
BLACK AND FENNER—ABORIGINAL RELICS NEAR BROKEN HILL 291 
While we have used the term ‘‘hearths’’ for these arrangements of stones, 
this term cannot be positively justified. The form, the charcoal fragments, and the 
platform-like character of the best preserved specimens, all suggest this origin. 
At the same time, as Dr. Campbell has pointed out, they lack certain features of 
typical native camp-site fire-hearths, particularly in the clustered nature of the 


oN 
Fig. 1. Stone Implements from Broken Hill. 
Gwen®. Walsh 
structures, the absence of the usual low conical mound, and the uncertainty whe- 
ther all the stones were fire-burned; Dr. Campbell also suggests that the mosaic 
arrangement may be of ceremonial significance; it is clear from the arrangement 
of the stones that they are not collapsed piles. Nevertheless, with due caution, 
the authors believe them to have been fire-hearths, though perhaps in part also 
ceremonial. The absence of the surrounding mounds may readily be accounted 
for by the extreme wind erosion of the locality, and the rare but strong rains. 
Aboriginal implements. The only visit paid by both authors together was 
necessarily somewhat brief, but on that visit definite and well-made aboriginal 
artefacts were found, adjacent to the ‘‘hearths’’, all made of material that must 
have been transported some distance. In detail the implements were as follows, 
and some are figured (°4 natural size) herein: 
(a) A large hand-implement of the ‘‘horse-hoot’’ type, made of fine-grained 
yellowish quartzite, containing occasional small quartz pebbles (fig. 1, A). 
