Any naturally shaped or broken stone, once considered to be the oldest artifacts of early man. They consist of crudely chipped flakes and cores from pre-Pleistocene or very early Pleistocene deposits. It is now accepted that eoliths were not made by humans but chipped by natural agencies as far back as 500,000 years BC. Most eoliths were frost-split chunks with irregular chipping round the edge. Eolithic is a term sometimes used by archaeologists for the earliest stage of human culture before the Paleolithic, characterized by very primitive stone tools, especially of flint. It means "Dawn of the Stone Age.