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,