TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION D, DFPT. ANTHUOPOLOGY. 693 



cores, scratches are visible, showing how the core had jerked from the pitted part 

 in the centre towards the circumference. He believed that the forming of pits by 

 the operation of striking oft' flakes had given the idea of boring, and that many of 

 the stone hammers had been bored in this way. 



The author was of opinion that, if we conceive the idea that the tool-stones are 

 anvils, there is no necessity for contining their use to any age. If they were of the 

 Stone Age it was possible, and even likely, their use would descend to the age of 

 Iron. He referred to a stone which he had seen in the Christy Collection in Lon- 

 don some time ago, sticking in a mass of breccia, composed chiefly of flint flakes and 

 fragments of broken bones, which had been brought from one of the rock shelters 

 in France. This stone had a cup-shaped depression like the tool-stones. At the 

 time he did not understand its use, but he had now no hesitation in saying that he 

 believed it to be an anvil-stone, and that we must, therefore, carry back the use of 

 the tool-stone, not only to the Stone Age, but to a very early Stone Age. 



6. On the Discovery of Flint Implements in stratified gravel in the Nile 

 Valleij, near Thebes. By Major-General Pitt-Rivers, F.B.S. (for- 

 merly Colonel Lane-Fox). 



General Pitt-Rivers visited Thebes in March 1881, and examined the gravel in 

 the Nile Valley, to ascertain if the remains of flint implement manufactm-e coidd be 

 found in it. He found flint flakes in the banks of the wady which runs down 

 from the Tombs of the Kings. The section here shows 3 feet 9 inches of gravel on 

 the top, composed of sub-angular and rounded stones of chert and limestone, then 

 a seam of hard mud, and below that gravel again. The flakes were chiefly found 

 beneath the seam of mud. This gravel had become so hard in Egyptian times that 

 they were able to cut flat-topped tombs in it, supported by square pillars dried hard, 

 which had retained the sharpness of the edges to the present day. Skulls and the 

 remains of mummies and pottery were found in them, and some of the flint flakes 

 were chiselled out of the sides of these tombs. The tombs, judged by the pottery foimd 

 in them, have been pronounced by competent Egj'ptologists to be not later than 

 the XVIII. dynasty and perhaps earlier, proving very great age for the formation 

 of the gravel in which the tombs were cut. So long as the finds of flint implements 

 were confined to the surface, doubts as to their contemporaneity with Egyptian 

 civilisation might be fairly mooted, but the residts of this discovery place beyond 

 doubt the fact of their being of much earlier date. The paper was illustrated by 

 plans and sections drawn to scale and showing the position of the flints. 



SATURDAY, SEPTHMBEB 3. 



The following Report and Papers were read : — 

 1. Report of the Anthropometric Committee. — See Reports, p. 225. 



2. On a Collection of Racial Photographs. By J. Park Harrison, M.A. 



3. On Scandinavian and Pictish Customs on the Anglo- Scottish Border. 

 By Dr. Phen^, F.S.A., F.B.G.S. 



After adverting to the persistent retention of curious customs, and the handing 

 down from generation to generation the traditionary lore of ages long past, the 

 author referred to some of those which were corroborated by ancient monuments of 



