was enabled to visit the site and examine the sections exposed. No flakes were seen in situ, but the workmen were instructed what to look for, and he arranged that any find of apparent interest should be preserved for his inspection. Throughout the rest of the year Mr. Halls regularly visited the site and a number of flakes were recovered, and fragments of bone, too decayed for identification, were seen.

Early in 1928 the Rev. T. C. Rae found the end of a broken hand-axe—a promise of future discoveries—and in February a good hand-axe was recovered from a sand layer 12 feet below the top of the section. The same deposit also yielded a worked flake of Chellean type, evidently derived from an older deposit, as well as some fresh-looking flakes with prominent bulbs. Finds of coarse scrapers and worked flakes continued steadily, and early in July a mammoth tooth, too disintegrated for preservation, prepared us for the discovery of a large portion of tusk, over three feet long.