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REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 



' Boat House Cave. — Work is now in progress here and the material over- 

 lying the relic bed is in course of removal. This averages 6 ft. in thickness, 

 two-thirds of which is stiff red clay, introduced as puddling when the em- 

 bankment of the adjoining lake was formed and which occupies the whole 

 of the front and extends to the rear of the visible portion of the cave. At 

 the time of writing, the position of the relic bed has been defined over a 

 small area, but no attempt will be made to excavate this until the whole of 

 the " dead " covering has been removed over a large portion of the cave 

 floor. 



' A grant of £25 is earnestly requested for the continuation of this new work.' 



SUMERIAN COPPER. 



Seventh Interim Report of Committee appointed to report on the probable 

 sources of the supply of Copper used by the Sumerians (Mr. H. J. E. 

 Peake, Chairman ; Dr. C. H. Desch, F.R.S., Secretary ; Prof. H. 

 Balfour, F.R.S., Mr. L. H. Dudley Buxton, Prof. V. Gordon 

 Childe, Mr. O. Davies, Prof. H. J. Fleure, F.R.S., Sir Flinders 

 Petrie, F.R.S., Dr. A. Raistrick, Dr. R. H. Rastall). 



(Report by the Secretary.) 



Further analyses on behalf of the Committee have been carried out in the 

 Metallurgy Department of the National Physical Laboratory. The speci- 

 mens received during the past year have included an important series from 

 Troy, and other specimens from N. Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. Micro- 

 chemical methods have again been used, when only small quantities of 

 material have been available. As in previous years occasional specimens 

 of iron, gold and lead have been examined as well as the copper and bronze 

 with which the Committee is mainly concerned. 



The specimens from Troy were received from Prof. C. W. Blegen, and 

 represented all levels except Troy IV. 



Specimens 1 and 2 were so much mixed with earthy matter that the 

 original composition could not be calculated, and the proportion of arsenic 

 found is certainly higher than in the unoxidised copper. The remainder 

 were either uncorroded or corroded so uniformly that the analyses could be 

 safely recalculated to 100 per cent. 



Lead 



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