Primaeval Man in the Valley of the Lea. 123
from where they are now found. An implement of this class
is illustrated, one half actual size, at fig. 9 (No. 172 in my
collection), and was found by me at Wanstead.
A very important point has now to be especially noticed :
when these ochreous instruments were originally tossed about
and buried in the gravel, some of them became chipped, and
even broken. Now the chipped and broken surfaces of these
older implements are never ochreous, but invariably of the
natural colour of the flint, and lustrous. This lustre has
been acquired since the gravels were laid down, and it exactly
agrees with the lustre of the sub-
abraded lustrous implements of
medium age found from 8 to 10
feet above the ochreous ones. It
follows, therefore, that the lustrous
implements, although enormously
old, can only be as old as the time
when the ochreous ones were
bruised and broken in the gravels
where they are now found.
Another fact must be mentioned
here : the men who used the oldest
known tools sometimes broke them
in two whilst they were at work with
them ; the accidentally-fractured
surfaces of this class are of course
as old as the tools, and therefore
always ochreous. Points and butt-ends wholly ochreous are
of common occurrence : these pieces of tools must have been
shattered for long ages before the gravels of middle age were
laid down.
The men who made and used the rude ochreous tools were
to a great extent a "whole-handed" race—they had not
learned the full use of their fingers, but held the weapons as
one would now hold a heavy stone for smashing. It is
probable that the more pointed end of the club-shaped
implements was sometimes grasped in the hand and the butt
used as a club or hammer. The absence of scrapers indicates