• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 1565 0

question was whether or not the Tertiary ancestors of humankind had been capable of manufacturing stone tools, which would give evidence of their existence to those of us in a far removed time. I was still skeptical on this point. When Rutot and Klaatsch had become convinced of the existence of Tertiary eoliths and published some illustrations of such, I could not, from their descriptions and illustrations alone, reach any positive conclusion about their implemental nature. There is no alternative, for anyone who wants to come to his own decision, to having the objects in his own hands, to being able to turn them around and analyze all their features. Furthermore, it is necessary to understand the objects in terms of their circumstances of discovery by visiting the places from which they came, especially in order to come to firm conclusions about their geological age, which is required. So just as for years I had conducted my own experimental flint-flaking studies in order to understand flint objects bearing the characteristic signs of human work, I decided to conduct my own onsite excavations, and thus be in a position to be able to reach a definite decision, for or against the implemental nature of the Tertiary flints in question. I can honestly say that I entered upon my investigation without any preconceived opinions. I would have been just as happy to answer the question negatively as positively.”

Verworn then had to decide where to conduct his search for implements. He was aware that France had furnished investigators with many examples of reputed Tertiary flint tools. The site at Thenay was a possibility, but two scientists, L. Capitan and P. Mahoudeau, had recently published an extremely negative report about the flint objects found there, so Verworn decided to look elsewhere.

Aurillac, in Cantal, where several discoveries of Late Miocene implements had been made over the course of many decades, seemed a more profitable place to conduct his study. Verworn also considered the valley of the Tagus at Lisbon, where Ribeiro had uncovered his Miocene specimens, but because no further discoveries had been made in that region, Verworn ruled out going there. At other sites, such as the Kent Plateau in southeast England and St. Prest in France, the geological context was thought to be Pliocene, not as suitable for Verworn’s purposes as the older Miocene age of the implement-bearing formations at Aurillac. So Aurillac it would be (Verworn 1905, pp. 6–7).

On his way to France, Verworn visited Rutot in Brussels and examined specimens of stone implements in the Royal Museum of Natural History, including some from Aurillac. These had been forwarded to Brussels by the French geologists Pierre Marty and Charles Puech.

Verworn (1905, p. 7) noted: “Even these collections had pieces that I could not easily account for as being other than the product of human work, and the same was true of L. Capitan’s large collection of flints from the same site that I soon thereafter had the opportunity to see. . . . Capitan has like Klaatsch personally conducted excavations at Aurillac, but has not yet published his findings. Despite the fact that my firsthand observation and testing of these discoveries was leading me to belief in a Miocene flint culture in the Auvergne, I must nevertheless state that my scientific skepticism, and my own previous negative convictions in this matter, were strong enough to inspire new doubts that brought my positive decision again into question. I knew that I had to see the things on the spot, that I must personally get to know the circumstances of discovery, that I must with my own hand remove specimens from the ground— otherwise, I would not be certain. So I traveled to Aurillac.”

Verworn remained at Aurillac for six days. Pierre Marty, a local geologist who had written a monograph on the Late Miocene fauna of Joursac (in Cantal), explained to him the geology of the region. Marty also showed Verworn a site he had himself discovered at Puy de Boudieu, and Verworn’s excavations there yielded him the majority