john frere was the first to suggest in writing that hominids started making acheulean tools during "a very ancient period." in 1797, frere sent two examples of acheulean tools to the royal academy in london from hoxne in suffolk. he had found them in prehistoric lake deposits, along with the bones of extinct animals. he concluded that they were made by people "who had not the use of metals" and said they belonged to a "very ancient period indeed, even beyond the present world". however, other archaeologist still held a pre-darwinian view of human evolution, and they ignored frere's ideas.