Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race

Concerning an implement from below the Red Crag at Thorington Hall (Figure 3.11), Capitan said: “The very best piece . . . is a great and thick racloir (side scraper) fashioned from an irregular oval flake, with numerous bulbs of percussion. It is of the same form as many of the most typical Mousterian racloirs, and like them it is retouched on all sides. On the outer surface, near the point of the instrument . . . a carefully retouched depression accommodates a finger for gripping the implement. In truth, this is a piece that can just as much be said to have been manufactured by humans as the best Mousterian racloirs. On the plane surface, on the other end of the implement . . . is an enormous bulb of percussion” (Lohest et al. 1923, p. 63).

Of two discoidal grattoirs (end scrapers) recovered from Thorington Hall (Figure 3.12), Capitan stated: “Made from thick flakes, and carefully retouched all around, they both have in the middle of the upper surface a long deep flake removed.

Figure 3.12. Two discoidal scrapers from below the Red Crag at Thorington Hall, England (Lohest et al. 1923, p. 64).

On the other side of each, which is smooth, there is a bulb of percussion” (Lohest et al. 1923, p. 63).

In using a grattoir, or end scraper, the scraping edge of the implement is held lengthwise along the line of force (or end first). In using a racloir, or side scraper, the tool’s scraping edge is held perpendicular to the line of force (or sideways).

In addition, Capitan drew attention to a particular implement (Figure 3.13) that he described as being “well retouched on every side and having an extremity terminating in a bevelled edge carefully made by regular retouching” (Lohest et al. 1923, p. 64).

Capitan also noted “a big racloir, with the cortex partially removed and with the cutting edge carefully dressed and adapted by a series of regular and multiple retouchings. This edge is so perfectly rectilinear as to give clear indication it is of human origin” (Lohest et al. 1923, p. 65).

Another implement (Figure 3.14) was retouched on two of its edges and displayed on its face three long flake scars. The fact that the three flake scars on the implement were parallel was, according to Capitan, a certain sign they were deliberately removed in succession. He believed this specimen from below the Red Crag appeared to be a handaxe absolutely identical to the best pre-Chellean types from the Somme region of France.

Capitan (Lohest et al. 1923, p. 66) described another specimen as follows: “A thin blade with a bulb on the inferior surface, and a very precise imprint of a second blade removed from the upper part.

Figure 3.13. An implement from below the Red Crag (Lohest et al. 1923, p. 65).

Figure 3.14. An implement from below the Red Crag at Bramford, England (Lohest et al. 1923, p. 66).

This work is absolutely human” (Figure 3.15). Yet another object illustrated in Capitan’s report was a pointed implement, with an apparent bulb of percussion visible at the base ( Figure 3.16).

In concluding his analysis, Capitan definitively stated that “there exist at the base of the Crag, in undisturbed strata, worked flints (we have observed them ourselves). These are not made by anything other than a human or hominid which existed in the Tertiary epoch. This fact is found by us prehistorians to be absolutely demonstrated” (Lohest et al. 1923, p. 67).

Surprisingly, even after the commission report, Moir’s opponents, such as Warren, persisted in attempting to show that the flint implements from beneath the Red Crag and elsewhere were the product of some kind of natural pressure flaking.

Moir and Barnes kept defending their position and picked up supporters. Coles (1968, p. 29) stated: “In 1932 T. D. Kendrick outlined some of the different viewpoints, and came down strongly in support of Moir, not so much on the geological problems involved as on the character of some of the flints.” About Moir’s flints and other Eolithic industries, Kendrick said that “many of them are to be regarded as ‘probably artifacts,’ while there are one or two (in the British Museum) . . . that I feel certain are man’s handiwork” (Coles 1968, p. 29).

Figure 3.15. A blade implement found beneath the Red Crag formation at Bramford, England (Lohest et al. 1923, p. 66).