ABSTRACT
The most primitive human implements known have formed the subject of considerable controversy, because it has often been difficult to decide whether they were human handiwork or whether the apparent flaking was not due entirely to natural causes. Man fashions stone implements in ways which are not dissimilar from those of nature, but he has a further method, usually termed the percussion method, which can rarely occur in nature. The Acheulean period was succeeded by one which has received the name of Mousterian. Physically, the Mousterians belonged to the type which inhabited Europe during the earlier periods but which became extinct after Mousterian times. The typical Mousterian implements are, however, not made from the core or flint nodule as had been done in previous periods, but from the flakes which were struck off and worked to the form which was required.
