MINUTE STONE IMPLEMENTS FROM INDIA. 



By Thomas Wilson, Curator of Prehistoric Anthropology. 



The National Museum has become possessed of an extensive series of 

 minute chipped stone implements from India. They were collected by- 

 Mr. A. C. Carlyle, formerly of the Arclneologic Survey, in the Vindhya 

 hills or mountains in central and north-western India. They were ob- 

 tained through the assistance of Mr. Charles Seidler, of London. The 

 series comprises every condition of the implement, from the rude mate- 

 rial, the nucleus or core, the flake — sometimes rude, often quite symmet- 

 rical — and so on through the various steps, until is reached the 

 finished chipped implement of every form. Their peculiarity, differing 

 from other prehistoric implements, is their remarkably small size. The 

 cores themselves arc rarely more than an iuch and three-quarters in 

 length, and the blades are rarely more thau an inch and a quarter or 

 an inch and a half — the majority of them are not more than an inch, while 

 the finished specimen is frequently not more than five-eighths of an 

 inch in length. Needless to say that all these flakes are of extreme 

 thinness. The finished implements are of various forms — slim, almost 

 needle-like, triangular, with a base, convex, straight or concave, quad- 

 rilateral, trapezoid, rhomboidal; while the most delicate and finely 

 finished are in the form of a crescent. 



These various shapes are indicated in the figures on the accompanying 

 plates, and the numbers of each kind belonging to the collection will be 

 given in the list at the end of this paper. Plate Oil represents some of 

 the implements by photograph. There is a marked difference between 

 the two edges of the crescents. The crescent edge is thick and has been 

 worked in to its present shape by the secondary chipping of the most 

 minute kind, while the straight edge is the cutting edge, sharp and thin, 

 just as it comes from the nucleus, and is without any secondary chip- 

 ping. The material comprises all the variety of silicious rock jasper, 

 cli rt, horn-stone, flint, agate, and chalcedony; some of them are rare 

 and fine specimens. They belong to the neolithic period, although they 

 are something new to its culture. The whole series bears the same im- 

 press. The similarity of form and mode of manufacture, and their be- 

 ing found in the same general locality, is evidence showing the same 

 intention on the part of the makers, although we are quite in the dark 



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