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XX. On the Occurrence of Flint Implements in undisturbed Beds of Gravel, Sand, and Clay. By John Evans, Esq. F.S.A., F.G.S.
Read June 2nd, 1859.
The natural connection between Geology and Archæology has at various times been pointed out by more than one writer[1] on each subject; and it must, indeed, be apparent to all who consider that both sciences treat of time past as compared with time present. The one, indeed, merges by almost imperceptible degrees in the other; while the object of both is, from the examination of ancient remains, to recall into an ideal existence days long since passed away, to trace the conditions of a previous state of things, and, as it were, to repeople the earth with its former inhabitants.
The antiquary, as well as the geologist, has "from a few detached facts to fill up a living picture; so to identify himself with the past as to describe and follow, as though an eye-witness, the changes which have at various periods taken place upon the earth."[2] Geology is, in fact, but an elder brother of archæology, and it is therefore by no means surprising to find that the one may occasionally lend the other brotherly assistance; although it has been generally supposed that the last of the great geological changes took place at a period long antecedent to the appearance of man upon the earth, and that the modifications of the earth's surface of which he has been a witness have been—with the exception of those due directly to volcanic agency—but trifling and immaterial.
The subject of the present paper—the discovery of flint implements wrought by the hand of man, in what are certainly undisturbed beds of gravel, sand, and clay, both on the continent and in this country—tends to show that such an opinion is erroneous; and that in this region of the globe, at least, its surface has undergone far greater vicissitudes since man's creation than has hitherto been imagined. A discovery of this kind must of necessity be of great interest both to the geologist, as affording an approximate date for the formation
- ↑ See especially an article by the late Dr. Mantell in the Archæological Journal, vol. vii. p. 327.
- ↑ Prestwich, "The Ground beneath us," p. 6.
