THE OLD STONE AGE 
Of the various types of stone implements made during 
the Chellean, that known as the coup-de-poing, or “‘fist-ax’’ 
(because it was almost certainly held in the hand and not 
hafted), now appears in a much more highly developed 
form than that which it had in the Pre-Chellean. It oc- 
curs in several shapes, probably denoting a variety of uses. 
Perhaps the most typical is a rough, heavy, almond- 
shaped utensil which must have been used for hacking 
with the edge and striking with the pointed end. It is 
sometimes of large size, indicating that it was wielded by a 
muscular and vigorous race. 
Chellean implements are found in the river gravels, for 
their makers and users had no reason to resort to caves for 
shelter but lived in the open. They may have erected 
simple windbreaks of hides or bark, but this is purely 
matter for conjecture. The utmost that can be said is 
that Chellean man employed some of the tools known as 
“scrapers” in dressing down the skins of animals pre- 
paratory to tanning them; on the other hand he may have 
designed them for fashioning various objects out of wood. 
It can not be emphasized too often in this connection 
that what we have today in the way of remains of early 
cultures necessarily represents but a small fraction of their 
original total content. Only those objects composed of the 
most durable substances have survived; and this means, 
for the earlier periods at least, almost exclusively stone. 
Yet ancient man must have made even greater use of 
wood, bone, skins, sinews, vegetable fibers, and many 
other materials, which have decayed without leaving a 
trace and whose existence we can therefore only infer. 
Tue ACHEULIAN EpocH 
Following the Chellean, at any rate in western Europe, 
came the culture stage known, from its type station of St. 
Acheul, in northern France, as the Acheulian. This ap- 
pears to be a direct development from the Chellean, a fact 
which implies that there was no break of continuity, such 
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