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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXV. No. 630 



the only stone age known was that which 

 is now called the neolithic period. Boucher 

 de Perthes 's first discovery of paleoliths in 

 the river drift of the valley of the Somme 

 came just two years later. These river- 

 drift implements, however, were not ac- 

 cepted until after (Sir) Joseph Prestwich's 

 visit to Abbeville in 1859. 



Is there a stone industry antedating the 

 paleolithic? The answer depends in a 

 measure upon the definition of the term. 

 The Chellean coup de poing is quite gen- 

 erally looked upon as representing the old- 

 est paleolithic industry. As to its position 

 in the geological scale opinions differ. 

 Piette and de Mortillet placed it in the 

 Lower Quaternary. According to the more 

 recent classifications of Rutot and Boule, 

 the Chellean belongs to the Middle Quater- 

 nary. If the latter view is correct, then 

 a pre-Chellean industry need not neces- 

 sarily be of Tertiary age. The presence of 

 artifacts in the Lower Quaternary should 

 not be surprising even to the most scep- 

 tical. This is particularly true in view of 

 the fact that the well-known almond-shaped 

 implement represents an advanced stage in 

 the art of chipping flint. While Professor 

 M. Boule does not doubt that industrial 

 remains may exist in the Lower Quaternary 

 and even in the Tertiary, he denies that 

 they have as yet been discovered. In his 

 own words as a paleontologist he has a firm 

 faith in the existence of Tertiary man, 

 traces of whom he believes will some day 

 be found. On the other hand. Dr. A. 

 Rutot accepts as man's handiwork the 

 rudely chipped specimens not only from 

 the Lower Quaternary, but also from the 

 Pliocene and Upper Miocene. 



The first serious claim for the existence 

 of a Tertiary industry was made by the 

 Abbe Bourgeois in 1867. The subject at 

 once attracted considerable attention; but 

 after a lively discussion that lasted for 

 five or six years it was relegated to the 



background. The specimens that Bour- 

 geois found in the Upper Oligocene at 

 Thenay are not at present accepted as arti- 

 facts. 



Carlos Ribeiro's discovery of chipped 

 flints in the Upper Miocene and Lower 

 Pliocene at Otta and other localities near 

 Lisbon was announced in 1871. An ac- 

 count of Delgado's researches at Otta was 

 published in 1889. Professor Verwom,* 

 who recently visited this locality, is of the 

 opinion that the deposits there have been 

 so disturbed as to make the age of the arti- 

 facts doubtful. They may be paleolithic 

 and even neolithic. 



The problem is simpler at the classic sta- 

 tions near Aurillae (Cantal). The best 

 known of these are at Puy-Courny and 

 Puy-Boudieu. Here the deposit in ques- 

 tion is of Upper Miocene age, fossiliferous 

 and undisturbed. It is covered by a bed 

 of andesitic tufa that attains in places a 

 thickness of from sixty to one hundred 

 meters. There is no doubt as to the geolog- 

 ical age of the chipped flints. As to the 

 nature of the chipping, however, opinions 

 differ. 



When attention was called to the first 

 specimens discovered by Rames in 1877, 

 such well-known authorities as de Mortillet, 

 Cartailhac, Chantre, de Quatrefages and 

 Capellini declared that if these flints had 

 been found in Quaternary deposits, no one 

 would hesitate to regard them as artifacts. 

 The Cantal industry has been carefully 

 studied in more recent years by Capitan, 

 Rutot, Courty, Klaatseh and Verworn, all 

 of whom have decided in favor of its gen- 

 uineness. 



The revival of interest in a pre-paleo- 

 lithic industry in England began when 

 Mr. Benjamin Harrison, of Ightham, Kent, 

 who had been collecting paleoliths from the 



' Max Verworn, ' Archaolitliische und palaolith- 

 ische Reisestudien in Frankreich und Portugal,' 

 Zeit. fur Ethnol., 1906, S. 611. 



