Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race

Smith once wrote to Harrison, who had asked him to consider certain points bearing on the eolith question: “As for answering questions and giving opinions about dubious subjects, it is not always easy, and silence, philosophic doubt, or no settled convictions are better, especially in face of a high priest like you. It is like a Salvation Army captain full of zeal, coming here and asking me about Noah and his ark, Balaam and his ass, and Jonah and his whale. The better plan, according to my view, is to bolt and say nothing” (E. Harrison 1928, p. 187). When one considers the support given to Harrison’s discoveries by reputable scientists such as Sir John Prestwich, Smith’s characterization of Harrison seems a bit unfair. As we shall see, the put-offs and put-downs from Smith’s repertoire are, for a good many scientists, still the favored methods for dealing with evidence that has uncomfortable implications for established views on human evolution. They avoid acknowledging anomalous evidence, never discuss it on its merits, and if pressed, simply ridicule it and those who support it.

3.2.13 More Honors for Harrison

As time passed, however, Harrison continued to receive more honors and his eoliths more attention. In 1899, upon recommendation by Prime Minister Balfour, Queen Victoria awarded him a prestigious Civil List pension “in consideration of your researches on the subject of prehistoric flint implements” (E. Harrison 1928, p. 230). The Royal Society also granted him an annuity. That same year, T. Rupert Jones made a presentation about eoliths at the British Association meeting in Dover, exhibiting some small implements that attracted much attention (E. Harrison 1928, p. 231). In August of 1900, Arthur Smith Woodward of the British Museum and Professor Packard of Brown University paid Harrison a visit. Packard accepted all of Harrison’s finds as genuine and Woodward agreed that the Plateau drift in which the eoliths were found was probably Pliocene in age (E. Harrison 1928, p. 237). On August 21, 1900, Harrison received a letter from Dr. H. P. Blackmore, who stated that he accepted the eoliths because of “the fairly uniform heights of deposits in which eoliths are found: differing greatly in age of deposit from the more recent river drift or paleolithic gravels” (E. Harrison 1928, pp. 237–238). In 1902, at the British Association meeting in Belfast, W. J. Knowles and F. J. Bennett came out in favor of the eoliths, while Boyd Dawkins was opposed. Some of Harrison’s eoliths were placed on exhibition in the British Museum.

Ray E. Lankester, who was a director of the British Museum (Natural History), became a supporter of Harrison’s Kent Plateau eoliths. On April 15, 1904, Lankester wrote to Harrison: “Good health and happiness to you— courageous and indomitable discoverer of pre-paleolithic man” (E. Harrison 1928, p. 271). Sir Edward R. Harrison stated: “Professor Ray Lankester, who expressed publicly his belief that the eoliths were artificial, and in the Romanes lecture in Oxford, in 1905, declared that they carried ‘the antiquity of man at least as far back beyond the paleoliths as these are from the present day’, desired to emphasize the value, as evidence of purpose, of similarity of shape of certain eoliths, and wrote to Harrison for specimens to illustrate a book that he had in course of preparation. He was impressed by the large number of implements with a ‘tooth-like prominence rendering the flint fit for use as a “borer”’ and also by a group he called trinacrial, from their resemblance in shape to the island of Sicily” (E. Harrison 1928, p. 270). In his presidential address to the British Association in 1906, Lankester affirmed his belief in “the human authorship” of Harrison’s eoliths (E. Harrison

1928, p. 270).