THE*OED*STONE AGE 
characterized the Acheulian type of culture. These were 
now much more skillfully made and far more symmetrical 
in shape than those of the Chellean. They had also come 
to be smaller and lighter and included a far greater 
variety, of ' ‘types. 
Acheulian man still 
used mainly the cores 
of the nodules, but he 
also occasionally em- 
ployed flakes. Dur- 
ing this period the 
coup-de-poing or fist- 
ax reached the acme 
of its development, 
heme ».cerefully 
chipped over its en- 
tire surface as well as 
along all its edges; 
perhaps man had even learned to attach a handle of some 
kind to it (Fig. 41). Nevertheless even the finest Acheu- 
lian artifacts, far in advance as they are of anything that 
had gone before, appear coarse and clumsy by contrast 
with those of later periods. 
Certain of the stone implements of Acheulian times 
would have been well adapted for scraping and dressing 
hides, and this has led some observers to infer that the 
people of that day used skins in various ways. There 
can hardly as yet have been any question of regular 
clothing, but the increasing cold of the Late Acheulian 
may have forced upon man the idea of using furs for 
simple wraps. 
It is not impossible that during this same Late Acheulian 
phase burial of the dead began to be practiced. How this 
custom might have arisen, we have, of course, no means of 
knowing; but it may have been connected in some way 
with the growing concentration of the population in cer- 
tain sheltered localities, owing to the increase of cold. 
[ 189 ] 
Fic. 41. Acheulian coups de poing or “‘fist 
axes.” After de Mortillet 
