FLINT IMPLEMENTS OF THE PLEISTOCENE PERIOD IN THE VALLEY OF THE SOMME.

The alluvium of the valley of the Somme exhibits nothing extraordinary or exceptional in its position or external appearance, nor in the arrangement or composition of its materials, nor in its organic remains; in all these characters it might be matched by the drift of a hundred other valleys in France or England. Its claim to our peculiar attention is derived from the wonderful number of flint tools, of a very antique type, which, as stated in the last chapter, occur in undisturbed strata, associated with the bones of extinct quadrupeds.

As much doubt has been cast on the question, whether the so-called flint hatchets have really been shaped by the hands of Man, it will be desirable to begin by satisfying the reader's mind on that point, before inviting him to study the details of sections of successive beds of mud, sand, and gravel, which vary considerably even in contiguous localities.

Since the spring of 1859, I have paid three visits to the Valley of the Somme, and examined all the principal localities of these flint tools. In my excursions around Abbeville, I was accompanied by M. Boucher de Perthes, and during one of my explorations in the Amiens district, by Mr. Prestwitch. The first time I entered the pits at St. Acheul, I obtained seventy flint instruments, all of them collected from the drift in the course of the preceding five or six weeks. The two prevailing forms of these tools are represented in the annexed Figures 8 and 9, each of which are half the size of the originals; the first being the spear-headed form, varying in length from six to eight inches; the second, the oval form, which is not unlike some stone implements, used to this day as hatchets and tomahawks by natives of Australia, but with this difference, that the edge in the Australian weapons (as in the case of those called celts in Europe) has been produced by friction, whereas the cutting edge in the old tools of the valley of the Somme was always gained by the simple fracture of the flint, and by the repetition of many dexterous blows.

The oval-shaped Australian weapons, however, differ in being sharpened at one end only. The other, though reduced by fracture to the same general form, is left rough, in which state it is fixed into a cleft stick, which serves as a handle. To this it is firmly bound by thin straps of opossum's hide. One of these tools, now in my possession, was given me by Mr. Farquharson of Haughton, who saw a native using it in 1854 on the Auburn river, in Burnet district, North Australia.

Out of more than a hundred flint implements which I obtained at St. Acheul, not a few had their edges more or less fractured or worn, either by use as instruments before they were buried in gravel, or by being rolled in the river's bed.

Some of these tools were probably used as weapons, both of war and of the chase, others to grub up roots, cut down trees, and scoop out canoes. Some of them may have served, as Mr. Prestwich has suggested, for cutting holes in the ice both for fishing and for obtaining water, as will be explained in the eighth chapter when we consider the arguments in favour of the higher level drift having belonged to a period when the rivers were frozen over for several months every winter.

Figure 8. Flint Implement

  (FIGURE 8. FLINT IMPLEMENT FROM ST. ACHEUL, NEAR AMIENS,
   OF THE SPEAR-HEAD SHAPE
     (half the size of the original, which is 7 1/2 inches long).

  a. Side view.
  b. Same seen edgewise.

These spear-headed implements have been found in greater number, proportionally to the oval ones, in the upper level gravel at St. Acheul, than in any of the lower gravels in the valley of the Somme. In these last the oval form predominates, especially at Abbeville.)

When the natural form of a Chalk-flint presented a suitable handle at one end, as in the specimen, Figure 10, that part was left as found. The portion, for example, between b and c has probably not been altered; the protuberances which are fractured having been broken off by river action before the flint was chipped artificially. The other extremity, a, has been worked till it acquired a proper shape and cutting edge.

Figures 9 and 10. Flint Implements

  (FIGURES 9 AND 10. FLINT IMPLEMENTS FROM THE PLEISTOCENE DRIFT OF
  ABBEVILLE AND AMIENS.

   FIGURE 9. a. OVAL-SHAPED FLINT HATCHET FROM MAUTORT,
   NEAR ABBEVILLE,

  half size of original, which is 5 1/2 inches long, from
  a bed of gravel underlying the fluvio-marine stratum. b. Same seen
  edgewise. c. Shows a recent fracture of the edge of the same at the
  point a, or near the top. This portion of the tool, c, is drawn of
  the natural size, the black central part being the unaltered flint,
  the white outer coating, the layer which has been formed by
  discoloration or bleaching since the tool was first made. The
  entire surface of Number 9 must have been black when first shaped,
  and the bleaching to such a depth must have been the work of time,
  whether produced by exposure to the sun and air before it was
  embedded, or afterwards when it lay deep in the soil.

  FIGURE 10. FLINT TOOL FROM ST. ACHEUL, seen edgewise;
    original 6 1/2 inches long, and 3 inches wide.

  b, c. Portion not artificially shaped.
  a, b. Part chipped into shape, and having a cutting edge at a.)

Many of the hatchets are stained of an ochreous-yellow colour, when they have been buried in yellow gravel, others have acquired white or brown tints, according to the matrix in which they have been enclosed.

This accordance in the colouring of the flint tools with the character of the bed from which they have come, indicates, says Mr. Prestwich, not only a real derivation from such strata, but also a sojourn therein of equal duration to that of the naturally broken flints forming part of the same beds.*

     (* "Philosophical Transactions" 1861 page 297.)

Figures 11, 12 and 13. Dendrites on Fling Hatchets

  (FIGURES 11, 12 AND 13. DENDRITES ON SURFACES OF FLINT HATCHETS IN
  THE DRIFT OF ST. ACHEUL, NEAR AMIENS.

  FIGURE 11. a. Natural size.

  FIGURE 12. b. Natural size. c. Magnified.

  FIGURE 13. d. Natural size.
     e. Magnified.)

The surface of many of the tools is encrusted with a film of carbonate of lime, while others are adorned by those ramifying crystallisations called dendrites (see Figures 11, 12 and 13), usually consisting of the mixed oxides of iron and manganese, forming extremely delicate blackish brown sprigs, resembling the smaller kinds of sea weed. They are a useful test of antiquity when suspicions are entertained of the workmen having forged the hatchets which they offer for sale. The most general test, however, of the genuineness of the implements obtained by purchase is their superficial varnish-like or vitreous gloss, as contrasted with the dull aspect of freshly fractured flints. I also remarked, during each of my three visits to Amiens, that there were some extensive gravel-pits, such as those of Montiers and St. Roch, agreeing in their geological character with those of St. Acheul, and only a mile or two distant, where the workmen, although familiar with the forms, and knowing the marketable value of the articles above described, assured me that they had never been able to find a single implement.

Respecting the authenticity of the tools as works of art, Professor Ramsay, than whom no one could be a more competent judge, observes: "For more than twenty years, like others of my craft, I have daily handled stones, whether fashioned by nature or art; and the flint hatchets of Amiens and Abbeville seem to me as clearly works of art as any Sheffield whittle."*

     (* "Athenaeum" July 16, 1859.)

Mr. Evans classifies the implements under three heads, two of which, the spear heads and the oval or almond-shaped kinds, have already been described. The third form (Figure 14) consists of flakes, apparently intended for knives or some of the smaller ones for arrow heads.

Figure 14. Flint Knife Or Flake

  (FIGURE 14. FLINT KNIFE OR FLAKE FROM BELOW THE SAND CONTAINING
  CYRENA FLUMINALIS. MENCHECOURT, ABBEVILLE.
   d. Transverse section along the line of fracture, b, c.
   Size, two-thirds of the original.)

In regard to their origin, Mr. Evans observes that there is a uniformity of shape, a correctness of outline, and a sharpness about the cutting edges and points, which cannot be due to anything but design.*

     (* "Archaeologia" volume 38.)

Of these knives and flakes, I obtained several specimens from a pit which I caused to be dug at Abbeville, in sand in contact with the Chalk, and below certain fluvio-marine beds, which will be alluded to in the next chapter.

Between the spear-head and oval shapes, there are various intermediate gradations, and there are also a vast variety of very rude implements, many of which may have been rejected as failures, and others struck off as chips in the course of manufacturing the more perfect ones. Some of these chips can only be recognised by an experienced eye as bearing marks of human workmanship.

It has often been asked, how, without the use of metallic hammers, so many of these oval and spear-headed tools could have been wrought into so uniform a shape. Mr. Evans, in order experimentally to illustrate the process, constructed a stone hammer, by mounting a pebble in a wooden handle, and with this tool struck off flakes from the edge on both sides of a Chalk flint, till it acquired precisely the same shape as the oval tool, Figure 9.

If I were invited to estimate the probable number of the more perfect tools found in the valley of the Somme since 1842, rejecting all the knives, and all that might be suspected of being spurious or forged, I should conjecture that they far exceeded a thousand. Yet it would be a great mistake to imagine that an antiquary or geologist, who should devote a few weeks to the exploration of such a valley as that of the Somme, would himself be able to detect a single specimen. But few tools were lying on the surface. The rest have been exposed to view by the removal of such a volume of sand, clay, and gravel, that the price of the discovery of one of them could only be estimated by knowing how many hundred labourers have toiled at the fortifications of Abbeville, or in the sand and gravel pits near that city, and around Amiens, for road materials and other economic purposes, during the last twenty years.

Figure 15. Fossils of the White Chalk

  (FIGURE 15. FOSSILS OF THE WHITE CHALK.

  a, b. Coscinopora globularis, D'Orbigny. Orbitolina concava,
  Parker and Jones. c. Part of same magnified.)

In the gravel pits of St. Acheul, and in some others near Amiens, small round bodies, having a tubular cavity in the centre, occur. They are well known as fossils of the White Chalk. Dr. Rigollot suggested that they might have been strung together as beads, and he supposed the hole in the middle to have been artificial. Some of these round bodies are found entire in the Chalk and in the gravel, others have naturally a hole passing through them, and sometimes one or two holes penetrating some way in from the surface, but not extending to the other side. Others, like b, Figure 15, have a large cavity, which has a very artificial aspect. It is impossible to decide whether they have or have not served as personal ornaments, recommended by their globular form, lightness, and by being less destructible than ordinary Chalk. Granting that there were natural cavities in the axis of some of them, it does not follow that these may not have been taken advantage of for stringing them as beads, while others may have been artificially bored through. Dr. Rigollot's argument in favour of their having been used as necklaces or bracelets, appears to me a sound one. He says he often found small heaps or groups of them in one place, all perforated, just as if, when swept into the river's bed by a flood, the bond which had united them together remained unbroken.*

     (* Rigollot, "Memoire sur des Instruments en Silex" etc.,
     Amiens 1854 page 16.)