POPULAR SCIENCE 



THE OLDEST FLINT IMPLEMENTS. By J. Reid Moir, F.R.A.I. 



In a former article in Science Progress (" Flint Fracture and 

 Flint Implements," July 191 6, pp. 37-50) the present author 

 was privileged to give some account of the past and present 

 position of prehistorical research, and to describe a number of 

 experiments in the fracture of flint, which were carried out 

 with the object of providing prehistorians with some satis- 

 factory data upon which to base their acceptance or rejection 

 of any series of flaked flints as being humanly fashioned. It 

 is proposed in the present article to apply the criteria furnished 

 by the above-mentioned experiments to a series of very primitive 

 and ancient flaked flints first discovered by Mr. Benjamin 

 Harrison in the high plateau gravel of Kent, and which have 

 been the cause of much disagreement and disputation amongst 

 archaeologists. Without troubling the reader with the some- 

 what complex geological facts which demonstrate the great 

 antiquity of these primitive flaked flints, it may be stated 

 that the deposits in which they mostly occur pre-date, by a 

 considerable period, those in which the earliest implements 

 of river-drift, or " palaeolithic," man are found, and in conse- 

 quence of which the chipped stones recovered from these very 

 ancient deposits have been rendered suspect by those who 

 hold conservative views upon the question of man's antiquity. 

 But it must be pointed out that those who believe that these 

 very ancient flaked flints are humanly fashioned may with 

 equal justice be said to hold extreme views in favour of the 

 high antiquity of man, and unless either school can bring 

 forward definite scientific facts in support of their respective 

 opinions, those opinions must be regarded as being of very 

 little real value. The author does not propose therefore to 

 enumerate the various " reasons " which have been advanced 

 in the past for the rejection or acceptance of these particular 

 specimens. He proposes to confine his remarks solely to the 

 characteristics of the flaking exhibited by them, and by com- 



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