744 



STONE 



STONE AGE 



time. The preservation from decay of a porous 

 su balance like freestone (whether sandstone or 

 limestone) in a climate like that of northern 



Europe is a prohl >f the greatest <litlicnlt.v. 



One precaution on^ht never to lie neglected, ami 

 that w to see that a ' damp-proof course' is put 

 through the walU of a building just above the 

 ground, to prevent the ascent of moisture from the 

 soil. See BUILDING. 



Artificial Stone. Burnt clay in the form of 

 bricks or terra-rot t a blocks of larger size, though 

 not usually classed as artificial stone, i by far the 

 beat substitute for real stone. Portland Cement, 

 (q.v.) mixed either with sand alone or with sand 

 and broken stones, forms one kind of artificial 

 stone (see CONCRETE). In the north of Italy 

 paving tiles with beautiful patterns are made by 

 inlaying Portland cement with small pieces of 

 marble, serpentine, and other ornamental stones. 

 This kind of work is obviously suited for external 

 wall decoration of a MTV effective kind, provided 

 that even the best Portland cement has the dura- 

 bility which some of its advocates claim for it. 

 Scagliola (q.v.) is a polished plaster for internal 

 decoration, somewhat similarly ornamented. Von 

 Fuchs of. Munich, Kiihlmann of Lille, and Kan- 

 some of Ipswich have successively done material 

 service in enabling an artificial stone to be made 

 of the silicate of soda or potash (soluble glass) and 

 sand (see GLASS, Vol. V. p. 245). Ransome's 

 artificial xtone is a hard substance formed by mix- 

 ing sand with a solution of this alkaline silicate, 

 then pressing it into moulds, and when par- 

 tially dry soaking it in a bath of chloride of 

 calcium, which to some extent penetrates the 

 'stone,' forming the insoluble silicate of lime (cal- 

 cium silicate). Chimney-pieces, vases, and archi- 

 tectural ornaments of various kinds have been 

 made of this material. Ransome's ' patent con- 

 crete stone ' is made in the same way, with broken 

 pieces of stone added. 



Stone Age, or AGE OF STONE, is a term used 

 in archaeology to denote the condition of a people 

 using stone as the material for the cutting tools 

 and weapons which, in a higher condition of cul- 

 ture, were made of metals. The expression ' age,' 

 when used in this connection, is not therefore 

 significant of a fixed period in chronology, but 

 implies merely the time, longer or shorter, earlier 

 or later, during which the condition subsisted. 

 The duration of such a condition must necessarily 

 have varied from various causes in different areas, 

 and chiefly in consequence of contact with higher 

 degrees of culture. Populations placed in remote 

 situations, and on that account remaining unin- 

 fluenced by such contact like the islanders of the 

 South Pacific and the K-kium-, of the extreme 

 north for instance have remained in their stone 

 age to the 19th century. On the other hand, the 

 populations of the European area, in portions of 

 which there were successive centres of high culture 

 and civilisation from a very early period, had all 

 emerged from their stone age, through the use of 

 bronze, many centuries before the Christian era. 

 The progress of early culture in Europe seems to 

 have oeen from the south and east, northward and 

 westward, so that the emergence of the different 

 populations from tin-it age of stone was accom- 

 plished much earlier in southern and eastern 

 Europe than in its northern and western part*. 

 But while the stone age of different areas is thus 

 Dot necessarily synchronous, it seems to be true of 

 all European areas that this is the earliest condi- 

 tion in which man has appeared UIMHI them. Our 

 knowledge of the details of the arolwology of Asia, 

 Africa, and America is still too limited for general 

 conclusions to be drawn with certainty, but the 

 existence of similar prehistoric conditions, as re- 



gards the use of stone prior to the introduction of 

 metiiU in Asia Minor, linli.i. China, Japan, the 

 northern part* of Africa, an. I many purls of North 

 mid Son III America, has been fully established. 

 There are no data by which the ]>eriod of the early 

 Mi'iie-ii-ing population* of Kuro|ie ran be defined, 

 even approximately. Hut in Knglaiid. Belgium, 

 and France, and across the ( 'ontinent to the sliorVs 

 of the Mediterranean, they were contemporary with 

 animals which are now either wholly or locally 

 extinct, such as the mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, 

 cave-lion, cave-bear, and hyirna, the reindeer, musk- 

 ox, and urns. It is an open (|iieMion to what 

 extent this change of fauna implies a change of 

 climate, but from the geological conditions in which 

 the flint implements of the earliest types are found 

 it is evident that, though extensive changes must 

 have taken place since they were deposited in the 

 river-basins, they belong exclusively to the later 

 deposits of the Quaternary period. 



The stone-age implements of Europe have been 

 divided into two classes the mJceolithic or older 

 stone implements and the neolithic or newer stone 

 implements. This is equivalent to dividing the 

 stone age of Europe into two periods, earlier 

 and later, as the palu'olithic implements are found 

 associated with the extinct and locally extinct 

 fauna, while the neolithic implement- are found 

 associated with the existing' fauna. The palaeo- 

 lithic stone implements are distinguished as a class 

 from the neolithic by their greater rudeness of 

 form, and by the facts that they are exclusively 

 of flint and have been manufactured by chipping 

 only. The neolithic stone implements on the other 

 hand are of finer forms, often highly polished, and 

 made of many varieties of stone besides Hint (see 

 fig. 4). But the mere fact of an implement having 

 been fashioned by chipping alone is not decisive of 

 its palaeolithic character, because certain varieties of 

 implements of neolithic time still continued to be 

 made by chipping only. The distinguishing differ- 

 ences are the typical forms and the circumstances 

 of association in which the implements are found. 



Fig. 1. 



o, round-pointed, fongne-aliajMHl implement, Blddenham, near 

 Bedford ; ft, acutely-pointed Implement rondo from rounded 

 nodule of flint, 8t Acheul, near Amiens ; n, from Beiuerton, 

 Wilts ; d, im-Kularly-ovah-. sharp-rimmed Instrument, Moulin 

 Quignon, Abbeville. (From Evans's Ancitnt Stone Imple- 

 ment* aftlnat Britain.) 



PaliFolithic stone implements are found in tttu 

 in river-gravels, in caves, and in association with 

 iMines of the extinct animals l>efore mentioned. 

 Neolithic stone implements are found in the sur- 

 face-soil, in refuse-heaps of ancient habitations, and 

 in chambered tombs. Implements of hone or deer- 

 bom of lioth periods are similarly distinguished 

 I'.v their typical forms and their circumstances ot 

 association. The palaeolithic implements of flint 



