ISSn.] '^«^ [PhillipB. 



nicked into wide or narrow teeth, and in some cases cut into a graduating 

 series from large to small teeth. The teeth are often much polished, and 

 sometimes more or less brol?en as if by dint of hard service, while in some 

 of them botli sides are worlved into serrations, one edge being more brolien 

 tlian tlie other, as if it had been used up, and the other side had been 

 chipi)ed out in order to refit the instruments for sgrvice. 



"The knife-like implements occurred in special abundance, varying in 

 length from one to nearly two inches, but the greater number being about 

 an inch and a quarter long. A few of them are almost semi-lunar in shape, 

 and are similar to those used by the Esquimaux ; in the rest, one end is 

 left blunt, and the other brought down to a point, whicli is generally very 

 sharp. 



"Flakes were found at many places in great profusion, together with 

 many of the cores from wiiich tliey were struck. Almost all the flakes 

 seem to have been utilized, and those tliat could not be converted into saws 

 or knives were chipped, and evidently used in some way or other. 



Mr. Browne has given a very long description of these implements from 

 which I have extracted the foregoing statements. His paper is full of 

 valuable matter, and deserves a careful perusal. He afterwards enters into 

 the discussion of the problem of the antiquity of these flakes and imple- 

 ments, and takes the ground that their occurrence on the surface in no 

 wise prevents them being referred to a remote age, for the reason that in 

 EgyiDt the surface has probably remained unchanged for a very long period 

 of time. In tombs of tlie era of the Ptolemies, flint weapons have been 

 discovered, but these cases, Mr. Browne states, are very rare, and those 

 which he saw in the Boulak Museum, "are different in type, and more 

 modern-looking than the Helwan flints. Others Avhich have been found in 

 the neighborhood of Thebes are of a more antique and palseolithic appear- 

 ance. Sir .John Lubbock and others are of the opinion that the implements 

 from Thebes are prehistoric, even as regards a land like Egypt, whose 

 known annals extend backwards over so many thousand years." 



The transition from Egypt to Palestine is not an abrupt one, and in the 

 latter country relics of the stone age were discovered, in 1870, at Beth 

 Saour, by Mr. Louis Lartet. Large quantities of stone implements of all 

 kinds were found at this place, of which the bulk were fashioned into the 

 form of knives. One notable exception, however, was a discoid flint re- 

 sembling the usual European pala3olithi(; type ; there were also a needle 

 and an arrow-point formed of bone. 



Mr. Lartet is led to believe, from his observations of the localitj^ and of 

 the nature of the find, that there existed formerly at this place, a manufiic- 

 tory, where the fabrication of flint weapons and implements was carried on, 

 such as has been found to exist in many parts of Europe. Since 1870, then! 

 have been found at Beth Saour, in addition to the types already spoken of, 

 many knives, scrapers, large graters, bodkins, saws very regularly toothed, 

 chisels Avhich had been polished on stone, and hatchets. With these were 

 mixed deposits of yellow pottery, very roughlj^ made by liand and illy 

 rROc. AMER. riiii.os. sor. xtx. 107. i. printed august ;l, 1880. 



