[1] For the occurrence of Acheulean and Chellean implements in caves, v. page 98.
[2] Schmidt, 1909.
[3] Commont, 1908.
[4] Obermaier and Bayer, 1909.
The next subject of enquiry is therefore that of the antiquity of Man as indicated by the occurrence of his artefacts.
The succession of Palaeolithic implements has just been given and discussed, as far back as the period marked by the Chellean implements of the lower river gravels (not necessarily the lower terrace) of S. Acheul. For up to this point the testimony of human remains can be called in evidence. And as regards the associated animals, the Chellean implements (Taubach) have been shewn to accompany a group of animals suggestive of the Pliocene fauna which they followed.
But implements of the type of Chelles have been found with a more definitely ‘Pliocene’ form of elephant than those already mentioned. At S. Prest and at Tilloux in France, Chellean implements are associated with Elephas meridionalis, a species destined to become extinct in very early Pleistocene times. Near the Jalón river in Aragon, similar implements accompany remains of an elephant described as a variety of E. antiquus distinctly approaching E. meridionalis.
In pursuing the evidence of human antiquity furnished by implements, a start may be made from the data corresponding to the Galley Hill skeleton in column 5 of Table A. Two divergent views are expressed here, since the alternatives “Acheulean” or “Strépyan” are offered in the table. In the former instance (Acheulean) a recent writer (Mr Hinton, 1910) insists on the Pliocene affinities of the high-level terrace mammals. But as a paradox, he states that the high-level terrace deposits provide implements of the Acheulean type, whereas the Chellean type would be expected, since on the Continent implements associated with a fauna of Pliocene aspect, are of Chellean type. To follow Mr Hinton in his able discussion of this paradox is tempting, but not permissible here; it must suffice to state that the difficulty is reduced if Professor Rutot's[31] view be accepted. For the Strépyan form of implement (which M. Rutot recognises in this horizon) is older than the others mentioned and resembles the Chellean type. To appreciate this, the sequence which Professor Rutot claims to have established is here appended.