104 FUKTHKK Ni'TKS ON HABITS <)K TASM AMAN ABoltKilNES. 



It must be considei-ed as rather fortunate that, before 

 the statement that the aborigines of Tasmania did use 

 bone in the manufacture of their implements, has been 

 spread through the literature, it could be proved to be 

 absolutely wrong. It is rather remarkable that such a 

 theory should ever be credited even among amateurs, be- 

 cause the question might well be asked : For what purpose 

 could these "scoops" be used? The general belief is that 

 they were used to scoop out the marrow from the bones, 

 and this once more proves how wrong it is to judge from 

 our customs and habits those of a far inferior race. It does 

 not follow that because we use a special insti'ument to 

 scoop out the maiTOw from the bones of the big ruminants 

 that the aborigines did the same ; in fact, if one thing is 

 certain it is, that they did not. If they wanted the marrow 

 the easiest and quickest way to get it was to sma.sh the 

 bone, and this they did, as has been proved by the broken 

 fragments in the cave deposits. The idea that a primitive 

 human being like the Tasmanian sat down uolding in one 

 hand the cooked marrow bone, and in the other the scoop, 

 daintily scooping out the marrow, is intensely comical. 

 Its absurdity becomes more conspicuous still, when we 

 consider that the end of the marrow bone hau to be cut off 

 by means of a stone, and that the marrow was obtained 

 quicker and easier by breaking the whole bone at once, 

 than by knocking off one end, and aftei"wai'ds scooping out 

 the marrow. 



I have dwelt at some length on this absurd theory, 

 because it is very illustrative of the way how the most 

 ludicrous intei'pretations of archseolithic remains can arise. 



The archaeolithic civilisation did not know the use of 

 bone as a material for the manufacture of implements, and 

 the Tasmanian industi'y foi'ms no exception from this rule; 

 in fact, we know now for certain that oven the most care- 

 ful examination has failed to discover any specimen of 

 bone that had been used as an implement- It might be 

 argued that in Europe, where the archa?olithic civilisation 

 IS of great age. the Ijones had become decayed, and there 

 being no bone implements does not prove that they were 

 not used. From our investigations we know now that the 

 archaeolithic civilisation of Tasmania did not know the use 

 of bone as material for implements, and we can. therefore, 

 conclude that this also applies to the same type of civilisar 

 tion in EuT'ope. Those who held that the use of bone is a 

 more modem invention, which the primitive industries had 

 not yet made, were, therefore, perfectly right, and this 

 view is fullv borne out bv the researches in Tasmania. 



