John Evans

“ The fact is, that wherever flint is used as a material from which implements are fashioned, many of the flakes or splinters arising from the chipping of the flint, are certain to present sharp points or cutting edges, which by a race of men living principally by the chase are equally certain to be regarded as fitting points for their darts or arrows, or as useful for cutting purposes; they are so readily formed, and are so well adapted for such uses without any further fashioning, that they have been employed in all ages just as struck from off the flint. ”

“ In point of workmanship, I think it will be perceived that the weapons or implements now under consideration differ considerably from those of the so-called Stone period: of these latter, by far the greater number (with the exception of arrow heads) are more or less ground, and even polished; some with the utmost care all over, but nearly all ground sufficiently to ensure a clean cutting edge. The implements from the drift are, on the contrary so far as has been hitherto observed, never ground, but their edges left in the rough state in which they have been chipped from the flint. ”

“ In the cultivated soil and made ground above, and at much less depth from the surface, ground and polished instruments, evidently belonging to the so-called Stone period, have indeed been found; but this again only tends to prove that the shaped flints discovered at a much greater depth belonged to some other race of men, and inasmuch as they certainly are not the work of a subsequent people, we have here again a testimony that they must be referred to some antecedent race, which had perished perhaps ages before the Celtic occupation of the country. ”

“ If we are compelled to leave the mammalian remains out of the question, it seems to me by no means easy, in the present state of our knowledge, to assign even an approximate age to these deposits. Ranging as they do all the way up the slopes of the valley of the Somme near Amiens and Abbeville, there is great difficulty in arriving at any exact conception of the conditions under which they were formed, far more so of the period of their formation. ”

“ It appears to me, moreover, very doubtful, in point of fact, whether human bones have not been really found associated with those of the extinct mammalia, more especially in cave-deposits. At all events it is a negative very difficult to prove. But, assuming the fact to be as stated, are there not reasons why it is probable that human remains should be of extremely rare occurrence, if not entirely absent, in such drifts as those of the valley of the Somme and at Hoxne? ”

“ The question of the contemporaneous existence of man with the mammoth and other animals of the same age is of great importance, as the best if not the only means of fixing some approximate date to these flint implements, though from the nature of all geological evidence, and the possibility of the same results upon the earth's surface being attained in a greater or less period of time according to the greater or less energy of the agent producing them, any estimate of their age will always be liable to objections. ”

“ But if the co-existence of man with this now extinct fauna be proved, then the basis of induction is enormously extended for arriving at some estimate of the antiquity of man : for the condition and probable age of drift-beds containing the mammalian remains alone, and unassociated with human relics, will then fairly enter as elements into the calculation. ”

“ The antiquary, as well as the geologist, has "from a few detached facts to fill up a living picture; so to identify himself with the past as to describe and follow, as though an eye-witness, the changes which have at various periods taken place upon the earth." ”

“ But beyond the limited circle of those peculiarly interested in geology or archæology, this discovery will claim the especial attention of all who, whether on ethnological, philological, or theological grounds, are interested in the great question of the antiquity of man upon the earth. ”

“ In any case, as it is but reasonable to suppose the drift deposits on the higher slopes of the valley to be at least coeval with those at the bottom, even if not of greater antiquity, the mammalian remains of the lower deposits become of extreme importance, as a means of ascertaining the age of those at a higher level, from which precisely similar remains may be absent. ”

“ But though probably the work of man, and though closely resembling the flakes of flint which have been considered as affording evidence of man's existence when found in ossiferous caverns, this class of implements is not of much importance in the present branch of our inquiry ; because, granting them to be of human work and not the result of accident, there is little by which to distinguish them from similar implements of more recent date. ”

“ An argument may be derived in favour of the majority of these arrow-head-shaped flakes having been designedly made, not only from their similarity in form one to another, but also because the existence of more carefully fashioned flint implements almost necessarily implies the formation and use of these simpler weapons by the same race of men who were skilful enough to chip out the more difficult forms. ”

“ I need hardly say that drift is the term applied by geologists to those superficial deposits of sands, gravels, clays, and loams which we find to have been spread out over the older rocks in many districts by the driving action of currents of water, whether salt or fresh, or by the drifting action of ice. ”

“ My present object is to induce those who have an opportunity of examining beds of drift in which mammalian remains have been found, to do so with a view of finding also flint implements in them "shaped by art and man's device."
That instruments so rude should frequently have escaped observation cannot be a matter of surprise, especially when we consider that those educated persons who have been in the habit of examining drift deposits have been more on the alert for organic remains than for relics of human workmanship ”

“ Nothing could be stronger than M. de Perthes' verbal assurances to Mr. Prestwich and myself of the finding of these implements in undisturbed gravels and sands, and occasionally clay, sometimes at depths of from twenty feet to thirty feet below the surface, and usually in beds at but a slight distance above the chalk. The testimony of other French geologists and antiquaries may also be adduced both as to the geological character of the beds and the fact of the flint implements being incorporated in them. ”

“ The fossil bones are of comparatively rare occurrence in the gravel pits, but the number of the flint implements that has been found is almost beyond belief. Dr. Rigollot states that in the pits of St. Acheul, between August and December 1854, above four hundred specimens were obtained; and now, whenever the gravel is being extensively dug, hardly a day passes without one or two being found. This very abundance, for which however it is difficult to account, affords a secondary proof of the undisturbed nature of the drift ”

“ Along the banks of the Thames, the eastern coast of England, the coast of western Sussex, the valleys of the Avon, Severn and Ouse, and of many other rivers, in fact in nearly every part of England, have remains of the Elephas primigenius and its contemporaries been found. Almost every one must be acquainted with some such locality: there let him search also for flint implements such as these I have described, and assist in determining the important question of their date. A new field is opened for antiquarian research, and those who work in it will doubtless find their labours amply repaid. ”

“ Under any circumstances this great fact remains indisputable, that at Amiens land which is now one hundred and sixty feet above the sea, and ninety feet above the Somme, has since the existence of man been submerged under fresh water, and an aqueous deposit from twenty to thirty feet in thickness, a portion of which at all events must have subsided from tranquil water, has been formed upon it ”

“ The very simplicity of their form will, however, prevent those fabricated at the earliest period from being distinguishable from those made at the present day, provided no change has taken place in the surface of the flint by long exposure to some chemical influence. As also they are produced most frequently by a single blow, it is at all times difficult, among a mass of flints, to distinguish those flakes formed accidentally by natural causes, from those which have been made by the hand of man ”

“ When once their degree of antiquity has been satisfactorily proved, it will be a matter for further investigation whether there are not other traces to be found of the race of men who fashioned these implements, besides the implements themselves. ”

“ The material of which they have been formed, flint derived from the chalk, is the same as has been employed for the manufacture of cutting implements by uncivilized man in all ages, in countries where flint is to be found. ”

“ Thus much appears to be established beyond a doubt; that in a period of antiquity, remote beyond any of which we have hitherto found traces, this portion of the globe was peopled by man; and that mankind has here witnessed some of those geological changes by which these so-called diluvial beds were deposited. ”

“ The mammalian remains found in them are probably mainly those of animals whose dead bodies had been reduced to skeletons, and were lying on the face of the earth before being carried off by the water, whether of an overwhelming cataclysm, or the torrent of a flooded river, and not simply those of animals drowned by its action. ”

“ These objects in flint closely resemble the obsidian knives from Mexico, and the flint knives or flakes so frequently found in all parts of the world ; and it is to be remarked that, though they were in considerable abundance in the breccia, any amorphous fragments of flint were comparatively rare, and no pebbles or blocks occurred either within or without the cave; so that there could be but little doubt of the flint flakes being of human workmanship. [7]
The question of the co-existence of man with the extinct animals of the Drift period being thus revived, Mr. ”

“ One of the pits occupies the site of a Gallo-Roman cemetery, which appears to have continued in use for some centuries: large stone coffins, and the iron cramps of those in wood, are of frequent occurrence, hut personal ornaments are rarely met with. ”

“ That they really are implements fashioned by the hand of man, a single glance at a collection of them placed side by side, so as to show the analogy of form of the various specimens, would, I think, be sufficient to convince even the most sceptical. ”