CHELLEAN, the name given by the French anthropologist G. de Mortillet to the first epoch of the Quaternary period when the earliest human remains are discoverable. The word is derived from the French town Chelles in the department of Seine-et Marne. The Chellean epoch was interglacial, warm and humid as evidenced by the wild growth of fig-trees and laurels. The ani mals characteristic of the epoch are the Elephas antiquus, the rhinoceros, the cave-bear, the hippopotamus and the striped hyaena. Man existed and belonged to the Neanderthal type. The implements characteristic of the period are flints chipped into leaf-shaped forms and held in the hand when used. There is clear evidence of phases of Chellean industry—both in a simple and an advanced stage.
See Gabriel de Mortillet, Le Prehistorique (19oo) ; M. C. Burkitt, Prehistory (1925) ; H. Peake and H. J. Fleure, Apes and Men (1927).