PREHISTORIC MAN IN BURMA. 331 



arrow-heads. One specimen in particular has been skilfully 

 chipped into a very symmetrical arrow-head without any un- 

 necessary work — and, indeed, with a minimum of labour — show- 

 ing that considerable skill had been acquired and utilized in 

 producing such an object. The great similarity between this 

 and at least two other specimens would seem to show an evident 

 design, and that the chipping was done with the object of pro- 

 ducing instruments shaped like this. No doubt the more perfect 

 or finished specimens were carried off; but those that are left, 

 together with the miscellaneous chips and the lumps of original 

 flint, are sufficient to show what was the purpose in hand. Each 

 specimen has one flat surface, with a bulb of percussion, showing 

 that it was deliberately struck off a larger piece ; on its other 

 surface is the angle usual in flint flakes, and this angle has — in 

 two specimens, at least — been broken down at one end as if to 

 fit into a handle. There is a good point, and the whole object 

 would form a very serviceable arrow-head. I cannot help think- 

 ing that specimen No. 1 at least is a finished one, and that it 

 represents a fair type of the work of the men who made it, and 

 was accidentally left behind. It does not require any more 

 finishing — secondary chipping at the edge would be superfluous 

 — and the only improvement would be further trimming at the 

 base. 



Many people have thought, from Dr. Noetling's specimens, 

 that these are natural chips, but I think that is chiefly because 

 they have felt constrained to believe that they were embedded in 

 a Tertiary stratum, and that when it is shown that there is no 

 connection between the two, and that they may be the work of 

 ordinary Palaeolithic man, common sense will show that these 

 stones cannot have chipped themselves up in this manner, still 

 less have fashioned themselves into symmetrical shapes with 

 bulbs of percussion and angles complete. 



It is clear that these chips do not come from the ferruginous 

 conglomerate, and I cannot see what difficulty there is in 

 believing that some dropped over the edge of the ravine on to 

 the ledge where Dr. Noetling found his. Certainly none of 

 those from the particular area which we found could have so 

 dropped ; but if, as Mr. Oldham says, they occur anywhere on 

 the plateau, there are doubtless many other areas of them, and 



