432 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



paring it with that produced on other stones — on the one 

 hand by means of fortuitous percussion and pressure, and on 

 the other by blows delivered with a hammer-stone used in the 

 ordinary " human " manner — to decide whether these very 

 primitive flints have been flaked by man, or by the unguided 

 forces of nature. But it may be as well, before proceeding to 

 describe the specimens selected for illustration, to give the 

 reader some idea of the general appearance of these primitive 

 edge-flaked flints. 1 They are usually of a more or less tabular 

 form, the whole of one side of which very often exhibits the 

 original crust or cortex of the flint, while the whole of the 

 other is represented by the hard interior owing to the specimen 

 having been split by some disruptive force, which very fre- 

 quently, but not always, can with some confidence be described 

 as being of thermal origin. The edges of these tabular flints 

 have then been trimmed by somewhat steep flaking so that 

 the specimens assume a pointed form (figs. I, 2, and 3), or 

 are provided with a more or less straight cutting edge (figs. 

 4, 5, and 6), and it has been suggested by those who regard 

 these specimens as being humanly fashioned, that such forms 

 might have been used by a primitive race of people for boring 

 and scraping purposes. 



The colour of the flaked and broken surfaces of the specimens 

 is generally reddish-brown, some being of a darker shade than 

 others. They very often show signs of having been subjected 

 to rolling by water, which has had the effect of rounding the 

 sharp edges and angles of the flints, and of imprinting upon 

 their surfaces incipient cones of percussion due to the impact 

 of other stones. Very frequently too, the specimens exhibit 

 striae on one or other of their flat surfaces, showing that at 

 some period of their history they have been subjected to a 

 slight amount of pressure. There can be no doubt that it is 

 of importance to make a really dispassionate study of these 

 primitive edge-flaked stones, as their antiquity is undoubted, 

 and if of human origin, they represent man's first efforts to 

 shape flints to his needs. 



The author has had various opportunities during the past 

 few years of critically examining a number of these ancient 



1 These specimens have been known to archaeologists as " Eoliths " (eos, dawn, 

 and lithos, stone), but as some observers have used this term to describe any piece 

 of roughly broken flint, it is necessary to adopt a more precise nomenclature. 



