EARLY MAN from 20 feet to 65 feet in diameter, and situated about 25 feet apart. For some time these pits were regarded by antiquaries as the floors of primitive dwellings similar to if not identical with those hut-sites of Neolithic age which have been known as hut-circles or pit-dwellings. It was evident to some however that their size was so much greater than that of the usual Neolithic hut-circles as to suggest a doubt if they were really the sites of ancient dwellings. Careful examination of one of these pits, and the evidence of the objects discovered within it, as well as on the surface of the ground, have enabled us to understand how the pits were originally made and by whom and for what purpose. The pit selected for examination was found to be an ancient excavation 39 feet deep and 28 feet in diameter, but like the other specimens near it had been filled up with waste material to within about 4 feet from the surface. It had been cut through a bed of dark yellow sand 1 3 feet thick, which at this point overlies the chalk. The sand contains several irregularly shaped nodules of flint, but the quality of the stone was not sufficiently good for the purposes of implement-making, and the pit had therefore been carried to a greater depth where two bands of flint were reached. The lower of these bands, occurring at a depth of 39 feet from the surface, was found to be of the average thickness of 7 inches and of the finest quality in every respect. It was clear that this was the band of flint sought for with so much labour by men in Neolithic times, and the excavations made for the purpose of reaching it had come in the course of time to be regarded as graves. The same band of flint occurs much nearer the surface about a mile to the south-west of Grime's Graves, where it is now worked for flint-knapping, but the bed is thinner than that at Grime's Graves and the flint is of inferior quality. The fact that man in the Neolithic age made a large number of shafts about 40 feet deep in order to procure the special kind of raw material that was most suitable for implement- making is a valuable testimony to the skill and energy of that ancient race. It also proves a familiarity with the structure of the earth for which otherwise we should hardly have been prepared. All the evidence that has been collected concerning Grime's Graves goes to show that the pits have in every case been nearly filled up with removed material. It is pretty clear that this was done in Neolithic times, and was simply a convenient method of disposing of the waste material resulting from fresh excavations. In removing this old material from the pit during the course of Canon Greenwell's examination numerous bones of animals were met with, and these had in most cases been broken open in order that the marrow might be extracted, presumably for human food. Other objects found included charcoal, chippings and cores of flints, pebbles for flaking and bruised by having been so used, and tools of deer's horn. The last consisted chiefly of picks and hammers made from the antlers of the red deer, and those found during the work of exploration bore many marks of severe wear, being splin- 259
