Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/391

Rh arrow-heads. One specimen in particular has been skilfully chipped into a very symmetrical arrow-head without any unnecessary work—and, indeed, with a minimum of labour—showing that considerable skill had been acquired and utilized in producing such an object. The great similarity between this and at least two other specimens would seem to show an evident design, and that the chipping was done with the object of producing instruments shaped like this. No doubt the more perfect or finished specimens were carried off; but those that are left, together with the miscellaneous chips and the lumps of original flint, are sufficient to show what was the purpose in hand. Each specimen has one flat surface, with a bulb of percussion, showing that it was deliberately struck off a larger piece; on its other surface is the angle usual in flint flakes, and this angle has—in two specimens, at least—been broken down at one end as if to fit into a handle. There is a good point, and the whole object would form a very serviceable arrow-head. I cannot help thinking that specimen No. 1 at least is a finished one, and that it represents a fair type of the work of the men who made it, and was accidentally left behind. It does not require any more finishing—secondary chipping at the edge would be superfluous—and the only improvement would be further trimming at the base.

Many people have thought, from Dr. Noetling's specimens, that these are natural chips, but I think that is chiefly because they have felt constrained to believe that they were embedded in a Tertiary stratum, and that when it is shown that there is no connection between the two, and that they may be the work of ordinary Palæolithic man, common sense will show that these stones cannot have chipped themselves up in this manner, still less have fashioned themselves into symmetrical shapes with bulbs of percussion and angles complete.

It is clear that these chips do not come from the ferruginous conglomerate, and I cannot see what difficulty there is in believing that some dropped over the edge of the ravine on to the ledge where Dr. Noetling found his. Certainly none of those from the particular area which we found could have so dropped; but if, as Mr. Oldham says, they occur anywhere on the plateau, there are doubtless many other areas of them, and