वेदों की प्राचीनता एवं काल-निर्णय / ओरायन (लोकमान्य बाल गंगाधर तिलक - खगोलीय वैदिक शोध)

10 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. based upon the fact that the stone implements of the Palæoli- thic age are found to be very rudely fashioned, being merely chipped into shape and never ground or polished as is the case with the implements of the new Stone age. Another characteristic of the Palæolithic period is that the implements of the period are found in places which plainly show a much greater antiquity than can be assigned to the remains of the Neolithic age, the relics of the two ages being hardly, if ever, found together. The third distinction between the Palæolithic and the Neolithic age is that the remains of the Palæolithic man are found associated with those of many great mammals, such as the cave bear, the mammoth and wooly- haired rhinoceros, that became either locally or wholly extinct before the appearance of the Neolithic man on the stage. In short, there is a kind of hiatus or break between the Palæolithic and Neolithic man requiring a separate classification and treat- ment for each. It may also be noted that the climatic conditions and the distribution of land and water in the Palæolithic period were different from those in the Neolithic period; while from the beginning of the Neolithic period the modern conditions, both geographical and climatic, have prevailed almost unaltered upto the present time. To understand the relation of these three ages with the geological periods into which the history of the earth is divided we must briefly consider the geological classification. The geologist takes up the history of the earth at the point where the archæo- logist leaves it, and carries it further back into remote antiquity. His classification is based upon an examination of the whole system of stratified rocks, and not on mere relics found in the surface strata. These stratified rocks have been divided into five principal classes according to the character of the fossils found in them, and they represent five different periods in the history of our planet. These geological eras, like the three ages of Stone,