Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race

1.75 million years) and are of the so-called chopper tool or pebble tool type, made by striking a few flakes from the side of a pebble in one or two directions. Such an industry has been associated with Homo habilis and Homo erectus. In Britain such Lower Pleistocene industries have not been found. But early in this century many flints from the Lower Pleistocene Crags were described as being artifacts, such as the flints, some flaked bifacially, in the Red Crag near Ipswich, and the so-called rostrocarinates from the base of the Norwich Crag near Norwich. All are now thought to be natural products. They do not satisfy the requirements for identification as a tool, namely, that the object conforms to a set and regular pattern, that it is found in a geologically possible habitation site, preferably with other signs of man’s activities (e.g. chipping, killing, or burial site), and that it shows signs of flaking from two or three directions at right angles.” Sparks and West, of Cambridge University, are experts on the Pleistocene in Britain.

Briefly responding to Sparks and West, we may note that Moir and other authorities, such as Osborn and Capitan, were able to classify the Crag specimens into definite tool types (handaxes, borers, scrapers, etc.) comparable to those included in accepted Paleolithic industries, including the Mousterian. The Foxhall site, with the Foxhall jaw, was taken by many authorities to represent a geologically possible habitation site. Moir (1927, p. 33) considered it to be a workshop area and noted signs of fire having been used there. As far as flaking from several directions at right angles is concerned, this is not the only criterion that might be applied for judging human workmanship upon stone objects. Even so, M. C. Burkitt of Cambridge (1956, p. 104) did find flaking from several different directions at right angles on some of the implements that were collected by J. Reid Moir.

Among other scientists who opposed Moir’s discoveries and saw fit to say so in print was K. P. Oakley. Coles (1968, p. 29) stated: “Although Oakley (1961) goes so far as to say that ‘the chipping in some cases suggests intelligent design,’ he believes that none can be accepted without some reserve.” As have many other opponents of crude stone tool industries, Oakley included in his book some illustrations of natural products that supposedly resembled objects thought to be implements. Leland W. Patterson (1983, p. 303) has responded: “As an example of superficial observation, the author has received comments that the edge damage on natural flakes illustrated by Oakley resembles retouch patterns of unifacial tools. A careful examination of Oakley’s illustrations shows that the flake scars do not form a uniform pattern as is characteristic of the results of perpendicular force applications in making unifacial tools. In Oakley’s illustrations, flake scars at the edge go at a variety of angles from the plane of the ventral face of the specimens, instead of being parallel flake scars mainly perpendicular to the plane of the ventral face. Flake scars also vary widely in size.”

Yet another late-twentieth-century opponent of eoliths was F. Clark Howell. Coles (1968, pp. 27-30) stated: “Howell [1966, p. 89] dismisses all of this material by stating that ‘the angles of fracture and the nature of the flake removal . . . fall outside the range of variation of specimens known otherwise to be of human manufacture,’ but this is surely not a valid basis for rejection, particularly in view of the variability of known industries of the Lower and early Middle Pleistocene throughout the Old World.” We fully agree with Coles on this point and shall more fully discuss the important matter of angles of fracture later in this chapter.

3.3.12 A Slightly Favorable Modern Review of Moir’s Finds

Coles himself provides an exception to the usual instinctive rejection of Moir’s discoveries (or complete silence about them). He felt it “unjust to dismiss all this material without some consideration” (Coles 1968, p. 22). But as we shall see, Coles did, after some consideration, dismiss almost all of it.

Concerning the Forest Bed discoveries, Coles (1968, pp. 24, 27) stated: “Of the immense quantity of flints available, only a small proportion were flaked, and Moir believed, rightly it seemed, that wave-action could not have caused this fracturing. Most of the flaked pieces were irregular, but a few straight-edged retouched flakes occurred. Moir examined other areas of foreshore, to serve as a check on natural flaking in exposures, and claimed that there were no struck flakes outside his ‘workshop-sites,’ which had yielded both fractured flakes and cores.”