FLINT IMPLEMENTS AND PAL^EOLITHS 



93 



another and opposite cutting-edge. We have seen that so far 

 in implement-making the flat ventral surface had been an 

 absolute necessity for the production of the required cutting 

 edges. On this ventral surface or striking-platform the majority 

 of the blows had been delivered, and it was the presence of this 

 same flat surface which made it possible for the palaeolithic 



d\fr*T LKT£Wv»- JOS**** 



workman to develop his implements still further. If a number 

 of the earliest palaeoliths are examined it will be noticed that 

 they are roughly rhomboidal in section, and thus differ from the 

 triangular form of the implements represented in figs. 2 and 3. 

 Fig. 5 a shows how, in all probability, this change from the 

 triangular to the rhomboidal form was brought about. The 

 two areas indicated by crosses and limited by dotted lines were 



