Forbidden Archeology_ The Full Unabridged Edition - Michael A. Cremo [196]
Rutot was probably attempting to fit the evidence before him within his own framework of evolutionary ideas. He apparently wanted to characterize the makers of the Oligocene industry of Boncelles as more primitive than the makers of industries at Pleistocene sites. But leaving aside Rutot’s evolutionary expectations, we can see no reason to rule out the possibility that some of the Boncelles specimens are tools intentionally made from flakes struck for specific purposes.
Rutot then described perçoirs, which might be called awls or borers. “These instruments, also called poinçons,” he stated, “are characterized by the presence of a sharp point, obtained by intentional modification of a natural flake that already has a somewhat pointed shape. This modified point is situated indifferently in regard to the axis of the instrument, sometimes in a position oblique to the axis” (Rutot 1907, p. 464). An instrument with an oblique point is shown in Figure 4.37, along with two awls with straight points.
Figure 4.37. Three awls ( perçoirs) from below the Late Oligocene sands at Boncelles, Belgium (Rutot 1907, p. 465).
According to Rutot (1907, pp. 464 – 465), the Boncelles toolmakers had two ways of modifying a naturally pointed flake to make an awl: “Sometimes the chipping on the two edges making the point was done on just one side of the flake. But sometimes one edge was chipped on the flake’s front side, and the other edge was chipped on the flake’s back side. This procedure is convenient because it allows all the blows to be struck in the same position and the same direction. In effect, when the first edge is chipped, one flips the implement and chips in the same place on the other edge to make a point.”
Figure 4.38. An awl discovered below the Late Oligocene sands at Boncelles, Belgium (Rutot 1907, p. 465). The chipping on one edge of the point is on the dorsal surface of the implement (left), while the chipping for the other edge of the point is on the ventral surface (right). According to Rutot, this pattern illustrates the use of a specific chipping technique that allowed the maker of the implement to chip one edge of the point, turn the implement over, and chip the other edge of the point from the same position and direction.
Rutot showed a find with this kind of chipping, unlikely to have occurred by random natural battering (Figure 4.38). Rutot remarked that the point obtained by this method of chipping can easily be broken and that, in fact, most of the specimens of awls recovered at Boncelles do have broken points.
Rutot also noted the presence at Boncelles of objects that appeared to be pierres de jet—throwing stones or sling stones. “Throwing stones,” observed Rutot (1907, p. 466), “are polyhedral pieces of stone that present an irregular combination of natural and artificial surfaces. They are somewhat rounded in shape and of small volume, appropriate for throwing violently with the hand or with a sling. Such a weapon would strike in such a manner as to produce not only shock from impact but also cutting from the rotation of the sharp edges of the projectile. The flint industry of Boncelles contains many such polyhedral stones that give every appearance of being throwing stones.”
Rutot concluded that flint objects with certain characteristics may very well have been used by the ancient inhabitants of Boncelles to make fire. “Not only in Eolithic series, but in Paleolithic and Neolithic assemblages,” stated Rutot (1907, p. 467), “one encounters pieces of flint which along one side bear traces of numerous and repeated violent blows, distributed in groups, each group presenting a series of blows arranged in the same direction.