THE 



OEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 



NEW SERIES. DECADE IV. VOL. IX. 



No. III.— MARCH, 1902. 



I. — On the value of Mineral Condition in determining the 

 Eelative Age of Stone Implements. 



By S. Hazzledine Warren, F.G.S. 



The Classification of the Paleolithic Period. 



THE common English classification of the Paleeolithic Period into 

 the epochs of the Eiver-Drift Men and the Cave Men hardly 

 conduces to clearness of thought. The implements of the Eiver- 

 Drift men are often found in the caves, and those of the Cave Men 

 are very common in the river drifts. Although the caves and rock 

 shelters bring us down to a later period than is usually represented 

 in the river drifts (there appear to be exceptions to this^), yet the 

 general succession in the two classes of deposits is the same, and 

 they cannot be separated. 



Without accepting all the more recently proposed earlier epochs,^ 

 I should certainly extend the classification one stage further back- 

 ward in time than was originally done by M. de Mortillet.^ That 

 is to say, I would separate the derived implements from the con- 

 temporary Chelleo-Achenleen implements of what are commonly 

 called the ' high-level ' river drifts. So far, I think, one may be 

 fairly safe. For so far the relative ages of the implements ai'e not 

 inferred from their types, but the relative ages of the types, or 

 rather of the series of types, are inferred from their mineral con- 

 dition and the stratigraphical succession in which they are found. 

 The peculiar types especially characteristic of one epoch are not 

 confined to that epoch, but occur also in newer or in older epochs, 

 or in both, as the case may be. But this fact does not prove the 

 contemporaneity of our supposed epochs. 



In all these problems one has to encounter a difficult combination 

 of differences and resemblances. The implements of any one place 



^ See, for instance, Philippe Salmon, "L'Age de la Pierre a I'Exposition 

 Universelle de 1889," Paris. Several later Palaeolithic implements are figured on 

 p. 29, etc., collected by M. G. d'Ault du Mesnil from the " Quaternaire moyen, 

 assise superieure " at Abbeville. Note also remarks towards the end of the present 

 paper on Shrub Hill, Feltwell, etc. 



- Some account of these may be found in various papers by M. A. Eutot in the 

 Bull. Soc. beige Geol. Brux., 1900 and 1901, vols, xiv and xv. 



3 G. de Mortillet, " Classification des Diverses Periodes de I'Age de la Pierre" : 

 Congr. Inter. d'Anthrop. et d'Archeol. Prehist. Bruxelles, 1872, p. 432. " Le 

 Prehistorique Antiquite de I'Homme," 1883,^ff.s.si;«. 



DECADE IV. TOL. IX. NO. III. 7 



