Page:Prehistoric Britain.djvu/230

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222
PREHISTORIC BRITAIN

of flakes, scrapers, arrow-heads, drills, saws, chips, cores, etc. Of other kinds of stone were hammers, celts and grain crushers. On this evidence Mr. Clinch assigns these hut-circles to the Neolithic Age.

Deneholes.—The much-discussed Deneholes of Kent and Essex are still surrounded by a halo of mystery, owing to the number of theories advanced by different writers to explain their object and uses, the most plausible of which is that they are simply the pits from which chalk had been extracted for industrial purposes. Deneholes are usually met with on the higher ground of the lower reaches of the Thames, the best-known localities being the Hangman's Wood, Abbey Wood, Gravesend, etc. In fact. North Kent and South Essex appear to be studded with them. A Denehole consists of a round shaft, three feet in diameter, sunk through ordinary soil and gravel till the chalk is reached, often at a depth of some sixty feet. The shaft then widens out, like the shoulder of a bottle, and forms a circular chamber, from which galleries branch out in different directions. No relics indicative of human habitation have hitherto been found in any of the Deneholes, although a considerable number have been more or less explored.

Camps and Forts.—Every country in Europe possesses remains of the refuges and strongholds of its early inhabitants. The selection of the site and the kind of works constructed