Forbidden Archeology_ The Full Unabridged Edition - Michael A. Cremo [75]
In his presentation to the Geological Society, with Harrison sitting in the audience, Prestwich first demonstrated that the higher formations of gravel around Ightham could not have been deposited by the present streams, at any point in their history. He gave evidence showing that the Shode could not have flowed any higher than the 340-foot level (Prestwich 1889, p. 273). Thus the tools in the gravels at elevations over 400 feet must have been quite old, having been deposited by ancient rivers.
This analysis is confirmed by modern authorities. Francis H. Edmunds, in a study published by the Geological Survey of Great Britain, wrote (1954, p. 59): “Occasional patches of gravel, unassociated with any present river system, have been recorded at various localities in the Wealden District. . . . they cap hilly ground and occur usually about 300 ft. above sea level. They consist of a few feet of roughly-bedded flint or chert gravel in a clayey matrix.”
Prestwich, having discussed the geological history of the high-level gravels, which he called hill drifts, then dealt with an important question regarding the implements found in them. Could these implements, perhaps of recent origin, have been dropped into the very old hill drift gravels in an age not long past? Prestwich believed that this was true of some of the implements, the Neolithic ones. But along with the Neolithic tools, dropped in the ancient hill drift gravels within the last few thousand years, there were, according to Prestwich, far older Paleolithic tools. These could be distinguished from the Neolithic tools by their deeply stained surfaces and the wear on their edges. Prestwich (1889, p. 283) stated that the paleoliths “exhibit generally the deep uniform staining of brown, yellow, or white, together with the bright patina, resulting from long imbedment in drift-deposits of different characters.” In addition, he said that some of the paleoliths were “more or less rolled and worn at the edges by drift-action—some very much so” (Prestwich 1889, p. 283). The neoliths were relatively unstained and unworn.
Sir John Prestwich (1889, p. 286) went on to say about the paleoliths found by Harrison near Ightham: “It is clear from the condition of the implements that, although now occurring on the surface of the ground, they, unlike the neolithic flints, which are unstained and unaltered except by atmospheric agencies, have been imbedded in some matrix which has produced an external change of structure and colour; while the matrix itself, which has been removed by denudation, has nevertheless in several instances left traces on the implements sufficient to indicate its nature.”
Describing the remnants of one kind of matrix, Prestwich (1889, p. 289) stated: “a considerable portion of these paleolithic implements are studded on one side with small dark-brown concretionary incrustations of iron peroxide and sand. . . . From this we may infer that both the flint implements and the flints have at one time been imbedded in a sandy, ferruginous matrix, just as the film of calcite on the under side of some of the St. Acheul specimens shows them to come from one of the seams of calcareous sand or chalky gravel common in the drift there, or as the ferruginous concretions on the Dunks Green specimens indicate their origin in that drift.”
The identity of the matrix is hinted at by Edmunds (1954, p. 47): “At intervals along the higher parts of the North Downs, and near the crest of the Chalk escarpment, patches of rusty brown sand are present.” The hill drifts of the North Downs and the plateau drifts of the Chalk Escarpment are the locations where Harrison found most of his implements. Edmunds (1954, p. 47) further noted: “similar blocks of fossiliferous ironstone or ferruginous sandstone occur on the South Downs near Beachy Head. The fossils have been proved to be of Pliocene age.”
“Unfortunately,” stated Edmunds (1954, p. 47), “no fossils have been