12. Grooved Stone Hammers from Assam and the Dis- 

 tribution of Similar Forms in Eastern Asia, 



By J. Coggin Brown, M.Sc, F.G-S. 



[With Plate I.] 



Grooved hammers and axes are perhaps the rarest of the 

 numerous Neolithic stone implements recorded from Eastern 

 Asia. Only one specimen of this type appears to have been 

 described from India. It was found by J. Cockburn together 

 with a number of other stones under a sacred tree at Alwara, 

 two miles north of the Jumna, and thirty-seven miles south- 

 west of Allahabad, and described by J. H. Rivett Garnac as 

 a tough greyish quartzite implement, flat at both ends and 

 slightly curved on the upper surface, 350 " in length by 2*10* 

 in breadth and 1-80 "in thickness. A groove has been cut 

 around the centre and the base hollowed out in a gouge-like 

 form. The whole arrangement suggests that the hammer was 

 attached by a ligature to a wooden or withy handle, the liga- 

 ture being kept in place by the upper groove while the lower 

 groove held the hammer in position on the rounded haft. 

 Certain minute marks which the specimen bears, especially on 

 the lower groove, are believed to be the result of chipping 

 with a metallic instrument, and if this supposition is correct, 

 the implement must belong to a period in a transition culture 

 from stone to metal, when metal, though available, was scarce 

 Cockburn adds that he possessed several other haramerstones 

 of a less perfect form, bearing no trace of metallic tooling, 

 which appear to be waterworn pebbles grooved to admit of 

 being attached to a withy handle. (J. Cockburn, On Stone 

 Implements from the North-West Provinces of India. J.A.S.B. 

 1883, pp. 221-230). 



The original specimen referred to above is now in the 

 British Museum, though a cast of it is preserved in the Indian 

 Museum. During an examination of the large collections of 

 prehistoric remains preserved in the latter institution, I have 

 met with two or three specimens of grooved hammerstones of 

 the same general type from neighbouring localities. One was 

 obtained by Major-General A. Cunningham from Tikari in 

 the Harimpur district and was presented to the Museum in 1883. 

 Others have been collected in the Banda district by Sir EL 

 Seton-Karr. 



There are at least two belted stone hammers in the mag- 

 nificent prehistoric collection of the .Madras Museum which I 



