ANCIENT STONE IMPLEMENTS from the YODDA 

 VALLEY GOLDFIELD, NORTH-EAST BRITISH 

 NEW GUINEA. 



By R. Etheridge, Junr., Curator. 



(Plates vi.-vii.) 



From time to time rumours of the discovery of ancient stone 

 implements in the auriferous alluvium of the Yodda Vallej 7 

 Goldtield have reached us, supposed to be those of a pre-existing 

 race. I have been unsuccessful in finding an} - description of 

 these implements or references to their discovery other than the 

 following brief statement by Mr. C. A. W. Monckton, one of the 

 New Guinea Resident Magistrates : — " A remarkable pestle and 

 mortar of plainly great antiquity have been found by some 

 miners in gold workings at a depth of 1'2 feet below the surface 

 in the Yodda Valley. The mortar, which with the pestle 

 weighed 66 lbs., was roughly ornamented with barbaric carving. 

 . . . The pestle and mortar were discovered in the same 

 creek as an obsidian battle axe given by me some years ago to 

 the Hon. David Ballantine, and both would appear to be relics 

 of a forgotten race. The natives to whom the recently found 

 articles were shown could not make any suggestion as to their 

 original use or purpose, and all agree that it is not the work of 

 any now existing tribes." 1 



No description or measurements of this interesting relic are 

 given, which has unfortunately found its way to the British 

 Museum. From the drawing accompanying the above remarks 

 it appears to be a depressed, hardly round piece of rock hollowed 

 in the centre, and scalloped round the edge. Two other objects, 

 a pounding-mortar and a nondescript implement, are in this 

 Museum, also from the Yodda Valley Goldfield, presented by 

 Mr. A. L. Joubert. 



Monckton— Brit. N. Guinea. Ann. Report for Year ending 30th June, 

 1904(1905); Commonwealth Pari. Papers, 1905, No. 1, C. 7001, p. .31, 4th pi. 



