Publications
Neolithic Flint Weapon in a Wooden Raft, by Charles Dawson, published 1894 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 39, article, pp.97-98) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2124] & The Keep [LIB/500257] & S.A.S. library View Online
Ancient Boat Found at Bexhill, by Charles Dawson, published 1894 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 39, article, pp.161-163) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2124] & The Keep [LIB/500257] & S.A.S. library View Online
The Minnis Rock, Hastings, by Charles Dawson, F.G.S., published 1894 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 39, notes & queries, pp.222-223) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2124] & The Keep [LIB/500257] & S.A.S. library View Online
Description of and Remarks on the Dungeon Cells at Hastings Castle, by Charles Dawson and J Lewes, C.E., F.S.A., published 1896 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 40, article, pp.222-235) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2125] & The Keep [LIB/500258] & S.A.S. library View Online
Note On the Seals of the Barons and of the Bailiffs of Hastings, by Charles Dawson, published 1896 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 40, article, pp.261-264) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2125] & The Keep [LIB/500258] & S.A.S. library View Online
List of Wealden and Purbeck-Wealden Fossils, compiled by Charles Dawson, published 1898 (7 pp., Brighton) accessible at: British Library
On the Discovery of Natural Gas in East Sussex, by C. Dawson, published January 1898 in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (vol. 54, issue 1-4, article, pp.564-571) View Online
Abstract:The first record of the discovery of an inflammable natural gas in East Sussex is contained in Mr. Henry Willett's 13th Quarterly Report of the Subwealden Exploration (Netherfield), 1875. It is there stated that in making experiments on the temperature, etc. at various depths, and on lowering a light in the bore-tube, an explosion occurred. Strange oscillations in the depth of the water are reported to have been noticed, which at the time were attributed (inter alia) to the discharge of inflammable gases derived probably 'from the petroleum-bearing strata beneath' (the Kimeridge Clay).
Another discovery of inflammable natural gas occurred in the year 1895, when a deep artesian bore-tube (6 inches in diameter) was sunk in the stable-yard of the New Heathfield Hotel, close to the Heathfield Station of the London, Brighton, & South Coast Railway Company (Eastbourne & Tunbridge Wells Branch) in the parish of Waldron, East Sussex. At the depth of 228 feet, the foreman of the work noticed that the water which had been put down the borehole to assist the working of the tools was 'boiling.' As he was about to lower a candle to discover the cause, the gas arising from the bubbles caught fire, and burnt 'to about the height of a man.' Subsequently the foreman attached small tubes and ignited the gas at a distance of 15 yards from the borehole.
Another discovery of inflammable natural gas occurred in the year 1895, when a deep artesian bore-tube (6 inches in diameter) was sunk in the stable-yard of the New Heathfield Hotel, close to the Heathfield Station of the London, Brighton, & South Coast Railway Company (Eastbourne & Tunbridge Wells Branch) in the parish of Waldron, East Sussex. At the depth of 228 feet, the foreman of the work noticed that the water which had been put down the borehole to assist the working of the tools was 'boiling.' As he was about to lower a candle to discover the cause, the gas arising from the bubbles caught fire, and burnt 'to about the height of a man.' Subsequently the foreman attached small tubes and ignited the gas at a distance of 15 yards from the borehole.
The Services of the Barons of the Cinque Ports at the Coronation of the Kings and Queens of England, and the Precedency of Hastings Port, by Charles Dawson, published 1901 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 44, article, pp.45-54) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2129] & The Keep [LIB/500262] & S.A.S. library View Online
Note on the Hastings Corporation Relics of Coronation of the Kings and Queens of England, by Charles Dawson, F.S.A., F.G.S., published 1902 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 45, article, pp.110-113) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2130] & The Keep [LIB/500263] & S.A.S. library View Online
Sussex Iron Work and Pottery, by Charles Dawson, published 1903 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 46, article, pp.1-62) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2131] & The Keep [LIB/500264] & S.A.S. library View Online
History of Hastings Castle : the castlery, Rape and Battle of Hastings, to which is added a history of the Collegiate Church within the castle, and its prebends, by Charles Dawson, published 1909 (2 volumes, xiii + 356 & vii + 359-579 pp., London: Constable) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/503823][Lib/503824] & East Sussex Libraries
On the Discovery of a Palæolithic Skull and Mandible in a Flint-bearing Gravel overlying the Wealden (Hastings Beds) at Piltdown, Fletching (Sussex), by Charles Dawson and Arthur Smith Woodward, published 1913 in Geological Society (vol. LXIX, article)
On the Discovery of a Palæolithic Human Skull and Mandible in a Flint-bearing Gravel overlying the Wealden (Hastings Beds) at Piltdown, Fletching (Sussex), by Charles Dawson and Arthur Smith Woodward, published January 1913 in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (vol. 69, issue 1-4, article, pp.117-123) View Online
Abstract:Several years ago I was walking along farm-road close to Piltdown Common, Fletching (Sussex), when I noticed that the road had been mended with some peculiar brown flints not usual in the district. On enquiry I was astonished to learn that they were dug from a gravel-bed on the farm, and shortly afterwards I visited the place, where two labourers were at work digging the gravel for small repairs to the roads. As this excavation was situated about 4 miles north of the limit where the occurrence of flints overlying the Wealden strata is recorded. I was much interested, and made a close examination of the bed. I asked the workmen if they had found bones or other fossils there. As they did not appear to have noticed anything of the sort, I urged them to preserved anything that they might find. Upon one of my subsequent visits to the pit, one of the men handed to me a small portion of an unusually thick human parietal bone. I immediately made a search, but could find nothing more, nor had the men noticed anything else. The bed is full of tabular pieces of ironstone closely resembling this piece of skull in colour and thickness; and, though I made many subsequent searches, I could not hear of any further find nor discover anything - in fact, the bed seemed to be quite unfossiliferous.
Description of the Human Skull and Mandible and the Associated Mammalian Remains., by Charles Dawson and Arthur Smith Woodward, published January 1913 in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (vol. 69, issue 1-4, article, pp.124-144) View Online
Abstract:The Human Skull and Mandible.
The human remains comprise the greater part of a brain-case and one remus of the mandible, with lower molars 1 and 2. All the bones are normal, with no traces of disease, and they have not been distored during mineralization.
Of the brain-case there are four pieces (reconstructed from nine fragments) sufficiently well preserved to exhibit the shape and natural relations of the frontal, parietal, occipital, and temporal bones, and to justify the reconstruction of some other elements by inference. These bones are particularly noteworthy for their thickness, and for the depth of the branching grooves which are impressed on their cerebral face by the meningeal vessels. The thickening is due to the great development of the finely cancellated diploe, the outer and inner tables of the bone being everywhere comparatively thin. The thickest point is at the internal occipital protuberance, where the measurement is 20 millimetres. A thickness of 11 or 12 mm. is attained at the postero-lateral angle of the left perietal and at the horizontal ridges of the occipital; while a thickness of 10 mm. is observable along the greater part of the fractures of the parietals and frontals. Compared with the corresponding portion on the opposite side, the postero-lateral region of the right parietal is rather thin, its thickness at the lambdoid suture being 8 to 9 mm.
The human remains comprise the greater part of a brain-case and one remus of the mandible, with lower molars 1 and 2. All the bones are normal, with no traces of disease, and they have not been distored during mineralization.
Of the brain-case there are four pieces (reconstructed from nine fragments) sufficiently well preserved to exhibit the shape and natural relations of the frontal, parietal, occipital, and temporal bones, and to justify the reconstruction of some other elements by inference. These bones are particularly noteworthy for their thickness, and for the depth of the branching grooves which are impressed on their cerebral face by the meningeal vessels. The thickening is due to the great development of the finely cancellated diploe, the outer and inner tables of the bone being everywhere comparatively thin. The thickest point is at the internal occipital protuberance, where the measurement is 20 millimetres. A thickness of 11 or 12 mm. is attained at the postero-lateral angle of the left perietal and at the horizontal ridges of the occipital; while a thickness of 10 mm. is observable along the greater part of the fractures of the parietals and frontals. Compared with the corresponding portion on the opposite side, the postero-lateral region of the right parietal is rather thin, its thickness at the lambdoid suture being 8 to 9 mm.
Supplementary Note on the Discovery of a Palæolithic Human Skull and Mandible at Piltdown (Sussex), by Charles Dawson and Arthur Smith Woodward, published January 1914 in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (vol. 70, issue 1-4, article, pp.82-93) View Online
Abstract:Since reading our paper on December 18th, 1912, we have continued our researches in the Piltdown gravel.
The whole bed is divided into four well-defined strata. The topmost consists of surface-soil, containing pieces of iron-stained subangular flint derived from some ancient gravel, similar to those beneath. This surface-soil also contains a mixture of pottery and implements of various ages.
Beneath is the second bed of undisturbed gravel, varying from a few inches to 3 feet in thickness. It is from the centre of this bed that the triangular Palæolithic implement mentioned and figured in our former paper was obtained. It contains rolled and subangular flints similar to those found in the strata above and below, and is mostly pale yellow in colour with occasional darker patches.
The third bed, though not always present, is well marked, where it does occur, by reason of its dark ferruginous appearance, and chiefly consists of pieces of ironstone and rolled and subangular flints deeply patinated and iron-stained. As in most other beds of this description, the ferruginous colour of the gravel and of the fossils within it often varies in intensity, from a dull pale-brown to a lustrous blue-black, within the space of a few inches, the latter colour being due to the presence of ferrous sulphide of iron. All fossils found by us (with the exception of the remains of deer) were discovered or have been traced to this third dark bed.
The whole bed is divided into four well-defined strata. The topmost consists of surface-soil, containing pieces of iron-stained subangular flint derived from some ancient gravel, similar to those beneath. This surface-soil also contains a mixture of pottery and implements of various ages.
Beneath is the second bed of undisturbed gravel, varying from a few inches to 3 feet in thickness. It is from the centre of this bed that the triangular Palæolithic implement mentioned and figured in our former paper was obtained. It contains rolled and subangular flints similar to those found in the strata above and below, and is mostly pale yellow in colour with occasional darker patches.
The third bed, though not always present, is well marked, where it does occur, by reason of its dark ferruginous appearance, and chiefly consists of pieces of ironstone and rolled and subangular flints deeply patinated and iron-stained. As in most other beds of this description, the ferruginous colour of the gravel and of the fossils within it often varies in intensity, from a dull pale-brown to a lustrous blue-black, within the space of a few inches, the latter colour being due to the presence of ferrous sulphide of iron. All fossils found by us (with the exception of the remains of deer) were discovered or have been traced to this third dark bed.
On a bone implement from Piltdown (Sussex), by Charles Dawson and A. Smith Woodward, published January 1915 in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (vol. 71, issue 1-4, article, pp.144-149) View Online
Abstract:During the past season we have spent much time in examining the Piltdown gravel, working round the margin of the area previously explored in detail. In proportion to the amount of material removed, however, discoveries were few. Rolled fragments of teeth of Rhinoceros and Mastodon, as highly mineralized as before, were again found in place in the dark gravel; and they seem to belong to the Pliocene species Rh. etruscus and M. arvernensis, already provisionally recorded. No human remains were met with; but a large piece of bone evidently worked by man compensates for much disappointment, and proves to be so singular that it is worthy of special description.
This bone implement was found about a foot below the surface, in dark vegetable soil, beneath the hedge which bounds the gravel-pit, and within 3 or 4 feet of the spoil-heap whence we obtained the right parietal bone of the human skull. On being washed away, the soil left not the slightest stain on the specimen, which was covered with firmly-adherent pale-yellow sandy clay, closely similar to that of the flint-bearing layer at the bottom of the gravel. The bone, therefore, cannot have lain buried in the soil for any long period, and was almost certainly thrown there by the workmen with the other useless débris when they were digging gravel from the adjacent hole. It is much mineralized with oxide of iron, at least on the surface
This bone implement was found about a foot below the surface, in dark vegetable soil, beneath the hedge which bounds the gravel-pit, and within 3 or 4 feet of the spoil-heap whence we obtained the right parietal bone of the human skull. On being washed away, the soil left not the slightest stain on the specimen, which was covered with firmly-adherent pale-yellow sandy clay, closely similar to that of the flint-bearing layer at the bottom of the gravel. The bone, therefore, cannot have lain buried in the soil for any long period, and was almost certainly thrown there by the workmen with the other useless débris when they were digging gravel from the adjacent hole. It is much mineralized with oxide of iron, at least on the surface