660 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. VOL.XXIII. No. 591. 



Within the last decades some of the prin- 

 cipal questions regarding the Paleolithic stage 

 in the evolution of man have come to be con- 

 sidered on a fair way to settlement, and the 

 frontier of investigation in prehistoric an- 

 thropology has been pushed back into epochs 

 representing the early Quaternary and the 

 Tertiary. Some of the more important prob- 

 lems now under discussion concern the pre- 

 Paleolithic or Eolithic stage and its culture. 

 To these problems relating to the earliest cul- 

 ture of incipient man great interest attaches, 

 and Dr. MacCurdy has materially assisted in 

 making them understood in this country by 

 presenting a clear and admirably constructed 

 paper discussing the present stage of investi- 

 gation in this field. He has taken the direct 

 route to knowledge by visiting the original 

 European localities and collections in company 

 with investigators who have studied them, 

 and his opinions are those of an unprejudiced 

 observer with the original materials immedi- 

 ately before him. The paper includes an 

 account of the early discoveries, special dis- 

 cussions of the finds in England and Belgium, 

 a chronology of the stone age, and a very 

 useful bibliography of the subject. 



Technically, the Eolithic problem concerns 

 the existence in Europe of implement-making 

 and implement-using primates in periods ante- 

 dating that of the Chellean or early Paleolithic 

 industry. The time of the Chellean industry, 

 or of the beginning of the Paleolithic, is not 

 generally supposed to date back as far as the 

 beginning of Quaternary time. The industry 

 of this epoch is commonly acknowledged to 

 represent a grade of development in imple- 

 ment making too advanced to be considered 

 as the first stage. The stage of Eolithic man 

 represents the epoch of beginnings, in which 

 the first use was made of primitive imple- 

 ments. It is described as commencing at 

 least as early as Miocene time, and extending 

 upward into the early Quaternary. 



The industry of Puy-Courny in France rep- 

 resents the late Miocene; the industry of the 

 Chalk Plateau in the south of England, so 

 from photographs of eoliths, and six text figures 

 illustrating the geological relations of implement- 

 bearing beds. 



fully discussed by Prestwitch and others, is 

 held to be Pliocene. Other industries of 

 Prance and England are referred to the late 

 Pliocene. The numerous occurrences in 

 Belgium to which Rutot has devoted himself 

 are early Quaternary. 



In a study of the implement-like objects 

 attributed to the work of primitive man-like 

 forms living in the earlier divisions of the 

 Eolithic epoch great difficulties are necessarily 

 met. The first implements were evidently 

 unmodified natural objects. If selected, they 

 were chosen because their original form was 

 more suitable for the purpose in view than 

 that of other objects. The first artifacts were 

 probably unintentionally chipped by use, and 

 this class of objects grades into that showing 

 intentional modification of form. The series 

 leads then from the typical implement to the 

 unmodified natural object, and considerably 

 before the beginning is reached we arrive at 

 a point where it is almost impossible to deter- 

 mine whether or not one is dealing with arti- 

 facts. 



Having seen a little of the original local- 

 ities and collections examined by Dr. Mac- 

 Curdy, it has appeared to the writer that the 

 Eolithic question is really rather sharply 

 divided. The problem of the Belgian Eolithic 

 flints of early Quaternary age seems hardly 

 the same question as that relating to the 

 Pliocene eoliths of the Chalk Plateau in 

 England, or that of the French specimens 

 from the Miocene of Puy-Courny. As is 

 shown by Dr. MacCurdy, the Belgian Eolithic 

 remains, to which he attaches the greatest im- 

 portance, exhibit in many cases almost un- 

 deniable evidence of intentional modification 

 by man. They belong moreover to a period 

 not far antedating the industry of the Chel- 

 lean epoch, and are not so far removed from 

 the present but that a paleontologist might con- 

 ceive of the type of primate which made them 

 as existing up to the present day without 

 radical physical changes. On the other hand, 

 the age of the older deposits representing the 

 earlier portion of the Eolithic epoch is so 

 great, that to any one acquainted with the 

 rapid changes of mammalian types in time, it 



