History, Ancient; Human beings -- Origin; Prehistoric peoples
The supposed chipped flints are said to appear sparingly in the upper
deposits, disappear in the Calcaire de Beauce, and reappear, at
first sparingly and then plentifully, in the lacustrian marls below
the limestone. They are by far the most numerous in a thin layer of
greenish-yellow clay, No. 3 of section, below which they rapidly
disappear. There can be no question therefore that if the flints
really came from the alleged deposits, and really show the work of
human hands, the savages by whom they were chipped must have lived
on the shores or sand-banks of this Miocene lake. As regards the
geological question, it is right to observe that Professor Prestwich,
who visited the section a good many years ago in company with the
Abbé Bourgeois, and who is one of the highest authorities on this
class of questions, remained unconvinced that the flints shown him
really came from the alleged strata below the Calcaire de Beauce, and
thought that the specimens which appeared to show human manufacture
might have come from the surface, and become intermixed with the
natural flints of the lower strata.
The geological horizon, however, seems to have been generally
accepted by French and Continental geologists, especially by the
latest authorities, and the doubts which have been expressed have
turned mainly on the proof of human design shown by the implements.
This is a question which must be decided by the authority of experts,
for it requires special experience to be able to distinguish between
accidental fractures and human design, in implements of the extremely
rude type of the earlier formations. The test is mainly afforded
by the nature of the chipping. If it consists of a number of small
chips, all in the same direction, with the result of bringing one
face or side into a definite form, adapted for some special use,
the inference is strong that the chips were the work of design. 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 striæ 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, though they may be
sharper. But above all, the surest test is afforded by a comparison
with other implements of later dates, or even of existing savages,
which are beyond all doubts products of human manufacture.
Tried by these tests, the evidence stands as follows--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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