The Cairo bulletin., 1912-04-15
MOST ANCIENT or MEN
RECENT DISCOVERIES IN ENG
LAND APE INTERESTING.
Flint implements Made Before the
C!acis Period OF Europe Are
Found by an Eminent Archae-
ologist in Sufink.


ologist in Suffolk,
The new discovery in regard to an
Gent man tof which | am able to
speak with fun confidence since II
have studied the specimens and the
localities myself. and have just sent
ali illustrated account of the iiaple-
mGnt TO the Royal society is that of
flint implements of very definite and
peculiar shape, in some abundance,
IN 4 bed at this base of what geolo
gists cl~ss as d Pltocene deposit chat
the "kcd Crag" of Suffolk. We owe
tl!s most important discovery entire
ID IL Mn. J. Reid Muir OF Ipswich, who
found his first specimens In October.
1903. and after Il years careful eXami-
nation OF the district and the finding
Of moie specimens in cras pits ten
miles and more around Ipswich, an
nuunced it Ia letter to the Times in
October, 1910. Now that another
year; has passed more specimens have
been found ana the matter Is beyond
dispute.
Two distinguished biologists, past
presidents of the Geological society,
have certified that the bed in which
Mr. Moir's fiints are obtained is GER
tinly the undisturbed basement bed
of the Red Crag. SO that they may
I be Justly spoken of as due to the work
! of pTecrag man.
The implements are not at all like
those previously known. They are not
, tlatttnod, almoldshaped, ~ ktte-like
| elongated, triangular or leGf-shaped).
as are the large Paleolithic nipple
meut Che CAGliean, Acheuilian and
Moustierian) hitherto known, But
they are shaped like the beak OF an
eagle. compressed from side to side
with keel or ridge extending from
the front point backward, Their shape
may be compared to the hull of a
boat with its keel turned upward and
its beak-like prov in front They are
from four 10 ten inches III length, and
all have been fabricated by few
Nell-directed blows given to an oblong
piece OF flint so as to knock off great
pieces right and left, leaving a keel
In the m.dline, while the lower face il
trimmed fa,.
These implements are, III fact,
beaked hammer heads probably used
In the hand without haftlng-and APP
piled to tho smoothing and dressing"
Of skins, az we'll as other purposes.
Some are more symmetrical and care
fully trimmed" than others With
these, which | call eagles beak i'm
plementsR or the "rostro-carinate
type" are found a few other large
and heavy scuiptured flints Of very Gu
rious shape like picks and axesl un
like any hitherto known, but certain.
ly and without the least doubt Clipped
into shape by man.
The flint tmplements--our eagles
beaks made by men in the relatively
warm Corslline Crag days-were actu
; ally carried off the land by an ice
+ sheet and deposited in the earliest
layers Of the Red Crag deposit. The
, trrefragable proof Of this is that very
many OF the eagles beak flints are
scratched and scored on their smooth
surfaces By those peculiar cross-run
!, ming grooves which we find on a peb
: bic from glaciers "morafne," oil
stone heap. Nothing but the immense
! pressure Of the stones embedded in
one sheet Of ice. rasping by slow
! movement other stones embedded in
5 another sheet of ice over which the
first very slowly advances, can pro
} duce these markings.
The Red Crag marks the beginning
of the Pleistocene and of the glacia
condition OF North Europe. A great
, question, difficult of decision, II
. whether the earliest river gravel;
which we know In England ant
France were as early as the Red Crag
everything which are vast marine de
a posits Of glacial sands and clays. Ir
any case Mr. Moir's flint Implements
are pre-Crag: they were made before
, the glacial conditions set in, and are
quite unlike those found in the rive
gravels, The discovery is one which
will profoundly interest the "pre-his
torians" of France and Germany, al
we'll az English archaeologists and ge
ologists.--London Times.