Eoliths of a late Prehistoric Date

Abstract

The question of the artificial or natural origin of the flaking of the Harrisonian Eoliths of tabular form has been debated for many years. The problem is of considerable importance because Eoliths of this type have been found not only in deposits on the high plateau of Kent and in the Pliocene Bone Bed beneath the Red Crag of Suffolk but also in the Upper Miocene gravel at Aurillac, in the Cantal, France. Thus, if these specimens are flaked artificially, it means that intelligent beings were on this earth in very remote pre-Pleistocene times. As is known, certain investigators reject the idea that the Harrisonian Eoliths are intentionally flaked, and claim that they were fractured as the result of natural percussion or pressure. Other observers take the opposite view and not only believe these flints to have been intentionally flaked, but regard such an Eolithic stage as a fundamental necessity in the evolution of flint implements. From time to time the discoveries of isolated implements of Eolithic type have been made in Palaeolithic and later deposits, thus demonstrating the survival of these primitive forms long into Eolithic times.