Page:Archaeologia volume 38 part 2.djvu/60

290 indeed arrive at an approximately correct judgment, but from the causes I have mentioned, mere flakes of flint, however analogous to what we know to have been made by human art, can never be accepted as conclusive evidence of the work of man, unless found in sufficient quantities, or under such circumstances, as to prove design in their formation, by their number or position. Flint flakes apparently intended for arrow-heads and knives have been found in the sands and gravel near Abbeville, and some were dug out of the sand at Menchecourt, in the presence of Mr. Prestwich, quite at the bottom of the beds of sand. One from this locality is here engraved:—

Occasionally they are of larger size, and have been chipped into shape at the point, so as nearly to resemble the implements of the next class.

An argument may be derived in favour of the majority of these arrow-head-shaped flakes having been designedly made, not only from their similarity in form one to another, but also because the existence of more carefully fashioned flint implements almost necessarily implies the formation and use of these simpler weapons by the same race of men who were skilful enough to chip out the more difficult forms. But though probably the work of man, and though closely resembling the flakes of flint which have been considered as affording evidence of man's existence when found in ossiferous caverns, this class of implements is not of much importance in the present branch of our inquiry ; because, granting them to be of human work and not the result of accident, there is little by which to distinguish them from similar implements of more recent date.

The case is different with the implements of the second class, those analogous in form to spear or lance heads. Of these there are two varieties, the one with a