2 Introduction. 



formed an important factor in the heated debate over the Indogermanic 

 migrations and the original habitat of the group, and was exploited in 

 favor of a supposition of an eastern origin of the neolithic culture of 

 Europe. 1 In 1900, Oscar Montelius (Die Chronologie der altesten 

 Bronzezeit, p. 204) wrote: "There is much divergence of opinion on 

 the often discussed question whether the numerous works of jadeite 

 and nephrite excavated in southern and central Europe have to be 

 explained as an importation from the Orient. I am of opinion that at 

 all events some of these works are to be attributed to such an importa- 

 tion." Fischer's theory was first attacked by A. B. Meyer in several 

 papers, particularly "Die Nephritfrage kein Ethnologisches Problem" 

 (Berlin, 1883; translated in American Anthropologist, Vol. I, 1888, 

 pp. 231-242). First, Meyer thought it improbable that ready-made 

 implements or unwrought stones should have been transported over 

 oceans and wide tracts of land; an argument of no great validity, as 

 there are, in the history of trade, numerous examples proving the con- 

 trary. Secondly, he referred to localities, increasing from year to year, 

 Where jade occurring in situ had become known. Captain I. H. Jacob- 

 sen brought nephrite from Alaska, where it is found as a mineral and 

 worked by the natives into numerous objects. 2 In Europe, strata of 

 nephrite were discovered in the eastern Alps in the Sann valley, near 

 St. Peter, and in the Murr valley, near Graz. In Switzerland, bowlders 

 of jadeite were sighted on Lake Neuenburg; even a sort of nephrite 

 workshop was discovered in the vicinity of Maurach, where hatchets 

 chiseled from the mineral and one hundred and fifty-four pieces of 

 cuttings were found. At the foot of Mount Viso, in Italy, jadeite was 

 met with in situ. Single erratic bowlders of nephrite in diluvial 

 deposits had been signaled in Germany at an earlier date, near Schwemm- 

 sal, Potsdam, and Leipzig, the latter weighing seventy-nine pounds 

 (Fischer, pp. 3-5 et passim). Credner supposed that these three 

 bowlders were transported through the ice from Scandinavia to their 

 present localities. Another geologist, Traube, succeeded in discover- 

 ing nephrite in situ in small bands and greater layers near Jordansmuhl 

 in the serpentine strata of the Zobten mountains of Silesia. A large 

 serpentine hatchet instratified with bands of nephrite is known from 

 Gnichwitz only two miles distant from Jordansmuhl, and made from a 

 material which agrees with the material of the latter locality. Thus, 

 Fischer's ingenious hypothesis of importation or migration could no 

 longer be upheld in regard to Germany. 



1 Max Muller, Biographies of Words, Appendix II: The Original Home of 

 Jade. London, 1888. 



2 For further notes regarding the occurrence of jade in America, see article 

 "Nephrite," by Mr. Hodge in Handbook of American Indians, Vol. II, pp. 55-56 

 (Washington, 19 10). 



