The Stone Ages of South Africa. 87 



Solutrian scraper. Fig. 125, both faces of which are represented, 

 has undoubtedly been worked intentionally into a "tang," but not 

 so the serrated tool Fig. 126 nor Fig. 127, and it is impossible to 

 decide whether we have here a case of progression or one of re- 

 gression. Two pedunculated tools nearly similar to Fig. 125 were 

 discovered at Cradock, and another, which was unfortunately lost, 

 came from Queen's Town, 



The bevelled scrapers are never large, especially if we compare 

 them with the flake-knives, but Fig. 132 of PL XVI. is quite an 

 exception. It is from Matatiele, in the Cape Colony, and the 

 secondary trimming on each side of the edge is very conspicuous. 

 It is difficult to understand the pur-pose for which this large, 

 moderately thin implement was intended. It is 210 mm. long, 

 85 mm. wide, and 23 mm. thick. It may have been hafted laterally 

 in the manner of a Basuto battle-axe. 



These bevelled tools are seldom found in the Western part of the 

 Colony, in fact, I know of none of the same size, although the 

 diminutive ones in Fig. 130 approximate them ; but they abound in 

 the Karroo, and are met with in the Orange Free State, Griqualand 

 West, and in the Southern parts of the Transvaal, but I have not 

 seen any from Southern Ehodesia, Natal, or the N 'Garni Eegion, 

 and, so far, it is not unsafe to say that the technique is that of the 

 "pygmies," many of which have, in spite of their small size, been 

 subjected to a secondary trimming, more difficult, perhaps, to execute 

 even than the bevelling of the nucleiform minute scrapers of 

 Fig. 130 ; cf. also the bevelled agate chip, Cut 1 of Fig. 135, 

 PL XVII. 



Yet, in spite of the undoubted skill displayed in the production 

 of these stone tools, the progress seems to have been checked ; the 

 manufacturer has never conceived the method of paring the tool on 

 both faces as the Aurignacian and the Solutrian makers did, and 

 thus on pure lithological grounds it may be asserted that the South 

 African industry, which I term Neolithic, has, so far as the " points " 

 are concerned not proceeded beyond the Mousterian type. 



But, just as in the case of the Chelleo-Mousterian type, bouchers 

 and scraper-knives, the evidence as to the age of those scrapers 

 which we find nearly always associated with minute flakes and 

 diminutive piercers, borers, or drills, which I range among the 

 " pygmy " or " Tardenosian " type of Eutot, is unsatisfactory. It 

 cannot be ascertained, because, whereas there is no proof that 

 the palaeolith, either Chellean, Acheulean, or Mousterian was used 

 by the Aborigines in historical times, the same cannot be said 



