THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE MOST 

 ANCIENT FLINT IMPLEMENTS TO THE 

 LATER RIVER-DRIFT PAL^EOLITHS 



By J. REID MOIR, F.R.A.I. 



There are very few serious prehistorians of the present day 

 who believe that the earliest palaeolithic implements of the 

 river-drift represent man's first efforts to fashion flints to his 

 needs. 



If a typical example of these implements be examined, it 

 will be recognised at once that the specimen owes its outline and 

 form to a series of dexterous blows delivered by some one with 

 a very definite idea of the kind of implement he wished to 

 produce, and a thorough grasp of the art of flint flaking. It 

 would seem to be contrary to reason and experience to suppose 

 that some primitive being in the remote past should, without 

 any prior knowledge of the flaking of flint, be able to produce 

 such a specimen. And this opinion is strengthened if we try 

 to conjecture what a present-day member of the human race 

 would be able to accomplish in implement-making under 

 similar circumstances. 



Let us suppose that a person who had no knowledge of the 

 fracture of flint, and had never seen or heard of such things as 

 flint implements, was confronted with a block of flint and a 

 hammer-stone. It may be supposed, also, that the present-day 

 representative of mankind would possess a brain more alert and 

 receptive than his ancient and untutored ancestor. And yet 

 even with this very great advantage is it possible to believe that 

 the modern person would be able to produce a symmetrical 

 and well-flaked palaeolith ? The answer to this question must, 

 in the author's opinion, be a decided negative, and he considers 

 that there is no reason to believe that any ancient and primitive 

 member of the human race would, under the same circumstances 

 of ignorance, be any more successful. 



It seems then that the earliest palaeolithic implements can- 

 not represent man's first efforts in flint-flaking, but are, in all 



83 



