Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/23

Prehistoric Man before man learned to raise crops, tame and breed animals, make pottery, and weave cloth ; the last six or seven inches, the time that he has been able to write ; the last three inches, the period during which he has been studying science ; the last half- inch, the time since the printing press became common ; and the last fifth of an inch, the period since he discovered he could make the steam engine work for him and carry him about. A great part of the problems of the present day are due to the rapidity with which in- vention now goes on and changes the conditions in which we live. But our remote ancestors probably lived for thousands and thousands of years with- out experiencing any great changes due to inventions, for it is only during the past five or six thousand years that civilization finally reached a point where ever more rapid progress could be made. Rough flint flakes older than the fist-hatchet show us man's earliest efforts at shaping stone. But the fist-hatchet is the earliest well-finished type of tool produced by man. The original is about nine inches long. Handles of wood or horn do not ap- human bones. It was only when he pear until much later began to make stone implements by chipping fragments of flint into rude knives and hatchets that he created anything that could last down to- our day.. How old the most ancient of these stone weapons are we do not know. They may have been made a hundred thousand years ago, perhaps earlier. They are found in England, France, and Belgium and A FLINT FIST-HATCHET BELONGING TO THE EARLY STONE AGE II. THE EARLY STONE AGE 5. Great Age of Man shown by Stone Tools and Weapons. Of the earliest period of man's existence we have no traces except perhaps a few