The early story of mankind is
gathered, not so much from the few fragments of human remains we
have, but from the stone implements which were shaped by his
primitive intelligence and remain, almost imperishable, in the
soil over which he wandered. The more primitive man was, the more
ambiguous would be the traces of his shaping of these stone
implements, and the earliest specimens are bound to be a matter
of controversy. It is claimed by many distinguished authorities
that flints slightly touched by the hand of man, or at least used
as implements by man, are found in abundance in England, France,
and Germany, and belong to the Pliocene period. Continental
authorities even refer some of them to the Miocene and the last
part of the Oligocene.
The question whether an implement-using animal, which nearly all
would agree to regard as in some degree human, wandered over what
is now the South of England (Kent, Essex, Dorsetshire, etc.) as
many hundred thousand years ago as this claim would imply, is
certainly one of great interest. But there would be little use in
discussing here the question of the "Eoliths," as these disputed
implements are called.
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