Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race

Breuil (1910, p. 407) did, however, admit: “One is not able to conclude from the discoveries at Belle-Assise that there is no such thing as an Eolithic industry,  no intentional work on natural stone flakes, no first manifestation of rudimentary tool types.” He then stated that “in order to determine the presence of an intelligent being something more than calling attention to signs of adaptation is required, because the work of nature and that of human beings can be easily confounded. The objects should possess a degree of intentional work that is particularly clear, or should occur in an assembly of circumstances that rule out natural causes, or demonstrate, by the association of food debris or signs of fire, that human beings lived there” (Breuil 1910, p. 407).

But in many cases supporting evidence of the type specified by Breuil has been found in connection with stone implements. The stone tools discovered by Florentino Ameghino in an Early Pliocene formation at Monte Hermoso, Argentina, were accompanied by burned earth, remnants of hearths, burned and broken animal bones, and even human fossil remains, yet these implements were not generally recognized by the scientific community (Section 5.1.1).

Summarizing his case, Breuil (1910, p. 407) stated: “It is clear that we have here many pseudomorphs that show extreme signs of ‘wear,’ not only eoliths, but types truly recognized as Paleolithic, such as the marvelous small scraper in figure 67 [our Figure 3.24]. If nature, in exceptional circumstances without doubt, is able to produce objects that resemble advanced industrial types, perfectly defined and discovered in their normal geological position outside all possibility of error, there is thus very good reason to show caution regarding manifestations of the most elementary type of human activity, and to show great care before basing overambitious theories on such problematic findings. All this has been established in a definite manner and with all clarity.”

This statement hinges on accepting Breuil’s opinion that forces of nature are actually responsible for “types truly recognized as Paleolithic.” Nothing in his report demonstrated that this is in fact true. As we have seen, the examples he gave of flints obviously broken in place (Figures 3.20, 3.21) do not compare very well with even the cruder “pseudomorphs” he collected at the Belle-Assise site (Figure 3.22). He also gave no real explanation for the highly organized chipping on the more advanced “pseudomorphs” (Figure 3.25). It would thus seem that Breuil himself was the one who was guilty of constructing overambitious theories on the shaky foundations of problematic findings.

3.4.6 How Scientists Cooperated in Propagating Untruths about Eoliths

Breuil’s paper was quite influential and is still cited today as proof that eoliths are natural rather than artificial productions. As an example of how Breuil’s study was used shortly after it appeared, we can point to The Origin and Antiquity of Man (1912) by G. F. Wright, an American geologist. In a discussion of eoliths, Wright (1912, pp. 338–339) recounted how S. Hazzeldine Warren had shown that cart wheels rolling on gravel roads produced chipped flints like eoliths, and how Marcellin Boule had collected chipped flints resembling eoliths from machinery used for the production of cement. Wright, after lamenting that some scientists, like Rutot, were still promoting eoliths, wrote: “Within the year past, however, Abbé Breuil has apparently been able to give a finishing touch to the evidence discrediting the artificial character of the eoliths. We will content ourselves with quoting the summary of this evidence given by Professor Sollas” (Wright 1912, p. 340).

Wright then quoted from Ancient Hunters by W. J. Sollas (1911, pp. 67–69): “These [eoliths] were found by the Abbé Breuil in Lower Eocene sands (Thanétien) at Belle-Assize, Clermont (Oise). M. Breuil shows in the most convincing manner that they all owe their formation to one and the same process, i.e. to movements of the strata while settling under pressure of the soil. The flint nodules crowded together in a single layer are thus squeezed forcibly one against the other, and flaking is the inevitable result. . . . In many cases the flakes are still to be found in connection with the parent nodule, lying apposed to the surface from which they have been detached.” Wright published a reproduction of Breuil’s drawing of some very crude flakes lying next to parent blocks of flint. Sollas had used the same drawing in his book. As we noted in our previous discussion, the degree of “workmanship” on the flakes pictured in these drawings (Figures 3.20, 3.21) hardly approaches that of even the crudest of eoliths.