390 J. Wood-Mason — The Prehistoric Antiquities of UancJiL [No. 4, 

 Objects discovered by the Writer amongst the chips and 



FLAKES SENT DOWN BY Mr. DrIVER. 



PI. IV, Fig. 10, represents a small instrument of doubtful pur- 

 pose, which is interesting on account of the evident signs of having been 

 used it exhibits at its smaller and rounded extremity, which is much 

 abraded, the abrasion readily catching the eye from its grey colour. It 

 is an outside flake of black chert which has apparently been reduced 

 by flaking to the desired shape after being struck ofE from the parent 

 lump. It measures, length 34, breadth 10, thickness 4*2 millems. 

 This instrument will again be referred to .later on. 



I now pass on to the consideration of the most interesting and 

 important of the objects from the Neolithic settlement at Ranchi, 

 namely, the arrow-heads I have found in relatively considerable abun- 

 dance amongst the mass of cores, flakes, and unworked material collected 

 for manufacture which had been gathered and forwarded to me by Mr. 

 Driver, who, since the nature of these objects was demonstrated to him 

 by me, has been fortunate to find two fine specimens, one of rock crystal 

 and the other of chert. 



With the single exception of the acutely-pointed tanged and barbed 

 specimen reported from India by Mr. John Evans, F. R, S.,* on the 

 authority of Prof. Buckman, no worked stone arrow-heads appear to have 

 previously been recorded from India. For, though my friend Professor 

 Valentine Ball, F. R. S., in his paper on the Forms and Geographical Dis- 

 tribution of Ancient Stone Implements in India,t states with the greatest 

 confidence that certain flakes of chert, agate, etc., which he exhibited at 

 the reading of his paper, " were undoubtedly used as lancets, knives, 

 arrow-heads, etc.," yet he does not appear to have been acquainted 

 with a single specimen the nature of which as an arrow-head was so 

 clear and so indisputable as to justify its being entered as such in the 

 list of localities in India where stone implements have been discovered 

 which is appended to his paper. Mr. R. B. Foote, another authority 

 on this interesting subject, in a paper recently read before this Society, 

 speaking apparently for India generally, makes the following remarks, 

 " A remarkable fact with reference to the varieties of weapons and 

 tools made by the Neolithic people of South India is the absence hitherto 

 of any traces of their having manufactured stone arrow-heads, such as 

 are frequently found in other countries occupied by tribes who had 

 attained to a very similar grade of civilization. It is hard to imagine 

 that the Neolithic people of the Deccan were unacquainted with the 



* Ancient Stone Implements of. Great Britain, p. 361, 

 t P. B. I. A. 1879, ser. 2, vol. p. i, 388 et seqq. 



