54 



Blocks of this stone are found grooved through their being 

 used for rubbing the already chipped flint into a polished condition. 

 The frequent form of the neo-lithic (or later stone period) implement 

 was what was called the "celt." (Professor Lankester showed an 

 example lent him by Mr. J. H. Scott, of Win ton). Celt is the Latin 

 word for chisel. These oblong celts are commonly described by 

 country people as thunder-bolts. It is a very curious fact that 

 these flint implements are supposed to have fallen from the 

 skies. The same kind of idea obtains in the West Indies with 

 regard to some weapons found there. (Professor Lankester gave ' 

 blackboard illustrations of this and other neolithic worked flints, 

 and showed that some were more elaborately fashioned than others, 

 especially those found in Denmark. He described the fracturing 

 and flaking of flints by the blows of prehistoric man, and said that 

 natural forces could not produce such results, as people at one time 

 asserted.) That the neolithic period extended at least as far back as 

 about 7,000 years before Christ is known by certain things found 

 in some of the Swiss lake dwellings and other deposits in which 

 polished flints have been found. The people of the neol'thic period 

 no doubt advanced in civilization and arts of various kinds during 

 those seven thousand years, and they became very skilful in their 

 treatment of flint. Even the earliest of them seem to have hid 

 in Central Europe a life very much like that of the peasant of the 

 present time in that part, excepting that instead of metal they had 

 the use of stone. They cut wood very well, they built wooden 

 houses, and they had different kinds of fabrics, including woven 

 linen. They cultivated flax and grew wheat, barley, etc. ; and 

 they had the same fruit trees, and also the same domestic animals 

 as we have now. 



The Lecturer explained the geological mode of arriving 

 at the age of prehistoric man, and incidentally said that 

 the evidences furnished by the plateau gravels on the sides of the 

 Thames at the present day indicated that quite possibly a million 

 years, and cerainly not less than 500,000 years, had passed since 

 the earliest of these gravels was deposited. It was during the 

 glacial period that some of these river gravels were deposited ; the 

 south of England near the coast line was free from ice, and that 

 men were living there is certain because their implements are 

 found in the gravels. They were in France and parts of Germany 

 also. The flint implements at that period were quite different 

 from those already spoken of, they were never polished ~~ 

 were of pointed oval shape. The history of the study of flint 

 implements since their great age was first recognised — in 1859 — 

 was dwelt upon, and various types of flints — including the 

 Acheuillian, the Moustierian, and the Chellian — found in gravel 

 deposits of varying ages were examined in detail, reference being 

 made to the now extinct animals whose bones were sometimes 

 found with these relics of early man in gravels and in caves. By 

 means of lantern slides, as well as by actual flints, the audience 

 were shown the differences of workmanship according to the 



