Some Aspects of the Hampshire Plateau Gravels

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Abstract
Before proceeding to consider the special features of the Hampshire Basin, and their bearing on palæolithic problems, I should like to say a few words on more general subjects. It is very well known, but perhaps not always remembered, that scarcely one of our commonly accepted conclusions regarding the geological position of the early palæoliths rests on a secure foundation; in almost every case we have to content ourselves, not with a sound logical deduction, but with the most probable of several possible inferences from inadequate and conflicting data. And as an example of what I mean, let us glance at some points in the history of river terraces. First of all the word terrace usually connotes two distinct structures, a basal rock-shelf, and a series of deposits resting on it; and although it is generally assumed that the two are so intimately bound together as to be practically contemporaneous, yet that is not a sure inference, since it is equally possible that there may have been, in some cases at least, a long interval between them. The importance of this possibility to archæologists will be evident when I remind you of the contention of several eminent authorities that the different human cultures of the Pleistocene belong rather to such intervals than to the period of accumulation of the drift to which they are generally referred.

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