54 



here and in other localities by Mr. Bruce Foote were 

 produced by neolithic people using finely serrated chert 

 or agate flakes as suggested by him {Joe. cit., p. 8i, Vol. I). 

 Had such been the case the shell sections and the 

 waste fragments cut off in the course of sectioning — the 

 shoulder of the shell and the lip section of the mouth 

 whorl — would not exhibit the perfect regularity and 

 evenness of sawn surface which they do. It is quite 

 possible to cut a ring section from a chank shell by 

 means of a flint "saw" but the task is one involving- 

 prodigious difficulty and the waste pieces must neces- 

 sarily be broken and chipped off in the process in conse- 

 quence of the impossibility of cutting cleanly through the 

 shell owing to the smallness of the tool and the thick- 

 ness of its back. Only a thin blade such as the employ- 

 ment of iron or steel permits will perform the task of 

 sawing off the shoulder or the lip section in one conti- 

 nuous operation and without breaking off the waste 

 portion piecemeal as the sawing progresses as must 

 necessarily be the case if a small thick-backed stone 

 tool be employed. 



The hone found may conceivably have been used for 

 rubbing down the thickness of the edge of the iron saw 

 employed as at Dacca to-day, or in sharpening the edge 

 of the chisel-edged implement used in re-forming the 

 teeth of the saw itself. 



Raich I ir Do ah. 



South- Western Hyderabad. 



The country lying between the Tungabhadra and the 

 Kistna, the Raichur Doab, appears to have been thickly 

 populated in prehistoric times by the same race as has 

 left great numbers of implements scattered through the 

 present districts of Kurnul, Cuddapah and Bellary. 

 Three sites have yielded remains of bangles and of these 

 one has undoubtedly been a manufacturing centre where 

 the raw material has been cut up and worked into bang- 

 les for sale to the people of the district. This ancient 

 factory was located near Maski, on the right bank of a 

 tributary of the Tungabhadra. Exhibits 2783-63 to 

 2783-85 are typical chank workshop waste exactly 

 similar to what I have seen in Dacca factories. There 



