Forbidden Archeology_ The Full Unabridged Edition - Michael A. Cremo [162]
Figure 4.3. Ventral and dorsal surfaces of a flint tool found in a Late Miocene formation at Monte Redondo, Portugal (G. de Mortillet and A. de Mortillet 1881, plate 3).
The quartzite flake shown in Figure 4.4 was found in a Pliocene formation at Barquinha, 103 kilometers (about 64 miles) northeast of Lisbon, Portugal. The ventral surface of the flake displays a striking platform, bulb of percussion, and eraillure (G. de Mortillet and A. de Mortillet 1881, plate 3). While this flake was still attached to the quartzite core, another flake was struck from it, as shown by a negative bulb of percussion on the dorsal surface of the flake.
In a report published in 1879, Cartailhac 1 2 said about some of Ribeiro’sspecimens:“Onewould believe himself to be viewing a series of Mousterian stone implements, though somewhat cruder. The bulbs of percussion are 3 generally quite prominent. . . . These pieces bear the proof that they were not found on the surface.
Figure 4.4. Quartzite tool found in a Pliocene formation at Barquinha, Portugal (G. de Mortillet and A. de Mortillet 1881, plate 3). The ventral surface (left), shows (1) a striking platform, (2) bulb of percussion, and (3) eraillure.
Figure 4.5. An implement found in a Miocene formation at Carregado, Portugal (Cartailhac 1879, plate 8).
On the faces of the flakes and in the hollows are found fragments of the sandstone which had encased them” (Cartailhac 1879, p. 439). One of the pieces (Figure 4.5) was found at Carregado in a Miocene formation and was described by Cartailhac as displaying “a bulb of percussion and retouch.” Retouching, in the form of regular chipping along the edges of a flint flake, is a good indicator of intentional work.
4.1.2 An International Committee Vindicates Ribeiro
At the 1880 meeting of the International Congress of Prehistoric Anthropology and Archeology, which was held in Lisbon, Portugal, Ribeiro, now on his home ground, delivered another report and displayed more specimens that were “extracted from Miocene beds” (1884, p. 86). In his report (“L’homme Tertiaire en Portugal”), Ribeiro (1884, p. 88) stated: “The conditions in which the worked flints were found in the beds are as follows: (1) They were found as integral parts of the beds themselves. (2) They had sharp, well-preserved edges, showing that they had not been subject to transport for any great distance. (3) They had a patina similar in color to the rocks in the strata of which they formed a part.”
The second point is especially important. Some geologists claimed that the flint implements had been introduced into Miocene beds by the floods and torrents that periodically washed over this terrain. According to this view, Quaternary flint implements may have entered into the interior of the Miocene beds through fissures and been cemented there, acquiring over a long period of time the coloration of the beds (de Quatrefages 1884, p. 95). But if the flints had been subjected to such transport, then the sharp edges would most probably have been damaged, and this was not the case.
The Congress assigned a special commission of scientists the task of directly inspecting the implements and the sites from which they had been gathered. In addition to Ribeiro himself, the commission included G. Bellucci of the Italian Society for Anthropology and Geography; G. Capellini, from the Royal University of Bologna, Italy, and known to us from Chapter 2 for his discoveries of incised Pliocene whale bones; E. Cartailhac, of the French Ministry of Public Instruction; Sir John Evans, an English geologist; Gabriel de Mortillet, professor