Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-01-26
MOST ANCIENT MAN.
Flint Instruments Made Before the
Glacial Period of Europe,

Flint Instruments Made Before the
Glacial Period of Europe.
The new discovery in regard to an
cient man (of which am able to speak
with full confidence. since have stud
led the specimens and the localities
myself and have just sent an illustrat-
ed account of the implements to the
Royal society is that Of flint imple-
ments of very definite and peculiar
shape, in some abundance, in a bed at
Pliocene deposit (that is. before the
Pleistocene), namely, the Red Crag"
Of Suffolk. We owe this most import
ant discovery entirely to ]. Reid Moir
of Ipswich. who found the first speci-
mems in October, 1909. and after
years careful examination Of the dis
trict and the finding of more specimens
in crag pits ten miles and more around
Ipswich. announced 1t in a letter to
the Times in October, 1910. Now that
another year has passed, more specl-
mems have been found and 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 cer-
tainly the undisputed basement bed
of the Red Crag, so that they may be
justly spoken OF as due to the work Of
pre- Crag men.
The implements are not at all like
those previously known. They are not
elongated, triangular or leaf-shapeD,
as are the large Paleollthic implements
(the Challean, Acheuillan and Nous
tierian) hitherto known. But they are
shaped like the beak of an eagle, COM
pressed from side to side with its keel
or ridge extending from the front point
backward. Their shape may be COM
pared to the hull Of 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 fat.
These implements are In fact, beak-
ed hammer heads-probably used in
the hand without hafting-and ap-
piled to the smoothing and dressing"
of skins, as we'll as other purposes.
Some are more symmetrical and care
fully trimmed" than others. With
these, which I call eagles beak i'm
plements," or the "rostro-carinate
type" are found a few other large
and heavy sculptured flints of very
curious shape (like picks and axes)
unlike any hitherto known. but GER
tainly and without the least doubt
chipped into shape by man.
The flint implements-our eagles
beaks made by men in the relatively
warm Coralline Crag days-were ac-
tually carried off the land by an ice
sheet and deposited In the earliest
layers OF the Red Crag deposit. The
irrefragable proof Of this is that very
many Of the eagles beak fints are
scratched and scored on their smooth
surfaces by those peculiar cross-run-
ming grooves which we find on a peb-
BILE from a glaciers "moraine" or stone
heap. Nothing but the immense pres
sure Of stones imbedded in one sheet
Of ice, rasping by slow movement other
stones imbedded In another sheet Of
ice, over which the first very slowly
advances, can produce these mark
ings.
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, over
lying which are vast marine deposits
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, and 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
we'll as English archaeologists and ge-
ologists.-London Times.