Eolith in the shape of a bear
In the Fakes and Forgeries section of the Ancient Worlds displays opening this October we are going to show some eoliths from the archaeology collection. A student researcher came to look at them just before Christmas. Eoliths are stones that were thought to have been made by the earliest inhabitants of Britain, at ‘the dawn of time’, hence their name eoliths or ‘dawnstones’.
Some enthusiasts argued the stones had been made as tools or representations of animals. They claimed that the shapes they saw in the stones were evidence of deliberate human intent. People like William Boyd Dawkins of the Manchester Museum were in no doubt that the eoliths were ‘accidents of nature’ and questioned whether they were evidence of early man in the UK. In a letter sent to one of the Museum’s curators, one donor wrote that he saw human faces and representations of animals in the eoliths but that the reader should excuse him because he was in his 80s and almost blind… Benjamin Harrison, one of the leading champions of eoliths as humanly-worked artefacts, was once challenged about how suitable one particular eolith really was because it seemed not to fit in his hand very well. Harrison took the eolith in his left hand which did fit better and said: “There, you see, that explains it, it must have been made for a left-handed person!”
The student concerned, David Matzliach, sent me some photos of eoliths. He describes them as a bear, a human face, a bird, etc. I’m sure he doesn’t think for one second they were deliberately-shaped. The stones only resemble those creatures by coincidence. The interpretation of the eoliths as animals or faces or anything is very subjective. This is a very interesting area. Ultimately it revolves around the question of whether how we see things today is the way people in the past saw them and vice-versa. We can’t assume they’re the same. Have a look at them dear reader and see what you think….
Eolith in the shape of a bird’s head
The item above isn’t a bear but probably a double-notch with nose (the chipped edges aren’t to be seen very well on the foto). I pocess tools of this type from paleolithic sites in Europe (for instance Le Moustier, France).
I visited many museums and universities in Europe (England, France, Germany and Belgium; please see page 16 below) where I saw lots of Eoliths. There, high quality photos and casts from many Eoliths were made. I got in touch with men in Europe (England, Belgium, France and Germany) who have expertise in Paleolithic stone tools. No question, the published Eoliths are artifacts comparable to artifacts from the Lower Paleolithic in Europe and not to be geofacts as proposed. The most comprehensive book about the Eoliths problematic is “Vergessene Archäologie”. I am the author of this book. Unfortunately for you, this book is written in German. Please see at http://www.vergessene-archaeologie.info.
Really interesting to see the debate continuing. Thanks for the blog and the comment.
I have a blog with my eolith, flint tool, and Paleoart finds.
Many in the British institution need to re-examine the evidence for the validity of thee beautiful ancient art works.