128 



SCIENCE 



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



until the adjacent margin comes into play, 

 it was reversed. 



Belgian archeologists were among the 

 first contributors to our knowledge of a 

 pre-Chellean industry. The discoveries by 

 Neyrinckx in the railway cut at Mesvin, 

 between Mons and Harmignies, date from 

 1868. M. Bmile Delvaux later took up the 

 work at Mesvin, where he succeeded in de- 

 termining the presence of a rude industry 

 antedating the paleolithic, to which he gave 

 the name Mesvinian. During the past 

 twenty years, Belgium's most indefatigable 

 worker in the prehistoric field has been 

 Dr. Rutot, his studies being confined chiefly 

 to the Quaternary deposits. 



The river valleys of Belgium are often 

 marked by three terraces : the upper terrace, 

 of Pliocene age, about ninety meters above 

 the present water-level ; the middle terrace, 

 at an elevation of from twenty-five to sixty- 

 five meters, and the lower terrace, a little 

 above high-water-level, both of Quaternary 

 age. The Quaternary may be divided into 

 five series of deposits. Beginning with the 

 oldest, these are: (1) Mosean, (2) Cam- 

 pinian, (3) Hesbayan, (4) Brabantian, 

 (5) Flandrian. These deposits have been 

 carefully examined by Rutot in quest of 

 industrial remains. 



With the exception of the Brabantian, 

 which is above the eolithic zone, all five 

 divisions of the Quaternary are repre- 

 sented in section in the exploitation Helin 

 at Spiennes, near Mons, phosphate works 

 now owned by the Societe de Saint- 

 Gobain. All of the Quaternary eolithic 

 epochs are likewise represented here with 

 the exception of the oldest, the Reutelian. 

 Rutot found that the three separated in- 

 dustry-bearing Campinian layers each fur- 

 nished one of the several elements com- 

 posing the industry previously found else- 

 where in disturbed Campinian deposits. 

 In the lowest of the three, there were not 

 ■only eoliths of Mesvinian age, but also rude 



implements roughly amygdaloid in shape, 

 selected flint nodules only slightly chipped 

 to a semblance of the hache type, or 

 poniard. AH the requirements of a tran- 

 sition industry between the Mesvinian 

 (eolithic) and the Chellean (paleolithic) 

 are therefore satisfied. The middle layer 

 furnished examples of the classic coup de 

 poing; and in the uppermost layer there 

 were specimens of the hache type, carefully 

 chipped on both sides until the margins 

 presented almost a straight line as opposed 

 to the zigzag margin of the Chellean imple- 

 ment—in other words, the so-called Ache- 

 ulian industry of M. d'Ault du Mesnil. 

 Rutot has proposed the name Strepyan for 

 the industry of transition from the eolithic 

 to the paleolithic because of the character 

 and abundance of the specimens found at 

 Strepy, on the right bank of the Haine, 

 between Estinnes and Cronfestu. 



Following Rutot 's lead, many German 

 investigators have taken up the search for 

 a pre-paleolithie industry in northern Ger- 

 many, particularly in the valleys of the 

 Elbe and Spree and on the Island of 

 Riigen. The chief contributors have been 

 Professors H. Klaatsch, Eugene Bracht and 

 Max Verworn and Drs. Hans Hahne, G. 

 Sehweinfurth,^ Eduard Krause, et al. 



For some years past, the spread of the 

 eolithic propaganda has been so rapid as 

 to cause dismay in the camp of its oppo- 

 nents. I spent the summer of 1903 in 

 England and Belgium for the express pur- 

 pose of studying the question at closer 

 range. That summer's work formed the 

 basis for a preliminary report" read at the 

 St. Louis meeting of the American Asso- 

 ciation at the close of the same year, as 

 well as for a more extended paper^" pub- 



' Schweinfurtli's studies have been confined 

 chiefly to Egypt. 



' Science, 1904, p. 449. 



^° ' The Eolitliic Problem — Evidences of a Eude 

 Industry Antedating the Paleolithic,' Amer. An- 

 thropol., N. S., VII., 425-479. 



