44 



SCIENCE PROGRESS 



The correctness of this method can be checked by observing 

 the direction of the small fissures or " splits," which gives an 

 additional indication of the angle at which the flake was 

 semoved (fig. 3). Careful outline drawings were then made 

 of the flints flaked in the sack experiment, and also of those 

 shaped by human blows. 



Each flake area was accurately drawn and the direction of 

 the blows responsible for the flaking indicated by arrows. 



When this was done it was seen that the flints from the sack 

 had had their flakes removed at divergent angles to the edge of 

 the stone (fig. 4), while those fractured by human blows had 

 had them removed at a constant angle (fig. 5). It does 

 not appear possible that fortuitous haphazard blows would 

 remove flakes at a constant angle to the edge of any flint, 



Fig. 4. 



Fig. 5. 



neither does it seem reasonable to suppose that any human 

 flaker would go to the trouble of making a sharp edge by means 

 of divergent blows, as the result would be much less satisfactory 

 than one produced by the normal method. It appears then 

 that we have here a good and simple means of distinguishing 

 between the work of man and of nature. 1 



A further examination of the specimens fractured in the 

 sack experiment demonstrated that the flakes which had been 

 removed differed in appearance from those due to human blows, 

 this difference being — 



(a) The " squatness " of the fortuitous flakes as compared 

 with those removed by human agency (fig. 6). 



1 The author has examined and made flaking diagrams of a large number of 

 flints found upon sea-beaches, and the flakes removed from these specimens by 

 fortuitous battering are at markedly divergent angles. 



