A Prehistoric Site at Kimble, S. Bucks. by A. E. Peake

A PREHISTORIC SITE AT KIMBLE. 437 A PREHISTORIC SITE AT KIMBLE, S. BUCKS. BY A. E. PEAKE, M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P. Read at Norwich, January 8th, The site which is described in the following paper was discovered by Mr. E. Payton, B.A., of Hambleden, Bucks., in May, 1913, and I had hoped to have his co-operation in describing it and the fine series of implements which he and Mrs. Payton (members of this Society) and I have accumulated from it. The war, however, has prevented Mr. Payton from carrying out his portion of the task, and I shall, therefore, include a description of some, only of my own pieces, hoping that the fine series now deposited by Mr. and Mrs. Payton in the Hambleden Museum will be described and illustrated later on, and amplify the large list of pieces now recorded. The site is on the land of Kimble Farm, on the borders of Bucks and Oxfordshire, and about midway between the villages of Fawley and Scuth End. It is on the high ground of the Chilterns, about 600 O.D. The site of the factory is a narrow neck, which falls towards Fawley, and rises towards Southend, where the ground lies at 642 ft. O.D. It is ground typical of the Chiltern country the land being here split up into dry valleys which have their starting point from the ridge mentioned above. The site is eminently suited to form a settlement though no camp can be traced, as direct access to two of the great lateral valleys which lead into the Thames is obtained from this spot. On the south-west side is the commencement of Fawley Bottom, which opens out into the wider valley which runs from I Pishill through S16nor and Assenden to Henley-on-Thames. €- / On the north-east is one of a series of dry lateral valleys which opens out to the great cleft known as the Hambleden Valley, near the present village of Skirmett. A tribe settled at Kimble would, before the present roads were made, have an easily graded trackway into these main avenues, both connected with the water- way of the Thames and probably important trade routes in earlier times. The geology of this part of the country does not throw much light on the site. The whole of the high ground is, of course, part of the chalk of the Chilterns. The superficial deposits include clay with flints—plateau and pebbly gravel—and Reading beds. The whole of the high ground from Middle Assenden to Fawley, with 438 PROCEEDINGS OF THE PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. the east part of South End and Turville Court is covered with clay with flints, spurs extending to Great Wood and Bacres, to the hills above Skirmett. It is from this deposit, made up by the decomposition of the chalky surface, and partly by the denudation of the overlying Eocene beds that the flint used on the site is derived. At Tower Woodhouse Farm, about two miles to the south, is a patch of pebbly gravel more directly derived from the Eocene beds. To the west is a large area covered with Reading beds, the nearest point to Kimble being Coxlease, about two miles away. The factory is on clay with flints, but the deposit is not many feet in thickness, as three pits lately filled in occupy parts of the field from which chalk was obtained to " marl " the surface. I cut into one of these pits to ascertain if it was prehistoric, but could not reach the bottom, and had not then got through the modern "filled in "at io ft. The implements from the Kimble site fall into various classes. Of the perfect forms some are single examples. Of others there are duplicates or many examples. It may well be called a cone culture, and in some measure falls in line with those described from the Wensum Valley in " Pro- ceedings," Vol. II., part 2, by Messrs. W. C. Clarke H. H. Halls and J. E. Sainty B.Sc. (Hellesdon, Sparham and Lyng). The cones recorded from these three sites number 183, viz. : 120, 52, 11. This falls short of those found by myself at Kimble, viz. : 130, and Mr. and Mrs. Payton have probably an equal number. Another point of distinction is the fact that Kimble is a pigmy site. There are, too, some very definite tortoise cores, a few flake implements, and a number of plungers, but the flakes wi:h facetted bulbs are very few in number. An interesting group of pieces not recorded from the above sites, and which are very rare at Grime's Graves, and non-existent at Peppard, are pieces with facetting, which are clearly struck from the side of a prismatic core to obtain a new platform. Not the least interesting are a series of beak- ended implements which are reminiscent of the rostro-caiinates from under the Red Crag. There are seven varieties of flint used in making the implements. These include three of black flint, one of which is pure, the others having chert (white) in patches or entirely diffused through it. There is also a honey-coloured, a light trans- lucent flint, a grey flint with bands of chert, and a light grey flint with chert diffused through it. All these varieties are found in the gravel on the surface. From an examination of the cones it is clear that the Kimble site is closely related to Sparham, Lyng and Hellesdon. These are also surface zones. From what I have seen of Dr. Sturges' large series from a site near Icklingham, he has there the full development of this particular culture, with completed pieces in far greater numbeis, a full account of which I hope he will one A PREHISTORIC SITE AT KIMBLE. 439 day publish. Our chief difficulty on the Kimble site lies in determining which of the pieces belongs to this culture, and which are earlier or later. It is easy to embrace in one period the majority of the cones, pigmies, flakes, and some of the celts, picks, prismatic tools, discs and drift forms, but hardly any of the scrapers have the same patina— a bluish white with lustre—and the same may be said of the typical tortoise core. On the other hand many of the rostro-carinate group—the plungers and the flakes with facetted platforms—cer- tainly belong to the same period as the cones. In the seven varieties of flint used on this site none has come directly from the chalk or from the large masses in the clay with flints derived from it. This is probably due to the fact that the Hambleden Valley is cut through the middle chalk, which does not contain suitable nodules. The flint is derived from the spread of plateau gravel or the neighbouring Eocene beds which contain all the varieties. The absence of mined flint is in favour of a pre- neolithic date. In determining the value of the pieces made from flint other than that patinating blue and white, it is well to bear in mind the undoubted fact that if two pieces are chipped at the same time from two different varieties of flint, though exposed to the same conditions the patina will be different. It is equally difficult to consign the flint work to one particular period by taking form, style, and finish, etc,, as the guide, as there is no known site in which all these forms occur together. The fuller knowledge we now have of the Grime's Graves culture (if this is of Neolithic date), has entirely revolutionised the classification of flint implements, resting as it does largely on form. Have we any established site of Neolithic date to compare with, and what really constitutes a Neolithic date ? If the Grime's Graves implements are not to influence the date, it is perfectly clear that form is no criterion, the other factors pointing to a Neolithic date—domesticated animals, polish and pottery are all absent from this site. The fact that these implements are found on the surface, whilst favouring a post-Palaeolithic date do not preclude a palaeolithic one, as pieces from palaeolithic times downwards are found on the surface, where they have accumulated. At the present time it is extremely difficult to assign a piece or a group from a site to the Neolithic period, because we have no data to go upon. The Cissbury culture sites have a distinct facies which shows a very marked distinction from that at Kimble. It is probable that the prismatic core period will be found just as prolific in forms as Grime's Graves when it is fully studied, but though some of the forms may be the same on a small scale there are others which are absent from the former. I have never seen a typical Moustier racloir from the former period, such as is found at Grime's Graves. The chief difficulty in comparing two sites lies in seldom having a complete series to form the basis for comparison. Cores and lumps and flakes are often discarded, and the same fate meets the 440 PROCEEDINGS OF THE PREHISTORIC SOCIETY. rougher pieces, without which no true comparison can be made. The three sites mentioned above, viz.: Hellesdon, Sparham and Lyng, present some interesting parallels and differences. Classes 1-4 of the cones vary a good deal in their respective numbers between the Hellesdon and Kimble sites, especially in the subdivisions of Class 3.

Load more