ARCHAEOLOGICAL PERIODS. n 



and are very rudely fashioned, being merely roughly chipped 

 into shape, and never ground or polished. The weapons and 

 instruments of the later period, on the other hand, are extremely 

 varied in form. They are often beautifully finished, and fre- 

 quently ground to a sharp point or edge, or polished all over. 

 But the simplicity and rudeness of its implements are by no 

 means the only distinguishing characteristic of the Palaeolithic 

 Period. We shall see in subsequent chapters that the relics of 

 this earlier Stone Age are most frequently met with in positions 

 that plainly argue for them a much greater antiquity than can 

 be assigned to the oldest remains of Neolithic times. And not 

 only so, but Palaeolithic man was associated with many great 

 mammals that became either locally or wholly extinct before 

 the appearance of his Neolithic successor in Europe. The 

 animals with which Neolithic man was contemporaneous, be- 

 long, for the most part, to species that are still indigenous to 

 our continent — the forms in short are familiar, although not a 

 few of them are now locally extinct, such as the wild-boar, wolf, 

 and beaver in Britain, all of which, as is well known, have 

 vanished within historic times. 



Some characteristic forms of Palaeolithic implements 1 are 

 shown in the accompanying Plate A, which may be compared 

 with the drawings of Neolithic implements in Plate C, Chapter 

 XV. Fig. 1 (Plate A) represents an implement from the lowest 

 deposit in Kent's Cave, Devonshire. It has been formed by 

 operating on a well-rolled nodule of flint, a portion of the 

 original surface of which is seen at the convex butt-end of the 

 implement. 2 The other drawings (Figs. 2-8) represent various 

 forms of Palaeolithic implements. Fig. 2 is a flint implement 

 found by Mr. Prestwich at a depth of about 20 feet in ancient 

 river-gravel deposits at St. Acheul, near Amiens. It represents 



1 For a particular account of Palaeolithic and Neolithic implements, see Dr. 

 Evans's well-known work on Ancient Stone Implements. Excellent figures are also 

 given in Reliquiae. Aquitanicce ; Sir J. Lubbock's Prehistoric Times; Lyell's 

 Antiquity of Man ; and other general treatises. 



2 This figure is copied from an interesting paper by Mr. Pengelly in the 

 Journal of the Plymouth Institution, read in 1875. 



