COMPARISON OF THE TASMANIAN TRONATTA 

 WITH THE ARCHAEOLITHIC IMPLE- 

 MENTS OF EUROPE. (PL. III., IV., V. 



AND VI.) 



By Fritz Noetling, M.A., Ph.D., etc. 

 (Read 13th June, 1910.) 



I. THE CHIEF FEATURES OF TASMANIAN 

 CIVILISATION. 



Before we compare the Tasmanian tronatta with the 

 similar implements from Europe, it will be useful to fix 

 the main features of the Tasmanian civilisation, because 

 it represents the purest type of archaeolithic civiUsation. 

 We may deplore the fact that the Tasmanians died out 

 within a few years since they came in contact with the 

 Europeans; yet even this had its advantages. There was 

 no time for the inception of ideas foreign to the Tas- 

 manian mind ; the primitive state of civilisation could not 

 be adulterated by other notions. This preservation of the 

 archaeolithic stage in all its pureness would have been 

 impossible if the Tasmanians had become more or less 

 acquainted with foreign ideas. We would always have 

 to consider the probable influence of extraneous notions 

 had this been the case. However unfortunate this may 

 have been for the Aborigines, the student of the evolution 

 of mankind must consider it as a very lucky incident. We 

 know absolutely nothing about the human beings that 

 used the archaeolithic implements in Europe; but if we 

 apply the method so successfully used in palaeontology 

 to our case, we must consider the Tasmanians as the 

 living (i) objects the study of whose habits and customs 

 gives us the key to the understanding of the state of civi- 

 lisation of the fossil races— our own ancestors in all 

 probability. 



(i) Of course the Tasmanian race is extinct now, but it died 

 out within the memory of many still livmg, and as we are well 

 informed about many of their customs we can consider them the 

 "Hving objects" with which we can compare the relics o-. 

 quarternary and tertiary races. 



