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made in the course of butchering operations on a long bone such as the femur. Binford’s studies (1981, p. 169) revealed: “cut marks are concentrated on articulator surfaces and are relatively rare as transverse marks on long bone surfaces. . . . cut marks from stone tools are most commonly made with a sawing motion resulting in short and frequently multiple but roughly parallel marks. Such marks are generally characterized by an open cross section. Another characteristic of cut marks derived from the use of stone tools is that they rarely follow the contours of the bone on which they appear. That is, the cut does not show equal pressure in depressions and along prominent ridges or across the arc of a cylinder.” As described by de Mortillet, the short parallel grooves found on the Miocene rhinoceros femur conform to these criteria, leaving one to wonder how it is possible that chance geological pressures could so closely duplicate, in terms of position and character, the distinctive marks of human butchering.

The Miocene dating of the Clermont-Ferrand site is confirmed by the presence of Anthracotherium magnum, an extinct mammal of the hippopotamus family. In fact, the site could be older than Middle Miocene. According to one modern authority, Anthracotherium existed in Europe from the Late Miocene to the Early Eocene (Romer 1966, p. 389). Savage and Russell (1983, p. 245) last report Anthracotherium in the Orleanian land mammal stage of the Early Miocene.

2.15 Carved Shell from the Red Crag, England (Late Pliocene)

In a report delivered to the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1881, H. Stopes, F.G.S. (Fellow of the Geological Society), described a shell, the surface of which bore a carving of a crude but unmistakably human face. The carved shell was found in the stratified deposits of the Red Crag (Stopes 1881, p. 700). The Red Crag, part of which is called the Walton Crag, is thought to be of Late Pliocene age. According to Nilsson (1983, p. 308), the Red (Walton) Crag is between 2.0 and 2.5 million years old.

Figure 2.6. Carved shell from the Late Pliocene Red Crag formation, England (M. Stopes 1912, p. 285).

Just how the discovery ( Figure 2.6) was received was detailed by Marie C. Stopes, the discoverer’s daughter, in an article in The Geological Magazine (1912, p. 285): “in 1881, when it was brought forward by Mr. Henry Stopes at a British Association meeting, it was considered wrong to suggest that man could have been alive at so early a date.” Arguing against forgery, Marie Stopes (1912, p. 285) stated: “It should be noted that the excavated features are as deeply coloured red-brown as the rest of the surface. This is an important point, because when the surface of Red Crag shells are scratched they show white below the colour. It should also be noticed that the shell is so delicate that any attempt to carve it would merely shatter it.” It is therefore quite possible that this shell was carved and deposited in the Red Crag strata during the Late Pliocene. If true, this would place intelligent human beings in England as far back as 2.0 million and maybe as much as 2.5 million years ago. One should keep in mind that in terms of conventional paleoanthropological opinion, one does not encounter such works of art until the time of fully modern Cro-Magnon man in the Late Pleistocene, about 30,000 years ago.

Discoveries of incised bones dating back to the Pliocene or earlier persisted into the early part of the twentieth century. Opposition to them also persisted, and eventually prevailed. For example, Hugo Obermaier, professor of prehistoric archeology at the University of Madrid, wrote (1924, pp. 2–3): “traces (chiefly fluted, engraved, or grooved) have been observed on the bones of animals and shells of molluscs in Tertiary deposits at Saint-Prest, Sansan, Pouancé, and Billy, France; in the Tertiary basin of Antwerp, Holland; at Monte Aperto near Siena, Italy; in North and South America; and in several other places. . . . it is easy to explain supposed traces of human activity as the