42 THE DATING OF EARLY HUMAN REMAINS.
by the human remains themselves. Personally I do not believe
for a moment that any such human industry existed.
THE HUMAN INDUSTRIES.
The order of the human industries which will be referred
to in the sequel is as follows:—
Recent Man—
Historic Times
Early Iron Age
Bronze Age
Neolithic, or Later Stone, Age
Azilian stage ? [Transition from Palaeolithic]
Palaeolithic Man—
Magdalenian Stage
Solutrian ,,
Aurignacian ,,
Mousterian „
Acheulean ,,
Chellean „
Early Palaeolithic Stage
Pre-Stone Age Man, or the Age of Wood (?)
PRE STONE AGE CULTURE, OR THE AGE OF
WOOD.
The most primitive group of implements that we find in
use among modern savages belong to what may be called the
"Age of Wood." This is not necessarily associated with either
time or race, but is essentially a question of state of culture.
Broadly speaking, the implements for hammering or crushing
consist of natural (unworked) stones; while implements for
cutting and piercing consist of thorns, the talons and teeth of
wild animals, and the like. True stone implements, that is
stone deliberately fashioned into some useful form of implement,
are wanting.
It seems to me a reasonable, indeed an inevitable, supposition
—although perhaps it may be incapable of proof—that something
of the same sort must have obtained among the earliest races
of mankind. Possibly this may explain the poverty in flint
implements which will be noted in the deposits which have
yielded the earliest remains of man himself. Certainly we appear
to have the remains of man himself at an earlier date than that
at which we find evidences of unquestionable stone implements.