EOLITHS. The term Eoliths is used of those objects which belong to the dawn (Eos) of the stone (Lithos) age. It does not denote naturally chipped stones of any age which appear, at first sight, to be human artefacts. True Eoliths are of Tertiary age. At a congress held in Paris in 1867 it was claimed that certain chipped flints found in Tertiary deposits at Thenay, near Orleans, were humanly fashioned. Many eolithic discoveries have been described, notably as follow : from upper Miocene lacustrine beds at Otta near Madrid, by Carlo Ribeiro in 1872; from the upper Miocene at Puy Courny near Aurillac (France), by J. B. Rames in 1877; from the gravels of the Kent plateau, by B. Harrison in 1899; and from the middle Oligocene at 'Boncelles (Belgium), by E. de Munck in 1907.
The opponents of the human origin theory for these objects considered (and consider) that natural forces can produce similar specimens (see FLINTS). Monsieur Boule has described flints which had passed through a cement-making machine at Mantes, near Paris, which seemed very similar to the Eoliths. Again, Mon sieur l'Abbe Breuil showed that well-trimmed edges due solely to earth pressure flaking had been formed on flints collected from the base of the Eocene deposits in the Paris basin. The same phenomenon can be seen in the "Bull Head" beds of Essex and elsewhere. Some few years ago Reid Moir produced specimens from the Tertiary gravel and sand exposures near Ipswich. The finds included scraper-like and awl-like objects and a new type named by him the Rostrocarinate, a chipped flint, shaped like the inverted end of a Canadian canoe, flat underneath with a keel above. At first these finds too were rejected on the same grounds as before. It was further demonstrated that frequently several shades of patina were present; all the chipping could not there fore have been contemporary. Lately, however, specimens which comply with the necessary criteria for humanly fashioned tools (see FLINTS) have been unearthed—at one site in what appear to be definite "floors." In East Anglia the more important Eolith sites so far discovered are near Ipswich in gravel pits at Fox Hall, at Thorington Hall, at Bramford, and at Bolton and Laughlin's pit. The Tertiary de posits were laid down over the lower parts of East Anglia at a time when the land stood at a low level, and shelly sands of Marine ori gin were formed in the shallow sea. When these deposits, or "Crags" as they are called, arose above high-water level for any length of time they supported a sparse vegetation, and, as it would seem, some of the earliest members of the human race. The Eoliths are associated, for the most part with a bone bed at the base of the "Red Crag." That the Eoliths cannot be of later age than the crags is clear, for the patina on them is that of the pebbles composing the gravels, which are dated by the included Tertiary fauna. Nor can it be claimed that natural forces had by grinding pebbles together chipped them at some earlier date and then washed them into the Crag during the process of its formation. For at Thorington Hall the material is mainly sand, with rare pebbles, and natural flaking due to differential movement of the gravels is thus precluded. Further, just above the implements were found bivalve shells with their delicate hinges unbroken. Had earth movement occurred, other than on a continent-building scale involving without contortion the whole countryside, the hinges would certainly have been smashed. Again there are at Fox Hall two distinct "floors" where implements have been found, both chips and also larger tools occurring together. This could not have occurred had there been a washing-in of older objects from a distance, for the selective action of water would have separated the heavier objects from the lighter chips. We must, therefore, be prepared to accept the fact of the existence of a tool making animal, probably man, as long ago at least as the late Tertiary period.