720 . TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 



the south factories of neolithic implements associated with wheel-made pottery of 

 a fairly advanced type, showing that the Stone Age has survived side by side 

 with that of metal down to comparatively recent tunes. The Veddas of Ceylon, 

 the Andamanese, and various tribes on the north-east frontier, in central and 

 southern India, are, or were up to quite recent times, in the Age of Stone. In 

 fact, when we speak of ages of stone or metal we must not regard them as 

 representing division of time but generally continuous phases of culture. 



There is no trustworthy evidence for the existence of an Age of Bronze. 

 The single fine implement of this metal which has been discovered is probably, 

 like the artistic vessels from the Nilgiri interments, of foreign origin; and other 

 implements of a less defined type seem to be the result of imperfect metallurgy. 

 This is not the place to discuss the problem of the origin and diffusion of bronze. 

 Babylon, Asia Minor, and China have each been supposed to be a centre of 

 distribution. The Egyptian specimen attributed to the third dynasty, say before 

 the fourth millennium B.C., is believed by Professor Petrie to be the result of a 

 chance alloy; but the metal certainly appears in Egypt about 1600 B.C., and it is 

 believed to have originated in central Europe, where the Zinnwald of Saxony 

 or the Bohemian mines provided a supply of tin. The absence of a Bronze Age 

 in India has been explained by the scarcity of tin and the impossibility of 

 procuring it from its chief source in the Malay-Burman region, where the mines 

 do not seem to have been worked in ancient times. But another view deserves 

 consideration. Professor Eidgeway has shown that all the sites where native 

 iron is smelted are those where carboniferous strata and ironstone have been 

 heated by eruptions of basalt ; and iron was thus produced by a natural reduction 

 of the ore. In Africa as well as India the absence of the Bronze Age seems to 

 be due to the abundant supplies of iron ores which could be worked by processes 

 simpler than those required in the case of bronze. In India iron may have been 

 independently discovered towards the close of the neolithic period, and iron 

 may have displaced copper without the intervention of bronze. 



However this may be, the Copper Age in India, which has been carefully 

 studied by Mr. V. A. Smith, is of great importance. Implements of this metal 

 in the form of flat and bar celts, swords, daggers, harpoon, spear, and arrow 

 heads, with ornaments and a strange figure, probably human, have been found 

 at numerous sites in northern India. In western Europe, according to Dr. 

 Munro, the Copper Age was of short duration; but Mr. Smith believes that in 

 India the variety of types indicates a long period of development. 



No mention of iron occurs in the Kig-Veda; but it appears in the Atharvan, 

 which cannot be dated much later than 1000 B.C. It is now recognised that there 

 is a still obscure stratum of Babylonian influence underlying the Aryan culture; 

 and if, as is generally supposed, the manufacture of iron was established by the 

 Chalybes at the head-waters of the Euphrates, who passed it down the delta, its 

 use may have spread thence among the Indo-Aryans. It certainly appears late in 

 the south Indian dolmen period ; and we have the alternatives of believing that it 

 was introduced there by the Dravidian trade with the Persian Gulf, which cer- 

 tainly arose before the seventh century before Christ, or that it was indepen- 

 dently discovered by the Dravidians, who still extract it in a rude way from the 

 native ores. 



The great series of dolmens, circles, and kistvaens which cover the hills and 

 plateaux of the Deccan and the region to the south seem to belong to the Iron 

 Age. Whether the construction of these monuments was due to the migration of 

 the dolmen-building race from northern Africa, or whether the builders were a 

 local people utilising the material on the spot must remain uncertain. The 

 excavations conducted by Mr. Breeks and others disclose tall jars, many-storeyed 

 cylinders of varying diameter, with round or conical bases, fashioned to rest on 

 pottery ring-stands, like the classical amphorae, or to be imbedded in softer soil. 

 The lids of these vessels are ornamented with rude, grotesque figures of men, 

 animals, or more rarely inanimate objects, depicting the arms, dress, ornaments, 

 and domesticated fauna of the period. It has been suspected that these figurines 

 may be of a date earlier than the implements of iron with which they are 

 associated, and that they were deposited with the dead in a spirit of religious 

 conservatism. At any rate, the costumes and arms represented on the older 

 pottery present no resemblance to those depicted on the later series of dolmens 



