A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE
A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE lithic Age was very much concentrated in the neighbourhood of the great rivers, as indeed is the case with civilized man to-day ; and here, besides other conveniences, Early Man found an abundance of material for his tools. A few well-shaped implements have, however, been found at some distance from, and at a considerable height above, the great water-ways. Mr. H. W. Monckton, F.G.S., found a well-worked pointed-oval specimen, with a cutting edge all round, in a gravel-pit at Englefield, about 150 feet above the Thames-level, and near the little stream of the Bourne. Two implements of the same general type were found at Bradfield, in the same neighbourhood. Mr. J. W. Colyer found a well-worked implement of flat ovoid type, also with a cutting edge all round, at Sulhamstead Abbots, about 1 1 miles from the river Kennet, and about 150 feet above it. These specimens are all in the Reading Museum, and the excellence of their type at so high a level is note- worthy. So numerous have been the ' finds ' of palaeolithic implements in Berkshire, that we need not further particularize localities. It may be mentioned, however, that implements have been found at Newbury, and that one specimen, a good example of the pointed type, was found at Wokingham in the old gravel of an affluent of the Loddon. We may say, then, that the remains of man at this period are for the most part found in a definite zone in the old gravels which fringe our rivers. They appear to be absent from the older ' Plateau ' gravels, and also from the newer, or lower, valley-gravels. Perhaps this apparent absence of man may be attributed to climate. To a certain extent, also, there appears to have been a segregation of population in particular localities, so far as was consistent with the habits of Early Man at this period. 1 THE NEOLITHIC AGE As we have seen, man appears to have left this district before the Thames valley had been cut down to its present depth. When he reappeared considerable physical changes had taken place ; and we now find his remains in more recent deposits, such as surface-soil, peat, and the beds of lakes and rivers. We find also a considerable change in the form of the tools. In the case of the hatchet or ' celt ' the change is not at first strongly accentuated beyond the elongation of the tool, which, like some of the palaeolithic forms, has a cutting edge all round. A fine example of this type, dug up in gravel and having probably been buried there, is in the Reading Museum. Very soon, however, the practice of grinding the edge at one end was resorted to. A fine specimen of flint chisel was found on an island in the lake in Englefield Park, and is also in the Museum. It was found also that, 1 See, in addition to the works quoted, O. A. Shrubsole, F.G.S., on ' The Valley-Gravels about Reading' (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 1890, p. 582), L. Treacher, 'Palaeolithic Man in East Berks ,' Berks, Bucks and Oxon Arch. Journ. 1896, p. 16 ; and ' On Stone Implements in the Thames Valley,' etc., Man, 1904, p. 17. 176
