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of the Boncelles region: “On the plateau (between the Maas and Ourthe rivers) the primary stone was covered with flint-bearing chalk, and during the Eocene period the chalk was eroded away, leaving behind heaps of flint that later formed the flint beds. At the beginning of the Late Oligocene a marine intrusion covered the flint beds, depositing 15 meters [49 feet] of fossilbearing sands over them. Finally, during the Middle Pliocene, streams deposited an additional 3 meters [10 feet] of white quartz gravel (a formation now called the Kieselöolithe) along with beds of sand and clay. Then began the excavation of the present valleys.” Rutot believed that human beings manufactured the Boncelles eoliths before the Oligocene marine intrusion, when the land surface was a flint-heaped lowland bordering the sea.

Rutot’s complete report on the Boncelles finds appeared in the bulletin of the Belgian Society for Geology, Paleontology, and Hydrology and provided extensive verification of the preliminary reports cited above. Rutot (1907, p. 479) also supplied information that stone tools like those of Boncelles had been found in Oligocene contexts at Baraque Michel and the cavern at Bay Bonnet. At Rosart, on the left bank of the Meuse, stone tools had also been found in a Middle Pliocene context, thus making them as old as the eoliths of the Kent Plateau.

In his report on Boncelles, Rutot (1907, p. 442) stated that the initial discovery of implements had been made by E. de Munck, in a sand pit situated alongside the main roadway from Tilff to Boncelles, about 500 meters (1640 feet) from a crossroad at the place called “Les Gonhir.” In the very bottom of the sand pit, workmen had excavated a hole about half a meter (a foot and a half) deep in order to extract flint to be used as gravel for roadbeds. This enabled de Munck to gather from the matrix of clayey yellow sand many flint flakes showing signs of fine retouching and utilization (Rutot 1907, p. 442). “It was these implements, including a scraper with a clear bulb of percussion and nicely retouched sharp edge, which convinced me that at the place pointed out by de Munck there existed a deposit of Tertiary eoliths that deserved to be explored and studied,” said Rutot (1907, pp. 442– 443). A bulb of percussion indicates the scraper was intentionally flaked from a flint core for the purpose of tool manufacture, which, according to our conventions, places such an implement in the category of the crude paleoliths, rather than the eoliths.

Rutot and de Munck worked together at Boncelles, enlarging and deepening the original excavation. The flint bed was about 1 meter (3 feet) thick and rested on a Devonian sandstone base, surmounted by 15 meters (49 feet) of Oligocene marine sands and clays (Rutot 1907, p. 443). Rutot and de Munck recovered over a hundred specimens, which Rutot (1907, p. 444) said represented “numerous examples of all the various Eolithic types, that is to say percuteurs (choppers), enclumes (anvils), couteaux (cutters), racloirs (side scrapers), grattoirs (end scrapers), and perçoirs (awls).” Rutot (1907, p. 444) stated: “These tools display, in all their detailed features, the same characteristics as other well-known and authenticated Tertiary and Quaternary Eolithic industries.” Rutot called the industry the Fagnian, after the name of the region, Hautes-Fagnes.

Another pit 500 meters (1640 feet) to the northwest of the first also yielded tools. Furthermore, this site provided confirmation of the Oligocene dating of the flint bed bearing the tools. Whereas the first site did not furnish any fossils, the layers of sediment above the flint bed at the second site contained many shell imprints. About a dozen species were recognized (Rutot 1907, p. 444). It was obvious that the shells represented a typical Oligocene assemblage. The most common species was Cytherea beyrichi. Rutot (1907, p. 447) stated: “This shell is characteristic of the Late Oligocene of Germany, notably the beds at Sternberg, Bünde, and Kassel. . . . The other recognizable species (Cytherea incrassata,