The implements presented by Mr. Seton-Karr, and exhibited 

 as belonging to the Stone Age in India, are of this simple Tas- 

 manian type, though the work of a people living thousands of 

 years before the Christian era. 



The Stone Age is commonly divided into the Paleolithic period, 

 characterized by rough and unpolished implements; and the suc- 

 ceeding Neolithic in which the workmanship is of a more finished 

 type, knives and axes, for instance, being ground and polished, 

 and arrow and spear heads carefully shaped and pointed. 



PALEOLITHIC PERIOD 



Paleolithic man of the most unskilled type produced the rudely 

 flaked implements exhibited in the India group. Here are stones 

 flaked for use as knives and axes. No provision is made for 

 handles. One side is flaked as the cutting edge and the other 

 roughly shaped to fit the hand. 



The Paleolithic period has been most fully studied in Europe. 

 It dates back to a time when the shape of the continent differed 

 greatly from its present conformation. The climate was much 

 colder, man lived usually in caves or in the shelter of overhanging 

 rocks and his bones are found on the floors of caves in associa- 

 tion with those of the mammoth, reindeer, rhinoceros, and bear, 

 on which he preyed. The implements found with these remains 

 include rude stone harpoon, spear, and arrow heads; knives and 

 axes. Sewing was practiced, as evidenced by needles of bone; 

 but no pottery was made until the close of the period. Carvings 

 on bone and ivory are frequent; in them are found the highest 

 expression of Paleolithic culture. Popularly this period in Eu- 

 rope is known as that of the Cave Man. 



The Paleolithic period is represented in the exhibit of the Stone 

 Age in Europe by a number of good examples. An unfinished 

 flint axe from Broom Hill, and a flaked but unchipped flint knife 

 from Thetford, England, are characteristic, as are also the un- 

 chipped knives from Toome Lough Neagh, Ireland. Represent- 

 ative of the bone remains of the caves are the reindeer and bear 

 teeth from Laugerie Cavern. 



"^ 58 



