An eolith (from

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

"''eos''", dawn, and "''lithos''", stone) is a

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...

nodule Nodule may refer to: * Nodule (geology), a small rock or mineral cluster * Manganese nodule, a metallic concretion found on the seafloor *Nodule (medicine), a small aggregation of cells *Root nodule Root nodules are found on the roots of plants, ...

that appears to have been crudely knapped. Eoliths were once thought to have been artifacts, the earliest

stone tool Stone tools have been used throughout human history but are most closely associated with prehistoric cultures and in particular those of the Stone Age. Stone tools may be made of either ground stone or knapped stone, the latter fashioned by a ...

s, but are now believed to be

geofact A geofact (a portmanteau of ''geology'' and ''artifact'') is a natural stone formation that is difficult to distinguish from a man-made artifact. Geofacts could be fluvially reworked and be misinterpreted as an artifact, especially when compared ...

s (stone fragments produced by fully natural

geological Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth s ...

processes such as

glaciation A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate be ...

). The first eoliths were collected in

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

by Benjamin Harrison, an English amateur

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

and

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

, in 1885 (though the name "eolith" was not coined until 1892, by J. Allen Browne). Harrison's discoveries were published by Sir

Joseph Prestwich Sir Joseph Prestwich (12 March 1812 – 23 June 1896) was a British geologist and businessman, known as an expert on the Tertiary Period and for having confirmed the findings of Boucher de Perthes of ancient flint tools in the Somme valley ...

in 1891, and eoliths were generally accepted to have been crudely made tools, dating from the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58Red Crag Formation The Red Crag Formation is a geological formation in England. It outcrops in south-eastern Suffolk and north-eastern Essex. The name derives from its iron-stained reddish colour and ''crag'' which is an East Anglian word for shells. It is part of t ...

and Norwich Crag Formation of

East Anglia East Anglia is an area of the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with parts of Essex sometimes also included. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, ...

by J. Reid Moir and

E. Ray Lankester Sir Edwin Ray Lankester (15 May 1847 – 13 August 1929) was a British zoologist.New International Encyclopaedia. An invertebrate zoologist and evolutionary biologist, he held chairs at University College London and Oxford University. He was th ...

and in continental

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

by Aimé Louis Rutot and H. Klaatsch – were taken to be evidence of human habitation of those areas before the oldest known

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

s. The English finds helped to secure acceptance of the (hoax) remains of Piltdown Man. Because eoliths were so crude, concern was raised that they were indistinguishable from the natural processes of

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust and then sediment transport, tran ...

Marcellin Boule Pierre-Marcellin Boule (1 January 1861 – 4 July 1942), better known as merely Marcellin Boule, was a French palaeontologist, geologist, and anthropologist. Early life and education Pierre-Marcellin Boule was born in Montsalvy, France. Car ...

, a French archaeologist, published an argument against the artefactual status of eoliths in 1905,Boule, M. (1905) - « L'origine des éolithes », ''L'Anthropologie'', t. XVI, pp. 257-267. and Samuel Hazzledine Warren provided confirmation of Boule's view after carrying out experiments on flints.Warren, S.H. (1905) - « On the origin of "Eolithic" flints by naturals causes, especially by the foundering of drifts », ''Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland'', t. 35, pp. 337-364.

References

Bibliography

* A. O'Connor, "Geology, archaeology, and ‘the raging vortex of the “eolith” controversy’", ''Proceedings of the Geologists' Association'', 114 (2003). * Terry Harrison, "Eoliths", in H. James Birx (edtior), '' Encyclopedia of Anthropology'' (Sage, 2006). * Roy Frank Ellen, "The Eolith Debate, Evolutionist Anthropology and the Oxford Connection Between 1880 and 1940," ''History and Anthropology'', 22, 3 (2011), 277–306. {{Use British English, date=June 2025 Archaeological artefact types Lithics Paleoanthropology Petrology