Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race

At the 1880 meeting of the International Congress of Prehistoric Anthropology and Archeology, which was held in Lisbon, Portugal, Ribeiro, now on his home ground, delivered another report and displayed more specimens that were “extracted from Miocene beds” (1884, p. 86). In his report (“L’homme Tertiaire en Portugal”), Ribeiro (1884, p. 88) stated: “The conditions in which the worked flints were found in the beds are as follows: (1) They were found as integral parts of the beds themselves. (2) They had sharp, well-preserved edges, showing that they had not been subject to transport for any great distance. (3) They had a patina similar in color to the rocks in the strata of which they formed a part.”

The second point is especially important. Some geologists claimed that the flint implements had been introduced into Miocene beds by the floods and torrents that periodically washed over this terrain. According to this view, Quaternary flint implements may have entered into the interior of the Miocene beds through fissures and been cemented there, acquiring over a long period of time the coloration of the beds (de Quatrefages 1884, p. 95). But if the flints had been subjected to such transport, then the sharp edges would most probably have been damaged, and this was not the case.

The Congress assigned a special commission of scientists the task of directly inspecting the implements and the sites from which they had been gathered. In addition to Ribeiro himself, the commission included G. Bellucci of the Italian Society for Anthropology and Geography; G. Capellini, from the Royal University of Bologna, Italy, and known to us from Chapter 2 for his discoveries of incised Pliocene whale bones; E. Cartailhac, of the French Ministry of Public Instruction; Sir John Evans, an English geologist; Gabriel de Mortillet, professor of prehistoric anthropology at the College of Anthropology, Paris; and Rudolph Virchow, a German anthropologist. The other members were the scientists Choffat, Cotteau, Villanova, and Cazalis de Fondouce.

On September 22, 1880, at six in the morning, the gentlemen of the commission boarded a special train and proceeded north from Lisbon. During the rail journey, they gazed at the old forts topping the hilltops, and pointed out to each other the Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Tertiary terrains as they moved through the valley of the Tagus River. They stepped off the train at Carregado. It is on a line from Carregado north to Cercal that Ribeiro discovered most of his flints. They then proceeded to nearby Otta and two kilometers ( just over a mile) from Otta arrived at the hill of Monte Redondo. At that point, the scientists dispersed into various ravines in search of flints.

Paul Choffat, a member of the commission and its secretary, later reported to the Congress: “Of the many flint flakes and apparent cores taken from the midst of the strata under the eyes of the commission members, one was judged as leaving no doubt about the intentional character of the work” (1884a, p. 63). This was the specimen found in situ by the Italian naturalist Bellucci ( Figure 4.6). Choffat then noted that Bellucci had found on the surface other flints with incontestable signs of work. Some thought they were Miocene implements that had been removed from the Miocene conglomerates by atmospheric agencies, such as rain and wind, while others thought that the implements were of a much more recent date.

Figure 4.6. Flint implement found by G. Bellucci in an Early Miocene formation at Otta, Portugal (Choffat 1884b, figure 1). It was judged by a commission of scientists to be identical to Late Pleistocene implements of similar type.

In his book Le Préhistorique, Gabriel de Mortillet gave an informative account of the events that took place at the Congress at Lisbon: “While the printer was preparing the first pages of this book,” wrote de Mortillet (1883, p. 100), “I went to the meeting of the International Congress of Prehistoric Anthropology and Archeology in Lisbon, one of my purposes being to complete the table of strata containing evidence for the presence of humans. I was able to confirm in a very exact and positive manner the actuality of Ribeiro’s discoveries, including the precise geological position of certain of his worked flints.” De Mortillet (1883, pp. 100 –101) then proceeded to describe the scientists’ excursion to Otta and Bellucci’s remarkable discovery: “The members of the Congress arrived at Otta, in the middle of a great freshwater formation. It was the bottom of an ancient lake, with sand and clay in the center, and sand and rocks on the edges. It is on the shores that intelligent beings would have left their tools, and it is on the shores of the lake that once bathed Monte Redondo that the search was made. It was crowned with success. The able investigator of Umbria [Italy], Mr. Bellucci, discovered in situ a flint bearing incontestable signs of intentional work. Before detaching it, he showed it to a number of his colleagues. The flint was strongly encased in the rock. He had to use a hammer to extract it. It is definitely of the same age as the deposit. Instead of lying flat on a surface onto which it could have been secondarily recemented at a much later date, it was found firmly in place on the under side of a ledge extending over a region removed by erosion [ Figure 4.7]. It is impossible to desire a more complete demonstration attesting to a flint’s position in its strata.” All that was needed was to determine the age of the strata. Study of the fauna and flora in the region around the Monte Redondo site showed that the formations present there can be assigned to the Tortonian stage of the Late Miocene period (de Mortillet 1883, p. 102).

“ The refore,” concluded de Mortillet “during the Tortonian epoch there existed in Portugal an intelligent being who chipped flint just like X Quaternary humans” (1883, p. 102). Some modern authorities 1 con sider the O tta conglomerates to be from the Burdigalian stage of the Early Miocene (Antunes et al. 1980, p. 139 ).

Figure 4.7. Stratigraphy of the site at the base of Monte Redondo hill in Otta, Portugal, where G. Bellucci found the implement pictured in Figure 4.6: (1) sandstone; (2) Miocene sandstone conglomerate with flints; (3) surface deposit of eroded flints. The arrow marked “X” indicates the position of the implement (de Mortillet 1883, p. 101).

Choffat (1884b, pp. 92– 93) presented, in the form of answers to four questions, the conclusions of the commission members, who had not only examined the specimens Ribeiro exhibited at the Congress but also journeyed to Otta to conduct field investigations. The first two questions and answers dealt with the flints themselves: “(1) Are there bulbs of percussion on the flints on exhibition and on those found during the excursion? The commission declares unanimously that there are bulbs of percussion, and some pieces have several. (2) Are bulbs of percussion proof of intentional work? There are different opinions. They may be summarized as follows: de Mortillet considers that just one bulb of percussion is sufficient proof of intentional work, while Evans believes that even several bulbs on one piece do not give certitude of intentional chipping but only a great probability of such.” Here it may once more be noted that modern authorities such as Leland W. Patterson (1983) consider one or more bulbs of percussion to be very good indicators of intentional work.

The remaining two questions concerned the positions in which the flints were found: “(3) Are the worked flints found at Otta from the interior of the beds or the surface? There are diverse opinions. Mr. Cotteau believes all are from the surface, and that those found embedded within the strata came down through crevasses in the beds. Mr. Capellini, however, believes that pieces found on the surface were eroded from the interior of the beds. De Mortillet, Evans, and Cartailhac believe there are two time periods to which the flints may be referred, the first being the Tertiary, the other being the Old and New Stone Ages of the Quaternary. The flints of the two periods are easy to distinguish by their form and patina. (4) What is the age of the strata of the worked flints? After only a moment’s discussion the members declared they were in perfect accord with Ribeiro.” In other words, the strata were Miocene, although some members of the commission believed that the flints found lying on the surface had not weathered out of the Miocene rock but instead had been dropped there in fairly recent times.

In the discussion that followed the presentation of Choffat’s report, Capellini said: “I believe these flints to be the product of intentional work. If you do not admit that, then you must also doubt the flints of the later Stone Ages” (Choffat 1884b, pp. 97–98). According to Capellini, Ribeiro’s Miocene specimens were almost identical to undoubted Quaternary flint implements. Capellini’s remarks strike at one of the central issues in the treatment of scientific evidence—the application of a double standard in determining what evidence is to be accepted and what is to be rejected. If the standards used by the scientific establishment to reject finds such as Ribeiro’s were applied in the same manner to conventionally accepted finds, then the accepted finds would also have to be rejected. And this would deprive the theory of human evolution of a substantial portion of its evidential foundation.

The next speaker, Villanova, provided a good example of the double standard treatment. Villanova was very doubtful, even about the Bellucci find. He said that in order to remove all cause for suspicion one would have to discover an unmistakably genuine implement firmly embedded not in a Miocene conglomerate but in the middle of undifferentiated Miocene limestone and alongside characteristic fossils (Choffat 1884b, p. 99). A conglomerate is a mass of rock composed of rounded stones of various sizes cemented together in a matrix of sandstone or hardened clay. Apparently, Villanova felt there was some reason to doubt the age of a stone tool found in a conglomerate—there was perhaps a chance it had entered recently and been cemented in with other stones. Or perhaps he doubted the age of the conglomerate at Otta, but the majority opinion was that this conglomerate was in fact Miocene.

Maybe it would have been better if the flint had been found in an undifferentiated stratum. The crucial point, however, is this: if Villanova’s criterion were to be applied in all cases, this would wipe out most of the paleoanthropological evidence now accepted. The number of human fossils found in undifferentiated strata directly alongside characteristic fossils is rather small. For example, as we shall see in Chapter 9, the initial Java Homo erectus discovery was made in strata that had undergone considerable mixing, and almost all of the later Java Homo erectus finds were made on or quite near the surface. Beijing Homo erectus was found in cave deposits. Another point that will emerge in our discussion is this: sometimes anomalous finds are made in undifferentiated strata alongside characteristic fossils, and then some other means will be found to discredit them. Indeed, as previously mentioned, in his report to the International Congress of Prehistoric Anthropology and Archeology at Brussels in 1872, Ribeiro (1873a, p. 97) did tell of finding flint implements “deep inside” undifferentiated Miocene limestone beds.

Following Villanova, Cartailhac spoke. He said that if the question of the Miocene age of the implements were to be decided on the grounds of actual scientific evidence, the answer would have to be affirmative. Cartailhac believed that the coloration of many of the surface finds indicated they were eroded from Miocene beds, and he pointed out that some specimens had remnants of Miocene sediments adhering to them.

Cartailhac then asked the members to consider a particular specimen from Ribeiro’s collection, which he had previously studied at the anthropological exposition in Paris. He stated: “I have seen on it two bulbs of percussion, and possibly a third, and a point that seems to truly be the result of intentional work. It has on its surface not a coloration that could be removed by washing but rather a surface incrustation of Miocene sandstone tightly adhering to it. A chemist would not permit us to say that such a deposit could form and attach itself to a flint lying, for whatever amount of time, on a sandstone surface” (Choffat 1884b, p. 100). In other words, the flint must have been lying within the Miocene bed itself, when it was formed. Cartailhac admitted that natural action might in rare occasions produce a bulb of percussion, but to have two on the same piece would be an absolute miracle. He believed that the many very good specimens discovered on the Miocene surface, where there was absolutely no trace of any other deposit, were really Miocene implements that had weathered out of the rock.

One may certainly disagree with Cartailhac. But then we may here note that in more recent times, the famous Lucy australopithecine fossils were found by D. C. Johanson on the surface of Pliocene deposits in Ethiopia, from which they were presumed to have weathered out (Johanson and Edey 1981, pp. 16 –18). As we shall see in Chapter 9, the same is also true of many of the Java Homo erectus finds. Are these discoveries also to be doubted? Perhaps, but the real point is that the application of standards should be consistent. Unfortunately, as we shall see throughout this book, standards tend to be applied selectively, in conformity with the biases and expectations of the researcher.

After Cartailhac finished his remarks, Bellucci recounted his own noteworthy discovery of an implement (Figure 4.6, p. 221) in the Miocene conglomerate at Otta (Choffat 1884b, pp. 101–102). Before extracting it, he had shown it to many members of the commission, who saw that it was firmly integrated into the stratum (Figure 4.7, p. 222). It had been so firmly fixed in the Miocene sandstone conglomerate that he had not been able to remove it with his wooden tool, and had needed to use Cartailhac’s iron pick to break the sandstone. Bellucci stated that the inner surface of the implement, the one adhering to the conglomerate, had not only the same reddish color as the conglomerate but also incrustations of tiny grains of quartzite that could not be detached even by vigorous washing.

Bellucci further pointed out that the elements composing the intact conglomerate corresponded perfectly with those found loose on the surface. This led Bellucci to conclude that the loose stones found on the surface at Otta were the result of weathering of the conglomerate. This indicated that flint implements found on the surface might also have come from the conglomerate, which was of Miocene age (Choffat 1884b, p. 103). By itself, this was, however, a fairly weak argument. Although the flints on the surface may have weathered out of the Miocene conglomerate, they also could have been dropped on the surface during the Late Pleistocene. But the fact that the implements had incrustations of Miocene sediments on them, and were the same color as the Miocene conglomerate, strongly supported the conclusion that the implements were themselves Miocene.

As for the signs of intentional work on the piece found in situ, Bellucci noted: “Mr. Evans says he believes in bulbs of percussion. Well look. This piece was detached from the surface of a flint core, and it not only has a magnificent bulb of percussion, but also one of its surfaces presents marks showing that another flake had been previously detached, in the same direction, when the implement had been still part of the flint nucleus” (Choffat 1884b, p. 104).

The last feature described by Bellucci, successive parallel flake removal from a core, is recognized today by experts in lithic technology as one of the surest signs of intentional work. The striking of two successive flakes from a flint core requires a considerable degree of expertise, and is quite beyond what might be expected from random shocks by purely natural forces. Patterson stated: “Humans will often strike multiple flakes in series from a single core, usually resulting in the production of some flakes with multiple facets on the dorsal face. In contrast, the removal of a few flakes from cores by random natural forces would not be expected to occur often by serial removals. . . . It is characteristic in human lithic manufacturing processes to use the same striking platform for multiple flake removals” (L. Patterson et al. 1987, p. 98).

When Cotteau’s turn to speak came, he argued, like Villanova, that, in order to be accepted, finds of implements should be made only in undifferentiated, intact strata (Choffat 1884b, pp. 105 –106). Cotteau observed that unless finds were made in undifferentiated, intact strata, the possibility always existed that the implements might have been washed in through fissures from the surface and cemented in place. In time, the fissure might be filled in, hiding its existence to researchers. It should, however, be noted, that Cotteau did not specifically address the conditions of Bellucci’s discovery. Was there in fact a filled-in fissure near the place where Bellucci found the flint implement? Cotteau does not say. Furthermore, the position in which Bellucci found his implement, firmly in place on the underside of an overhanging section of the Miocene formation, argues against Cotteau’s hypothesis. In general, Bellucci’s opponents at the Congress offered only vague hypothetical objections.

Altogether, there seems little reason why Ribeiro’s discoveries should not be receiving some serious attention, even today. Here we have a professional geologist, the head of Portugal’s geological survey, making discoveries of flint implements in Miocene strata. In appearance the implements resembled accepted types, and they displayed characteristics that modern experts in lithic technology accept as signs of human manufacture. To resolve controversial questions, a congress of Europe’s leading archeologists and anthropologists deputed a committee to conduct a firsthand investigation of one of the sites of Ribeiro’s discoveries of Miocene implements. There a scientist discovered in situ an implement in a Miocene bed, a fact witnessed by several other members of the committee. Of course, objections were raised, but upon reviewing them, it does not appear to us that they were conclusive enough to cause an unbiased observer to categorically reject Bellucci’s find in particular or Ribeiro’s finds in general.

4.2 The Finds of The Abbé Bourgeois at Thenay, France (Miocene)

We now turn our attention to the discoveries of the Abbé L. Bourgeois, rector of the seminary at Pontlevoy, Loire-et-Cher, France. On August 19, 1867, in Paris, Bourgeois presented to the International Congress for Prehistoric Anthropology and Archeology a report on flint implements he had found in Early Miocene beds at Thenay, in north central France, near Orleans (de Mortillet 1883, p. 85). Bourgeois, who had conducted research near Thenay for over twenty years, said that although the instruments were crudely made, they resembled the types of Quaternary implements (scrapers, borers, blades, etc.) he had found on the surface in the same region. He found on almost all of the Miocene specimens the standard indications of human work: fine retouching, symmetrical chipping, and traces of use. He also noted multiple examples of particular forms. Some of the flints, naturally translucent, were opaque, a sign that they had been burned. By performing experiments with fire and flint, Bourgeois had been able to reproduce the exact effect. The signs of fire on the flints were another strong indication that humans had made and used them.

The flint implements of Thenay were recovered from below the Calcaire de Beauce, a well-known Early Miocene limestone formation. Bourgeois recognized that the presence of stone tools in this geological position was indeed remarkable, having serious implications with regard to human antiquity. Yet, for him, the facts, uncomfortable though they might be to contemplate, spoke for themselves. De Mortillet (1883, p. 86) said that the layers of clay in which the flints were found were of Early Miocene or even Oligocene age. This would push back the presence of human beings in France to around 20–25 million years before the present. If this sounds impossible, one should ask oneself why. If the answer is that modern science’s ideas about human evolution prevent one from seriously considering such a thing, one should honestly admit that one is allowing preconceived notions to unduly influence one’s perception of facts and that this is unscientific. One with faith in the scientific method should maintain a willingness to change one’s notions, even the most dearly held, in the face of facts that contradict them.

Modern geologists still agree with the determination that the deposits at Thenay are Miocene. As stated above, the implement-bearing layers lie below the Calcaire de Beauce. This limestone formation is now referred to the Aquitanian stage (Pomerol and Feugeur 1974, p. 142), which lies within the Early Miocene (Romer 1966, p. 334). Some French authorities (Klein 1973, p. 566) put the deposits of Thenay at the base of the Helvetian stage. The Helvetian stage is placed in the Middle Miocene (Romer 1966, p. 334). The base of the Helvetian would thus mark the boundary between the Middle and Early Miocene.

4.2.1 Debates About the Discoveries at Thenay

Bourgeois displayed his specimens at the house of the Marquis de Vibraye, and the members of the Paris congress of 1867 were allowed to examine them at their leisure. Although the form and appearance of the flints had been sufficient to convince Bourgeois they were of human manufacture, most of the visitors were hesitant to acknowledge this. De Mortillet (1883, p. 86) stated that “the ancient age of the strata in which they were found involuntarily indisposed the geologists and paleontologists.” Here again we find a clear case of preconceptions (of what could and should be) dominating a decision whether or not to accept evidence.

Thus the flints from the Miocene of Thenay did not win much approval at their Paris debut. Only a few scientists, prominent among them the Danish naturalist Worsaae, admitted they were actual artifacts. Undeterred, Bourgeois continued his work, finding more and more specimens, and convincing individual paleontologists and geologists they were the result of intentional work. De Mortillet said he was one of the first to be so convinced. He and other scientists not only examined the collection of Bourgeois at Pontlevoy but also carefully studied the site at Thenay.

Some scientists questioned the stratigraphic position in which the flints had been found. The first specimens collected by Bourgeois, many of which showed signs of burning by fire, came from the slopes of rocky debris along the sides of a small valley cutting through the plateau at Thenay. Geologists such as Sir John Prestwich objected that these were essentially surface finds. In response, Bourgeois dug a trench in the valley and found flints showing the same signs of human work (de Mortillet 1883, p. 94).

Still unsatisfied, critics proposed that the flints found in the trench had come to their positions through fissures leading from the top of the plateau, where Quaternary implements were often found. To meet this objection, Bourgeois, in 1869, sank a pit into the top of the plateau (de Mortillet 1883, p. 95). In the course of the excavation, he came to a layer of limestone 32 centimeters (about one foot) thick, with no fissures through which Quaternary stone tools might have slipped to lower levels.

Deeper in his pit, at a depth of 4.23 meters (13.88 feet) in Early Miocene strata of the Aquitanian stage, Bourgeois discovered many flint tools. De Mortillet (1883, pp. 95–96) stated in Le Préhistorique: “There was no further doubt about their antiquity or their geological position.” In the layer of Early Miocene clay containing the flint implements, Bourgeois found a hammer stone bearing evident signs of percussion. Hammer stones are primarily used to strike flakes from flint cores. In his collection, Bourgeois (1873, p. 90) had several other examples of hammer stones.

Despite the clear demonstration provided by the pit sunk in the middle of the plateau at Thenay, many scientists retained their doubts. A showdown came in Brussels, at the 1872 meeting of the International Congress of Prehistoric Anthropology and Archeology. There Bourgeois

Figure 4.8. A pointed implement from a Miocene formation at Thenay, France (Bourgeois 1873, plate 1).

delivered a report summarizing the history of his discoveries. In addition, he presented many specimens, figures of which were included in the published proceedings of the Congress. Describing a pointed specimen (Figure 4.8), Bourgeois (1873, p. 89) stated: “Here is an awllike specimen, on a broad base. The point in the middle has been obtained by regular retouching. This is a type common to all epochs. On the opposite side is a bulb of percussion, which although rare in the Tertiary flints of The-

nay, here shows itself very well.”

Bourgeois described another implement: “A very regularly shaped fragment of a flake that deserves the designation knife or cutter.” He continued: “The edges have regular retouching, and the opposite side presents a bulb of percussion” (Bourgeois 1873, p. 49). On many of his specimens, noted Bourgeois, the edges on the part of the tool that might be grasped by the hand remained unworn, while those on the cutting surfaces showed extensive wear and polishing.

Another specimen ( Figure 4.9), was characterized by Bourgeois (1873, p. 89) as a projectile point or an awl.

Figure 4.9. A pointed artifact from Miocene strata at Thenay, France, with retouching near the point (Bourgeois 1873, plate 2).

He noted the presence of retouching on the edges, obviously intended to make a sharp point. Bourgeois (1873, p. 89) also saw among the objects he collected “a core with the two extremities retouched with the aim of being utilized for some purpose.” He observed: “The most prominent edge has been chipped down by a series of artificial blows, probably to prevent discomfort to the hand grasping the implement. The other edges remain sharp, which shows this flaking is not due to rolling action” ( Bourgeois 1873, p. 89). If the flint had been subjected to transport by water or another natural agency, one would expect that the resultant random chipping and fracturing should have damaged all the edges, and not just one. For the sake of comparison, we show in Figure 4.10 the implement from the Early Miocene of Thenay alongside a similar accepted implement from the Late Pleistocene.

Then Bourgeois (1873, p. 90) described a final specimen: “A short scraper, with numerous and well-marked retouchings, in all respects resembling the Quaternary types found every day on the surface. On the other side, it presents . . . a bulb of percussion.”

Bourgeois did not specify the exact places from which the above-mentioned specimens were taken—that is, from the exposed sections in the valley, from the valley trench, or from the pit sunk in the top of the plateau. But his reports suggest that implements recovered from all three places were quite similar.

Figure 4.10. Top: A Late Pleistocene flint implement (Laing 1894, p. 366). Bottom: An implement from Early Miocene strata at Thenay, France (Bourgeois 1873, plate 2).

In order to resolve any controversy, the Congress of Prehistoric Anthropology and Archeology nominated a fifteen-member commission to judge the discoveries of Bourgeois. A majority of eight members, including de Quatrefages and Capellini, voted that the flints were of human manufacture (de Mortillet 1883, p. 87). An additional member voted in favor of Bourgeois, but with some reservations. Only five of the fifteen found no trace of human work in the specimens from Thenay. One member expressed no opinion.

De Mortillet stated that if instead of considering just the numbers of votes that were cast, one considered their scientific merit, then the victory of Bourgeois was even greater. De Mortillet pointed out that among those voting in support of Bourgeois were the scientists who had especially devoted themselves to the study of flint tools, while among the dissenters were the scientists who had little or no experience in this area. Indeed, one of them, Dr. Fraas, of Germany, claimed at the Congress that the handaxes of the Quaternary gravels of the Somme region of France, accepted by almost all authorities as genuine human artifacts, were “an invention of French chauvinism” (de Mortillet 1883, p. 88).

Bourgeois gave a choice collection of flint tools from Thenay to the national museum of antiquities at St. Germain and also exhibited his best specimens at the exposition of anthropological science held in 1878. After his death, specimens were given to the museum of the School of Anthropology in Paris.

Many of the flints of Thenay have finely cracked surfaces indicating exposure to fire. Others, much more altered, have surfaces pitted with irregular holes. Was the cracking and pitting caused by weathering? De Mortillet (1883, p. 90) said that cracking resulting from fire and weathering could be very easily distinguished. Significantly, the normally translucent flints had become opaque. Experiments showed that it took a great deal of heat to discolor flints as much as those found at Thenay. The heat of the sun could not have done it. But if fire was the cause, was it fire used by humans or some kind of accidental fire?

In considering the possible causes of accidental fire, de Mortillet suggested that the three most likely possibilities were volcanic action, spontaneous vegetable combustion, or vegetation ignited by lightning. De Mortillet pointed out, however, that there were no volcanoes in the region and no layers of combustible plant material such as peat. Furthermore, the burned flints were found scattered at many locations throughout diverse levels in the same general area. This indicated to de Mortillet that the signs of burning were not the result of fires ignited by lightning. He appears to have reasoned as follows. The many localized signs of fire at numerous levels indicated continuous intentional use of small fires over a long period of time rather than occasional general conflagrations, such as might have occurred when grass, brush, or forest was ignited by lightning. The evidence strongly suggested that humans had regularly used fire to help fracture the flints.

Bulbs of percussion were rare on the Early Miocene flints of Thenay, but most displayed fine retouching of the edges. De Mortillet (1883, p. 92) stated that even though there were not many bulbs of percussion, retouching alone was a good sign of intentional work. The retouching tended to be concentrated on just one side of an edge, while the other side remained untouched; this is called unifacial flaking. De Mortillet, like modern authorities, believed that in almost all cases unifacial flaking is not the result of chance impacts but of deliberate work. Some researchers have suggested that in special instances unifacial flaking might result from natural forces that press one side of a flint against a hard surface, taking small chips off the edge (Section 3.4.1). De Mortillet (1883, pp. 92-93) admitted that this sometimes occurred; however the resultant chipping was generally very crude and irregular. In his book Musée Préhistorique, de Mortillet included reproductions of some Thenay flints that displayed very regular unifacial retouching—flakes removed in the same direction along one side of an edge (Figure 4.11). Some of the critics of Bourgeois commented that among all the Early Miocene flint pieces he collected at Thenay, there were only a very few good specimens, about thirty. But de Mortillet (1883, p. 93) stated: “Even one incontestable specimen would be enough, and they have thirty!”

A modern expert on stone implements, Leland W. Patterson, has stated (1983, p. 303): “Unifacially retouched stone tools are generally an important class of tools on archeological sites, and comprise a major portion of lithic artifacts of early man sites. This group can include well-known types of stone tools such as gravers, perforators, scrapers, notched tools, and some types of knives, choppers, and denticulates.” The Thenay implements conformed to this description.

Figure 4.11. Unifacially retouched implements from the Early Miocene at Thenay, France (G. de Mortillet and A. de Mortillet 1881, plate 1).

Figure 4.12. Left: A flint implement from an Early Miocene formation at Thenay, France (G. de Mortillet and A. de Mortillet 1881, plate 1). Right: An accepted implement from the lower middle part of Bed II, Olduvai Gorge, Africa (M. Leakey 1971, p. 113). The lower edges of both specimens show roughly parallel flake scars, satisfying the requirements of L. Patterson (1983) for recognition as objects of human manufacture.

According to L. Patterson (1983, p. 303): “Completely unifacial tool shapes would be one of the most difficult items for nature to reproduce by random forces. It would be difficult for random forces unidirectionally to fracture flake edges only on one face. It would be even more difficult for fortuitous forces to create the long, uniform, parallel flake scars characteristic of purposefully made unifacial tools. . . . It follows, then, that it would be extremely difficult to conceive of nature fortuitously creating an entire group of various well-made unifacial tools, with multiple examples of each tool type, that is the usual demonstration of a kit of man-made stone tools.” Patterson (1983, p. 303) added: “Any experienced lithic analyst with a 10-power magnifier can distinguish fortuitously shaped flakes from unifacial tools.”

Illustrations of the flints from the Early Miocene of Thenay show the parallel flake scars of approximately the same size that, according to Patterson, are indicative of intentional human work. Figure 4.12 shows a unifacial implement from Thenay along with a similar accepted unifacial implement from Olduvai Gorge.

Through the writings of S. Laing, knowledge of the Thenay tools from the Early Miocene reached the intelligent reading public of the English-speaking countries. Because we desire to make this work a sourcebook of primary and contemporary secondary reports about anomalous evidence relating to human antiquity, we will include relevant passages from Laing’s works.

Laing (1893, p. 113) wrote of the tools found at Thenay: “When these were first produced, the opinion of the best authorities was very equally divided as to their being the work of human hands, but subsequent discoveries have produced specimens as to which it is impossible to entertain any doubt, especially

Figure 4.13. A scraper or borer (top) and a flint knife (bottom) from an Early Miocene formation at Thenay, France, reproduced by S. Laing (1894, pp. 364–365) from a book by A. de Quatrefages.

the flint knife and two small scrapers [the knife and one scraper appear in Figure 4.13] figured by M. Quatrefages at p. 92 of his recent work on Races humaines. They present all the characteristic features by which human design is inferred in other cases, viz.: the bulb of percussion and repeated chipping by small blows all in the same direction, round the edge which was intended for use.”

Laing (1893, pp. 113 –115) continued his review: “The human origin of these implements has been greatly confirmed by the discovery that the Mincopics of the Andaman Islands manufacture whet-stones or scrapers almost identical with those of Thenay, and by the same process of using fire to split the stones into the requisite size and shape. These Mincopics are not acquainted with the art of chipping stone into celts or arrowheads, but use fragments of large shells, of which they have a great abundance, or of bone or hard wood, and the scrapers are employed in bringing these to a sharper point or finer edge. The main objection, therefore, at first raised to the authenticity of these relics of Miocene man, that they did not afford conclusive proof of design, may be considered as removed, and the objectors have to fall back on the assumption, either that the implements were fabricated by some exceptionally intelligent Dryopithecus, or that the Abbé Bourgeois may have been deceived by workmen, and mistaken in supposing that flints, which really came from overlying Quaternary strata, were found in the Miocene deposit. This hardly seems probable in the case of such an experienced observer, and had it been so, the implements might have been expected to show the usual Quaternary types of celts, knives, and arrow-heads, fashioned by percussion, whereas the specimens found all bear a distinct type, being scrapers and borers of small size, and partly fashioned by fire. . . . On the whole, the evidence for these Miocene implements seems to be very conclusive, and the objections to have hardly any other ground than the reluctance to admit the great antiquity of man.” Here we may note that collections of Quaternary implements often include scrapers and borers of the type found at Thenay, in addition to the more sophisticated projectile points and handaxes.

As an example of popular science writing, Laing’s work is satisfactory. His mode of expression was reasonable and lucid. He did not oversimplify. The evidence he cited was faithfully reproduced from original scientific reports and was presented in an honest fashion. Especially strong was his report that the Andaman islanders made tools similar to those of Thenay by using fire to flake the stone. Modern authorities regard studies of present-day lithic technologies as useful in recognizing intentional human work on stone materials gathered from ancient sites.

In his book Human Origins, Laing (1894, p. 363) again wrote of the flint implements of Thenay: “The general form might be the result of accident, but fractures from frost or collisions simulating chipping could hardly be all in the same direction, and confined to one part of the stone. The inference is strengthened if the specimen shows bulbs of percussion, where the blows had been struck to fashion the implement, and if the microscope discloses parallel striae and other signs of use on the chipped edge, such as would be made by scraping bones or skins, while nothing of the sort is seen on the other natural edges.” As we have seen, some of the flint objects from Thenay do have bulbs of percussion and signs of wear confined to working edges, in addition to regular unifacial retouching. Laing also mentioned that the Thenay specimens closely resembled later implements of undoubted human manufacture.

Laing (1894, p. 356) listed the flint implements found in the Early Miocene at Thenay as one of many cases “in which the preponderance of evidence and authority in support of Tertiary man seems so decisive, that nothing but a preconceived bias against the antiquity of the human race can refuse to accept it.”

Laing (1894, pp. 363–364) told the history of the finds: “When specimens of the flints from Thenay were first submitted to the Anthropological Congress at Brussels in 1867, their human origin was admitted by MM. Worsae, de Vibraye, de Mortillet, and Schmidt, and rejected by MM. Nilson, Hebert, and others, while M. Quatrefages reserved his opinion, thinking a strong case made out, but not being entirely satisfied. M. Bourgeois himself was partly responsible for these doubts, for, like Boucher de Perthes, he had injured his case by overstating it, and including a number of small flints, which might have been, and probably were, merely natural specimens. But the whole collection having been transferred to the Archeological Museum at St. Germain, its director, M. Mortillet, selected those which appeared most demonstrative of human origin, and placed them in a glass case, side by side with similar types of undoubted Quaternary implements. This removed a great many doubts, and later discoveries of still better specimens of the type of scrapers have, in the words of Quatrefages, ‘dispelled his last doubts,’ while not a single instance has occurred of any convert in the opposite direction, or of any opponent who has adduced facts contradicting the conclusions of Quatrefages, Mortillet, and Hamy, after an equally careful and minute investigation.”

Laing (1894, p. 370) then went on to say: “The scraper of the Esquimaux and the Andaman islanders is but an enlarged and improved edition of the Miocene scraper, and in the latter cases the stones seem to have been split by the same agency, viz. that of fire. The early knowledge of fire is also confirmed by the discovery, reported by M. Bourgeois in the Orleans Sand at Thenay, with bones of mastodon and dinotherium, of a stony fragment mixed with carbon, in a sort of hardened paste, which . . . must be the remnant of a hearth on which there had been a fire.”

In any case, the evidence that an intelligent being of the human type produced the flints of Thenay around 20 million years ago in the Early Miocene seems overwhelming. But some authorities believed the being was not of the modern human type, but rather a more primitive ancestor, as required by evolutionary theory. The controversy was vehement. As this question will come up again and again in our review of evidence for the presence of humans in Tertiary times, we shall now give this matter some detailed consideration.

4.2.2 Evolution and the Nature of Tertiary Man

In his book Hommes Fossiles et Hommes Sauvages, A. de Quatrefages (1884, p. 80) noted: “The problem of Tertiary man is singularly obscured by the fact that solutions are too often dictated by opinions held a priori, deriving from extremely opposing theories.” The opposing theories and opinions were those of the Darwinists and the Biblical creationists. Uncomfortable with the views of both these groups, de Quatrefages (1884, p. 80) went on to say: “The elements of a conviction based on purely scientific and rational grounds are not numerous. It is easy to see that men of equal intelligence and experience can have different opinions or hesitate to give any opinion whatsoever. But Darwinian doctrines and dogmatic religious convictions have obviously influenced scientific discussion on this matter.”

As of the late nineteenth century, the only fossil remains relating to human origins yet discovered were those of the Neanderthals and Cro-Magnon man. As previously mentioned (Section 1.2), scientists favoring evolution thought that the Neanderthals, although somewhat primitive, were too humanlike to qualify as a missing link with the Miocene apes; and Cro-Magnon man, of course, was fully human. But Cro-Magnon man did put the fully human type well back into the Quaternary, contemporary with ice age mammals such as the mammoth and woolly rhinoceros.

This naturally led Darwinists to place the origin of the human species from apelike ancestors much further back in time. De Quatrefages (1884, pp. 80–81) noted: “Haeckel was the first to make a proposal. He put his Homo alalus (speechless man) and Homo pithecanthropus (ape-man) in the Pliocene, or late Tertiary. Darwin, taking after his German disciple, proposed that the initial transition from ancient apes to the precursors of modern humans, as signified by the loss of the ape’s primitive coat of hair, occurred as early as the Eocene. Wallace cautiously suggested the middle Tertiary as the time during which an unspecified variety of ape attained the human form after a prolonged process of morphological evolution.”

At this time, however, the visions of ape-men propounded by Darwin and Haeckel were purely hypothetical. No fossils of creatures truly transitional between the early Tertiary apes and Cro-Magnon man had been found. But what about the stone tools discovered in Miocene formations by Ribeiro in Portugal and by Bourgeois in France?

Anatole Roujou, a French evolutionist, reacted in an interesting fashion to the stone tools found at Thenay. Roujou said: “Being convinced of the transformation of species, I did not have to wait for the discovery of Miocene flints to demonstrate the existence of Tertiary man, because his existence is a necessary consequence of transformation, as currently understood, and an indispensable corollary to the ideas I hold about the morphological affinities of the mammals and their mode of descent” (de Quatrefages 1884, p. 81).

De Quatrefages (1884, p. 81) observed: “Roujou traced back to Tertiary man, whose existence he accepted on purely theoretical grounds, the several distinct present races of humans which, he believed, have existed since the Quaternary. Roujou saw no reason to suppose that humans like those presently existing could not have existed at the time the flint implements of Thenay were being made.”

This is quite an interesting admission from an evolutionist. Today, evolutionists put the emergence of anatomically modern humans in the Late Pleistocene. Nevertheless, even from the standpoint of current evolutionary theory, there is, strictly speaking, no reason to rule out in advance the existence of modern human beings, or a closely related species, in the Miocene. After all, advocates of punctuated equilibrium no longer envision an uninterrupted process of gradual change from one species to another. The paleontological evidence, they say, shows that species remain static for long periods of time, millions of years, and that new species appear quite abruptly in the fossil record (Gould and Eldredge

1977). Accepting this point of view, we should not necessarily expect our ancestors to become progressively more primitive and apelike as we trace them back further and further. After all, there are many present-day creatures, turtles and alligators to name a couple, that have not changed substantially for tens of millions of years.

De Mortillet, also a Darwinist, took a somewhat different approach than Roujou. “He tries to accommodate the ideas of Darwin with the paleontological facts,” wrote de Quatrefages (1884, p. 81). De Mortillet himself said: “The mammalian fauna has been replaced several times, at least thrice, since the implementbearing deposits at Thenay were laid down. . . . Can human beings, who display one of the most complex levels of biological organization, have escaped from that law of transformation?” (de Quatrefages 1884, p. 81).

But from the standpoint of modern theory, species may change at different rates. Even if it is agreed that some mammalian species have been replaced several times since the Miocene, there is no reason to reject evidence that suggests the human species might not have been replaced. According to current thinking, speciation is a relatively abrupt and unpredictable occurrence rather than the result of an ongoing process of gradual, progressive change.

As can be seen from the different conclusions of Roujou and de Mortillet, evolutionary theory is quite flexible, perhaps too flexible. It seems almost any piece of paleoanthropological evidence can be accommodated within the elastic evolutionary framework.

De Mortillet went on to make the following observation. “If we see in the flint objects found at Thenay signs of intentional work, we can only conclude that it was the work not of anatomically modern human beings but of another human species, probably representative of a genus of human precursors that fills the gap between humans and animals” (de Quatrefages 1884, pp. 81–82).

De Mortillet called this precursor genus Anthropopithecus, existing in three species, the oldest, that of Thenay, being the link with the apes. The other two species were the makers of flint tools found by Ribeiro in Portugal (Section 4.1) and by Rames at Aurillac in southern France (Section 4.3.2).

“For de Mortillet,” stated de Quatrefages (1884, pp. 82–83), “the existence of the anthropopitheques in Tertiary times is a necessary consequence of Darwinist doctrines. Their successive appearances and disappearances are equally indispensable for maintaining the accord between the progressive development of the human type and that of mammalian fauna. Encountering in the ancient layers of the earth flints bearing signs of intentional work, it was natural for him to interpret them as the first manifestations of primitive industry by a precursor of modern humans.” De Mortillet’s objections to anatomically modern humans in the Tertiary were, it seems, primarily theoretical, based on his Darwinian preconceptions.

Looking back on this formative era of modern paleoanthropology, one should carefully note the great strength of de Mortillet’s faith in the existence of an apelike precursor of modern human beings. Darwinists were awaiting the appearance of the missing link just as expectantly as others awaited the coming of the Messiah. We may well ask: was it perhaps this strong faith and conviction, more than any other factor, that motivated later paleoanthropologists to designate certain apelike fossil creatures as the biological ancestors of the modern human type?

De Quatrefages (1884, p. 83) then continued: “De Mortillet is the first to admit that no one has as yet found the slightest remains of the anthropopitheques; and he combats the theory of Mr. Gaudry, who is disposed to attribute the worked flints of Thenay to the Miocene ape Dryopithecus fontani. But it remains for de Mortillet to reveal to us the exact character of that being, which evidently has, except in his own eyes, nothing but a completely theoretical existence. Others, however, are more daring. Haeckel and Darwin, on the basis of diverse considerations, have indicated some characteristics which would, in their opinion, enable us to recognize their ape-men. Finally Hovelacque, carrying to extremes the theory of transformationism, has compared point for point the corresponding traits of the highest anthropoid apes with those of the lowest forms of humanity; from this exercise, he has derived an intermediate form and believes he is able to trace a fairly complete portrait of the being that immediately preceded the first human of the modern type.”

Such speculative visualization continues even today. Whereas Hovelacque had not a single fossil bone to work with, paleoanthropologists of later years had at least some starting point. But even so, the few fragments of bone they came to possess were, as we shall see in later chapters, quite insufficient to justify the countless elaborate technicolor visions of body types and lifestyles that to this day decorate museum exhibits and the pages of popular science publications. The main point to be gathered, however, is that the existence of apelike precursors of modern humans was, as de Quatrefages so perceptively noted, more a matter of dogmatic assertion than scientific fact. If this is kept in mind, the subsequent developments in paleoanthropology can be seen in a new light. Were the later “discoveries” of fossil apelike human ancestors the product of unbiased scientific investigation or of a fanciful prophetic quest that ended in true believers seeing in broken iron cups the holy grail?

“The majority of the authors responsible for the evolutionary views I have discussed speak very loudly in the name of free thought,” stated de Quatrefages (1884, p. 83). The term “free thought,” in this context, refers not to the modern constitutional guarantee of freedom of conscience but to the atheistic and deistic philosophies that arose in Europe during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, in opposition to established churches and their doctrines.

After commenting on the views of the Darwinist free thinkers, de Quatrefages (1884, p. 83) observed: “It is very curious to see how other authors arrive at the very similar conclusions starting from a quite different position, namely, the Mosaic tenets shared by the Christian faiths.” De Quatrefages then went on to discuss the beliefs of Boucher de Perthes, the discoverer of the flints of Abbeville, who from Christianity derived the idea of pre-Flood humans, very different from present humans. Some Christian thinkers believed that the time before the Flood was of inestimable length and that the earth had once been inhabited by pre-Adamite humans, who were “rough sketches” of the present species. For such thinkers, including Boucher de Perthes, it was these primitive humans who made the crude stone tools of Tertiary times. Boucher de Perthes suggested that the fossil bones of the antediluvian race had already been found but had perhaps been mistaken for those of anthropoid apes. The pre-Adamite race of apelike humans, constitutionally incapable of understanding and worshiping God, was thought to have been destroyed by an inundation (not the Flood of Noah’s time). After this catastrophe, and others, came the six days of the new creation during which the modern race of humans, capable of worshiping God, was brought into being, starting with Adam and Eve (de Quatrefages 1903, p. 31; 1884, pp. 84–88). The new human species was completely distinct from the old, with no connection by descent.

“On the other hand, for de Mortillet and Darwin and his disciples,” observed de Quatrefages (1884, p. 89), “the successive creations are continuous. The present human being is connected to the ancient anthropopitheque by an uninterrupted line of descent. His form has been somewhat modified, the intelligence increased; but we are nothing else than, in the accepted physiological sense of the word, his great grandson. I will not here combat this last opinion. Everyone already knows the negative nature of my views toward the doctrine of transformationism. So likewise with the religious theories just reviewed.” The question of Tertiary humans, in de Quatrefages’s view (1884, p. 89), had become “as so much else which should have remained exclusively scientific, a theater of conflict between religious dogmatism and free thought.” The same is still true today, as demonstrated by the ongoing debates between advocates of Darwinian evolution and Biblical creationism, particularly in the United States.

We share the views of de Quatrefages, in the sense that we are not satisfied with the dogmatic accounts of human origins given by either the Darwinian evolutionists or the Biblical creationists. The available empirical evidence appears to be at variance with both, which suggests that it would be advisable to seriously consider other theoretical systems. In a forthcoming book, we shall present an alternative account of human origins that agrees with all the facts more completely than the accounts given by either of the traditional opponents in the long-running debate on human origins.

4.2.3 Who Made the Flints of Thenay?

So the question remains: who made the flint implements of Thenay? Even if one assumes the presence of some primitive ape-man, how can one rule out the presence of human beings of the modern type in the same period? If you can bring Homo habilis or Homo erectus back to the Miocene, why not Homo sapiens?

Laing (1894, p. 370) said of the flints of Thenay: “their type continues, with no change except that of slight successive improvements, through the Pliocene, Quaternary, and even down to the present day. The scraper of the Esquimaux and the Andaman islanders is but an enlarged and improved edition of the Miocene scraper.” If humans make such scrapers today, it is certainly possible, if not probable, that identical beings made similar scrapers back in the Miocene period. And, as we shall see in coming chapters, scientists did in fact uncover skeletal remains of human beings indistinguishable from Homo sapiens in Tertiary strata.

It thus becomes clearer why we no longer hear of the flints of Thenay. At one point in the history of paleoanthropology, several scientists who believed in evolution actually accepted the Thenay Miocene tools, but attributed them to a precursor of the human type. Evolutionary theory convinced them such a precursor existed, but no fossils had been found. When the expected fossils were found in 1891, in Java, they occurred in a formation now regarded as Middle Pleistocene. That certainly placed any supporters of Miocene ape-men in a dilemma. The human precursor, the creature transitional between fossil apes and modern humans, had been found not in the Early Miocene, 20 million years ago by current estimate, but in the Middle Pleistocene, less than 1 million years ago (Nilsson 1983, pp. 329–330). Therefore, the flints of Thenay, and all the other evidences for the existence of Tertiary humans (or toolmaking Tertiary ape-men), were quietly, and apparently quite thoroughly, removed from active consideration and then forgotten.

The alternative to burying the evidence from Thenay and elsewhere was uncomfortable—perhaps anatomatically modern humans had coexisted with dryopithecine apes. This would have meant discarding the emerging evolutionary picture of human origins or revising it to such an extent as to make it appear far less credible. What to speak of anatomically modern humans, any kind of toolmaking hominids would have been, after the discovery of Java man, quite out of place in the Early Miocene of France.

Of course, this scenario about the treatment of evidence is somewhat hypothetical, but it would appear that something like this actually did occur within the scientific community, over the course of several decades in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The extensive evidence for the presence of toolmaking hominids in the Tertiary was in fact buried, and the stability of the entire edifice of modern paleoanthropology depends upon it remaining buried. If even one single piece of evidence for the existence of toolmakers in the Miocene or Early Pliocene were to be accepted, the whole picture of human evolution, built up so carefully in this century, would begin to disintegrate. Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene tools found outside Africa also present difficulties. According to currently dominant ideas, Homo erectus was the first hominid to leave Africa and did so about one million years ago.

4.3 Implements From the Late Miocene of Aurillac, France

4.3.1 A Find by Tardy

Further discoveries of Tertiary stone tools were made at two principal sites (Puy Courny and Puy de Boudieu) near the town of Aurillac in the department of Cantal in south central France. In 1870, Anatole Roujou reported that Charles Tardy, a geologist well known for his Quaternary research, had removed a flint knife [Figure 4.14] from the exposed surface of a Late Miocene conglomerate at Aurillac. To describe the removal, Roujou (1870) used the word arraché, which means the flint had to be extracted with some force. According to Roujou, the stratum was proven to be Late Miocene

in age by a characteristic fauna, including Dinotherium giganteum and Machairodus latidens ( de Mortillet 1883, p. 97). De Mortillet, who thought the signs of intentional work on the flint were incontestable, declared that the object resembled undoubted Quaternary tools. Yet de Mortillet (1883, p. 97) believed Tardy’s flint tool had only recently been cemented onto the surface of the Late Miocene conglomerate and therefore chose to assign it a Quaternary date.

Figure 4.14. The first stone tool found at Aurillac, France (Verworn 1905, p. 9).

4.3.2 Further Discoveries by Rames

The French geologist J. B. Rames was doubtful that the object found by Tardy was actually of human manufacture, but in 1877 Rames made his own discoveries of flint implements in the same region, at Puy Courny. De Mortillet stated that the flints collected by Rames were found in beds of white quartzite sand and whitish clay containing fossils of Hipparion, Mastodon angustidens, and other species of Late Miocene (Tortonian) age. Instead of being split by the action of fire, like the flints of Thenay, the specimens from Puy Courny were obviously chipped by percussion (de Mortillet 1883, p. 97).

S. Laing (1894, p. 357) provides a good review of the positive case for the implements found by Rames at Puy Courny: “The first question is as to the geological age of the deposits in which these chipped implements have been found. In the case of Puy Courny this is beyond dispute. In the central region of Auvergne there have been two series of volcanic eruptions, the latest towards the close of the Pliocene or commencement of the Quaternary period, and an older one, which from its position and fossils, is clearly of the Upper Miocene. The gravels in which the chipped flints were discovered by M. Rames, a very competent geologist, were interstratified with tuffs and lavas of these older volcanoes, and no doubt as to their geological age was raised by the Congress of French archaeologists to whom they were submitted. The whole question turns therefore on the sufficiency of the proofs of human origin, as to which the same Congress expressed themselves as fully satisfied.”

Modern geologists still refer the fossiliferous sands of Puy Courny to the Miocene (Peterlongo 1972, pp. 134–135). The fauna (Dinotherium giganteum, Mastodon longirostris, Rhinoceros schleiermacheri, Hipparion gracile, etc.) is said to be reminiscent of that of Pikermi, Greece, and is judged to be characteristic of the end of the Pontian (Peterlongo 1972, p. 135). In the past, the Pontian was equated with the Early Pliocene, but Nilsson (1983, p. 19) stated that modern radiometric dating methods indicate that “the whole Pontian stage should be assigned to the latest Miocene time.” According to French authorities also, the Pontian marks the end of the Miocene, and can be given a quantitative date of about 7–9 million years (Klein 1973, table 6).

Laing (1894, p. 358) then gave a detailed description of the signs of human manufacture that Rames had observed on the flints: “The specimens consist of several well-known palaeolithic types, celts, scrapers, arrow-heads, and flakes, only ruder and smaller than those of later periods. They were found at three different localities in the same stratum of gravel, and comply with all the tests by which the genuineness of Quaternary implements is ascertained, such as bulbs of percussion, conchoidal fractures, and above all, intentional chipping in a determinate direction. It is evident that a series of small parallel chips or trimmings, often confined to one side only of the flint and which have the effect of bringing it into a shape which is known from Quaternary and recent implements to be adapted for human use, imply intelligent design, and could not have been produced by the casual collisions of pebbles rolled down by an impetuous torrent.”

According to Laing, de Quatrefages noted fine parallel scratches on the chipped edges of many specimens, indicating usage. These use marks were not present on other unchipped edges. The flint implements of Puy Courny were accepted as genuine at a congress of scientists in Grenoble (Laing 1893, p. 118).

In conclusion, Laing (1894, pp. 358–359) repeated another very important point that was made by de Quatrefages: “The chipped flints from Puy Courny also afford another very conclusive proof of intelligent design. The gravelly deposit in which they are found contains five different varieties of flints, and of these all that look like human implements are confined to one particular variety, which from its nature is peculiarly adapted for human use. As Quatrefages says, no torrents or other natural causes could have exercised such a discrimination, which could only have been made by an intelligent being, selecting the stones best adapted for his tools and weapons.”

Leland W. Patterson (1983, pp. 305–306), a modern expert on lithic technology, has written: “The selective occurrence of certain types of raw material can be useful in identifying human activity at a specific location. The lack of a local source for a raw material is an argument in favor of transport by humans to a site. Another consideration is the selective occurrence of only certain types of raw materials for specimens proposed to be man-made. Man would tend to be selective in use of lithic raw materials, while nature would tend to fracture a wide variety of stone types in a random manner.”

But Marcellin Boule gave a geological explanation for the fact that the objects thought to be tools were formed from only one of the many kinds of flint present at Puy Courny. As noted by Rames, the various kinds of flint all came from different layers of the underlying Oligocene formation. In 1889, Boule suggested that during the Late Miocene, only the layer containing the particular type of flint in question had been eroded. According to Verworn (1905, p. 10), that meant only this particular type of flint, lying loose on the surface, was available for toolmaking by intelligent beings in the Late Miocene.

But Boule completely rejected the idea that the flint objects of Aurillac were manufactured by humans or human evolutionary ancestors. His analysis of the erosion of flint at Aurillac was intended to demonstrate that in the Late Miocene, only a certain type of flint had been subjected to purely natural forces tending to create toollike forms.

Boule’s account of the successive erosion of the various flint-bearing Oligocene layers may not, however, have been correct. Perhaps several layers eroded simultaneously. If so, this would preserve the point Rames made about intelligent selection of one kind of flint from among many for the purpose of toolmaking. But even if we do accept the sequence of geological events outlined by Boule, this still would not allow one to conclude that the chipped flint objects from the Late Miocene of Puy Courny were produced by purely natural forces. It would seem that all the other kinds of flint that later eroded from layers below the one described above should also have been shaped by natural forces into forms resembling tools. Considered in this way, Boule’s explanation tends to explicitly confirm human rather than natural action.

Furthermore, Boule’s geological explanation, if correct, merely accounts for the selection of a particular kind of flint. It does not explain the special character of the chipping on the flints. As previously mentioned, the chipping on the flints, confined to one side of one edge, with the chips removed consecutively and in parallel, was not of the type one would expect from random natural battering or geological pressures. In fact, the flint objects were, according to many authorities, identical to accepted unifacially flaked flint tools from the Late Pleistocene.

4.3.3 Verworn’s Expedition to Aurillac

In the first part of the twentieth century, some professional scientists continued to recognize specimens from the sites near Aurillac as the work of human beings in the Late Miocene. Among them was Max Verworn of the University of Göttingen in Germany.

In his introduction to a lengthy report on the implements of Aurillac (Cantal), published in 1905, Verworn pointed out that the existence of human beings in the Pleistocene period had been established beyond doubt by skeletal remains, stone artifacts, and other objects of human manufacture. Verworn (1905, pp. 3–4) stated: “The fact that the skeletal remains so far discovered in our Pleistocene investigations can be recognized by their morphology as genuinely human should indicate, in the most lucid manner, to every modern researcher who stands upon the ground of the theory of descent, that the beginning of our race and its specific human characteristics must reach far beyond the Pleistocene, and, at very least, deep into the Tertiary. Yet despite this theoretical advancement in the investigation of natural history, science is very reluctant to enter fully into the question of the existence of Tertiary man, and any discussion of the evidence in this regard has been treated with utmost distrust and skepticism in the scientific community. Of course this is justifiable, because in all true science every provisional truth must pass the test of the critical fire of doubt before it can be granted full recognition.”

In Verworn we have an excellent example of a scientist with Darwinian credentials accepting evidence (in this case, evidence for a human presence in the Miocene) that would completely contradict current Darwinian ideas about the origin of the human species. The present scientific establishment propagates the belief that only fundamentalist creationists and early scientists opposed to evolution have ever presented evidence contradicting the current evolutionary understanding of human origins. But this is far from the truth. Scientists who believed in evolution have been the main source of the information compiled in this book.

Scientific discussion of Tertiary humans peaked in the 1880s and decreased markedly in the final years of the nineteenth century. The question was reopened by Rutot’s discoveries of flint implements in Belgium, which we shall consider later in this chapter (Section 4.4). Verworn, working in the very early years of the twentieth century, was himself at first quite doubtful about the human manufacture of eoliths, or “dawn stones,” as the crudest of the early stone tools had come to be known.

Verworn (1905, pp. 4–5) wrote in his report on Aurillac: “I must confess that less than a year ago I was still skeptical about accepting the implemental nature of eoliths, and expressed my doubts at the meeting of the Göttingen Anthropological Society on July 22, 1904. Of course, I had seen with my own eyes only the finds of Dr. Hahne from the Pleistocene of the Magdeburg region, and I can say that regarding the greater part of Hahne’s eoliths, in view of the strong inorganic influences upon them and the conditions of their occurrence, I still today maintain my skepticism, though I do recognize some isolated pieces that bear signs of human work. Meanwhile Herr Rutot was, in the course of the past year, kind enough to send to me as a gift a great collection of typical eoliths from the various levels of the Belgian Pleistocene, and after carefully analyzing them I could no longer maintain any doubts about their implemental nature. I was overcome with strong excitement. With these discoveries the traces of primitive culture extended far beyond all previous boundaries.” Verworn, in these passages, is using the term eolith in a very broad sense. But as we shall see, he will later employ distinctions similar to the ones adopted in this book.

Verworn (1905, pp. 5–6) continued: “The question then arose for me, whether such evidence might extend back into the Tertiary. The evidence supporting this proposal gathered in earlier times, which in some cases had been introduced with great precision, had not been able to win general recognition. For me there was no doubt about the theoretical possibility of man existing in the Tertiary; the real question was whether or not the Tertiary ancestors of humankind had been capable of manufacturing stone tools, which would give evidence of their existence to those of us in a far removed time. I was still skeptical on this point. When Rutot and Klaatsch had become convinced of the existence of Tertiary eoliths and published some illustrations of such, I could not, from their descriptions and illustrations alone, reach any positive conclusion about their implemental nature. There is no alternative, for anyone who wants to come to his own decision, to having the objects in his own hands, to being able to turn them around and analyze all their features. Furthermore, it is necessary to understand the objects in terms of their circumstances of discovery by visiting the places from which they came, especially in order to come to firm conclusions about their geological age, which is required. So just as for years I had conducted my own experimental flint-flaking studies in order to understand flint objects bearing the characteristic signs of human work, I decided to conduct my own onsite excavations, and thus be in a position to be able to reach a definite decision, for or against the implemental nature of the Tertiary flints in question. I can honestly say that I entered upon my investigation without any preconceived opinions. I would have been just as happy to answer the question negatively as positively.”

Verworn then had to decide where to conduct his search for implements. He was aware that France had furnished investigators with many examples of reputed Tertiary flint tools. The site at Thenay was a possibility, but two scientists, L. Capitan and P. Mahoudeau, had recently published an extremely negative report about the flint objects found there, so Verworn decided to look elsewhere.

Aurillac, in Cantal, where several discoveries of Late Miocene implements had been made over the course of many decades, seemed a more profitable place to conduct his study. Verworn also considered the valley of the Tagus at Lisbon, where Ribeiro had uncovered his Miocene specimens, but because no further discoveries had been made in that region, Verworn ruled out going there. At other sites, such as the Kent Plateau in southeast England and St. Prest in France, the geological context was thought to be Pliocene, not as suitable for Verworn’s purposes as the older Miocene age of the implement-bearing formations at Aurillac. So Aurillac it would be (Verworn 1905, pp. 6–7).

On his way to France, Verworn visited Rutot in Brussels and examined specimens of stone implements in the Royal Museum of Natural History, including some from Aurillac. These had been forwarded to Brussels by the French geologists Pierre Marty and Charles Puech.

Verworn (1905, p. 7) noted: “Even these collections had pieces that I could not easily account for as being other than the product of human work, and the same was true of L. Capitan’s large collection of flints from the same site that I soon thereafter had the opportunity to see. . . . Capitan has like Klaatsch personally conducted excavations at Aurillac, but has not yet published his findings. Despite the fact that my firsthand observation and testing of these discoveries was leading me to belief in a Miocene flint culture in the Auvergne, I must nevertheless state that my scientific skepticism, and my own previous negative convictions in this matter, were strong enough to inspire new doubts that brought my positive decision again into question. I knew that I had to see the things on the spot, that I must personally get to know the circumstances of discovery, that I must with my own hand remove specimens from the ground— otherwise, I would not be certain. So I traveled to Aurillac.”

Verworn remained at Aurillac for six days. Pierre Marty, a local geologist who had written a monograph on the Late Miocene fauna of Joursac (in Cantal), explained to him the geology of the region. Marty also showed Verworn a site he had himself discovered at Puy de Boudieu, and Verworn’s excavations there yielded him the majority of his specimens. Charles Puech, a geologist and engineer of roads for the department of Cantal, also gave Verworn extensive geological information.

Verworn (1905, p. 8) reported: “It happened that in the course of my very first excavation at Puy de Boudieu I had the luck to come upon a place where I found a great number of flint objects, whose indisputable implemental nature immediately staggered me. I had not expected this. Only slowly could I accustom myself to the thought that I had in my hand the tools of a human being that had lived in Tertiary times. I raised all the objections of which I could think. I questioned the geological age of the site, I questioned the implemental nature of the specimens, until I reluctantly admitted that all possible objections were not sufficient to explain away the facts. In what follows, I shall attempt to show all this in detail. At the same time, if anyone doubts the facts as presented, then let him, as I did, go and see.”

Concerning de Mortillet’s proposal that the maker of the implements of Aurillac was a small apelike human precursor called anthropopithecus (later homosimius), Verworn (1905, p. 11) said: “It hardly seems necessary to mention that these speculations, insofar as they are based on the flint tools, are completely arbitrary.”

Describing his own discoveries at Aurillac, Verworn (1905, p. 16) wrote: “I especially noted at Puy de Boudieu, where I had the good fortune to come upon a very productive site, that the worked stones, sometimes 5, 10, or 15, would be grouped quite close to each other, separated only by a little tuff or clay, while for 50 to 80 centimeters [roughly 2 to 3 feet ] around there would be no such nests or only a few single specimens. As far as appearance goes, the unworked stones appeared to be quite rolled. The worked specimens showed little or no evidence of rolling.” Verworn (1905, p. 16) added: “at Puy de Boudieu I was almost exclusively excavating specimens with edges as sharp as when they had been made. All the quartz stones found among the flints are rolled until almost round.” The presence of sharp-edged flint objects amidst rolled and rounded pebbles of other kinds of rock at Puy de Boudieu signified that the flint objects had not been subjected to much movement since their deposition and that the flaking upon them was therefore of human rather than geological origin. The fact that the sharp-edged implemental flints were found in groups suggested the presence of workshop sites.

Summarizing the geological context of the discoveries, Verworn gave the following account. The basal layers are Oligocene freshwater and brackish sedimentary deposits containing beds of flint. Above these are Miocene layers of fluviatile sands, stones, and eroded chalk containing fossils of Dinotherium giganteum, Mastodon longirostris, Rhinoceros schleiermacheri, Hipparion gracile, etc., along with flint implements. Layers of basalt from volcanic eruptions cover these Late Miocene implement-bearing layers and in some cases go under them. Above the basalt and the Miocene layers, there are some Pliocene layers, with Elephas meridionalis and other Pliocene mammals. Volcanic layers from Pliocene eruptions cover these. There was no further volcanic action, and the cold periods of the Pleistocene followed. Paleolithic and Neolithic implements of the standard types are found in the upper terraces (Verworn 1905, p. 17). The basic volcanic sequence outlined by Verworn is still accepted today (Autran and Peterlongo 1980, pp. 107–112).

Verworn pointed out that those who disputed the Miocene age of the Cantal flints had not visited the sites. Verworn (1905, p. 19) stated: “In fact, in connection with the age of the flints there is, among the geologists who have actually visited the sites, not the slightest degree of reservation. They are all in agreement, and outside of Noetling and Keilhack, I am not aware of any other who have expressed doubt.”

Keilhack suggested that perhaps the volcanic eruptions, said by Verworn to have ended in the Pliocene, had in fact continued into the Quaternary. If this were true, then perhaps the implements, some of which were found between layers of lava, were more recent than the Pliocene or Miocene. But what about the fact that the implements were found together with Miocene fossils? Keilhack proposed that the action of streams had mixed in bones from older Miocene layers with more recent Quaternary flint implements.

To these objections Verworn replied as follows. First of all, in no case were fossils of mammals that lived only in the Pleistocene found together with flint implements beneath the lava at Aurillac. This indicated that there had been no Quaternary eruptions. Therefore, any flint-bearing beds found under the several layers of lava were definitely Pliocene or older. Furthermore, the layers of basalt and other volcanic rock were separated by freshwater sedimentary beds with sharply characteristic fossil remains. For example, one might find under a particular layer of basalt a sedimentary bed containing Pliocene fossils and under this another layer of basalt. Under this second bed of basalt, one might then find another sedimentary layer, this with fossil remains of Miocene plants and animals along with flint implements. And under a third layer of basalt one might find another Miocene sedimentary layer containing flint implements, this layer lying upon the Oligocene basement formation. From such evidence, Verworn concluded that the flint-bearing sedimentary beds below or directly above the lowest layer of basalt at Aurillac were Miocene rather than Pliocene in age.

Verworn (1905, p. 20) concluded: “So we find these implement-bearing layers always directly over the Oligocene or directly upon the basalt from the oldest eruptions, which directly cover the Oligocene layers. The fact that over these oldest eruptive masses one finds beds that contain a typical Late Miocene fauna, like that found at Joursac, with Hipparion, Dinotherium, etc., means that the underlying implement-bearing beds cannot be any more recent than the Late Miocene. Thus the second doubt of Keilhack, namely that the Miocene fauna has been secondarily introduced into the implement-bearing layers from below, is cleared away.”

Verworn (1905, p. 21) then discussed at length various ways to identify human work on a flint object. He divided evidence of such work into two groups: (1) signs of percussion resulting from the primary blow that detached the flake from a flint core; (2) signs of percussion resulting from secondary edge-chipping on the flake itself.

On a flint flake, the principal signs of percussion from the main blow that detached the flake from a flint core would be a striking platform, bulb of percussion, and eraillure. According to de Mortillet, the presence of a striking platform, bulb of percussion, and eraillure together on a flake is a very good indicator of intentional work (Verworn 1905, pp. 21–22).

In addition to the three features mentioned above, Verworn (1905, pp. 22–23) described several more signs of percussion that can be observed on flint flakes (Figure 4.15). Concentrated near the point of impact on the top of the flake one can see a small formation of concentric circular cracks. Radiating from the point of impact and extending over the entire surface of the flake there is also visible a series of curved percussion marks, or force ripples. The stronger the blow that separated the flake from the flint core, the stronger the ripples. Raylike cracks, emanating from the point of impact, intersect the curved force ripples. Verworn also pointed out that in a flake made by percussion the plane of fracture is not straight. If one looks at the flake, edge on from the side, one sees that the ventral surface of the flake is convex at the bulb of percussion, near the top of the flake, and concave at the lower portion, giving an S-shaped contour. Sometimes one can also see on the striking platform a crush mark from a previous blow that failed to detach the flake from the flint core. Negative impressions of some of the above-mentioned features are sometimes visible on the core from which the flake was taken.

It would seem that the presence of combinations of these percussion signs would make it easy for one to identify human work on a flint object. But according to Verworn, this is not necessarily so. All the above-mentioned characteristics are symptoms of just one thing—a blow of sufficient force directed at a given point. But if nature could deliver the blow, then the presence of all the symptoms of percussion is not enough to establish human workmanship (Verworn 1905, p. 23).

The question as to whether nature can actually deliver such a blow has been much debated. Verworn (1905, p. 24) wrote: “It is generally recognized that extreme fluctuations of temperature and moisture, and the action of frost, do not result in fracturing that produces the above-mentioned features. It is otherwise with the question whether or not strongly agitated water, as in flooded mountain streams, waterfalls, or ocean shores, can throw stones together in such a way as to bring about the typical characteristics of percussion. I do not rule this out, but I would tend to believe that such things, if they occur, do so only in very isolated instances.” In this respect, Verworn is in agreement with modern authorities on lithic technology such as Leland W. Patterson (1983) and George F. Carter (1957, 1979).

Verworn (1905, p. 24), willing to consider all possibilities, further stated: “I could also imagine that falling stones, loosened by erosion, could produce such effects, but again, very rarely. Finally it would appear to me that stones pressed against each other by glacial action could produce the characteristic symptoms. In summary, the possibility that purely inorganic factors could act on flint to produce the above-mentioned signs of percussion is something I do not wish to dispute. Therefore the bulb of percussion, eraillure, striking platform, force ripples, etc., are not, contrary to de Mortillet’s view, definite criteria for intentional flaking.” Here Verworn was perhaps showing too much caution. Even in terms of his own analysis of evidence indicating percussion, it is not very likely that nature would, except in extremely rare circumstances, produce such combinations of effects.

Figure 4.15. Diagnostic features of a struck flake (Verworn 1905, p. 22): (1) striking platform; (2) bulb of percussion; (3) eraillure; (4) point of impact, with concentric circular cracks; (5) curved force ripples; (6) cracks emanating from the point of impact; (7) S-shaped curve of the plane of fracture; (8) crush mark from a previous blow that failed to detach the flake from the flint core.

Verworn believed that retouched edges on flint flakes were good, but again not absolutely certain, evidence of human manufacture. He recommended very careful study of the features of such retouching, including the depth and size of individual marks, the similarity of their planes of impact, and their arrangement in regular rows along the edges of the presume flint implement (Verworn 1905, pp. 24–25).

Unidirectional flaking on one side of an edge is generally taken as a very sure sign of human work, but Verworn (1905, pp. 27–28) stated he could “imagine circumstances in which you might have a sharp piece of flint sticking out from a wall of limestone, and then have pieces of rock falling from above, hitting the edge many times, producing unidirectional flaking.”

Verworn recommended that special attention be given to signs of use on the edges of possible flint implements. One would expect that an implement used for scraping wood, bones, or skin, or for digging the earth, would display certain characteristic markings. Verworn conducted extensive experimental research in this area.

He concluded: “It is characteristic of use-patterns that there are only small marks on the edge, on the average no greater than 1–2 mm [.04-.08 inch]. Even when an edge is used with great pressure on the hardest materials, the use marks are no longer than 5 mm [.2 inch]” (Verworn 1905, pp. 25–26). Use marks should, of course, be confined to the edge employed in scraping and be arrayed in the appropriate direction, in a regular parallel fashion. Less pressure can be applied with a small flint, so use marks should be smaller on small pieces than on big pieces (Verworn 1905, p. 26).

Considering all the various characteristics of percussion and use, Verworn suggested that none of them are in themselves conclusive. Verworn (1905, p. 29) stated: “I propose that in each separate case a critical diagnosis must be made, founded on a deep and thorough analysis of the characteristics of each specimen in connection with the circumstances of its discovery. The diagnosis of each specimen should not be concerned with just one, but with a whole series of symptoms, just as a doctor analyzes internal diseases by a complex of symptoms. . . . What must concern us is therefore not the discovery of a single, all-embracing, universally applicable criterion for recognizing manufacture in stone implements; such a criterion does not exist in reality and every attempt to find one is fruitless. What we must concern ourselves with is the development of a critical diagnostic method, similar to that employed by physicians. The more carefully we develop this diagnostic method through observation and experiment, the more we shall be able to reduce the number of questionable factors. The critical analysis of a given combination of symptoms is the only thing that will put us in a position to make decisions.”

This is the same methodology suggested by L. W. Patterson (1983). Patterson does, however, give more weight than Verworn to bulbs of percussion and unidirectional flaking along single edges of flakes, especially when numerous specimens are found at a site. Patterson’s studies showed that natural forces almost never produce these effects in significant quantities.

Verworn (1905, p. 29) then provided an example to illustrate how his method of analysis might be applied: “Suppose I find in an interglacial stone bed a flint object that bears a clear bulb of percussion, but no other symptom of intentional work. In that case, I would be doubtful as to whether or not I had before me an object of human manufacture. But suppose I find there a flint which on one side shows all the typical signs of percussion, and which on the other side shows the negative impressions of two, three, four, or more flakes removed by blows in the same direction. Furthermore, let us suppose one edge of the piece shows numerous, successive parallel small flakes removed, all running in the same direction, and all, without exception, are located on the same side of the edge. Let us suppose that all the other edges are sharp, without a trace of impact or rolling. Then I can say with complete certainty—it is an implement of human manufacture.”

Verworn, after conducting a number of excavations at sites near Aurillac, analyzed the many flint implements he found, employing the rigorously scientific methodology described above. He then came to the following conclusion: “With my own hands, I have personally extracted from the undisturbed strata at Puy de Boudieu many such unquestionable artifacts. That is unshakable proof for the existence of a flintworking being at the end of the Miocene” (Verworn 1905, pp. 29–30).

At his main excavation site at Puy de Boudieu, Verworn (1905, p. 30) found that the implements were sharp, showing no movement since they were deposited. Verworn (1905, p. 32) stated: “I find that in terms of size, shape, and adaptation to the human hand, these specimens are not different from Paleolithic implements. That, as is evident, rules out de Mortillet’s supposition that the small size of the tools meant that the bodily size of the hypothetical homosimius was inferior to that of a human being. The tools do not give grounds for such a conclusion.”

Verworn discovered in the Miocene formations at Aurillac 199 worked pieces of flint, 98 with bulbs of percussion. In reality, more should have been counted as having bulbs of percussion, for, in many cases, although the part of the flake with the bulb was broken off, the remainder of the flake showed all the usual signs of percussion. Most of the tools were 4–5 centimeters (about 2 inches) in size, although some went up to 10 centimeters (4 inches).

Verworn (1905, p. 33) wrote: “The typical signs of percussion, such as striking platform, bulb of percussion, eraillures, fissures of percussion, and curvature of the plane of fracture, were clearly evident. Only the force ripples on the plane of fracture were not very strongly developed, and the circular percussion marks near the point of impact were not to be seen very clearly, perhaps because of the opaqueness of the material and its strong, dark patination. The backs of the flakes sometimes bear upon them the cortex, but for the most part they display the scars of earlier flakes that always have been removed in the same direction. Sometimes four or five flake scars run over the back, and often the negative bulbs of percussion from these flakes are still well preserved. Next to them one often sees the strong crush marks of blows delivered in the same direction.”

Verworn (1905, p. 33) performed his own experimental flint flaking and reported: “With hammer stones, I have struck from the flat pieces of flint from the Miocene beds a number of flint flakes, and these flakes closely resemble the old ones.” Verworn stated that because of the cortex covering the flint, the blows had to be quite hard, resulting in well-marked bulbs of percussion like those on the Miocene flakes. The cushioning effect of the relatively soft cortex also accounted for the lightness of the rings of percussion on the flakes detached from the flint core.

In addition to flakes, Verworn also found many cores from which flakes had been struck. Verworn (1905, p. 34) analyzed the situation as follows: “In fact one finds a great number of slabs of flint, on the edges of which one finds characteristic flake scars with negative bulbs of percussion. . . . One might have taken a good slab and removed one or more flakes from the edge. One finds a number of flake scars next to each other on the edge, mostly removed by blows in the same direction, though there are some cases where they have been removed at different angles.”

Most of the implements found by Verworn in the Miocene beds of Aurillac were scrapers of various kinds: “Some scrapers show only use marks on the scraping edge, while the other edges on the same piece are quite sharp and unmarked [Figure 4.16]. On other specimens the scraping edge displays a number of chips intentionally removed in the same direction. This chipping displays quite clearly all the usual signs of percussion. Even today the edges of the impact marks of previous blows on the upper part of some implements are perfectly sharp [Figure 4.17]. The goal of the work on the edges is clearly and without doubt recognizable as the removal of cortex or the giving of a definite form. On many pieces there are clearly visible handgrip areas, fashioned by the removal of sharp edges and points from places where they would injure or interfere” (Verworn 1905, pp. 37–38).

Figure 4.16. Four views of a flint scraper found in Late Miocene strata at Aurillac, France (Verworn 1905, p. 37). Top left: Ventral surface with large bulb of percussion. Bottom left: Ventral surface tilted to show the lower edge, with numerous small use marks. Top right: Dorsal surface of the scraper, showing removal of five large parallel flakes. Bottom right: Dorsal surface tilted to show the lower edge, with use marks on the left and remnants of cortex on the right.

Figure 4.17. Left: Ventral surface of Late Miocene flint scraper from Aurillac, France, showing (1) bulb of percussion and (2) striking platform. The cortex of the flint has been removed from the lower edge by percussion, leaving numerous flake scars oriented in approximately the same direction. Right: Dorsal surface, showing five large parallel scars of flakes removed before the scraper itself was struck from the parent flint core. The upper left corner of the implement shows impact damage from one of the previous blows (Verworn 1905, p. 38).

Figure 4.18. Late Miocene flint scraper from Aurillac, France, with large flakes removed in parallel (Verworn 1905, p. 39). This feature reminded Verworn of Late Pleistocene examples.

Figure 4.19. A pointed flint implement from the Late Miocene at Aurillac, France (Verworn 1905, p. 40).

About the object in Figure 4.18, Verworn (1905, p. 39) said: “the flake scars on the scraper blade lie so regularly next to each other in parallel fashion that one is reminded of Paleolithic or even Neolithic examples.” In the accepted sequence, Paleolithic and Neolithic tools are assigned to the later Pleistocene.

Verworn also found many pointed scrapers (Figure 4.19): “Among all the flint objects, these show most clearly the intentional fashioning of definite tool shapes, at least in the area of the working edges. In fact, the points are generally made in such a way that one can speak of genuine care and attention in the technique. The edges have been worked by many unidirectional blows in such a way as to make the intention of fashioning a point unequivocal. I characterize as pointed scrapers those tools on which the chips on both sides of the point run in the same direction” (Verworn 1905, p. 40).

Also found at Aurillac were notched scrapers (Figure 4.20), with rounded concave openings on the working edge suitable for scraping cylindrical objects like bones or spear shafts. Verworn (1905, p. 41) observed: “In most cases the notched scrapers are made by chipping out one of the edges in a curved shape by unidirectional blows.”

Figure 4.20. Left: Ventral surface of a notched scraper from the Late Miocene of Aurillac, France (Verworn 1905, p. 40). Right: Dorsal surface, showing removal of cortex on the working edge, upon which Verworn observed tiny use marks.

Verworn also un covered several tools adapted for hammering, hacking, and digging. Describing the one in Figure 4.21, Verworn (1905, p. 41) wrote: “A large pointed tool for chopping or digging. It is formed from a natural slab of flint by the working of a point. One sees on the surfaces of the piece the cortex of the flint and at the top a point made from numerous flakes, mostly removed in the same direction.” About another pointed tool, Verworn (1905, p. 41) stated: “This tool has on the side directly below the point a handgrip made by removing the sharp, cutting edges. It might have been a primitive handaxe used for hammering or chopping.” Verworn also found tools he thought were adapted for stabbing, boring, and engraving.

Figure 4.21. A Late Miocene flint tool from Aurillac, France. The point is formed by removal of many flakes in the same general direction (Verworn 1905, p. 41).

Verworn (1905, pp. 44–45) concluded: “At the end of the Miocene there was here a culture, which was, as we can see from its flint tools, not in the very beginning phases but had already proceeded through a long period of development. . . . this Miocene population of Cantal knew how to flake and work flint.” The only visible signs of human work upon the Eolithic tools (Chapter 3) were use marks and perhaps slight chipping to improve the working edge. Verworn saw signs of more extensive intentional work on the tools of Aurillac (Cantal)—removal of cortex (the rough outer surface of the flint) to expose a sharp edge and the subsequent shaping of the edge for a particular purpose. But the modification was confined to the specific edge that was meant for use. Modification did not extend to the shaping of an entire implement, as in the Late Paleolithic and Neolithic. A third sign of intentional work on the tools from Aurillac was the removal of sharp edges to form a comfortable handgrip (Verworn 1905, pp. 44– 47). For these reasons, we have placed the flint implements found by Verworn at Aurillac in the category of crude paleoliths.

Verworn (1905, p. 50) designated the implements of Aurillac as archaeoliths, placing them between eoliths and paleoliths. Eolithic industries, according to Verworn, are those in which the natural edges of pieces of stone are used as tools without any further modification. Use marks would be the only sign of human action upon them. In Archeolithic industries, the working edges of the tools are modified for specific purposes, and in Paleolithic industries the entire piece of stone is worked with some degree of artistry into a specific tool shape.

Verworn (1905, p. 50) believed that purely Eolithic cultures—with implements displaying no retouch, just use marks—had not yet been found. As can be seen, Verworn’s definition of an eolith is somewhat different than the one we employ, which encompasses slight retouching as well as use marks on naturally produced stone flakes. Our category of crude paleoliths differs from the category of eoliths in that an industry of crude paleoliths would contain at least some tools deliberately struck from cores and subjected to more extensive retouching.

Verworn felt that geological considerations are primary in determining the age of stone tools, because different levels of culture exist at different times. Even today, he said, there are people who make and use the crudest sort of stone tools (Verworn 1905, p. 50). Verworn’s methodology protects one from automatically assuming that a technologically advanced stone tool found in very old strata must in fact be recent or that a crude tool must necessarily be old.

Verworn (1905, p. 47) further stated: “Concerning the Miocene culture of Cantal, the facts teach us that we must guard against a mistake, often encountered in the field of prehistoric research when an ancient culture level is discovered. That mistake is forming too low an estimate of the culture in question. The Tertiary age of the culture in this case should in no circumstances force us into underestimating it.” We fully agree with Verworn on this point.

Verworn (1905, pp. 48–49) went on to say: “Concerning the physiological status of the Miocene inhabitants of Cantal, I would like to make a few observations. I have already indicated that de Mortillet’s conclusion from his study of the implements that the manufacturers were of small bodily size is fallacious, because the supposition that the tools are especially small is not supported by observation. I would, on the contrary, with a great deal of certainty say that the size of the implements points toward a being with a hand of the same size and shape as our own, and therefore a similar body. The existence of large scrapers and choppers that fill our own hands, and above all the perfect adaptation to the hand found in almost all the tools, seems to verify this conclusion in the highest degree. Tools of the most different sizes, which show with perfect clarity useful edges, use marks, and handgrips, lie for the most part so naturally and comfortably in our hands, with the original sharp points and edges intentionally removed from the places where a hand would grasp, that one would think the tools were made directly for our hands.”

Of the manufacturers of the implements found at Aurillac, in Cantal, south central France, Verworn (1905, p. 49) stated: “While it is possible that this Tertiary form might possibly have stood closer to the animal ancestors of modern humans than do modern humans themselves, who can say to us that they were not already of the same basic physical character as modern humans, that the development of specifically human features did not extend back into the Late Miocene? Perhaps the Miocene inhabitants of Cantal were so highly developed that we could unquestionably give them the title of human being. Such a proposition is neither more nor less likely than de Mortillet’s hypothesis of an intermediate form. On the other hand, what would prevent us from seeing in this Tertiary being a line of development parallel to the main line of human descent? All of these are simply possibilities that do not allow for proof or disproof, for the simple reason that we do not have any right to connect a specific culture level with a specific level of physiological development. So long as we have no bodily remains of the Tertiary inhabitants of Cantal, all we say will be speculation without meaning. On the same grounds, all attempts at linkage with Pithecanthropus of Trinil (Java man) are worthless. In one case we have cultural remains with no bodily remains, and in the other bodily remains with not a trace of cultural remains. We have simply a comparison of two unknowns. Nothing will come of it. We need patience and more material.”

Verworn here makes an important point. From a viewpoint ranging from hundreds of thousands to several million years after the fact, it is very difficult to connect stone implements with particular sets of physiological remains from the same period, if such exist. As we explain in Chapter 6, fossil skeletal remains indistinguishable from those of fully modern humans have been found in Pliocene, Miocene, and even Eocene and earlier geological contexts. When we also consider that humans living today make implements not much different from those taken from Miocene beds in France and elsewhere, then the validity of the standard sequence of human evolution begins to seem tenuous. In fact, the standard sequence only makes sense when a lot of very good evidence is ignored. When all the available evidence, implemental and skeletal, is considered, it is quite difficult to construct any kind of evolutionary sequence. What we are left with is the supposition that there have been various types of human and humanlike beings, living at the same time and manufacturing stone tools of various levels of sophistication, for tens of millions of years into the past.

4.3.4 A Footnote on Aurillac

Shortly after Verworn’s excavations at Aurillac (Cantal), the French researcher L. Mayet delivered a report about his own investigations, which led him to the conclusion that the objects found there were products of nature rather than the result of intentional human work. In a footnote to his famous report on the “pseudoeoliths” of Clermont (Section 3.4), Breuil referred to “Mayet’s study of Cantal, where in the dislocated strata he found broken blocks of flint resembling eoliths.” Breuil (1910, p. 407) stated: “There you also have some broken flints with the pieces still held in place by the sandy matrix.” This was obviously to be taken as conclusive and final proof that the stone tools of Puy Courny, like those of Clermont, were produced by geological pressures rather than human action.

But not everyone responded as favorably as Breuil to Mayet’s report, originally delivered at a meeting of the French Association for the Advancement of Science, held in Lyon in 1906. Dr. Hermann Klaatsch (1907, p. 765) later wrote: “At a time when the problem of primitive stone artifacts is in a phase permeated with complete lack of clarity, we must happily receive every work that without prejudiced views attempts a factual solution to the eolith puzzle, and we should also give due recognition to the courage of the author who attempts to deal with such troublesome material. In every genuine discussion, opposition is just as welcome as agreement. In this spirit, the authorities who, like myself, are in favor of the human manufacture of the Tertiary flint objects of Cantal, will find especially worthy of attention any work that attempts to demonstrate they were formed by purely natural causes.” Klaatsch (1907, p. 765) added something Breuil neglected to mention: “It must be noted that L. Mayet in no way shares the radically negative standpoint of Boule, but instead fully recognizes the artifactual nature of the Belgian eoliths [Section 4.4].”

Mayet had twice visited the classic Cantal sites (Puy Boudieu and Puy Courny) and conducted excavations. Klaatsch (1907, p. 765) wrote: “After his introductory lecture, in which Mayet gave assurances that he could supply proofs of the natural process by which the flint objects had been formed, I was extremely disappointed by the way he sought to demonstrate his point. I had hoped that he would clearly inform me about the ways in which natural forces had acted so ingeniously as to transform the site at Puy Boudieu into ‘a veritable eolith factory.’ That significant shifting and partial resorting of the beds have occurred here is well known to anyone who has conducted excavations. But it remains for L. Mayet to make it plausible that these forces were responsible for the very sophisticated way in which pieces of flint have been broken and worked. Instead he puts off the knowledge-thirsty listener with the suggestion that one cannot precisely describe the action of these natural forces, among which he numbers ‘atmospheric agents, variations in temperature, torrential waters, shifting of geological beds, and certainly other factors about which we remain ignorant.’ It is as if he were trying to silence an unruly child by intimidating him with a multitude of hints of terrible future events, the consequences of which one could not even imagine.” Breuil (1910, p. 407) had tried to do the same thing in his study: “It is clear that the observations made at Belle-Assise do not explain all the natural formations of the Eolithic type; the process that is observed can be juxtaposed with others, such as the action of torrents of water, periods of flooding, the trampling of animals and men, etc.”

In discussing Mayet’s conclusions about the Puy de Boudieu site, Klaatsch (1907, p. 765) made the following observation: “But about the fact that animal teeth in this frightful topsy-turvy have remained quite whole, as if that were possible, we hear nothing.” In other words, if the geological pressures were sufficient to crush blocks of flint, why not the accompanying animal fossils? Klaatsch (1907, pp. 765–766) then stated: “I am therefore not satisfied by Mayet’s concluding assertion that ‘the action of the intense natural forces that have mixed together the sands and flints at this point are perfectly able to have produced the eoliths, eliminating the necessity of suggesting the intervention of human industry.’ People who simply accept these closing words at face value will repeat them as wisdom, and it will afterwards appear that Mayet has proved the natural origin of the Tertiary flint implements. But no, we cannot proceed in this fashion. One should really demand that our adversaries in this debate should fight us on experimental grounds. This reasonable request to solve by experimentation the puzzle of how the flint objects could be produced by the

‘intelligent’ action of natural forces is not weakened by the fact that Mayet was unsuccessful in producing anything resembling a flint implement by the process of banging blocks of stone together.”

Klaatsch (1907, p. 766) then turned his attention to Mayet’s statements about the other site at Aurillac, Puy Courny: “Regarding Puy Courny, Mayet cannot call attention to any geological disturbances such as were present at the other site. Instead he seeks, by heaping up questions, to lead one around the complete lack of reasonable arguments and evidence in favor of his point of view. He simply states with utter complacency in his ‘conclusions’ that the eoliths of Puy Courny ‘are in all likelihood the products of the same natural forces.’ The fact that countless fossils found in the same beds remain completely unchanged by these forces is here also not mentioned.”

Klaatsch (1907, p. 766) then answered one of Mayet’s specific objections: “The great number of specimens at Puy de Boudieu startled him. But in another publication I have pointed out the great masses of artifacts that are to be found at stone workshops in Tasmania. Were such sites to be covered by a stream of lava and then again exposed, this would present much the same sort of scene that confronts one at Puy de Boudieu.” In Africa also, there are sites with thousands of stone tools scattered about. “On the whole,” stated Klaatsch (1907, p. 766), “I must sadly conclude that the work of Mayet has not brought us one step closer to solving the eolith problem.”

4.3.5 A Final Report

As late as 1924, George Grant MacCurdy, director of the American School of Prehistoric Research in Europe, reported in Natural History about the flint implements of Puy Courny (Cantal). Finds similar to those of Rames at Puy Courny and Verworn at Puy de Boudieu had been made in England by J. Reid Moir. Some critics argued that natural forces, such as movements of the earth, had fractured flints by pressure, thus creating stone objects resembling tools. But scientists showed that in the particular locations where the flint tools were found, the geological evidence did not suggest the operation of such natural causes.

MacCurdy (1924b, p. 658) wrote: “Breuil is authority for the statement that conditions favoring the play of natural forces do not exist in certain Pliocene deposits of East Anglia, where J. Reid Moir has found worked flints. . . . Can the same be said of the chipped flints from Upper Miocene deposits near Aurillac (Cantal)? Sollas and Capitan have both recently answered in the affirmative. Capitan finds not only flint chips that suggest utilization but true types of instruments which would be considered as characteristic of certain Palaeolithic horizons. These not only occur but reoccur: punches, bulbed flakes, carefully retouched to form points and scrapers of the Mousterian type, disks with borders retouched in a regular manner, scratchers of various forms, and, finally, picks. He concludes that there is a complete similitude between many of the chipped flints from Cantal and the classic specimens from the best-known Palaeolithic sites.” William Sollas held the Chair of Geology at Oxford, and Louis Capitan, a highly respected French anthropologist, was professor at the College of France.

4.4 Discoveries By A. Rutot In Belgium (Oligocene)

From France, let us now proceed to Belgium, where A. Rutot, conservator of the Royal Museum of Natural History in Brussels, made a series of discoveries that brought the question of anomalous stone tool industries into new prominence during the early twentieth century. Most of the industries identified by Rutot dated to the Early Pleistocene. The oldest of his Pleistocene industries, the Reutelian, was named after the small village of Reutel, east of Ypres. Then came the Mafflian and Mesvinian, named after the villages of Maffle and Mesvin. Last in the series was the more highly developed Strepyan industry, named after the town of Strépy. Rutot regarded the Strepyan as marking the transition to the true Paleolithic industries of the later Pleistocene (Obermaier 1924, p. 8).

But in 1907, Rutot’s ongoing research resulted in much more startling finds, this time in the Oligocene, from 25 to 38 million years ago. Georg Schweinfurth gave an initial report in the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, using the term eolith in its broadest sense to describe the new finds. But on the basis of Rutot’s later published descriptions, we have classified the tools as crude paleoliths.

Schweinfurth (1907, pp. 958–959) stated: “The continuing search for eoliths in the high plateau of the Ardennes led to this discovery. . . . As Rutot searched a sand pit near Boncelles, 8 kilometers [5 miles] south from Lüttich, he found an eolith-bearing stone bed under the sands at a depth of 15 meters [49 feet]. The sand is generally regarded as Oligocene, but there were no fossils in it, and therefore the age of the bed is not certain. But in the course of further research Dr. Rutot found in another sand pit a well-developed marine fauna of the Late Oligocene, and at the bottom of this sand there was also a stone bed containing eoliths. Among them were choppers, anvil stones, knives, scrapers, borers, and throwing stones, all displaying clear signs of intentional work that produced forms exquisitely adapted for use by the human hand. Rutot has now brought together a complete series of these artifacts and is preparing for publication a comprehensive report, with illustrations, for the bulletin of the Geological Society of Belgium. On September 30, the fortunate discoverer had the pleasure to show the sites to

34 Belgian geologists and students of prehistory. They all agreed that there could be no doubt about the position of the finds.”

Schweinfurth (1907, p. 959) then reproduced this preliminary statement by Rutot about the geology of the Boncelles region: “On the plateau (between the Maas and Ourthe rivers) the primary stone was covered with flint-bearing chalk, and during the Eocene period the chalk was eroded away, leaving behind heaps of flint that later formed the flint beds. At the beginning of the Late Oligocene a marine intrusion covered the flint beds, depositing 15 meters [49 feet] of fossilbearing sands over them. Finally, during the Middle Pliocene, streams deposited an additional 3 meters [10 feet] of white quartz gravel (a formation now called the Kieselöolithe) along with beds of sand and clay. Then began the excavation of the present valleys.” Rutot believed that human beings manufactured the Boncelles eoliths before the Oligocene marine intrusion, when the land surface was a flint-heaped lowland bordering the sea.

Rutot’s complete report on the Boncelles finds appeared in the bulletin of the Belgian Society for Geology, Paleontology, and Hydrology and provided extensive verification of the preliminary reports cited above. Rutot (1907, p. 479) also supplied information that stone tools like those of Boncelles had been found in Oligocene contexts at Baraque Michel and the cavern at Bay Bonnet. At Rosart, on the left bank of the Meuse, stone tools had also been found in a Middle Pliocene context, thus making them as old as the eoliths of the Kent Plateau.

In his report on Boncelles, Rutot (1907, p. 442) stated that the initial discovery of implements had been made by E. de Munck, in a sand pit situated alongside the main roadway from Tilff to Boncelles, about 500 meters (1640 feet) from a crossroad at the place called “Les Gonhir.” In the very bottom of the sand pit, workmen had excavated a hole about half a meter (a foot and a half) deep in order to extract flint to be used as gravel for roadbeds. This enabled de Munck to gather from the matrix of clayey yellow sand many flint flakes showing signs of fine retouching and utilization (Rutot 1907, p. 442). “It was these implements, including a scraper with a clear bulb of percussion and nicely retouched sharp edge, which convinced me that at the place pointed out by de Munck there existed a deposit of Tertiary eoliths that deserved to be explored and studied,” said Rutot (1907, pp. 442– 443). A bulb of percussion indicates the scraper was intentionally flaked from a flint core for the purpose of tool manufacture, which, according to our conventions, places such an implement in the category of the crude paleoliths, rather than the eoliths.

Rutot and de Munck worked together at Boncelles, enlarging and deepening the original excavation. The flint bed was about 1 meter (3 feet) thick and rested on a Devonian sandstone base, surmounted by 15 meters (49 feet) of Oligocene marine sands and clays (Rutot 1907, p. 443). Rutot and de Munck recovered over a hundred specimens, which Rutot (1907, p. 444) said represented “numerous examples of all the various Eolithic types, that is to say percuteurs (choppers), enclumes (anvils), couteaux (cutters), racloirs (side scrapers), grattoirs (end scrapers), and perçoirs (awls).” Rutot (1907, p. 444) stated: “These tools display, in all their detailed features, the same characteristics as other well-known and authenticated Tertiary and Quaternary Eolithic industries.” Rutot called the industry the Fagnian, after the name of the region, Hautes-Fagnes.

Another pit 500 meters (1640 feet) to the northwest of the first also yielded tools. Furthermore, this site provided confirmation of the Oligocene dating of the flint bed bearing the tools. Whereas the first site did not furnish any fossils, the layers of sediment above the flint bed at the second site contained many shell imprints. About a dozen species were recognized (Rutot 1907, p. 444). It was obvious that the shells represented a typical Oligocene assemblage. The most common species was Cytherea beyrichi. Rutot (1907, p. 447) stated: “This shell is characteristic of the Late Oligocene of Germany, notably the beds at Sternberg, Bünde, and Kassel. . . . The other recognizable species (Cytherea incrassata, Petunculus obovatus, P. philippi, Cardium cingulatum, Isocardia subtransversa, Glycimeris augusta, etc.) are all found in the Late Oligocene.”

Rutot (1907, p. 448) concluded: “Therefore, the Eolithic industry found in the flint bed at the base of the Late Oligocene sands is at least Middle Oligocene in age.” The Oligocene ranges from 25 million years ago to 38 million years ago. Rutot’s interpretation of the stratigraphy at Boncelles is upheld by other authorities. Maurice Leriche (1922, p. 10) and Charles Pomerol (1982, p. 114) both characterize the sands of Boncelles as Chattian, or Late Oligocene.

“We are thus confronted with a grave problem, or rather a fact the importance of which one cannot escape,” wrote Rutot (1907, p. 448). Referring to the controversies regarding the discoveries of some of the tools we discussed earlier, Rutot (1907, p. 448) observed: “In fact, it is not without a certain repugnance that some have been obliged to accept, in recent times, the idea of the existence of intelligent beings who made and used tools in the Late Miocene. And it is almost with a sense of relief that some have been able to decrease the importance once

accorded to the site at Thenay, reported as Aquitanian [Early Miocene].”

“But now it appears,” said Rutot (1907, p. 448), “that the notion of the existence of humanity in the Oligocene, at a time more ancient than that represented by Thenay, has been affirmed with such force and precision that one cannot detect the slightest fault. This is something that offends our old ideas, which have barely become habituated to the simple conception of humans in the Quaternary. But little by little the reality of Pliocene man of the Kent Plateau has been affirmed and accepted, which has in turn permitted the introduction of the idea of humanity in the Late Miocene, contemporary with Mastodon, Hipparion, and Dryopithecus.” The Late Miocene discoveries are probably those of Ribeiro in Portugal and of Tardy and others at Aurillac, in France.

“Of course,” added Rutot (1907, p. 448), “passing abruptly from the Late Miocene to the Middle Oligocene may seem somewhat improbable; nevertheless it is proper to submit to the inevitable and accept the facts as they are, seeing that they are not susceptible to any different explanation.”

Figure 4.22. Plain chopper ( percuteur simple) from below the Late Oligocene sands at Boncelles, Belgium ( Rutot 1907, p. 452).

“Moreover,” continued Rutot (1907, pp. 448– 449), “hesitation is no longer possible after the discovery of an industry fashioned by recently living Tasmanians, which has been brought to our attention through the research conducted by Dr. F. Noetling. The bringing to light of this

industry is, as it were, providential, because it demonstrates quite positively that eoliths are a reality. The discovery shows that scarcely sixty years ago human beings were making and using implements that are, according to competent and impartial observers, absolutely of Eolithic type.” Perhaps the Tasmanians would still have been making such implements during Rutot’s time had they not been exterminated by European settlers in the middle of the nineteenth century.

Rutot then described in detail the various types of tools from the Oligocene of Boncelles, beginning with percuteurs (or choppers). “Concerning choppers,” said Rutot (1907, pp. 451–452), “there exist almost always several distincttypes, which are: plain choppers, sharpened choppers, pointed choppers, small choppers, and retouchers. Almost all of these are found at Boncelles. The plain chopper [Figure 4.22] is a pebble or block of stone that has been used to strike blows. Such choppers may or may not have retouching to facilitate gripping. These are rare at Boncelles, and the ones collected do not appear to have been used much. One notes on their surfaces relatively faint traces of the special and characteristic marks of percussion.”

Figure 4.23. Sharpened chopper ( percuteur tranchant). Rutot (1907, p. 452) noted use marks on the working edge.

The sharpened chopper (Figure 4.23) was the most abundant type. The simple chopper described above could have been used as a hammer stone to strike flakes from blocks of flint, and these flakes could then have been fashioned into sharpened choppers. But at Boncelles, according to Rutot, many natural flakes, were scattered over the land surface, so it was not necessary to produce them artificially. After some retouching to enable them to be comfortably gripped in the hand, they could immediately be put to use. In contrast to the plain chopper, the sharpened chopper is fit for varieties of practical work ( Rutot 1907, pp. 452–453).

“The sharpened choppers collected at Boncelles,” wrote Rutot (1907, pp. 452–453), “are as fine and characteristic as possible. Clearly evident is the fact that most of the flaking from usage is angled to the left, as always happens when an implement is gripped in the right hand. The opposite occurs when it is employed with the left hand.”

Figure 4.24. Small sharpened chopper (tranchet) from below the Late Oligocene sands at Boncelles, Belgium (Rutot 1907, p. 453). The sides show retouching to accommodate gripping by the hand, while the lower edge, said Rutot, shows use marks.

Figure 4.25. Pointed chopper ( percuteur pointu) also from Boncelles, Belgium. Rutot (1907, p. 454) said it shows signs of use on both ends.

The tranchet (Figure 4.24), according to Rutot, was a smaller version of the sharpened chopper. “The tranchet,” said Rutot (1907, pp. 453–454), “was certainly used for percussion, and the scratch marks of utilization on the edges are the same as those produced on the large sharpened choppers, though of much smaller size. It appears the tranchet rendered service analogous to that of a hatchet. This instrument is not rare at Boncelles, and we give an illustration of one. One notes on the vertical edges deliberate retouching, in the form of removal of sharp edges, for easy gripping, and on the lower horizontal edge one notes the irregular marks of utilization.”

Rutot (1907, p. 454) noted: “The Oligocene of Boncelles also has pointed choppers [Figure 4.25], that is to say, elongated pieces of flint with one or two of the ends having been used to strike blows. They display on the utilized ends a characteristic star-shaped pattern of flaking, which one can see very well.”

The final type of percuteur described by Rutot was the retoucher, which, as the name implies, is a small percussion implement used in the retouching of the edges of stone tools. He illustrated a retoucher (Figure 4.26) with very evident signs of use along the working edge (Rutot 1907, p. 454). Also found at the Boncelles sites were several anvil stones (Figure 4.27) characterized by a large flat surface showing definite signs of percussion (Rutot 1907, pp. 455– 456).

Figure 4.26. An Oligocene retoucher (retouchoir), with percussion marks on working edge (Rutot 1907, p. 454).

Rutot then described some implements he called couteaux, best translated as cutters. “One can see that couteaux are made from relatively long flakes of flint, blunt on one side and sharp on the other. The blunt side

generally retains the flint’s cortex. Prolonged usage of the blade turns the rectilinear edge into a sawlike edge, with small irregular teeth. This is caused by chipping of the edge when the blade is pressed against the irregularities of the surface of the object being cut. The cutters were not retouched. They were used for a

Figure 4.27. An Oligocene anvil (enclume) from the Boncelles, Belgium site showing signs of percussion around the circumference of the flat surface (Rutot 1907, p. 455).

Figure 4.28. Two views of a cutting implement (couteau) from below the Late Oligocene sands at Boncelles, Belgium (Rutot 1907, p. 456). The working edge shows use marks characteristic of cutting operations.

long time, until blunted by usage and polishing. It was rare that they were employed until completely unusable. At Boncelles one finds cutters [Figure 4.28] of a very characteristic type.” (Rutot 1907, p. 456).

Rutot then described the racloir, or side scraper. The racloir was ordinarily made from an oval flake, produced either naturally or by deliberate flaking, with one of the longitudinal edges blunt and the opposite edge sharp (Figure 4.29). After retouching for a suitable grip, the blunt edge was held in the palm of the hand, and the sharp edge of the implement was moved along the length of the object to be scraped. During this operation, series of small splinters were detached from the cutting edge of the implement, thus dulling it. Rutot (1907, p. 458) stated: “The characteristic feature of the racloir, used as such, is the presence along the working edge of a series of small chip marks, all arranged in the same direction and located on the same side. When the implement became unusable, it was possible to restore its edge with the retoucher stone, allowing it to be further used.”

Figure 4.29. Three views of a side scraper (racloir) found below the Late Oligocene sands at Boncelles, Belgium (Rutot 1907, p. 458).

“The special purpose of the retoucher,” said Rutot (1907, p. 458), “was the striking upon a implement’s working edge of a series of small regular blows in the same direction, detaching flakes from 2 millimeters to 5 millimeters [about 0.1 to 0.2 inch] in diameter. The juxtaposition of the flake scars restored the implement’s sharp edge.” According to Rutot, this type of retouching is, without a doubt, clearly distinguishable from the retouching performed for accommodation of the hand. Rutot (1907, p. 458) stated: “Retouching for accommodation of the hand involved hammering and blunting various sharp edges that were either harmful or not usable. But retouching for sharpening was performed to resharpen, by repeated blows in a single direction, an edge dulled by use. One is therefore able to recognize the two types of retouching.”

Figure 4.30. This tool was designated by Rutot as a notched side scraper (racloir à encoche). Scrapers of this type are commonly found in Late Pleistocene assemblages. This tool was recovered from below the Late Oligocene sands at Boncelles, Belgium (Rutot 1907, p. 458).

Figure 4.31. A double scraper (racloir double) from below the Late Oligocene sands at Boncelles, Belgium. Retouching of the two notches in the middle allowed it to be comfortably gripped. Marks of utilization are visible at the top and bottom (Rutot 1907, p. 459).

Rutot (1907, p. 458) pointed out that a good piece of flint can be resharpened several times. But he added “the accumulation of retouching rapidly broadens the original sharp angle of the edge, and when the angle surpasses 45 degrees, the edge offers such resistance that no retouching can be executed, and the implement, now irreparable, is discarded.”

Rutot (1907, p. 459) then described another type of racloir discovered at the Boncelles sites: “Frequently the working edge is not straight; it is finished by means of retouching into one or more concave notches, probably for the purpose of scraping long round objects. This is the notched racloir [Figure 4.30]. Some are made from natural flakes, others from flakes derived from deliberate percussion.”

At Boncelles, racloirs with two scraping edges, or double racloirs, were also found. About this type of implement Rutot (1907, pp. 459–460) said: “I have provided an illustration of an interesting example [Figure 4.31]. It could be held in the hand, between the thumb and forefinger, at the points nicely indicated by the two lateral notches; the other double racloirs, in the form of pointed flakes with two sharp edges, resemble the true ‘Mousterian points.’ Mostly they look, as is the case with the one shown in . . . [Figure 4.32], as if they were detached by percussion and show a pronounced bulb.”

Figure 4.32. This implement was taken from below the Late Oligocene sands at Boncelles, Belgium (Rutot 1907, p. 460). Rutot said it resembled a Mousterian point from the Late Pleistocene of Europe. The implement’s ventral surface (right) shows a bulb of percussion.

Mousterian implements are found in Late Pleistocene contexts of Europe. It is the resemblance of some of the flint implements discovered at the Boncelles, Belgium, site to Late Pleistocene implements that causes us to classify this industry among the crude paleoliths.Another specimen looking very much like a Mousterian point is shown in Figure 4.33.

Figure 4.33. A racloir from below the Late Oligocene sands at Boncelles, Belgium. Rutot (1907, p. 460) observed it looked very much like a Mousterian point from the Late Pleistocene of Europe.

Rutot also described a special category of tools, which he called mixed implements (Figure 4.34), because they looked as if they could have been employed in more than one fashion. Rutot (1907, p. 460) stated: “They tend to have on the sharp edge a point formed by the intersection of two straight edges, or more frequently, two notches, made by retouching. These implements might be said to resemble awls, but in general the point is too short or rounded. In fact, although the notches are the result of deliberate flaking and retouching, the point seems to be merely the incidental byproduct of the intersection of the two notches.”

Rutot (1907, p. 460) went on to say: “This type of implement, of quite singular form, is quite abundant in the old Eolithic period, very rare in the Paleolithic, and again quite abundant in the Neolithic, particularly in the Flensian assemblages. Good examples also appear among the tools of the modern Tasmanians.”

The next type of implement discussed by Rutot was the grattoir, another broad category of scraper. According to Rutot (1907, p. 462), the grattoir differed from the racloir in that “its working edge is employed longitudinally in relation to the direction of the force of application, whereas the racloir is held between the thumb and forefinger in such a manner to set the working edge transverse to the direction of the force. When being used, the working edges of the racloir and the grattoir are thus situated perpendicular to each other.” Rutot observed that in order to help the user direct and push the cutting edge of the grattoir, these implements in many cases had special notches to accommodate the thumb and forefinger (Figure 4.35b), this in addition to the usual removal of sharp edges to facilitate gripping. At the Boncelles site in Belgium, from strata dated to the Oligocene, there were unearthed a variety of grattoirs (Figure 4.35), including the especially large specimen shown in Figure 4.36.

Figure 4.34. This pointed flint implement was discovered in a stratigraphic position below the Late Oligocene sands at Boncelles, Belgium (Rutot 1907, p. 461). The ventral surface (right) of this tool shows a well-developed bulb of percussion with an eraillure. According to Rutot, this type of implement is common in Neolithic and modern assemblages.

Figure 4.35. End scrapers (grattoirs) from below the Late Oligocene sands at Boncelles, Belgium: (a) two views of a grattoir, the ventral surface of which (right) shows a bulb of percussion; (b) grattoir with curved indentations for gripping; (c) two views of a double grattoir, with the chipping on each of the two working edges confined to one side of the flake; (d) grattoir with finely retouched working edge (Rutot 1907, pp. 462– 464).

Figure 4.36. Large end scraper (grattoir) from below the Late Oligocene sands at Boncelles, Belgium (Rutot 1907, p. 463).

Rutot (1907, pp. 462, 464) noted: “In the case of grattoirs as well as racloirs, there are some that bear very well marked bulbs of percussion. I do not, however, consider these flakes to have been intentionally made for use as implements. I believe that the flakes with the bulb of percussion were detached involuntarily from the edges of anvils while they were being struck by hammer stones. These detached flakes were usable as tools just as were the sharp natural flakes found nearby. And they were in fact used like them, but they were not deliberately struck for this purpose.”

It is difficult, however, to comprehend how Rutot could tell what was going through the minds of his ancient toolmakers as they struck flakes and worked them into implements. Specifically, we wonder how Rutot could say with such certainty that the flakes made into implements were not deliberately struck for that purpose, especially the ones with bulbs of percussion. Here it may be recalled that the bulb of percussion is considered by many authorities, such as Leland W. Patterson (1983), to be a clear sign of intentional controlled flaking.

Rutot was probably attempting to fit the evidence before him within his own framework of evolutionary ideas. He apparently wanted to characterize the makers of the Oligocene industry of Boncelles as more primitive than the makers of industries at Pleistocene sites. But leaving aside Rutot’s evolutionary expectations, we can see no reason to rule out the possibility that some of the Boncelles specimens are tools intentionally made from flakes struck for specific purposes.

Rutot then described perçoirs, which might be called awls or borers. “These instruments, also called poinçons,” he stated, “are characterized by the presence of a sharp point, obtained by intentional modification of a natural flake that already has a somewhat pointed shape. This modified point is situated indifferently in regard to the axis of the instrument, sometimes in a position oblique to the axis” (Rutot 1907, p. 464). An instrument with an oblique point is shown in Figure 4.37, along with two awls with straight points.

Figure 4.37. Three awls ( perçoirs) from below the Late Oligocene sands at Boncelles, Belgium (Rutot 1907, p. 465).

According to Rutot (1907, pp. 464 – 465), the Boncelles toolmakers had two ways of modifying a naturally pointed flake to make an awl: “Sometimes the chipping on the two edges making the point was done on just one side of the flake. But sometimes one edge was chipped on the flake’s front side, and the other edge was chipped on the flake’s back side. This procedure is convenient because it allows all the blows to be struck in the same position and the same direction. In effect, when the first edge is chipped, one flips the implement and chips in the same place on the other edge to make a point.”

Figure 4.38. An awl discovered below the Late Oligocene sands at Boncelles, Belgium (Rutot 1907, p. 465). The chipping on one edge of the point is on the dorsal surface of the implement (left), while the chipping for the other edge of the point is on the ventral surface (right). According to Rutot, this pattern illustrates the use of a specific chipping technique that allowed the maker of the implement to chip one edge of the point, turn the implement over, and chip the other edge of the point from the same position and direction.

Rutot showed a find with this kind of chipping, unlikely to have occurred by random natural battering (Figure 4.38). Rutot remarked that the point obtained by this method of chipping can easily be broken and that, in fact, most of the specimens of awls recovered at Boncelles do have broken points.

Rutot also noted the presence at Boncelles of objects that appeared to be pierres de jet—throwing stones or sling stones. “Throwing stones,” observed Rutot (1907, p. 466), “are polyhedral pieces of stone that present an irregular combination of natural and artificial surfaces. They are somewhat rounded in shape and of small volume, appropriate for throwing violently with the hand or with a sling. Such a weapon would strike in such a manner as to produce not only shock from impact but also cutting from the rotation of the sharp edges of the projectile. The flint industry of Boncelles contains many such polyhedral stones that give every appearance of being throwing stones.”

Rutot concluded that flint objects with certain characteristics may very well have been used by the ancient inhabitants of Boncelles to make fire. “Not only in Eolithic series, but in Paleolithic and Neolithic assemblages,” stated Rutot (1907, p. 467), “one encounters pieces of flint which along one side bear traces of numerous and repeated violent blows, distributed in groups, each group presenting a series of blows arranged in the same direction. Furthermore, each distinct group has its traces of blows arranged in a direction different from that of the other groups.” These marks could be interpreted as the result of attempts to strike sparks from the pieces of flint. In French, flints used to ignite fire are called briquets.

According to Rutot, these peculiarly marked stones might superficially resemble other tool types such as anvils, racloirs, or grattoirs. But he pointed out that “they are different from these in the violence and the irregularity of the blows inflicted upon them and also by the presence of the flint cortex on the surface marked by the blows, which eliminates any supposition that these are actual cutting implements” (Rutot 1907, p. 467). The working edges of implements are almost always free of cortex.

Regarding his hypothesis that the pieces of flint in question might have been used for making fire, Rutot (1907, p. 467) mentioned in a footnote: “The same idea has been nicely expressed by E. Lartet and Christy in Reliquiae aquitanicae, pages 85–86 and also pages 138–140. One sees that some Mousterian specimens are represented as briquets for making fire, and the very interesting explanation is given that the fire was obtained not only by friction of flint and pyrite but by flint against flint. A note calls attention to the fact that in England, in Norfolk and Suffolk, up until a century ago, people used the friction of two flints to obtain fire. Dried moss was used as the combustible substance while one rapidly moved two pieces of flint together.”

All in all, Rutot believed the present-day implements that the objects in question most singularly resembled were briquets, flints used for making fire.

Rutot (1907, pp. 467– 478) wrote: “One could respond that it is a bit rash to think that the primitive humans of Boncelles made fire; nevertheless, I have some reasons to think that they did have knowledge of the usage of fire, but the moment has not come to introduce them. In any case, the humans of Mesvin and Reutel did know how to make fire, and we encounter in the debris of their industries stones that look like briquets. At Boncelles, stones of the exact same type are found, and these also appear to have been used as briquets. We therefore believe it is useful to point out, with some reserve, and by means of comparison, that the stones with special signs of usage and flaking at Boncelles could in fact be either briquets or pierres à feu (fire stones).”

Rutot (1907, p. 468) then stated: “So we have now conducted our review of the variegated industry of the intelligent beings of the Oligocene, and we are justifiably astonished at their expertise, given the vast duration of time that has elapsed since they were present. On the other hand, when we examine the industry of the recent Tasmanians, which has been brought to light by the research of Dr. Noetling, then we are no less justifiably astonished to see its extraordinarily primitive and rudimentary character. So the truth, after direct comparison, is that the two industries are exactly the same [Figure 4.39] and that the Tasmanians, now annihilated, but still in existence just sixty years ago, were at the same level of culture as the very primitive inhabitants of Boncelles and the Hautes Fagnes.” Only the materials from which the Tasmanian tools were made were different— quartzite, diabase, granite, and similar types of rock rather than flint.

Figure 4.39. Implements manufactured by native Tasmanians in recent historical times (Rutot 1907, pp. 470 – 477). Rutot said they resembled almost exactly the tools from the Oligocene period at Boncelles, Belgium. (a) Side scraper (racloir), compare Figure 4.33. (b) Pointed implement (perçoir), compare Figure 4.34. (c) Anvil (enclume), compare Figure 4.27. (d) Stone knife (couteau), compare Figure 4.28. (e) Double end scraper (grattoir double), compare Figure 4.35c. (f) Awl (perçoir), compare Figure 4.37. (g) End scraper (grattoir), compare Figure 4.36.

At some Tasmanian campsites, noted Rutot, Klaatsch found vast numbers of stone implements, attributing this accumulation to the long period of habitation. Rutot pointed out that some opponents of anomalously old early stone industries had traditionally used the very large numbers of specimens recovered at various sites as an argument against their being the product of human industry. Rutot (1907, p. 482) believed that Klaatsch’s observations proved this objection invalid.

Rutot (1907, pp. 480–481) then clearly framed the essential question posed by his discoveries: “When we take into consideration the analogies, or rather the identities, between the Oligocene eoliths of Boncelles and the modern eoliths of the Tasmanians, we find ourselves confronted with a grave problem—the existence in the Oligocene of beings intelligent enough to manufacture and use definite and variegated types of implements. Who was the intelligent being? Was it merely a precursor of the human kind, or was it already human? This is a grave problem—an idea that cannot but astonish us and attract the attention and the interest of all those who make the science of humanity the object of their study and meditation” (Rutot 1907, pp. 480–481).

It might be a shock to many persons with scientific training that a statement like this could have appeared in a scientific journal in the twentieth century. Today mainstream scientists do not give any consideration at all to the possibility of a human—or even protohuman—presence in the Oligocene. We believe there are two reasons for this—unfamiliarity with evidence such as Rutot’s and unquestioning faith in currently held views on human origin and antiquity.

4.5 Discoveries By Freudenberg Near Antwerp ( Early Pliocene to Late Miocene)

In addition to being the site of Rutot’s finds in Oligocene strata, Belgium was also the site of another intriguing series of discoveries. In February and March of 1918, Wilhelm Freudenberg, a geologist attached to the German army, was conducting test borings for military purposes in Tertiary formations west of Antwerp. In clay pits at Hol, near St. Gillis, and at other locations, Freudenberg discovered flint objects he believed to be implements, along with cut bones and shells.

Most of the objects came from sedimentary deposits of the Scaldisian marine stage, which Freudenberg (1919, p. 2) regarded as Middle Pliocene. But according to modern authorities, the Scaldisian spans the Early Pliocene and Late Miocene (Klein 1973, table 6; Savage and Russell 1983, p. 294). The Scaldisian is thus dated at 4–7 million years (Klein 1973, table 6). Freudenberg (1919, p. 9) suggested that the objects he discovered may have dated to the period just before the Scaldisian marine transgression, which, if true, would give them an age of

7 million years or more.

4.5.1 Flint Implements

Freudenberg believed some of the flint implements he found had been used to open shells. One such implement (Figure 4.40) came from a cavity in the top part of the Scaldisian formation at Koefering, where it was found along with broken shells (Freudenberg 1919, p. 18).

Figure 4.40. This object, characterized by W. Freudenberg (1919, p. 16) as an implement for opening shells, was discovered in a Scaldisian formation (4–7 million years b.p.) at Koefering, near Antwerp, Belgium. The left end of the specimen object appears to be the working edge.

In describing a second shell-opening tool (Figure 4.41), Freudenberg (1919, p. 20) stated: “It comes from the Scaldisian sands of Mosselbank and was found together with many Pliocene molluscs in excavations for fortifications on the outskirts of Antwerp. It is a typical hook-shaped shell opener, found among broken Pliocene shells, especially the broken shells of Cyprina tumida. The shell heap appears to have been a Tertiary kitchen midden. The length of the shell opener is 9 centimeters [3.5 inches], when one includes the missing end section.” In addition, Freudenberg uncovered some burned flints, which he considered to be evidence that intelligent beings had used fire during the Tertiary in Belgium.

Figure 4.41. A implement for opening shells, from a Scaldisian formation at Mosselbank, near Antwerp, Belgium (Freudenberg 1919, p. 16). Along with the implement, which could be from Early Pliocene to Late Miocene in age, many broken shells were found.