Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race

We shall now examine some stone tools broadly similar to but in some cases even more primitive than European eoliths such as those found by Benjamin Harrison and J. Reid Moir. Unlike the European eoliths, these implements are unquestioningly accepted by modern paleoanthropologists. It would seem, however, that if tools comparable to the European eoliths are considered genuine, then to be consistent, the European eoliths should also be accepted as genuine.

3.7.1 Accepted Implements from Zhoukoudian (Middle Pleistocene)

One industry similar to the European Eolithic industries is that found at Zhoukoudian, the site of the Peking man discoveries. The Zhoukoudian tools, comprising natural flakes modified with unifacial chipping, compare favorably with the European eoliths. In fact, the crudeness of the tools at Zhoukoudian (Figure 3.28) was unexpected. Peking man was classified as Homo erectus, who in Europe and Africa was usually associated with the more advanced bifacially flaked Acheulean implements. Anthropologist Alan Lyle Bryan (1986, p. 7) stated: “less than 2% of the 100,000 artifacts recovered from the living floors at Zhoukoudian Locality I exhibit bifacial edge retouch.”

Zhang Shensui of China described the implements from the lower levels of Locality 1 at Zhoukoudian: “Tools fashioned from cores, pebbles and small chunks of stone outnumber those made on flake blanks. This assemblage is typologically simple, consisting primarily of choppers and scrapers. Points and gravers occur only rarely and are very crudely retouched” (Zhang 1985, p. 168). When illustrations of the eoliths found on the Kent Plateau and in East Anglia (Figures 3.3, p. 95; 3.6, p. 121; 3.12, and p. 136) are set alongside those of tools from Zhoukoudian, we do not notice much of a difference in workmanship.

Figure 3.28. These tools from the Zhoukoudian cave seem cruder than the anomalously old Pliocene and Miocene eoliths of Europe (Black et. al. 1933, pp. 115, 131, 132).

3.7.2 The Oldowan Industry (Early Pleistocene)

A second industry very much like the European eoliths is the Oldowan industry, initially discovered by Mary and Louis Leakey in Beds I and II of Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, during the 1930s. Many of the Oldowan implements were described by Mary Leakey in the third volume of Olduvai Gorge, published by the Cambridge University Press in 1971.

From the published reports, which is all we really have to go on, it is not possible to easily distinguish European eoliths, such as those collected by Harrison on the Kent Plateau, from some of the Oldowan tools. This is readily seen in the illustrations in Mary Leakey’s book, which show the apparent identity between the two types. Although made of different kinds of stone, they look remarkably alike. Furthermore, Leakey’s verbal descriptions could just as well be applied to eoliths. One might say that there are subtle distinctions not revealed in the reports, but then what does that say about the quality of scientific reporting on stone tool industries?

Mary Leakey stated that the Oldowan industry was found in locations ranging from upper Bed I to the base of Bed II at Olduvai Gorge. Describing the primary Oldowan industry, she stated: “It is characterised by choppers of various forms, polyhedrons, discoids, scrapers, occasional hammer stones, utilised cobbles and light-duty utilised flakes” (M. Leakey 1971, p. 1). In Bed II, Leakey found an industry she called Developed Oldowan, which contained more spheroid types than the Oldowan. Bed II also yielded a second industry, Developed Oldowan B, which contained some bifacially flaked tools (less than 40 percent of the assemblage). Bifacially flaked tools are those with chipping on both surfaces of the edges. In the upper part of Middle Bed II, there occurred Acheulean assemblages, in which more than 40 percent of the tools were bifacially flaked. Even these were still quite crude. According to Leakey, “The Acheulean appears to be an early form in which the bifaces exhibit minimal flaking and considerable individual variation” (M. Leakey 1971, p. 2). The Acheulean type of Olduvai appears to correspond with the Paleolithic implements described by Harrison and Prestwich, while the Oldowan type, especially its unifacially flaked specimens, appears to roughly correspond with the flint implements described as eoliths. We shall mainly concern ourselves with the Oldowan industry.