Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race

The implement was quite unworn. Moir (1927, p. 47) explained this as follows: “the glacial clay . . . very frequently contains portions of the Freshwater Bed, which were torn up by the glacier in its advance.” The sharp edges of the implement could thus have been preserved by the surrounding Fresh-water Bed materials.

According to West (1980, p. 116), the Upper Freshwater Bed, as defined by J. Reid Moir and his contemporaries, includes materials ranging from the last part of the Cromerian temperate stage, at .4–.5 million years b.p., to the beginning part of the Pre-Pastonian cold stage, at 1.50–1.75 million years b.p. (Table 2.1, p. 78).

At 1.5 million years ago, the Sidestrand specimen, accepted by Coles as a definite handaxe, would be quite anomalous. Handaxes of this sort are usually attributed to Homo erectus, but according to the standard human evolutionary theory, at 1.5 million years ago, Homo erectus should still have been confined to Africa, where he should only recently have come into being. At .4–.5 million years, however, the Sidestrand specimen would be barely within the range of conventionally accepted stone implements in England. Let us now consider the two remaining test specimens mentioned by Coles. The first is an implement (Figure 3.18) “apparently from the Stone Bed at the base of the Norwich Crag, at Whitlingham.” The Whitlingham site is at the foot of a cliff near Thorpe, on the Norfolk coast.

Figure 3.17. Four views of a stone implement from the Cromer Till at Sidestrand (Moir 1927, p. 46). Coles (1968, p. 29) called it an “undoubted handaxe.”

Figure 3.18. Implement from Whitlingham, England (Coles 1968, p. 26, after Moir). Coles (1968, p. 29) called it “convincing as a handaxe.” J. Reid Moir said it came from the Stone Bed bed beneath the Norwich Crag, giving it an age of about 2 million years.

Coles stated (1968, p. 29): “On the face of it, this object is convincing as a handaxe. Unfortunately, it was not discovered in situ but lay with fallen material at the foot of a tall section. . . . It is possible that this object came from the till and not from the Stone Bed although Sainty and Moir claimed it was definitely from the latter.”

But Coles (1968, p. 24) also said: “This implement is in fresh condition, and it is unlikely that it could have survived transport in this condition.” This observation suggests that the implement might have come not from the glacial till but from the much older Stone Bed. An implement crushed beneath a moving glacier would probably have had its sharp edges removed. In our discussion of the Sidestrand specimen earlier in this section, we noted that Moir offered an explanation why the handaxe found there was not worn by glacial action— it might have been incorporated within a large piece of Forest Bed sediment taken up by the advancing glacier. Moir backed up this assertion by stating that the glacial clay at Sidestrand does in fact contain intact pieces of the Upper Freshwater Bed. But this special explanation (which Coles did not mention) does not necessarily apply at the Whitlingham site. Therefore, the unworn condition of the Whitlingham handaxe is consistent with its being incorporated in the Stone Bed. Coles (1968, p. 24) noted that the Stone Bed at Whitlingham contained “abundant shells, in situ, and unbroken,” as well as “many slender nodules of flint . . . also undamaged.”

In addition to the handaxe, a good many other flaked flint objects were recovered from the Stone Bed at Whitlingham, England. In regard to these discoveries, Breuil said (1922, pp. 228–229): “Mr. Reid Moir was able to retrieve some pieces in a stratigraphic position at the base of a cliff. That the enormous flakes found there were made by very violent human percussion cannot be doubted.”

Coles (1968, p. 24) stated: “Many of these Thorpe flakes were believed to exhibit deliberate flaking. The flakes include irregular forms with even retouch along one or two edges.” The presence of these other flaked implements “in a stratigraphic position” at the base of the cliff at Whitlingham tends to confirm the Stone Bed as the source of the handaxe.

The Whitlingham handaxe, if from the glacial gravels that make up the Cromer Till, would be not much more than .4 million years old. But if, as is most likely, the handaxe is from the Stone Bed underlying the Early Pleistocene Norwich Crag, it would be about 2 million years old (Table 2.1, p. 78).