The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1912-01-12
MOST ANCIENT OF MEN.
RECENT DISCOVERIES IN ENG
LAND ARE INTERESTING
Flint implements Made Before the
Glacial Period Of Europe Are
Found by an Eminent Archae-
oIooist in Suffolk.

The new discovery in regard to an
cdent man (of which I am able to
speak with hull confidence since I
have studied the specimens and the
localities myself. and have just sent
an illustrated account of the imple-
ment to the Royal society is that OF
flint implements of very definite and
peculiar shape. in some abundance,
in a bed at the base Of what geolo-
gists class as a Pliocene deposit chat
is. before the ~Pleistocene), namely.
the Red Crag" OF Suffolk. We owe
this most important discovery entire
ly to Mr.. J. Reid Moir of Ipswich, who
found his first specimens in October,
1903, and after a years careful exam1-
nation Of the district and the finding
Of more specimens in crag pits ten
miles and more around Ipswich, an
nounced 1t in a letter to the Times in
October, 1910. Now that another
yea has passed more specimens have
been found and the matter is beyond
dispute.
Two distinguished biologists, past
presidents of the Geological society.
have certified hat the bed in which
MI. Motr's flints are obtained is GER
tinly the undisturbed basement bed
Of the Red Crag, 10 that they may
be justly spoken of as due to the work
Of pre-crag man.
The implements are not at all like
those previously known. They are not
fattened, almond-shaped, or kite-like
elongated, triangular or leaf-shaped).
as are the large Paleolithic imple-
ment (the Chellean, Acheuilian and
Moustierian) hitherto known. But
they are shaped like the beak OF an
eagle, compressed from side to side
with a keel or ridge extending from
the front point backward. Their shape
nay be compared to the hull of a
boat with its keel turned upward and
its beak-like Prov in front. : They are
from four to ten inches in length, and
all have been fabricated by a few
well-directed blows given to an oblong
piece Of flint so as to knock off great
pieces right and left, leaving a keel
in the midline, while the lower face is
trimmed fiat.
These implements are in fact,
beaked hammer heads-probably used
In the hand without hafting-and ap-
piled to the smoothing and dressing"
of skins. as well as other purposes.
Some are more symmetrical and care
fully trimmed" than others. With
these, which I call "eagle's beak i'm
plements," OF the "rostro-cartnate
type" are found a few other large
and heavy sculptured flints of very Gu
rious shape Qike picks and axes) un-
like any hitherto known, but certain
ly and without the least doubt Clipped
into shape by a
The flint implements-our eagles
beaks made by men in the relatively
warm Coralline 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
ir~refragable proof of this is that very
many of the eagles beak fints are
scratched and scored on their smooth
by those peculiar cross-run-
ninglgroo grooves w9aaa ,SRa IND on a kRee
BILE froHnlsfacier's "moraine." OF
stone heap. Nothing but h immense
pressure of the stones embedded in
che sheet of ice, rasping by slow
movement other stones embedded in
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 glacial
condition of North Europe. A great
question, difficult Of decision, is
whether the earliest river gravels
which we know in England and
France were as early as the Red Crag.
everything which are vast marine de-
posts Of glacial sands and clays. In
any case Mr.. Moir's flint implements
are pre-Crag; they were made before
the glacial conditions set in, n are
quite unlike those found in the river
gravels. The discovery is one which
will profoundly interest the "pre-his-
torians" of France and Germany, as
well as English archaeologists and ge-
ologists.-LOndOn Times.