EARLY MAN REGARD being had to the necessarily uncertain date of the various archaeological remains of early man, the period covered by this section of the local history cannot be arbitrarily limited, but may broadly be said to include the vast succession of ages between the appearance of man, as evidenced by his earliest handiwork, and the dawn of British history faintly traced in the writings of Roman historians. Nor can a terminal limit be fixed at the advent of the imperial power, for many stone, bronze and iron implements and much rude pottery must necessarily be classed as prehistoric, some of which may, for ought we know, have been fabricated in Romano-British days, while British coins were struck long after the Romans first attempted the conquest of the island. THE PALEOLITHIC PERIOD In Essex few finds have been unearthed which raise the question of the existence of human beings in preglacial days ' ; nevertheless, to ages so remote that no approximation of date is possible must be assigned the first traces of man's presence. Our land was then separated from the north-west of Europe only by the waters of a great river flowing northward, occupying a minute part of the space now covered by the North Sea, and no channel separated the chalk hills of Dover from Cape Gris Nez. The waters which flowed through ancient valleys have left deposits of loam, sand and gravel, forming the strata yielding the major part of the implements of palaeolithic man. Some of these valleys remain,* but so altered by geological changes since that period that the gravel terraces, once below water, now form the building ground of (for example) parts of Leyton, Walthamstow, Clapton and Stoke Newington. It was from these terraces that Mr. Worthington G. Smith obtained many specimens which now enrich the British Museum, and from that source came numerous finds presented by the Rev. J. W. Kenworthy to the Essex Field Club collections. The Thames valley has yielded evidence of the presence of man at many points on its old terraces. 1 Mr. J. E. Greenhill expressed the opinion that there was proof of the presence of man in both interglacial and preglacial ages, and referred specially to an implement found below chalky boulder drift at Newport in Essex (Eistx Field Club Journal, iv. 95).
- The broad rivers which eroded the valleys are now represented by narrower streams flowing at
lower levels. 261 33 A
