24 THE PATH OF SCIENCE 



blow concentrated at a point, it breaks in such a way that a 

 sort of cap can be Hfted off, exposing underneath a double 

 cone. If the blow is dealt on the margin of the block, a flake 

 comes off showing a swelling near the point of impact. This 

 method of working flints is known as "knapping." Because 

 of the durability of flint and the very long period during 

 which flint tools were made, enormous numbers have been 

 found both of the primitive hand axes and scrapers and of 

 the later, more specialized, tools. 



In the paleolithic period, improvement in the flint tools 

 was very slow indeed. After a time, however, the craftsmen 

 learned to make finer and more delicate tools— pointed awls 

 for making holes in skins, by which the skins could be 

 fastened together with sinews— and weapons, spearpoints and, 

 later, arrow points. Then the art of knapping improved as 

 a result of the discovery that small flakes could be detached 

 accurately by pressure, so that the coarse serrations could be 

 subdivided and a much finer edge obtained, and then the 

 flints were polished and a smooth edge obtained by grinding. 

 At this time, other arts developed, and the whole cultural 

 period is distinguished from the paleolithic period by call- 

 ing it "neolithic." 



Our knowledge of the history of that vast period of man's 

 activity depends upon the study of the progress of flint work. 

 It is quite probable that different stages in the art of work- 

 ing flint did not occur contemporaneously in different coun- 

 tries, so that in one part of the world man may have been 

 making paleolithic instruments, while in another part the 

 flint craftsmen had learned the neolithic art. Generally, 

 however, the occurrence of closely similar flint implements 

 in different places is held to indicate that the cultures were 

 contemporaneous. Flinders Petrie, for instance, considers 

 that the identity of flints from the Fayum of Egypt with 

 Solutrean flints from Western Europe indicates that the be- 

 ginning of his sequence dating was contemporaneous with 

 the Solutrean paleolithic period. 



