They have determined that these instruments
resemble those used by certain savages today. The study of all these
objects constitutes a new science, Prehistoric Archaeology.[1]
=The Four Ages.=--Prehistoric remains come down to us from very
diverse races of men; they have been deposited in the soil at widely
different epochs since the time when the mammoth lived in western
Europe, a sort of gigantic elephant with woolly hide and curved tusks.
This long lapse of time may be divided into four periods, called Ages:
1. The Rough Stone Age.
2. The Polished Stone Age.
3. The Bronze Age.
4. The Iron Age.
The periods take their names from the materials used in the
manufacture of the tools,--stone, bronze, iron. These epochs, however,
are of very unequal length. It may be that the Rough Stone Age was ten
times as long as the Age of Iron.
THE ROUGH STONE AGE
=Gravel Debris.=--The oldest remains of the Stone Age have been found
in the gravels. A French scholar found between 1841 and 1853, in the
valley of the Somme, certain sharp instruments made of flint. They
were buried to a depth of six metres in gravel under three layers of
clay, gravel, and marl which had never been broken up.
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