274 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [July, 1914.] 



an extensive industry in stone, carried on by, and for the bene- 

 fit of a large local population, have been found. It is there- 

 fore not justifiable in the present stage of knowledge to speak 



of a stone age for China or still less of a stone age of the 

 Chinese. 



5. The burial of jade implements was much practised 

 during the historical period of the Chou dynasty (1122 B.c - 

 249 B.C.) and continued down to the spoch of the two Han dynas- 

 ties (206 b.c.-a.d. 221), but this only shows that in these 

 early days a pronounced symbolical cult had gathered around 

 these objects, which were probably then regarded as relics of 

 a forgotten past. 



The conventional forms of the Chou dynasty mortuary 

 finds undeniably proves that they are directly traceable to 

 immensely older forms of a more realistic character, but with 

 the evidence at our disposal in China to day, this primeval 

 period can only be artificially reconstructed. From the archaeo- 

 logical standpoint, the Chou implements are very recent pro- 

 ducts and are contemporaneous with a period when the Chinese 

 bronze age, after an existence of several milleniums was near- 

 ing its end, and being gradually replaced by iron. 



