6i 



From a consideration of the details oiven above a 

 certain number of facts and conclusions of importance 

 emerge, to wit : — 



(a) In all cases the fragments of bangles and of 

 chank shells appear to have been surface finds. In 

 several cases this is definitely stated and in the remainder 

 wherever no statement of horizon is given, the context 

 points to a like provenance. From this it follows that 

 association with neolithic artifacts in itself has little value 

 or significance ; both neoliths and chank fragments are 

 practically indestructible by atmospheric weathering 

 agencies and their association may merely connote the 

 fact that particular surface areas have suffered little or no 

 denudation or change since neolithic times whereby the 

 broken implements and discarded ornaments of a later 

 age have mingled with those of an earlier one. Or it 

 may be the result of the artifacts of different ages having 

 been weathered out of difterent alluvial strata in such 

 way that, they come eventually to lie together at a lower 

 level of the original ground or else in some newer river 

 deposit into which floods may have rolled them. 



(d) The facts already noted that all sections of 

 chank shells, working pieces as well as wastage scraps, 

 show cleanly sawn surfaces as verified by examination of 

 the originals now in the Madras Museum, and that these 

 surfaces show series of striae ofh^n at tivo or more angles 

 to one another, are sufficient to negative the tentative 

 suggestion made by Mr. Bruce Foote assigning a neolithic 

 origin to the workmanship. Neither serrate nor biserrate 

 chert flake saws however delicately made could possibly 

 produce such cleanly sawn sections as we see represented 

 in the collection. The aid of thin metal saws must be 

 invoked and it is most significant that in two instances 

 (Ambavalli in Kathiawar and Muski in the Raichur 

 Doab) fragments of iron knives were found associated 

 with the remnants of chank working sections. In several 

 other cases (Srinivaspur in Mysore, Havaligi Hill in 

 Anantapur, and Bastipad in Kurnul) pieces of iron slag 

 were found in association. 



As the working sections of chank shells retain visible 

 evidence of being sawn by means of a metal (iron) saw 

 and as iron fragments are frequently associated with 

 them, the evidence is to me satisfactory that the age of 



