THE FLINT MINERS OF BLACKPATCH By J. H. Pull Sir
Arthur Keith commends The Flint Miners of Blackpatch, by Mr. J. H. Pull (Williams and Norgate, 10s. 6d.) as a valuable piece of original research, and he is unquestionably right. Ten years ago Mr. Pull discovered on the Sussex Downs to the west of Cissbury Ring the filled-up shafts of prehistoric flint mines and, with his friend,.Mr. C. E. Sainsbury, he spent the leisure of years in digging them out. His book gives a clear and detailed account of what was found. The Mines were worked by, or under the control of, the late Neolithic people who buried their dead in round barrows between 2,000 and 1,000 'Le. The miners drilled the chalk with the antlers of deer and showed skill in making shafts and passages. They had no metal objects, and there is no trace of woven materials. They had domesticated the ox, the pig and the sheep. Mr. Pull and his colleague excavated in all seven shafts, twelve barrows and several pit-dwellings, so that the .text and drawings are based on a substantial amount of evidence. From the study of shells found in the shafts it is inferred that the Downland climate was wetter then than it is now—an interesting example of the unexpected results to be obtained from scientific digging.
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