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In his introduction to a lengthy report on the implements of Aurillac (Cantal), published in 1905, Verworn pointed out that the existence of human beings in the Pleistocene period had been established beyond doubt by skeletal remains, stone artifacts, and other objects of human manufacture. Verworn (1905, pp. 3–4) stated: “The fact that the skeletal remains so far discovered in our Pleistocene investigations can be recognized by their morphology as genuinely human should indicate, in the most lucid manner, to every modern researcher who stands upon the ground of the theory of descent, that the beginning of our race and its specific human characteristics must reach far beyond the Pleistocene, and, at very least, deep into the Tertiary. Yet despite this theoretical advancement in the investigation of natural history, science is very reluctant to enter fully into the question of the existence of Tertiary man, and any discussion of the evidence in this regard has been treated with utmost distrust and skepticism in the scientific community. Of course this is justifiable, because in all true science every provisional truth must pass the test of the critical fire of doubt before it can be granted full recognition.”

In Verworn we have an excellent example of a scientist with Darwinian credentials accepting evidence (in this case, evidence for a human presence in the Miocene) that would completely contradict current Darwinian ideas about the origin of the human species. The present scientific establishment propagates the belief that only fundamentalist creationists and early scientists opposed to evolution have ever presented evidence contradicting the current evolutionary understanding of human origins. But this is far from the truth. Scientists who believed in evolution have been the main source of the information compiled in this book.

Scientific discussion of Tertiary humans peaked in the 1880s and decreased markedly in the final years of the nineteenth century. The question was reopened by Rutot’s discoveries of flint implements in Belgium, which we shall consider later in this chapter (Section 4.4). Verworn, working in the very early years of the twentieth century, was himself at first quite doubtful about the human manufacture of eoliths, or “dawn stones,” as the crudest of the early stone tools had come to be known.

Verworn (1905, pp. 4–5) wrote in his report on Aurillac: “I must confess that less than a year ago I was still skeptical about accepting the implemental nature of eoliths, and expressed my doubts at the meeting of the Göttingen Anthropological Society on July 22, 1904. Of course, I had seen with my own eyes only the finds of Dr. Hahne from the Pleistocene of the Magdeburg region, and I can say that regarding the greater part of Hahne’s eoliths, in view of the strong inorganic influences upon them and the conditions of their occurrence, I still today maintain my skepticism, though I do recognize some isolated pieces that bear signs of human work. Meanwhile Herr Rutot was, in the course of the past year, kind enough to send to me as a gift a great collection of typical eoliths from the various levels of the Belgian Pleistocene, and after carefully analyzing them I could no longer maintain any doubts about their implemental nature. I was overcome with strong excitement. With these discoveries the traces of primitive culture extended far beyond all previous boundaries.” Verworn, in these passages, is using the term eolith in a very broad sense. But as we shall see, he will later employ distinctions similar to the ones adopted in this book.

Verworn (1905, pp. 5–6) continued: “The question then arose for me, whether such evidence might extend back into the Tertiary. The evidence supporting this proposal gathered in earlier times, which in some cases had been introduced with great precision, had not been able to win general recognition. For me there was no doubt about the theoretical possibility of man existing in the Tertiary; the real