152 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 



the hollow reed became the blow-tube. Even before the more evolved 

 implements of these classes had got beyond their one-piece character, 

 however, other factors than variation sometimes intervened. That is to 

 say, whilst the field of variation is that of form, it is not in exclusive posses- 

 sion of this field. For the moment we may pursue the subject of form 

 itself a little further, leaving factors on one side. 



The stone hand-axe of Palaeolithic type is found in many parts of the 

 Old World, and although it has considerable range of form, it is sufficiently 

 standardised to be regarded as a type. Along with it, but of later origin, 

 are often found derived forms with an edge all round, which eventually 

 appear as the fully-evolved sharp-rimmed ovate. It is a significant and 

 perhaps curious fact that the general tendency of archaeologists appears 

 to be towards a tacit or expressed assumption that the presence of these 

 two types, in regions as far apart as Western Europe, Egypt, South Africa 

 and India, is due not to any common faculty of the himian mind, nor to 

 any directional pressure of human needs, but to a spread of people who 

 had, as it happened, evolved the two implements in question. And yet 

 they are simple types. 



Similarly, when flakes having the characters of Mousterian points, or 

 implements resembling Aurignacian gravers, are found in Eastern Africa, 

 there appears to be no widespread desire to claim them as examples of 

 the manner in which man independently arrives at similar types of imple- 

 ments through the working of his psychic unity. On the contrary, the 

 immediate result is theory and speculation as to how and when Mousterian 

 and Aurignacian man respectively reached the regions in which the imple- 

 ments are found. Not all archaeologists take up this position without 

 reserve, but there is no doubt that there is a general, if sometimes only 

 provisional, adoption of the diffusionist and historical point of view. At 

 the back of this must lie the belief that a similarity of form in flint imple- 

 ments afiords, at least in some cases, and to many archaeologists, sufficient 

 grounds for theories of human spread. We must recognise, however, that 

 in the case of stone implements the belief is usually based on something 

 more than a single coincidence in type-form. There may be two types 

 (such as the hand-axe and the ovate) occurring together, or more than 

 two, and the improbabihty of independent evolution increases very greatly 

 with each type added. This is true even when the artefacts are simple, 

 but the weight of the argument from numbers is still greater when the 

 artefacts are more varied and more complex ; those who employ it in the 

 case of stone implements in the Old World cannot logically deny its 

 relevance to the occurrence of such appliances as spindles, looms, blow- 

 tubes, pjnramids, plank-boats and many other things, in the Old World 

 and the New. 



A point of considerable importance in the comparison of stone imple- 

 ments lies in the fact that it is not form alone that is invoked to prove 

 identity. No other types of artefacts are subjected to such fervid con- 

 centration as are these, and a typical Mousterian ' point,' for example, 

 must have an outline that does not fall outside a certain range of variation ; 

 it should be unchipped, or only slightly chipped, on the bulbar face, and 

 it should show facets on the striking platform. There is involved in the 

 definition an intermingling of characters of form, with others which are 

 the outcome of method or technique, whereas a digging-stick, a paddle 



