They are figured in the British Museum Handbook to the Stone Age, on p. 110, Fig. 132.
They are beautifully made, and show extraordinary keen sight in those who made them—frequently one side only shows secondary working, and the chipping is so finely done that often twenty and thirty different chips have been made on a fine thin edge of flint in the length of half an inch.
The question has been asked, how may we know Pygmy Flints are the work of mankind? Practically by the same method that we know other flint or stone implements are the handiwork of man. Examine these Pygmy Flints closely, and you will be able to trace—
- 1. The Bulb of Percussion, showing where the blow was struck to separate the flake from the flint nodule.
- 2. The Conchoidal Fracture running down the length of the flint.
- 3. The Dorsal Ridges on the back of the flint.
- 4. The Secondary Working along one edge.
- 5. The Patina or Skin, the result of weathering or exposure.
These distinct characteristics prove these flints are no haphazard flakings from a flint core.
When you can pick up these Pygmy Flints, and show all these peculiarities, you are able to convince reasonable men that they are the work of a race of people, who, with keen vision and clever handiwork, were able to make tools which have outlived their own age and race by many thousands of years.
Similarity in Design
One point of great interest in these widely scattered Pygmy Flints is the great similarity in design. So much is this similarity carried out that, if you place a Scunthorpe specimen beside one found on the Vindhya Hills in India, it is almost impossible to say which is from the one place and which is from the other.
This similarity in design has led many specialists to think that the Pygmy Flints of Scunthorpe are the work of a migrating people, who passed over from India through Asia and Europe to Britain. Amongst those who accept this theory are Dr. Gatty and Vincent A. Smith, M.A., of the Indian Civil Service, one of the greatest specialists we have on this subject.