208 EOLITHIC IMPLEMENTS FROM THE PLATEAU
Indeed the plateau gravel may even contain traces of man
dating back to a time before he had learnt to fashion flint
implements for himself. For no doubt he employed flints of
suitable size and shape in breaking open bones for the sake of
their marrow, and in analogous ways, long before he became
acquainted with the art of modifying them for purposes to which
they were not naturally adapted. Indeed it was no doubt
through such use that he first became acquainted with the
peculiar properties of fracture possessed by flint, the knowledge
of which was to play so important a part in his future career.
Though flints battered and splintered in this way are seldom
Fig i. Scraper. (Actual size.)
distinguishable from those that have been much knocked about
by natural agencies, such for instance as the action of a torrent,
yet now and then the handiwork of man can be recognised in
them. And possibly some of the battered flints from the
plateau gravel, the fractured surfaces of which, from their very
much worn and abraded condition, would seem to be older than
the deposit itself, bear traces of use which date back to a time
anterior to that at which he discovered the way to work
flint.
Even the recognisable implements are of so primitive a
character that their artificial origin was for long, and indeed is
still, disputed by a great number of anthropologists. But while