October 25, 1900] 



NA TURE 



^Z7 



had a mythology, with a Greek-like legend, as to the origin of 

 fire ; and lastly, they had religious ideas, lower and ruder than 

 those of the North American Indians, but on substantially the 

 same lines. This circumstance — that the Tasmanian natives re- 

 present the most ancient known beginnings of human civilisa- 

 tion, while at the same time they were so recently a real, living 

 and known people — rendered all knowledge which could be 

 acquired concerning them a contribution of priceless value to the 

 history of mankind. 



Mr. H. Ling Roth said that some eighteen months ago he 

 had received from a Yorkshire gentleman, Mr. J. Backhouse 

 Walker, an account given by an old Australian settler, who in 

 his youth had come across a group of black fellows whilst they 

 were actually engaged in making these stones. The first pro- 

 cess was simply to split them by hurling them violently on the 

 rocky ground, and some stones were at once used in this rough 

 shape for cutting up kangaroo meat, whilst other stones were 

 prepared by chipping. At one period, doubtless the Tasmanians 

 covered the whole of Australia ; and they were subsequently 

 almost swept away — only scattered representatives being left in 

 small areas — by another race. 



Dr. A. C. Haddon made a communication on relics of the 

 Stone age of Borneo (illustrated by lantern slides and specimens) 

 Dr. C. Hose, the Resident of the Baram District of Sarawak, 

 obtained numerous examples of stone implements from various 

 interior tribes in his district ; these he has generously pre- 

 sented to the University of Cambridge. The implements are 

 made of various rocks, including fibrolite, impure sandstone, 

 arkose, silicified limestone, shale, andesite and chalcedony. 

 The form, too, varies greatly ; some are obviously axe heads, 

 others adze blades, while certain cylindrical forms, with a more 

 or less cup-shaped cutting end, were probably used to extract 

 the pith from the sago palm. In the collection are several 

 stones of irregular form ; the former use of some of them is 

 problematical, but they have recently been used as touchstones. 

 The natives have a high regard for these stone implements, 

 which have in their eyes a sacred character, and it is very 

 difiicult to persuade their owners to part with them. In all 

 cases fowls had to be sacrificed to appease the spirits. The 

 implements are stored with other sacred objects, and most of 

 them are believed to be teeth, or toenails, of Biling Go, the 

 Thunder God. 



Mr. Butler Wood read a paper, with a map illustration, on 

 the Prehistoric Antiquities of Rumbald's Moor, between Brad- 

 ford and Ilkley. The stone implements found there, he said, 

 consisted of axe-heads, arrow-heads, awls, spear-heads, knives 

 and scrapers. Several fine specimens were exhibited. Baskets 

 full of flint chippings scattered about in a very limited area 

 seemed to prove that it was a place of fabrication of flint instru- 

 ments, for flint in situ was not found within fifty miles. About 

 half a dozen bronze axe-heads had been found at lower eleva- 

 tions. So far as evidences of interment went, the barrows were 

 unsatisfactory. There was a double stone circle within four 

 miles of Bradford Town-hall containing in the centre a boulder 

 with a cup and ring mark on it. He hoped the Corporation of 

 Bradford would not permit it to continue neglected, but would 

 preserve it as a valuable specimen of antiquity. Mr. Wood also 

 briefly mentioned the earthworks and the so-called pit dwellings 

 which seemed to have been attempted excavations for iron. 

 Springs of water were always found near these excavations. 



Dr. Haddon emphasised Mr. Wood's observation as to the 

 necessity for the preservation of local antiquities. It was the 

 duty of the section to bring to the notice of local authorities the 

 fact of the existence of valuable archaeological remains in the 

 district, and he hoped the Press would help him to insist upon 

 the fact that it was the duty of all the local authorities to preserve 

 their antiquities as well and as long as possible. It had been 

 observed by Mr. Wood that if steps were not taken the double 

 stone circle would soon be worn away and disappear owing to 

 pedestrians walking recklessly over and about it ; and he hoped 

 that as a result of this paper and of the feeling expressed by the 

 section, the proper authorities would take such steps as would 

 effectually preserve this ancient stone structure. lie also thought 

 it a pity that the three Saxon crosses at Ilkley were not placed 

 inside the parish church, and the cup and ring markings on 

 boulders preserved at Ilkley would be better protected if a light 

 shed was erected over them. 



An excellent paper by Mrs. Armitage on some Yorkshire 

 earthworks describes a particular kind of earthwork, very 



NO. 1617, VOL. 62] 



common in Yorkshire and in other parts of England, consisting 

 of a moated hillock with a banked and moated court attached. 

 This type of fort has been attributed in turn to the Britons, 

 Romans, Saxons and Danes, with equal improbability. The 

 theory most general at present is that it is Saxon. But Saxon 

 strongholds were built to shelter all the people of the neighbour- 

 hood, and were therefore of large area, while these earthworks 

 are evidently intended to protect some individual chieftain and 

 his personal following, as is shown by their small area. There 

 is positive evidence that the Normans built earthworks of this 

 kind in the eleventh century as the bases of wooden castles, and 

 these moated hillocks are still very numerous in Normandy. 

 They are called mottes in Norman-French, and this word is 

 found in various parts of England in the form mote. An inquiry 

 into the castles known to have been built by the Normans when 

 they first came to England shows that almost all these castles 

 had mottes, while the burhs or boroughs built by the Saxons 

 never have these appendages, unless a Norman castle-builder has 

 been at work there. The recognition of the Norman origin of 

 these castles would help to solve an historical puzzle — how the 

 Normans were able to hold England down. It was by a system 

 of small fortified posts scattered all over the country that the 

 action of the central machinery was carried into the remotest 

 parts of the kingdom. 



Mr. D. G. Hogarth read a paper on the caveof Psychro in Crete, 

 which was copiously illustrated by excellent lantern slides. It 

 has been known for some years that a large cave above the 

 village of Psychro, in the Lasithi district of Crete, was a reposi- 

 tory of primitive votive objects in bronze, terra-cotta, &c. As 

 this cave is situated in the eastern flank of the mountain which 

 dominates the site of ancient Lyttos, and is the only important 

 cave known in the neighbourhood, it was conjectured that it 

 was the Lyttian grotto connected with the story of the infancy of 

 Zeus in the legend, whose earliest version is preserved by Hesiod. 

 A thorough exploration of it has served fully to confirm this 

 view. The cave is double. A rude altar was discovered in the 

 middle of the upper grotto, surrounded by many strata of ashes, 

 pottery and other refuse, among which many votive objects in 

 bronze, terra-cotta, iron and bone were found, together with 

 fragments of some thirty libation tables in stone, and an immense 

 number of earthenware cups used for depositing offerings. The 

 lowest part of the Upper Grotto was found to be enclosed by a 

 wall partly of rude Cyclopean character, and partly rock-cut ; 

 and within this Temenos the untouched strata of deposit ranged 

 from the early Mycenaean age up to the Geometric period of the- 

 ninth century B.C. or thereabout. Only very slight traces were 

 found of later offerings. The earliest votive stratum belongs to. 

 the latest period of the pre-Mycenaean age, that marked by the 

 transition between the "Kamaraes" fabric of pottery and the- 

 earliest Mycenrean lustre-painted ware. But below all is a thick 

 bed of yellow clay, containing3scraps of primitive hand-burnished 

 black and brown pottery, mixed with bones of animals. This 

 bed seems to be water-laid, and to be prior to the use of the cave 

 as a sanctuary. 



The southern or Lower Grotto falls steeply for some 2CX3 feet 

 to a subterranean pool, out of which rises a forest ot stal- 

 actite pillars. Traces of a rock-cut stairway remain. In the 

 chinks in the lowest stalactite pillars, a great many of which 

 were found still to contain toy double axes, knife-blades, 

 needles, and other objects in bronze, placed there by dedicators, 

 as in niches. The knife-blades and simulacra of weapons are prob- 

 ably the offerings of men ; the needles and depilatory tweezers 

 of women. The frequent occurrence of the double axe, not 

 only in bronze, but moulded or painted on pottery, found in 

 the cave, leaves no doubt that its patron god was the " Carian " 

 Zeus of Labranda, or the Labyrinth, with whom perhaps his. 

 mother, the Nature goddess, was associated, and the statuettes 

 probably represent the two deities. Here was the primitive 

 scene of their legend, afterwards transferred in classical times ta 

 a cave on Mount Ida. 



Mr. Arthur J. Evans remarked that the cave was one of 

 the most ancient shrines of the classical world bound up with 

 the earliest cult of Zeus. Mr, J. L. Myres suggested that 

 the eras of Cretan civilisation covered by the objects found 

 in the cave might go back, at furthest, to the twelfth Egyptian 

 dynasty, and extend down to the eighteenth dynasty. 



A report of the committee appointed to co-operate with the 

 Silchester Excavation Fund Committee was read by Mr. E. W, 

 Brabrook. 



