46 Correspondence — J. Reid Moir. 



COEEESPONDENCE. 



PBE-PAL^OLITHIC FLINT IMPLEMENTS. 



Sir, — Mr. Hazzledine Warren and I evidently differ very widely 

 on the question of man's antiquity. He expresses the opinion that 

 the more our knowledge grows of the various ways in which a flint 

 fractures, the less faith will archaeologists have in the human origin 

 of pre-Palaeolithic flints ; while I believe with equal steadfastness 

 that the very reverse will be the case. Now, I am sure Mr. Warren 

 is an earnest seeker after truth, and I hope I am also. Yet we 

 disagree absolutely as to the correct interpretation of the evidence 

 bearing upon this matter which has been collected, and it seems to 

 me that it would be as well to attempt to put our respective opinions 

 to a somewhat stringent test, and to ascertain, in fact, which of us 

 knows most about flint fracture. Such a test will naturally remove 

 this controversy from the realm of theoretical discussion to that of 

 practical demonstration ; but it is necessary to do this if any real 

 advance is to be made in our knowledge of the subject, and I there- 

 fore submit the following proposals to Mr. Warren, which I hope he 

 will seriously consider, and make known through the medium of your 

 journal whether he accepts them or not. I take it Mr. Warren 

 believes that the edge-trim rued flints, found chiefly in the Plateau 

 Drift of Kent and usually described as 'eoliths', have been 

 produced by some form of pressure. I, on the other hand, regard 

 these specimens as having been flaked by blows, and I also believe 

 that it is possible to differentiate between pressure and percussion 

 flaking. I therefore propose that Mr. Warren selects forty flint 

 pebbles, and that he flakes twenty of them by means of a hammer- 

 stone of some sort into the usual hollow- scraper type of ' eolith ', 

 and subjects the remaining twenty to any form of pressure he likes 

 which will also produce similar forms. Having done this, I would 

 suggest he puts distinguishing and faithful marks upon each, by 

 means of which he will know which have been flaked by pressure 

 and which by blows, and that these specimens be then submitted to 

 my examination at a meeting of some scientific body such as the 

 Geological Society. If this is done, and if a good light is provided, 

 I will then and there examine the forty flints and state which 

 I consider have been flaked by pressure and which by blows, and 

 further, if I do not judge 75 per cent of them correctly, I will then 

 and there admit that my claim to be able to differentiate between the 

 two forms of fracture is not substantiated. 



It will be noticed I refer only to the simple edge-trimmed tabular 

 flints first discovered by Mr. Benjamin Harrison, of Kent, and make 

 no mention of the much more elaborately flaked specimens which 

 have been found beneath the lied Crag of Suffolk. These form an 

 entirely different subject of inquiry, and can be dealt with when the 

 easier question of the ' eoliths ' is settled. But if it turns out that 

 I am vanquished in the contest I suggest, my views regarding the 

 ' humanity ' of the sub-Crag flints will naturally lose prestige, while 

 if I should happen to be the victor it will show I am in possession of 



