from High Level Terraces of Thames Valley. 55 



Fig. 8. — Small subtriangular implement, made of an olive-green flake, with 

 crust at the butt and traces of an older ochreous surface on the front. The 

 bulb is at one angle of the base, and tlie other is the lower limit of the work on 

 the right-hand edge, which must be classified as a side-scraper, as the bulbar 

 face is untouched. Length 2 -8 In., breadth 2 in. From Knowle Farm Quarry, 

 Savernake Forest, Wilts. The horizon is unknown, but the specimen has all 

 the appearance of a racloir or side-scraper of Le Moustier date. (See Archceo- 

 logia, lxvii, p. 30, fig. 2.) 



Examination of any representative collection of flint implements 

 shows that there are assemblages of forms each fashioned after an 

 accepted pattern. Of the palaeolithic implements, those belonging 

 to the Drift period are chiefly of a general pear-shape in outline 

 among the earlier deposits, but ovate in the later, but both are flat 

 although made from trimmed cores ; that is, they are chipped on two 

 faces, and not simply spindle-shaped pieces with sharp points, but 

 flattened cones and discs with cutting edges. With the advent of the 

 Cave periods the core was given up and the flake adopted. Nearly all 

 " cave" implements are made from flakes; some are carefully worked 

 on a disc-face, a facetted platform prepared, and by a single blow on 

 this platform a complete implement detached from the core. By 

 this means half the work expended on their manufacture was saved 

 and the implements were as effective as the earlier core-forms. 



Many flakes were used as " scrapers " ; some being trimmed along 

 one side to make a comfortable hold which would not cut the hand. 

 As a result of use the scraping edge gradually got chipped off so as 

 to meet the holding-edge, and a triangular form resulted resembling 

 in outline the coups-de-poing. Such are figured on Plate II. 



The original implement was a racloir; by use it became a coup- 

 de-poing, but it is doubtful if they were ever used as points. 



In the later Cave periods the principal tools were the racloir or 

 side-scraper, the grattoir or plane, and the burin or graver. Among 

 the implements described on pp. 53-5 examples of the racloir and 

 grattoir are noted. The age of the implements is determined by 

 their stratigraphical position; they are either Chelles or St. Acheul.' 

 They were therefore evidently used by early palaeolithic man, and 

 that they were in use over widespread areas is proved by their 

 occurrence alike in England, France, and Belgium. 



What is perhaps of even more interest is the variety of form of 

 the tools, pointing to the differentiation of function and of speciali- 

 zation among the workers. Thus the coups-de-poing, the grattoirs 

 and the racloirs, three kinds of tools, of which each attains its 

 maximum development both as to numbers and style of workmanship 

 at a different period, are all known in the Chelles stage. The early 

 palaeolithic forms may therefore be regarded as the ancestral types of 

 the later periods. During the palaeolithic periods some tools and 

 weapons decreased in numbers, while others greatly increased. 

 Attending this alteration of dominant form was the gradual evolution 

 from one type to another, and there is no more interesting instance of 

 descent with modification than that of the Neolithic celt from the 

 palaeolithic coup-de-poing. This subject has already been dealt with 

 by Mr. Reginald Smith, 1 and it suffices here to say that in any 

 1 Archceologia, vol. lxvii, pp. 27-48, 1916. 



