72. Palæolithic Flint Implements
The most important line of evidence as to the gradual development of civilization through the six periods of the Old Stone Age is the series of flint tools. Hundreds of thousands of these tools have been discovered in western, central, and southern Europe—perhaps millions. At St. Acheul were found 20,000 Chellean coups-de-poing; at Solutré, below the Solutrean layer, 35,000 Mousterian-Aurignacian worked flints besides the remains of 100,000 horses; at Grimaldi in Italy, in the Grotte du Prince, 20,000 Mousterian pieces; at Schweizersbild in Switzerland, 14,000 late Magdalenian implements, and at Kesslerloch, near by, 30,000 from the late Solutrean and Magdalenian; at Hundsteig in Austria, 20,000 Aurignacian flints; at Predmost in Czecho-Slovakia, 25,000 probably of Solutrean age. Stations of such richness are not particularly rare, and the stations are numerous. In France alone 500 Magdalenian stations have been determined.
Clear stratigraphic relations have also been observed again and again. A few examples are:
Castillo Cave, Santander, Spain, implement bearing layers separated by strata of sterile natural debris: 1, Acheulean; 2, 3, 4, early, middle, and late Mousterian; 5, early Aurignacian; 6, 7, 8, late Aurignacian; 9, Solutrean; 10, 11, early and late Magdalenian; 12, Azilian; 13, Copper.
At St. Acheul: 1, limestone; 2, gravel, early Chellean; 3, sand, late Chellean; 4, loam, early Acheulean; 5, flood sand; 6, loess; 7, late Acheulean; 8, pebbles, Mousterian; 9, loess; 10, Upper Palæolithic.
At Mas d’Azil, at the foot of the Pyrenees: 1, gravelly soil; 2, middle Magdalenian; 3, flood loam; 4, upper Magdalenian; 5, flood loam; 6, Azilian; 7, early Neolithic; 8, full Neolithic and Bronze; 9, Iron.
At Ofnet cave, Bavaria: 1, rocks; 2, sand, 65 cm. deep; 3, 4, Aurignacian, 20 cm.; 5, Solutrean, 20 cm.; 6, Magdalenian, 15-20 cm.; 7, Azilian, with two nests of skulls, 5 cm.; 8, Neolithic, 53 cm.; 9, Bronze and Iron, 32 cm.
At La Ferrassie cave: 1, rocks and sand, 40 cm. deep; 2, Acheulean, 50 cm.; 3, Mousterian, with skeleton, 50 cm.; 4, early Aurignacian, 20 cm.; 5, middle Aurignacian, 50 cm.; 6, rock fragments, 35 cm.; 7, late Aurignacian, 35 cm.; rock and soil, 120 cm.
At first inspection Palæolithic relics seem scarcely distinguishable. They are all of flint, chert, or similar stone; are all chipped and therefore more or less rough, and consist of forms meant for cutting, scraping, and piercing. But a closer examination reveals differences in their shapes and fundamental differences in the method of their manufacture. The technique employed in the fashioning of artifacts is more significant than their appearance, and it is by directing attention to the process that one can classify these “fossils of civilization” with accuracy.
Chellean.—In the Chellean period there was made substantially one type of implement, a sort of rude pick, almond or wedge shaped. It is often somewhat pointed, although rarely very sharp. The butt end may be rounded, some of the original surface of the cobble or nodule of flint being left for convenience of the hand in grasping the implement ([Fig. 18], a). This tool is known as the “Chellean pick.” The Germans often call it faust-keil or “fist wedge” and the French have coined the expressive epithet coup-de-poing or “blow of the fist.” The Chellean pick averages from four to six inches in length, somewhat less in breadth, and weighs perhaps from a quarter to a full pound. It would have made an effective rude weapon. When firmly grasped and well directed, it could easily crush a skull. It might serve to split wood, hack limbs from trees, butcher large game, and perhaps roughly dress hides. It would not do any one of these things with neatness and accuracy, but neatness and accuracy were qualities to which early Palæolithic men paid little attention. This universal Chellean tool may be described as a combined knife, saw, ax, scraper, and pick, performing the various functions of these implements with notable crudities but efficiently enough when wielded with muscular strength.