TRUSTEES OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM.

The Rt. Hon. Joon XAvrer MERRImMAN, P.C., M.L.A.

Tuomas Morr, C.M.G., LL.D., M.A., F.R.S., F.R.S.E.

Harry Bouvs, D.Sc., F.L.S.

SCIENTIFIC STAFF OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN

MUSEUM.

Louis ALBERT Pértnavey, D.Sc., F.Z.S., F.E.S., Director.

ArtHur WititAm Rogers, D.Se., F.G.8., Keeper of the Geological and Mineral

Collections.

Rosert Broom, D.Sc., M.D., Keeper of the Palaeontological Collections.

Epwtn Percy Putruires, M.A., Assistant in charge of the Herbarium.

Stpney Henry Haventon, B.A., Assistant in Geology and Palaeontology.

KepreL Harcourt BarNnarp, M.A., Assistant in charge of Fish and Marine

Invertebrate Collections.

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS. '

L. P&RINGUEY. PAGE

The Stone Ages of South Africa as represented in the Collection of the

South African Museum : : : , : : : ; 1

With chapters by :

A. L. pu Tort.

A chapter on the Sources of Rock for the Manufacture of Stone Imple-

ments : : : : : : : : . : 5 ATK!

F. C. SHRUBSALL.

A chapter on Bushman Craniology . 3 3 ‘ ; 5 . 202

DATE OF ISSUE.

July 5th, 1911.

Note. This volume is to be regarded as complete, as no further parts will be

issued.

“,

eet is

=~ a

i ee

—s >

re ;

aes; ey”? f.,

a babe |

r _

Ria: 3}

a |

sys)

7) i

a ew ot

: in

: a,

Soi :

y )

. ‘ Dae

he ty

¢!

' A, :

) =

: : 4

s *

; saa

— .

1 ' )

: v

1 -

- ® v

t =

- 7 3

“+

Pils

A >

—- ehh, S

"7 + | A

7 * :

: a

aie ay

Nie 7 et

eee

ANNALS

OF THE

SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM.

(Vou. VIIL.)

1.—The Stone Ages of South Africa as represented in the Collec-

tion of the South African Musewm.—By L. Périneuey, D.Se.,

Director.

INTRODUCTION.

I must explain, a priori, that although for the purpose of illustra-

tion I divide, or make an attempt at dividing, the South African

Stone implements into several series or types, no definite proof has

as yet been forthcoming, as will be seen hereafter, that the small, rude

implements used here until a few years ago were not utilised con-

temporaneously with the large, roughly or finely trimmed, tongue- or

almond-shaped implements, or the smaller and perhaps still more

perfectly worked tools which are met with so profusely in South

Africa.

As will be explained as this paper proceeds, the industrial traces

left by the people that inhabited South Africa in times which may

or may not synchronise with the stages recognised in Europe, con-

sist of three distinct types, and also of a fourth, which is, however,

difficult to define.

The First Type.—This type is one considered to be comparable

with the oldest division in Europe, which is based there on very

good paleontological evidence, but not always indisputably backed,

however, by geological proofs. Tools of this type are known to

occur all over the world except in Australia. So much alike are

2 Annals of the South African Museum.

they that it is difficult to believe they could have evolved inde-

pendently, but it is probable that the African examples had their

origin in fragments due to accidental fracturing of rocks.

The proposition that their evolution took place in Africa, and

perhaps South Africa, seems to me quite plausible. Were it possible

to postulate for man (whether anthropomorphous ape or not) a very

ancient origin—ancient in a geological sense—it is certainly to Africa

that one would turn to find his original home, because for incalcu-

lable time a large part of Africa has been uncovered by the sea.

This is, however, a hazardous plea, because the existence of Ter-

tiary man has hitherto not been asserted with any likelihood of

probability.

The type aforesaid consists of massive fragments of rock trimmed

sometimes on one, sometimes on both sides, into cleaving, digging,

or smiting artefacts, which, whether found in Europe, Asia, Central

America, &c., bear such an extraordinary resemblance to each other

that one is forced to the conclusion that the type could not have

been invented in places so far apart in a spontaneous manner.

Although it is quite possible that stone implements of a different

character may have evolved from the growing intellectual power

of man, it seems impossible that a uniform shape could have resulted

from what must of necessity have been rude, uncouth methods, and

from material differing in composition. ‘To intercourse or migration

of races this result is probably due. On the other hand, if the natural

texture of the material used allows under any kind of concussion the

preliminary fracture that leads to the evolution of the finer artefacts,

then, of course, we may dismiss from our mind these important

factors—immigration, emigration, or intercourse.

Professor W. J. Sollas has proposed lately the term ‘‘ bouwcher”’

for this type, which I should have otherwise dubbed “ paleeolith,”

in honour of Boucher de Perthes, the French savant who was, if not

the first discoverer, at least the first interpreter, of the occurrence of

implements of that type which he found in the gravels of the river

Somme.

It is highly desirable that this term should be adopted, because

the other appellations either mean nothing, or imply a purpose for

which they were probably never intended.

One point, however, cannot be disproved, and that is, the South

African paloliths, other than the ubiquitous and probably surviving

type of knife-scraper, correspond to the “ celt” of the English, the

‘coup de poing”’ or the “ hache 4 talon”’ of the French, the “ beil”’

of the German, the “‘hachas’’ of the Spaniard, &c., &e. Of the

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 3

authors of these bouchers of palwolithic type known as Chellean,

no other cultural trace remains, or is supposed to remain, in

places outside South Africa, but this may be due to the fact that

relics of their domestic utensils have disappeared, or at least have

not been found in siti together with the ‘ bouchers.”’ Neither are

the traces of the Mousterian stage of culture as clear as one could

desire. In South Africa, however, the doubt is no longer permis-

sible, as the evidence I adduce will show.

The Second Type.—The second type of stone implements is in

some respects more primitive ; occasionally it is of a superior finish,

but still primitive. It has lasted until quite lately—a few years

back, as a matter of fact; it has also probably replaced the former

lithic industry. It may be termed South African Neolithic.

It includes household utensils, mortars, querns, mullers, un-

doubtedly polished by usage and not intentionally ; we have the

“!kweé,” or perforated disk or orb; we have also pottery of a type

unknown elsewhere, beads and ornaments of stone and clay, of

shells and ostrich egg-shells, bone tools, &c., and also rock paintings

and, possibly, rock gravings. It is, however, doubtful if the latter

_ should not be ascribed to the Paleolithic.

These two types are not often found together, yet they are occa-

sionally met with in close proximity, owing probably to orographical

conditions, such as the neighbourhood of streams or rivers that have

persisted in their continuance ;* subsequent occupation of some

points of vantage has led also to these artefacts, made at periods

widely separated, coming together ultimately.

The Third Type.—Uastly, we have recorded a few instances of

implements the technique of which is that of the true Neolithic

European period: small arrow-heads trimmed on either side and

with a carefully worked peduncle, or ‘‘ tang,” for hafting, and a stone

axe with ground edge, all made of local rocks.

But before adducing my reasons for believing that this multiplicity

of form is ascribable to a plurality of races, some extremely ancient,

others less so, and others again well-nigh contemporaneous, I

must warn the student that it should not be taken for granted

that the evolution or transformation of an industry is always on the

lines of progress. Evolution often stops, sometimes to start again

on its onward career, sometimes—and oftener than not—to retro-

grade, in the sense that the first line with which we connect it

is gradually abandoned for a less complex but not necessarily

* It is a well-accepted fact that primitive people always settled near running

waters in the valleys.

a Annals of the South African Museum.

ineffective one, which, through supplanting the former, obliterates

its traces.

For comparison I have, purposely, somewhat neglected indications

afforded by results obtained in England, Northern Europe, or

Northern America, not that these indications are not valuable in

themselves, but because the composition of the material used in the

lithic industry of South Africa, and the resulting produce of the

same, clearly assimilates it to that prevailing in Southern Europe,

from the Pyrénées eastward and southwards.

This paper is not an attempt to try and solve problems of great

consequence for that section of the science of Anthropology dealing

with the stone implements, the artefacts of man who had ceased to

be anthropomorphous ape. It is a recapitulation, it can hardly be

called a narrative, of information obtained in South Africa, classified

wrongly or rightly according to the tenets obtaining now.

It is the embodiment of some thirty years’ research, and if the

explanations can be challenged or criticised the numerous illustra-

tions will doubtlessly escape that fate.

Renewed activity for the last ten years, in the search for these

relics—an activity resulting from the discovery of important

deposits—in which many and zealous collaborators have joined—has

enabled us, at the South African Museum, to accumulate material

from every part of South Africa, and of many from beyond. This

material forms certainly the most complete collection of its kind.

In addition, I was enabled by the courtesy of their owners to

examine, photograph, and make casts of certain examples not repre-

sented in the Museum Collection.

I have been greatly aided by the members of the Staff of the

Geological Survey of the Cape Colony in matters relating to the

geological formations or sites of the implements found, many of

them through their own exertions. I would fail in my duty if I

did not make special mention of Mr. J. M. Bain, without whose

intelligence, liberality, and absolutely gratuitous aid my attempt at

discriminating in the intricate questions of the South African Lithice

Ages would have been greatly impaired, and the results more incom-

plete. Many are those who also proffered help, advice, and

suggestions. To name them all would necessitate many lines of

print; but the omission of their respective names will not, I know,

be by them taken amiss, for, indeed, unselfishly they toiled.

To Mr. A. R. Walker, of the South African Museum, I am much

indebted for his assistance in photographing many of the numerous

objects illustrating this paper.

THE PALAOLITHIC.

CHAPTER I.

SITUATION AND COMPOSITION OF THE PALHOLITHIC AND NEOLITHIC

SoutH AFRICAN IMPLEMENTS.

In 1866 the late Sir Langham Dale discovered close to his

residence on the Cape Flats, near Cape Town, stones showing plain

marks of artificial working. These examples were submitted to

experts in England, who pronounced them to be undoubtedly man’s

handiwork.

To the present generation it seems almost incredible that doubt

about the workmanship of these implements could have ever been

entertained, because among them were the best finished examples of

a Solutrian type ever found, and of which two more only have been

met with since.

Willing searchers volunteered their services, and this discovery

was followed by numerous ones in the Cape Colony, the Transkei,

Griqualand West, where these artefacts were found embedded in

mining claims “intermixed with precious stones in the diamond-

diggings’; later on in Natal, the Transvaal, Southern and Northern

Rhodesia, Swaziland, Bechuanaland, the Kalahari region, Mossamedes,

&e., &e.

In fact, these relics of primitive civilisation, be they digging-

stones or hand-picks, cleaving-stones or axes, flakes having served

as knives, saws, burins, piercers, scrapers, or perforated disks for

weight-making, orbicular stones for hand-throwing, or perhaps

slinging, smoothed pounders, mullers, querns, or mortars, stones

grooved by sharpening bone skewers or bodkins, or by reducing to

shape the bone shaft of arrows, whether of huge size or ridiculously

small, they all abound in South Africa from west to east, from south

to north.

When they are of a type that might be assimilated perhaps to the

6 Annals of the South African Musewm.

Aurignacian or Magdalenian, they are exposed on the surface, or

occur in shell mounds or in rock-shelters. They are found, occasion-

ally also with more ancient types, on the floor of huge sand-dunes

by the sea-coast, when these are exposed and bared, to be no less

periodically covered again, by the boisterous prevailing winds. They

are common near the water-places called here “‘ fonteins,”’ 7.e., springs,

and mostly always near to, or in, depressions where rain-water

accumulates in the season: the ‘‘ vleis,”’ or “‘ pans” of South Africa.

When of a more ancient type, Chellean-Mousterian, they are

bedded in alluvial deposits, often very deeply. They occur in

numbers on the talus of mountains and high hills. They are met

with, but then mostly singly, in the exposed banks of rivers ;

occasionally they are found on the surface, or where river terraces

occur which, however, are not proved to be old. Often also they

are found singly, where no trace of land erosion is perceptible or

traceable, unless we go back to early pliocene—this showing plainly

that their presence there is purely accidental.

The material is always a rock of hard texture; no implement

made from a flint nodule has as yet been found, because the material

does not exist in South Africa. The hardest stone occurring locally

or at some distance off has been selected for the large and small

implements. It isTable Mountain sandstone (more or less quartzitic),

Karroo quartzite, dolerite, lydianite, or shale indurated by the in-

trusion of dolerite, surface quartzite of various textures, cherty

sandstone, Dwyka chert, banded jasper, diabase, agate, and chalce-

dony, white quartz either sugary or transparent, even granite.

Implements made of green bottle and white plate glass have also

been found.

It happens not unfrequently that implements are met with in

situations where the rock of which they are made is known to be

absent. Barter may account for their presence there, but it is most

likely that they were carried and left where found by owners of

migratory or roaming habits or dispositions, clan-forming aborigines

that have disappeared, leaving behind them, however, these artefacts

as a testimony to their former existence.

It soon becomes plain, even after a superficial examination, that

the making of implements of forms so various cannot have been

simultaneous. The technique is too dissimilar, the general facies

also. Next to the scraper-knife flaked off a hard stone for a passing

want and probably discarded immediately after, we find a laurel leaf-

shaped lance-head worked by careful secondary trimming on either

side and of nearly pure Solutrian type; a ‘coup de poing”’ of a finish

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 7

equal to the best Acheulean. We have a cleaving-stone surpass-

ing the best Mousterian ; a rude, irregular stone with cutting edges

fixed with a gum-cement to a wooden handle in the manner obtain-

ing among the Australian aborigines ; arrows, the cutting or piercing

heads of which is obtained by minute chips set in a triangular piece

of similar gum-cement, a few arrow-heads with tang, worked on both

sides; and a ground axe of neolithic type are aiso recorded.

The evolution in the manufacture of these tools took probably

a very long time in South Africa, as elsewhere. I have already ex-

pressed my belief,* based on purely antiquarian grounds, and

according to the tenets of the classification generally accepted, that

‘we have in South Africa evidence of two periods: a paliwolithie

and a recent one, which I hesitated to term neolithic; but that there

is no evidence as to the time when the former was replaced by the

latter, and moreover, that this point will remain for long conjec-

tural.”’ In a word, a very ancient race had peopled Africa at the

paleolithic stage. One or more races have supervened, possibly

absorbed the former, and perhaps replaced it.

Unfortunately, neither geology nor paleontology has been able

to give us, so far, a clue to the possible age of the South African

finds. The question is still more complicated owing to material of

a palewolithic type of the highest finish, as well as of ruder kind,

having been found in valleys where old river terraces cannot be

traced, as well as where river terraces exist, or are said to exist.

Then, alongside of these we have implements quite modern, as

will be seen subsequently, and yet so primitive in appearance that

one can excuse, yet not agree with, those antiquarians who, re-

quiring a beginning to everything, have postulated that thorny subject

an ‘‘eolithic” age preceding or accompanying the ‘ Strepyan.”’

Nor does the difference in composition of the material of which the

implements are made help us to elucidate the point of antiquity. A

hand-pick of dolerite will be weathered to a stage of unrecognition,

while a quartzite one will, during the same time, merely acquire a

patina, or polish ; a chert or banded jasper tool will remain almost as

fresh as when made, while a diabasic one will become deeply pitted

or smoothed under similar conditions.

Eolian agencies have also to be taken into serious consideration,

in a country where desiccation has been in progress, especially in the

* “The Stone Age in South Africa,’’ in ‘* Science in South Africa,’ Cape Town,

1905, a publication prepared for the visit of the British Association for the Advance-

ment of Science. The present paper is an enlargement of the necessarily highly

condensed précis I then gave of our knowledge of the question.

8 Annals of the South African Museum.

north-western part, from probably the beginning of the quaternary

period.

Great, almost unsurmountable, therefore are the difficulties front-

ing the Antiquarian in South Africa: first, because geology and

paleontology fail him in affording precise indications of an old

period from which deductions other than speculative might be

drawn ; secondly, because the Stone Age is not yet an age of the

past, or if so, it ended yesterday; thirdly, because, with one

exception, there is no evidence of a Polished or Ground Stone

period having replaced the former and preceded a Bronze or Iron

Age as in the Palearctic Region.

The only resource left to him is to turn to the comparative study

of the implements themselves, but he is soon led to conclude, on

lithological grounds, that these South African implements do not fit

in with the classification that answers to the requirements of, and

is founded upon, the evidence obtained in Europe.

The latter classification is based on stratigraphical and palzonto-

logical evidence, and it depends also on certain industries * which

unfortunately did not extend to South Africa.

Classifications are made to be unmade when new discoveries occur.

But it is not possible to make the known South African finds fit

in with the classifications of Mortillet or of other authors.

There is, moreover, a chain of evidence being slowly forged which

points to a resemblance between implements from the Old and

those of the New World. This similarity of form is so striking that

it makes the Antiquarian pause when he considers the question of

the possible identity of the races of mankind that manufactured

these implements. Nor is he easy in his mind that this lithic

industry is not the result of causes due to the growing intellectual

power of man, affecting people in widely distant countries at the

same or different times.

He has then to eall the Anthropologist and the Ethnologist to his

aid. In spite of the fact that a community of races is not implied

by a like condition of culture, the Philologist may also be asked

to add his quota, although his great error is, and has always been,

to ‘‘ treat a communicable character as an inborn gift.”

Thus reduced merely to a lithological comparison, the study of the

South African implements might appear to prove barren of results.

But it is not so. The Chellean type is the Chellean type of the

Palearctic and other regions. This is indubitable. But the types

* The Magdalenian, connected with the reindeer, and perhaps late on with the

stag, is a case in point.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 9

that might correspond with the Aurignacian, Solutrian, and Magda-

lenian cultures, especially the last, have an indescribable facies of

their own which may be said to be South African. On the other

hand, the “‘ pygmy’ implements, and others with the “ bord abattu”’

of the French, cannot be very readily distinguished from the English,

French, and Indian implements of the same type, except, of course,

by the material of which they are made; but they more closely

approximate the Algerian and Morocco examples.

The South African Aurignacian or Magdalenian type, may have

been, and probably was, as old as that of the corresponding period

of Europe ; but it has outlivedit. The‘ pygmy” culture lasted in the

Cape Colony until the sixties of the last century, or thereabouts,

and is lasting still in the Kalahari.*

Truly we have not here a definite line of separation between the

artefacts that are hacked stones or those that are polished stones, in

so far as concerns weapons or tools that might have been used as

weapons; but we have here an abundance of household utensils

that might prove a counterpart to the age of the polished stone, but

which have a facies eminently South African.

This peculiar feature of what I prefer, rightly or wrongly, to term

the South African Neolithic type is that, although for certain

purposes stones were polished, yet it cannot be said that an attempt

was made to make the weapons of the same period more serviceable

or more effective by this polishing or grinding process. There is

thus a big hiatus in the evolution of South African stone implements.

* We find it connected also in some Cape caves with large implements of

paleolithic type.

CHAPTER II.

DIVISIONS OF THE PAuLxonITHIC SERIES. Eouiras. PALXOLITHS

OF LARGE SIZE OTHER THAN SCRAPER-KNIVES. ‘THE DIFFERENT

Types oF SoutH AFRICAN PALHOLITHIC IMPLEMENTS.

In order to compare our South African series and make them

synchronise with those met with elsewhere, it may not be out of

place—in fact, it is necessary—to give here, but on broad lines,

he generally accepted divisions of the Pleistocene, or ancient

Quaternary.

Whether they are justified or not for the South African implements,

the general terms will prove useful; but whether these divisions as

now accepted will prove provisional, in view of the later discoveries

of human remains, is a question of the future.

These divisions, beginning from the lowest, are :—

Strepyan

Chellean

Acheulean

Mousterian

Solutrian

Magdalenian

Azilian

Another arrangement rejects the Strepyan and accepts the—

Chellean

Acheulean

Mousterian

Aurignacian

Solutrian

Magdalenian

Azilian

The Stone Ages of South Africa. Ad

A third arrangement, and one which would seem more suited to

the South African finds, rejects the Strepyan and unites the Chellean,

Acheulean, and Mousterian in a sub-division called the Chelleo-

Mousterian.

The reasons for these divisions are as follows :—

CHELLEAN.—During this period Europe was a warm country with

a mild and damp climate. The fauna is characterised by the pre-

sence of the Hippopotamus and Elephas antiquus. On the archeo-

logical side were prevalent stone implements trimmed on both faces,

and of an amygdaloidal (almond) shape.

ACHEULEAN.—With the Chelléan is closely connected the

Acheulean, which may be termed a phase of transition. The fauna

consists of the animals of the Chellean period, among which,

however, and in certain places, are found others belonging to the

period following, 1.e., the Mousterian.

Mousterian.—During the Mousterian, termed also Middle

Paleolithic, the temperature is lower and the fauna is that of a

cold, moist climate. The Mammoth, an animal of some 16 to

18 feet in height, takes the place of its still larger predecessor,

Elephas antiquus; it is associated with the woolly rhinoceros,

haying two horns over the nose, the larger of the two sometimes

3 feet in length. The Acheulean implement is still occasionally,

but seldom, met with. The Mousterian implement is usually

chipped on one face only; it is probably detached from the

matrix, or nucleus, whether flint or quartzite, at one blow after

or before the outer face has been shaped into the requisite

manner; the reverse side shows well-nigh invariably the convex

node called ‘‘bulb of percussion.”” The maximum size is about

6 inches long, the average 24; the edges are often very carefully

retouched (secondary chipping).

SoLUTRIAN- MAGDALENIAN.—The characteristic of this period is a

dry cold succeeding to a moist, damp cold. During this period the

severity of the climate, especially in winter, induces man to seek

shelter to avoid partly its rigour. That shelter he finds in the

caves or grottoes formed naturally in calcareous formations, or

under hanging rocks.

The fere nature multiply. Man’s mental powers are taxed

to their utmost to resist his natural enemies, maybe by brute

foree, but much more likely by craft, in order to obtain his

food, and to secure garments as protection from the severity of

the climate. This period, divided in two successive ones, is the

age pre-eminently of the reindeer, and it leads progressively

12 Annals of the South African Museum.

from the old Quaternary or Pleistocene to the actual Quaternary

or Holocene.

During the age of the hippopotamus or the elephant (H. antiquus),

Chellean man’s only relics are stone implements—feeble weapons,

after all, against the redoubtable foes he has to encounter.

But from sheer necessity growing wants lead to the invention of

more complicated implements or tools, and during the Reindeer

period these forms were multiplying in adaptation for special

purposes.

Slender, even delicate, tools of ivory, bone, horn occur side by

side with stone implements of different shapes, possibly pre-Solutrian.

Flint lance-heads admirably worked on each side, arrow-heads with

peduncles, or “ tangs,’’ exhibiting a wonderful progress in ‘“ hand-

knapping,” are found together with simple, or barbed darts,

arrow-heads, some simple, some notched, and others triangularly

incised at the base; bodkins, &c., made of ivory or bone are

common.

It is at that time that the sense of what we call “art” appears to

awake in the mind of this cave-dweller, or Troglodyte, and he gives

expression to it in the shape of sculpture or painting, petroglyphs

and glyptics, some of which are admirably preserved to this day,

and treated in a manner that throws our so-called Bushman

paintings completely into the shade.

Yet this man’s predecessor, the late Mousterian, is dolichocephalic

with an index of 75, and a breadth height of 62:5, that is to say

with measurements corresponding with a lower stage than those of

any existing race. The height is moderate, 1™ 60; he has large

orbits, “the superciliary ridge forms a kind of vizor above them”’ ;

the jaw is powerful; there is a total absence of chin, &c.’’ *

However primitive this middle pleistocene man may seem if his

physical characters only are taken into consideration, yet he buries

his dead with care. Of the skeleton found in the classic grotto of

‘‘ Le Moustier,”’ it is said: ‘The posture is that of repose with the

face turned to the right, the right arm is under the head which

is surrounded by flint flakes. Beside the skeleton were found, in

addition to the flint implements of the Mousterian type, some

of the Acheulean, among them a splendidly worked ‘“ hand-

wedge.”’ +

A human jaw has been also lately discovered to which an older

* Haddon, A. C., ‘‘ Paleolithic Man,” Nature, 1909, July 29th.

+ Boule, M., ‘‘L’homme fossile de la Chapelle aux Saints,’”’ L’Anthropologie,

1908, p. 519.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 13

still origin is attributed, but no implements seem to have been found

with it.*

For our purpose the lithological or other divisions following those

already enunciated beyond, if not including the Azilian, do not bear

any distinct connection with the South African; and even the

Solutrian-Magdalenian stage does not seem to exist here in the

succession claimed for it in the Palearctic region.

But we have traces of culture in the shape of petroglyghs or

glyptics that remind one of those of the Solutrian, if not

Aurignacian, period. We have also an autochthonous race, or the

remains of it, the ‘‘San,’’ Strand Looper, Barwa or Bushman, the

cephalic index of which, inferior to that of any other living man, is

perhaps only slightly superior to that of the man of the “Chapelle

aux Saints.” + Members of that race were undoubtedly capable of

producing glyptics; of this there is no doubt.

It is not so certain, however, that the numerous petroglyphs (rock

engravings), fairly numerous in South Africa, were executed by

them.{ But of one thing we are sure, and that is that these rock

engravings have been executed with stone tools.§

EOLItTHS.

It seems logical that there should have been a beginning in the

manufacture of these stone implements that show a considerable

skill in the making. Primitive man made use of round, flat, or

pointed stones, either rolled by water, detached, or sharpened by

natural or accidental agencies; that afterwards he attempted to

improve on them, or made them more suited to a requisite purpose,

appears to us now very natural. This hypothesis is, moreover, borne

out by the progress made in the manufacture of implements from the

palzolithic type to the polished Stone Age forms.

When, therefore, flints somewhat or greatly amorphous in general

appearance, and which were afterwards dubbed “ eoliths,’’ were

firstly discovered on the Kent Plateau, in England, by Harrison, it

was claimed by him and others on the ground that evolution should

* Alsberg, M., ‘‘ Recently discovered Fossil Human Remains,” Globus, vol. xev.,

1909.

+ The cranial capacity of Bushmen is 1-285 c.c., according to Shrubsall, ‘Notes

on some Bushmen Crania, &c.,’’ Ann. 8. Afric. Mus., v., 1907, p. 235. Previous

observations had given 1:330 ¢.c. (male) and 1-255 (female).

{ Péringuey, ‘‘On Rock Engravings of Animals and the Human Figure, the

Work of South African Aborigines, &c.,” loc. cit., vol. xvi., 1906.

§ Péringuey, ‘‘ On Rock Engravings of Animals and the Human Figure found

in South Africa,”’ Trans. 8. Africa, Phil. Soe., vol. xviii., 1909.

14 Annals of the South African Musewm.

have had a beginning, that these flints were the first attempt of man

at trimming and working stone for his requirements. This discovery,

followed by similar ones in Europe, led many Antiquarians to adopt

the theory.

It may not be out of place to give here an explanation of the making

of tools by blows or percussion.

If the blow is direct and delivered with great force the detached

part is not bounded by a plane surface. Close to the part struck

there is produced a conchoidal fracture, which gives rise to a

‘‘bulb of percussion.”” That is to say, one of the faces of the

detached part presents at its thicker extremity a convex swelling

corresponding to a concave cavity in the matrix or nucleus. This

I may add, in passing, invariably occurs not only with flint nodules

but also with all kinds of rocks used for that purpose in South

Africa.

This conchoidal fracture seems, however, to be altogether absent

in the flint “eoliths.’ M. M. Boule has also shown pretty con-

clusively that mechanical agents easily and naturally transform flint

nodules into ‘eoliths.””* The discovery of mechanically made

* pseudo-eoliths ’’ has undoubtedly modified the views of many of

those who, endowing primitive races with characters which could

have resulted only from evolutionary progress, were inclined to find

in these so-called implements with “trimmed edges,” ‘“ double-,’’

“ crescent-shaped,” ‘ hollow-end,”’ ‘‘ horse-shoe’’ scrapers the most

ancient attempts of man at the manufacture of tools.

I may add that with the human remains of the Neanderthal-Spy—

Le Moustier, et La Chapelle aux Saints race—remains of a man

of an inferior type, more closely connected with the anthropoid

apes than with any other ancient human group, such as the ‘“Cro-

Magnon’’—were found stone implements, not eolithic, but of the

Acheulean and Mousterian types.

I would not have entered into this thorny question were it not

that it is claimed that ‘“ eoliths”’ are found, among other places, near

Pretoria, Transvaal, and also that they have been figured as such. |

It is therefore not out of place to give here the history of that

discovery. The late Mr. G. Leith made in the neighbourhood of

Pretoria a collection of stone implements, mostly from the ironstone

gravels through which the Aapies River flows. Mr. Nichol Brown, a

co-worker of Harrison of the Kent Plateau eolith fame, had occasion

to inspect that collection in 1897. He showed me some of these

* M. Boule, ‘‘ L’origine des éolithes,’’ L’Anthropologie, 1905, p. 253.

+ G. Leith, “‘On the Caves, Shell-mounds and Stone Implements of South

Africa,”’ Journ. of Anthropolog. Instit., i., 1899, pl. 18.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 15

notched scrapers, asking whether I considered them to be the handi-

work of man. I replied in the affirmative, adding, however, that

Nature’s agency had a great deal to do with their present state.

Two years afterwards Mr. Leith published his paper, illustrated by

one plate bearing the legend, ‘‘ Eoliths from Pretoria.”’

It is not possible to attribute to the implements figured by Leith a

more ancient origin than to the Chellean, Acheulean, or Mousterian

types occurring so abundantly all over South Africa; and this for the

following reasons :—

1, These Pretoria ironstone river gravels are not very ancient.

2. The notched scrapers are the rarest.

3. These scrapers are not as smoothly polished as represented in the

plate, this smoothness being due to the process-block reproduction.

4. Only those examples that would prove likely to support the

‘‘eolithic”’ theory were selected for reproduction.

5. Well-finished palwoliths were afterwards found in sitw, showing

therefore contemporaneity with those so-called Eoliths.

I have received from Mr. Leith himself, and also from other con-

tributors, a considerable number of these implements; they show

either no abrasion of the edges in many cases, and again consider-

able abrasion in others; some are notched, others are not ; some are

more or less polished ; some again show no sign of having been

smoothed either by eolian or water action. But when abraded or

partly polished the action is clearly due to the flow of an intermittent

river.

If one compares these specimens with some of the crescent-shaped

Eoliths of Harrison, and Reutot, one is certainly struck with the

similarity of the deep arcuate emargination of the thinner part of

the Pretorian pseudo-eoliths. But the explanation is a simple one.

Drawn into the vortex of turbulent waters while in flood, the denser

part of the chipped stone offers more resistance to the moving agent,

and the thinner lighter part is therefore thrown more forcibly into

contact with the abrading obstacles, and suffers in consequence.

This is especially illustrated in the knife-scrapers, or chips of the

silicious rock found near the Victoria Falls. In no case is the

thicker part of the chip dented in the horseshoe fashion claimed for

the Kent eoliths * (cf. Cuts 3, 6, 7, 8 of Fig. 119, Pl. XV.).

For the above reasons the “ eolithic ’ origin of the Pretoria imple-

* Fig. 28 is a good instance of an abraded chip that on Mr. Leigh’s theory

should be considered as an eolith. Yet it was found at the foot of Port Elizabeth

Hill together with extremely water-worn quartzite implements (Figs. 25, 26, 27,

Elev.)

16 Annals of the South African Musewm.

ments must be dismissed. They are not the precursors of the highly

finished or rougher South African types, and are neither the initial

nor the secondary stage of the South African paleolithic forms.

PALAOLITHS OF LARGE SIZE OTHER THAN SCRAPER-KNIVES.

But if we reject, for the reasons already given, the evidence of the

Pretoria implements as eolithic, we are faced with forms of a type

and technique so truly palzolithic, and especialiy lower paleolithic,

that doubt as to the identity of shape is no longer possible.* Their

resemblance to the quartzite implements found in Kurope, Aigeria,

Congo, India, is indegd extreme, and the process of manufacture

appears to have been the same.

The late E. T. Hamy was quite justified in stating of a quartzite

cleaving, or hand-wedge boucher found at Koffyfontein, in Orangia,

that, if not made aware of its source, a French or Spanish ethno-

grapher would be justified in pronouncing it to have been found in

one of the palolithic “ stations’ of the Haute-Garonne, in France,.

or in the neighbourhood of Madrid. +

So alike, indeed, to the bouchers of the neighbourhood of

Toulouse, as figured and described by J. B. Moulet,} are the

bouchers of the Stellenbosch-type, that the reproduction of Moulet’s

own plates could have served for a great part of the illustrations

given in this paper.

It is not only to the quartzite implements of France or Spain that

the verisimilitude of the South African bouchers is restricted. As

far back as 1868 R. Bruce Foot called attention § to implements.

met with in the laterite of Madras. Such artefacts have been

found in the Narbadda Valley in Hindustan || and other localities.

We have in the Museum specimens from Codapah, in the Madras.

Presidency, resembling so much in material and workmanship the

South African examples as to be verily indistinguishable. The same

may be said of some of the Congo quartzite implements {/ ; of those

* ITcannot refrain from quoting here a phrase in a letter I received from M.

Cartailhac, the veteran of French Antiquarians: ‘‘ Mais leur aspect suffit pour les

faire reconnaitre, aussi bien que si c’étaient des médailles de César ou de

Victoria.”’

+ Hamy, Bullet. Mus. d’Hist. Natur., 1899, No. 6.

t ‘‘Etude sur les cailloux taillés par percussion du pays toulousain,” Archiv.

Mus. Hist. Nat. Toulouse, pt. 2, 1880.

§ ‘On Quartzite Implements of Paleolithic Type from the East Coast of

Southern India,” Intern. Congr. Anthropol., Norwich, 1868, p. 249.

\| Sollas, ‘‘ Paleolithic Races,’’ Science Progress, pt. 2, 1909.

“| Cf. X. Stainier, ‘*‘ L’Age de pierre au Congo,’? Ann. Mus. d. Congo, i., pt. 1,

1899. V. Jacques, ‘‘Instruments de pierre du Congo,’ Mém. Soc. Anthrop.

Bruxelles, xix., 1901.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. i,

from Algeria,* &e., &¢., which form part of the Museum collec-

tion.

I shall never forget my pleasurable astonishment in discovering

quite accidentally in a clay pit in Stellenbosch one of the most

perfect implements of its kind, but of relatively small size (Pl. L.,

Fig. 4).

This find led to the discovery of deposits or ‘‘ stations’ all over

the Stellenbosch and neighbouring districts in the Cape Colony—

discoveries which still continue.

THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF SOUTH AFRICAN PAL2OLITHIC IMPLEMENTS.

In spite of their general resemblance to each other, a glance at

the illustrations completing this paper suffices to show that these

bouchers exhibit a discrepancy in form and workmanship, in tech-

nique and composition, which, although in many cases slight to the

unaccustomed eye, may be taken to indicate that they have not all

been manufactured by the same race, or at the same time, or in the

same localities.

Probably through long practice, I find no difficulty now in

dividing the South African bouchers into several types, owing to

their appearance or facies or to the material of which they are

made.

I thus venture an attempt at the classification of the types as I

understand them. I must explain, however, that this classification

is based on those implements which by their shape, size, or con-

figuration correspond with the cleaving, digging, or smiting tools of

the Chellean-Mousterian periods, as generally accepted. The evi-

dence afforded by scrapers, knives, missiles, burins or bores, pottery

or other implements of domestic use cannot be taken into account

here. It will be fully treated in other chapters.

I may preface the description of the stones by explaining that in

the best finished implements which are not obviously cleavers, hand-

wedges, or axes, the tongue or amygdaloidal shape prevails; the

ovoid or discoidal is extremely rare, no matter to what type the

implement may belong (cf. Fig. 24, Pl. III.).

I may also state that the specimens figured have not been selected

on account of their singularity or finish, and although no two pieces

are ever alike, yet the figures are strictly representative of various

forms occurring in South Africa.

* M. Boule, “ Ktude paléontolog. et Archéolog. sur la station paléolithique du

lac Karar (Algérie),” L’ Anthropologie, xi., 1900.

18 Annals of the South African Museum.

STELLENBOSCH TypE.—It is in the valleys of the Eerste, Berg,

Breede, Oliphants, and sundry rivers and their affluents in the Cape

Colony that some of the best finished implements of that type have

been discovered hitherto.

Made of quartzite varying in closeness of texture (Table Mountain

sandstone), but the grain of which, however crystalline the sand-

stone may be, precludes the possibility of their ever acquiring a fine

polish, they are of a type so numerously illustrated in all the South

African districts of the Cape Colony and also beyond (Cape, Stellen-

bosch, Paarl, Worcester, Tulbagh, Ceres, Clanwilliam, Malmesbury,

Piquetberg, Caledon, Mossel Bay, Knysna, Port Elizabeth) that they

may well be ranked under the name,* “ Stellenbosch type.”

They are all broadly flaked either on one face or both; the edges

are sharp, but very sinuous, and often continued round the butt, but

they often also retain there the rounded original pebble shape;

they show no distinct secondary trimming except faint traces at the

point ; none are rectilinear in profile.

Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 20, 32 represent the best finished tongue-shaped,

Stellenbosch-type implements ; they are chipped on both faces, but

the trimming of one side does not correspond with that of the other.

Very variable indeed in shape and size are the artificially worked

stones of that type. The crudeness and imperfection of some of

them contrast singularly with that of Figs. 1, 2, 3, &c.; they are

no longer tongue-shaped or amygdaloidal (see Figs. 12, 13, 14, 19).

The butt is shaped into a rough point, as in Figs. 12 or 15; both ends

may be reduced almost equally to a sharp point (Fig. 14), or one of

the points into a broad wedge (Fig. 13); the apices are thus variable

in form. But whatever the shape be, crude or finished, the median,

always sharp, ridge of the two faces as shown in the absolute profile

of the bouchers does never correspond.

Next to, and found together with, the highly finished implements

comparable, except in size, with the best Acheulean (Figs. 1, 2,-3,

20, 32), is Hamy’s “hache a talon’”’ (Figs. 5, 6, 7,8), in which a

part of the water-worn, rounded quartzite boulder has been retained

more for convenience than through accident.

This retention of the contour of the boulder, or of part of it, is of

very frequent occurrence in the Stellenbosch—more so than in any

of the other types I have seen (Figs. 7, 8, 9, 10, 29) ; it is extremely

pronounced in Figs. 25 and 26.

* I have seen an implement of that type alleged to have been found in Natal.

It is in the G. Leith Collection, now in the Pretoria Museum. I know of similar

ones from East London, as well as from Swaziland.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 19

Many of the bouchers of the Stellenbosch type retain also on one

side the primitive cleavage with very little paring; but this is not

restricted to that type only.

Orance River Type.—If we were to consider only the palzolithic

industry of the southern districts of Cape Colony its homogeneous

form would certainly stand as absolutely typical, but proceeding

northward we find that in the so-called ‘“‘ Karroo”’ parts of Cape

Colony the palzoliths are made of dolerite, oftener of shale indurated

by the intrusion of dolerite, or of a hard chert band occurring at the

top of the Dwyka shales. There also the ‘“‘knapper”’ has, where

possible, made use of large pebbles or boulders rounded either by

water or other natural causes. These implements are rude, and

often extremely primitive.

In the best examples the flaking, either through imperfect know-

ledge of the craft, possibly also owing to the texture or composition

of the material used, is irregular: one of the faces is often hollowed

or very concave; the surface of the rock from which it was detached

is often, and the rounded part of the boulder occasionally, retained.

Further discoveries may reveal implements of a finer finish; hitherto

only three “stations,” two in the Ceres and the other in the

Cradock District of Cape Colony, have been found. The work-

manship, although akin still to that of the Stellenbosch, merges,

however, into the type that one meets with in the valleys of the

Orange, Hartz, Vaal, Limpopo Rivers and their affluents, as well as

in the Eastern Provinces of the Cape Colony, and which I propose

to call the Orange River type.

When we reach the Griqualand West District or its immediate

vicinity, especially Prieska and Kenhardt, the difference between

the above-mentioned Karroo forms and those occurring there is in

some cases extreme. These palzoliths are mostly made of banded

jasper, brown or yellow, and occasionally white with bluish veins—

an extremely hard material which, owing to the banding, splits or

flakes into small facets seemingly more readily than quartzite. The

implements thus produced rival the best Acheulean flints in finish

(Figs. 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 44, 48, 49, &.). They do not usually

attain the great size and heavy weight of many of the Stellenbosch-

type examples, yet the Museum possesses one 255 mm. long, 106 mm.

broad, but only 40 mm. in thickness, found near Griqua Town. At

Griqua Town also was found the boucher (Fig. 35), which is made,

however, of semi-translucent chert. In some examples a part of the

natural banding is retained (Figs. 37a, 39a); others exhibit the trans-

verse fracture of the point (Figs. 36, 40); on one face of Fig. 41

20 Annals of the South African Museum.

there remains a part of the conglomerate in which it was embedded,

and which contains chips of jasper, the material of which it is made.

But in the Prieska, Kenhardt, Hay Districts (Cape Colony), imple-

ments of quartzite or diabasic rock are found of a shape and finish

rivalling those of Figs. 36, 37, 39, &. Fig. 36 is made of banded

jasper ; 37 of crystalline quartzite ; 43 of diabase. The workmanship

is of so superior a type, apart from the material used, that it might

perhaps be ranged as a sub-type of the Orange, 7.e., the Griqua.

The composition of this Orange River type is various; it is

made of more or less coarse or sub-crystalline quartzite, of diabasic

rock often very deeply pitted and occasionally vesicular, banded

jasper, dolerite or aphanite, sometimes, but very seldom, chert

(Districts of Bedford, Alice, East London, Carnarvon, Kenhardt,

Prieska, Warrenton, Pniel, Vryburg, Modder River, Smithfield,

Transkei, Pretoria, Witwatersrand, Potchefstroom, Vereeniging,

Swaziland); jasper (banded ironstone series), quartzite, felsite,

opaque vein quartz, diabase, granite, chalcedony in Southern

Rhodesia (Hartley and Charter Districts, Zambesi River) ; chalce-

dony also or other silicious rocks in N’Gamiland, and Bechuanaland

Vryburg, Morokwen, Mafeking, &c.

Near Pniel and Warrenton, on the Vaal River, the paleoliths, made

either of dolerite or diabasic rock, are worn so smooth that some

might, on a superficial examination, appear to have been artificially

polished (Figs. 53, 55, 56, 57, 59, 60); the nearly oblong example

(Fig. 43) from Calvinia in the Cape Colony is quite smooth ; but in

igs. 53 and 61, the latter from Prieska, a faint contour of the

chipping is retained, showing thus that the smoothness is not due to

an intentional polishing of these artefacts.

Some of these Vaal and Harts’ River Valley bouchers, as well as

some from the Transkei, are often of a very large size and quite equal

in that respect to the Stellenbosch. Generally they are of a better

finish, but it must be remembered that in all likelihood only the best

implements are picked by the casual collector.

On the whole, and in spite of the differences mentioned, the facies

or general appearance of these two, or perhaps three types is

astonishingly alike, as the following examples will prove. Fig. 29

is that of a rough, massive implement made of quartzite, and was

found in the Tulbagh District of the Cape Colony. A part of the

original rounded surface of the boulder from which it was made

has been retained. It is a very unwieldy tool, and very heavy.

Fig. 30 comes from the Charter District of Southern Rhodesia. It

is almost a replica of Fig. 29, and is made of impure jasper ; a part

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 21

of the original surface of the matrix or nucleus has also been

retained, as in the Tulbagh example, and although, owing to the

composition of the rock of which it is made, it has undoubtedly

required more knowledge of trimming, its resemblance to the

Tulbagh implement, as well as its dimensions, are strikingly alike.

If we turn to the best finished tongue-shaped or amygdaloidal

implements the similarity in examples originating from localities far

apart is equally suggestive.

Fig. 31 is made of granite and is the first African implement of

that rock found hitherto.* It comes also from Charter, in Southern

Rhodesia. The right edge was broken by a waggon going over it.

It is very finely grained and shows a great deal of weathering. The

felspar is kaolinised. On comparison with Fig. 32, which is the

reverse of Fig. 3, one of the best finished quartzite implements of

the Stellenbosch type and picked up near that town, one finds it to

be of the same shape, of the same type of manufacture and to have

the same finish. The cleaver, Fig. 33, also from Charter, and Fig. 34

from Stellenbosch, exhibit the same resemblance, although differing

in composition.

These Southern Rhodesia implements were discovered by Mr.

W. H. Kenny, a prospector, who found them isolated, some on

the surface, others “sticking out” of the banks of a “ spruit.”’ + In

that collection were examples very similar indeed to the banded

jasper paleoliths of Griqua Town, but made of impure, not banded

jasper. Some are small chalcedony bouchers chipped on one face

only or nearly flat, and resembling greatly, in fact identical with, the

Zambesi silicious implements ; but most interesting were three made

of white quartz from vein, and respectively 133, 95, and 80 mm.

long by 80, 68, and 66 mm. broad. The larger is opaque, the outer

two crystalline; the smallest of the three is broken at one end.

They are somewhat coarse, and the edges resulting from the

‘“knapping ” are very blunt, but they have probably taken as much

time as, and demanded even greater skill in shaping than, the

chalcedony paleolith from the Zambesi River described and figured

by Mr. Henry Balfour. }

* Granite implements have also been found in the neighbourhood of Toulouse,

but, I believe, there only.

+ [here take the opportunity of thanking Mr. Kenny for allowing me not only

to examine his very interesting collection, which I understand is now in England,

and make notes thereon, but also to have some of the examples photographed for

the purpose of this paper. He has just lately sent me a series of the same for our

Collection.

+ «Note upon an Implement of Paleolithic Type from the Victoria Falls,

Zambesi,” Journ. Anthropol. Inst., vol. xxxvi., 1906 (170-171).

Annals of the South African Musewm.

This palolith is 137 mm. wide and 66 mm. thick. It weighs

26 oz., and is of rude manufacture, due certainly to the nature of

the rock. A part of the original shape of the nucleus has been

retained at the butt, and it is trimmed on both sides.* I have seen

another boucher made of the same material but smaller, and unlike

any other that I have seen. It is in the shape of a transverse

wedge, blunt at the top and tapering thence to a fairly sharp edge,

intended probably for cutting. It is the property of Mr. F. White,

of Bulawayo.

Large bouchers made of chaleedony seem to be, however, very

rare, but some of moderate sizes have been found; they pertain,

though, more to the scraper-knife type (Pl. XX., Figs. 121, 122).

Implements made of similar material have been lately found in

German South-West Africa (Pl. XIX., Fig. 147), but they can in

nowise be compared with bouchers. They are plainly ostrich egg-

shell borers, and if they are made of the same material as that of

some of the large bouchers of the Zambesi Valley, it is due to the

fact that silicious rock, and perhaps no other exposed one of hard

texture, was available.

Together with these chalcedony implements, quartzite bouchers

have been found in the so-called river gravels of the Zambesi,t

but these implements must, at least provisionally, be ranged like

those from Charter (Pl. IV., Figs. 30, 31, 34), among the Orange

River type.

* Mr. Balfour informs me that he found several examples, together with non-

silicious ones.

+ Discussing before the Geological Society the occurrence of stone implements

in the neighbourhood of Victoria Falls, Mr. T. Codrington states that he found

four implements of a paleolithic type ; ‘‘ the three of brown quartzite are very like

implements from India, labelled in the South African Museum as greatly resembling

South African implements in material and workmanship’ (Quart. Journ. Geolog,

Soc., Aug., 1909, vol. Ixv.).

CHAPTER III.

THE MANNER IN WHICH THE BOUCHERS WERE MANUFACTURED,

AND THE TOOLS USED FOR MANUFACTURING THEM.

THE MANNER IN WHICH THE BOUCHERS WERE MANUFACTURED.

All the South African bouchers have been shaped by percussion,

Pressure applied with bone or wood could not produce the desired

object with the material of which they are made.

The nucleus is of two sorts: water-worn or. naturally rounded

boulders or large pebbles, and fragments artificially detached from

rocks. Hither might have been heated and flakes split off by the

application of cold water.

The sudden contraction would not, however, produce the concave

fracture of the matrix which invariably corresponds with the convex

side of the detached part (Fig. 69, Pl. X.). This convexity which

corresponds with the ‘bulb of percussion ’”’ of smaller imple-

ments is very seldom faint; in Fig. 70, Pl. X., however, it is not

very marked.

I have, by good luck, been able to make observations on the site of

a most interesting ‘“ station,” or deposit, extending for several miles

(Simondium, Cape Colony), and have collected material illustrating

most clearly, and also most abundantly, all the phases of the

manufacturing process.

The primitive man who made the Chellean-type bouchers had, in

all likelihood, found by experience that implements are more easily

obtained by the fracture of pebbles or boulders than from pieces

detached from the outcrop of rock. This opinion is certainly

borne out by the very numerous implements of both the Stellen-

bosch and Orange River types that retain part of their original

contour.”

So numerous indeed are the bouchers of this type in the Draken-

* In the Toulouse and Madrid deposits the same thing occurs.

24 Annals of the South African Museum.

stein Valley of the Cape Colony and elsewhere, as to almost justify

the belief that the makers, satisfied that the stones could be of

service at that stage, gave them merely a preliminary paring until

they had either the time, or had acquired the skill necessary for

transforming them into that tongue- or amygdaloidal-shaped boucher

which is equal to the best Acheulean, the rarity of which among

roughly shaped objects seems to point to the difficulty inherent to,

or the skill requisite for, their finish.

A careful inspection of the numerous artificially worked, originally

rounded or water-worn boulders of the Simondium “ station,” indi-

cates that the ultimate shape of the boucher depended mostly on the

manner of the fracture.

Thus, in Fig. 68, Pl. X., a fragment has been detached from a

river boulder in the manner shown. The face of the detached part

is nearly even, the fracture of the left side is irregular; in the side

view (Fig. 69), the convex part of the fracture corresponds with, or is

akin to, the concave part of Fig. 72. On the right side of Fig. 69 the

marks of blows delivered in detaching the flake are very noticeable.

This fact does away with the rock-heating and cold-water-throwing

hypothesis.

So much, then, for the preliminary fracture. Let us now try to

realise what the ultimate shape of this implement would have been,

had the ‘‘knapper”’ been allowed to finish it.

The pointed part is already obtained; paring the butt would

probably be the next step, because a comparison with Figs. 74 and

73 shows that the reduction of the butt-end has been effected in the

manner suggested before the greatest part of the original surface of

Fig. 73 was chipped.

The boucher would be greatly reduced in size by this operation,

but its utility as a hand-pick would have been increased rather than

impaired by the smooth, even, original surface being retained on one

side instead of being facetted as on the other. In the Simondium

“ station ” these “ bouchers”’ pared on one side only were, as I have

already remarked, very numerous, but together with them I found

there also some of our best finished examples (Fig. 5, Pl. I.).

Fig. 20, Pl. II., comes also from the same spot. In the Eerste

River Valley I met with the same experience.

Great importance attaches to the fragment Fig. 68 (face view),

69 (side view), Pl. X., because, unlike what is alleged for European

bouchers, and other implements of the Mousterian type, the upper

face has not been fashioned first and then detached. This conclusion

is borne out by most implements of that kind which I examined.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 25

It is true that in Fig. 70, Pl. X., the preparatory stage bears no

trace of the blows that detached it from the matrix. The fracture

is almost vertical, and the strongly convex outer side is artificially

pared ; but this is probably due to the difficulty experienced in

detaching the same from the nucleus.

Owing to its shape, it would prove almost an impossibility to turn

this first stage (Fig. 70) into either a tongue-shaped or amygdaloidal

boucher. With it I found, however, several examples having the

shape of Fig. 71—a fact which shows that only in this form the

artefact shown in Fig. 70 could have ultimately resulted, unless

extreme skill had been applied to turn it into an amygdaloid

boucher of very much smaller size; but as Fig. 71 has been used in

its present shape, our conclusion is justified.

In Fig. 63 we have a split boulder, which leads to the evolution

of either the axe or cleaving tool (Fig. 66) or the spade-like pick

(Fig. 67). Fig. 64 is that of a water-worn boulder, bearing on the

left and right sides traces of ‘‘ knapping,”’ the beginning of its trans-

formation into either the broad-end boucher (Fig. 65) or the pointed

one (Fig. 62); Fig. 63 is a good illustration of the preliminary

trimming that will result in the ultimate production of Fig. 62.

The examples I give here are all taken from one locality, 7.e.,

Simondium, but I could have quoted as effectually from several

other places.

In the chapter dealing with the purpose for which bouchers were

made I allude to the great size and correspondingly heavy weight

of some of the South African implements. Fig. 20a is that of the

largest and heaviest I have as yet met with, and the point plainly

bears marks of usage. Many were the speculations which its shape

and its partly unfinished appearance and heaviness suggested ; but if

the workmanship of the fine implement shown in Fig. 20, Pl. III., is

carefully compared with that of Fig. 20a, it becomes clear that

the latter would have ultimately been turned into Fig. 20. All

the facets, although reduced in size in proportion to that of the

finished implement, are traceable: the concave depression on the

left side of Fig. 20 is the reduced one of Fig. 20a; the median ridge

of the apex is discernible in both; the flat part on the right side of

Fig. 20a is still indicated in Fig. 20, &c.; and the same thing happens

on the reverse of both.

The trimming of Fig. 20a into the shape of Fig. 20 would, however,

cause a considerable diminution in size and weight before the esthetic

sense of the maker would be satisfied with the ultimate finish of the

implement into the characteristic shape of Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 16, 17,

26 Annals of the South African Musewm.

&e. Only large boulders would be selected for the first stage of an

implement like that of Fig. 20a, and such large fragmented ones are

not uncommon.

One that I remember especially, because it was of such a great

weight that I could not carry it with me, was oblong, 450 mm. in

length, and clean cleft longitudinally.

In the same manner as the sharp-pointed bouchers so would the

cleaving implements be produced, only that they would in all likeli-

hood be fashioned more easily. Both faces need not be knapped to

procure a serviceable weapon in the shape of an effective cleaver.

From the detaching blow there has resulted a smooth, slanting shape

on one side (Figs. 47, 50, 53, 57), while the other face bad to be

similarly treated to obtain a corresponding slanting side in order to

make the cleaver effective. Sometimes the natural face is retained

(Fig. 51). It would seem at first sight that a cleaver could be more

easily produced than an amygdaloidal hand pick, and it probably

was. Yet Figs. 48, 49, 56, &., denote a great deal of skill in the

making. They are worked on both sides, and so are Figs. 33 and 34—

the first from Stellenbosch, the second from Rhodesia. Perhaps they

were intended both for cleaving and digging, but as cleavers they

would certainly prove less serviceable than Figs. 47, 53, and 57,

which have undoubtedly been produced with less skill. The ex-

planation is that the cleaving propensity is due, as in the case of

the digging-tools, to the preliminary trimming on which the shape

depended. It could not be corrected without much trouble or dex-

terity of hand. It must be alsoremembered that these cleaving tools

ave fewin proportion to the number of digging bouchers. One would

expect that, this mode of manufacture being the easier, the propor-

tion would be reversed, and also that the style or type would be older

were it not that the Mousterian (and most of the axes are Mousterian

in type) has in the palearctic regions been preceded by the Acheulean

and the latter by the Chellean. It does not follow, however, that

such has been the case in South Africa, but the comparative

scarcity of these cleaving-, in contradistinetion to the digging-tools,

is worth noticing.

THE TOOLS USED FOR MANUFACTURING THE BOUCHERS.

When the large palxoliths are made from a rounded boulder or large

pebble, water-worn or otherwise, it is probable that a boulder of the

same size, or perhaps heavier, was hurled against the one which it was

intended to split in order to obtain by concussion the preliminary frag-

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 27

ments from the nuclei. The impact would, in many cases, result in

the partial cleavage of both boulders, and of this there are manifest

and numerous proofs in the Stellenbosch and Drakenstein deposits,

where rounded boulders seem to have been exclusively used. The

skill evinced in some of the rougher examples, as seen in Figs. 7, 8,

12, 15, 21 is, however, of such poor description that I am probably

justified in postulating that paring tools other than any fragment or

splinter of rock were not required for the purpose. But together

with these roughly fabricated artefacts there are found, in situations

pointing clearly to the same origin and to the same epoch, bouchers

highly finished, although broadly facetted, and fully worked into a

point (Figs. 1 to 4, &c., Pl. I.). For fashioning a split pebble into an

amygdaloidal- or tongue-shaped implement, flaking and paring tools

were necessary, and were evidently used; but so far, in the deposits

of the two localities already mentioned (and I consider, for reasons

to be given hereafter, that they are among the most ancient in South

Africa), no evidence of these instruments has as yet been obtained.

Nothing has been found to my knowledge resembling even the tools

that might have served this purpose (cf. Pl. XI., Figs. 86-90), and

which are known from other localities where bouchers have been

found, as well as from places where they have not been met with.

All bouchers, however, have not been evolved from rounded

boulders ; some are made from fragments detached from large rock

masses. To obtain the material required, correspondingly large

hammers, which I may term detaching hammers, in the shape

of Fig. 75 of Pl. XI., were used. Artefacts of this kind are

now recorded from the neighbourhood of Cape Town, but I am

by no means certain that the epoch when the detaching hammers

were in vogue coincides with that of the Stellenbosch and

Drakenstein deposits. There are occasionally found nuclei of the

same shape as the detaching hammers, but with edges so numerous

and sharp that it is plain that they are the residual nuclei or cores

from which chips were detached, and not hammers; were it

otherwise the edges would be abraded, which is not the case.

Quite lately there were discovered at Fishhook, Cape Colony, on

the slope of a hill usually covered by a huge sand-dune, which had

been temporarily removed by abnormally strong winds, quite a

number of these extremely large detaching hammers plainly bearing

marks of the use to which they had been put. They were associated

with river-boulder paleoliths of a most ancient type, as well as with

others that had been fashioned from non-rolled pebbles, but of equally

ancient appearance. On a part of the wholly exposed floor those

28 Annals of the South African Museum.

detaching hammers had been deposited by gravitation, so as to form

here and there irregular circles. The one shown in Fig. 75 of Pl. XI.

is only of moderate size; some of those met with were more than

twice as large. Were it not that the edges are so abraded, it might

be possible to imagine that these stones had been cores as already

stated, or perhaps missiles, in spite, or may be on account, of their

weight, but together with these artefacts we found the fragment

represented in Pl. XI., Fig. 84. Made of the same crystalline

quartzite as the detaching hammers, a quartzite not found 7 szti,

it shows plainly that it was detached from a rock surface by a very

large tool of the style of those mentioned as detaching hammer.

The reverse is flat and the fracture clean. The obverse is already

pared on the upper side by the repeated blows of the detaching tools,

somewhat in the manner claimed for the Mousterian of Europe.

On the Cape Flats, in the neigibourhood of Cape Town, there used

to be exposed here and there outcrops of a close-grained cherty

sandstone, or surface quartzite, and the grains of which, even when

not closely set, are cemented together by silicious matter. Some of

these outcrops were covered with large bosses and depressions due

to the removal of large or moderate-sized fragments by percussion.

Fragments of the same rock considerably too large for paring or

trimming the somewhat delicate, small-sized tools found there in

abundance were not uncommon in the neighbourhood of these out-

crops, and they may also be considered as detaching hammers, but

none of these seen by me was equal in size to those found at

Fishhook. That the detaching hammers, possibly hurling stones

as well, made of this surface quartzite were also used as cores

seems to be proven by the find, also at Fishhook, of similar examples,

together with large flaking tools, of the same material, one of

which is figured in Plate XI., Fig. 90.

But as will be seen later on, the implements made of such material

are comparatively recent.

( 29 )

CEeNe iii Ne

WHAT WERE THE BOUCHERS USED FOR ?

Let us endeavour now to realise the purpose which these artificially

worked stones, which we are now terming ‘ bouchers,” were in-

tended to serve.

Primitive man did not use his uncouth tools for exclusively one

purpose. Had he done so, he would not have been primitive ; but it

is generally assumed that the bouchers of large, or moderately large

size, were held in the hand, and nof hafted.

This admission holds good for the South African ones, and for

reasons which have not, to my knowledge, been adduced for the

European, Algerian, or others, and which I give here.

1. In all the examples of these artificially worked stones—be they

of the more or less perfect tongue- or amygdaloidal-shape, as well as

in many, if not most, of the cleaving tools of the Stellenbosch type—

whenever they are worked on both sides, the sharp, median, uneven

ridge of one face never corresponds with that of the other. The

stability of a boucher inserted in a hollowed- or cleft-handle of horn

or wood would be greatly impaired thereby in spite of thong attach-

ments, or the use of gum-cement in the manner obtaining among

the Australian aborigines—a manner which did also obtain in South

Africa, but for smaller tools only, as will be seen hereafter.

Yet the thing is not impossible with bouchers of the Mousterian

type, one face of which is the result of the cleavage, while the other

is pared with the resulting median longitudinal ridge, because in

these the flat face would add firmness to the hafting. This applies

especially to the cleaving implements, but whereas the axes, Figs. 33,

34, 54, 55, 56, could not have been hafted easily, the same cannot

be said of Figs. 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53,57, which represent cleavers

or hand-wedges belonging to both the Stellenbosch and Orange River

types.

30 Annals of the South African Museum.

One thing, however, is noticeable in these wedge-shaped tools,

namely, that with extremely few exceptions, resulting from the

mode of cleavage, the most bulging part, as shown in the profile of

the figures here given, is the centre. Had these been hafted, a

forcible impact would undoubtedly tend to dislodge them from the

socket.

Another reason for assuming that the bouchers worked round the

butt in a tongue-, or amygdaloidal-shape, were not hafted is that

the edges are too sinuous to produce a clean cut (see Figs. 1, 2, 3,

4, 11, 29).

2. The bouchers in which the original rounded part of the boulder

has been retained (Figs. 5 and 22), might have been used as hafted

club-heads, the sharp end being inserted in a handle. But had this

been done, this rounded part would show traces of abrasion. So far,

however, only one such boucher from among the many which I

examined has shown traces of wear at the rounded part, as if it had

been used for pounding or smashing a hard object. Moreover, in

many of the examples of this type, the sharply pointed apex shows

signs of retrimming, and this leads me to conclude that the sharp

end and not the butt was used. —

That the same occurred also in the case of the tongue-, or

amygdaloidal-shaped bouchers is proved by Figs. 16, 17, 18, 19, in

which the transversely broken part would need fresh trimming to

become serviceable again. Had they been hafted, that is to say

had the sharp point been inserted first into a socket, the fracture

would not have taken place where it did from the force of a blow,

but more towards the middle, as happens for the Solutrian type

lance-, or javelin-beads, of the Cape Flats (Figs. 110, 112, No. 1,

9, 3, 5, Pl. XIV.). The bouchers truncated in this manner thus

give the impression that they broke at their weakest point while

being used as picking or digging tools.

Figs. 5 and 6, Pl. I., represent hand-picks in which the rounded

part of the nucleus has been retained as best suited for hold-

ing in the hand. It is wonderful how, even in an inexperienced

hand, adaptation to this primitive instrument is demonstrable.

Fig. 9 is that of an implement of the same type, but with a much

broader end, specially suited for spade-work. It is too large, how-

ever, and too heavy (it weighs over 5 lbs.), not to have necessitated

the use of both hands in using it. The same may be said of Fig. 20,

the point of which shows very distinctly that in spite of its weight

(9 lbs. 3 oz.) and size (33 cm. long by nearly 16 broad), it has been

used as a digging instrument. Fig. 10 is especially instructive ; no

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 31

longer amygdaloidal- or tongue-shaped, it is plainly curved. A point

was what the maker wanted; this being obtained, he left untrimmed

the remainder of the nucleus from which he fashioned it. This

boucher weighs 3? lbs. In the same locality where I found it, I

discovered several examples having the same peculiar bend. In

Fig. 7 the apex is, in proportion to its size, as broad as in Fig. 9,

and it is not easy to contend that this somewhat uncouth boucher

could have been put to any other purpose than the one to which the

indented point bears corroborative testimony, 7.e., digging. More-

over, the points of Figs. 5, 7, 9, 10 show marks of retrimming.

Fig. 22 is the representation of a quadrangular implement somewhat

unique in shape. Had its purpose been that of a hammer, pounder,

or club-head, the butt or edges would show signs of wear, which

they do not in the least, but the point has been retrimmed ;

moreover, in this particular case, the four sharp edges preclude

the possibility of its being held in the hand as a club, except

possibly in a case of emergency, but as a digging tool it would

be most serviceable. In most of the examples pointed at

each end, one of the ends shows more service than the other

(Figs. 13, 15).

Oblong or ovoid implements, of which it is difficult to say which

end is the butt or point, are extremely rare among the Stellen-

bosch type. Fig. 24 is an example. It is too large to have been

a scraper, its edges are too sinuous to permit of it having been a

cleaving tool. Moreover it is, like Fig. 18, made of a surface

quartzite differing from the material used for the Stellenbosch type,

and is certainly less ancient. But in the deposits of the Orange River

type, especially the Griqua sub-type, these ovoid implements are

occasionally found.

As already mentioned, the striking characteristic of the well-

executed South African paleoliths is their huge size. We have in

the collection, apart from these already quoted, many specimens

weighing from 24 lbs. to 6 lbs., and the average of a boucher

20 cm. long is a little less than 3 lbs.

This great weight is also a strong argument against the likelihood

of their having been hafted. They would have proved very unwieldy

even to men of powerful physique.

But it does not follow that we have not in South Africa bouchers

of moderate and also small dimensions, and comparable in that

respect with those obtained elsewhere. Figs. 4, 18, 19, are good

examples of some, although they are rare, but I know of others

which are smaller still, and of as perfect a type as the best Acheu-

32 Annals of the South African Museum.

lean (Figs. 18, 76, 77, 79). Some were found in association with

larger implements, others by themselves.

It is not unreasonable to suppose that they were made either by,.

or for the children, and possibly also for the women.

The singular implement, Fig. 23, Pl. III., is of a type that has been

discovered hitherto in the Berg River Valley (Cape Colony) only.

Three are known from Wellington, and I lately discovered two more

at Simondium, where there is what I consider to be the oldest

station yet found, lying together with some of the best finished and

largest paleoliths it has been my good fortune to discover, as well

as with still more numerous unfinished ones,

I think that the explanation corroborated by the figures here given

makes it quite clear that the makers of these paleoliths fashioned at

the same time two kinds of bouchers: a pick more or less sharply

pointed at one end, and a cleaver or hand-wedge more or less broad

at the cutting edge, both edge or point of which, in nearly all

cases, Show conspicuous marks of wear.

The hand-picks do not, however, imply agricultural pursuits in the

sense of crop-growing.

Man of the Middle Pleistocene was small, about five feet in height.

It is hardly probabte that he trusted either singly or collectively to

his strength alone to attack or repel the fere nature that threatened

his existence, or to capture those that were necessary for his suste-

nance. Probably armed with a heavy club, he entrapped the

game required for his food and clothing, and this he did by snares

or pits.

If the original maker of these South African bouchers, which

are almost identical with the European, is, as I really believe,

the ancestor or descendant of the negroid race that left traces

of its industry and culture in Southern and perhaps also in

Central Europe, then the use of these implements, whether made

of quartzite or of flint, is now explained. Hither he imported

into Europe the methods to which he has long been accustomed

in Africa for trapping and securing the produce of the chase; or,

if he is not the native of this country, he brought to Africa, during

his long peregrinations, to the further progress of which the Ultima

Thule of the South put an insuperable obstacle, methods borrowed

from those people whom he has encountered and from whom he

has borrowed.

We know that until lately drives, leading to pits and trenches

garnished with pointed stakes at the bottom, were used in South

Africa for securing game. In the Humansdorp District of the Cape

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 33

Colony there is a narrow gorge in which game-pits and stakes in

very good state of preservation are still to be found.*

This is clearly a case of survival of methods. Primitive man, or

the early South African aboriginal, lived on game, followed game,

and entrapped and snared it in the same manner as the present

aboriginals did until a few years ago. But unacquainted with the

use or making of iron, as he undoubtedly was, how could the pits be

dug but with the-stone picks or spades ; how were the stakes cut

and sharpened for impaling the game at the bottom of the trenches,

or for palisading the enclosures for the drives, but with the stone

picks or stone axes mentioned? And as for the hypothesis that his

weapon was a club, the survival of type seems to me to be also borne

out by the discovery of such an implement in a rock shelter that had

been partially filled with bat’s dung (cf. Pl. XIX., Fig. 152). Made of

an extremely hard and heavy wood (Olea sp.) it is plainly fashioned

with stone tools (scraper-knives). It is shaped as a phallus, the

handle has been trimmed so as to make prehension by a small hand

more effective. With it was found a stone bead (PI. XVI., Cut 3 of

Fig. 186); also a small cube of iron pyrites. At the entrance of

the shelter there are still traces of bush paintings, and it is not

out of place to remind the reader that in he gorge at Humansdorp,

where the game traps are preserved, there occurs a rock engraving,

painted with red ochre.+

Let us assume that primitive man originated in Africa. When he

invades Europe in the Chellean times, the climate is attractive ; he

brings with him his primitive weapons, the weapons of the chase,

defence or offence. Are the fere natwre which he has to encounter

such formidable and unknown beasts as to daunt his courage? Cer-

tainly not. Hyena spelea he knows well, it is the present H. crocuta,

found only in South and Central Africa; Hyena brunnea, occurring

now from Senegal to South Africa, he also knows well. The tooth-

sabred-tiger or the cavern lion could have for him no more terror than

his old acquaintance Felis leo or Felis pardus, the present lion and

leopard which, besides, he meets again in that country new to him.

Is he frightened by Hlephas antiquus ? No, it is his old acquaint-

ance, now called H. africanus. Hippopotamus major is his old

friend H. amphibius ; Rhinoceros mercki he cannot distinguish from

* Péringuey, ‘‘ Rock Engravings of Animals, &c.,’’ Trans. §.A. Phil. Soc., xviii.,

1909, p. 417.

+ But these facts are instanced here merely as cases of survival. It does not

in the least follow—in fact, it is to me, at least, certain that neither the club nor the

bead here mentioned haye any connection whatever with the Chellean-Mousterian

boucher industry.

34 Annals of the South African Museum.

f. sumus, R. bicornis, or R. keitloa. No such niceties in identifica-

tion for him. He either defends himself against them, or uses his

growing cunning in mastering them, especially the formidable cavern

bear Ursus speleus, which he has not met before. He finds no longer

the numerous antelopes of his acquaintance it is true, but Bos bison has

the same attraction for him who has slain Bubalus baini or B. anti-

quus. It is quite possible that he has not known these denizens of

an intensely cold climate, the woolly rhinoceros, the mammoth, the

reindeer. He would follow the animals which he knew, beasts driven

back by cold to receding warmer climes—to climes where, as in

South Africa, the total absence of traces of pleistocene ice-age clearly

proves that there did not exist at the time the increasing rigour of

the elements that has come to prevail in the country whence he

retreats, either following the migration of the game on which he

subsists or migrating to where it is found still.

And if he is not of African origin, if he is of the Neanderthal-

Chapelle race, but, unlike the latter, has not been able to ac-

commodate himself to the new climatic conditions, then in his

retreat southward, and especially to the African continent, ne

probably accompanies or comes across there most of his old ac-

quaintances ; if not all, many of them, @.e., the hippopotamus, the

elephant, the hyenas. He finds himself among antelopes which

he did not know, but horses which he knew. The hyenas follow

him, for is he not providing crumbs for them? He continues

the application of methods which he has perfected elsewhere. In

his emigration southwards, where he no longer finds the flint nodule

so easily worked into implements, he resorts to any stone hard

enough to ensure its object ; hence the use of quartzite, hence also

the discrepancy in technique, more apparent than real, since ulti-

mately the “‘ knapping’”’ becomes as perfect as that of the best flint.

But the primary use for which the new material implements are

made is the same. They are intended to be used as picks or spades

for digging trenches, cleavers to cut stakes or palisades, and, as will

be seen in the next chapter, the manufacture of other tools for

domestic use here accompanies or follows that of the bouchers, if

it has not preceded it.

( 35 )

CHAPTER V.

WERE ToOLS OTHER THAN BoucHERS MANUFACTURED BY THE

MAKERS OF PALZOLITHS ?

It remains a moot question whether or not the Chellean boucher,

which so many of ours resemble, was the only manufactured im-

plement of that period, leaving out of account the flakes or chips

that resulted from the paring of the same—the by-product, so to

say, of this lithic industry; a by-product which is very rarely

associated both in Europe, and in many cases here also, with the

finished or unfinished tool.

It is, however, safe to conclude that in the case of the Chellean

era the bi-facial boucher was the predominating, but not the exclusive

tool. On the other hand, the Acheulean type is often found together

with the Mousterian, and with the latter’s concomitants of ‘ points,”

“‘scrapers,”’ ‘‘ graving tools,” &c.

In the chapter dealing with the process of manufacture of the

South African paleoliths I have gone into details which seem to

show that on the shape of the first fracture of the pebble the ultimate

object, cleaver or pick, probably depended. But although the forcible

impact of a boulder, or of alarge pebble against another, was the pre-

liminary step for fashioning the tool, smaller stones more appropriate

to the purpose, such as minor fabricating tools, would be required to

give, when desired, to a boucher of the type of Figs. 1 to 4, PL. I,

these finishing touches, such as facet-flaking or edge-paring, which

so clearly imply that a sense of esthetics prevailed over that of mere

utility with some at least of the primitive makers.

FLAKERS, PARING TOOLS.

The two first-mentioned tools are seldom found in South Africa

with the completed objects. Finishing tools they may be called

where the Chellean- or Acheulean-type bouchers are concerned,

fabricators where the comparatively thin, lanciform, lamellate scraper

36 Annals of the South African Musewm.

knives are produced, Figs. 86 to 92, Pl. XI., give a general aspect

of their shape. Figs. 87 and 88 are tools proved to have been used

for facetting and edge-trimming by the situation in which they were

discovered. Made of ferruginous banded jasper, Fig. 89 was found

together with highly finished bouchers and flakes of the banded

jasper of the Griqua sub-type, and so are others which, made of

different rock, have the same general appearance.

The Tywmi Deposit—Fig. 87 deserves more than a passing

mention. It was found with three of four similar ones embedded

deeply in the banks of the river Tyumi, in the Victoria East

District, Cape Colony.*

With it was found a number of implements made of the same

material (banded jasper), among which a long, oblong pick of the

style of Fig. 43, but narrower, as well as pieces of the most finished

Acheulean type I have as yet met with here (Figs. 76, 77, 85).

There were also knife-scrapers (Cut 4 of Fig. 131), nearly as

well finished as the implements not uncommonly found in the

neighbourhood of Cape Town. Others were of the type and size of

those of Fig. 105 (from Nooitgedacht), one, especially, being almost

the replica of Cut 7. There were also found lydianite scrapers,

one of which (Fig. 124) shows the same workmanship as the bottle-

glass example (Fig. 129, Pl. XVI.).

No other conclusion can be come to than that all these implements,

bouchers, flakers, scrapers, rude or well finished, uniting as they do

most of the forms met with in South Africa, except the typically

crude, large bouchers of the Chellean type, are coeval, and that

they have been manufactured by the same people.

They are also evidence of an advance in culture, especially in so

far as the digging tools are concerned ; but it must not be forgotten

that equally finished ones made of a less easily worked material are

also known from deposits that are undoubtedly older (cf. Figs. 1, 2,

4, &c.). At any rate, it is proved in this case that the makers of the

bouchers did at the same time manufacture implements superior in

technique to the mere scraper-knife.

But no flaking tool having some resemblance to LETS ESS WE SI)

Pl. XII., was discovered in this Tyumi River deposit.

These laminate, more or less lanceolate tools, which probably

served also, at a push, as knives or scrapers, in spite of their irregu-

larly dented edges, are met with lying on the surface or under a

depth of soil; they are found solitary, but oftener than not they

* This deposit was discovered by Mr. A. Johns, who presented several examples

to the Museum. The district is perhaps better known as ‘‘ Alice.”

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 37

occur together with other and smaller products of a lithic industry

of a doubtful date or period.

As far as my experience goes, they have seldom been found in a

situation which incontrovertibly proves them to have been associated

with bouchers of the old-fashioned Chellean type.

They all bear marks of use. Some are so weathered that the faces

are partly disintegrated. Fig. 102, Pl. XII., is from East London,

Cape Colony; Fig. 103 from Douglas, also in the Cape Colony—

localities far remote.

They are each made from an igneous rock that would, from its

texture, become more pitted after an equally prolonged exposure

than, for instance, the lydianite tools (Figs. 88, 91, 92, 97), but the

abrading process in these two examples, although probably due to

dissimilar actions, has resulted in the same worn appearance.

Fig. 102 is from the banks of the Buffalo River, Hast London (Cape

Colony), and is one of the few for which a connection with a river

terrace may perhaps be claimed. The under surface has become

quite granulate ; the upper is considerably pitted. Fig. 103, found

under a shallow layer of soil, if not actually on the open, is even

more worn or pitted than Fig. 102.

We possess from the cave-shelters of Knysna (Rob Berg) a lanci-

form implement of quartzite, exhibiting traces of weathering equal

to that of these two examples.

Worked on one side only, and always without any traces of

secondary trimming, most of the lamellate tools were originally

flakes produced in the shaping of a large tool, as the convex under-

face shows; and it is most probably by means of these flakes turned

into flakers that the spokeshave-like scraper-knives seen in Figs. 88,

89, 100 were detached from the nuclei. This curious bend or curve

plainly indicates that the flakes were obtained by percussion from

an already convex or naturally rounded boulder.

But, whereas the very great age of flakers similar to Figs. 102 and

103 cannot for a moment be doubted, while that of Figs. 91, 92, 93,

97, owing to their well-preserved appearance, remains doubtful,

the same cannot be said of Figs. 90 or 91, Pl. XI. Made of a

surface quartzite that seems to be restricted to the western part of

the Cape Colony, from Cape Town to Namaqualand, they are con-

nected with implements of small or moderate size, some of which

are the nearest approach to a Solutrian type as yet discovered in

South Africa (Figs. 110 to 111, Pl. XIV.), and with others which

are of very recent date, comparatively, as will be explained.

Yet, the primitiveness of these fabricators is about equal to that

38 Annals of the South African Musewn.

of similar tools for which a degree or character of great antiquity

may justly be claimed.

One thing, however, we may consider as established. It was by

means of flaking or paring tools of the kind here figured, whether

very ancient or comparatively modern, that the cutting, scraping,

even sawing tools, with edges either worn or as sharp as if they were

made yesterday, were obtained or produced. With extremely rare

exceptions, and these possibly accidental, they show at the base, on

the reverse side, a conchoidal fracture so bulging, or they are so

incurved as to preclude even in the most lanciform examples the

possibility of their having been firmly hafted.

We must regard most of them also as having been detached from

the nuclei merely for obtaining a cutting tool, a tool that could be

discarded at will—one that often served a momentary want, and on

which much care would not be bestowed.* Their extreme abundance

seems to justify this hypothesis.

The Noottgedacht Deposit.—Although standing alone, the Tyumi

River deposit shows so clearly the connection of small or mode-

rately sized scraper-knives, with and without secondary trimming,

with bouchers of large and moderate sizes, but of an advanced

type, that their contemporaneity cannot be challenged.

We owe, however, to Miss Wilman, of the Kimberley Museum, a

discovery of a similar nature as that of the Tyumi, only that the

scraper-knives are very primitive and the bouchers still more so.

This lady investigated in the dry diamond diggings of Griqualand

West, at a place called Nooitgedacht, on the Vaal River, a deposit

containing a great number of bouchers of both the digging or

cleaving forms. Some are extremely large, others are of more than

moderate size, but all are so worn and polished by water (no

other agency could have produced such a smooth surface) that

they have returned in many cases to their original state of

pebbles. They very much resemble the implements in Pl. IX.,,

Figs. 57 to 61, but are still more polished, or in a more deformed

condition.

Intermingled in great quantity, and worn as smooth as the

* Mr. Redmond Orpen told me some years ago how, when in company with his

uncle, C. Sirr Orpen, a buck was shot in Griqualand West, but when they came to

disembowel it, so as to make it lighter to carry to the waggon, they found that no

one had a knife. Undaunted by the untoward circumstance, the native who

accompanied them, and whose race is doubtful, knocked together two pieces of

stone, and produced from them an implement sharp enough to cut the animal

open. This anecdote is also found in Stow’s ‘‘ Native Races of South Africa,”

but I had it betore the publication of that book.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 39

bouchers themselves, were found scraper-knives, from which I have

selected for illustration seven examples (Fig. 105, Pl. XII).

It will be seen from these figures that the outline corresponds

with that of almost all implements of this nature which one meets

with in South Africa.

Many of these flakes or scraper-knives are too small to have been

the original splinters detached in trimming the bouchers, judging

from the evidence afforded by the Stellenbosch type, and they must

thus have been shaped intentionally, probably from a small nucleus ;

they were, therefore, not mere accessories.

The great age of this Nooitgedacht deposit is not, however,

proved, but in what I consider to be the oldest, 7.e., Cape, Draken-

stein, Stellenbosch, these scraper-knives are indeed very rare, yet I

know of some that seem to have been trimmed intentionally into

shape; such aoneis Fig. 93, Pl. XII. This lanciform implement could

not, as in the majority of cases, have been hafted on account of the

bulging butt-end. The intention of paring this flake into a more

serviceable tool than the mere accessory flakes (Figs. 94 and 95),

found in the same locality, is apparent. At Simondium I found

a scraper (Fig. 96), the shape of which does not appear to be

accidental; the bulb of concussion is very strong. I have also seen

from there two smaller ones shaped alike but not connected with

the large bouchers, and belonging to the more recent type.

Near the mouth of the river Nahoon, not far from East London,

Mr. J. Wood has found and sent me some very large, crude bouchers

made of different Karroo rocks. They were found exposed, to-

gether with a very large number of chips of the usual flat, flake-

form.

But the absence or rarity of these lanciform blades, flaking or

paring hammers, or of scraper-knives among the worked or partly

worked bouchers, wherever the deposits are found on the talus

of mountains or on the mamelons left in the erosion of valleys,

does not in the least imply that bouchers alone were manu-

factured in the original situation in which they were made.

Their absence is explained by the removal of the flakes, owing to

their lighter weight, occasioned by the same denuding agents to

which, however, the very much greater size and bulk of the

bouchers, cores, or detaching hammers offered a greater resist-

ance—a physical resistance that made their downward progress

very slow in comparison with that of the flakes. But they would

ultimately reach either a flat terrace which greatly impeded their

downward course, as at Bosman’s Crossing, or a pot-hole, as seems

40 Annals of the South African Museum.

to have been the case at Nooitgedacht; and thus all these imple-

ments, large or small, would be found lying pell-mell.

IMPLEMENTS OTHER THAN FLAKES OR SCRAPER-KNIVES.

In South Africa, however, we have now proofs that the lithic

industry was not confined solely to the production of digging or

cleaving tools and their accessories, the flakes that ultimately

became scraper-knives.

In these deposits or “statons’’ one meets occasionally with

flaked stones facetted in the manner of Figs. 78 and 79, Pl. XI.

These might at first sight be taken for nuclei from which short,

narrow flakes had been detached by percussion in the manner of

Fig. 139, Pl. XVITI., in which case the makers knew already how to

utilise the ‘‘ pigmy ” tools as burins, or ostrich egg-shell beads parers,

perhaps also for heading arrows. But the character of the Table

Mountain sandstone, or other quartzite rock of which these pseudo

nuclei consist, precludes the possibility of these splinters having been

used for that purpose ; the texture is not sufficiently fine-grained or

compact for obtaining a very sharp edge, nor would it be resistant

enough. These stones might, on the other hand, be taken for

small hammers used for retouching or retrimming, but there is no

sign of secondary trimming of the kind that could be produced by

them on the implements with which these nuclei-like artefacts are

associated, and, moreover, the edges of the fractures are always

extremely sharp, which would not be possible had these come into

forcible contact with another stone of the same material as them-

selves. Most likely these stones were missiles for hand-throwing,

and possibly, also, sling stones.

They vary in size, but none is as large as the detaching hammers

which they resemble except for their irregularly polygonai shape.

The evolution of the hand-throwing stone into the sling-stone is

easily conceivable; both were intended as missiles, primarily for

defence, and probably at a later stage for attack.

In addition to these polygonal or core-like implements, plainly

artefacts, there have been found, especially in the south-western

deposits of the Cape, but also in Vereeniging, Prieska, and the

‘‘dry diggings” of the Vaal River, rounded, seemingly water-

worn pebbles, which one hesitates to say are artefacts, whereas

in others the doubt is not possible. These latter have one or

more smooth, flat, or slightly convex facets, the abraded planes

of which, when the stone is multi-facetted, never correspond with

those of another (Figs. 80 to 83, Pl. XI.). These facets are,

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 41

moreover, so small that they preclude the possibility of the stones

having been used as pounders or mullers after the manner of those

of the recent period, such as Figs. 168 and 170, Pl. XXIII. No

mortar or quern has been as yet found in these deposits. There is

also no justification for seeing in them the precursors of the rounded

or flat stones perforated in the centre and called “! kwé” (Figs.

152 to 160, Pls. XX.-XXI.).

Doubtless these rounded pebbles (Figs. 80, 81, 82, 83, Pl. XI.)

owe their shape wholly or in part to physical agents, such as

the displacement and friction of boulders caused by the torrential

river-flows that, in the majority of cases, form in South Africa the

short rivers or streams which, well-nigh dry most of the time,

become impetuous torrents at others.

One such pebble, tri-facetted, I found in the temporarily dry bed

of the Eerste River (Cape Colony) among large water-worn boulders

which in time of flood are hurled against each other with such force

as to produce a deep rumbling noise heard from afar, in the same

manner as in many of the Pyrenean “ gaves.” This action would

easily suffice to grind facets into a small, already rounded pebble

falling between revolving masses of considerable size. But it is,

indeed, seldom in such a situation that these rounded stones are

found. They are met with in the Drakenstein, Paarl, Stellenbosch,

and neighbouring valleys, and invariably with bouchers of large size,

on the hills or talus slopes, often at great heights. It is probable

that if no more have been recorded outside the region of Table

Mountain Sandstone, and of the Vaal River deposits, it is because

they were considered to be natural products, not artefacts. While

some of them are fairly well preserved and patinated (Figs. 81, 82,

83, Pl. XI.), others are partially disintegrated, and this, curiously

enough, round the facets. ;

Fig. 80 is peculiarly instructive in that respect. At the two

extremities are two facets not quite concordant, and of the size

of a shilling and a sixpenny-piece- respectively; both retain the

glaze or patina of the original surface, while the rest of the

periphery is disintegrated to the depth of from 2 to 3 mm. This

example I found at Simondium at a height of 300 feet above the

level of the river draining the valley, which is some 3 miles away as

the crow flies. It was lying among huge bouchers, all showing

more disintegration than any I have as yet met with.* This partial

* At the time of my visit these implements had just been dug out in making

a plantation. The constituents of the soil in which they were embedded, entirely

void of lime and containing very little potash, could not have acted as potent

42 Annals of the South African Musewm.

disintegration is not restricted to that one rounded stone, for we

have in the collection others showing more or less evidence of a

great age.

In some of the best preserved the shape of the facets would seem

to imply that these stones have been used as small grinders or

mullers (Figs. 82, 83), only that the facets are slightly concave,

or deeper in the centre than at the edges, and differ in this respect

from the neolithic mullers figured in Pl. XXIII.

There is no reason for disbelieving that the primitive people who

made the paleoliths availed themselves of these objects primarily

fashioned partially, if not completely, by natural agencies with a

view either to improve on them (cf. Fig. 23, Pl. II1.), or of making

use of them as they were. The missile hypothesis seems to be

strengthened by a recent find in one of the numerous Stellenbosch-

valley deposits of an almost orbicular quartzite stone of moderate size,

with a very small depression on one side either artificial or more pro-

bably left from the original contour, and of another larger spherical

one made from milky-vein quartz bearing unmistakable traces of

artificial working. I discovered similar ones several years ago, but

I rejected them at the time as being doubtful artefacts.”

These rounded or polygonal stones are not restricted, as I have

already stated, to the Cape, Stellenbosch, and Drakenstein deposits.

In those of the Vaal River, rounded stones of a similar facies but

not facetted are found. They are often difficult to distinguish from

naturally rounded ones. A small specimen in our Collection, from

Waldeck’s Plant on the Vaal River diggings, bears, however, marks

of usage in the shape of a small artificial dent, or rather depression.

At Vereeniging (Transvaal) these implements are of the same type

as those from Stellenbosch or Drakenstein, and are made of quartzite

or dolerite. In some, the facets correspond more or less on each

side; the edges of the depressions or facets are usually sharp, while

in other examples they are smoothed and partly obliterated. +

But to whatever use these rounded stones may have been put,

factors in the disintegration of sandstone implements all plainly made from

rounded water-worn boulders, selected because their texture was denser or more

compact. This lack of potentiality in the chemical agents of the soil leads to the

conclusion that this partial disintegration is due to an extremely ancient age.

* T found no less than five such rounded stones in a clay-pit of great depth,

and only half a mile from the spot where the two examples here mentioned

were dug out.

+ Lam ereatly indebted to Mr. T. N. Leslie, of Vereeniging, who discovered that

deposit, for loaning me the typical specimens for identification, comparison, and

reproduction. Mr. J. P. Johnson subsequently described and figured some of these

implements (Trans. S. Afric. Phil. Soc., xvi., pt. 2, 1905).

The Stone Ages of South Africa, 43

and that of brayer is quite likely, one important point is now estab-

lished, namely, that in parts of South Africa, very far distant from

each other, balls of sandstone, quartz, or dolerite have been found

together with bouchers of undoubtedly palzolithic shape.

The importance of their occurrence here is enhanced by the fact

that in the “Grotte de l’Ours,” in France, balls of sandstone, of

caleareous stone, and of flint have been found together with

Mousterian domestic utensils (mobilier), which include amygdaloidal

Acheulean bouchers, Mousterian points, burins or graving tools,

borers, &c.* Similar discoveries were made in the ‘‘ Grotte de

l’Hyéne,”’ on a distinct Mousterian level, as well as in the “ Quina”’

deposit of the Reindeer period, z.c., Magdalenian, &c.+

These discoveries, viewed in connection with ours, are of extreme

importance. Better than the bouchers, so many of which are of the

Mousterian facies,t better than the flakers, scraper-knives—them-

selves types of great survival—these nuclei-like, and especially these

partly facetted or rounded stones, justify us in connecting the older

lithic industry of South Africa with a Mousterian culture—a culture

which is not restricted to the manufacture of large cleaving- or

digging-stone tools.

FLAKES AND SCRAPER-KNIVES.

Had we to deal only with the more or less almond-shaped, or with

partially tongue-shaped tools, or even the rougher implements that

served an identical purpose, doubt would not be permissible, and

the South African implements of that type might, with safety, be

considered as belonging to the Chelleo-Mousterian, and even to

correspond in age.

But the presence of flakes, mostly, but not necessarily always,

arge, greatly complicates matters, because their fabrication and

use are continued until a time which is here practically that of

yesterday. This may be due to their useful primitiveness.

That these scraper-knives were originally evolved from spalls

resulting from the preliminary trimming of the bouchers no one

* Cf., Chauvet, ‘‘ Stations Quaternaires”’ ;—Parat, ‘‘ La Grotte de l’Ours,” &e.

+ The quartzite bouchers of the Pyrenean region, which so greatly resemble those

occurring here, possibly on account of the difficulty they offer to trimming, are

connected by Déchelette with Acheulean and Mousterian periods.

t The Mentone caves as well as the Taulbagh deposit have demonstrated the

fact that in the early quaternary period (pleistocene), there were to be found primi-

tive implements resembling more the Mousterian than the typical Chellean or

Acheulean “coup de poing.”’

44 Annals of the South African Musewm.

can deny who looks at the representations of some of them given in

Pl. XII. Figs. 97 to 100 are particularly instructive.

There can be no doubt, also, that from their appearance and

situation many of these tools, flakers, scrapers, or knives, are to be

considered as old as some of the bouchers.

A fragment of scraper absolutely similar to, and of the same

composition as, the Cuts in Fig. 104, was found embedded in a

raised beach situated some 3 miles, as the crow flies, from the

present sea-coast. It is identical with the large flakes found

together with large bouchers at, or close to, Cape St. Blaize—a

locality not far removed from the raised beach alluded to.

A point of importance is that none of these knives or scrapers that

from their position might be considered ancient, moderately ancient,

or very ancient, exhibits traces of paring on the reverse side, and in

that respect these flakes are doubtless Mousterian in shape. But

the question naturally arises: why did these flakes not follow here,

and also elsewhere, the same evolution in technique as the bi-facial

bouchers with which many are in South Africa undoubtedly con-

temporaneous, and produced by the same artisans ?

Being coeval with the boucher, it seems natural that the paring of

either face of the flake or spall into a lance- or javelin-head, or a

hand-throwing spear, should have of necessity followed, as it has

elsewhere, but such has not been the case either in the South

African paleeolithic type or in the neolithic.

It is therefore almost certain that the South African maker of

paleolithic stone implements, as well as the aboriginal who fabri-

cated the neolithic, were ignorant, with a few exceptions to be

mentioned hereafter, of the method of stone lance-head manufacture,

the use of which weapon would in itself denote great bravery. But

the neolithic maker, unlike the Magdalenian hunter with whose

culture his has so many analogous points, is well acquainted with

the bow, and arrow tipped with very small chips, the minuteness of

which implies of necessity the use of poison. Craft versus brute

strength.

The failure of the evolution of the flake into a lance-head pared

on each side in the Solutrian sty ¢ may, however, be explained by

the process of trimming the pebble. This trimming of a boulder in

most cases already naturally rounded, into a more or less amygda-

loidal shape, is the natural result of artificial concussion or impact,

as I have endeavoured to show in Chapter III., and the boucher is

therefore older in date than the flake.

But in many instances it is impossible to assert that a scraper-knife

The Stone Ages of South Africa, 45

is more ancient than another, or belongs to a different type; and as

indications of its age, we can only be guided by the site or position

in which it is met with—indications which are far from being

conclusive evidence.

I have endeavoured to figure all the types in our Collection.

Illustrations of implements of that kind give a better idea than

descriptions.

All the figures of Pl. XII. I consider to belong to the paleo-

lithic type. Many of them were found where bouchers occur. I

have explained their shape in a former chapter. In Pl. XIII. all

the Cuts of Fig. 104 may be said to be also of a very old type, but

with the exception of Cuts 7 and 12 they were not found in connec-

tion with bouchers, although these paleoliths occur in the same

district. Cuts 1,2, 5, and 8 are from cave-shelters on the littoral.

Cut 6, also from Knysna, has been hacked into a sawing tool. It

bears at the base a dent that looks like a notch—a rare occurrence

which, however, must be looked upon as accidental. Cuts 7 and 8

have traces of a similar one, and so has Fig. 101 of Pl. XII., in

which the dent is not well shown.

The Cuts of Fig. 105, Pl. XIII., represent scrapers found together

with the bouchers in the Nooitgedacht deposit of the Vaal River.

As much worn and polished as the large paleoliths not only of that

particular deposit, but also of others found on the surface (Pl. IX.,

Figs. 57 to 61), their shape is indistinguishable from that of Figs. 106,

107, Pl. XIII., found in the Karroo and the Cape Flats respectively,

and which may be said to be of yesterday’s date. Cut 3 of Fig. 105

and Fig. 108 are, however, somewhat out of the common, because

the base seems to have been trimmed into a wedge-like shape, as if

they were intended for tipping a lance, but on close observation

it will be noticed that in Cut 3 the thinned reduced part is too

short to allow of hafting, but Cut 1 of Fig. 108 could have been

hafted.

We find also among relies of that old type a few, very few, tools

with a peduncle. This ‘‘tang’’ was intentionally produced, doubt-

less, in Cut 2 of Fig. 108, which, like Cut 3 of Fig. 105 and Fig. 108,

is from the Kimberley District, Cape Colony. Doubt is permissible

for Cuts 1 and 2 of Fig. 109, both from the Vereeniging deposit.

But from a neolithic situation we have Figs. 125 from Queen’s

Town, Cape Colony, in which the ‘ tang” is undoubtedly inten-

tionally produced, and Mr. Cottell found at Cradock two examples

with a somewhat similar peduncle, of which he sent me a sketch.

These were subsequently figured by Mr. J. P. Johnson.

46 Annals of the South African Museum.

Figs. 119, 121, and 122 represent the chalcedony implements of

the neighbourhood of Victoria Falls. The technique is the same as

in many of the Cape Flats type as represented in Figs. 118 and 120.

Cuts of Figs. 135, which are stone implements found in the

Matoppo caves, where paintings occur, are the very counterpart in

size and shape of quartzite scrapers discovered at the foot of the

Paarl Rock in the Cape Colony, which show traces of enormously

long exposure.

From the examples given it is seen that the shape or style of

paring the scraper-knives or fabricators cannot give a clue to their

respective age or to their relation to each other. Nor is the size of

the flakes an indication. Some of the Victoria Falls chalcedony

implements are certainly as small as many of our Cape-Flats and

inland districts neoliths, with the exception of some of the ‘‘ pygmies,”’

and it may be said that flakes of sandstone or banded jasper are, as

a rule, larger than those of silicious or partly silicious rocks.

Negative, however, as the results of comparison between flake-

knives or scrapers, undoubtedly very ancient, and equally un-

doubtedly recent, are, we have fortunately evidence of another

kind which throws light, of a sort, on the progress or regression of

the lithic industry in South Africa.

We have examples of a solutrian type in the shape of lance- or

javelin-heads, chipped on each side, and laurel- or willow-leaf shaped

(Figs. 110, 112); of aurignacian-solutrian-type scrapers with plain,

secondary trimming of edges, either at one end (Figs. 123, 128) or

even all round (Cuts 1 and 2 of Fig. 131).

We have also tardenosian pygmies (Figs. 140, 141, 143), polished

tools, and arrow-heads with tangs (Figs. 116, 117), as well as a bone-

and a stone-culture commingled. But this evidence, for reasons

which will be duly explained, I include in the South African

neolithic.

This digression into the neolithic period is here necessary for the

proper comprehension of the finds in the various deposits which,

rightly or wrongly, I assimilate to the chelleo-mousterian of Europe.

(27%)

CHAPTER VI.

‘An ACCOUNT OF THE “ STATIONS.

In order that my conclusions regarding the South African Palxo-

lithic Age should be tested eventually, Iam giving here an account

of the main deposits.

This account will, of course, contain repetitions of some of the

points dealt with in the previous chapters, but it is to be regarded

as the documentary evidence on which my explanation of the

Paleolithic and Neolithic Ages in South Africa is based.

Tue DEPOSITS OF PAARL, SIMONDIUM, STELLENBOSCH, XC.

The first find in the neighbourhood of Cape Town of very large-

sized quartzite paleoliths was made on the Koeberg Road by the

Honourable W. F. Lyttelton in 1880. The implement found is of

the rare ovoid-discoidal shape, and is represented in Pl. IIT., Fig, 24.

The second was met with in the streets of Paarl, Cape Colony,

which are coated with what is here called “ gravel,” and thought at

the time to be laterite, but now considered as a coarse ironstone. On

visiting the quarry whence the gravel was extracted, I found several

paleoliths of very large size. In the centre of the ironstone deposit

was a huge block of the same material, too compact to be easily

broken, and from one of the median faces projected a large palxolithic

boucher, which I could not detach without fracture. Some 400 or

500 yards away on the higher slope of the hill, and about 114

or 2 miles from the Breede River, a piece of ground had been

‘‘delved’’ for establishing a new vineyard. Alongside were two

heaps of paleoliths and nuclei, thrown aside by the workmen.

From one of these I selected the implement, Fig. 22 of Pl. III., and

others. Not a single scraper or small spall was to be had. These

paleoliths and nuclei were found at a depth of 24 or 3 feet—the

depth of the ‘ delving.”

I could not continue my investigations at a higher level, as no

new ground was put under cultivation that could reveal the extent

of the lithic deposit.

48 Annals of the South African Museum.

The importance attaching to this deposit is that quartzite does

not occur in the locality, only granite. The water-worn quartzite

boulders have therefore been originally brought from the river to

their high, commanding position—a position doubtless more ele-

vated than the spot where they were found. That they had gravi-

tated there is not a mere assumption, because on the top of the

mountain, at the foot of these large granitic bosses, after one of

which the Paarl* is named, there were ultimately found scraper-

flakes of quartzite as worn as any I ever saw, and this in a place

which not only surmounts the “ Factory Site’? where I found the

paleoliths, but where also quartzite is not a local rock.

The Simondium ‘“ Station’? presents the same feature as that of

the Lower Paarl, and the sketch here given will make the recital

more easily understood. The ‘Station’ is situated on a some-

what abrupt talus of Simonsberg on the Drakenstein valley

side. On the very steep slope of ‘‘ Pontac Hill,” near the dwelling-

house, on the Pomona Estate, an extremely large number of arti-

ficially worked stones had been exposed by cultivation on what is

a saddle of moderate width sloping on one side towards ‘‘ Donker-

hoek,” and ‘‘ Pomona”’ on the other. A narrow, sinuous ‘“nullah”’

had been eroded to a depth of 10 or 12 feet. At a depth of

some 9 feet I espied on one of the sides the projecting butt-end

of a boucher which proved to be one of the finest I ever obtained.

On the surface, exposed by digging or ploughing, and almost in a

line with the first embedded boucher, I picked one of the heaviest

‘‘hache a talon”’ I have yet found. The two had plainly gravitated

from a higher altitude, as others had done, which lying on the

surface were, either spall-like, partly manufactured, or nuclei—

and what cores! some more than 18 inches in length—littering the

ground, I traced a number of these paloliths for nearly a mile

along the ascending talus up to 550 feet above sea-level (see cross-

dotted scheme in sketch). At that height, also, the implement had

been exposed by delving the ground for a plantation, and there

is no reason to disbelieve that, were cultivation to be carried higher

on this mountain talus, palsoliths would be revealed. It is at

the higher altitude that two implements like Fig. 23 of Pl. III. were

found, and some of the bouchers were almost in a state of disintegra-

tion. A search at a lower level led to the discovery of other paleo-

liths deeply imbedded in stone-gravel in cuttings on each side of the

Simondium Railway Station, 370 feet above sea-level, and about

* Corruption of the French word perle, given it by the French Hugueno

settlers.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 49

2 miles from the Berg River, which runs there at an approximate

altitude of 300 feet. I doubt not that a renewed search will lead

to the discovery of these paloliths close to or in the proximity of

the riverbanks. This Simondium deposit as now traced extends

Fic. 1.—Simondium Factory Site.

for nearly 2 miles on a steep slope. Hitherto I have found there no

undoubted scraper-knives ; only large unused flakes, large spalls,

and large nuclei. It is possible that flake-knives were once

there and utilised as such, but one thing can be definitely said, and

that is, that they are no longer found with the finished, partly

50 Annals of the South African Musewm.

pared or unfinished palzoliths exposed on the surface or found at

shallow depth.

Another point which this Simondium deposit has in common with

that of the Paarl, which is nearly on the same level, is the selection

by the makers of such a high position for their workshop or abode.

Was the river that drains the valley nearer than it is now?

The great thickness of the iron-gravel at the Simondium Railway

Station, in which some of the implements were found, has, like the

large block of iron-stone at the Paarl, taken a very long time to

accumulate. In that deposit, while forming, the stone implements,

artefacts already of great antiquity, have gravitated, following the

course of hill denudation and valley formation.

And this occurrence is repeated wherever the Stellenbosch-type

quartzite boucher is found. Look for it in iron-gravel or below it,

when not very thick, and you will find it there as often as in alluvium

or silt, perhaps because it was arrested in its downward course by

the formation of conglomerate.

Stellenbosch Station.

At Bosman’s Crossing, near Stellenbosch, the occurrence of these

palzoliths is somewhat different.

At the foot of a steep hill called Papagaiberg runs a small rivulet,

a tributary of the Eerste River, which it joins close by. The spur

of that hill abuts on that rivulet, and is intersected on one side by a

cart-road and a railway cutting on the other. The space thus left

has been used for a good many years as a brick-field, from which a

thickness of some 20 feet or more of material has been removed. I

found there in the vertical wall, from which the clay was detached by

pickaxe, two superposed layers of fractured, water-worn boulders,

spalls, nuclei, finished bouchers, such as Figs. 2 and 4 of Pl. I., and

a few triangular scrapers that, ike Fig. 95 of Pl. XII., had probably

not been utilised as such. They had been deposited on the granite

formation, and I traced these layers on the other side of the railway

cutting, also resting on the mass of granite which terminates abruptly

on the bank of the Eerste River. I traced them also on the other

side of the cart-road, flush with the floor of an excavation 30 feet

deep, and corresponding, with only a slight incline, with the granite

surface on which the deposit rested. The great accumulation of this

brick-clay is in itself a proof of great antiquity. But in addition

to this Bosman’s Crossing deposit I have since proved that palzeo-

liths are found in the whole of the Stellenbosch (Herste River)

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 51

valley high above the river or nearly on a level with it, and seldom

accompanied there by chips which are not more in the shape of

spalls than of flake-knives. The same conditions obtain in the other

river-valleys of South Africa.

In most deposits the partially pared paleoliths are more numerous

than the better shaped tongue-implements, but this, I venture to

say, is ascribable less to the degree of the maker’s skill than to the

greater resistance offered to the continuous action of rain-wash

which, gradually, brings the artificially worked stones from the

original position in which they were left or manufactured to a

lower level. The heavy, round, butt-end of a partly pared paleolith

offers much more resistance to the denuding agent than the flat-

tened, almost navicular, tongue-shaped implement which rests on

a very much reduced surface (see profile of Figs. 1, 2, and 8).

There is, therefore, no reason militating against the acceptance

for our South African paleoliths of as great antiquity as for the

deposits of the Pyrénées, of Spain or of India, where, as here, the

smaller artefacts in the shape of scraper-knives are equally rare.

BEUKESFONTEIN DEPOsIT.

Very primitive-looking are implements of a large type found in the

Ceres District of Cape Colony. They could not have attained a

much more water-worn aspect had they been rolled for centuries in

the shallow yet impetuous waters of a spruit—a treatment which they

evidently never experienced, this water-worn aspect being caused by

weathering alone. In this locality * the outcrop of the bluish-grey

chert band of the Dwyka forms a little ridge, at the base of which

is a gentle slope of soft shales. This slope, for a distance of fully

200 yards from the outcrop of the chert band, is strewn with blocks

of chert and worked fragments of the same. There is very little soil,

as the shales crumble away into small fragments. It is therefore

impossible to determine what length of time the implements have

lain there. No small scraper-knives or flakes were found.

But from the outcrop of the Dwyka chert band Mr. A. R. Walker,

one of the Museum Assistants, has brought back from Matjesfon-

tein (Cape Colony) a few implements, among which is a boucher of

moderate dimension, whose original facets have disappeared, and

which is as equally smoothed and pitted as any one example from

Beukesfontein. For an implement to be so closely pitted one must

assume a very long period of exposure to the elements. This

* Described in Ann. Rep. of Geol. Com. for 1903, p. 25.

52 Annals of the South African Museum.

boucher, a digging tool of no considerable technique, is slightly

curved in the line of the long axis, but it is as well, or very nearly

as well, smoothed and pitted on one face as on the other.

It is doubtful if rain-wash alone caused it to roll regularly in such

a way and for such a period that each face was alternately and

equally subjected to disintegrating influences, but a stream, now no

longer traceable, could have done it ; and it must also be stated that

there is a dry river not far from the spot to which leads the slope

where it was found. According to Mr. Walker, from its position on

the lower slope of the hill below the chert band, it might have been

carried there from a higher level.

At some distance from that boucher, but above it, Mr. Walker

collected one of the usual Karroo type, a moderately small, lanceo-

late, triangular scraper, patinated also, but not as deeply as the

boucher itself.

The patina was distinctly deeper on the obverse than on the

reverse side with its usual conchoidal trace of fracture, showing

that it had lain undisturbed. At a higher altitude than either the

boucher or the scraper were found bluish-grey nuclei with sharp

edges, the facetted contour of which corresponds to the shape of the

removed flake of the usual sub-lanceolate form, and also a large trim-

ming flake, the jagged edges of which testify to its use, and plainly

detached from either a very large pebble or rounded boucher. Its

curvature is even greater than that of Fig. 98 in Pl. XII., which in

itself is not more incurved than some of the ‘‘ éclats’’ we possess

from ‘“‘ Le Moustier’”’ Station of France.

The importance attaching to the find of this boucher is that the

apical part of one face has been used again slantingly as a muller,

or rubbing implement. The abraded surface shows the original

bluish-grey texture of the chert pebble—a colouring similar to that of

the non-patinated tools found at a higher elevation.

From this it would appear as if the makers of the surviving, some-

what degraded type, such as the usual scraper, either no longer

knew the manufacture of, or had never been acquainted with, the

primitive use of the boucher. Prompted either by curiosity or a

sense of adaptation, they put this tool to a purpose not originally

intended for it.

THE Crapock Drposits (CAPE CoLony).

I have received from Mr. W. H. Cottell, formerly on the staff of

the Cape Colony Public Works Department at Cradock, a represen-

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 53

tative collection of stone implements discovered by him in the

neighbourhood of that town. I give here his answers to some

questions I put him—questions which are well indicated by his

answers. I must, however, preface his response by explaining that

the “large tools” are paleoliths varying from 6 in. to 8 in. in

length, made of a hard shale indurated by the intrusion of dolerite.

Some pieces are tongue-shaped, sharply pointed at apex, while

others are more irregular; the flaking is very crude in most

examples, and the cleavers plainly of a coarse style of manufacture.

Although chipping has been carried round the butt in some examples,

Fie. 2.—View looking towards Fish River and first Kranz, 3 miles north of

Cradock.

in a few others the contour of the original pebble is retained, much

as in the Stellenbosch type; but as a rule these bouchers are less

bulging at the centre.*

They have a greyish patina that contrasts greatly with the black

colour of the shale, but they have not been smoothed artificially

either by water action or by very long exposure. A few pieces are

not patinated at all.

The ‘‘ Bushman tools ’’ are somewhat of the Aurignacian-Solutrian-

type scrapers, bevelled at one end by secondary chipping, as figured

* It seems, however, that I have not seen the ‘‘ best finished implements,” only

photographs of some of them, but the latter are quite instructive enough.

54 Annals of the South African Museum.

in Pl. XVI., Figs. 123 and 128; also nuclei, irregular flakes, scraper-

knives, &c., in great quantity, but most of them also of a very

crude type.

Mr. Cottell’s answers are as follows :—

‘‘ Before replying to your questions as to sites, hill, or other for-

mations, in which the paloliths and the seemingly recent imple-

ments are found, I was anxious to visit a few places to make sure of

the relation of the ‘ paleolithic’ type to the ‘ Bushman.’ I found a

deposit of a considerable extent of the large tools some 5 miles

south of Cradock, and about a mile and a half east of the river.

The deposit is on the slope of a flat-topped hill, the west side of which

terminates in a kranz facing the river (text-fig.2). The whole of the

Fie. 3.

slope is covered with chipped boulders of a hard, black shale. The

same material caps the top of the hill. These tools are very crudely

chipped and badly modelled. Some are of gigantic dimensions.

The majority appear very modern, almost as if quite recently made.

There were a few old ones of much better design and finish. I am

sending a few of each.

“There were no ‘Bushman’ tools with these large ones, nor

remains of game or shells.

‘“On the kranz side of the hill, however, there were ‘Bushman’

flakes, mostly of the knife-scraper lanceolate form, and shells

(? Unio sp.).

‘“‘T revisited the ‘ Baths.’ The large types there are on the fringe

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 58

of the ‘Bushman’ deposit, and although there are scrapers near,

none are mixed with the large tools.

‘These large implements are not deeply buried in the alluvium ;

the majority are on the surface, and when buried are only covered

by a few inches of sand, with the exception, of course, of those

washed into ‘ spruits.’

‘The ‘Bushman’ deposit is almost wholly confined to the river-

banks. Scattered over the veldt, however, are occasionally flakes,

lance-like in form, usually broken, and without secondary chipping.

Fie. 4.—View showing top part of alluvium and implements left behind after

soil has been washed away. Three miles north of Cradock.

With the deposit are quantities of shells, pieces of pottery, and

remains of game. Here and there are little piles of broken flags of

sandstone, with their faces ground smooth from wear, and water-

worn pebbles with one or more ground facets, evidently obtained by

being used as mullers or grinders.

‘One cannot estimate the age of the tools from the weathering ;

some found at the surface have the exposed side bleached and the

unexposed side almost, if not quite, fresh ;* those near the thermal

* This statement is not entirely borne out by some of the examples received ; in

several both faces have a greyish patina, but a patina shared also by many of the

smaller ‘‘ Bushman ’”’ implements.

56 Annals of the South African Musewm.

springs seem to have weathered much more rapidly than else-

where.”’

It is difficult to speak with any degree of authority of a deposit

which one has not personally inspected, but from the tenor of the

letter here given, which is in answer to direct questions sent by me,

as well as from the examination of the implements, I am led to

conclude, until further investigations disprove my conclusions, that

the Cradock deposits imply a contemporaneity between the large

bouchers and the small or only comparatively large scraper-knives

quite equal to that of the Nooitgedacht deposit. In one case there

were no ‘‘bushman”’ implements found together with these palzo-

liths; while in another the latter were found on the fringe of

the ‘‘bushman’”’ deposit, which is almost wholly confined to the

river-bank.

We have thus probably a repetition of an instance of denudation

by rain-wash, the same as in the Stellenbosch, Simondium, and

other sites, only that at Cradock the smaller implements have not

been carried away, or only partly so, into the streams or rivers.

THE ‘‘ NOOITGEDACHT’’ AND BARKLY WEsT DEPosIts.

At a place called ‘‘ Nooitgedacht,” close to the Vaal River, in what

is called here the “dry diggings”’ for diamonds, there have been

found scraper-knives, and small and large bouchers made mostly

of diabasic rocks, all mixed together.

This find is of very great interest, as showing more conclusively,

perhaps, than even the Tyumi River deposit, that knives and

scrapers of the Mousterian type were made or used by the same

people who manufactured the large bouchers of the chellean-

mousterian form.

Miss Wilman* who sent me some of these implements, so

abraded that identification was difficult, and whom I had asked to

ascertain if there were old or recent river-terraces near the deposit,

wrote as follows :—

“The Nooitgedacht implements, big and small, all occur together

in a bed of gravel that is being worked on the water’s edge of the

river (Vaal). In fact, the diggers have been flooded out at times.

“The diggers have removed the overlying sand at A and are

clearing out the gravel at B for sifting and sorting. All the imple-

ments sent come from £. This, then, is the lowest terrace, and

* A former assistant of this Museum, and now in charge of the McGregor’s

Memorial Museum at Kimberley.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 57

it rises to a couple of hundred feet and has quite large trees growing

upon it. In the sand are no implements, but lying all over the

surface are some of the same type, exactly as those found in B.

Large implements are not common on the surface, and some are

Fic. 5.—4dA—Fine sand. B—Gravel, diamond bearing, consisting almost entirely

of rolled agates, &c., wherein are the large and small implements.

quite unlike the water-worn rocks that they accompany, and I am

convinced that while some are undoubted implements, others were

implements in the making.”

The pieces received from Miss Wilman are almost smooth, with

the angles and facets quite obliterated. Many are tongue-shaped,

and others more or less regularly almond-shaped. The examples

represented in Pl. IX., Figs. 57 to 60, which were found at Barkly

West, not far from Nooitgedacht, give a good idea of their appear-

ance, though some are even more amorphous.

In common with many collectors who pick specimens to oblige

friends, Mr. A. du Toit, of the Cape Geological Survey, who pre-

sented these last-mentioned examples, left many the conditions of

which through abrasion made him doubtful as to their being artefacts.

On the whole, these bouchers show traces of superior workman-

ship, most of them having been ‘“ knapped”’ on either side. Some

are of the unusually large ‘‘shard’”’ form trimmed only on one face,

and it is to these that Miss Wilman alluded as being in the making.*

Several of the smaller, about 100 mm. in length, are well finished,

others not; one still retains its wedge shape. The cleavers are

easily recognisable, and round the butt of one there is a very

irregular depression that, if not accidental, might make hafting

by ligatures possible. The cleavers of Pl. VIII., Figs. 52 to 56,

met not far from Nooitgedacht, are of the same type.

As for the scraper-knives, their resemblance to similar tools found

so commonly all over South Africa is indeed extreme. I have

selected a few types for illustration (Pl. XIII., Fig. 105).

I am, unfortunately, debarred from giving in this modest paper

illustrations of tools of the same technique found in mid-Europe or

England, but I should like to call the attention of antiquarians to

the extreme likeness of No. 7 of Fig. 105, to one of the famous

* One sent me is 260 mm. long, and weighs 4 lbs. 4 oz.

58 Annals of the South African Musewm.

“« Micoque ”’ lanciform knife-scrapers, attributed to the Chellean-

Acheulean ; of that of No. 4 of the same Fig. to the ‘‘ Chatelperron ”’

scraper-knives, &e.

The importance of the Nooitgedacht deposit is that the scraper-

knives and bouchers are found together, all bearing clear proofs that

they have been subjected at one time to the same process of

abrasion, and we are therefore justified in arriving at the conclusion

that the two types of implements, the boucher and scraper, were

artefacts of the same makers.

But when we try to assign a geological date not only to these

relics, but also to similar ones from the deposits of the Vaal River,

we are confronted with the same difficulties as in the case of the

other South African deposits.

In this Nooitgedacht gravel-bed numerous potsherds were found

associated with the implements. One piece, now in the Collection,

is of moderately close texture; the greatest thickness is 8 mm.; the

edges of the fracture are not abraded in the least, and the outside

glaze is wonderfully well preserved. There is nothing to differen-

tiate it from the pottery made by ‘“Topnaar’’ Hottentots (vulgo

“Strand Loopers’’).

This pottery must have been deposited accidentally in ‘the gravel-

bed before the latter was covered by the layer of sand, but it points

also to the implements having been deposited there in their already

abraded condition, because the evidence of the unabraded potsherds

preclude the possibility of the implements having been water-worn

in their distinctive manner in that particular cul-de-sac, or

‘ pot-hole.””

They must, therefore, have been brought down with alluvium,

rom higher levels, from river-terraces. We shall see what evidence

is obtainable on that point; but one must not forget that specimens

found in the gravels of the Vaal River must have been left there in

the same worn condition as when deposited; that is to say, worn

by gravels in the process of formation.

A close examination of some of the Nooitgedacht pieces reveals

traces still fairly visible of the pitting that long-prolonged eolian

agencies impart to diabasic implements. This is very important.

It implies that the paleoliths were already of great antiquity before

being subjected to the fluviatile attrition.

Messrs. J. P. Johnson and R. B. Young, in a paper read before

the Geological Society of South Africa,* state that ‘all along the

* « The Relation of the Ancient Deposits of the Vaal River to the Paleolithic

Period of South Africa ’’ (IX., 1906), p. 53.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 59

Vaal River are two well-defined terraces of gravel, the longer one

usually being covered with a considerable thickness of loam.”

Mr. J. P. Johnson in a subsequent publication * qualifies this

statement,

‘All along the Vaal River there are well-defined terraces. There

are usually two: the upper and older one consisting of a thick bed

of gravel; the lower and newer one being, as a rule, a stratum

of gravelly detritus lying at the base of a varying thickness of

alluvial loam.” |

The two writers above quoted, when speaking of the Barkly

deposit and mentioning the extraordinary abundance in it of the

typical paleolithic implements, “all but a very few equally rolled

being practically reduced to pebbles,’ state, inter alia: ‘At

Barkly, between the bridge and the village, the upper terrace is well

exposed in the old diggings. It lies at the foot of a ridge of hills,

hence the talus element is predominant, though the river gravel is in

evidence throughout.”

They found, together with the rolled bouchers, ‘(a few sharp

implements which led them to conclude that that deposit consists of

two distinct series, the one probably older, the other perhaps con-

temporaneous with, perhaps newer than the deposits.’ Unfortu-

nately, these ‘“sharp’’ implements are not figured, and it is thus

impossible to traverse this conclusion, but we possess a good many

pieces from Barkly and its near neighbourhood. I have also seen a

good many besides those we own,} and I would certainly not differ-

entiate respecting the contemporaneity of a ‘‘ sharp’ implement,

like Fig. 53, of Pl. VIIL., a sharply wedged tool, Fig. 56, or an obtuse

boucher like Figs. 57 or 58 of Pl. IX.

Mr. A. L. du Toit, of the Cape Colony Geological Survey, who

has surveyed this very district, was kind enough, at my request,

to investigate this deposit, and this is what he wrote to me, accom-

panying his remarks with the following diagram given on next page.

“There are several old river-terraces in the neighbourhood of

Barkly, one immediately above the present river-bed, and a second

from 30 to 40 feet above it as recorded by Messrs. Johnson and

Young; this higher terrace is indicated at A on the accompanying

Fig. At B there is a gap in the hills through which a loop of

* The Stone Implements of South Africa, 1908.

+ In the Bloemfontein Museum are three specimens found 40 feet deep in the

old course of the Vaal River. Two are of the usual worn boucher-type, 100-

115 mm. in length; the third is a small circular chip 22 mm. at its greatest

length.

60 Annals of the South African Musewm.

the Vaal River very probably flowed in former times, C then being

an island.

‘Traces of still older gravels are found on the tops of the ridges C

and D about 100 feet higher up; but to the north this upper terrace

is continuous and well developed, but does not appear to carry any

large implements. The gravels at Riverton (west bank) and Warren-

ton seem similarly to be without implements.

BARALY 4

g “ G

“ 3

tz Z Ae D

aa - hs

(oe é Orr, 3 ‘

= i! 1

a vn L Ni Cp et

wy A iB CHT

0 got, 2

at 10 y=

BOE NE a

MY ty, z i= (les rend

VM A 3 SB ee .

wll WM, t= ie ee: >:

[ef Bop a (fe = >

A “Uy ENE cu, SS

fi NAG ta

US 2 EAS SUN Wiss

(UN) SSNS

«This middle terrace at Barkly, which therefore corresponds to the

‘upper’ of the two authors quoted, carries many rolled implements,

and at the point marked A they have been brought up in thousands

in the course of sinking shafts to reach the diamond-bearing gravel.

Among the inclusions of diabase, some only slightly rolled others

very well rounded, are numerous large, well-shaped implements

considerably water-worn, their abundance at this one spot being

most remarkable.

“Tt seems most likely that the implements were manufactured on

the slopes of the little hill C, and that they gravitated down into the

river at 4. At the time when this terrace was being formed there

would probably be an eddy at A where the two branches of the river

reunited, and this might account for their extremely rolled condition

and possibly for their concentration at this point.”

THE GRIQUALAND WEST JASPER IMPLEMENTS, AND THE TyuMI RIVER DEPOSIT.

The Griqualand brown, yellow, or whitish jasper implements

have a certain aspect of their own, perhaps due to the material

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 61

of which they are made; but many bouchers are exquisitely

finished,

The diggers, or cleavers, are most effective implements, cf. Pl. V.,

and Figs. 48 and 49 of Pl. VII., but they are very seldom found on

the surface, and are met together with by-products, chips, and

flakes, when opening or cleaning wells or springs that have become

obstructed, or have disappeared altogether owing to the deposition

of carbonate of lime.

Some of the implements in the Collection have been encountered

at a depth varying from 18 to 20 feet. At the springs that supply

Griqua Town with water these banded jasper implements were found

in great quantity. These finds, made while cleaning water-holes, are

extremely common, and have given rise to the belief there that when-

ever Bushmen had, for fear of attack or for other motives, to abandon

the springs round which they lived, they would throw all their

domestic appliances into the water-holes and obliterate the latter.

it was at one time thought that the jasper implements were

restricted to Griqualand West and the Prieska Districts of the Cape

Colony, until a very interesting discovery was made in the banks

and on a drift of the Tyumi River, near Lovedale, in the Alice

District of Cape Colony. I have seen twenty-eight pieces discovered

by Mr. A. Johns, some of which he has presented to us. Among

them are many beautifully worked Acheulean-type bouchers, some of

which are reproduced on PI. [X., Figs. 77, 78, and 86, and lanceolate

flakes pared on one side only. There are also a few flaking hammers

(Fig. 88, Pl. XI.). These implements are made of brown and yellow

jasper ; parts of the faces that have been exposed exhibit the beautiful

glaze peculiar to this sub-type, while others are quite lustreless.

With them are three scrapers of black lydianite, and a large and

somewhat thin boucher of a rough type that might have served as

a broad-edged cleaver. This boucher was made of a local rock.

The finish of the bouchers, and of some of the lanciform knives or

scrapers which retain, however, the strong conchoidal bulging of the

reverse side, point to a great development in the lithic industry

This find also adds another proof that bouchers and scraper-knives

were produced simultaneously and by the same makers.

An interesting point in the Tyumi River discovery is that the

jasper rock is not as yet known to occur in this locality. The

first suggestion, that the material already manufactured has been

transported a distance of 300 miles from Prieska (Cape Colony) by

the nomadic makers, had to be abandoned when chips and small

fragments were found in some pieces of conglomerate adhering to

62 Annals of the South African Museum.

the bouchers, showing conclusively that the tools had been made

in siti. The origin of the jasper has to be sought, therefore, in the

Dwyka conglomerate which crops out about 20 miles south of that

spot,t or else the tools were shaped from rough material brought

from the northern Karroo.

But the dates of finds, as well as the names of localities, inscribed

on the pieces are not always the same, and it would appear that

this Tyumi deposit was not restricted to the bank of the river from

where most of the examples were obtained by Mr. Johns, or to the

river spruit. Unfortunately I could not keep in touch with that

gentleman, who discovered the deposit in 1906.

But that the makers carried with them their implements during

their migrations or wanderings is borne out by the find in an Kast

London shell-mound of a scraper-knife made of yellow jasper.

THE VEREENIGING DEPOSIT.

Mr. J. P. Johnson has given an account of this deposit in the

Trans. S. Afric. Phil. Soc., xvi., 1905, p. 107, which he describes

thus :—

“The Vaal in that part has cut a channel deep into the solid rock,

and on top of the cliff thus formed, and extending, to my knowledge,

some distance east and west of the town, is an old river-terrace

consisting of gravel and small boulders embedded in and overlaid by

loam. There is a small pit in it, east of the town, where flakes occur

in great profusion, and nearly every pebble (which are all of

quartzite) | has been chipped. They appear to be largely the result

of unsuccessful attempts at manufacturing implements. No finished

one has been found in this spot... . Mr. Leshe’s find is some

distance west of the town, where long stretches of the terrace have

been furrowed and spread out by the rain. There, for many

hundreds of feet, unfinished implements occur in the greatest

abundance, the flakes produced in their manufacture by the

thousand, while here and there complete specimens are met with.

The quartzite seems to have been of too coarse a grain, as a rule, for

suitable working, as nearly all the failures and very few fmished

implements are in this material, the majority of the good specimens

being of greenstone (diabase). One or two unfinished examples of

chert were found.

* Bouchers of the same jasper rock have lately been found in the Bedford District

not very far from the Tyumi River deposit.

+ A. L. du Toit. { Compare this with the Nooitgedacht find.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 63

“It is quite clear that these implements must have been made

very close to where they are now found. Very probably the gravel

is the sweepings of an adjacent land-surface where the implements

were manufactured on a large scale. Many of them are as sharp

and fresh as on the days they were made, while obliteration of the

sharpness of the facets in others is more often due to weathering

than wear.”

Mr. Leslie had sent me these implements, I believe, before Mr.

Johnson saw them, and I made copious notes of the same, the gist

of which is: (1) That diabasic tools are as much worn and smoothed

by water agency as those figured on Pl. IX. and of those mentioned

in the Barkly West deposit; (2) that the quartzite implements are

of a different style of manufacture. They cannot compare in work-

manship with the Stellenbosch implements; they are more of the

cutting axe (Mousterian) type, one of the faces having been cleaved

at one blow, while the other has often only three broad facets and

a few (?) secondary chippings along the edge. Fig. 57 of Pl. VIII.

is peculiarly instructive ; its shape has been obtained by very few

blows, yet it is an effective cleaving tool. (3) These quartzite tools

show also signs of wear, but nothing like the diabasic ones.

The scraper-knives of ;diabase have the edges much rounded and

abraded, and several of them are almost polished, as if by water ;

but not so the quartzite implements. Although it must not be

forgotten that if the matrix, such as quartzite, is more difficult to

work than flint or chert, the difficulty the manufacturer of the

boucher encountered in working diabasic rock was probably greater.

We must therefore attach no importance to the assumption that

because these two forms are found together they are not only con-

temporaneous, but produced by the same maker. In fact, I believe

the contrary was the case. Mr. Johnson, as here quoted, mentions

a small pit (in an old river-terrace) where flakes occur in great pro-

fusion, and nearly every pebble (which are all of quartzite) has been

chipped.

These diabase, or quartzite, relics were not found alone, however.

With them I received from Mr. Leslie the agate, quartz, jasper,

cherty, small, somewhat amorphous chips, together with small

scrapers of the usual modern type.

Mr. Leslie’s letter in answer to my questions is very clear on the

point :—

‘“ Now to your questions. (1) Have you found on the banks of

the river the agate or chert-like small implements mixed with the

large ones ?—Yes, but more often the large ones are mixed with the

64 Annals of the South African Museum.

small ones in the sense that when a patch of small implements is

found, large flakes or coarse chippings are found in smaller numbers

comparatively. (2) Do the diabase implements occur in conjunction

with the quartzitic ?—Yes; I can find no dividing line between any.

When I say that really all the large implements sent you, with a

great many more, were found on the river-banks within a distance

of 200 yards along the river, and about 50 yards from it, it will be

seen how very difficult it was to distinguish between their relative

positions ; but with regard to the small agate ones, they, or the

greater number of them, were found about a mile away associated

with large flakes. ...

‘On the receipt of your letter I went to a spot about 500 yards

from where the implements were found. On a space of 10 feet

square I saw flakes, chips, &c., which I am sending you; they show

the variety well. I am of opinion that the sign of great age of many

of the large implements or flakes is due to weathering.” *

The Vereeniging find was made in 1905. Mr. Ivor Guest kindly

sent me a sketch-map of the locality. When he visited Bosman’s

Crossing at Stellenbosch he found that the talus conditions were

the same in both places. I pointed out the Bosman’s site and all its

features to Mr. Leslie in 1908, and he informed me that the situation

was identical with that of Vereeniging, which he described as “a

talus of 4 or 5 feet in depth and extending some miles along the

banks of the Vaal River and about a mile wide ; implements both

large and small may be found in any part of it.”

With the evidence before us it is safe to conclude that the

Vereeniging deposit is another instance of accumulation in talus,

and this by degrees.

Whether the first makers used quartzite, and those that followed

diabase for their manufacture is not likely to be conclusively

proved ; | I believe that they were not the same race, or had not the

same lithic culture or skill. As to the makers of the small, uncouth

agate or chert implements, we can, I think, consider them to have

been people, if not of another race, at least of one that had lost this

state of culture, and this possibly, if not probably, because the in-

vention of another and more effective weapon, or the acquired

knowledge of iron, caused them either to discard the ancient types

or to restrict themselves to one particular line. These agate, &c.,

implements are similar to those dealt with further on in the

* In the face of the Nooitgedacht and Barkly West finds, this conclusion is

erroneous.

+ The dolerite implements are of a far more advanced type than the quartzite.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 65

account of the domestic implements of the up-country caves or

rock-shelters.

THE FisHHOOK DeEposIrT.

Fishhook, or “‘ Vishoek,”’ is a crescent-shaped sandy beach, through

which meanders and usually loses itself in the sands a rivulet, or

rather small stream. It is situated between Kalk Bay, a well-known

seaside resort, and Simon’s Town, the seat of the Admiralty, and

some 16 miles distant from Cape Town. On one side runs the road

to the Kommetje, on the other that of Nordhoek, and the valley runs

from False Bay on one side of the Cape Peninsula to Chapman’s Bay

on the other.

On one side of the valley is a high hill of Table Mountain sand-

stone, forming a very long spur, but this hill, like others in the

neighbourhood, is covered by unceasingly advancing and retreating

dunes of white sand, in places several hundred feet high, rolling

imperceptibly upwards over the rugged sides of the mountain

crags under the propulsion of south-east winds of great violence,

even capping the crest of the hills in the manner shown in text-

figure 7. If the wind veers to the east, or more especially to the

north-west, this covering is blown as huge walls of sand in an oppo-

site direction, thus uncovering part or the whole of the original

surface, but only for a short period, especially where the distance

from either sea increases.

It was on such an occasion that there were discovered at the foot

of a sand-dune, advancing perceptibly to cover again the exposed

rocks, bouchers of unmistakably Chellean, Acheulean, and Mousterian

types, together with broad flakes of paleolithic form, detaching

hammers (Fig. 75), &c.

Intermingled with these were also flakes and scrapers in the style

and of the material occurring so numerously on the Cape Flats

(Pl. XV., Figs. 118, 120), flakers of the same quartzite (Pl. XI,

Figs. 86, 90), and, lastly, sherds of Strand-Looper pottery.

All this ‘ outillage’’ was resting on a sloping layer of ironstone

gravel, in the process perhaps of formation, and producing in places

quite a smooth floor, sufficient, however, to stop effectually its gravi-

tation to a greater depth. Many of the implements were wedged in

anfractuosities of the uncovered rocks (A in text-figure 7). The layer

of ironstone was plainly continued under the readvancing sand-

hill, at the very foot of which we found one of the most sharply

ending bouchers I have as yet seen, and partially coated with

ironstone.

66 Annals of the South African Museum.

On ascending the hill we kept finding paleoliths, made mostly of

a more quartzitic sandstone than the usual Stellenbosch type—a

sandstone that, we found later, occurs only some 4 or 5 miles from

the spot.

Well-nigh at the top (B in text-figure) were paleoliths, some

jammed into the interstices of the rocks, which are perforated and

vermiculated by sand action in a very singular manner. Here and

KG. if.

there also we found the small Cape Flat type of flakes and pot-

sherds.

More numerous than the large implements, there occurred at that

altitude, some 400 feet from the first find, large detaching hammers

of the type of Fig. 75. Their weight had offered probably more

resistance to their removal to a lower level.

Proceeding along the line of the hill, we did not find any boucher,

but at a lower level we met instead with many large hammers or

nuclei similar to those found at the higher level. Fig. 75 of Pl. XL,

picked up there, represents a moderately-sized one.

Arrested no longer by the layer of ironstone, which is not to be

found there, they have by the pulsating effect of the removal of the

sand reached the floor of the dune, and have in several instances

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 67

been deposited so as to form an irregular circle. Fig. 86, Pl. XL,

was found on the slope of that floor. Fairly numerous, too, were

the small Cape Flats flakes, and we picked up several mullers of

small dimensions with the usual ground end of the type of Fig. 168

in Pl XXII:

Some 2 miles off, and near a lagoon, but in line with this floor,

quite a number of mortars, some of large dimensions, have since

been discovered close to each other, some being very much sand-

worn. ;

On examination it is found that in a few of the bouchers occurring

in that locality the original reverse smooth face (Mousterian type)

has been retained ; others show usually an attempt at paring, while

on each side, and round the butt also, many show signs of having

been manufactured from a rounded pebble by retaining a part of the

contour. The majority were plainly detached from large nuclei.

The cleaving tools were very serviceable, and of the type of Fig. 33,

PIT.

In length, the digging tools vary from 26 cm. to10cm. I have

seen an extremely well-shaped example of the size and shape of

Fig. 4, Pl. I. We found a few throwing-stones, and the usual

accompanying waste of broad flakes that could be utilised as

scrapers. All these implements were very finely pitted by sand

action. But, taken together, the bouchers, nuclei, and large flakes

are undoubtedly of the Stellenbosch, Chellean-Mousterian type, the

only difference being that they are made from a grained, more

quartzitic sandstone.

Yet there is no evidence that the narrow lamellate surface-

quartzite flakes, the mullers with one rounded face, the mortars

with the hollow depression, and the rough potsherds are connected

with the Stellenbosch, Chellean-Mousterian type, although some

reservation may be made in regard to the scrapers or flakes. How

can the finding of types so very different lying together in close

juxtaposition be reconciled ?

The valley of Fishhook is extremely well suited to the require-

ments of primitive man, whose main life support was fishing or

hunting. An abundance of never-failing water—so attractive an

object to man or beast in Africa—an extremely mild climate, ‘‘vleis”’

wherein to fish or obtain wildfowl, a superfluous abundance of sea-

shell (Haliotis, Patella, Mytilus) to be found on either side of the

isthmus, such were the advantages that primitive man found at

Fishhook, and of which, judging from its relics, he made the

most of.

68 Annals of the South African Musewm.

But the sand-dunes, under the impulsion of impetuous and season-

ably recurring winds, have swayed to and fro for years untold, moving

forwards and backwards, thus disintegrating the sandstone of the

hills encountered in their onward or retrograde march—a dis-

integration greatly helped by saline matters. These dunes must

have been, and still are, a most powerful erosive factor, as is but too

plain when the rocks which they cover are laid bare.

Now, it must be remembered that bouchers and nuclei are found

at the top of the partly uncovered slope, some are so wedged in the

deeply and broadly pitted sandstone that a hammer had to be used

to remove them. As it is impossible that these very heavy imple-

ments could have been rolled upwards from a lower level by the

sand that forms these billowy dunes, we cannot but conclude that

they were deposited in the situation in which we found them from a

once more elevated level, a higher level eroded by the action of the

shifting sands, and an erosion doubtless of great antiquity.*

But the recent quartzite scrapers are found in the same situation ;

and why should they not have come also from the eroded higher

level ?

In dealing with the Tsumi River deposit, I have pointed out

that scrapers of exactly the same type as those occurring on the

Cape Flats, and associated there with beautiful Solutrian laurel-

leaf-like implements worked on both sides, were found in such juxta-

position with most finished bouchers ot an Acheulean type that it is

impossible to doubt the contemporaneity of the two. The same

thing occurs also on the Cape Flats. Small bouchers of Acheulean

type, made of the same recent quartzite as the Solutrian implements,

are occasionally met with, but, I must add, lymg by themselves.

Fig. 18, Pl. 93, represents one of these bouchers.

It would not, therefore, be safe to deny the possibility of these

surface quartzite flakes having been coexistent with the Chellean-

Mousterian type found at Fishhook, except for the following

reason :—

Further investigation has revealed, close by, a midden containing

the usual domestic appliances of flakes and chips, querns and pot-

sherds, and among them a javelin-head of the advanced type, but

* Since this account was written bouchers of the same paleolithic type as those

found at Fishhook have been discovered at the very top of the mountains flanking

the valley. At Glencairn they show the same effect of sand-blast, and were dis-

covered along the only possible opening that could lead to the ‘‘ Kommetjee,” on

the other side of that part of the peninsula.

We have thus a repetition of the occupation of heights by the early, or primitive

makers, comparable to the Paarl, Simondium, and other sites.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 69

somewhat roughly worked on both sides. This midden is of the

Strand-Looper type, and no Chellean-Mousterian boucher has as

yet been found the connection of which with the midden is

indubitable.

The evidence afforded by the presence of this midden may and

probably does account for the presence of these high-type flakes, as

well as for that of the mortars and pounders, such middens never

being without an abundance of them and some containing objects

quite modern.

The flakes were probably made and the debris of the industry

deposited at the time when the hill, which commands even now a

eood view of the whole valley, was partially uncovered, after a long

period of erosion. Being much lighter, and some even of incon-

siderable weight, they, as well as the potsherds, found their way

with a rapidity appropriate to their size and weight to the level

which the Chellean-Mousterian bouchers had reached before them.

It must be remembered that no boucher was found on the furthest

point of the uncovered floor of the dune, and also that about one mile

further, and close to an existent lagoon, quite a number of mortars

but no bouchers were found. This seems to point to the fact that

the people that made the mortars and the pottery were not

necessarily the manufacturers of the Chellean-Mousterian paloliths.

Tue ‘Kast Lonpon” DEPposIt.

The late Mr. George McKay, of East London, has left some very

interesting notes on the occurrence of stone implements at or near

the mouth of the Buffalo River at East London, Cape Colony, and,

were his premises correct, we could conclude that the relics found

there must represent an enormous lapse of time.

We are greatly indebted to Mr. John Wood, of East London, for

a very representative collection of these local implements.

The finds consist of scraper-knives, mullers, perforated stones, and

potsherds, 7.e., in many instances the usual domestic appliances of

shell-mounds along our coasts.

I may state, however, that the scraper-knife flakes, long or

of moderate size, found there, are, with very few exceptions, the

most worn of the South African implements of that kind that I have

seen. Fig. 102 of Pl. XII. is a case in point, and although the finds

sent do not include bouchers these scraper-knives or flakers belong

certainly to the South African paleolithic, but Mr. Wood adds :—

“The biggest implement I found here was a wedge-shaped one,

70 Annals of the South African Museum.

9 or 10 inches long, and perhaps 14 or 2 inches at the broadest.

It is in the King Williamstown Museum.* Of course you understand

that, so far as finding on the surface goes, the implements are most

abundant away from the shell mounds: they are in plenty on the

broken ridges just a little back from the beach.”

Among the reasons given by Mr. McKay for attributing a great

antiquity to these finds are the following :—

“Some years ago in opening a quarry a very large mound of

shells was discovered on the left bank of the Quigney River at its

junction with the Buffalo. It was covered with vegetable soil, with

trees growing on it, just like the section remaining to-day. The

Harbour Works engineers have removed upwards of 375,000 cubic

feet of these shells to fill up the lagoon. Any one examining what

remains of this mound will find it composed principally of limpet,

mussel, oyster, haliotis, and other shells of edible species, with

bones of fish and birds as well as of antelopes, hippopotamus, and

other mammalia, layers of ashes, fragments of charcoal, and pieces

of coarse pottery. No stone implement has been found, but stones

showing the action of fire are common.”

“. . . to afford material for forming the railway embankment.

The ground (covered by a dense bush) consisted of from 4 to 5 feet

of stiff clay soil followed by about a foot of travelled gravel, that is

rolled gravel having a close resemblance to shot of different sizes.

A little above the gravel line a large number of stone implements

were found, chiefly rubbers; a few spear-heads (lanceolate knife-

scrapers) | were found with stone fragments of coarse pottery, &c.

Mr. Gately’s residence stands on the rounded top of an isolated

knoll or small hill which is connected with the site of East London

by a narrow neck. This neck is the dividing ridge of two water-

courses that nearly surround the hill before they unite and find their

way to the first creek. These two water-courses have been the

cause of the isolation of the hill. On its top there is a layer of black

mud from 2 to 3 feet thick, below that there is from 1 to 2 feet

of decomposed rock before solid rock is reached. Out of this black

mud Mr. Gately has dug many implements and bones; among them

stone-flakes, spear-heads (knife-scrapers),} coarse pottery, teeth and

bones of hippopotamus .. . There was a time when Mr. Gately’s

house was not a hill, and the implements found there are as old

as that time. . . . Fringing in detached patches the whole South-

Eastern coast of Africa there exists a peculiar wind-stratified

* I have seen the example. It is a strongly incurved flake or flaker and of

undoubted paleolithic type. t+ The words in brackets are mine.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 71

calcareous sandstone. At Cove Rock and Bat’s Cave it abounds

with fossils, especially at the latter place. The peculiarities of the

stratification leave no doubt whatever that this is an eolian forma-

tion. Out of it I have taken three well-formed stone spear-heads

(knife-scrapers) at the level of low water, in a position where they

must at one time have been covered by 180 feet of this rock-drifted

sand which has become consolidated into hard rock, &e.”’

Mr. McKay’s contentions as to the extremely old origin of these

knife-scrapers, mullers, potsherds, &c., might at first sight appear

warranted were it not that the whole “outillage,”’ or domestic

appliances pertain to the midden or shell-mound type, and as

I have endeavoured to show in another chapter, it is not in a

midden, always void of the Chellean or Acheulean as well as Mous-

terian bouchers, that we can expect to find a possible clue to the

antiquity of primitive man.

But Mr. John Wood, of East London, has been kind enough to

send the following notes regarding the estuary of the Buffalo River :—

a .; this would have been a revelation to the late Mr.

McKay, who thought that the stone implements found upon the

banks of the river among the fragments of sub-aerially decomposed

rock (which he seems to have regarded as river gravel) had been

dropped by the water margin and lain there—under a subsequent

covering of soil—throughout the period taken by the river to wear

its way down to its present level 80 to 100 feet below. He did not

know the old channel was still another 120 feet deeper down.* My

notion is that implements dropped as they were being made on the

ground, and have gradually worked their way, assisted by well-

known agencies—through the 2 or 3 feet or so of soil there is, as

a rule here, covering the bedrock of the country. I have turned

up with the spade in my garden, which is close to the river, a

number of flaked stones, and once a nice ‘rubbing stone.’

“ Another mistake I fancy Mr. McKay made was when comment-

ing upon the occurrence of stone implements along the beach near

Bat’s Cove. His idea was that they had been dropped among the

pebbles at tidal mark and then overwhelmed in a mass of sand—

probably a dune of over 100 feet high judging from surroundings—

which was converted into eolian sandstone. But as the spot where

those implements and pebbles are found is a very circumscribed one,

I should say the explanation is that we are upon the site of an old

cave there, led up to by a gully or cove into which the waves heaped

* A fact which came to light when the engineers bored for foundations for the

bridge placed across the Buffalo after MacKay’s day.

72 Annals of the South African Museum.

a collection of pebbles, and that the roofs afterwards collapsed. At

present there is a detached block of eolian sandstone lying upon

3 feet or so of rolled pebbles—also bound fast by the lime—and

it is amongst these the implements and bone fragments are found.

‘The coarsely cemented sand shell masses along our beach here

ave hardly entitled to be called rocks; they are the cores of old sand-

dunes quickly formed and quickly disintegrated ; and there are other

similar spots near at hand where the occurrence I have been sur-

inising is likely to be re-enacted at no distant date.

‘‘T think, too, his deductions from the ‘ finds’ in Gately’s garden

are unwarranted. A shell-midden exists there lying upon the shale,

the latter comes to about a foot from the surface. Anything im-

perishable left lying about would surely soon sink through that

shallow soil. It would be good camping ground for the Strand

Loopers because of its outlook, and there was a vlei near at

hand upon the site of which, by the way, our Town Hall now

stands.”’

Negative again in this case is evidence of great antiquity, and

IT would not have mentioned the East London deposit were it not

that the late G. McKay’s account of it is on record, and may prove

misleading.

I have before me a large photograph of sixty-three implements

collected by him. Some are large flakes that may be palzolithic,

but the presence of numerous ‘‘!’ Kwés’’* whole or broken, perforated

entirely or partly, large, and very small, with an accompaniment

of mullers of different sizes, and also of ‘‘pygmy”’ flakes, denote

but too well the domestic appliances of the shell-mound dwellers.

This photograph was evidently intended to be an illustration, as

representative as possible, of these stone implements, the deposition

of which showing proofs of untold ages in the antiquity of man was

such a cherished idea of the investigator, who, like Stow and others,

unfortunately did not know how to discriminate between palezolithic

and neolithic types.

In this photograph there is not one figure approximating a

boucher. Large flakes are there, but there are no means of ascer-

taining their size. Some look weathered, others not; but on the

whole these flakes are typical of those sent us by Mr. J. Wood.

I have already sounded a note of warning as to attributing a

very ancient or comparatively modern age to our South African

* A “VKwe” is a more or less spherical stone perforated in the centre, the

perforation being begun at each end and meeting in the centre (see chapter on

YKwes, &c.).

The Stone Ages of South Africa. ie

scraper-knife-flakes, owing to the continuous survival of the type

due probably to the facility of shaping or evolving the implement

from any loose stone. But some, such as Figs. 102 and 103,

have such a worn appearance that even a long continuation of eolian

agencies would be required to impart the same, and the absence of

bouchers cannot in their case be claimed for their rejuvenation.

That this absence may be accidental is proved by the fact that

although no paleolith in the shape of a tongue-shaped or cleaver-

like tool can be said to have hitherto been discovered in the East

London beach deposit, nor in the “broken ridges just a little back

of the beach” where very large worn flakes do, however, occur, yet

Mr. J. Wood has quite lately discovered at no great distance from

there, near the mouth of the Nahoon River, bouchers, mostly huge

(judging from the examples he sent us) * lying together with flakes

of the kind which I consider belongs to the South African

Paleolithic.

And thus the discrepancy between the styles of the stone tools

in McKay’s photograph are explained.

The !’Kwés, mullers, some of the flakes, and the ‘‘ pygmies ”’

are recent additions deposited at or near the place where imple-

ments of palolithic type had gravitated, or been manufactured very

long before the Strand Looper had left there his own mark of

occupation.

* These bouchers are made of voleanic rock or of Karroo sandstone. They are

very roughly trimmed, and all those sent us are large. None is tongue- or almond-

shaped; some are pointed at both ends; in others, made of sandstone, the butt

retains the contour of the rolled pebble. The flakes are of the usual knife-scraper

shape, but are plainly worn.

CHAPTER VII.

PALH ONTOLOGICAL AND GEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE.

PALMONTOLOGICAL.

The Pleistocene or early Quaternary period of the Northern

Hemisphere was characterised by the extension of ice, and the

deposit of deep alluvium in valleys and plains.

There existed during this period not only in the palolithic

Region or the greater part of it, but also far south of it, a mam-

malian fauna including, among large forms, several that have

survived in Africa and also in India, where ‘‘ some of the deposits

show how long was the period during which the encroachment of

some of the great African land animals into Europe and India must

have persisted.” *

But, as far as South Africa is concerned, no traces of Pleistocene

glacial conditions have as yet been observed, although carefully

searched for by the two Geological Survey parties who are mapping

this part of the African Continent.

The problem is still more complicated because most of our large

mammals have outlived the Pleistocene, showing thus a longer

survival than in Europe, while others which we know existed there

in the early Pleistocene are still with us, and to all intents and

purposes unchanged, although their progenitors were contem-

poraneous with Chelleo-Mousterian man.

Hyawnas.—Hyena brunnea, our so-called ‘‘ Strand Wolf,” lived

together with Hlephas antiquus, perhaps even with EH. meridionalis,

* Suess, ‘‘ The Face of the Earth,” Engl. Edit., vol. iv., Oxford, 1909.

Ibid. ‘If we compare Pilgrim’s description of the fauna of the alluvium of the

Godavari, and of the caves of Kamul (on the Kistna), where the remains of Manis

still occur, with Boule’s account of the stratified succession in the Grimaldi

grottoes (Monaco), we discover that man was a witness of this extension, both in

Europe and in India. In Europe it extends into the interglacial phase of the

Chellean.”’

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 75

Rhinoceros mercki, Hippopotamus major, &c., in the same manner

that it does now, or did till a few years ago, with Hlephas africanus

(that survivor of the elephants of the same African type to which

E. meridionalis and E. antiquus belonged), Rhinoceros simus, our

white Rhinoceros which several Palzontologists consider to be the

same as R. mercki, Hippopotamus najor, of which H. amphibwus is

merely a variety, or survivor, &e.

Hienea crocuta, the spotted hyzna, which we call here ‘“ Tiger

Wolf,” is now generally identified with the ‘‘ Cave Hyena ”’ (Hyena

spelea), the remains of which have been found throughout Europe,

from Yorkshire in England to Gibraltar, and as far east as the

Madras Presidency in India.

While its congener H. brunnea was seemingly pertaining more to

the warm fauna of the early Pleistocene, H. crocuta kept company

with the long-haired, woolly Mammoth, and the equally thickly

woolled Rhinoceros tichorrhinus.

Yet those two descendants of a very ancient race are now re-

stricted to a warm climate, where intense cold comparable with that

of the second period of the Pleistocene never prevailed.*

With such cases of survival before us, it is plain that when we

find in caves an accumulation of bones, some of which bear the

distinctive marks imprinted on them by the powerful jaws of

Hyena, more corroborative evidence is required to assign great

antiquity to the deposit.

Mastopon.—Part of the tooth (molar) of a Mastodon has been

found in close proximity to, if not actually in, the Barkly West

Deposit, of which Mr. A. L. du Toit has given here an account, and

is described by E. Fraas.!

This fragment is the only find of its kind known hitherto, but

there is no reason to believe that the find is not genuine, and it will

be remembered that the paleoliths, bouchers or flakes, found in this

deposit are extremely worn (see Pls. VIII. and IX., and Fig. 105 in

El eX tit.) 6

I wrote to M. Boule, submitting an account of the find of the

* Hyena brunnea seems to be confined now to West Africa; Hy@na crocuta

roams all over Africa, south of the Sahara to the Cape of Good Hope.

+ See account of Hawston Cave, Chapter XVI.

+ « Pleistocine fauna aus den Diamantseifen,” Zeits. d. Deutsch. Geol. Ges.,

1907.

§ In the Bloemfontein Museum are two bouchers of large size bearing the

inseription, ‘‘ Found 40 feet deep in old course of Vaal River, Barkly West.” It

is probable that these implements were collected by either Stow or C. Sirr Orpen

at the very spot mentioned by Mr. du Toit.

76 Annals of the South African Museum,

tooth and of the paloliths, and also pointing to the fact that if it

were duly proven that the paloliths were associated with the

mastodon molar tooth, a much greater antiquity would have to be

claimed for these artefacts.

But the learned Professor of Paleontology of the Paris Museum

answered my communication to this effect: ‘This contention would

be true, provided the genus Mastodon did not last longer in Africa

than it did in Europe, where it does not go beyond the limit of

the Pleistocene. It has, perhaps, survived with you during the

Quaternary (Pleistocene) period, as it has done in North and South

America.” *

The finds in the sands of the Fayoum seem to justify this

contention. Moreover, the tooth belongs to the Bunolophon group

of Mastodon in which all the North African species described by

Gaudry and Depéret are included.

On the other hand, this molar tooth may have come from a

terrace that was once much higher than the deposit on which it

was found.

ANTELOPES.—If we turn to the Antilopine, a group of Mammals

numbering so many species in Africa, but which, with the excep-

tion of the cold-loving Antilope saiga, are not represented in the

European Quaternary, we find an extinet Bubalis, B. priscus,

Broom. +

BuBALIS, or ALCELAPHUS, as it is sometimes called, is, like

several other antelopes, recorded from the Pliocene beds of India

(Siwalik).

This find here is represented by one example only, and consists

of the post-orbital portion of a skull with the proximal part of the

left horn-core. The interest attaching to the example is that it was

discovered in the banks of the Modder River, and apparently not far

from where Rickard discovered implements of palolithic type. |

But the connection of the Paleoliths with the remains of that

extinct Bubalis is merely conjectural. This fragmentary skull is

quite black, in the manner of many of the ancient bones found in

liurope in river-drift.

Burrato AND Horsre.—For some time now a Buffalo, which

judging from the size of the horn-cores must have been gigantic,

has been known from South Africa. It was described by Seeley

from our example in the Museum—a part of the frontal and the

* L’Anthropologie, xxi., 1910, p. 248.

+ Ann. 8. Afric. Museum, vii.,.1909, p. 279, ¢. fig.

{ Cambridg. Com, Antiq. Soe., v., 1880-1881.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 77

complete horn-cores measuring 14 feet in the curve. The locality is

probably the banks of the Caledon River, in the Orange Free State.

Three more, but quite incomplete, examples have been discovered

since, one at Bloembosch, Cape Colony, of which more anon.

Nearly completing the series of finds of Quaternary deposits, is

now recorded a large horse—not zebra. Broom has lately described

it under the name of Equus capensis.* The description is mainly

based on the left lower jaw, although some teeth, still larger, were

available, but were overlooked.

These remains were discovered in the following manner: The

owner of a cattle-ranch, called Bloembosch, some 20 miles from

Darling, in the Cape Colony, was much troubled by the advance of

sand-dunes which were threatening to cover a perennial spring, and

he set about planting a certain kind of grass used to stop their pro-

gress. At the foot of that dune, and not far from the spring, he came

across a Skull and horn-cores of such a size that his attention was

attracted, and he brought part of it to his homestead, where it was

seen by Mr. H. M. Oakley, who, being acquainted with the first

example of Bubalus bai, recognised at once the relic as belonging

to the same animal. He informed me of the find, bringing at the

same time a number of bones belonging to the Rhinoceros, Eland,

Bubalis, Bubalus, Equus, &ce. Both the Geologist and the Paleon-

tologist of the Museum, Mr. du Toit and Dr. Broom, as well as Mr.

Bain and myself, visited the place, and we came to the same con-

clusion, a conclusion arrived at from different considerations, that

these bones had not accumulated at that spot by the formation of a

deposit, but had been brought piecemeal to or near the water by

beast or man. No complete skeleton was found.

The teeth of the horse measure 198 mm., and are thus larger than

those of the Hquus sivalensis. One atlas of Bubalus measures

351 mm. in width and 123 mm. in length.

On the exposed floor of the dune we found the usual accompani-

ment of a Midden in proximity to the water: mullers and small

scrapers, borers or drills and ostrich-egg-shell beads, two brass

buttons, &c.; and it is difficult indeed to come to any conclusion

other than the occupiers of the midden were responsible for these

bones accumulating in that spot. Neither large bouchers nor large

scraper-knives were found, and if these large animals were slain by

the Strand Looper—and slain by man they undoubtedly were—it

must have been done by craft and by means of the tiny, neolithic

stone weapons, found 77 siti.

* Ann. 8. Afric. Museum, vii., 1909, p. 281.

78 Annals of the South African Museum.

The horse is manifestly not old geologically, and the same may be

said respecting Bubalus, but at all events in the case of the latter,

whereas no one would be surprised to find its remains in marshy

spots or near banks of flowing rivers, one is indeed surprised to find

it in places now almost waterless, but prebably made so by a gradual

rising of the coast belt, during which period the aboriginal was not

acquainted with the use of palzeoliths.

On the other hand also, this aboriginal would, of necessity,

come to water, and the remnants of his domestic industry may

have been deposited there long after the animals had been laid

low. One of the femora of Bubalus had been split open as if to

obtain the marrow, but it is very difficult to decide if it be the work

of man or hyzena.

And on the whole this restricted paleontological evidence would

be of little weight were it not that in Algeria there have been found,

at the bottom of a small lake called Lake Karar, paleoliths resem-

bling so much in shape and even material the South African ones as

to be almost indistinguishable. With them also were found small

pieces of the Cape Town Flats and Karroo type, the better trimmed

of which are made of flint; but their contemporaneity, according to

M. Boule, who has investigated this deposit, with the quartzite

paleoliths is doubtful.* The numerous bones found with the Lake

Karar implements are those of Elephant, Horse, Hippopotamus,

Rhinoceros, Pig, Gnu, Bubalus, and Stag. The Hlephant is an

extinct kind, but belonging to one more related to the Quaternary,

or even the Pliocene Elephants of Europe; others, except the Stag,

are still living in the south of the African continent ; the Rhinoceros

is &. sumus ; the Gnu is probably Connochetes taurinus or C. gnu ;

the Horse, Hquus burchelli, &c.; and the Buffalo, Bubalus antiquus,

does not seem to differ much from Bubalus baint, our extinct

species.

But with implements of such ancient palzolithic type one would

have expected to find remains of the animals that characterise the

finds at Chelles, &&. Why are not the Elephants, H. antiquus or EH.

meridionalis, Hyena spelea or brunnea, the Stenon horse, Machau-

rodes or Ursus spe@leuws, represented in that deposit if its great

antiquity is to be assumed? M. Boule admits that the Quaternary

fauna of Algeria and that of Europe do greatly differ. The former

consists of species that have migrated in the manner followed by

forms now northern, and the remains of which are found in the

Kuropean Quaternary deposits.

* M. Boule, ‘ Station Paléolithique du lac Karar,” L’Anthropologie, xi., 1900.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 79

But there are still some elements of doubt as to the relative age

of this Lake Karar deposit.

Those who are persuaded that the Chellean-Mousterian boucher

is of extreme antiquity may agree that there is nothing to prove that

the Palzoliths and the animals were deposited together during the

same epoch.

To those who think that too great an antiquity is claimed for the

Paloliths, and that their presence or existence should be reckoned

by hundreds instead of thousands of years, the presence in this

deposit of large animals, mostly all living at the present time, would

seem to militate in favour of their view.*

But, as Boule justly remarks, no implement from among those

extracted from the Lake can be included in the Neolithic +; and no

remains of the animals now living in the country have been found

in the Lake.

In North-Western Rhodesia there has been discovered at a place

called ‘‘ Broken Hill,’ in caves of very singular formation, an accu-

mulation of bones of different animals, in which the Antelopes pre-

dominate, and among them was found a Rhinoceros, said to be an

extinct species, on the strength of a femur or tibia.

In the same deposit were also found small stone implements quite

similar to these occurring on the surface, in the Kafue River valley,

and greatly resembling the examples found in the Matoppo caves

(Bly XWIL.; Bigs.133):

Mr. Franklin White informs me that he has found in these caves

the unmistakable coproliths of the Hyena, identified, moreover, as

such at the British Museum.

But there seems to have been no absolutely reliable systematic

investigation of the layers of these caves’ deposits ; and, although it

is claimed that this is the first case when stone implements have

been, in South Africa, connected with bones of an extinct animal—

which is really not a true assertion—the evidence of an extinct

species of an hitherto unknown Rhinoceros, based on a leg-bone, is

not to be very seriously considered, and still less accepted, by those

zoologists or paleontologists who are aware that even the dentition

of these animals is not a sure clue to their specific identity.

On the other hand, Dr. Broom, our Museum Palzontologist, is of

opinion that among the remains received by us from this Broken

* H. O. Forbes, ‘On the Age of the Surface Flint Implements of Egypt and

Somaliland,” Bull. Liverp. Museums, iii., 1901.

+ Some have, however, been found on the surface close to the Lake, but they

belong so unmistakably to the polished stone period that they cannot in the least

be associated with the palwolithic forms.

50 Annals of the South African Musewm.

Hill cave-deposits, there is included part of the skull of a large

unknown bird.

GEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE.

So far Geology has not been of much use here in helping to

elucidate the problem of the antiquity of our Stone Implements.

But Mr. A. W. Rogers has recorded a find which is of the utmost

importance. It is embodied in the Tenth Annual Report of the

Geological Commission of the Cape of Good Hope, p. 293.

In 1905 Mr. George Robertson, of ‘Klein Brak” River, near

Mossel Bay, sent to the South African Museum some shells that

came from a quarry on his property. Mr. Rogers had occasion to

visit the spot and of obtaining a representative collection of the

fossils preserved there.

“A low ridge or terrace, rising to a height of about 15 feet above

the level of the Klein Brak River vlei, marks the position of the

shelly beds, and small quarries have been opened in the ridge for

the purpose of getting out limestone for building. The limestone is

a loose-textured, rather incoherent rock, but it hardens rapidly on

exposure and appears to stand the weather well. It contains a

number of shells which can easily be removed from the rock.”

The species obtained are enumerated. ‘All these species, with

the exception of the Cerithiwm and Calliostoma, are known from the

South African seas, though some of them (Panopea natalensrs and

Triton australis) do not appear to have been recorded from the coasts

of the Cape Colony.

‘In the limestone I found a piece of quartzite which appears to

have been shaped by man. It has a form common to many rude

implements of small size found on the surface in various parts of

the Colony. Mr. Robertson told me he had found round stones

flattened at one end, evidently by use as crushers or pounders, in the

limestone. . . . The limestone must have been formed at a time when

the land stood at least 15 feet lower than now, and when the shore

of Mossel Bay passed some two miles inland of its present position.”

The quartzite implement mentioned by Mr. Rogers is in our

Collection. It is a fragment of a knife-scraper flake, in shape and

composition corresponding with examples found on the surface in

the Mossel Bay district, especially at Cape St. Blaize.

That this primitive implement was deposited there in times far

remote admits of no doubt whatever. The pity is that it should

prove to be an instrument that can give no clue, although from its

mere appearance, and without knowing its history, I would have

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 81

included it in the South African paleolithic. On Mr. Robertson’s

evidence, pounders of the type of our dune-middens and caves have

also been found in the limestone. These I have not seen, and the

presence of a vlei may account for their occurrence there, even at a

depth that is, unfortunately, not stated.

But Mr. Rogers’ evidence is that of a professional man, and,

whether or not the mullers and the flake are contemporaneous,

we have at least one example of great antiquity clearly established

in the situation in which the said flake was found.

( 82 )

THE NEOLITHIC.

CHAPTER VIII.

AURIGNACIAN, SOLUTRIAN, MAGDALENIAN, &c., TYPES.

Points, SCRAPERS OR FLAKE-KNIVES.

Before proceeding to deal with the question, Have there been

in South Africa periods or sub-divisions of the post-Mousterian

corresponding to, or coinciding with the Aurignacian, Solutrian,

Magdalenian, or post-Magdalenian? it is as well that a definition

of the Mousterian type be given.

Déchelete’s is one of the most concise.*

“The implement is a flake usually triangular, the two lateral sides

of which are trimmed again with care upon one of the faces. The

part opposite to the sharp end, a part usually called base or butt, is

oftener than not without secondary trimming. Noticeable is the

place where the blow of the striking tool has fallen, which blow, as

a direct result, produces on the reverse the bulb of percussion, a

swelling which is very seldom subsequently thinned or reduced.

The reverse of the Mousterian powt + is smooth, and it differs on

that account from the Chellean implement; it is always lighter,

being seldom more than 10 cm. in length, and is longer than broad.”

Gradually, however, and sometimes too suddenly, the Mousterian

outillage disappears in HKurope. It is replaced by implements of

very superior technique. No longer prevails the spall with bulging

bulb of percussion, very little trimmed on one face, and the other

left as formed under the detaching blow; even the scrapers them-

selves show traces of secondary trimming on the sides; pieces

* « Manuel d’Archéol. préhist.,” i., 1908.

+ But the word ‘‘ point”? must not be taken necessarily to mean a lance-head,

arrow-head or other penetrating implement, it corresponds even to the ‘‘ boucher”’

of the period.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 83

chipped on both faces are common; arrow- and javelin-heads, thin

symmetrically produced into a laurel- or willow-leaf shape appear ;

some of the points have a truly characteristic tang continued on

one side for hafting. Every piece denotes a great advance in the

lithic industry. The large palewoliths, whether amygdaloidal or not,

bifacial, or simple on one side, are now discarded. Ultimately

this Solutrian technique will also be partly abandoned, to be partly

replaced by the bone industry which characterises the Magdalenian,

the epoch that follows the Solutrian.

This sudden advance from the Mousterian to the Solutrian is not

easily explained, but in order to fill the gap the Aurignacian division

has been adopted. |

It is said to be characterised by a less finished style than the

ensuing Solutrian lithic industry. Many pieces of the cruder

Mousterian type are still found with it; the bone, in the shape of

points with a transverse basal notch, begins to be used, together

with ‘‘double’”’ stone scrapers with secondary trimmings (7.e.,

scrapers of which both ends could be used); boring tools, burins

are found, for here begins the dawn of sculpture in the shape of

gravings, and also that of painting in the shape of petroglyphs.

The conclusions drawn from the stratigraphical evidence that led

to the acceptation of the Aurignacian finds of France as older than

the Solutrian, and the latter as having preceded the Magdalenian are

doubtless justified. But what is sometimes true on this side of the

Alps, is often erroneous on the other, and it seems as if the

Aurignacian proves now in Poland and elsewhere to be quite equal

in finish to the Solutrian.

As far as the South African lithic methods go, and leaving out the

bouchers of the Stellenbosch and other types, it may be taken for

granted that a Mousterian facies is found. It cannot be said

that evolution led generally to the adoption of this great advance,

i.e., trimming on each side, and secondary trimming of edges, yet we

have instances of crude imitation in that direction. Moreover, we

have also, and apparently simultaneous or coeval, bone; and lastly,

Tardonian, or early Neolithic, in the shape of ‘‘pygmies.”’ In fact,

these pygmies are connected here with the ostrich egg-shell bead

industry quite as much as the Magdalenian is associated with the

Reindeer epoch.

Had flint been available as material instead of quartzite, in-

durated shale, silicious quartzite, chert or chalcedony, it is probable

that the workmanship would have greatly resembled that of Europe.

But on that account, perhaps also for other reasons, the South

84 Annals of the South African Musewn.

African lithic industry, which, with the exclusion of the paleoliths,

is so plainly of a Mousterian type has nevertheless what may be

termed an African facies.*

I have alluded in Chapter VI. to scraper-knives found together

with bouchers in such a position that doubt as to the two being

coeval is well-nigh impossible, and on the evidence of the bouchers

these scrapers must be considered as being also Chelleo-Mousterian,

that is to say, representing this type of culture.

But on the surface, where no indication as to the age or date of

deposition is obtainable, we find, seldom isolated, and often with

remnants of cores or small spalls showing that they have been

fabricated on the spot, scrapers, the technique of which is, I think,

well illustrated by the plates accompanying or rather supplementing

this paper.

It is not only on the surface that these remnants, or effective

implements, are met with. They are found in kitchen-middens, in

rock-shelters, and in caves.

For several reasons, such as difference in the shape and material

of which they are made, or in technique, they may be divided into

sub-types, which do, however, occasionally commingle and which I

term the ‘ Littoral” and ‘Inland Districts ” respectively.

Inttoral Type.—In the Cape Peninsula there are many small

depressions which contain fresh water at certain times; round these

vleis one is sure to find implements, mostly small, like those of Figs.

118 and 120. Occasionally examples of the best Solutrian type

met with in this country are also discovered. The lance-heads of

Fig. 110 show on the obverse and reverse a secondary chipping so

carefully done, an advance so great in the process of hafting, that it

becomes doubtful if the technique is not one that is altogether

foreign to that of the aborigines.

Have we here, then, a corroboration of the famous, yet contro-

versial, Egyptian Periplus? Have these splendid points which so

very greatly resemble the best specimens from the Fayoum been

made on the spot by mariners wrecked or temporarily stranded,

or by adventurers seeking pastures new ?

Rare indeed are these entire specimens, nor are the fragments

numerous which show so well that when used as lance-head the

local material broke easily at the edge of the hafted part, a fracture

due perhaps to the thick hide of the Hippopotamus, Rhinoceros, and

Elephant, the remains of which are not uncommon in the parts

* Cf. Foureau, Mission Saharienne, Paris, 1905. Zeltner, ‘‘ Note sur le Préhis-

torique Soudanais,’”’ L’ Anthropologie, 1907.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 85

where the implements are occasionally met with (cf. obverse and

reverse Cuts 1, 2, 3, 5 of Figs. 110 and 112). So far, only one

example of the highly finished javelin-heads, Cut 8 of Fig. 110,

has been found beyond the Cape Peninsula, namely, in the Berg

River valley, close to Simondium, where paleoliths abound. And

together with these lance-heads trimmed on both sides we find

examples of truly Mousterian type, that is to say, trimmed on one

side only (Figs. 111 and 113 showing both sides). The material

is the same, the technique appears to be similar, and yet only one

face is pared. Occasionally great care is devoted to this part, as in

Cuts 2 and 5, but the other face with its largely bulging bulb of

percussion is as Mousterian in shape as any example we possess

from the Moustier, or is to be seen in the St. Germain Museum,

in Paris.

Unlike the highly finished lance-heads which have hitherto been

found singly only, these last-mentioned implements are found

together with rude ones made of the same hard surface quartzite,

a material forming at the present time. Most of them obviously

are scrapers.

The notched Cuts 1, 2, 3, 5 of Fig. 118 are interesting because

they probably fulfilled the same purpose as those in Fig. 138, which

are from the Karroo and elsewhere, namely, paring into shape the

piece of wood used for making a bow.

The serrated edge of Cuts 8, 9, 10 of Fig. 118 suggests that they

were used as saws. While the notch of Cuts 1, 2, 3 are on the left

of the obverse part of the scraper, that of Cut 4 of the same Fig. is

on the right, as if the maker was left-handed.

Tools of this rough type, made of the same material, are to be

found all along the western coast from Simon’s Town to Port

Nolloth, but seldom far inland. They abound near the middens of

that part of the coastal belt, and they are found there together with

the “ pygmies.” On the Cape Flats they are, as I have already said,

very numerous, but they always overlie the iron-stone gravel,

whereas under this gravel, or in the layers of the gravel, small

bouchers, or large flakes are occasionally found.

Rough indeed is the method of manufacture of the Cape Flats

implements. As far as I know, none has been found that shows

unmistakably traces of secondary trimming, with the exception of

the highly finished examples that are figured in Pl. XIV. and the

tiny nucleiform scrapers, Fig. 130. But with these others are found

that plainly show decadence in the exercise of the skill, until the

more primitive style has again been reverted to. Of these examples

86 Annals of the South African Museum.

it is very doubtful if, when blunted by use, the opposite cutting or

scraping edge was ever made to serve.

Inland districts* Type—Ift we leave the littoral and examine

the Mousterian type of the inland districts, we find analogous

cases of crude and better finished tools; but if none has as yet been

found to be completely trimmed on each side, that is to say with the

complete removal of the bulb of percussion, we meet occasionally

with well-finished ones. Cut 1 of Fig. 114 from Swazieland cor-

responds to Cut 2 of the same Fig. from the Cape Flats; the long

knives of Fig. 106 from Aliwal North are very elegant and very

serviceable tools, and Mr. J. P. Johnson has figured a scraper from

the Embabaan Valley, in Swazieland, partly chipped on the reverse

side but with the bulb of percussion left, which is probably one of

the finest pieces of the ‘‘ up-country ” type as yet found.

But the material is now changing. It is no longer the silicious

sandstone of the Cape Flats which is such an indication of the

locality ; it is an indurated shale that cleaves readily, lydianite,

cherty material, jasper, chalcedony, or white quartz, and now we meet

with a secondary kind of trimming which can compare only with

that of the Aurignacian turning into Solutrian. In the Stormberg,

Herschell, the Free State, Griqualand West, a part of the Western

Karroo, and even occasionally on the Western littoral of the Cape, we

meet scrapers like those of Figs. 123 and 128, in nearly all of which

this trimming is at one end.t The “ bord abattu’’ is not accidental,

and in many examples, especially those of moderate size, it is the

thicker part of the flake which is thus reduced into a bevelled shape.

When moderately large, these scrapers answer admirably for re-

moving the particles of flesh adhering to a flayed skin, but was this

their intended purpose? They greatly vary in size, and examples of

Figs. 130 from the Cape middens, minor tools among already minute

ones, could hardly be said to have fulfilled this function. Cut 1 of

Fig. 131 from Smithfield, Orange Free State, is one of the very

few examples known to me that show secondary trimming on more

than one edge. In Cuts 3 and 4, given here for purposes of com-

parison, the chipping of edge is not intentional, but has been

produced by use. Cut 2 of the same figure is even more evenly

treated all round than Cut 1 and is from the same locality (Queen’s

Town, Cape Colony) as Figs. 125, 126 and 127, but in spite of the

secondary trimming treatment it cannot be compared with a

* This type is not restricted to the inland districts, it is occasionally found along

the coastal belt east of Algoa Bay.

+ Somewhat in the manner of some of the Magdalenian scrapers.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 87

Solutrian scraper. Fig. 125, both faces of which are represented,

has undoubtedly been worked intentionally into a “tang,” but not

so the serrated tool Fig. 126 nor Fig. 127, and it is impossible to

decide whether we have here a case of progression or one of re-

gression. Two pedunculated tools nearly similar to Fig. 125 were

discovered at Cradock, and another, which was unfortunately lost,

came from Queen’s Town.

The bevelled scrapers are never large, especially if we compare

them with the flake-knives, but Fig. 132 of Pl. XVI. is quite an

exception. It is from Matatiele, in the Cape Colony, and the

secondary trimming on each side of the edge is very conspicuous.

It is difficult to understand the purpose for which this large,

moderately thin implement was intended. It is 210 mm. long,

85 mm. wide, and 23 mm. thick. It may have been hafted laterally

in the manner of a Basuto battle-axe. °

These bevelled tools are seldom found in the Western part of the

Colony, in fact, I know of none of the same size, although the

diminutive ones in Fig. 130 approximate them; but they abound in

the Karroo, and are met with in the Orange Free State, Griqualand

West, and in the Southern parts of the Transvaal, but I have not

seen any from Southern Rhodesia, Natal, or the N’Gami Region,

and, so far, it is not unsafe to say that the technique is that of the

‘“‘pygmies,’’ many of which have, in spite of their small size, been

subjected to a secondary trimming, more difficult, perhaps, to execute

even than the bevelling of the nucleiform minute scrapers of

Fig. 130; cf. also the bevelled agate chip, Cut 1 of Fig. 135,

Pi; XVI.

Yet, in spite of the undoubted skill displayed in the production

of these stone tools, the progress seems to have been checked; the

manufacturer has never conceived the method of paring the tool on

both faces as the Aurignacian and the Solutrian makers did, and

thus on pure lithological grounds it may be asserted that the South

African industry, which I term Neolithic, has, so far as the “ points ”’

are concerned not proceeded beyond the Mousterian type.

But, just as in the case of the Chelleo-Mousterian type, bouchers

and scraper-knives, the evidence as to the age of those scrapers

which we find nearly always associated with minute flakes and

diminutive piercers, borers, or drills, which I range among the

“pygmy” or “‘ Tardenosian”’ type of Rutot, is unsatisfactory. It

cannot be ascertained, because, whereas there is no proof that

the paleeolith, either Chellean, Acheulean, or Mousterian was used

by the Aborigines in historical times, the same cannot be said

88 Annals of the South African Museum.

of many of the smaller implements that retain still a Mousterian

facies, as the following examples show

Figs. 124 and 129 are made of lydianite; the first example is

greatly polished, in all likelihood by eolian agency. Fig. 129, of a

shape and manufacture absolutely identical, is made of green bottle-

glass. It is from Pearston, in the Cape Colony, and was found with

other rough scrapers. We know that the town of Pearston has not

been long founded.

Some eight years ago Rev. W. A. Adams submitted to me several

examples of bevelled scrapers greatly resembling Cut 12 of Fig. 128,

which he collected at du Toit’s Pan, close to Kimberley, in Griqua-

land West. They are made respectively of green bottle-glass and of

thick plate-glass. They are as carefully bevelled as the indurated

shale, agate, or quartz implements of the same style of manufac-

ture. Now Kimberley and du Toit’s Pan date from 1870, and it is

highly improbable that plate-glass was introduced there before

1880.

When treating of the pygmy flakes or borers, or of some of the

Cape shell-mounds or sand-dune middens, it will be shown that

implements have been found lying together with various objects of

European manufacture.

That South Africa was partially in the Stone Age some four or

five hundred years back, and most probably even later than that,

must needs be accepted as an established fact.

A characteristic trait of the culture of the Aurignacian-Solutrian

man is his ability to reproduce by pigment on parietal (rock)

surface, or even occasionally on water-worn stones, images of the

scenes that appealed to him, or to grave on the walls, or the floor

of the recesses he occupied, and more numerously perhaps on

bones of mammals, figures, often realistic indeed, of the animals

he chased.

We have here also presentments which compare with the artistic

skill of the Solutrian man. Our rock-paintings are inferior as a

rule, but not always, to those found in Southern France or Spain,

whilst our rock-gravings are, in many instances, far superior.

But comparison of the bone- or stone-implements found in, or

near, the famous Altamira Cave, with those of our rock-shelters

or caves where paintings or gravings occur, reveals a great dis-

similarity, greater, however, in the stone than in the bone tools.

The gravings here are in the open. In a few cases we can asso-

ciate with them palzoliths of the Chelleo-Mousterian type; also

in one instance gravers of the Mousterian long, scraper-form.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 89

With our paintings,* on the other hand, are associated simple,

small flakes, of a type and size which are met with nearly every-

where, but no palzeolith.

In the Matoppos, Southern Rhodesia, the paintings are getting

fainter every year, and the place is too much exposed for these

glyptics to be of great antiquity. The stone relics left by the

aborigines, the authors of the paintings, are represented in

Pi XVIL, Hig. 135.

Fig. 134 represents the implements discovered at the foot of a

rock-shelter, hardly, however, deserving this name, on which are

found remarkable paintings, at Modderpoort, Orange Free State.

Fig. 136 is the representation of forms similar to those of the

three preceding Figs., found close to a cave-shelter full of paintings.

A comparison with the shape of these tools and those of the Cape

Flats, especially that of Cut 2 of Fig. 136, with the same number in

Fig. 120, Pl. XV., is very instructive. The material used differs,

but the technique and also the purpose is the same. The notched

scraper, Cut 10 of Fig. 134, from Modderpoort, has served the same

purpose as the more broadly or crescentic ones in Fig. 138 from

the Cape Karroo, and the Cuts of Fig. 135 from a Free State rock-

shelter where no paintings occur show that, with the exception of

Cut No. 1, a bevelled edge specimen, the others can match in size and

shape many that have been found in rock-shelters where paintings

are displayed.

The technique, poor as it is, is the same, and however old the

survival may be, there is no reason to endow these relics with a

great antiquity, because the paintings with which they are connected

cannot be of any antiquity.

Nevertheless, in spite of the evidence adduced, it would be unsafe

to conclude that only these most primitive chips are co-related with

artistic skill.

Text-fig. 8 is one that goes far to disprove this theory. It is

that of as fine a Mousterian-type scraper as any found in South

Africa. It was discovered in a cave full of well-preserved paintings.

With it was a small, round, dolerite pebble, of the same size as

Cut 1 of Fig. 185, and which, from its appearance, might have been

a muller for preparing paint or poison. On the floor were a number

of broken reed-shafted arrows, some retaining still the cement that

served to fix the feather; the sinews binding the notch are also well

preserved. Some of these arrows, more diminutive than the others,

* These paintings are usually found in, or close to, rock-shelters. None has,

as yet, been found in deep caves,

90 Annals of the South African Museum,

are tipped with long pieces of hardened wood, and they, together

with a fragment of a bow, plainly pared by a stone scraper, but

almost tiny, seem to indicate that they were used for practice by

children.

These broken reeds tell a tale: the storming, or destruction

by surprise, of a lair of Bush people in recent time. And therefore

this highly finished tool dates from yesterday. Its finish contrasts

singularly with the rough scrapers in Figs. 133, 134, 135, 136, or

138. Yet the culture of the people is the same as that of which the

other rock-shelters give evidence.

Associated with the scrapers, notched, lanciform and saw-like,

which, as I have already remarked, and as the illustrations plainly

show, are nearly always of a moderate size, and often small, there is an

admixture of much smaller ones which show no secondary trimming

in many eases, Figs. 135, 151, 140, whereas those of Figs. 144 and

149 show this kind of trimming in spite of their minuteness, as do

also the examples in Fig. 143. The facies is doubtless not unlike

that of many burins or drills of the Magdalenian period.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. aL

It is generally admitted that stone implements of the type here

figured were held in the hand. But that some were hafted, and in

that manner made more serviceable, is proved by Fig. 150, of

Pl, XIX.

Two examples of that sort are now known. The specimen

figured is in the Museum Collection.

Both were found in the sepultures of the Outeniqua caves.

Details of the find of our example will be found in Chapter XVI.

The wooden handle is greatly decomposed. Had it not been care-

fully protected from atmospheric action from the time of its dis-

covery, it would have crumbled to dust; even the first exposure to

the air caused it to break. It is so saturated with sodium chloride,

that even in the few days it was removed from its glass case for

reproduction by photography, an efflorescence of salt was produced.

The ovoid attachment of gum-cement is very large in proportion to

the size of the handle. The stone part is roughly trimmed, being

somewhat in the shape of a core, and is embedded in the cement to

about one-half of its own length, as far as one can judge. The very

sinuous edge had been broken before burial probably, as indicated by

the comparatively fresh fracture.

My first impression was that this hafted tool was that of a ruler

or medicine-man, somewhat on the lines of the Obdton de com-

mandement, and I am inelined still to look upon it in that light,

because as a serviceable cutting or graving tool it could not prove of

much service.

This mode of attachment which so greatly resembles that of the

Australian Aborigines, must, however, have prevailed perhaps more

commonly than we imagine. It would certainly facilitate the

handling of the very small chips on which care has certainly been

devoted. *

It has also been resorted to in the three arrows represented in

Fig. 142. On Cut 1 is a lozenge-shaped, flat lump of cement of

apparently the same composition as that of Fig. 150; on one side

there remains a small chip of white quartz inserted with the

sharp edge outwards from the middle part of the cement to

near the front, but without reaching it; the chip set on the opposite

side would reach the very tip; and the other side being similarly

provided would thus complete a sharp triangle, but it is missing,

having dropped out of the fastening material. Cuts 2 and 3 are

similarly fashioned, but only a tiny piece of white bottle-glass forms

* Cf. Etheridge’s and Whitelegge’s ‘‘ Aboriginal Workshops on the Coast of

New South Wales, and their Contents,’’ Rec. Austr. Mus., vi., 1907.

92 Annals of the South African Museum.

the tip of Cut 2; and that of Cut 3, made also of a small piece of

glass, is partially broken off.

These examples should not, however, lead one to believe that all

these moderately large scraper-knives or others were hafted in this

manner. Many examples have been found in situations which, by

the accompanying relics, are proved to be not old enough for the

cement to have crumbled away from the action of time. A good

instance of this contention are the objects represented in Fig. 137,

and the tools used for producing the same. We can date the intro-

duction of gun and spade in the district when the examples come ;

and so recent is it that it is impossible that the gum-cement should

not have been preserved had the small tools been hafted.

(93)

CHAPTER IX.

TARDENOSIAN TYPE.

‘¢ Pyamy SCRAPERS OR DRILLS.”

An indubitable fact is the tendency in the manufacture of the

points, scrapers, or flake-knives towards a reduction in size.

We may safely accept the explanation, that the white quartz or

agate examples represented in Fig. 151 are intended for the side-

pieces of arrow-heads. Those of Fig. 140 may likewise be considered

as such. Some of them may have been points also, because the

bulb of concussion still left is too small to prevent them from being

held firmly in the gum-cement.

But if we turn to Fig. 143, the use of these small tools so carefully

trimmed on one side, tools which are not of the true crescent-shaped

European type, whereas Cut 1 of Fig. 149 is nearly so, remains con-

jectural. Not conjectural, however, is the purpose of the small, even,

minute implements represented in Fig. 144. They, like the upper

row of Fig. 146, are the tools used for boring holes in the tiny

beads of ostrich egg-shell which are represented in Fig. 146, and

were found together with the borers. I purposely term them borers

or drills instead of punchers, because the perforation is executed from

both sides. These flat beads are represented in all stages of manu-

facture in Fig. 146, and all the borers show traces of secondary

trimming apart from the serration- produced by use. But for the

preliminary paring of the fragmented egg-shell, small, simple scrapers

have also been used, because the examples in Fig. 141 are found

where the aborigines set their workshop, and together with

these scrapers are also found the nuclei, or cores, of Fig. 139.

The examples here figured are from the sand-dune middens of the

Cape Peninsula and other places on the coastal belt. But they are

not restricted to that part of South Africa.

These ‘‘pygmies”’ are found all over the country, and their

94 Annals of the South African Musewn.

primary purpose is the paring and boring, in a word, the making

of ostrich egg-shell discoidal beads. Few rock-shelters of inland

districts are without them. The specimens in Fig. 149 are from

the Orange Free State; in Fig. 145 from the northern parts of

the Cape Colony, &c.

In the enormously wide stretches of sand which form the

coastal belt of German South-West Africa, the Bushman has still,

among his most restricted belongings, borers like those of Fig. 147.

Made of an almost intractable chalcedony rock, like that from which

the Zambesi River scrapers, Figs. 119, 121, 122 in Pl. XV., and

even paloliths, are manufactured, he has with infinite pains suc-

ceeded in turning them roughly, perhaps, but effectually neverthe-

less, into a drill for boring the egg-shell bead.

But these borers are not always so uncouth. From Conception

Bay, and round Walfish Bay, we have finished drills, some of jasper,

some silicious, as perfect as any in Fig. 144 of Pl. XIX. Exposed,

however, to periodical winds, that blow without intermission in the

same direction and with the greatest violence for several months of

the year, these tools have been reduced in spite of their minute size

to the wind-worn shape known to Geologists as ‘‘ Drei Kanter.”

Yet this wind-worn shape does not afford any clue as to the age,

because the violence and the duration of the wind is such that the

process might take only one year to produce.*

But it is not there only that the violent winds smooth the faces of

these small borers. Fig. 148 represent similar implements from the

sand-dunes of Mossel Bay which have also been turned into

“ Dreikanters.”

And thus, these ‘‘pygmy’”’ implements of South Africa are con-

nected with two industries, the one for tipping poisoned arrows, the

other for ostrich egg-shell bead-making.

As burins they might have also been used, but it must be remem-

bered that the only ornamented bones or bone tools found hitherto

are Cuts 1 and 2 of Fig. 194 in Pl. XXVI. This seems to indicate

that graving on bone was not often resorted to.

The problem presented by these ‘“‘pygmy”’ tools occasionally

with, but often also without, the secondary chipping is as much

complicated as that of the paleolithic bouchers. They are found in

* It is in these sands that diamonds are found. Mr. W. M. Adrey, who pre-

sented these specimens to the Museum, tells me that the noise produced by the

small pebbles displaced by this wind is quite audible. It is not only the imple-

ments which are reduced to the Dreikanter shape, but also all the jasper, agate,

and other pebbles.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 95

Africa from South to North, and were first noticed, if I mistake not,

in India. They occur in Europe, in Austria, England, France, &c.

The resemblance of ours to the European is such that M. Cartailhac

to whom I submitted some examples, wrote: ‘‘I admit that it is

greatly surprising to find in your series small pieces akin to ours.

Your minute flakes with secondary trimmings (petites lames a bord

abattw) might be mistaken for (se confondraient avec) those of our

French deposits ; but the neolithic of Japan affords surprises of a

similar kind.”

That some of the examples figured in Pls. XVIII.-XIX. were

intended perhaps as burins or gravers, but more certainly as borers

or drills, and also as parers, of ostrich egg-shell beads, or cutting-

pieces to be fixed by gum-cement to poisoned arrows, I have already

explained. But it is not certain—at least, the finds made hitherto

do not substantiate the beliefi—that these pygmy implements from

elsewhere than Africa served the purpose they did in South Africa.

The ostrich was not found in early neolithic time in Europe, nor

can I find, in the mural paintings or engravings of Central and

Southern Europe, figures that can be said to resemble it ; moreover,

no trace of this bird has been as yet discovered in those deposits

which we ascribe to the early, middle, or late Pleistocene of Europe.

It may, therefore, be taken for granted that the boring or paring

tools were not fabricated in the Northern Hemisphere for the pur-

pose of making ostrich-shell beads. But in the Paleolithic deposits

of Europe, shells, marine or fluviatile, were perforated in a manner

implying clearly that they were suspended or strung for ornament,*

and teeth were bored for the same purpose; and how could they

have been so treated but by the use of these very drilling tools.

The deposits or ‘‘stations’’ where these European “ pygmies’’

occur are usually near the sea, along rivers, or close to lakes and

ponds. It is claimed for them that some were used as hooks, others

to barb harpoons. It is clearly proved that, as far as the French

pygmy deposits are concerned, whenever culinary remains are pre-

served, they show that the makers fed on fish and molluscs.

The crescent-shaped implements of Pl. XVIII., Fig. 143, both

edges of which are, however, very sharp, and thus differ from the

quartier dorange shape of Fig. 149, are found close to the sea,

* A kind of short petticoat covered or adorned with the shells of Nassa neritea

was discovered with the skeletons of two young Troglodytes inhumed together in

the upper floor of the Grimaldi caves; two found on the lower floor, which

proved to be of the negroid type, bore round the head and the wrist, respectively

strings of the same shell.

96 Annals of the South African Museum.

or in the neighbourhood of “ vleis,”’ in the South-Western part of

Cape Colony. Mr. J. P. Johnson has figured some “highly charac-

teristic crescents,’ as he terms them, in what he ealls the river

deposits of Riverton Island, on the Vaal River.

It is not at all unlikely, with the method of gum-cement which we

now know obtained, that these semi-crescent-shaped tools with one

cutting edge or two were used here also for barbing arrows or per-

haps harpoons. No evidence that they were used in that manner

has so far been obtained, it is true, either here or in Europe, but that

such a form of attachment existed here is proved by the arrows in

Pl XViIli Big, 142:

That the majority of our pygmies are borers or drills, or parers

of ostrich egg-shell discs is patent in Algeria and in the Soudan,*

whence many specimens are exact duplicates of ours, the “ pygmies”’

served there the same purposes, and were manufactured in all likeli-

hood by the same race of men.

These pygmies of Kurope are considered by some to belong to the

initial period of the Neolithic Age. With us they have lasted to

this day, and are most usually connected with the ! kwés, grooved

mortars, bone tools, pottery, &c.

In the Aurignacian period of Europe, however, we begin to find

chips and nuclei which are also singularly like South African ones ;

the published figures+ of the finds in the stations of Hundesteig,

Krems, Southern Austria, correspond altogether with those of our

Figs. 139 and 145, and many with those of Fig. 140.

* Cf. Debruge, Les burins et les silex de forme géométrique de 1l’Atlas

‘“‘T’Vhomme préhistorique,’’ 1905.

‘‘Les stations sahariennes ont fourni a M. Foureau de nombreux fragments

d’cenfs d’autruche les uns trés délicatement gravés, les autres taillés en forme

de petites rondelles perforées a leur centre. Pour travailler ces coquilles d’cuf,

louvrier eut fréquemment brisé son ceuvre avant de l'avoir achevée, et les petits

silex a dos abattu répondaient fort bien a cet usage." Verneaux, in Foureau's

Mission Saharienne, pp. 1109-1110.

+ Hoerns, ‘‘ Der diluviale Mensch.,” p. 119, Fig. 44.

(97 )

CHAPTERe X:

BonE Toots AND STONE SHARPENERS.

Bone- and stag-horn tools were greatly in use in the Solutrian-

Magedalenian times, but bone tools have not prevailed in the South

African lithic epoch. This is the more surprising in view of the

undoubted Aurignacian and Magdalenian facies of many of the

stone pieces.

The scarcity of the find seems to justify the assumption that the

utility of bone as a material was not quite realised.

These bone-tools can be arranged in three categories: Knives,

awls, arrow-tips. No bone ornament, either bored for suspension

or otherwise, has, as yet, been discovered that can be connected

with the stone industry.

KNIVvEs.

The knives are very scarce. I know of four examples only, and

all have been found in shell-mounds in the open, or in caye-shelters.

They were possibly used for detaching the molluscs from univalve

or bivalve shells. Cut 2 of Fig. 193, Pl. XXVI., is very blunt, and

bears numerous traces of short, sub-transverse incisions made plainly

by a stone scraper-knife. These incisions must be posterior to the

shaping of this tool by polishing. Cut 1 of Fig. 172, which, like

Cut 2 of Fig. 193, is from one of the Outeniqua-Tzitzikama Caves,

has the edges plainly ground. Cut 172 may have been a knife,

although it may also have been used as a spear-head. It is made

from the rib of a ruminant, is thin and smoothed on one face only.

I know of another exactly alike, but smaller, found with a number

of bone awls and arrow shafts in a rock-shelter.

Awus AND Arrow Pornts.

Awls or bodkirs are more numerous than either knives or

arrow-tips.

98 Annals of the South African Museum.

This is the more surprising considering that these awls were used

for stitching skins together—which is undoubtedly the case—for the

aborigines had close at hand the hard, long thorns of several Acacia-

trees, which would have proved quite as effective. But custom dies

hard, as the whole account of our South African neolithic industry

proves but too well.

An examination of these awls or bodkins shows that those from

the cave-shelters of the seaboard are of a better finish and also the

Bre On, S<ik.

most effective, cf. Cuts 3 to 7 of Fig. 193. The long awls of

Fig. 194 are made of the hollow wing-bones of sea-birds, and two

of these are the only objects of stone or bone known to me that

show decoration. .

Cut 1 of Fig. 193 is very massive. Its perfectly smoothed

anterior part is difficult to explain, but it would prove useful in

smoothing the hole of the ! kwé, several of which were found

in the necropolis where this boring tool was discovered.

Cuts 6 and 7 of Fig. 193 might have served equally well as arrow

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 99

points and as awls. I know of one similar to Cut 7 which is made

of stone. It is from the Orange Free State, whence also came the

first Cut on the left of Fig. 195.

Bray lO as

In the inland districts shelters these piercing bone tools:are not so

well finished, and they may have been utilised for other purposes.

The four Cuts on the upper right of Fig. 195 are flat, and these tools.

100 Annals of the South African Museum.

may have been used for mat-making. They were found at a great

depth in boring a well, in the Smithfield district of the Orange Free

State.

leis ally Se

These bone implements will be treated of respectively in the

chapter dealing with the Shell-mounds, Kitchen-middens, Caves,

or Rock-shelters in which they were discovered.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 101

One thing is quite certain, and that is, that however skilful they

may have been in the use of awls, the makers were not acquainted

with threading the tool, whereas the Aurignacian and the Magda-

lenian manufactured an extremely well-finished bone needle with eye.

One meets occasionally in the Rock-shelter where one or more of

these bodkins occur, the whetting-stone used for sharpening the

same, and the groove left leaves no doubt as to its purpose—see Cuts

2 and 13 of Fig. 185 in Pl. XX V.—and occasionally also we find on

the face of rocks grooves similar to those represented in text-fig. 9,

the resulting cause of which is obvious.

Text-fig. 10 represents the obverse and reverse of a sharpening

stone for bodkins, which could, in spite of its size, have been

portable, and, judging from its numerous grooves, it must have been

a much-used part of the house furniture. It will be noticed that

these grooves are all narrow and never straight ; this conclusively

shows that they were caused by the production of fine points only.

ARROW-TIPS.

One of the main purposes to which bone was put seems to have

been the manufacture of arrows; its use for this purpose was

perhaps more general than its employment for awl making.

The Bushman arrow consisted of a reed varying in length and

also in size,* notched at one end, and having inserted at the other a

rounded piece of heavy bone; the part round the notch and that

near the top being strengthened by lashings of fine sinew or gut. In

the reed is inserted a rounded piece of heavy bone, more or less

sharply pointed at each end, at the tip of which is fixed a triangular

piece of iron kept in its place by a resinous cement. At a short dis-

tance from the bone part of the shaft is a quill barb, and the whole is

besmeared from the iron tip to half the length of the bone shaft with

a thick layer of what purports to be poison (see Cut 1 of Fig. 142,

Pl. XVIII.). This barb assists in keeping the poisoned part in the

wound if an attempt is made to dislodge the arrow, and the bone

shaft comes off easily from the reed shaft. The triangular iron-

piece comes off as readily from the tip of the bone part, and the

extraction of the poisoned part becomes thus very difficult and

permits of the greater diffusion of the poison in the circulatory

system of the victim.

That the use of the triangular iron tip is comparatively recent

* There were two kinds of bows and arrows, with quivers appropriate to the size

of the latter. The long bow reaches a size of 1 m. 65 cm., the average height of a

Bushman, and the arrow 82 cm.; the short bow is less than 1m. and the arrow

40 cm.

102 Annals of the South African Museum.

would seem to be proved by the illustration Fig. 142, where the

arrows are respectively tipped with quartz and glass chips. In

Cuts 2 and 3 of the same figure heavy wood has been used instead

of bone. But this is an exception, due perhaps to special circum-

stances. It may be taken for granted that that part of the arrows

was made of bone.

WHETSTONES.

These bone arrow pieces are, however, rarer than the awls, unless

some of the cylindrical bone bodkins, which I take to have been

awls, have been used as arrow-points, which is not improbable; but

the grooved stones serving for reducing the piece of bone into the

required shape are not uncommonly met with, and they complete

the series of the South African neolithic (modern) industry.

The groove is always longitudinal; the shape of the stone itself

extremely variable; and it may also be said of these stones that no

two specimens are alike. That many formed part of the “kit” of

the hunter is probable, as the care bestowed on some of them is

great. Some have one groove only, Cuts 4, 5, 7, 8 of Fig. 171,

Pl. XXIII.; others have two, Cut 6; Cut 3 shows three grooves on

each side; the flat specimen, Cut 1, has several grooves on both

faces. These grooves are too deep to admit of their having been

used for fashioning sharply pointed awls.

It has been suggested that these utensils were arrow-straighteners.

Not only is it forgotten that the shaft of a Bushman arrow is made

of reed, and was therefore straight, but not one of the many

examples examined by me has an absolutely straight groove, and

this groove is never deep enough to accommodate the whole cireum-

ference of the reed-part of an arrow. Moreover, instead of being

cylindrical and of the same diameter throughout, the ends are always

pointed or narrower than the centre, and in most instances the

centre of the groove is not cylindrical.

It is somewhat amusing to read of the ‘‘ should have been ”’ process.

Thus Goch: * ‘This is used to straighten bone and reed arrows,

by heating the stone red-hot, and placing the arrow-shaft in the

groove, then rubbing another hot pebble with pressure up and down

it, and so taking out the twist of the reed.’’ The author forgets to

tell how the rubbing hot pebble was held.

The explanation given by Dunn would seem to be more

plausible: | “These stones are used by first heating them in the

fire, and then rubbing the fresh-cut reed along the groove until it is

* Journ. Anthr. Inst., xi., pts. 1 and 2, 1881.

+ Trans. S. Afric. Phil. Soc., ii., 1880, p. 20.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 103

rendered sufficiently straight.” But he proceeds to figure two such

portable stones the groove of which, owing to the tapering at each

end and greater depth in the centre, could not have fulfilled this

purpose.

Schonland suggests that a stone which had no less than eight

grooves was used for rope-making. ‘It reminded me of a wooden

tool which rope-makers use. They let the strands, which they wish

to combine into a rope, run along the grooves, and while it is held

steady the turning wheel can only twist the strands between the

wheel and this implement.” *

But what of the stones with only one groove, or of the more or

less cylindrical ones in which the grooves are not parallel, but are

unevenly spaced, and are sometimes found on one-half only of the

convex surface ?

The explanation of these grooves needs no such speculative

theory, for the reasons I have given. I have examined a very

large number of these relics. They have all served as whetstones

for awls or bodkins, or for rounding into shape, or sharpening

the bone part of the shaft of arrows; and whereas the sharpening

of awls was often done on any rock in siti#, the whetting-stone for

bone shafts is always of a portable size—at least I know of no other.

Boxe Toots oTHER THAN Knives, AWLs, oR ARROW-SHAFTS.

The bone tools known hitherto seem to be restricted to the

purposes I have explained.

Occasionally, however, we find bone relics of another kind.

Fig. 184 of Pl. XXV. represents the tusk of a hippopotamus, split

longitudinally in the centre. It will, however, be seen from the

figure that not only one of the ends is rounded, but also that the

other has been thinned for prehension by a small hand—a peculiar

feature of the Bush people. The hacking necessitated for that

reduction has been plainly made by a stone implement, and the

weapon, owing to its weight and sharp edge, is not at all a

contemptible one. The example was found at great depth in a

river bank. Tusks of hippopotamus usually split longitudinally in

the manner here shown after long exposure. But we have in the

Collection a sub-crescentic one, smaller than Fig. 184, the edges of

which have been artificially pared by grinding or polishing in such a

manner as to make it a very useful tool for braying skins, an

explanation which is, however, speculative.

* Rep. S. Afr. Assoc. Adv. Sc., 1903, p. 306.

( 104 )

CHAPTER Or

ORNAMENTS.

The records of the Cape Settlement, and the narratives of the

early travellers testify to the fondness of Hottentots for ornaments,

especially those made of copper.

Sparrman mentions and figures the ornaments that some Hot-

tentots wear: strings of marine shells, which from the illustration

appear to be Nerzta albicilla, L., and also a circular, diadem-like

head-dress of leather adorned with three spaced rows of ‘“ cowries,”

but no allusion has, as far as I know, been made to that peculiar

object of ornament, the ostrich egg-shell discoidal bead.

Had it been in use among the Hottentots, the travellers would

in all likelihood have mentioned the occurrence of a decoration so

unlike any other; the absence of these beads would thus seem to

strengthen the belief that the Hottentots, whom Sparrman, among

others, met, were, comparatively, new-comers in South Africa.

These disks are the ornament of these members of the Khoi-

khoin race, the Strand Looper, and possibly the Bushman, but

seemingly not of their congener the Hottentot.* Few rock-

shelters, few open-air middens can be said to be without them.

They are found in all stages of manufacture. The smaller kinds

are met with along the coastal belt only. We have them round

the loins of an exhumed Strand Looper skeleton at Blaauwberg,

or on the ankles of the skeleton of a child from Coldstream, but

we have them also of small size, and adhering still to human

remains, from the Orange River Colony.

Those found up-country are usually more than twice the size

of the coast-belt ones; the hole is not so broad in proportion, and

owing to their larger diameter the periphery is more regular. At

* But worn round the waist, in the case of women, they may well have escaped

the attention of early travellers repelled moreover by the absolute body fiith of the

aborigines, a filth to which all testify.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 105

the present moment they are still manufactured by the Ba-sarwa,

or Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert, for adorning not only them-

selves but also the dusky Damara or Ovampo belles,* and among

the miserable tools of these most degraded, or, perhaps, most

primitive people are found the rude, well-nigh shapeless, chalcedony

borers, that are represented in Pl. XX., Fig. 147.

But apart from these flat, perforated egg-shell disks, we find

ornaments which have a character connecting them with the

! kwés, owing to their mode of perforation, the importance of which

is greater than would at first appear.

Thus the bead, Cut 3 of Fig. 186 (Pl. XXV.). It was found

together with the club Fig. 152 (Pl. XIX.). The boring is the

same as that of the ! kwés, that is to say, it was begun at each pole.

The same obtains for Cut 2 of the same Fig. It was discovered,

with two more, I am told, in a grave near Vryburg. Both these

examples are unique. But Cut 1 or Fig. 186, instead of being made

of stone, is an earthenware bead, which, however, assumes a shape

not very dissimilar from that of No. 2; it does not present the

same kind of perforation, because it is made of clay built over

a reed, which disappeared, of course, if left in position, in the baking

process,t or, and this is a simpler explanation, the clay when

fashioned to the requisite shape, was perforated from end to end

before baking.

This mode of perforation beginning at each pole, or extremity,

to meet in the centre, is repeated even in that of the ostrich

ege-shell disks, which are of themselves so thin. It has been

followed in the nacreous shell-beads with two parallel holes,

Fig. 187, Pl. XXV.; in the bead or pendants, Figs. 206 and 207,

Pl. XXVII.; and if it has not been resorted to in shells forming

a (?) necklace, Fig. 206 of Pl. XXVII., it is because of the im-

possibility of completing the boring from the inner part. These

holes are, in consequence, very roughly punched.

As ornaments also we shall have to consider the flat disks 1 and

* We have in the Collection a waist-band, 28 cm. in diameter, consisting

of 27 ropes of these strung egg-shell beads, twelve of which go to the inch.

A. A. Anderson (‘‘ Twenty-five Years in a Waggon,” 1887, i., p. 280), estimates to

8,000 the number of these beads required to make one set of ornaments worn by a

young bush-girl.

+ We have now two such ornaments. The second is shorter than the one

figured. Three were found, while digging or ploughing a field and a garden

respectively, in the Stellenbosch District, Cape Colony. From the Record

Book of the Museum I find that a ‘‘ clay-bead”’ was found together with Cut 3

of Fig. 186, but it seems to have been lost or mislaid.

106 Amnals of the South African Museum.

2 of Fig. 156, and in spite of their thinness, they have likewise

been bored from both sides for suspension.

Boring a hole in a stone is not one of the most easy of under-

takings, and when the stone is of a diameter exceeding 11 cm.,

as in many of the !kwés the difficulty is enhanced when the bore

is started at each end.

In South Africa, however, one cannot but be struck by the

primitiveness displayed by the makers, a primitiveness that seems

to denote :—

1. That they were unacquainted with the bow-drill.

2. That the method was adopted on account of the great thick-

ness of the ! kwés.

3. That they were not inventive enough to devise a simpler

method, such as punching, for thin flat surfaces.

The beads figured are diminutive tikoes. The ostrich egg-shell

disks are not. For the manufacture of both, however, diminutive

drills have been made.

In the perforated stones of Chile, the same system of perforation

was in use, and it is, or was, followed in New Guinea.

If we continue our comparison with the ornaments of the Mous-

terian, Solutrian, and Magdalenian periods of Europe, we find

there : Bone and ivory pendants, beads, perforated shells for making

necklaces or tiaras; stringed vertebre of fish; perforated teeth of

various animals intended for neck or waist wear, some of the teeth,

mostly canines, bearing graved strive, figures of barbed harpoons,

fish, seals, &c.

In South Africa all the ornaments differ, with perhaps the exception

of the perforated sea-shells of some o the Outeniqua Caves. The

stone beads, with an unique type of perforation, are different ; un-

heard of in the European epochs mentioned are the earthenware

beads ; the steatite and other stone pendants, Fig. 207, have a shape

of their own, and so have the shell ornaments, with double longi-

tudinal holes, Fig. 187; the olive-kernel-like beads with prospectively

one or two holes, Fig. 206; the large flat stone-disks, Cuts 1—2, of

Fig. 156, to say nothing of the egg-shell discoidal beads bored

in the centre.

We have no ivory or bone pendants, no suspended teeth of wild

animals, as if the hunter disdained to wear such commonplace

objects.

Could it be that the neolithic South African race was so primitive

that man himself did not appreciate ornaments ?

CHAPTER XII.

THE ! Kwek, or PERFORATED STONE.

Better known probably than any other stone implement is the

perforated stone, either quite globular or partly so, flat or sub-

quadrate, but with the angles always rounded, which is designated

here: Bushman-Stone.

This implement, according to Stow,* was termed ’T’koe, or Tikoe,

and was used to give weight and impetus to the ‘‘ Kibi”’ or digging-

stick ; it was also occasionally used as an offensive weapon or club.

Miss Dora Bleek informs me, however, that the word is ‘! Kwe,”’

and that it is not used by itself, but in connection with the digging-

stick, thus: !Kwé Ka !!Kha !! Ka = the stick with the digging

stone; the signs! and !! representing each a special click peculiar

to the language of the ‘“Sans.’’ Dr. D. R. Kannemeyer corroborates

this appellation, which he obtained from an old Bushman long ago,

only there seems to be a transposition. Phonetically spelled it reads

Ka Ka Kowé.+

The characteristic of these stone implements is the manner in

which the median hole is bored. The process of perforation is

invariably begun on each side, or pole, the holes thus resulting being

conical ; they meet in the centre, and the bore is on that account

never quite straight. The unfinished specimens (No. 1, of Fig. 161,

Pl. XXI.), shows very clearly the process. But by making the

initial perforations too large in proportion to the size of the already

naturally rounded stone, it often broke in two before completion. This

is a kind of fracture which is especially noticeable, and of common

occurrence with the unfinished implement. A glance at Pls. XX.

and XXI. and the adjoined measurements of the pieces will give a

good idea of these implements and their relative size. But unlike

* The Native Races of South Africa.

+ The e is long and at the same time very open, hence my use of the grave,

instead of the acute accent, as prescribed by the Royal Geographical Society.

108 Annals of the South African Museum.

the bouchers or the muller-brayers, they are found singly. I never

heard of them having been discovered either together, or in a number

that suggested their gradual accumulation in mountain or hill talus,

or in an alluvial deposit. Not only do they differ in this respect

from bouchers, but this very difference also implies a much more

recent origin. They are not uncommon in, or close to, the middens,

but there they are often broken; are met on the veldt, without apparent

cause or reason ; are occasionally ploughed out; and I make bold to

assert that there is not one district of the Cape Colony where they

have not been found. They are equally numerous in the Orange

Free State; but seem to be scarcer in the Transvaal, and in

Natal. None has to my knowledge been found in Rhodesia,

probably because they have been overlooked; they occur in the

Tanganyka Plateau (Pl. XXI., Fig. 158), and Professor von Lushan

of the Berlin Ethnological Museum, informs me that he has several

from Kilimandjaro. They have lately been found afew miles south

of Khartum, and also in North Kordofan. I am informed, although

I have not been able to verify my information, that they have been

met with in Somaliland.

Similar implements, perforated in the same manner, are known

in HKurope, and in South America, Figs. 159 and 160 of Pl. XXI.,

represent an example from the Atacama Desert in Chile. I am

not aware that they are found in Australia, and their absence there

coincides singularly enough with that of the bouchers of the Chel-

lean-Mousterian type. But there is no corollary with the bouchers

in point of antiquity. The European examples are unmistakably

neolithic, and not only so, but, unlike the ‘ pygmies,” it is not

possible to claim for them an early neolithic age; they have been

found in sepultures associated with polished, as well as dressed,

stone-axes.

The general acceptance of the use to which these perforated

stones were put is that they were intended to give weight to the

digging-stick, and there can be no doubt that even after the arrival

of the Colonists they still served that purpose.

This is proved by the heart-rending account of Sparrman, travelling

at the time (1775) in what is now the Uniondale district of Cape

Colony :—

‘““We saw, moreover, as we rode along (especially in Lange Kloof),

numbers of fugitive Hottentots of both sexes, who were not longer

pursued, partly on account of their age and infirmities, and partly

because it was not worth any Colonist’s while to lay hold on them,

as they would be liable to be demanded back by their former

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 109

masters. One of these that I passed on the road, a very old man,

died (as I was told) the day after of weakness and fatigue. Most of

these fugitives carried a thick, stout staff, generally headed with a

heavy gritstone of 2 lbs. weight or more, rounded off, and with

a hole bored through the middle of it, in order to increase the force

of the stick for the purpose of digging up roots and bulbs out of the

ground; and at the same time for piercing the hard clay hillocks,

which are formed to the height of 3 or 4 feet, by a kind of ants

(Termes), a species of insect of which the Boshiesmen’s food in a

great measure consists.* It gave me no small pain to see the poor

old fugitives frequently wasting the remains of their strength on

these hardened hillocks in vain, some other animals, that feed on

ants, having worked their way into them, and consumed all their

provisions beforehand.”

Burchell adds his testimony :—

‘‘We were visited by two natives, whose kraal, they said, was at

some distance eastward, and who being out in search of wild roots

happened to observe our track, and had discovered us by following

it. One of them wore on the side of his head, as an ornament, and

tied close to the hair, a circular plate of shining brass 3 inches in

diameter. The other carried, what my Hottentots called a ‘ graaf-

stok’ (a digging-stick) to which there was affixed a heavy stone to

increase its force in picking up bulbous roots. The stone, which

was 9 inches in diameter, had been cut or ground, very regularly, to

a round form, and perforated with a hole large enough to receive the

stick and a wedge by which it was fixed in its place.”

Livingstone, in his last journal, but quoting from memory, as is

plainly discernible by the figure given, states: “In 1841 I saw a

Bushwoman in the Cape Colony with a round stone and a hole

through it; on being asked, she showed me how it was used by

inserting the top of a digging-stick into it and digging a root. The

stone was to give the stick weight.”’

In addition to this written evidence I endeavoured to find other

testimony with the result that a Mr. Turner, from near Griqua

Town, remembered very well Bushmen and Korannas using

the ‘“‘!kwé.’”’ The stone was fastened at the lower part of the

stick.

Mr. Bodenstein—at whose place Dr. A. W. Rogers, Director of

the Cape Geological Survey, found a very large perforated stone

made of steatite (an unusual occurrence), but cleft in the centre—

* The Termes workers are, possibly on account of their colour, called still

‘*Bushman’s Rice,’”’ in Dutch, ‘‘ Rijs miere.”’

110 Annals of the South African Musewm.

saw the ‘‘ Vaalpense,’’* use the stone fixed at the top end of the

stick. ‘‘ Men, women, and children all dug with it.”’

I succeeded in procuring the photograph here produced of what

SAG

—/ vig i!

rGeel2:

is plainly intended to be an old Bushwoman using the !kwé. But

these people are so eager to say, ‘‘ Yah, baas,” 7.c., to assent to

* The ‘‘ Vaalpense,’’ so-called by the Dutch, would seem to be not Bush people,

but very degraded Bechuanas, belonging therefore to the Bantu-speaking race

which we call generally Kaffir.

The Stone Ages of Scuth Africa. 111

any suggestion made or question put to them, that I concluded from

her physiognomy that she was also willing to please. However,

when this photograph was shown to the Bushwoman of whom we

took a cast, and who is represented in Pl. XXVIII., not only did

she acknowledge that it was a true position, but seizing a stick she

gave a most energetic display of the two or three different styles

Hreel3e

of manipulation of the handle required for the orthodox extraction

of roots. This evidence completely corroborates the use of the per-

forated stone as part of a digging implement, and very likely also the

implement with which, or partly by means of which, the snares or

game-pits were dug. But was this its sole razson d’étre? Plainly

not !

In Europe these globular stones are considered to have been club-

heads. In France, and in England, as well as in Northern Europe

112 Annals of the South African Museum.

they are spherical or ovoid; in the Mediterranean region they

are either spherical or pyriform, and better finished. The Atacama

HirG. dae

Desert specimen, Fig. 159, does not differ much in shape from

South African ones, nor does the Tanganyka Plateau implement,

Fig. 158, which is, however, somewhat quadrangular.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 113

Fortunately, we have proofs that in South Africa the !kwé was

not only used for weighting digging-sticks but also as club-head,

and this proof is afforded by Bushman paintings from the Orange

River Colony, which through the kindness of Professor B, Young, of

the Transvaal University College, I am able to reproduce here.”

These parietal paintings represent Bush people or Korannas going

a-digging. The women hold the stick with the !kwe in position

(text-fig. 13).

In text-fig. 14, men are seen carrying the same, but in some

figures the stick is there, but not the stone.t+

The third scene, text-fig. 15, shows another use for the ! kwé.

It is now a club-head; the stick is short; the stone is affixed to

the top, and the stick protrudes for a short distance.

Ere 15,

This scene is plainly a mythical one, and as such is difficult

of explanation, but there can be no doubt in this case as to the

purpose of the ! kwe.

It is now very evident that these implements served the purpose

of adding weight to the digging-sticks, and were used as well as heads

to clubs.

* Mr. J. P. Johnston has also published these very interesting scenes.

+ Kolben says in speaking of the Hottentots: ‘‘ Every morning, excepting when

the husband goes a-hunting or fishing, which happens not often, the Hottentot

woman goes to gather certain roots and milk the cow for the sustenance of the

family. These roots . . . she digs up with a stick of iron or olive-wood, pointed.”

There is here no mention of a perforated stone to add weight to the stick. But as

the perforated stones are far from uncommon in the immediate neighbourhood

of Cape Town, I found several in the precincts of the town, either Kolben quoted

from memory, with the inevitable result, or these stones were possibly discarded at

the time of his visit (1715).

+ In New Guinea stones perforated seemingly in the same manner as our South

African examples are mostly used for heading clubs ; some are sharpened at each

end. A few of these are natural stones ; the greater part are, however, undoubtedly

worked. See Haddon’s ‘‘ Classification of the Stone Clubs of British New Guinea,”’

Journ. Anthr. Instit., xxx., 1900.

114 Annals of the South African Musewn.

But they have been also used as hammers, and after all, what is

a club but an appropriate hammer? Certainly the evolution of the

one into the other would prove a simple affair. The large number

of these bored stones found in halves, with a clean fracture, is

a clear proof that they have not been used as war clubs only, but also

that, perhaps, in more domestic pursuits they had been utilised

as hammers. Moreover, I found on three occasions broken pieces

of !kwés near smithies, and together with large pounders with

abraded ends, pieces of iron ore, &c. (See Chapter XX.) There

doubt is impossible; both the hafted ! kwé and the hand-held stone

were used together and for the same purpose. The two examples

from the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, figured by Mr. C. G. Seligman

(Journ. R. Anthr. Inst. xl. 1910, pl. xxv.) are also broken in two.

They show, nevertheless, the same mode of perforation.

Another supposition that these more or less hemispherical stones

were used as querns, the stick being held in each hand and the

stone made to rotate on its axis, would seem a very plausible one,

but, there again, | cannot say that, in spite of my primary leaning

to this conclusion, I can reconcile it with facts. I have probably

seen and examined more than 800 of these perforated stones, but

none has shown in the periphery traces of the wear that such a

use would entail. Moreover, only the regularly spherical ! kwés

could have proved effectual for this purpose, and a look at

Pls. XX. and XXI. shows that only a few of the implements effect

a regular shape. But if the centre of the periphery bears no trace of

the depression which grinding or milling would of necessity produee,

some spherical !| kwés are distinctly flattened at the holes ; others, like

Nos. 7 and 10 of Fig. 161 in Pl. XXI., or No. 3 of Fig. 156 in

Pl. XX., have been used as braders or mullers or both, as either

one or both sides, but not the poles, clearly show; and to that

purpose many flat or depressed examples such as those in Fig. 152

(Pl. XX.) bear testimony.

It is difficult to conceive that apart from their use as club-heads,

or make-weights for digging-sticks the perforation could have been

of any other advantage to the owner or maker. Certainly a short

handle inserted at one of the poles and kept in position by the

conical hole would facilitate the handling of the ! kwé as a milling

stone, but this assumption is disproved by the total absence in

querns or mortars of depressions corresponding to those which in

the process of milling or grinding would be produced by these

perforated stones, either spherical or flat. We have, it is true, make-

weights in which the two poles show most unmistakably that they

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 115

have been used for grinding purposes, but the worn appearance

of these extremities is comparatively recent, and in several instances

the aperture is so large, and so rough, that the supposition that

a wooden handle could have been inserted must be abandoned

altogether.

In Pl. XX., Fig. 155, and also in Pl. XXI., Fig. 157, are illus-

trations of the ! kwé, some moderately thick, like No. 1 (3 cm.), or

very thick. Fig. 157 illustrates the initial stage of the perforating

process. The reverse of Fig. 1 is almost like the obverse, showing

that the maker began sometimes at each end, or, pole, or as in Cut 3

of Fig. 155, he had already bored to a certain depth before beginning

work at the opposite pole.

No two ! kwés are alike, but the difference in size and weight is so

great, that, although some have undoubtedly been used for the

purpose mentioned above—namely, club or make-weight—it is quite

clear that the size and weight of others precludes the possibility of

their having been utilised in that manner or manufactured for that

purpose. Among the spheroids, Cut 4 of Fig. 154, is 116 mm. thick

and weighs 7 lbs.* Cut 1 of the same Fig. is 96 mm.; Cut 2 of

Fig. 155 is 53 mm.; Cuts 1 and 5 of Fig. 153 are respectively 30

and 24 mm.; Cut 1 of Fig. 155 is 30 mm.; Cuts 1 and 2 of Fig. 156

are 10 mm., and Cut 3, 20 mm. thick.

In comparison with these gigantic, large, or moderate size

specimens, we have others which, like Cuts 2 to 8 of Fig. 161, are

extremely small.+ They may have been children’s toys, perhaps

they were worn as ornaments. The flat disks, Fig. 156, were, in all

likelihood, pendants,} but No. 3 of the same Fig. served eventually

* It needed a powerful man or woman to handle such a club or such a make-

weight, but in some of the Bush drawings, the stones are of very large size,

especially those carried by women.

+ It is said that these small examples were used for string tighteners in wet

weather by slipping them as rings at each end of the bow. But none of our speci-

mens fit the bows we possess.

+ But whereas in all the ! kwes figured, and also known to me, the aperture is

small in proportion to the diameter, and never quite concentric, my colleague,

Dr. Schénland, has figured three in which this aperture is considerably larger,

being even wider than the sides of the periphery and concentric in the outer

circumference. They are flat, coit-like, with the outer edge rather thin, recalling,

as Dr. Schénland mentions, the brass neck-rings worn by women of quality in the

Basuto nations.

These rings, I submit, have no connection whatever with the ! kwés. They are,

however, of great interest because they seem, like the brass neck-rings mentioned,

to be similar to, if not identical with, that Asiatic arm made of steel, and in use

even at the present time, I believe, in India, and denominated there ‘‘ tchakra.”’

The warrior holding his hand above his head makes this dise rotate with great

116 Annals of the South African Museum.

a more utilitarian purpose, as shown by one of its worn sides, which

points clearly to it having been used as a muller, or may be, a whet-

stone for spears.

I received lately a pyriform specimen (Pl. XXIII., Fig. 169),

which differs greatly in shape any !kweé either mentioned or

figured; it is, like many other stone implements, made of dolerite,

but is thickly covered with a deposit of lime. One end has been

ground and the bore begun there; the other end, or opposite pole, is

conical, and in order to start the orifice on the opposite side this

end would of necessity have to be truncated, or reduced by grind-

ing. The perforation has reached the centre; it is smooth, and

therefore presupposes the use of stick and sand. Had it been com-

pleted the example would absolutely resemble the pyriform club-

heads occurring along the Mediterranean littoral, and especially

those from Sicily.

Symbolism is attributed by some antiquarians to these perforated

stones, the latter being part of the linga-yoni, namely, the rosette.

Inacceptable as this theory may appear to many, it is not a mere

accident that led to the production of the singular implement figured

in Pl. XXI. No. 6 of Fig. 162. Partisans of the symbolic doctrine

may find there a reproduction, although not an orthodox one, of

Sivaism. It should also be remembered in connection with it that

the club figured in Pl. XIX. is shaped as a phallus. Nor are the

numbers 1-5 of Fig. 162, in Pl. XXI., to be considered, although at

first sight they may appear to be so, as rimmers or borers, because

their composition is seldom sufficiently hard to prove effective, and,

moreover, none fits the conical hole.* When these holes are

smoothed, the smoothness has been produced by the use of stick,

sand, and water, the first being made to rotate between the hands

in the manner that fire was produced. There is no reason to sup-

pose that the makers were acquainted with the bow-drill. But the

rapidity round the fore-finger, and projects it to a distance of some 60 yards, seldom

missing his aim. Stone ‘‘ tchakras”’ have been found in India and Cochin-China,

But whether or not these ring-discs (Anneaux-disques) are symbolic or not

(Vichnou or Indra throwing the bolt under the form of a dise rotating round the

index of the right hand), the exact counterparts of Dr. Schénland’s specimens are

found in France and Italy, and, as far as I know, have been discovered nowhere

else. Their similarity can be only appreciated by a comparison with the Figs.

given by Cartailhac (‘‘ L’anthropologie,” 1904, p. 264). As armlets these ring-discs

would prove undoubtedly very cumbersome, but the aperture of the South African

ones, varying from 44 to 5 cm., is hardly wide enough for the insertion of a woman’s

hand, to say nothing of that of a man.

* An old Koranna, said to be a Bushwoman, asserts that implements like Cuts 4

and 7 of Fig. 162, were held in the hand to dig bulbs with.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. LA

stick could be used only after a start had been made by picking the

hole with a sharp implement, of which Cut 7 of Fig. 162 is probably

one. And although most of the holes are smooth, many bear very

distinct marks of having been produced entirely by rimmers of that

type ; some of which, in our possession, are very short.

The presence or the utility of these implements does not admit of

ready explanation unless they are connected with symbolism.

Could it be that the late aboriginals continued to produce uncon-

sciously symbols: of whose meaning they had become completely

ignorant? It is true that the evidence of that worship is very

meagre; these phalli, if they are phalli, are rare; perhaps to them

may be added the ornamented stone, Fig. 173 of Pl. XXIII.

But, numerous as the !kwés are, no one has seen them made,

neither the early or present Colonists, nor the few existing natives

to whom their use is, or was, familiar.

The better-shaped spheroids are made of rounded river stones, or

others. Along the littoral, round beach stones are selected; and

up-country naturally rounded stones are chosen in preference; but

even lava is made use of (No. 3 of Fig. 154) where other material is

not easily procurable; flat pieces of rock are also turned into

account (Fig. 152, Pl. XX.), and the variety of rock is indeed great.

Sandstone, quartzite, porphyry, dolerite, even steatite. There has

occasionally, but rarely, been an attempt at smoothing the outer

part of the stone, possibly by grinding. But, in the very great

majority, the natural contour of the selected spheroid is not improved

upon ; many examples are absolutely uneven.

Neither in the manufacture of his stone implements, be they

weapon, tool, or !kwe, or even mortar or grinding-stone, has the

maker possessed the technique of artificial polishing or grinding

that obtained elsewhere during the Neolithic Period.

(118 )

CHAPTER XIII.

Brayvers, Munurers, AND Morrars.

I have already explained that the ‘“‘! kwé,” or perforated stone,

has, in many instances, been used as a grinding implement and

possibly as a braying tool. I have also tried to explain that only the

perfectly spherical ones could have proved useful if used as rolling

grinders propelled by a stick inserted in the centre and held in both

hands, adding, however, that, with the exception of a few doubtful

cases, no evidence of the wear such a process would produce was

discernible.

But supposing that even the flat ones were put to this grinding

purpose, their very use, like that of the spheroids, would, of course,

necessitate that of mortars, or querns, the hollowed part of which

would have to correspond in depth and breadth with the impression

left or produced by the convex part of the spheroidal, or the broad

surface of the flat ! kwe.

Common, indeed, are the mortars, especially in or near the

middens, or “ fonteins.”” Even on detached rocks they have been met

with in Bushmanland, but I cannot say that I have as yet met with,

seen, or heard of such depressions that would, undoubtedly, connect

them with the constant use of the “!kweé.” In Pl. XXII. I figure

three such mortars. This name, however, is a misnomer, because

the depth of the longitudinal depression is really very shallow, nor

is it much deeper in the centre than at each end. Nor has the

depression which is always more or less navicular, or boat-shaped,

been formed otherwise than by continued use. So little depth did

the workers require, that when the depression was thought to be too

great for their purpose, the mortar was often turned over, and the

grinding, rubbing or pounding was begun anew on the opposite side.

The tools used for that grinding process are especially fitted for

the purpose. As in the case of ‘‘! kweés,” water-worn quartzite

pebbles of the style figured in Pl. XXIII, Figs. 168 and 170, are

The Stone Ages of South Africa. IES

chosen. They are more polished than the !kwé, but then this

polish is produced or added to by the use of the hand. The plane

or rubbing face is seldom at right angle with the axis (see Figs. 168

and 170), and this is due, in all likelihood, to the partly unsym-

metrical groove of the mortar. These mullers are seldom worn

smooth otherwise than at one end. No. 2 of Fig. 170 is, however,

an exception, being pentagonal. Nor have they all a smooth face.

Many have both ends abraded as if they had been held in the hand

as hammers, and many mortars are broken in a way that suggests

that they served as anvils; and, as in the case of the ! kwé, no two

mullers or pounders are alike. They vary also greatly in size, but

we must be careful to discern between mullers showing distinct

traces of the purpose to which they have been put, and stones,

some of very large size, which bear no such marks. In Pl. XXII.

are two such artefacts figured. They were both found buried at

some depth. Fig. 166 was discovered while making a railway line

near Cape Town; the other is from the southern part of the Kala-

hari. They are both unadorned; but Fig. 173 of Pl. XXIII. is

ornamented. Its history is unknown. I found it in the Collection

without any record, but I suspect that it comes from Mossel Bay.

I know of others, but smaller.

These cylindrical artefacts—that they are artefacts does not

admit of a doubt—are not absolutely symmetrical, and the purpose

of Figs. 166 and 173 remained conjectural until we received the

specimen represented by Fig. 167. It was presented to the

Museum as being a Bushman’s anvil, but from further inquiries

it transpired that the stone was used as a beacon by the Hottentot,

or perhaps the Bushman tribes, to denote the limits of their grazing

or hunting grounds. If a dispute arose between two tribes or clans,

the chief would direct a search to be made for the beacon, which,

when dug up at the spot mentioned, would establish the claim of

the tribe.

There is no corroborative evidence that the three implements

figured were used as beacons. I have heard of another found at

Klein Brak River (Mossel Bay); and in the Records of the Albany

Museum a fifth has been figured which is 49 cm. in length. In

the same Records Dr. Schénland has reproduced a diorite (?) muller

21cm. in length and pointed at one end, which closely resembles

some in our possession, and which might come also within the

category of symbolic tools. We have, moreover, smaller cylin-

drical ones from Knysna, etc., one of which has the ends somewhat

abraded.

120 Annals of the South African Museum.

The supposition that these cylindrical stones were used as anvils

is, of course, untenable. Fig. 166 is as smooth as if it had been

polished ; Fig. 167 shows no mark like that which a hammer would

leave, and the proposition that the huge pieces served as braying

tools would certainly not apply to Fig. 173, the ornamentation of

which makes it too uneven for effectively fulfilling this purpose.

For the present it is safer to figure or mention these stone imple-

ments than to try to explain their purport.

(121)

CELAP TER XIV:

PoTtTeRy.

Pottery making was unknown to the Magdalenian reindeer

hunters, although it is claimed for those that occupied Belgium

that they were acquainted with the manufacture. But pottery

abounds during the Neolithic period of Europe.

The same abundance obtains in South Africa. As to its antiquity

nothing can be adduced. Respecting its style and peculiarities a

good deal can be said.

In the former case the only evidence of pottery having been found

absolutely together with paleoliths of the boucher type is that of

the Nooitgedacht deposit; but I have pointed out that the edges

of the potsherds found there are not in the least abraded, whereas

the bouchers or scraper-knives are so polished and worn as to have,

in some cases, returned partially to the primitive boulder shape

from which they were evolved. It is, therefore, impossible in this

particular case to associate both implements and pottery.

With the knowledge obtained at present, it is safe to connect the

pottery manufacturing process with the South African Neolithic

culture, as is the case in Europe.

But we are faced here with forms peculiar to South Africa, as the

Figs. of Pl. XXIV. plainly show.

The ovoid shape, conical at bottom, predominates. The maker

—woman in all likelihood—is not very experienced, and this shape

varies somewhat, but it remains mostly on the same lines. I know

only of two pots which are nearly similar, and they were found

together at Mossel Bay. One is represented in Pl. XXIV., Fig. 177.

Rare indeed are these wholly preserved pots ; I know now of eleven

only. The Museum possesses eight, seven of which are here repre-

sented. Another has been figured by Dr. Schonland “—which,

however, judging from the reproduction—shows no sign of ear or

* «* Records of the Albany Museum,” i., Pl. I., 1903.

122 Annals of the South African Museum.

mamelon. This variation in form precludes the possibility of an

industry for barter or exchange. Had it existed a similarity of

shape obtained through imitation would have resulted.

This pottery industry is therefore local, and the material used is

that found at hand. Along the sea-board, whence most pots come

—fragmentary mostly, but also occasionally whole—the clay is

seldom freed from impurities; it is even of the coarsest kind, mixed

with a large quantity of quartz grains or small pebbles (Fig. 179).

The clay so mixed is of the kind that accumulates in the marshy

depressions of the localities in which these pots are found.*

More care in kneading seems, however, to have been taken for

other specimens, such as Fig. 174, found not far from the very

primitive pot, Fig. 179, and more discrimination in the quality of

material is indicated by the composition of the clay of Figs. 175

and 176. Potsherds from up-country “stations” are often superior

in texture and baking to those of the open-air middens of the Cape

Flats, or of the Western Coast; but most fragments indicate that

either the kneading of the clay or the baking is very primitive or

imperfect, as shown by the blackened or reddened outer rind of

the vessel, and the greyish hue of the centre, or of the inner part

of the same. {

In this respect there is a great resemblance with the neolithic

pottery of Hurope.

Pottery there was not baked in ovens; the pots were made by

hand, the wheel being then unknown.

Our South African speeimens are not baked in ovens, and are

also made by hand; but there the resemblance ceases. The shape

of the South African vessels made by the occupiers of middens or

rock-shelters is neither calciform or goblet-like, nor spherically

ovoid, and when somewhat amphora-like, the bottom is neither as

broadly rounded or as flat as in the European vessels; there is no

handle preper ; occasionally there are perforated ears for suspension

as in some European relics, but these openings are of a different

type.

A point, however, of the greatest importance in connection with

this comparison of the South African earthenware vessels with the

* It has been suggested that in the Neolithic of Europe rock was ground to mix

with clay (Assoc. Franc. Avance. Sc., 1904).

+ It has been claimed that Bush pottery was distinguishable through particles

of straw being still left in the baked clay—the straw to make bricks. I have ex-

amined these ‘‘ straws’? microscopically. There is nothing worthy of acceptance

in the assertion. The parts left are vegetable particles found in the clay, which

is extremely badly baked.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 123

European is that, in Europe, no remains have as yet been found

that plainly indicate a truly primitive type of neolithic pottery.

The examples found there are always connected with the bronze

or polished stone period, a period connected with a greatly advanced

culture.

This connection does not exist here, for the very good reason

that there never was a bronze age, but doubtless the ceramic

industry has lasted long into the iron period. The pottery found in

the middens of the littoral, or even in up-country shelters, is of a

style that, to me, seems to point to the survival of a most primitive

kind, if it is not the precursor, of earthenware manufacture.

It is true that among a fairly large number of pots from the

prehistoric tombs of Egypt, in the Museum Collection, are one

or two, the elongate-ovoid shape of which somewhat resembles the

South African, but although made by hand they are far more

symmetrical and of much superior texture and workmanship.

(Fig. 183 of Pl. XXIV. represents one of these Egyptian pots.)

The characteristic of the Strand Looper pottery is the presence

on each side of the vessel of a mammiform projection, or of a

perforated ear, which are seldom wanting in these ovoid-conical

vessels. These prominences are not as clear in the illustrations as

they are in reality. That the perforation of these ears was intended

for suspension seems a natural enough conclusion; but what of

those that have no perforated ears, but have instead a boss or

mamelon? (See Figs. 174, 176, Pl. XXIV.)

These projections, perforated or not, are nearly always much

thicker than any other part of the vase, and they are better pre-

served on that account. They are far trom being uncommon, and

it is therefore easy to verify the explanation which I give here.

The presence of these lateral protuberances may be explained if we

assume, as I believe to be the case, that the ear is the first lump

of clay held either in the hollow of the hand (mamelon) or between

the thumb and forefinger (ear). That the modelling begins in this

manner seems proved by the thickness of that part which projects

inside the pot (Figs. 181, 182) as much as, or even more than, on the

outside. In order to add to the cohesion, this part must of necessity

be thicker than the other added parts that will form the vessel

eventually.

Moreover, whenever there is a perforation of the mamelon, which

thus becomes an ear, the hole is not straight; it curves inwards ;

and the bend corresponds with the position the two fingers of one

hand would assume, if the first lump of clay was held in the manner

124 Annals of the South African Museum.

alleged. In several instances the hole is not quite complete, as if

the two fingers had not completely met.

Primitive as these pots clearly are, the walls are usually of uniform

thickness, especially the sides, but the bottom is thicker than the

walls. The constricted neck is, as a rule, unsymmetrical, as if that

part were difficult to achieve, or required a dexterity of hand wanting

in the potter.

As far as known to me, the majority of these whole relics are found

in the sand-dunes that have eventually covered the open-air kitchen-

middens of the coast; but two, Figs. 175 and 176, were discovered

in mountain rock-shelters improperly called caves. Fig. 175

(Pl. XXIV.) is from the Ceres District ; Fig. 178 from Ladysmith,

and Fig. 176 from the Zuurberg; all three localities in the Cape

Colony. Fig. 176 is partially filled with specular iron, and the

specimen found in the sands of Port Nolloth (Cape Colony),

Fig. 180, was also found to be half-full of the same material.

But although, in the great majority of cases, these ovoid-conical

pots are as described or figured, at the nearly extreme western end

of the littoral whence they are recorded, there is a difference.

In the sand-dunes of Walfish Bay, where a few aborigines said,

or believed, to be the survivors of the Strand Loopers, now

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 125

called Topnaar Hottentots, are still to be found, there has been

lately discovered undecorated pottery, of a kind as coarse as that

which prevails in the Middens of the Cape Peninsula.

These fragments plainly denote vessels of the ovoid-conical shape

provided with ears. But instead of that part of the pot which

forms the ear projecting inwardly, as in Figs. 181, 182 of Pl. XXIV.,

and on that account supporting the theory of the lump of clay

being held by the two fingers of one hand, the clay of the ear is

clapped on the-already finished pot as shown in the text-fig. 16,

Fie 17. x 4.

POT SUPPORTED BY .THE EARS. THE GROOVE OF THE MISSING EAR IS SEEN

IN THE CENTRE.

and the hole, which is of small diameter, is straight, and has been

plainly punched through. In other examples, in which the inner

bulging is also absent, the opening of the ear might still support the

theory of the two fingers process, but the perforation, instead of

being transverse, is vertical, and also too small to be due to finger

action.

It may be said of these relics that they show either traces of

regression, or of a more advanced culture retaining still traces of

survival.

If we now turn to the furthest eastern end of the sea-board where

pottery has been found, we have evidence of another kind.

126 Annals of the South African Musewmn.

In the sand, at the foot of the Berea Hill, in Durban, was dis-

covered the vessel represented in text-figs. 17 and 18.

It is no longer conical, the walls are very thick, the broad, slightly

convex bottom is supported by three transverse elongated ears ; one

is wanting, but the groove of the perforation is left. These ears are

perforated lengthways, the perforation being narrow, straight, and

even, and clearly produced by the clay being built over a reed or

twig, fitting against the already finished vessel. There is no

bulging in the inner part of the pot.

Fic. 18. x 4.

THE TWO BLACK SPOTS REPRESENT THE PERFORATION OF THE EAR.

The theory of the first lump of material being held between the

thumb and forefinger of one hand cannot, however, apply in

this case.

This earthenware pot is thus of a style hitherto unknown,

and differs greatly from that which, we know, obtained among

the Strand Loopers of the Littoral. There are no means of

ascertaining whether it tapered into a neck. From the con-

figuration of what is left, and on the assumption that the

upper decorated zone was of a width equal to the lower, it is

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 127

most probable that the mouth was as broad as the periphery, and

that it was not constricted to a neck as in the examples figured in

PROX VR

That the very short, bluntly tripod-like supports formed by the

ears gave the vessel more stability is probably the explanation for

their presence at the bottom instead of on the upper part of the

sides, but it is quite a departure in the technique. The clay is very

badly baked, only a thin external and internal layer being burnt

red.

Certain earthenware vessels made here by Bantu-speaking races

are not unlike the Berea example, but apart from the perforated

knobs, which plainly denote a Strand Looper technique, the decora-

tion is also clear proof of its Bush origin.

It is not always easy, however, to decide whether pots of the

shape of the former, but undecorated and earless, or without

traces of mamelon, are of Hottentot or Kafir manufacture. One,

now in our Collection, is alleged to have been found near a midden

at Kei Road, Cape Colony, and another of nearly the same shape

near the mouth of the River Kei, it is said, together with stone

implements. Both, but the latter especially, are extremely

uncouth.

Yet the evidence afforded by the two examples represented in

text-fig. 19, and especially by the smaller of the two, seems to show

that flat-bottomed, sub-cylindrical earthenware vessels were also

manufactured by people of the yellow race, though perhaps for

certain purposes only.t+

Fig. 1 has no history. It is alleged to have been found in the

western part of the Cape Colony, but there is no absolute proof of

the same.

Fig. 2 is less primitive in shape, and the rim projects nearly a

centimetre all round. It is from a rock-shelter in the Prince Albert

district of Cape Colony, and with it were found other fragments of

pottery, including a typical “ear.”

This shows conclusively that the earthenware-making Bushmen

did not restrict his skill to the production of eared, ovoid-conical

pots. But this Rietfontein rock-shelter showed unmistakable traces

* Dr. Schonland has figured a small pot, 3} inches wide at the mouth and of

about the same height, adorned with three knobs above the middle of the girdle,

‘* which represent a reminiscence of ears.” This pot was discovered a mile and

a half from the sea, near Port Alfred, Cape Colony.

+ These small pots are said by the old Colonists, who came into touch with the

remaining wild Bush people, to be the vessels in which the poison for arrows was

prepared.

128 Annals of the South African Musewm.

of having been occupied till very recent times; and the shape of

Cut 1 of Fig. 19 may also be due to outer influence.

(2) EG oO naa (1)

Leaving for a moment the indications afforded by the shape of the

pottery, let us now examine those afforded by the decoration, when

there is ornamentation.

Of late years a good deal of attention has been devoted, especially

by German antiquarians, to establishing an order of succession in

the different types of the neolithic pottery of Europe, especially

through the ornamentation.

The first division is the ‘‘Schnurkeramik,”’ characterised by the

impressions left on the clay by means of strings pressed horizontally

against the sides of the pot or vase.

The second division is the ‘‘ Bandkeramik,”’ in which the decora-

tion is produced by incisions in the clay, these incisions resulting in

chevron, spiral, band, rectilinear motive, curved line, &c. The whole

vase is often decorated, but oftener the zones of decoration are

separated.

Unfortunately, there is very little to show which of the two

systems of decoration is the older. Whereas antiquarians of good

repute maintain that the Schnurkeramik preceded the Bandkeramik,

other antiquarians as well authorised as the former, hold the opposite

view. Moreover, the matter is complicated by numerous finds

pointing clearly to an hybridisation or commingling of the two

forms. It is not therefore proved that the Bandkeramik type is the

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 129

older of the two, but the decoration of the South African Neolithic

pottery may be said to belong to it. It is, however, an ornamenta-

tion of the rudest description, as appears from the illustrations.

Pots or vases preserved entire are seldom decorated; ornamented

potsherds are much more common. Fig. 190 of Pl. XXV. repre-

sents a style of decoration consisting of incisions in clay, made in

all likelihood by tools, such as Cuts 6 and 7 of Fig. 185. These

fragments are from a rock-shelter in the Orange River Colony. In

Cut 1 of Fig. 197 (Pl. XXVI.), a fragment of the Berea pot, the

decoration is very deep and very coarse; in Cut No. 3 of the same

Fig. the punched dots are more regularly disposed, some of the

series being deeper than others, but although it may appear from

the slightly faulty figure as if some of the less pronounced rows

were produced by the impression of a string such is really not the

case. The specimen is from a rock-shelter at Burghersdorp, Cape

Colony.

Seriated incisions may be thus said to be one of the characteristics

of the decoration. The pot, or vessel, represented in Pl. XXIV.,

Fig. 176, is very instructive in that respect, but at the same time it

shows a very great, and certainly artistic, advance in decorative art.

Round the neck runs a single horizontal series of vertical, parallel,

shallow hatchings ; on the sides is another series of slanting Cuts

joining slightly above the middle with a double vertical one in

which the hatchings are parallel, the decoration thus formed repre-

senting somewhat the capital letter Y.

This example is the best decorated earthenware vessel hitherto

discovered. In shape it is also unique. The ears are indicated,

but not perforated. The baking is thorough. The specular iron it

contains weighs 6 lbs.

But although the specimen referred to is the only one known

that may lay claim to be artistically decorated, round the neck of

some, such as the one represented in Plate XXIV., Fig. 177, there

are horizontal lines which at first sight might be taken to have been

caused by the impression of string, but these lines instead of being

spiral are disjointed, and at the base of the neck is a circle of

seriate hatchings deeper than the impressed line and slightly slant-

ing. I know also of potsherds, plainly fragments of the neck,

bearing similar imprints. The impressed lines and circles of

that constricted part of the vessel suggest plainly the use of the

burin.

In the open-air middens of the sea-board ranging from Port

Nolloth to Mossel Bay, the earthenware vessels and the shards

130 Annals of the South African Museum.

do not appear to have been decorated; nor do I know of any

ornamental pottery treated with a decorative pattern from the

Outeniqua and Tzitzikamma Districts, except the pots from Mossel

Bay; but shards from Kowie and from the Natal coast, Cut 2,

Fig. 129, are known to have been so ornamented.

In a Cape Flats midden there have, however, been found, but in

one locality only, fragments with a series of perforation represented

in’ Hig: 1.92 of Pl; SXViEs

In the inland districts we meet with decorated fragments, and the

pattern varies between that of Cuts 1 and 3 of Fig. 192. We have

examples from the Stormberg, Cape Colony, where the incisions

form zones separated with a broad undecorated space. Examples

with such a decorative motive do away with the theory, which

has been advanced, that the ‘‘up-country’’ Bushman in the process

of manufacture held the clay together by means of rush-baskets ;

the rushes would perish in the baking process, and the impres-

sion would remain. This process could not account for the broad

undecorated zone occurring between two decorated ones, and, in

addition, the knots of the meshes should have had to be extremely

thick to leave the very deep impressions such as those we meet.

The decoration, when it exists, is not due to a mechanical process;

it is a deliberate, intentional act.

I am not at all sure of the use these more or less ovoid-conical

pots were put to. It might be urged a priori that they were cooking

vessels. |

In all our examples the greater part of the surface from the ears

downwards is doubtless blackened, and the upper, including the neck,

is redder. The lower part of the specimen represented in Pl. XXIV.,

Fig. 178, is also black, but this colour is due to a kind of glaze,

possibly caused by a mixture with the clay, or by an outer coating

of the milky juice of an Euphorbia.}

Then, suspension over a fire by means of the two ears would

* We have three such pieces which seem to have been part of one single

receptacle.

+ Kolben is not explicit on this point. Speaking of the potter’s art among the

Hottentots, he says of them: ‘‘ They place this clay on a flat stone, and then,

without any other tool than the fingers, they, pastry-cook-like, give to the vases

nearly the same shape that the Romans gave to their urns,” 1.e., (?) amphore.

Ibid.: ‘‘In order to bake the vessel, the pot, when sufficiently dried in the sun,

was deposited in a hole and fire made all round it.”

+ This method, I am informed, prevails still among the Hottentot aboriginals of

Port Nolloth. Kolben avers that the clay is taken from the white ant (Termite)

nests, and that the larve mixed with the same give in the burning process more

cohesion to the clay. This is of course absurd.

The Stone Ages of South Africa, 131

certainly not be easy or reliable, for the hide thong, or rope, would

be soon charred. That these vessels were used as suspended cooking

utensils remains therefore very doubtful.

Fig. 174 is the largest ‘Strand Looper’’ vase hitherto found.

That it was not a cooking-pot, at least previous to its abandonment,

would seem to be proved by the fact that a small hole on the lower

part of the side was closed by a conical limpet, similar to, but some-

what larger than, that closing the aperture of the ostrich-egg,

Fig. 189, Pl. XXV., presumably intended for storing water. The

black cement used for the purpose is of the same substance in both

cases.

On the whole, these pots are far oi strong, but however coarse

the texture, they can all hold water. A find made at Hangklip, in

False Bay (Cape Colony), where six pots, with and without ears,

were discovered buried in the sand,* and standing in a line, seems

to bear out the conclusion that they were mostly used for storing

water, fat, or butter. Our two examples from Mossel Bay bore a

gummed label affixed probably some forty years before I examined

them, but which had become so impregnated with a fatty substance

as to have become illegible.t| Even now these pots are slightly

greasy on the surface.

It must not be forgotten also that two of these vases or pots were

found partly filled with specular iron.

Against the conclusion that these pots were mainly used as

receptacles and not for cooking purposes, I must, however, add that

I know of two ostrich-eggs, similar to those used now in the Kalahari

Desert as water-vessels, that have been found close to middens,

where potsherds are numerous, and even not far from where the

specimen, Fig. 174, was discovered. With one of them was found

an admirably preserved quiver containing arrows with the modern

triangular iron tips. These relics are thus in all likelihood com-

paratively recent. |

Is the manufacture of these ovoid-conical earthenware vessels to

be attributed to Strand Loopers only, or to Hottentots as well ?

Kolben does not discriminate between the two. He never went

far from Cape Town; and the Hottentots he met were in all likeli-

hood Strand Loopers, who, however mixed they might have become

* These pots were unfortunately broken in the removal.

+ These two pots were sent to the Museum at the same time (1856) as a

Portuguese inscription dated 1500, and they were on that account labelled as being

of ‘‘ Portuguese manufacture.”

+ They were found some 12 miles from Cape Town, and probably date from the

beginning of the colonisation of the Cape.

132 Annals of the South African Musewn.

by this time, would have retained their habits unmodified by their

short intercourse with the black slaves from Mozambique or Mada-

gascar, the Malays, or the Europeans who formed then the com-

paratively new settlement.

It will readily be admitted that conical vases, that could not stand

by themselves, would prove singularly inefficient for many purposes,

especially for milking cows or ewes, and we know that milk was one

Fie. 20. x #.

of the main staples of the food of the Hottentots.* For that purpose

they possibly made use of another kind of vessel, like that found

in Cape Town and figured here. +

* The evidence obtained from the first records of colonisation unmistakably

point to the fact that the Strand Loopers had no cattle or sheep.

+ This remarkable specimen was lately discovered at a great depth in the main

street of Cape Town, close to the place where the stream of fresh water from which

vessels in the early days replenished their stores, and not far from the sand-dunes

which at that time extended to that point. In style it approximates some of the

Batlapin’s (Bechuanas) pottery, yet it is quite distinct. It is very coarsely made

and indifferently baked.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 133

No artificial stand has as yet been discovered that could have been

used for these ovoid-conical pots, but, after all, they are singularly

well fitted by their shape for propping in the sand of the dunes, or

even in the ground. One thing is established, and it is that this shape

prevails all along the littoral, and, in nearly all cases is it found,

connected with the culture of the Hottentot race which we call

“Strand Looper.”

Except for Kolben, no light is thrown by the early travellers on

the pottery-making process of the Hottentots or Bushmen.

Sparrman, a careful observer, speaking of the Hottentot-Kaffirs, or

Gonaquas, which he met on or near the Sunday River (Cape Colony),

says that they also keep their milk in bags, but that the basins they

use for milking are made of roots so closely woven that they hold

milk or water.

The interence therefore is that pure-bred Hottentots used other

receptacles, probably earthenware vessels.

Burchell, who encountered what he calls the Bushmen, states :

“They (the Bushmen) received a share of the fat with equal delight,

and immediately began to melt it in a little pot of their own manu-

facture, and one which was apparently intended only for that use.

It was indeed the rudest piece of workmanship imaginable, being

simply a rough bit of stone, in which they had contrived to hollow

out a small cavity ; it, however, perfectly answered the purpose for

which it was used.

“The figure of this pot may be seen at the end of the chapter,

where, opposite to it, on the right, is the representation of another,

made of burnt clay, the workmanship of which, if not Bachapin

(Bechuana), does them more credit, being moulded to that form by

the hand only.” *

In conclusion, we find that we have in South Africa three styles of

pottery ascribable to the Aborigines of Hottentot race.

The type represented in Cut No. 1 of text-fig. 19, very much re-

sembles that of the earthenware vessels made formerly by the

Fingoes, Xosas, Basutos, and, even now, fashioned occasionally

by them.

The Cape Town rotund type, text-fig. 20, closely approximates

the pots of the Bechuanas.

The Ovoid-conical type figured in Pl. XIX. resembles no other.

Pottery, however, quite as much as, if not perhaps more than,

stone implements retains long its charaszteristics. So powerfully

* The figure given by Burchell corresponds nearly absolutely to the pot from

Kei Road, mentioned on p. 127.

134 Annals of the South African Musewm.

constant is the survival of form that a change in style implies a long

succession of years.

Many of the neolithic pitchers or cooking-vessels of Europe can

match in shape those of modern production. It is generally ad-

mitted that in Europe this ceramic art was introduced from the

East, and superseded a more primitive, native one.

In South Africa it would seem as if the opposite obtained. If

the cylindrical, convex- or flat-bottomed pots mentioned or figured

are ascribable to pure Bush or Hottentot races, then they show

regression because of the much simpler technique when compared

with that of the ovoid-conical eared pots which we can safely connect

with the Strand Loopers. The homogeneity of the race or branch

of the “ Khoi-Khoin ”’ (Hottentots) is pretty conclusively established,

The primitiveness of their culture, as shown by their relics, is indeed

great, but not so their pottery, which has not only a facies of its own,

but the execution of which has demanded great skill.

We shall probably never know which of the two, if not three,

branches of the race preceded the other, and occupied the land, but

that the Strand Looper was not always relegated to a narrow border

on the sea-coast is proved by the finds made, deep inland, of his

ovoid-conical eared pottery.

(135 )

CHAPTER XV.

THE SHELL-MOUNDS OR MIDDENS OF THE LITTORAL.

In South Africa, kitchen middens, which are often of a con-

siderable extent, are to be found all along the coast from Walfish

Bay on the west, to past Natal, and probably as far as Delagoa Bay

on the east.

Shell-mounds would appear to be a good designation for some, if

not most of them, and undoubtedly shell-fish was the main if not

the sole staple food of the occupiers.

These middens are also found at no very great distance from the

seashore, especially where fresh water in the shape of a “‘vlei’’ or

lagoon is obtainable for a part of, if not during the whole year.

Such places are very numerous.

It is quite possible that wandering tribes, clans, or families of

aborigines did descend periodically to the coast to collect or fare on

shell-fish, in the manner of the Kafirs of the present day on the

coasts of Natal and Pondoland.

The presence of shells of the bivalve, fresh-water mollusc Unio in

some of the up-country rock-shelters very remote from the coast,

seems to indicate that the aborigines were partial to molluscs as an

article of food. *

In these shell-mounds we meet with the remnants of a very

primitive culture in the shape of ornaments, utensils for domestic

use, and also pottery. .

When the middens are in the open, these relics are not always as

well preserved as when occurring in the cave-shelters, which the

occupiers turned into shell-mounds. +

The makers of these mounds, whether in the open, under rock-

shelters, or in caves, were in all likelihood coast-dwellers, but it is

* Remains of sea-shells (Patella and Haliotis) were discovered in a rock-shelter

in the Beaufort West District of the Cape Colony, far removed from the sea.

+ In the Tzitzikama District of the Cape Colony, the farmers are in the habit of

carting away this shell-guano, so called, as manure for their lands.

136 Annals of the South African Musewn.

not improbable also that they were forced towards the coast by

other invaders. Some of their household goods, or utensils, are of a

type found still in the interior; ! kwés, mullers, conical pots, small

parers, scrapers of different sizes and shapes, but as yet, no palzo-

lithic boucher has been unquestionably found with them.

There is, however, some difference between the domestic utensils of

the Outeniqua-Tzitzikama rock-shelters or caves, and those occur-

ring elsewhere, a difference which points to a type of culture, to

which I would not hesitate to give a name, as has been done for the

Magdalenian, only that in Europe this name is connected with the

period of the Reindeer, and that we cannot connect here these

shell-mound makers with a period during which certain animals

prevailed.

THE OPEN KITCHEN MIDDENS.

A midden of this kind is usually found quite close to the sea, but

never far from fresh water. It is mostly buried under sand-dunes

that shift to and fro according to the direction of winds prevailing at

the time, but which, owing to their dryness, act often as a preserv-

ing medium. When begun on more solid ground, these middens,

which are now concealed by more or less dense vegetation, are

revealed occasionally through road-cuttings or removal of soil.

One such midden at Blaauwberg, near Cape Town, is situated

close to the sea, but at no great distance from Riet Vlei, a

fresh-water lagoon that only at times finds an outlet to the sea.

The rolling sand-dunes, when removed by wind agency, leave

occasionally exposed, even at some distance from what is found

to be a thick stratum of shells, pottery, fragmentary or whole,

such as Figs. 174 and 179 (Pl. XXIV.). Perforated stones, irregular,

rarely spherical, are not uncommon. Occasionally querns or mortars

are discovered there. At the time of our visit in search of a human

skeleton, the skull of which had been laid bare, only one ridge of

the accumulated shells, consisting mostly of Mytilus and Patella,

mussels and limpets, was showing. Under this ridge of shells,

some 18 to 20 inches in thickness, we obtained the skeleton of a

female coated with a very thick deposit of carbonate of lime brought

probably by the infiltration of water through these sea-born sands.

The cavities of the skull were completely filled with this calcareous

deposit, and the skeleton was undergoing fossilisation if it had not

already reached it. On removing the calcareous sandy coating there

were found round the pelvis two rows of flat, minute, ostrich egg-shell

beads of the shape and size of those figured in Pl. XIX., Fig. 146.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 137

The body was lying on its right side, but not quite horizontally,

this being probably due to the removal of one side of the original

layer, the place where it was exposed being a sloping bank; the

legs were bent and drawn towards the chin ; the position of one arm

was doubtful, but the encrusted right hand lay on the back part of

the pelvis.

We found several scrapers of the usual Cape Flats type; two pygmies,

one made of transparent quartz; the left ramus of a small antelope

(the Steinbok), but, as I have already stated, only a small portion of

the midden was visible, the rest was either covered or had been

obliterated by the shifting sand-waves.

malian 3:

>t?

° 6

zp 52

aby =

1 he

Bre. an

1. LOOSE SANDY LIMESTONE. 2. LAYER OF BROKEN SHELLS. 3. LOOSE

SAND WITH MANY BRANCHING TUBULAR BODIES OF HARDER ROCK.

4, POSITION OF HUMAN BONES.

Mr. A. W. Rogers, Director of the Cape Geological Survey, who

kindly accompanied me to investigate the deposit and disinter the

skeleton, could not express an opinion as to the actual age of the

former, no shells or bones of extinct animals being found in it.

The crest of that midden is very much higher than the present

level of the sea. It was not dominated at the time of our visit by

the crescentic sand-dunes, but the insidious creeping sand-waves

were gathering round. One month afterwards all signs of its

existence were absolutely obliterated.

Separated from the seashore, where Mytilus Turbo and Patella

shells abound, by a long stretch of undulating sand-hills, continually

138 Annals of the South African Museum.

exposed at all seasons to the blast of that ever-moving sand, it does

not seem probable that the shell-gatherers chose the top of this sand-

dune to settle there even temporarily. Itis true, however, that under

the layer of shells, and under the body, there was sand, but we found

also there tubular lime-coated roots, or trunks of trees or bushes, of

a size plainly indicating that vegetation of a robust kind had in

previous years consolidated the original sand-heap.*

I have come to the conclusion that this sepulture is very old,

because the immense accumulation of sand postulates a great age.

The extent of the midden must also have been considerable ; for we

found about a mile from the place large potsherds exposed by the

wind.

MIDDENS OF THE CAPE FLATS.

On the Cape Flats, beginning at about 5 miles from Cape Town

and reaching almost to False Bay, near Strandfontein, is a succes-

sion of longitudinal depressions in which the rain-water accumulates,

and which are usually dominated on one side by sand-hills often of

considerable magnitude, and as shifty as those occurring in a line

more or less parallel to the seashore. When one, or more, of these

dunes is removed bodily, although gradually—a thing which happens

at times—one finds here and there on the floor heaps of accumulated

sea-shells, mostly reduced to minute fragments, and with them a

profusion of small pieces of ostrich egg-shell, as well as perforated

discs of the same material manufactured into beads. These beads

are irregularly rounded outwardly, and most of them are of much

smaller size than those met with farther north. The very much

reduced periphery, in proportion to the size of the perforation,

required consummate skill in the making; the number of broken,

and therefore spoiled, discs bears out the supposition as to the

difficulty inherent to the making. Fig. 146 represents these egg-

shell beads in all stages of manufacture. At the top of the Fig.

are shown the borers, also found a siti, and on the right three glass

beads of Huropean manufacture.

Some of the implements represented in Fig. 144 were found there,

* «The sand iscalcareous. As it shifts before the wind it in many places buries

bushes growing near the shore. These die, and their stems buried in the sand,

decay, and in doing so set free a certain amount of acid which brings about a

solution and redeposition of caleareous matter in the sand. The sand immediately

surrounding the stems is thus cemented into a solid mass which encrusts the

remains of the bark. The wood decays away, and a pipe with a wall of cemented

calcareous sand is the result”? (Moseley, ‘‘A Naturalist on the Challenger; Cape

of Good Hope,”’’ p. 149).

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 139

as well as the scrapers of Fig. 141, and most of the crescent pygmies

in Fig. 143.

With the stone implements and the fragments, more or less

worked, of ostrich shells there were discovered a few brass buttons ;

clay pipes, evidently of early Dutch manufacture, with the stem

broken off close to the bowl; several lead musket-bullets, together

with undecorated potsherds of native manufacture; also querns, and

smithies with iron ore and stone hammers *—! kwés split into two,

&e., showing that the dwellers, or the later dwellers, were acquainted

with the use of iron, but had still retained the stone for certain

purposes. These sand-dunes of the Cape Flats have not yielded

many bone implements, or the grooved polishing stones intended for

sharpening them into awls or arrow-tips.t

In the neighbourhood of these sand-hills we found remains of the

Rhinoceros keitloa and of the Elephant. The pottery is of the usual

simple type, but at Strandfontein there were found sherds with a

regular series of perforations of a unique kind (Pl. XXVI., Fig. 2).

THE BLOEMBOSCH DEPOSIT.

Strictly speaking, this deposit should not come under the denomi-

nation of kitchen-midden, because we did not discover there any

layer of accumulated shells. Except for that, however, the conditions

appear to be the same as in the middens of the Cape Flats, only

that we met for the first time paleontological evidence of the utmost

importance, intimately connected with that deposit.

Bloembosch is about 25 miles from Darling, Cape Colony, and

3 or 4 miles from the seashore, from which it is separated by

intervening sand-hills. At one point is a “fontein,’’ which does

not seem to be intermittent, but alongside of it, and threatening to

cover it ultimately, at the time of our visit, was a huge sand-hill,

disconnected for a long distance from the coastal ones.

It is here that the remains of an extinct buffalo (Bubalus bainz),

and horse (Hquus capensis), as well as of other large mammals

still living were discovered. As has been seen in Chapter VII.,

dealing with the paleontological aspect of the Antiquarian question,

it soon became evident that the animals had been brought piecemeal

to the fountain by their slayers, because parts only, not whole

skeletons, were found im siti.

See Chapter XX.

+ No. 3 of Fig. 172, which is one of the very few bone implements found there,

represents a knife or spear-head made of the rib of a mammal, and greatly

resembling in shape the bone knives or spear-heads of the lacustrine deposits of

Switzerland.

140 Annals of the South African Museum.

On the floor of that partly removed sand-dune Mr. J. M. Bain and

I discovered small cores, scrapers, and borers similar to those of

Pl. XVIII., Figs. 139, 140, 141, 144 (some of the pieces are there

included) ; also a few of the crescent-shaped pygmies (Fig. 143) ;

perforated ostrich egg-shell beads, but of a somewhat larger size

than those of Fig. 144, and not so carefully concentrically rimmed ;

rough scrapers of the type of Figs. 118 and 129 (Pl. XV.), also made

from the Cape Flats surface quartzite ; larger scrapers, but also of

the Cape Flats type; a small mortar; nuclei of different kinds of

rock ; broken ! kwés; a small grooved stone for sharpening awls,

&e. Here also we found two brass buttons of the same pattern as

those occasionally found in the Cape Flats middens, as well as a few

pieces of Oriental china, derived probably from the wrecks of some

Dutch East Indian merchantmen sunk in Saldanha Bay, a place

but little distant from Bloembosch.

When fresh water is as rare as it is in these parts, it is not at

all surprising that successive generations of aborigines should have

resorted to a locality where this necessity of life is found all the year

round.

But diligent search, three times repeated, failed to reveal any

other kind of implement that could lay claim to great antiquity—no

boucher or vestige of it was met with, no long knife-scraper showing

sign of old age.

Six months after the last search, that sand-hill had crept again to

the floor on which the find of implements and bones was made. It

is now fixed in position by a plantation of ‘‘marem ”’ grass (Psamma

arenaria), to the great delight of the owner and the chagrin of the

Antiquarian.

From the account of this deposit, it will be seen that the domestic

utensils or tools are the same as those occurring in the Cape Flats ;

the pygmies are alike, and soare the largerimplements. The culture

is therefore the same, and the race in all likelihood identical.

CarpE Town MIDDENS.

In Cape Town itself are the remains of what must have been an

extremely large midden, extending from the very seashore close to

Grainger’s Bay, covering part of what is now the golf links, and

abutting on what was once the Green Point “vlei,” a board and

somewhat deep depression in which, in former times, the accumula-

tion of rain-water lasted during the greater part of the year. The

whole of this midden has now been removed or levelled—my house

is built on part of it—but there are still to be found, and actually on

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 141

the very edge of the high-water mark, enormously large examples of

marine shells, of limpets mostly Patella, but also of Turbo, many

of them of a size and thickness that are certainly not now met with

in the neighbourhood.

Close to the Mouille Point Lighthouse (now disused) the removal

of sand for building purposes left exposed lately a heap of calcined

stones, the examination of which showed plainly that a kitchen had

formerly been erected there under shelter of the higher sand-hills

that protected it from the prevailing boisterous south-east winds

which rage so violently in these parts for half the year. The imple-

ments found near these calcined stones tell plainly of the occupa-

tions of the dwellers or makers. They are querns or mortars,

mullers or pounders, a few scraper-knives of a very rude manufac-

ture, together with a thick accumulation of all kinds of local sea-

shells, and also a sprinkling of undecorated potsherds.

At a distance from this very spot were found close to each other

six mortars,* one with an artificial depression on each side, and with

the accompaniment of pounding utensils. Some of these mortars

are so heavy as to preclude the possibility of their removal by

nomadic people having no means of transport. They were thus

permanent fixtures which the natives used while camped on the

spot, or when they returned to it. (I know of a group of some

sixteen such mortars near the edge of a small lagoon in the Cape

Peninsula.)

There is no evidence that this midden is very old, yet, singularly

enough, it lies on a raised beach, which, however, unlike that of

the Klein Brak River, has yielded me, so far, no traces of artefacts.

The type of these mullers or mortars, !kwés and scrapers in

nowise differs from those found in similar situations, but the absence

of bone tools, and the relative paucity of scraper-knives might be

taken to imply that the dwellers had the use of iron. I have, in

truth, met with no smithies there, but it must be remembered that

vestiges only are left of this once extensive midden, and also that

the smithies of the Cape Flats are near by.

This shell mound is not the only one met with in the vicinity of

Cape Town. The road that skirts Table Mountain towards Hout

Bay has been cut through three such shell-mounds now covered

with vegetation, while at Hout Bay itself there is an extensive

deposit at a small distance from the mouth of the small river.

The same culture as evidenced by the remains of this Cape Town

midden prevails along the western coast of South Africa from Cape

* For the shape of these mortars or querns see Pl. XXII.

142 Annals of the South African Museum.

Town to the mouth of the Orange River, as known to me, and east-

ward from Cape Point to the Kei and Tugela Rivers.

The shores of Saldanha Bay are huge shell-mounds. An earthen-

ware pot still more conical than Fig. 180 (Pl. XXIV.), which comes

from the sands of Port Nolloth, has been found at Langebaan.

Through the kindness of Mr. John Wood I am able to give an

illustration of such a shell mound, exposed by a railway cutting in

INixes, YPY

the vicinity of East London, Cape Colony. Its extreme length is

close upon 90 yards, and it would have been originally 40 yards or

more across. The maximum thickness is nearly 4 feet.

From the examples here given, but taken at random, of these

open-air shell mounds, it is manifest that the culture they display is

generally uniform. The implements are of a Neolithic type ; not the

Neolithic of Europe, America, or India, but a South African type

corresponding in part to the former.

(143 )

CHAPTER XV1.

CAVES AND RockK-SHELTERS.

Tur HawstTon CAVE.

It is not known if to the north of Cape Town the caves or rock-

shelters along the coast were once occupied by aborigines in the

manner of those of Outeniqua or Tzitzikama.

But rock-shelters or caves are found along the southern coast

between Cape Town and Mossel Bay, Cape Colony. At the

extremity of the Cape Peninsula, towards Cape Point, we know of

cave-shelters, but so ransacked are they now that no information as

to the mode of life of their former inmates is any longer obtainable.

The Museum possesses numerous examples of the original Cape

Point finds, including two human skulls. They consist of the usual

middens types: mullers or braders, pounders, querns or mortars,

!kwés and potsherds. Bone tools or ostrich egg-shell beads may,

however, have been disregarded, and the accumulation of sea-shells

not recorded. Close to the spot a conical earthenware pot was

lately discovered.

At a short distance from the hamlet of Hawston, on the coast of

the Caledon Division, fortuitous circumstances revealed there lately

evidence of occupation by man and beast of rock-shelters differing

somewhat from those recorded hitherto.

While removing slabs for building purposes from the roof of a

moderate-sized cave having a broad opening, and well known to the

inhabitants of the neighbourhood, mostly fisher-folk, there were

exposed to view several long, tunnel-like fissures, which, on exami-

nation, were found to be almost completely filled with bones of

animals.

These fissures, numbering six or seven, radiated from that part of

the open chamber from which the slabs had been removed; the

floor was covered with cave dust, sand mixed with a certain

quantity of humus, and they allowed of the passage of a man for

144 Annals of the South African Museum.

only a short distance. Therein were discovered three complete

human skulls and two lower jaws, but no other human bones.

Under the accumulation of animal remains that filled these fissures

other human skulls, parts of skulls, and a small number of other

human bones were discovered; also a few bits of calcined wood, and

one small stone-scraper. There had been no percolation of water

through the roof or sides, and we were told that the workman who

discovered the entrance had found several skeletons, but that,

hearing of our arrival to investigate the contents of the cave, he had

reburied them no one knew where, and had disappeared. He cer-

tainly was not to be found at the time of our visit, nor has he been

heard of for the last three years.

The person who brought me information regarding this cave had

with him a number of bones and teeth, and among them the two

implements figured in Pl. XXVII., Fig. 202, which are, or were,

primarily the horn core of the Cape Eland (Tauwrotragus oryz).

Several of the bones alluded to, including the horn cores, bore

traces of chipping, of which traces it was very difficult to say

whether they had been caused by cutting stone implements or by

the gnawing of animals such as the hyzena, the teeth of which leave

on the bones it has gnawed most characteristic traces. But a

second examination of the cave settled that pomt. Marrow bones

had been cut open both artificially and by crunching; a few of the

former bore still traces of charring, whereas those crunched by

either hyeenas or possibly also by lions showed on each side otf the

fracture the marks of teeth. Moreover, many bones not containing

marrow, such as those of the elephant, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus,

had their ends plainly gnawed. Many of the smaller bones bore

also the imprints of the teeth of small carnivora. The characteristic

marks left by the hyzena, especially on thick long bones, so greatly

resemble that produced by the slanting blow of a hatchet, that had

no human remains been ultimately discovered in these fissures one

might have been justified in considering these two horn cores as

part of the animals devoured or gnawed by beasts of prey. But on

close examination I found that the upper right part of Cut 1 of

Fig. 202, from the top to the beginning of the curve, and a little

before the middle, is not gnawed, but deeply bruised, evidently by

pounding, and that the original contour of the opposite side bears

no such marks. This core was thus used as a club, and it is indeed

a very effective one. The other horn core exhibits very plain, slant-

ing cuts at the end of its thicker part, but there is no corresponding

traces of biting on the opposite side. The only conclusion we can

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 145

come to is, therefore, that the slanting cuts have been produced by

cutting stone implements, in helping to fashion this horn core into a

club. Moreover, these clubs are, especially Cut 1 of Fig. 202, semi-

fossilised, much heavier than those of recently killed animals, and

their appearance is that of bone implements patinated, smoothed

and hardened by long usage, whereas all the bone remains were

either greatly bleached or had become very light. Many, especially

those of the elephant and hippopotamus—these were mostly lying

on or near the floor—were greatly decayed, some of the molars of

the elephant especially.

Incredible indeed was the quantity of animal remains. Most, if

not the whole, of the South African fere nature were represented in

these fissures. There lay together the bone remains of elephant,

rhinoceros, hippopotamus ; those of the southern whale and seal, of

the lion, leopard, and smaller cats; of the jackal, otter, and Viver-

ridz ; of the porcupine and other large and small rodents. Among

antelopes are the eland, koodoo, bontebok—and bushbuck and the

hartebeeste ; the bush pig is also represented, and together with all

the remains are also to be found the buffalo, the ox, and the fat-

tailed sheep.

The extreme abundance of animal remains seems to imply an

alternate occupation of the shelter by man and beast. This accumu-

lation of bone debris has a parallel in Europe. In a Mousterian

cave of the Hte. Sadne, in France (Echinoz la Moline), there were

found remains of no less than eight hundred cavern bears (Ursus

speleus). In another ‘“ station ”’ relics of some six thousand horses

were counted. In the first case it is doubtful if these terrible beasts

had been laid low by primitive man; in the second they certainly

had,

In the dens of the hyzna not only whole skeletons of this animal

are found, butits presence or occupation is revealed by its fossilised

coproliths, as well as by the characteristic teeth-marks left on the

bones it gnawed or cracked, characteristics already mentioned-

Dens are also found in Europe where, doubtless, beast and hunter

have replaced each other; the first occupier was the hyena, the

second the bear, the third man. It becomes thus interesting to

compare the result of the investigations of the Hawston cave and

see if they fit or not with the authenticated conclusions arrived at in

Europe.

The human skulls are found near the entrance of the fissures which

are themselves separated from the large, open-mouthed chamber ;

there also are found a few human bones, under the accumulation of

146 Annals of the South African Museum.

animals’ bones. The remains had been disturbed before a proper

examination was made. When this took place, the humus of the

crevices yielded very few human remains, but the skulls were either

complete, or when incomplete (2), the parts had merely become

separated; the sutures were intact. None of these remains has been

interfered with by hyzenas. Therefore they must needs have been

deposited there before the advent of the latter. They had by this

time been so dessicated that they could prove no tempting morsel.

The dismemberment of the human skeletons is probably caused by

a ‘‘remaniement,”’ or disturbance of the cavern fissures, with their

accumulation of animal remains.

But these remains do not represent whole skeletons of animals.

If they did, it would go to show that they belonged to animals that

took refuge there to die. This absence corresponds to, or coincides

with, what is known to have obtained in the caves or rock-shelters

of Europe. There the hunter seems to have been especially fond of

the head and marrow bones. He seldom brought to his shelter or

cantonments the whole of his quarry, especially when it was a large

one. He carried to it those parts only which he relished—the head

and fleshy parts. Vertebre and ribs are seldom met with in these

stations.

In this Hawston cave ribs are rare, and vertebra scarce in pro-

portion to the remains.

Several of the skulls of animals of prey are fractured, and it is

therefore probable that these beasts were slain by man, and that the

skulking hyena or the daring jackal, taking advantage of man’s

absence, entered the shelter and feasted on his leavings

Two frontal parts—one that of a young ox, the other that of an

antelope—are so clearly severed that it could have been done by man

only, and this with a cleaving instrument.

It is therefore probable that the cave was used first as a place of

burial, in the manner described further on, in the Outeniqua caves.

Game being more abundant, or edible shells less common, the

accumulation of the debris did not form a shell mound. The dead

would be buried or deposited in the fissures. The presence, how-

ever, of domesticated animals can only be explained by the assump-

tion of a reoccupation by man at a later date.

At no very great distance from the Hawston cave another was

found, consisting of one chamber without traces of fissures, but the

only things met with there were two ostrich egg-shell bead-disks

and a small scraper-knife.

This cave, situated in proximity to the other, has a parallel in the

The Stone Ages of South Africa, 147

discovery of the Coldstream cave, of which an account is given

further on ; but there the case is reversed. At Coldstream, besides

the one containing the sepultures, there was discovered, about a

mile or so from it, another cave that ‘‘ contained no skeleton but a

quantity of animal bones. It seemed a sort of shooting or hunting

box.”

This fact would add strength to the theory that the accumulation

of the animal bones in the Hawston cave is due to the act of man.

About one mile from the Hawston cave, and close to the lagoon,

there was found a large boucher. It may, of course, be a mere

coincidence, but it is well worth noting that the clean, slanting cut

so apparent at the end of the horn core, in Cut 2 of Fig. 202, was

certainly not obtained by means of a knife-scraper; it appears to

have been produced by a heavy cleaving implement, such as a

boucher.

Ture Caves AND Rock-SHELTERS OF THE TZITZIKAMA AND OUTENIQUA.

Let us now see if the cultural relics of the troglodytic, or cavern

dwellings, Aborigines of the littoral differ materially from those of

the open-air midden makers, or of the cave- or rock-shelter dwellers

of the inland districts.

The caves known to have been inhabited, or in which relics of

primitive man have been found, extend from the coast of the

Cape Division to that of Humansdorp. It does not follow, how-

ever, that they are restricted to that part of the coast, but others

have not been discovered hitherto either to the west or to the east

of that area. They appear to be more numerous between Knysna

and Humansdorp. In the words of Mr. H. D. R. Kingston * “the

coast for many miles about Cape Seal (Rob Berg) is rocky and

abrupt, open or sandy spaces of shore being few and far between.

The land falls suddenly and often almost precipitously from the

‘flats,’ a tableland or shelf at the foot of the Outeniqua Mountains,

with a face to the sea of some 300 or 400 feet in height. This

is scored or intersected by a number of small rivers which have cut

their way deep into the land, forming narrow and densely wooded

kloofs. The caves, or rather fissures, are usually found midway

between the top, where the rough vegetation of the veld above

fringes over, and the trembling sea below.”’

It may be added that most of these recesses are very difficult of

access ; and this point is of great importance because it shows that

* “Notes on some Caves in the Tzitzikama or Outeniqua District, and the

Objects found therein’’ (Journ. Anthrop. Inst., xxx., 1900).

148 Annals of the South African Museum.

the inmates took shelter there as a protection from wild beasts, and

possibly also from men.

Thus Leith,* speaking of the caves at Mossel Bay: ‘It could

only be reached by scrambling up a very steep talus of rubbish at

the risk of slipping downwards into deep water, or from the top by

a still more dangerous path.”

Ibid.: ‘‘ 1 found the entrance to the cave about 15 feet above sea-

level, in a cliff about 200 feet high. The cave is reached from the top

by climbing down a very steep and rocky path, at the foot of which

a 3Q-foot ladder takes one to the entrance. As this could not

possibly have been the pathway used by its former occupants, I

looked about for another, but in vain.”

Kingston states: ‘To our cave we scramble and climb from the

shore below and enter by the roughly rounded ;window-like opening

to the west.”

Ibid. : ‘Our better fortune was to find another cave at a greater

height above the sea, but so difficult of access that it had evidently

remained intact.”

Writing of the Coldstream cave just discovered, Mr. J. 8. Henkel,

of the Forest Department, who has very kindly set inquiries on foot

in his Conservancy for the discovery of such caves and their contents,

writes: ‘‘The cave was very difficult of approach. This cave, so

called, an overhanging mass of rocks, is about 100 yards distant

from the mouth of the river, and the floor of the cave about 50 or

60 feet above sea-level.’’ An examination showed that there were no

signs of any human beings having, in recent times, entered or in

any way disturbed the cave.”

These caves or recesses are filled with debris of shells, even up to

a short distance from the roof; occasionally bat guano helps to

complete. Intermingled with the debris, which is often of con-

siderable depth, are found, either on the surface or in layers, stone

and bone implements, as well as bones of fish, mammals, birds,

ornaments made of sea-shells, and skeletons so numerous, that the

question arises, Were not the caves and shelters where skeletons

abound, used as necropoles rather than as habitations for the living ?

They may prove to have been both.

In the open-air middens of the sea-coast I have recorded the find

at Blaawberg of the skeleton of a woman under a layer of shell

debris that had been a midden; but there is nothing to prove that

the place, or that particular spot, was abandoned either temporarily

* G. Leith, ‘‘On the Caves, Shell Mounds, and Stone Implements of South

Africa” (Journ. Anthrop. Instit., xix., 1899).

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 149

or for good, or that the dwellers had selected another more or less

distant spot to resume their mode of life. The evidence of the shell

mounds of the San Francisco Bay region might be comparable

to ours.

‘‘These people buried their dead in the collection of shells and

other debris in the neighbourhood of their dwellings.” * But there

is no suggestion that they resumed their abode above their dead. In

these caves or shelters of the Tzitzikama we, however, meet with

evidence of a nature not hitherto recorded, and the parallel of which

has also not been found hitherto, because in several cases the

dwellers seem, in spite of some precautions against the possible

return of the dead, to have either continued to live in the necropolis,

or to have returned to it for the resumption of their mode of life.+

Most of these caves have been disturbed and their contents sifted

and removed, because the farmers in these parts utilise the mixture

of dark loam, decomposed shells, wood ashes, and especially bat

guano which fill the caves, as fertiliser for their lands. With this

debris, which has been known to be 20 feet thick, have been found

coarse flake-knives, some of them of large size and made mostly of

a glassy quartzite (Pl. XIII., Fig. 104).

But before discussing their affinity with the South African relics,

I shall quote here original accounts given me, which will, I am sure,

prove of interest.

The first of Mr. R. E. Dumbleton’s communications, relating his

search for skeletons, was printed in the Cape Town Dvuocesain

College and School Magazine, 1892, but he has since supplemented

it on several points.

“The cave is situated not far from the mouth of the Touw River

in the George District, Cape Colony, and contains a very thick

layer of guano. At various times people digging in this have dis-

covered bones, shells, ashes, and other unmistakable traces of human

habitation ; but it was not until about a year ago that any human

remains were discovered. Then a farmer, anxious to turn the

guano deposit to account, removed a quantity of it, and in so doing

discovered a skeleton, apparently of a young man. However, either

from curiosity, superstition, or some other cause, the skull was

broken in and some of the bones were lost. For the purpose of

* N.C. Nelson, ‘‘ Shell Mounds of the San Francisco Bay Region.”

+ Sparrman, who visited Tzitzikama in 1775, says of some fugitive Hottentots

which he met on a farm in the ‘‘ Lange Kloof,’’ that they confessed having come

from the Outeniqua by crossing the mountains ; that they had there a good master,

but that they preferred returning to their country, especially because the death of

one of them made it a law that they should change their abode.

150 Annals of the South African Museum.

procuring one or more skeletons, I proceeded to this cave during the

recent vacation. I commenced my search near the middle, and

close to where the former discovery had been made. After digging

for a short time a skull appeared at a depth of about 2 feet from

the surface. I removed the layer of earth carefully, so as to

discover the exact position of the skeleton. When this was done, I

found that it was completely enveloped in a thick casing of dry

sea-weed (Zostera maritima), which was still in a perfect state of

preservation. Inside this again was the hair of a bushbuck skin,

which had evidently been wrapped round the body. The skin

itself had entirely rotted away, but the hair was still in good state of

preservation. After removing all this very carefully, the position of

the whole body was made quite clear. It was lying on the left side,

facing towards the back of the cave, with the knees and hands

doubled up to near the chin. Having ascertained this, I proceeded

to take up the bones. On coming to the head I discovered imme-

diately in front of the face two tortoise-shells, which, however, fell

to pieces on being touched. With these there was the lumbar

vertebra of a large ruminant, several flint scrapers, and also a

peculiar instrument consisting of a piece of flint fixed in gum-

cement, in which was inserted a piece of wood about 4 inches long,

serving as handle. The latter, unfortunately, was perfectly rotten,

and broke off short. On raising the skull I found that it was resting

on a third tortoise-shell, which also fell to pieces. On examining

the teeth, I found that they were all very much worn and several

were decayed, while one or two were missing altogether.” *

Encouraged by the result of his find, Mr. Dumbleton began

excavations anew, with the following result :—

‘« We commenced operations round about where the previous two

skeletons had been exhumed, and found nothing but layers of ash

and shell with a few bones of animals here and there. Among

these bones were some of large fish, birds, bucks of different sizes,

and buffaloes.

“Then we tried a slightly higher part at the back of the cave.

Here we found a large quantity of dried grass spread out over a

considerable space, which was evidently used as a bed. This was

quite near the surface, and below were the usual layers of ash and

shells. We next turned our attention to the mouth of the cave,

where the soil is considerably deeper, and here we soon found some

* This skeleton, which proved to be that of an adult male, was presented to the

Museum, and is now mounted. The implement, now also ours, with the wooden

handle, is figured in Pl. XIX., Fig. 150.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 151

dry sea-weed at about 3 feet from the surface. Knowing that

there would be a skeleton below this, we removed the earth from

above it very carefully, and then took off the covering of sea-

weed, leaving the bones exposed. We at once saw that it was the

skeleton of a small child having still a full set of milk teeth. It was

placed in a crouching position, face downwards, and with arms and

legs doubled up behind the body, probably with a view of putting it

in as small a hole as possible. In taking up the bones I discovered

a number of bits of ostrich egg-shell, each of which had two holes

in it.*

“These had evidently been strung together for a necklace and

buried with the child, but there were no other ornaments to be

found. The skeleton itself was in a somewhat dilapidated condition,

the skull being in several pieces, and the lower jaw broken in half,

so that it would appear to have been buried at a very much earlier

period than either of the other two skeletons, which were in perfect

condition when taken out. The position, at the mouth of the cave,

and the depth at which it was buried also point to the same conclu-

sion. There seems to have been no sort of ceremony about this

funeral, such as placing a tortoise-shell for the head to rest on, nor

did I find any implements about the head as was the case in the last

discovery.”

At my urgent request Mr. Dumbleton resumed his search, and he

investigated five caves at Rob Berg, Knysna District, and found

there several skeletons which he sent us with the following account

of his search. (See sketch map.)

‘Nos. 1 and 2 are somewhat mutilated skulls which have been

disturbed from their original resting-places but left lying in cave

No. 1. They are only included for such measurements as may be

obtained from them, and are probably of little further use.

‘No. 3 was also found in cave No. 1, very far back, and at about

3 feet from the surface lying just above the second of three distinct

layers of ash and shell. All the bones found with it have been

included with this specimen, but obviously many are still missing,

and no trace of them could be found by sifting. A large water-worn

stone—evidently used as a mill—(mortar) with a smooth groove on

one side was found in close proximity to this skull.

“Nos. 4 and 5.—These two skeletons of a full-grown person and

child were both found in cave No. 3, which, luckily, had never been

* IT have lately seen a disk of the same material with two holes; and in the

district of Willowmore were found bits of Unio shells each also with two perfora-

tions (cf. Pl. XXV., Fig. 187).

152 Annals of the South African Museum.

disturbed by guano-seekers or others. This cave is very lofty but

not deep, and the skeletons were practically on the surface, No. 4

being only covered by a few inches of cave dirt, and No. 5 by so

little that a portion of the skull was actually protruding when found.

No. 4 was lying about 3 yards from the back of the cave, and No. 5

almost touching the rock. The graves were evidently only holes

scratched in the ashes just large enough to contain the bodies, which

as usual lay all hunched wp on their sides. Both these skeletons

were removed with great care. They have been packed up exactly

as found, without any attempt at cleaning, as most appear to be

partly decayed and are very brittle.

BLT EINE AGS.

INDIAN OCEAN

0 1 2 RES

(Ce ee = al J

SKETCH MAP SHOWING POSITION OF BUSHMAN CAVES AT ROB BERG, KNYSNA

DISTRICT.

“Very few implements of any sort were found with these speci-

mens, but a few stones which may have been scrapers,* and a bit of

pottery found on the sand-hills near cave No. 1 have been included

in the box.

“Four caves (No. 2 on sketch) close together, one being very

deep, were also examined, but all of these had been ransacked by

guano hunters, and nothing of any value was obtained from them.

‘All the caves contain immense quantities of shells and layers of

ash. No paintings were found in them.

“A spot, some 20 yards in front of cave No. 1, was pointed out

* The usual uncouth scraper, of small size.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 153

where numerous human bones have been found and dug out, but

this place is now under cultivation, and consequently not worth

searching over.”

Mr. H. A. Fourcade, of Storms River, not very far from Rob Berg,

adds his quota of observations, which, however, differ in a material

point, z.e., the posture of the skeleton, with that of other searchers.

He wrote :—

“As to your questions, I answer them seriatim.

“1, The skeletons were wrapped in a cover of ‘sea-grass,’ probably

Zostera maritima. I do not think that the skin of any animal was

added as a wrap; traces of it would have been left.

‘«2. The one or two skeletons, the original position of which could

be ascertained, were inhumed in a vertical position, as if they had

been sitting, and with the knees tucked up.

‘“‘ 3. I have not noticed any implement the situation of which

showed indubitably that they had been inhumed with the body. It

seemed, however, that the grave had been covered with a flat stone,

covered in turn with breccia debris.”

The ‘sitting posture’ of at least one of the skeletons here

mentioned does not thus concord with the horizontal one noticed

by other observers. But Mr. Fourcade emphasises it, and it must

be remembered that the so-called up-country Bush ‘people are said

to have been buried in a sitting position.”

The news of Mr. R. E. Dumbleton’s last successful search became

known, and some residents of Knysna, prompted by the fabulous

prices which rumour had proclaimed were obtainable for Bush

skeletons, set to work to investigate all the caves and shelters

that could be discovered. Several skeletons were found, but

obtained in a manner that forbids any subsequent attempt at

ascertaining the stratification of the caves. Mr. R. Atkinson, from

whom we obtained two such relics, supplied me kindly, at my

request, with the following information, which to a great extent

corroborates that of Mr. Dumbleton, as well as that of Mr. J. S.

Henkel. ;

* See L. Péringuey, ‘‘ Rock Engravings of Animals and the Human Figure ”’

(Trans. 8. Afric. Phil. Soc., xviii., 1909, p. 4).

‘““Some years ago, in digging a grave, the workmen came across a human

skeleton at the depth of 3 feet. Judging from the manner of burial, in a

sitting position, we supposed it to be a Bushman grave” (Rey. Westphal).

‘**T was told by an old Bushman that it was not the custom to bury the body

deep. It was generally put in a sitting position, the legs being doubled up, pressed

against the body, and the head bent forward before rigor mortis set in” (J. G.

Connan).

154 Annals of the South African Museum.

““ When in search of Bushman remains we explored about a dozen

caves between the Knysna Heads and Plettenberg Bay, and though

we found several skeletons, they were all more or less in a bad state

of preservation, owing to the caves being more or less wet from the

overhead drip. Eventually we got to Cape Seal (Rob Berg), when

about a quarter of a mile east of the one in which R. E. Dumbleton

found the skeletons he sent you, we found a fairly dry cave. In

this we started work systematically to a depth of from 4 to 6 feet,

and after fourteen days’ work we had found as many skeletons, con-

sisting of two infants, one half-grown female child, one adult woman,

and the rest adult males, all with the exception of the children, in a

good state of preservation ; they were lying on their sides, some-

times the right and sometimes the left, with knees drawn up towards

the chin. The debris in which we found them consisted of bones

of birds and animals, some sea-weed, ashes, and tons of every. kind

of sea-shell from the adjacent ocean. The cave was about 40 feet

from the sea and about 30 feet above it. Everything in it was more

or less impregnated with salt, which, in my opinion, served to pre-

serve the bones, &c. Though the cave had a good many ash-heaps

in it, we found no signs of pottery or other utensils (excepting some

bone and stone knives) nor had any of the shells been subjected to

the action of fire; many still had sea-weed adhering to them. I

consider that the great amount of shells and other debris to a depth

of 6 feet in places must have taken very long to accumulate.”

The description of a cave quite recently discovered is sent me by

Mr. 8. J. Henkel, of the Forest Department * :—

“The cave, so-called, is an overhanging mass of rock. It is about

100 yards distant from the mouth of the river, and the floor of the

cave about 50 or 60 feet above sea-level. The cave is a fissure in

Table Mountain sandstone which here had asteep dip. The sketches

on page 155 will give an idea of the appearance of the cave.

“In order to ascertain the nature of the deposits Mr. Witcher, sen.,

dug a trench about the middle of the cave, 1 foot wide, across the de-

posit. When a depth of about 18 inches was reached the skull of a

human being was found in a fair state of preservation. Mr. Witcher

was much interested in this discovery, and decided to commence

operations at the southern extremity and carefully remove a section.

‘“The material, consisting of shells, ash, &c., appeared useful as

manure, and with a view to utilising it a road and footpath were

constructed. The material, covering a section of about 9 square

* A short account of the excavations carried out by us in this cave will appear

in an Appendix.

The Stone Ayes of South Africa. 155

yards, was carefully searched and removed, in most cases by him.

The excavation was commenced in the southern part of the cave

24.

PLAN OF FLOOR OF CAVE, WHEN DISCOVERED.

Fia.

ELEVATION.

__pide sketch. When a depth of about 2 feet was reached human

remains were discovered more or less decayed owing to dampness.

The skeletons were complete, but the skulls were usually found

156 Annals of the South African Museum.

to be broken. It was soon discovered that each skeleton had three

or four flat stones placed directly over the remains. At about

2 feet 6 inches the skeleton of what appeared to be a woman was

discovered ; next to it was the skeleton of a child approximately two

to three years old. The skeleton of the child had two flat stones

above it. It was lying on its right side. The left hand was lying

across the neck. The legs were doubled up, the knees nearly

touching the chin. The debris was carefully removed, and sur-

rounding the wrists and ankles were pieces of perforated bone or

ostrich-shell averaging 5%, of an inch in diameter. The ‘ beads’

were strung on a cord, which, however, crumbled away as soon as

touched. One hundred and forty-two ‘beads’ were collected, but

this does not represent the total number, as some were lost. The

perforations appear to have been made in the same manner as the

holes in the ‘stone hammers’ (! kwés)—that is to say, they were

conical in shape, commenced from either side, meeting in the centre.

The beads are in a good state of preservation.

“At the same elevation and underneath a flat stone, in a cavity

8 or 9 inches deep, were discovered a number of shells averaging

about 1 inch in diameter, each being perforated so as to admit of

being threaded, apparently used as a wrist or waist ornament

(Pl. XXVII., Fig. 208). No cord was found. Ninety-one shells

in good preservation were found—about a dozen or fifteen had

perished.*

“Excavation was continued to a depth of about 9 feet, and up to

the time of my visit in July, 1909, seventeen skeletons were dis-

covered. In every case flat stones were found to cover the skeleton.

These stones appear to have been placed directly upon the body,

as shown by the evidence of the bones in some cases adhering to

the stones, and other indications produced by decomposition of the

flesh. In every case the skeletons were doubled up in a manner some-

what similar to that of the child already described. All the skeletons

discovered by Mr. Witcher were lying on the right side. His son, how-

ever, asserts that one skeleton he removed was lying on the left side.

‘In the course of excavation three stones were found on which

drawings were executed in black.

“On No. 1 are four drawings of human beings with prominent

calves and buttocks. The sizes of the figures are respectively 44,

44, 44, and 14 inches (Pl. XXVII., Fig. 199).

‘‘On No. 2 is to be seen the figure of a human being (Pl. XXVIL.,

Fig. 201).

* They are small examples of Cassis achatina, Lam.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 157

‘No. 3 contained four drawings of animals; the largest animal

appears to represent a wildebeeste, two smaller animals drawn facing

one another appear to be steinboks, and the fourth a bluebuck.

‘‘Unfortunately the drawings on stone No. 3 have disappeared,

as it was left exposed to the weather.

“On the walls of the cave, which are discoloured by smoke, no

drawings have hitherto been discovered. In the course of excava-

tion different coloured bits of clay were found. The drawings

on the flat stones are made with charcoal.

‘«« As already intimated, the debris in the cave was systematically

removed in layers, bagged and used as manure, on lands in the

neighbourhood. The straight perpendicular wall of the northern

face of the section shows clearly the method in which the debris

accumulated.

“The latter consists principally of various species of shells, ash,

and fragments of bone, both of animals and fish. Interspersed

here and there are chips of stone, water-worn stones, and household

tools consisting of stone plates,* stone hammers, scrapers, bone

needles, &e.

“This debris appears to have accumulated entirely by human

agency, that is to say, it is the waste products of articles of food,

such as shells and bones of animals and fish used, the ash from

fires, &c. The fires appear generally to have been made some

distance from the walls of the cave—say 10 to 15 feet—because

little or no ash is found near the walls or the looser texture of the

debris. It is interesting to note that no attempt appears to have

been made by the inhabitants of the cave to remove any waste

material. There are, however, indications—though further inves-

tigation is required—that fires were made above the graves. There

are no indications that the graves were of any depth; on the con-

trary, from the number of skeletons found at varying depths it

would appear that only shallow excavations were made sufficient

to admit a corpse and to permit of the flat stones being placed a few

inches below or flush with the then floor of the cave.

‘Tn order to verify the statement made by Mr. Witcher, I carefully

examined the section of the cave exposed by the excavations up to

the 14th of July, 1909—the date of my visit. I found an excava-

tion about 9 yards square and a depth of 9 feet. In my presence a

further layer was removed and a skeleton discovered. It had above

it three flat stones. It was lying on its right side with knees

drawn up to the chin. The arms were also bent. The skull was

* We shall see later on that these are painting palettes.

158 Annals of the South African Musewm.

broken, probably owing to the weight of material above it. The

skeleton appeared to be that of a full-grown man and much decayed.

‘In another part of the cave, about 2 feet below the present

surface, the skeletons of two children were found. In these two

cases only one flat stone was placed above the body. In one case,

part of the skeleton was found adhering to the stone, showing

clearly that the stone was placed directly above the body. The

stones removed from the graves were carefully examined, but no

indications of paintings on them were found.

“The cave still contains a great deal of debris, and it is estimated

that at least fifty skeletons may still be found.

“Up to the present over twenty skeletons have been discovered in

this cave.” *

A communication of this importance requires, however, careful

perusal, and I had less hesitation in asking Mr. Henkel for more

details because I enjoy his friendship, and I have good reasons also

for appreciating his power of observation.

This is his answer to my further queries: ‘‘ I notice in your note

of the . . . that you lay emphasis on the position of the skeleton.

All I can say is, the three I took out were distinctly lying on their

sides. W. says that all those he had taken out, about seventeen,

were lying on the right side. From the position of the stones it is

quite evident that the bodies were not buried in an upright position.

You will observe from my account that there was no direct evidence

to connect the stones decorated with drawings with skeletons,

although in the first instance I was led to believe that this was

so.t Further with regard to your letter of . . ., the skeletons I

removed showed no evidence of a bushbuck skin. Fine remains of

organic matter were discovered, but nothing to show that it was

other than the human remains. No tortoise-shell, no implement as

sketched by you.| Numerous round perforated stones (! kwés)

some showing many chips, and seemingly used for a long time,

were also discovered.”

The evidence obtained from this Coldstream cave throws a good

deal of light on the mode of life of the people that inhabited it.

New facts of very great importance are revealed; others corroborate

discoveries already made in similar localities, and it is interesting to

* The relics mentioned in that account of the discovery of the Coldstream cave

are now in the Museum Collection.

+ Subsequent excavations carried out by us have proved that these stones with

paintings were deposited on the skeleton.

+ That of Pl. XIX., Fig. 150.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 159

compare these results carefully. Let us therefore examine in detail

the domestic utensils found in these Outeniqua-Tzitzikama caves.

Of stone implements we have large scraper-knives, several are

figured (Pl. XIII., Fig. 104); some have worn edges, in others that

part is sharp. None of these, however, seems to have been buried

with the corpse, whereas the ornaments of the defunct in several

cases were.* The two exceptions known are the hafted tool

(Fig 150, Pl. XIX.) from the Touw River cave discovered by Mr.

Dumbleton, and another from Rob Berg, acquired lately by the

Graham’s Town Museum.

The knife-scrapers are of the same material and shape as

those found at Cape St. Blaize, and may be of any age, but we

possess a lanciform one which is as much worn by exposure as

any I have selected in order to demonstrate the antiquity of

these artefacts.

The other stone implements are pounders and grinders of the

usual shape (Figs. 168 and 170, Pl. XXIII.), some are somewhat

cylindrical but they concord more or less with those found in the

open-air middens.

Then, we have the !kwés, but although it may safely be said

that two of these perforated, or partly perforated, stones are never

alike, we notice in those occurring in the Tzitzikama caves a great

difference. None is as large or as thick as those found up-country

or outside the shelters. There is a tendency to flatness, and even

to reduce the natural flatness of the stone selected; Cut 2 of

Fig. 156, Pl. XX. is only 1 em. thick, and No. 3, 2 cm. in thickness.

I know of examples one face of which has plainly been ground to

reduce the thickness, and the convexity of the other side is very

little pronounced. The median orifice of those flat disks is very

small, cf. Cut 2 of Fig. 156, Pl. XX. This disk is so thin that it

might be taken for a spindle-weight, whereas it is doubtless an

ornament. One side of Cut 3 of Fig. 156 shows plain marks of it

having been used as a grinding tool. Even the larger ! kwés,

perforated or not, are somewhat depressed (Cut 1 of Fig. 155),

and in this they correspond to a good many examples found in

the Cape Peninsula and also in the inland districts (cf. Nos. 1, 3,

Od; Of Big. 153, Pl. XX.).

These flat disks with a very small perforation are not, however,

absolutely restricted to these caves. Cut 1 of Fig. 156 was found in

the Stellenbosch District while ploughing a field. But it is the

only implement of this kind found outside the Tzitzikama area.

* See also Appendix.

160 Annals of the South African Museum.

In this Coldstream cave were also found plates of slate not more

than 5 mm. in thickness (see text-fig. 25, and also Pl. XXVILI.,

Fig. 196).

Their use was explained quite lately only by the examination of a

similarly shaped laminate stone, resembling the left specimen of

Fic. 25. x 4.

Fig. 196, and covered still with a red pigment—ochre mixed with a

fatty substance, which shone more and was thicker on the edges.

These implements are therefore proved to have been used as

palettes, not palettes from which the Bush artists picked their

paint, but an implement by means of which they besmeared their

body or parts of the body.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 161

This type of palette is not, however, restricted to the caves of the

littoral. The specimen that has still retained the pigment on one

side was discovered in the Oliphants River valley, Cape Colony, in a

rock-shelter with rude paintings. The example on the right of

Fig. 196 is from the Beaufort West District of Cape Colony. So

far I know of these six implements only, but others may have been

overlooked.

An interesting point is that these besmearing palettes are

identical, some in shape, but all in thickness, to those discovered

in the dolmens (Menhirs, Cromlechs) of Aveyron, in Southern

France, and also in prehistoric Egyptian tombs.”

Had not the preservation of this red pigment indicated plainly the

use of these implements there would have been justification in con-

sidering them as braying tools, for they fit the hand wonderfully

well for this purpose, and there is also no reason for their not

having served as such.

Our troglodytes brayed skins; of this there is little doubt, and,

if there was any as to their wearing them as clothes or protection

against the rigour of the cold season, this doubt will be easily set

aside by a glance at the bone bodkins occurring in these caves.

Cut 5 of Fig. 172, Pl. XXIII., was found in the rock-shelter where

the doubly perforated ornaments (Fig. 187 of Pl. XXV.), made of

nacreous shells, were discovered; Cut 4 of the same Fig. (the

lower one) from one of the Knysna caves, has counterparts in

Cut 4 of Fig. 172, Pl. XXIII. Fig. 194, Pl.. XXVI. represents

wing-bones of sea-birds turned into awls or needles. The great

interest attaching to two of the examples here figured is their

ornamentation, which in Cut 2 of the Fig. consists of fine

vertical, parallel lines, and of others crossing each other at such an

angle as to produce lozenge-shaped intervals. In the middle of

Cut 1 of the same Fig. we have a chevron pattern, somewhat

rough, but it is the first and probably the sole example of its

kind known. +

But there are in the Tzitzikama-Outeniqua caves bone implements

other than awls or bodkins. Cut 2 of Fig 193 appears to be the

bone tip of an arrow; the bone-point (Cut 6 of Fig. 193), might

certainly have served as an arrow-head. Then, in addition to

these, we have bone knives. Fig. 1 of Pl. XXIII. is a very

* Cartailhac, ‘‘ Les palettes des dolmens Aveyronnais et des tombes Egyptiennes ”’

(Bull. Soc. Arch. Midi., 1906).

+ Among the Bantu races, especially the Bechuanas, this chevron pattern is in

general use.

162 Amnals of the South African Musewm.

effective instrument for detaching shell-fish. Judging from the

length and slant of the cutting part its maker and presumably

owner, was left-handed. Cut 2 of Fig. 193 is an ivory knife

that has seen much service. It is a stout one, bearing on both

faces the unmistakable traces of the small stone implements which

helped to fashion it into its present shape. Cut 1 of the same Fig.

is a strong borer, also made of bone. All these bone tools bear

that unmistakable patina that long use at man’s hand imparts.

The ornaments that have been found in the Tzitzikama caves,

seem to consist mostly of shells perforated so as to be strung, or

worn singly. Thus in Fig. 203, Pl. XXVII., the perforation of the

shell (Conus rosaceus) is transverse, and was caused, therefore, by a

cutting implement; Fig. 204, a limpet (Patella cochlear), is, on the

other hand, perforated by a piercer, and so are ali the shells of

Cassis achatina (Fig. 205), which formed either a necklace or a girdle.

These examples were found on the skeletons or adhering to

them, and anklets of ostrich egg-shell beads, recalling the form and

size of those encircling the lower part of the trunk of the semi-

fossilised skeleton of the Blaauwberg midden, were discovered on the

ankles and arms of one of the inhumed children in the Coldstream

cave and the Touw’s River caves.

This would show that although it may not have been a general

practice the ornaments were buried with the body.

And now the question arises, Do these traces of culture, simple

though they are, denote a more advanced stage in the troglodytic

Strand Looper, for Strand Loopers they indubitably were—than in

those that lived in the open-air middens, or in the up-country caves

or rock-shelters ? The answer is in the negative.

In one of my papers on Rock-engravings of animals, the human

figure, &c.,* I have by inadvertence allowed to be printed the

statement that it was very doubtful if the Strand Looper belonged

to the artistic race with which the Bushman is connected, because

so far no relic of art in any form had been found in their shelters

or sepultures. I had the less justification in allowing this state-

ment, which was really intended to disprove the connection between

rock-gravings and Bushmen as the aborigines that produced them,

to go to press, that for many years we had in our Collection a

fragment of rock found in one of the Knysna caves, by Mr. Cheva-

lier, somewhere in the early seventies.

This picture (Fig. 200, Pl. XX VIL.), is not of parietal, or wall nature;

it was executed on a fallen rock fragment. In view of what we

* Trans. S. Afric. Phil. Soc., xviii., 1909, p. 418.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 163

know now regarding the position in which skeletons lay, it is per-

haps permissible to consider the scene as not men dancing, but men

inhumed or going to be inhumed.

For a long time this example of the troglodytic art remained

unique, and it was necessary to wait for new discoveries before

asserting that the dwellers in caves and those living in the open had

the same artistic temperament and the same ability to express it.

The fact may be said to be clearly established now.

In the Coldstream cave were found three charcoal paintings. The

first Fig. 200, figured in Pl. XXVII., may have been parietal, yet it

is difficult to accept the theory that the fragment fell from the rock

as it now stands. But the doubt is not permissible as far as Fig. 199

is concerned. This is not a parietal painting. The scene is executed

on what was once a quern or mortar, with only a moderately deep

artificial depression. I know of no other such occurrence here, but

Mr. J. M. Bain informs me that near the mouth of the Orange

River he found a scene painted on the shoulder-blade of what must

have been a very large seal.

Both these representations were found in the stratification of the

Coldstream cave; there is evidence, now, that they were laid

on the skeletons. They are fading so rapidly that we had a great

deal of difficulty in reproducing them, and the ‘“ touching’”’ of the

negatives however skilfully made by Mr. A. R. Walker, one of our

Museum assistants, may prove to be very slightly inaccurate. Mr.

Henkel reports that the third one became obliterated as soon as

exposed to light. The representation on this quern (Fig. 199) is that

of a dance executed by women. The steatopygia, the extremely

swollen calf of the legs,* and the hanging mamme go to prove it.

The head of the child and his position are somewhat realistic. There

is another feature which is of extreme importance; it is the half-

moon-like circle surmounting the heads of the dancers.t In a large

-hunting scene from the Cedar Mountains (Cape Colony) a similar

half-moon, or rather crescent, surmounts the head of the hunters

who, armed with a club, go to attack a herd of elephants.

The same head-dress is also to be found on rock-paintings in the

Piquetberg District of the Cape Colony. Could this be a “totem ”’ ?

But that it is a distinctive badge, there can, I think, be no doubt.

* J have good reason to believe that this extraordinarily large representation of

the legs is due to the leather or grass rings worn formerly by these natives,

especially the females.

+ I must, however, explain that on the partly obliterated original these crescents

are not quite so plain as shown in the illustration, but after a very careful examina-

tion I am satisfied that they were meant to be as now represented.

164 Annals of the South African Museum.

And on the whole these painted scenes, and also the “ mobilier,’’

or domestic implements, go to show that these cave-dwellers were

members of a race that was not necessarily troglodytic and sedentary ;

in all likelihood they also sallied forth as their wants or desires

prompted. It might be urged that, safe from foes in their dwellings,

they led there a quiet, perhaps simple, certainly monotonous life;

that there they were born and thereafter buried. We have, however,

in addition to the one adduced, other evidence that such was not the

case, and that although there may have been among the shelter-

dwellers some “stay at homes,’’ others went abroad. One of my

reasons for making this assertion is the find in the Coldstream

cave of two crocodile teeth, pertaining to an animal of no mean

S1Ze.

Although the rising of that part of the coast is not only far from

improbable but most likely, yet it would be rash indeed to assert

that the climate had altered so much since man’s occupation of the

cave that saurians, known to require tropical conditions, could have

existed in the Coldstream River. It is simpler to conclude that these

teeth were brought to the cave from distant parts.

We have also pictorial evidence of a similar character.

Fig. 198, Pl. XXVII., is the reproduction of a ‘‘ Bushman ”’ paint-

ing, from the “ Lange Kloof,” not very far from Knysna and Humans-

dorp. The interest attaching to this painted scene is not the human

head on the left, executed posteriorly probably by a shepherd, nor the

delineation of the seals, also on the left, but of that of what is

unquestionably a giraffe.“ Like the crocodile, the giraffe requires

tropical conditions and also a very dry climate—conditions not

obtainable in the Tzitzikama-Outeniqua Districts.

We are thus faced with two alternatives: either the climatic con-

ditions have changed since the occupation of the caves by these

primitive aboriginals, a proposition which postulates an extreme

antiquity, or—and this is much more likely—these troglodytes were

* Difficult as it now is to endeavour to explain the meaning of some of these

Bush paintings, several figures of this scene speak for themselves. In the centre

is a hive-hunter smoking bees. The seals are typical—some painted red, others

white. At the bottom is a dog chasing a jackal. The use of dogs by Bush-people

must of necessity, have been a late innovation, and therefore the age of the paint-

ing must be deduced from this fact. The hand, painted red, is plainly that of a

human being, bedaubed with paint, and clumsily pressed on the rock. Had it not

been done so clumsily it might have afforded valuable information. Abbé Breuil

has recorded several impressions of the same kind in the now famous Altamira

cayes, and it is of interest to mention that in some cases, one of the fingers was

mutilated. This mutilation was by no means uncommon among the Hottentot-

Bush people.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 165

great rovers, and had seen in their wanderings towards the North

both crocodiles and giraffes. They, or at least one of them, retained

such an impression of the latter as to be able to retrace one,

awkwardly it is true, but none the less realistically, on his return

to the South.

Tue Intanp Districts Rock-SHELTERS OR CAVES.

If, leaving the littoral, we proceed to investigate the rock-

shelters of the inland districts, we find there, also, in addition to

the characteristic rock-paintings, relics of a stone and bone

industry. ;

As long as the cave-dwellers’ centres are not found far from the

littoral, there is some similarity in the domestic implements—not in

the implements themselves, but in their execution. Thus, at

Montagu, Cape Colony, in a cave-shelter filled with bat guano, was

found under several feet of this material the wonderful club repre-

sented in Pl. XIX., Fig. 153; with it was discovered the stone bead,

(No.3 of Fig. 186, Pl. XXV.). At the entrance of the rock-shelter

were a few painted figures. It is interesting to note that this club

is really a phallus, bearing plainly the intaglios of a stone scraper-

knife. Made of one of our hardest indigenous woods (Olea spec), it

has been thinned at the end so as to allow of a small hand, like

the one we know to prevail among our present Bush races, to

grasp it firmly. The shape and composition of the bead will be

treated in the chapter dealing with ornaments. Human bones are

said to have been found in the Montagu cave, but I have seen no

proof of their occurrence.

That the food of the aborigines of the littoral was mainly shell-

fish must be readily admitted. But the inland districts aboriginal

did certainly appreciate fresh-water molluscs, and their remains are

often found in rock-shelters. The contents of one sent us lately by

Dr. C. E. Piers, occurring in the Beaufort West District of the

Cape Colony, include nacreous pieces of the large fresh-water

bivalve Mutela wahlbergi, as well as pieces of the sea-shells Patella

and Halioits.

It is thus probable that these rock-shelter dwellers resorted to

the sea, for a change of diet, prompted, maybe, by a craving for

salt or salted food.

But so far as our knowledge of the relics left by the up-country

cave-dweller goes, it may safely be stated that the more removed

from the littoral, the more primitive is the culture, even when his

talent at portraying is superior. The stone implements found in

166 Annals of the South African Musewm.

the caves or rock-shelters of West- or East-Griqualand, Rhodesia,

&c., are very primitive indeed, whether these caves contain paint-

ings or not (cf. Figs. 133, 134, 1385, 136, Pl. XVII.). In Griqua-

land-West we have—but not well authenticated—a few pounders

and !kwés, in Rhodesia none has been found. They may be dis-

covered ultimately, but they are not known, so far, to occur

there.

In the Orange River Colony, however, we find a connection with

the culture of the littoral. The bone bodkins (Fig. 195, Pl. XXVI.)

are not unlike those from the Tzitzikama-Outeniqua caves, but

they are not so well finished ; the flattened appearance of the two

examples on the right of the Fig., which show a great deal

of usage, point, however, to another pursuit—that of mat-making.

The ornaments are also of another style (Figs. 206, 207, Pl. XX VIT.),

&e. There is a distinction, perhaps more apparent than real ;

but nevertheless, on the whole, the culture shows retrogression.

The following is the inventory of the domestic appliances of a

rock-shelter cave found between Wepener and Dewetsdorp, in the

Orange River Colony. They were presented to the Museum by

Mr. John Wood, and are illustrated in Pl. XXV., Figs. 185, 188, 190,

Eto?

Two bone points (Nos. 6 and 7 in Fig. 185), are made of

ostrich bone: fig. 7 is blunt at tip, but had plainly been sharp once ;

fig. 8 is pointed, and the point corresponds with the groove in the

small fragment of stone (No. 2); there is another fragment (No. 13)

bearing two grooves, one of which was intended for producing a

sharp point, judging from its smaller diameter. Nos. 8 and 10 are

tiny scraper-knives, and 9 is an agate core from which No. 10 was

produced. Nos. 4 and 12 represent horn cores, the tip of bush-buck

horns; in addition there is a partly charred stick of the thick-

ness of a pencil. No. 5 is a very small muller or brader, and

No. 1 a naturally rounded pebble that shows no trace of usage.

No. 11 is undoubtedly the most effective implement among these

domestic appliances. It is a piece of flat stone of which the

crescent-shaped upper part has been artificially ground into a

sharp cutting edge.

Whether due to exposure or to age, the horn cores and also the

bone awls show signs of extreme decay; the awls having become

very brittle and the horn cores very much split and grooved.

Pottery of four kinds was also found in this rock-shelter.

Fig. 190 represents two fragments with decorative patterns. In

No. 1 the incisions could have been produced by means of the

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 167

bone awls (Nos. 6 and 7 of Fig. 185), or the scraper (No. 8 of the

same Fig.) and the elliptical impressions on No. 2 also by the

same tool.

These fragments of pottery are not sufficiently large to enable us

to restore the original contour and to decide whether they were

conical or not.

In the same shelter were found undecorated pieces of enormously

thick earthenware (No. 2 of Fig. 192), as well as some of a thinner

kind (No. 1 of the same Fig.), and also a large fragment (Fig. 191),

which is the flat bottom of an evidently massive earthen pot.

The connection of that kind of pottery with the mobilier here

described is, however, doubtful.

Of the bill of fare of the inhabitants of this shelter we have

also traces. There were found several valves of the fresh-water

shell Unio caffer (Fig. 188, Cut 2); part of the lower jaw of the

poreupine (Cut 3); bits of ostrich egg-shells (Cuts 5 and 6), that

probably might have been eventually turned into perforated

disks. Cut 4 is a piece of the leg-bone of an antelope blackened

with age, Cut 1 is that of an ostrich and deserves special mention.

In the inner part is an artificial groove made in such a way that

either part when eventually detached, would be already adapted

partly for the grooved sharpeners (Fig. 171 of Pl. XXIII), by

means of which it would become ultimately the bone head tipping

the arrows (Fig. 142, Cut 1).

Small and few are the household goods of the occupier of this

shelter: his industry is indeed primitive, for there is no reason

to believe that he has removed the greater part of his mobilier.

He is a nomad; in his pursuit of game, perhaps also to avoid

being pursued, he must not be hampered in his movements which

perforce must be rapid. Hence the paucity of utensils, hence also

their ‘reduced size. Discarding the pottery he will take with him

his tiny tools—certainly a not overwhelming burden in his search

of pastures new.

I have selected for illustration the contents of this up-country

rock-shelter from among many known to me, or the contents of

which are stored in the Museum, but the diminutive size of

most of the implements found in the caves or rock-shelters other

than those of the littoral is apparent throughout. Whether occur-

ring in place with paintings, from which we would conjecture

that these shelters had been occupied in somewhat more than

a spasmodic manner by a clan or a number of people, or in places

from which the number of these utensils implies occupation by

either a single, or at most a few families ; or, again, whether these

168 Annals of the South African Musewm.

shelters show or not remains or traces of mural decorations in the

shape of paintings, small implements only are met with. Fig. 133

represents eleven scraper-knives from Matoppos, Southern Rhodesia,

where parietal paintings occur; Fig. 134 of eleven scraper-knives

from Modderpoort, Orange Free State, where paintings are also

found ; Fig. 135 implements from a rock-shelter which, like the one I

have dealt with, is also from Smithfield, O.F.S., and without any

painting; and Fig. 136 similar pieces from the neighbourhood of a

large cave full of frescoes in the Prieska District, Cape Colony.

Fig. 137 in Pl. XVIII. is very instructive. It represents a gun and

a spade—terribly symbolic of the fate of the race—cut or fashioned

of wood, and discovered in a small rock-shelter in the District of

Victoria West, Cape Colony, with traces of fire, &c. Together

were found the three small knife-scraper tools used for the fabrica-

tion of these wooden representations (Nos. 3, 4 and 5). That they

are of very recent age is obvious; but we have no evidence of these

pygmy tools having been hafted or held in a handle by gum-cement.

Yet had they in this instance been so treated traces of that mode of

attachment would have certainly survived the comparatively few

years that have elapsed since they were manufactured.

The conclusion is that the man who used these shelters trusted

to and relied on his bow and poisoned arrows; the rest is of no great

consequence to him. Any stone will do to cut his quarry; has

he not his firesticks with him? are pots so difficult to make, roots

so difficult to grind? But his arrow has to be tipped with

flakes with a sharp edge—stones of a kind, however, which are

not found everywhere; hence, the small agate nuclei he carries

with him, the small grinder: with which to prepare the poisoned

paste he uses for his arrows. He may have known the bouchers,

and perhaps the men that used them. What matters to him? he has

now the dreaded weapon before which every other aboriginal flees.

Boucher-maker probably he never was, and had he been it, what

would he do now with these ponderous weapon? Is not the small

chip of agate sufficient to bring his quarry down ? Is not any stone

he may pick sufficient to break the marrow bones without fashion-

ing it at great trouble into an amygdaloidal shape and carrying

it wherever he roams!

Is this man the most primitive of mankind? Are his stone

implements, then, the true eoliths, the precursors of the Chellean-

Mousterian bouchers or other tools of those periods ?

No, plainly not. He is an example of regression as far as

the lithic culture or industry is concerned, but this regression in

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 169

one direction implies a singular case of advance in another—an

advance which permitted of his survival. He, no longer a fabricator

of large tools, contrived to outlive those who were, and for aught

we know—and it is not such an improbable hypothesis—he took

their place, having mastered them through the efficacy of that tiny

weapon which he invented, namely, the poisoned arrow. Craft

versus brute force.

( 170 )

CHAPTER Sovak:

THE SEPULTURES.

If we compare the relics, as now revealed, of the open-air middens,

caves, or rock-shelters of the littoral, as well as the few yielded by

the inland caves or rock-shelters, one thing stands out, namely,

that the culture, as indicated by the stone- coupled with the bone-

industry, has many points of affinity, if it is not identical.

But the style of burial which we know now prevailed, or was

followed in the George, Outeniqua, zitzikama caves, differs so

much from what is known to obtain elsewhere in South Africa, that

it was quite justifiable to expect that there should be found with the

skeletons, and in addition to scraper-knives, some Paleolithic

implements, owing to this style of sepulture being probably more

ancient. But such is not the case, and it is the more surprising

that these large paleoliths are almost beyond counting in South

Africa, and they are also far from uncommon on the tableland at

the foot of the Outeniqua, called the ‘ flats,’’ not far from the cave

recesses.

Sparrman, the most credible of the early travellers in South Africa,

visited in 1775 the very parts of the Cape Colony where the burial

caves or rock-shelters occur, and he tells us most emphatically that

the Hottentots bury their dead naked or wrapped in their

‘‘kaross’’* in the ground, or thrust them into crevices of rock.

He, unfortunately, does not mention the attitude imparted to the

body after death. Kolben, who preceded him (1705), goes into more

details, and although his veracity has been often impugned, I have

found that his statements were far from being quite devoid of truth.

But he certainly exaggerated the facts. +

* A covering or mantle made of sheep or any other skin.

+ In the posthumous account of his visit to the Cape by Abbé de la Caille (1751),

whose ‘‘ severe probity was much shocked at the want of veracity of Kolben,” it is

admitted that the latter’s statements were really culled from, or supplied by,

Mynheer Grevenbroek, Secretary of the Council of Policy, who had recorded in

writing what the Hottentots whom he had met had told him in answer to his

questions.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. L71

Speaking of a Hottentot who breathed his last, he states that his

friends “ bend his body, in such a manner that his head is brought

between his legs, so that it assumes the foetal form.”

All the accounts of the excavations agree on one point, and that

is that the skeletons were lying in the fetal posture, but Mr. Henkel

has made it quite clear that in the Coldstream cave flat stones

were placed over the body. These stones are some 18 inches long

and wide, and from 3 to 4 inches thick. At Storms River, Mr.

Foureade, in search of human remains, says that it seemed as if

the grave had been covered with a flat stone.

Mr. Dumbleton and Mr. Atkinson have not met with the stones,

but, not being aware of the fact, it is quite possible that they did not

notice them.

We have thus proof of a burial rite, which, as far as we now

know, is peculiar to the littoral troglodytes, but which does not

appear to have been followed by all. At Touw River, Rob Berg,

and Storms River, the skeletons are wrapped in sea-weed ; one is, in

addition, shrouded in a skin. With it were discovered remains such

as tortoise-shells, that crumble to shreds as soon as handled or

exposed to the air, and a hafted tool, the scarcity of which in these

sepultures is not easily accounted for except on the ground that,

in other cases, the wooden hafting decayed without leaving any

trace. In the Tzitzikama cave sea-weed does not seem to have been

used in the burial, but we have there placed over the body stones,

some of which still retain traces of fire on the upper side. Is it

permissible to draw from these discrepancies the conclusion that

the people that buried their dead in these caves had different

practices, or that some were of greater antiquity than others?

That they belonged to the same race is proved by the study of their

skulls ; but there is so far nothing to show that some of the burials

are more ancient than the others, nor do the skulls differ from those

of the surviving Hottentots in the manner of those of the

Neanderthal and of the Cro-Magnon.

In most cases the caves contained several skeletons; at Cold-

stream, in the superficial debris received from there, I find remains

of nine adults; to all appearance the cave will yield a great many

more; twenty are said to have been exhumed. Some, if not most,

of these remains from the caves undoubtedly show signs of great

age. The vertebra and ribs especially are as light as if they were

made of papier maché. Many of the bones are hygrometric ; most

of the relics, bone or shell, are strongly impregnated with salt—a

fact which, as Mr. R. Atkinson suggests, may account for their

172 Annals of the South African Museum.

state of preservation—and all the human remains are extremely

brittle.

But in spite of that there is nothing to give us a possible clue

to their relative age. These caves and rock-shelters may, and

probably have been, resorts of aboriginals until very recently. In

a cave-shelter where the bodkin (Cut 4 of Fig. 172, Pl. XXIII.) and

the double-pierced nacreous beads (Fig. 187, Pl. XVI.), were dis-

covered together in the Willowmore District, there was also found

the small rusty iron blade of what may have been a knife or a

spear-head. In the Coldstream cave was found, 2 feet below the

surface, a portion of what appears to be the steel striker of a tinder-

box, and also a piece of copper, probably a portion of a wreck.

These finds are on a par with the piece of Oriental china and brass

button at Bloembosch, of the glass beads or clay pipes and brass

buttons of European manufacture in the middens of the Cape

Flats, &e.

Buried in the sands of Blaauwberg was found the ornamental

brass side of a military bridle, together with the skeleton of a Strand

Looper. The pattern of this bridle is said to be Dutch. At Hagel

Kraal, in the Bredasdorp District, Cape Colony, two tiny brass

bangles, 440 mm. in diameter, one round, the other flat, were

discovered in the sand-dunes, «e.

These finds point plainly to a continuance of occupation of sites

that lasted until, and probably long after, the advent of the colonists.

The lamentable account given by Sparrman, which I quote in the

chapter on ! kwés, makes it also probable that the wretched Hottentots

whom he mentions had taken shelter from their enemies in places

difficult of access, as these caves prove to be. These fugitives were

provided with !kwés or perforated stones, similar to some found

in this cave debris, and also in the neighbourhood of the shelters.

But interesting as these finds prove, they throw no light on the

relative age of the men who were cave-dwellers, who manufactured

the stone and the bone implements, and who executed the paintings.

Their culture is strikingly like the Magdalenian ; but a similarity

of culture does not imply a similarity of races nor a similarity of

date.

In spite of this proposition, the mode of sepulture of these

aborigines, the cave-dwellers especially, have so many points of re-

semblance with what we know occurs elsewhere that it is permissible

to refer to these occurrences for purposes of comparison. In South

Africa, whether buried in a sitting position or lying on one side, the

position is that of the ‘child in the womb.”

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 173

This rite has been observed in many parts of the world, and three

causes are assigned to it: symbolic attitude (the dead returning to

the bosom of mother earth); greater facility for burying the body in

a restricted space, especially when a rough crypt had to be made;

and lastly, when ligaments were used—which is not the case in

South African sepultures—due to a sense of terror, inspired by the

dead, in the survivors.

But one reason which has not, to my knowledge, been adduced to

explain this position may be found in that assumed naturally by the

Hottentot-Bush aborigines of the present day when sleeping, and

especially when ill, and that posture is identical with that of the

skeletons. This fact had not escaped the notice of Sparrman.

Endeavouring (1775) to induce a young Hottentot to enter his

service, he crawled into his hut, and “found him lying under his

skin-cloak in the manner of his countrymen which I have already

mentioned, the knees drawn to his nose, as a fetus in the mother’s

womb.”

It should not necessarily be inferred from the above remarks that

this method of sepulture originated with the Hottentot races. Yet

if was in common use among the neolithic people of Egypt with

whom the Hottentots or ‘‘ Sans ” have undoubtedly come in contact,

if they are not of them. It is also observed among some pre-

historic European races,* even when the small stone coffins, or ‘‘ stone

cists,’ themselves much smaller than the body and making therefore

a reduction of length compulsory, had come into vogue.

But whereas the connection of the Hottentot and prehistoric

Egyptian is probable, the proposition that the same existed with

the Neolithic races that inhabited Central or Southern Europe might

seem hazardous, except that the discovery in the “‘ Grimaldi Caves”

near Mentone, of a small race with negroid characters, associated with

australoid, throws a new light on the possible dispersion of a race

which inhabited at all events the shores of the Mediterranean, and

possibly also Central Europe—a race that preceded the Cro-Magnon,

and that was in turn posterior to the Neanderthal, which, in all likeli-

hood, is the middle pleistocene race of man that occupied part of

Europe.

It is interesting to compare with the sepultures of the southern

littoral of the Cape the discoveries of the ‘‘ Grimaldi” cave, with

reference to this negroid type of which two skeletons of small size

have been found in the lower stratum. One is that of an old

* In Bohemia the Neolithic race that inhabited that country is designed as ‘‘ people

of the tucked skeletons ”’ (Pié Starozinotsti Zemé beské, i., apud Déchelette).

174 Annals of the South African Musewm.

woman (1 m. 54 em.); the other of an adolescent from fifteen to

seventeen years of age, and both are in the tucked position. <A

flat stone supported by another at each end protected one of the

heads only. A very shallow hole had been dug for the bodies. The

young man had a tiara consisting of four rows of the small shell

(Nassa neritea), and the old woman bore on the left arm two arm-

lets made of the same kind of shell. A few flint flakes seemed to

have been deposited on, or placed alongside, the bodies.

Boule, who has made a special paleontological study of the cave,

states that these skeletons belong to a very remote part of the

pleistocene.*

The importance of this discovery is perhaps no less great than

that of the Chapelle aux Saints, quoted in Chapter II. The

identity of this small, Negroid race that seems to have preceded the

Cro-Magnon, and is itself posterior to the Neanderthal, rests, it is

true, on two skeletons only; but so did at one time the evidence

of the Neanderthal-Spy, which several ultimate finds are now

corroborating. +

In our sepultures, however, there is nothing to indicate an age as

old as that attributed to the Grimaldi remains by such an experi-

enced man as Boule; but we have the same rite of burial, the same

ornaments, the same position of the body, and the negroid character.

It is therefore not rash to say that if these Hottentot-Bushmen,

which I denominate Strand Loopers, ave the survivors of any race,

it is with that of Grimaldi that we shall find similarity.

* The bones and also the ornaments were so cemented with the layer that it was

necessary to use chisel and hammer to detach them. Verneau was compelled to

break the skulls, which had become so compressed laterally that their transverse

diameter could not be ascertained, and to restore them afterwards to their primitive

shape.

+ Hervé and Pittard respectively claim, subsequently to the discovery of the

Grimaldi type, to have found characters pertaining to this race in two neolithic

skulls from Brittany (two women the dentition of which is singularly like that

mentioned by Gaudry as belonging to the Grimaldi fossil man), and two skulls from

the Valais Mountains in Switzerland.

(175 )

CHAPTER XVitfl.

IMPLEMENTS OF EUROPEAN NEouitTHic TYPE.

However much {the lance-points found on the Cape Flats may

approximate in general appearance and workmanship to similar

examples from the Fayoum, there is still the possibility of a doubt

as to their not being the work of aborigines, and that doubt is also

permissible in the case of the axe with edge ground on both sides

which is represented here, observe and reverse (text-fig. 26).

This example, which belongs to the Grahamstown Museum, was

found near that city, and has been figured by Dr. Schonland. It is

said to be made of green jasper, and is scored by striz resembling

those produced by glacial action. It was found alone.

Its presence is not easy of explanation. It is the only example of

its kind ever recorded, and there is no doubt whatever that it has

been ground intentionally; but its shape and technique are so

different from the shape and technique of the South African Lithic

industry that one hesitates in attributing the execution to a South

African aboriginal. And yet some of them knew how to grind

a cutting edge, as exemplified by Cut 11 of Fig. 185 in Pl. XXV.,

in which the edge is ground on both sides. I know of two similar

implements from Knysna, and I have lately received a fourth from

another rock shelter containing the same domestic appliances as in

Fig. 185, but the edge, although treated in the same manner, is not

quite so sharp as in the two specimens mentioned; all three are flat

and thin.

My. A. L. du Toit, of the Cape Geological Survey, examined at my

request the stone axe which Dr. Schonland kindly loaned me, and

he reports as follows :—

‘“The axe is manufactured out of a small, weathered lump of

dark-greenish quartzite—the material of which can be matched

at many localities on the border of the Karroo. The lump of

rock shows on one side the surface which has been exposed

176 Annals of the South African Museum.

to the air; i.e., it is smooth, brown, and slightly polished. The

under surface is lighter in colour, rough, and slightly pitted. The

lump was subjected to scarcely any trimming, and the edge was

then ground. The scratches were made in the operation of

grinding, and are most decidedly not of glacial origin. The shape

The Stone Ages of South Africa. Gi,

and scratches of the lump entirely negative the idea that it was a

glaciated pebble from the Dwyka.”’

It is then proved that the implement is made of a local rock ; but

this axe-head, or cleaver, is not of the orthodox shape of the European

or other Neolithic; and Mr. du Toit shows that the maker availed

himself of the natural contour of the stone. It should be noted also

that the grownd cutting tools I have referred to are pieces of flat,

thin slabs selected on account of their shape rather than prepared,

and these tools bridge thus to some extent the great difference in

technique between trimmed ones and the axe-head here dealt with.

Until more examples are known it would be unwise, however, to

theorise, much more so that we have evidence, although very

restricted, of other tools that approximate still more the Neolithic

culture of the palearctic region, and others.

Cuts 3 and 4 of Figs. 116 and 117 represent stone implements, the

presence of which at Harrismith, Orange Free State, cannot be

easily accounted for. Worked on both sides as shown in the

Figs., they are intentionally pedunculated, and are without doubt

intended for arrow-heads. Cut 2 of the same Figs. is a still better

finished piece. It was found also in the Orange Free State, in

the valley of Reit Spruit, District Caledon, among South African-

type pygmy scrapers, one of which is figured in Cut 1; and it

reminds one, as justly remarked by Professor Henry Balfour, of the

arrow-heads found in Tunis.

The material of which these three arrow-heads are made is of

local origin, in the same manner as the ground axe. They belong

to the Bloemfontein Museum.

These three relics stand alone, and an explanation of their

presence would be merely speculative.

jee

(178 )

CHAPTER XIX.

Notes oN Sources oF Rock FoR THE MANUFACTURE OF STONE

IMPLEMENTS.

By A. L. pu Torr, of the Cape Geological Survey.

The distribution of the implements is in a number of cases closely

connected with certain geological horizons and outcrops of rocks.

In many cases, where there was no suitable rock close at hand,

their makers must have travelled specially, but small distances,

usually, however, to obtain suitable material for the manufacture

of implements.

For example, in the Western and Southern (Ceres and Tanqua)

Karroo the hard chert band at the top of the Dwyka shales has

been the most important source, and all along its outerop—especially

at Beuke’s Fontein—there are numerous flakes and implements, while

artefacts of this light grey chert have been carried many miles to the

N.E. into the Roggeveld and Klein Roggeveld. In this case the

rock chosen is extremely suitable for the purpose; moreover, until

one comes right up to the edge of the Roggeveld there is no other

material available, for the lydianite, so commonly used, is only found

accompanying the Karroo dolerites (here appearing in the escarp-

ment near Sunderland).

This material was also carried into the mountains of the Cold

Bokkeveld.

In the north of Cape Colony, owing to the variety of the forma-

tion, there was perhaps more choice; but sometimes the material

was not quite suitable for working. Around Plessis Kop, &c. (N. of

Vryburg), in a flat area of amygdaloidal diabase, the small im-

plements are made of bits of agate (weathered out of these vol-

canic rocks), while many are made of white quartz obtainable a

little to the north. The larger implements are of diabase. In

northern Mafeking and Vryburg, where there is much sand, the

The Stone Ages of South Africa, 179

only hard rock is a silicisied superficial material (surface quartzite),

and the implements are of the harder, finer-grained, and more trans-

lucent portions of this recent deposit, as near the Victoria Falls.

Around Barkly West the large implements, such as occur in the

gravels, are of diabase, and many of them have probably been (or

else could have been) made almost in situ: Small ones are, again,

of agate or quartzite (from Dwyka boulders or from the Vaal River

gravels). Now and then one comes across a flake of chert obtained

from the Kaap Plateau, or of brown jasper from the Asbestos

Mountains, for these two materials are eminently suited for imple-

ment manufacture. Indeed, such yellow jasper implements (small

size) have been found away from Prteska and Griqua Town, close

to Hope Town, Potfontein, Britstown, Vosburg, &c., whither they

must have been carried.

On stepping off the diabase on to the Dwyka conglomerate and

shale, the material of the implements changes, though now and then

one of diabase is found miles away from any outcrops, e.g., one

near Secretaris (between Kimberley and Schmidt’s Drift). Around

every hill of dolerite are found implements made of black lydianite

formed through the alteration of the Dwyka shales by the igneous

intrusion ; they are especially numerous near Wolve Dam, W. of

Kimberley, but are abundant all along the first dolerite escarpment

from Warrenton to beyond Van Wyk’s Vlei.

Implements of lydianite occur also to the N.W., but whether they

have been carried there or made from pebbles obtained from the

gravels of the Orange, Brak, Reit, and other rivers cannot be

decided.

In Prieska and Kenhardt, upon reaching the granite area, the

latter rock only furnishes white quartz, which is not very suitable

for working; hence the natives appear to have travelled southwards

to the outcrop of the Dwyka conglomerate, where there is an infinite

variety of material to choose from. The northern edge of the

Dwyka, all along the Kaaien Butt, is a good locality for implements,

which are mostly made of quartzite or of jasper (from the Griqua

Town series). These implements are found in an area which,

though waterless, is characterised by small ‘‘ pans,” and, as far as

I have been able to judge, there appear to be no spots which have

been untraversed by the natives, for implements can be picked up

even in the driest and most: uninhabitable parts of the districts.

Where the Kheis quartzites crop out, the implements are by

preference made of that rock, and around Prieska and Griqua Town

on the belt of brown jaspers) of the local material.

( 180 )

CHAPTER XX.

STONE AND Iron AGES COMBINED.

That many of the aboriginal clans or tribes of the Hottentot, or

«San ’’ race, knew and practised the use of iron before EKuropeans

came into contact with them, especially along the littoral, there can

be no doubt; but that this iron industry had little penetrated the

inland districts would seem to be also proved by the evidence which

I have endeavoured to piece together. Along the coastal belt, how-

ever, the evidence of the contemporaneous use of stone and iron is

unmistakable.

In the account of the wreck of the Sao Gongalo in Plettenberg

Bay (Baia Formosa, as it was then called) in 1629,* we read that

the natives met there by the shipwrecked people exchanged oxen

and sheep for iron; we read also that the natives were armed with

spears (assagais) and bows. Had these implements been tipped

with stone this peculiarity would probably not have escaped the

notice of the narrator. From the account given of these natives and

their habits it is plain that they were Hottentots.

And if we turn to the old Cape chroniclers, we have evidence of

the fact that the smelting of iron, perhaps also of copper, was known

and practised by the people of that race, but that they had still

retained the use of stone tools.

Thus Kolben, speaking of the Hottentot artificers: “Smithery as

it stands among the Hottentots requires a great deal of labour and a

great deal of ingenuity. For the melting of iron from the ore is

comprehended in it, and, what is much worse, it is furnished with

no other implements than stone. . . . As soon as the receiver is

cold they take it out, and break it to pieces with stones. The pieces

the Hottentots as they have occasion heat in other fires, and with

+ Trans, (Ss. Afr, Philos) Sock, xi) 19025 p. 197:

The Stone Ages of South Africa 181

stones beat them out and shape them to weapons. They rarely make

anything else of vron.”’

Vogel («A Ten Years’ Journey to the Eastern Indies’’), quoted

by Kolben, makes the following statement: ‘‘ They get the hardest

stone they can, and putting the iron upon it, as upon an anvil, beat

it with a rounded stone which serves for a hammer,” &c.

I am able to corroborate Kolben’s statement by finds made on the

floor of temporarily removed sand-dunes in the Cape Peninsula.

Here, are occasionally found small cairns of greyish-black stones,

the object of which remained for a long time conjectural. That

they were not sepultures deep digging had proved. Were they,

then, merely the heaps of stones alleged to be one of the many

graves of the ubiquitous sorcerer, ‘‘ Heitse Eibip,’” to which any

Hottentot who passes adds another for luck? All the stones were

calcined limestone. The revelation came at last in the find, along-

side one of these cairns, of pounders heavier than usual, with ends

greatly abraded; of mortars, with the usual central depression,

broken across; of !kwé’s cleft in halves, showing that they had

served as hammers—the rounded stone of Vogel’s account probably ;

and, lastly, of pieces of iron ore of very poor quality. That the site

had been that of a smithy was thus clearly established. But on this.

very site were found also minute ostrich egg-shell beads and tiny

stone borers or drills; the usual Cape Flats type of small scraper

knives; brass buttons—an article of trade mentioned by Kolben ;

bowls of small, white clay pipes with the stem broken close ; occa-

sionally a leaden bullet; and also, but rarely, small beads of

European manufacture.

Some of these finds show that the antiquity of these smithies is

not great, but it proves conclusively that the stone and iron industry

existed side by side until recently.

Kolben’s statement that the Hottentot rarely makes anything else

of iron except his weapons seems to me to be the true explanation of

the survival of the stone industry. The material is difficult to pro-

cure, difficult also to shape in the manner required, and the more

primitive method proves of great help in the new line of progress.

So far, however, I have dealt only with the South African neolithic

stone industry in connection with the Hottentot race. Is there no

other that is also connected with it? and what of the Bantu-speaking

people whom we here call Kaffirs: the Bechuana, Barotse, Basuto,

Bakalanga, Xosa, Zulu, Ova-Herero, and Ovampo, not ignoring the

Berg-Damara ?

Traditions as well as speculation have it that they are compara-

182 Annals of the South African Museum.

tively late immigrants. But who can say that they did not occupy

afresh territories that they inhabited in former years ?

Like the Hottentot race, they are of pastoral habits, but, unlike

the former, they are also agriculturists, which the Hottentots and

his ascendants have seemingly never been.

Of the use of iron these Bantu-speaking “ Kaffirs”’ are cognisant,

and yet among some of them this commodity is sufficiently scarce

for women of the Xosa and Pondomise tribes to use, until quite

lately, wooden hoes—hoes of a shape that is paddle-like, a shape

that suggests survival also: the paddle used for propelling canoes

on Central African lakes.

But are the Kaffirs belonging to the tribes mentioned acquainted

also with the use of stone implements? Yes, they are; especially

when hammers or grinding tools, such as querns and hand mullers,

are required.

The Kaffir woman of to-day often spends many months in fashion-

ing out the hoilow of a stone mortar to a particular curve by beating

with stones held in the hand. I quote here Gooch: * ‘“ Dr, Suther-

land, of Natal, once watching the slow process made by an old

Kaffir woman at a kraal where he had passed the night, sought to

teach her the much more rapid progress which an iron-pointed tool

would make, and, by a few blows on the stone she was working,

expected to have earned her gratitude, but was only met by indigna-

tion, as she vowed the stone was spoilt by him, and, despite his

arguments and explanations, ruefully returned to her work, and

sought to eradicate the damage he had done.”

In Basutoland, and especially in Southern Rhodesia, we find

occasionally mullers fitting these querns, but they are tools which

have undergone a thorough preparation for the purpose; that is to

say, they have been smoothed in such a way as to fit exactly the

cavity of the quern. This quern so made, and the posture assumed

of necessity by the worker for its manipulation, would resemble

almost exactly that represented by an Egyptian statuette of

Dachchour, of the Third Dynasty.+

And there lies the difference between the quern attributable to

Kaftir industry and that of the Hottentot. While in the case of the

former it has been worked ab initio for a well-thought, specific

purpose, in the latter it is continued use only that has produced the

groove or depression in the mortar and the corresponding smooth-

ness of the muller. If one of these mullers or pounders is found

* « The Stone Age of South Africa,” Journ. Anthr. Inst., 1881, p. 143.

+ De Morgan, ‘‘ Les origines de l’Egypte,”’ i., p. 144, fig. 325.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 183

polished by grinding, and is either conical or affecting a non-primi-

tive shape (and this occurs occasionally), it is safe to assume that it

igs a primitive pounder that has been re-shaped or improved upon by

a Kaffir.

The stone implements ailuded to as being attributable to Kaffir

industry have a facies of their own, a facies so different from that of

the South African paleolithic and neolithic series, that a confusion

between them seems impossible.

The latter-are artefacts produced in a tentative way, that became

crystallised after having made very little progress.

The former is an adaptation, or rather conservance, of ancient

methods, perfected owing to the scarcity of, or difficulty in, pro-

curing, the material, the superior value of which was fully known.

In Southern Rhodesia as well as in parts of the Transvaal

(Lydenburg and Waterberg Districts) there are found not un-

commonly stones that show plainly that they have been used for

a purpose.

When discovered along the edges of ancient workings from which

gold or other metal was obtained, it is claimed for them that they

are, on account of their partial wear, the pounders used for extract-

ing from the matrix, before smelting, the smallest particle of mineral.

That such stones have been used for the purpose above mentioned

is most probable ; that they were all used in the manner alleged is

not a fact.

The Museum has lately received three stones of a size suited for

hand use. They were found in the Lydenburg District (Transvaal).

They are roughly worked into facets, most of which have in the

centre a moderately deep, smooth hole. The smoothness of the

latter, added to the find of the stones near supposed old mines or

ancient workings, led to the belief that they were hand hammers

used for driving drills. In order, however, to explain the smooth-

ness of the hole, the conclusion arrived at is that drills made of

wood had been utilised !

Drilling has nothing to do with the presence of these smooth

holes, the object of which is either a modification of, or perhaps an

accessory to, the ‘‘fuba stones’’ mentioned by Randall-Maciver in

‘* Medizeval Rhodesia,” 1906, pl. xiv., &e. ‘Some of these stones

have been worked into a rectangular series of holes, evidently for

playing ‘ Fuba,’ which is a well-known game among the natives of

the present day,”’ loc. cit.

Von Luschan has published in vol. xxxviii. of the Zeitsch.

f. Ethnol., 1906, a photograph of two Zambesi natives playing

184 Annals of the South African Museum.

this ‘“‘fuba’’ game —‘‘a game well known from Egypt to the

Limpopo ’’—in small holes made in the ground.

I have photographs, presented by Mr. A. H. Exton, of two ‘ fuba

stones’’ with ten and eight holes respectively. They were dis-

covered in Mudza-Macequeze, not far from Umtali, whence Dr.

Randall-Maciver’s specimens came. Having been found near an

alleged old mine—old workings they are called—they were ascribed

to Phcenician workmanship.

Near to, or together with, these ‘‘fuba stones’’ other relics were

found in the shape of alleged copper, if not gold, castings, which,

however, on examination here, proved to be the clay nozzles of the

African natives’ bellows filled with iron slag.

It is not, therefore, too much to ask the reader to picture to him-

self, without too great a stretch of imagination, the native smiths or

miners of the period indulging in a game of “ fuba’”’ after, or perhaps

during, their spell of work.

Yet the origin of these ‘‘fuba stones’’ and the game connected

with them appears to be of great antiquity. It is quite within the

range of probability that a connection will be proved between these

cupuliform holes and the “cups,” “ crescets,”’ ‘cups and rings,”’

‘“schalen’”’ or ‘‘napfchen,” ‘‘pierres 4 écuelles,’’ or ‘“‘pierres a

cupules,”’ &c., known to occur in the British Isles, Denmark,

Sweden, Germany, France, Spain, Corsica, Northern Italy, even in

India. In Europe these “cups and rings” are usually connected

with the bronze period,* but their object, or raison d’étre, has never

been satisfactorily explained. I may add that in Europe these

more or less rectangular series of cupuliform holes have often addi-

tional concentric circles, or are often connected with each other by

grooves. It is alleged by one of my correspondents that in one of

the ‘‘fubas’’ found in Macequeze were cut lines uniting various

holes and also others on the sides, directed to the holes.

But the mortars or querns, hammers, pounders or ‘‘fubas’”’ used

still by Kaffirs have, in all likelihood, no connection with the

paleolithic or neolithic ages as revealed in South Africa, and

even Africa. They merely prove that people were then familiar

with the use of metals yet resorted to stone when occasion arose

or demanded it.

It is claimed, however, although on slender evidence, that Kafirs

used lately, and thus presumably manufactured, rude stone imple-

* On the West Coast of Africa ‘‘ fubas”’ made of bronze are known from Benin.

I saw lately a wooden fuba board from Katanga, North-Western Rhodesia, used by

the natives for playing two kinds of game.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 185

ments in the shape of flakes. It is therefore necessary to consider

this proposition.

I have in previous chapters mentioned the implements of palxo-

lithic and neolithic types, found so profusely not only in Cape

Colony, but also in Southern Rhodesia, a locality still occupied by

au Bantu-speaking race, which, whether autochthonous or not, has

seemingly been there for a considerable number of years. It thus

becomes the purport of this paper to find if these Kaffirs—Baka-

langa, Bechuana, or Barotse if not Basuto, or under whatever name

they went, or what real tribe or nation they belonged to—had at

one commensurable time the stone industry, or if they have

retained it.

The answer is, on the whole, negative, in spite of some superficial

discrepancies, which can be easily accounted for by contact.

During his excavations among the ruins of Rhodesia, Randall-

Maciver never came across paloliths that could be said to have

been lying pell-mell in the debris, or kitchen-middens, with the

copper and iron relics which are of so purely an African type

When he came across some “Celts” he found that they were

‘lying on the surface.’’ ‘‘ None of them can be said to have come

from an actually buried deposit, but two were picked on the top

surface of an ash deposit.’ The reader may, however, dismiss at

once from his mind the idea that these two examples were palzo-

liths. The contrary conclusion is proved by the figures of these

stone implements (4 of the size), and also by their description.*

Thus we read in the finds at Khami: “In various places on the

surface we picked up poorly-worked stone implements. Sometimes

these were on the actual floors of the huts.”’

Ibid.—‘‘In the great kitechen-midden of Dhlo-Dhlo were found

stone implements, generally poorly worked.’ Fortunately these

implements, both from Dhlo-Dhlo and the Niekerk ruins, are

figured. They are of the same type and workmanship as those

occurring in the caye-shelters of the Matopos (Pl. XVIL., Fig. 133),

where their connection with the Bush: people is indubitably proved

by surviving parietal paintings; + and were it necessary to have

other proof that it is with the culture of the Bush people that

these small stone implements are to be connected, the presence of

* The palexolithic implements mentioned and figured in Pl. XII. of the same

work were found by Mr. Kenny, and have no connection whatever with the exca-

vations. They have been already alluded to in a previous chapter.

+ These paintings are being profusely discovered now all over Southern Rhodesia

from Buluwayo to the Chibi and Sabi River, and other parts.

186 Annals of the South African Museum.

ostrich egg-shell beads—this typical produce of the industry of the

Bushman—which Randall-Maciver found in the same spot and

figured in his work, would afford it.

No other conclusion is possible, except that the sites mentioned have,

at one tume or other, been occupied by Bush people.

But Professor Henry Balfour is satisfied (see Man., February,

1906) that the lines and cross hatchings in intaglio, on some of the

painted pottery from Dhlo-Dhlo and Khami, were produced, after the

clay had already been baked, by means of agate or hard silicious

stone flakes which are found profusely with the potsherds.

The coloured figures of the Dhlo-Dhlo painted pottery in Randall-

Maciver’s work show certainly the intaglios in white over a black

ground ; but is it quite so in the original ?

I have not seen any painted sherds from either Dhlo-Dhlo or

Khami. All those we possess from Southern Rhodesia are in

monochrome.

But we have a fairly comprehensive series of Bechuana pots or

vases in polychrome, and they have the very same style of decora-

tion and intaglio designs. Yet I am sorry to say that after a most

careful examination I am not satisfied that the incised lines, except

possibly the very thin, shallow ones, were produced by chips of the

kind found in Southern Rhodesia or elsewhere.

These flakes are always more convex on one side of the edge than

on the other, and the incision produced by such tools must of neces-

sity be more slanting on one side. This is not the case with our

pottery. When the lines are moderately broad, and this occurs

often, the always shallow furrow is of even width and depth. More-

over, these incisions in what is painted pottery must have been

made after a preliminary baking, not when they had reached the

full-baked stage and its corresponding hardness.* Thisis proved by

the lines which limit the painted squares or triangles. These lines

were cut before the colour was applied, and ultimately fixed by

supplementary baking. Yet, in spite of the reasons militating

against the use of stone flakes for pottery decoration, Professor

Balfour's contention receives, perhaps, support from Dr, Schonland’s

testimony.

In his narrative of ‘A Trip to the N.E. Kalahari’ + he says:

* An extremely hard material, such as agate or other hard siliceous substance,

is not, therefore, indispensable for cutting the decorative pattern. Any iron tool

would suffice, and it was procurable, because the makers of that pottery—certainly

not Bush people—were perfectly familiar with, if not expert in, the use of iron and

‘other metals.

+ Rep. S. Afric. Ass. Adv. Sc., 1904.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 187

«Dr. Greathead happened to come across two ancient Bamangwato

settlements (Bechuanaland). On the site of these two settlements

we found innumerable bits of pottery of the same type as the pottery

made to this day,* large numbers of stone implements, especially

scraper-knives, and I happened to find a small stone bead which is

of the same type as the digging stones of the Bushmen, with double

bell-shaped perforations. Khama (the chief) told me expressly that

his people used to make such beads, otherwise I would have ascribed

it to Bushmen.’

Contact with Bush people, especially that come to by the Baka-

lahadi—serfs of the Bechuanas, although belonging to the same race

—could account for the presence of the stone scrapers or knives and

the perforation of the stone bead.

It is thus quite possible that the pottery-makers of Khami or

Dhlo-Dhlo did also acquire, and in certain localities retained from

their contact with the small yellow man, the traditional use of stone

chips for incising on the pottery they made by hand their essentially

own geometrical figures. Moreover, it cannot be claimed for these

decorated sherds that they are old.

On Randall-Maciver’s own showing neither the “huts” and their

floors, nor, for that matter, the Rhodesian ruins, are more than

medieval. Any ethnologist who takes the trouble to compare the

iron relics found there with those obtaining wholly or still partly

among the Bechuanas, cannot but be struck with the identity in

shape and purpose. When I pointed out this similarity at the time

of Bent’s discoveries I was laughed to scorn. Things have changed

since.

That this influence of contact is not imaginary is corroborated by

the fact that the few surviving Bush people + found among the great

agglomeration of Kaffirs in the eastern part of the Cape Province

are soothsayers and rain doctors. The Bantu-speaking natives

implicitly believe in and propitiate them when occasion arises.

Europeans and other civilised races, with their traditions of

«pixies, goblins, gnomes, djins, &c., should not gird too freely

at the superstitious Kaffir.

The folk-lore of the Kaffir is not very rich, and poor indeed is that

of the Hottentot and of the Damara. But among the published tables

that I have so far come across there is one only in which mention is

* Painted pottery is very seldom produced now, but incised designs of the usual

punching, herring-bone, and chevron patterns still subsist. Unfortunately Dr.

Schonland does not specify either the style or the decoration.

+ I believe that the last male member of that race died last year (1909).

158 Annals of the South African Museum.

made of what may have been a stone implement. It is the story in

the O’Tyiherero, or Damara language, of the ‘“‘ Unreasonable Child

to whom the Dog gave its desert.” *

We read: ‘‘. . . Her father gave her the axe. Going further she

met the lads who were in charge of the cattle. They were busy

taking out honey, and in order to get at it they were obliged to cut

down the trees with stones. She addressed them: Our sons, how is

it that you use stones in order to get at the honey? Why do you

not say, ‘ Our first-born give us the axe?’”’ &e. .

It must, however, not be forgotten that the DantAuae were prob-

ably for considerable times in contact with the Bush people. In

fact, the language of the Berg-Damaras is no longer Bantu, but

Hottentot. The Damaras and their northern neighbours, the Ovam-

pos, are skilful smiths both in iron and copper, and it is not too

much to say that it is this sense of superiority + that emphasises in

the tale the foolishness of the boys proceeding to cut down a tree

by means of stone tools.

Whether the Bantu-speaking races originated in Equatorial Africa,

in the region of the Lakes, as it is claimed for them, or whether they

migrated there from India or elsewhere,} they are so ancient that.

they must have lived at some time or another in the Stone Ages.

Yet, besides the few instances which I have given of the use of

stone as a material, there is little or no evidence to show that the

South African Kaftirs were the makers of the paleoliths or of the

neoliths, large or small, which abound in South Africa, and which,

judging from the finds made hitherto, are probably as equally

abundant from beyond the Zambesi to the northern parts of the

Congo, as they are in Nigeria, Mauritania, Somaliland, &c., not to

mention the valley of the Nile.

It cannot be said that the Bantu-speaking negro is still partly

in the Stone Age. But such a proposition cannot be advanced

in regard to the South African representative of the San, as my

account of the occurrence of the stone industry proves, I submit,

without shadow of doubt.

* Bleek’s “Reynard the Fox in South Africa,” London, 1864.

+ Von Luschan is of opinion that the manufacture of iron originated with the

African negro, who transmitted the process to Egypt, whence it passed to Asia

Minor, and from there to Northern Europe (Hisentechnik in Afrika: Zeits. f.

Kthnol., xli., 1909).

t The Ariahs had to contend in India against the black Daysus that lived in the

mountains, and the yellow Daysus, probably Mongols, that occupied the plains.

(189)

CHAPTER, XexXte:

THE ORIGIN OF THE BusHMAN OR HorTTENTOT.

Now that it may be taken for granted that a branch of the

San race was in South Africa connected with the neolithic stone

industry, and, as will be seen hereafter also in all likelihood with

the palzolithic type of the same, it would indeed be highly desirable

to know where these races or sub-races, which were represented

here by the Strand Looper, the Bushman, and the Hottentot,

originated.

From the point of view of ethnology, however, the research

remains very speculative—too much so, in fact.

The complexion, size, and physical peculiarities of these people

prove that they do not belong to the Bantu-speaking negro tribes

(Sudanese of Von Luschan), extending now in Africa from the south

to a few degrees north of the Equator, or perhaps further, adjoining

the Galla country on the north-east and reaching the Niger on the

north-west.

Yet the Bush San is an ally of the negro; he belongs to a negroid

race.

Tur LANGUAGE.

The language of the Bushman is unique. That of the Hottentot

branch is undoubtedly in many respects analogous to it. Both

contain the same strange clicks, which are really consonants.

According to Meinhof: “They also join roots of words in such

a way as is considered to be characteristic of those languages which

are called ‘isolating languages,’ e.g., Chinese, to which the Sudan

languages seem to belong... . This striking resemblance cannot

be accidental; it points conclusively to the fact, which could

otherwise hardly be contested, that the Bushman and Hottentot

languages have during a long time influenced each other.” *

* « The Language of the Hottentots,” Rep. S. Afric. Ass. Adv. Sce., 1905, vol. iii.

190 Annals of the South African Museum.

But, in addition, this Bush-Hottentot language has influenced

that of the Bantu-speaking negroes of South Africa,* and this fact

implies a very long intercourse of the two races, unless they were

at one time the same.

Of a still longer duration must have been this intercourse with

the Berg Damara, a Kaffir, degraded no doubt, yet retaining still the

physical characteristics of his race. His language, however, is no

longer Bantu, but Nama, 7.e., Hottentot.

According to Meinhof and Von Luschan the clicks have come

from the Bushmen to the Hottentots, and passed on through the

latter to the Kaffrs.

Yet clicks are also used by several tribes living now to the north

of the territories where the Bantu language prevails, namely, in

German East Africa among the Wascendaui; in British Africa

among the Watwas. The Angonis, a Zulu trib2 of East Africa, are

said to have brought clicks from South Africa.

The presence of these typical clicks in the language of the people

aforesaid leads Meinhof to assume with what he calls ‘some

justification’”’ that those South African languages (Bushman as

well as Hottentot) had possible relations in olden times to the

north of the region of the Bantu idioms.

Beyond, however, showing intercourse between races differing

in several characters, philology does not help in proving or dis-

proving, as the case may be, the antiquity of the language of the

San, and thereby of the race.

We have in South Africa the so-called Bushman with, it is

alleged, seven or more clicks; the Nama, or Hottentot, with four ;

the Kaffir with two.

If complexity in a language were a proof of antiquity certainly

the Bushman might be safely considered to be an older race than

the Sudanese, and also the Hottentot. But is not this very com-

plexity due to isolation? What we know of the Bush dialects would

seem to bear out this assumption.

Having to subsist mostly on the produce of the chase, or eke out

a precarious living from the veld, unable therefore to live in large

communities, his language would, of necessity, become a com-

plicated dialect. It is not too much to assume that through this

very isolation some of the clicks of one clan were lost, others

* There are only two clicks in Kaffir, four in Hottentot, and seven or more in

Bushman. Kaffir employs clicks only before a vowel; Nama also before n, k,

and x. Bushman before all consonants, and even before all other clicks”

(Von Luschan, ‘‘ The Racial Affinities of the Hottentots,’? Rep. S. Afr. Ass. Adv.

Se. 1905, vol. iii.).

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 191

invented. This assumption is, moreover, borne out by facts.

Thus, among the few colonial aborigines left who still use the

Bush language, some cannot understand their very neighbours,

or they do so to a limited degree, owing to certain “clicks”

having significances that they do not understand, or perhaps

cannot acquire,

The number of these clicks is also variable. A lady, brought up

among the Hottentots, tells me that the Bush people of South-West

Africa (German South-West) have one click only more than the

Hottentots. Miss D. Bleek informs me that she met in Griqualand

West (Cape Colony) with people using a click the meaning of which

she is not only non-cognisant herself, but which is also not under-

stood by people of the same race living in the vicinity.

It is on record that some thirty or forty years back the Bush

people from what are now the districts of Calvinia and Carnarvon,

in the Cape Colony, could not understand their congeners from the

Stormberg, Cape Colony, or from parts of the Orange Free State.

If we proceed further north we find the same conditions obtaining

now in the Kalahari region among the Ba-sarwas, some clans of

which live only a few miles apart.

The present mode of life of this race compels isolation. Isolation

must of necessity affect speech,* and that speech is thus affected

is sufficiently shown by the examples given.

The presence of more numerous clicks cannot therefore justify

the conclusion that because there are seven or more in the Bush

and four only in the Hottentot dialects, the former race is neces-

sarily older, more authochtonous, or had remained more homo-

geneous than the latter, a race, moreover, which although nomadic,

lived in communities, and would on that account retain the tradi-

tions of its language.t

But if, putting aside the question, Which of these two languages

* Rev. R. Moffat remarks on the Balala, serfs of the Bechuanas, who, once

inhabitants of towns, have been appointed to live in the desert, are singularly cor-

roborative of this assumption. ‘‘ They are never permitted to keep cattle, and are

exposed to the caprice, cupidity, and tyranny of the town lords. They live an

hungry life, much as the Bush people do... . The dialects of the Sechuana,

as spoken by these people, are now so different from that spoken by the nation

generally that interpreters are frequently required’’ (‘* Missionary Labours,”’

London, 1844).

+ It should not be forgotten that there is nothing to prove that all the Hottentot

tribes spoke a language similar to, or having the same number of clicks as the sur-

yiving ‘‘ Nama,” or nearly extinct Koranna. The first colonists noticed that one

of the nations—the Saldanhers, I believe—had less clicks than the others. Unfor-

tunately I cannot again find my authority for this statement.

192 Annals of the South African Musewm.

as now left is the more ancient ? we assume that the dialects of, let

us say, the Algonquin or the Berber, the Semang or the Aryan, the

Bantu or the Semitic are the speech of people who had, by living

in common, learnt to modulate their cries into speech, and had thus

formed glossological groups totally independent of each other (EH.

Reclus), then it must be admitted that the language of the Bush-

Hottentot developed into a group probably more distinct than

any other. And as culture must perforce affect language, the

primitiveness of that of the Hottentot-Bush races leads us to the

conclusion that it is not due to degeneration or retrogression, but

that the culture, as shown by their relics, and their language have

kept on a par; and this conclusion postulates a very great antiquity.

DISTRIBUTION.

In their homalographic scheme of the distribution of the Pygmy

races, including the Negritoes of Asia, Negrilloes of Africa, and the

alleged Pygmies (Pygmées discutés), Schlichter, Deniker, and others,

locate in British East Africa the Dogbo, Arengo, &¢.—who may

possibly be only a cross of the San. The South African Mossaro

(Masarwa) is found in the desert region of the Kalahari, and the

San Bushman and Hottentot to the north of the Orange River.

Northward, in Morocco, is an unnamed race. In Mentone (Monaco)

and Schweizersbild (Switzerland) have been found human remains

of these alleged Pygmies.* Lastly, near the confluence of the Tigris

and the Euphrates, in the Persian Gulf, are the Limbans; and in

the southern part of Madagascar the Kimo may perhaps be included

in the distribution of this ethnic group.

Traditions, however, throw no light on the story of these members

of an alleged Pygmy race. What Herodotus, Pliny, or Pomponius

Mela relate of them may apply to the San, but it is as likely as not

that it applied to the Akka and other diminutive African Negrilloes,

now almost restricted to the Ituri Forest of the Corgo State. +

We may, however, find a clue to the presence of the Sans either

in Arabia or in Somaliland in the account of the famous Egyptian

expedition of fine vessels to the kingdom of Punt under the reign of

Queen Hatschepset (1533 B.c.).

* But in the first-mentioned place the skulls have a strong Australian affinity.

+ Appellations often misapply. Thus A. H. Sayce’s discovery from Egyptian

hieroglyphs that certain aboriginals of a certain district to the south-east of Egypt

bore the name of Trogodytes is a case in point. With the Greeks that word

became Troglodytes, z.e., inhabitants of caverns. As a matter of fact, subter-

ranean abodes, including now monolithic churches, are far from uncommon in

parts of Abyssinia, but they seem to haye no connection with the abodes or refuges

of early primitive people.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 193

This queen planned, and had carried out, the expedition to Punt,*

the principal incidents of which are depicted on the walls of her

temple at Der-al-Bahuri.

There is seen the representation of the King and Queen of Punt

and their sons and daughter bringing gifts of the produce of the

land to the envoy of Hatschepset (ap. Budge).

It is the figure of the queen “ wearing a single yellow garment,”

the line drawing not hiding the contour, which leads to this digres-

sion about the land of Punt.

The figure is most evidently steatopygic, like the Bush-Hottentot

race. The daughter appears also to be, in spite of her -youth,

inclined to embonpoint. The hairs of the lady are comparatively

long, but it must not be forgotten that the fresco is in accordance

with Egyptian tenets of the art of that period. +

Grotesque indeed must have appeared the figure of the Queen of

Punt to the Egyptian envoy, whose idea of beauty was probably

the tall, slender type of the ladies of quality of his own nation, as

represented in paintings or other reproductions of the period.

Although it cannot be asserted that the San Bushman or the Hot-

tentot was the autochthonous race of Egypt, it is in the ruins of

the city of San (the ancient Tanis) that were found the busts of the

Hyksos kings, the types of which exhibit essentially Mongolian

characters. Sa is the name given to the Bush people by the

Hottentots who call themselves Khoi-Khoi; and it is the ‘‘ Son-qua”’

of the Cape Records (T. Hahn.).

That the Bush-Hottentot races should have resulted from this

* At one time the people of Habasat, known under the name of Pwent or

Punt, occupied the district of Southern Arabia now called Dhofar. They traded

with myrrh and incense, which they exchanged on the Somali coast, and

perhaps on the high plateaux of Abyssinia. Periodic migration, followed possibly

by true invasion, ensued, but eventually the mountainous region of Adowa

became the new country of the Habasat. This is said to be the origin of the

name Abyssinia. The identity of the name both in Arabia and Abyssinia itself

is amply demonstrated by inscriptions found on both sides of the Red Sea (E.

Reclus). But it is with the country of Punt that we are actually concerned,

because the Egyptians seem to have given that name to a portion of the coast on

each side of the southern part of the Red Sea, which they also called ‘‘ Ta Meter,”

the divine land.

“These names may have, and most probably did, include a portion of Somali-

land, which in fine weather the Egyptian sailors would have no difficulty in

reaching. In any case, we know that the Egyptians went to Punt for gums and

spices ” (Budge).

+ The curly frizzle of the head of a negro from Nubia, in a painting dating from

about the fiftieth year of Thothmes III. (1580 B.c.), is so conventional as to

resemble a longitudinally plaited, saucer-like head-covering.

194 Annals of the South African Museum.

Mongolian invasion may not be impossible ethnically,* and the

affinity of the language with the Chinese—small adjunct, however,

as it may prove to be—may strengthen this assumption. t+

Yet the predynastic Egyptian is not a San, in spite of certain

similarity in culture. He is supposed to have belonged to a white

or light-skinned race with black hair. }

Von Luschan is of the opinion that the Hottentot is a cross between a

Hamitic race and the Bushman. ‘‘ Hottentots have by intermarriage

with Bushmen lost a good deal of the high stature and of the great

cubic capacity of the skull common to all other Hamitic tribes, and

they have acquired in the same way their spiral-curled hair and

their steatopygia. . . . Hottentots are herdsmen to our days just

as they and all their Hamitic brothers have been for many years.”

This opinion presupposes that the Bushman was the autoch-

thonous race of the part of Africa where the Hamite came into

contact with him.§ But where were then the Negro or Bantu-

speaking races, which, some will have it, have originated in the

region of the great African lakes, and are there still. Whence were

acquired the negroid characters of the Bush people, coupled with

their strongly Mongolian type of face?

But if the commingling of two races is the origin of the Hottentot,

then the Bushman race has been the one that imparted to the other

most of its physical characters, because late researches point to the

fact that physical differences do not exist, or are unimportant in the

so-called Bush or Hottentot survivors.

On the other hand, there was another section of the San, the

Strand Looper, of whom it is true very little is known hitherto.

But physically this section differs a great deal from the Hottentot

and Bush people, and it is not improbable that eventually the

Strand Loopers, who occupied the rock-shelters of the littoral in the

George, Knysna, and Humansdorp Districts of the Cape Colony,

will be accepted as, if not the original autochthonous race of South

Africa or Africa, at least one that made and used paleoliths, but

* According to De Quatrefages the horizontal cephalic index of the San is almost

exactly the same as that of the Southern Chinese. For the San the index is 77°45. and

for the Chinese 77°22. Among the Khoi-Khom or the Hottentots the index is lower.

+ The aborigines of the inland district were called ‘‘ Chinese Hottentots ” by the

early colonists.

{ The hair found on predynastic bodies is fair, but Virchow declares that this

light colour is due to the action of the soil; this conclusion is now generally

accepted.

§ R. Biasutti, in his attempt at determining the origin of the ancient Egyptians,

finds, in addition to three others, a type characterised by what he terms a norma

verticalis beloides. These skulls are mostly mesaticephalic. This type, to which

The Stone Ages of South Africa, 195

gradually drifted out of this industry into the bone or neolithic

manufacture represented by the ! kwés, mullers, small scrapers, and

the like.

PuysicaAL CHARACTERS.

It is well-nigh impossible to distinguish now from outer appear-

ance a so-called Colonial Bushman from a native of Hottentot origin.

Personally I have given up the attempt. Von Luschan admits also

that during his visit in South Africa he was greatly puzzled to decide

if a given individual was a Bushman or a Hottentot. ‘Some were

claimed to be Hottentots by local residents with the same ardour

with which others assured me that they were real and thoroughbred

Bushmen.” * He suggests that only the language could finally

decide the question.

The suggestion, if followed, would not prove at all conclusive,

because a Bush child may have been brought up among Hottentots,

and vice versa; and it must be remembered that the very difficulty

in deciding now between these two closely related ethnic groups is

caused by natural intercourse.

This contention is more than supported by the study of physical

characters. Our collection of skulls and skeletons of the Hottentots

and Bush people was submitted to Dr. F. C. Shrubsall, who has

dealt with them at length. Not only did he base his conclusions on

our own material, but also on all, or nearly all, that obtainable in

Great Britain.

In his report | he approaches the subject as follows :—

“The earliest remains of the Bushmen peoples of South Africa.

would appear to be those of the Strandloopers found in the caves of

the south-eastern seaboard. On cultural grounds they are said to

be of a somewhat different type to the inland Bushmen of the

present day. It becomes, therefore, a matter of some interest to

compare the features of the two.

«The averages are compared with those obtained from surround-

ing races. The purity of each stock is then tested, and it will be

shown that the Strandloopers are more homogeneous than the other

Bushmen. The Hottentots are then dealt with, and shown to be

intermediate in characters between the Strandloopers or primitive

Bushmen and the Bantu tribe. It appears that if the Hottentots

9 per cent. of the Egyptian skulls he examined belong, he finds of common occur-

rence in the Bush race, and for this reason he applies the term ‘‘ boschmanoid ” to

this Egyptian type (‘‘ Archiv. p. Anthrop. e. Ethnol.,” vol. 38, 1908).

* Rep. S. Afric. Ass. Adv. Sc., 3, 1905, p. 118.

+ Ann. 8. Afric. Museum, vol. v., 1907.

196 Annals of the South African Musewn.

are a cross between these two races the intermingling must have

taken place a long time ago, as the Hottentots’ skulls form a very

homogeneous series. The Bushmen and Hottentots are then com-

pared with the Pygmies of Central Africa, whom in many respects

they resemble, and with the populace of Egypt, with whom it has

been thought they might have come in contact.”

The conclusions Shrubsall arrives at may be summarised as

follows :—

1. ‘“‘Hottentots are intermediate in all respects between the Bush-

men and the Bantu-speaking peoples, while the Strandloopers are

further removed from these than the other Bushmen.”’

2. ‘‘The cranial capacity of Strandloopers (7) is 1,345 cm., of Bush-

men (24) 1,285 cm. Previous observations had given the capacity

of the skull of the male Bushman at 1:330 cm., of the female at

1:255 cm. The range of variation in the Strandlooper is from

1:185 c.c. to 1°515 ¢.c., and in the Bushmen 1:060 c.e. to 1°570 e.c.

With these may be compared: Hottentot 1:365 c.c., Hastern Bantu

1:520 ¢.c., Western Bantu 1°420 c.c.”’

3. ‘‘ From this (a given table) it would appear that the Strand-

loopers are a less variable group than the skulls collected under the

general title of Bushmen. . . . On the other hand, it is far less

easy to separate the skulls of a mixed group of Hottentots and

natives of Nyassaland. ... The Bushmen, and still more the

Strandloopers, are further removed from the negroid type than are

the Hottentots.”’

4, ‘‘The Pygmy is quite distinct from all these groups, but in

relative dimensions (of male skulls) resembles the western group

of Bantu, occupying the seaward margin of the great forest zone.”

And Shrubsall sums up as follows :—

«The Strandloopers appear in all respects to be a purer group

than the Bushmen, and to be distinct from the Hottentots, though

the influence of chance selection cannot be quite excluded, owing

perhaps to the small amount of material available.

“The up-country Bushman appears intermediate between the

Strandloopers and Hottentots.

“The Hottentots present dimensions exactly intermediate between

the preceding and the Bantu. They show in many features a small

coefficient of variation, which tends to prove that the cross, if

such is the true explanation, was of some standing and very

complete. In many characters they approach the Negroes of

British Central Africa more closely than the Kaffir tribes of the

Hast Coast.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 197

“The net result of the additions to the averages has been to mark

out the Bushman race in some respects more sharply than before,

and to show clearly that, although they approach the Simian type

more closely than the other branches of mankind, the gap separating

the two is very great.”

Exception may, perhaps, be taken to the number of skulls, on the

measurements of which Shrubsall’s conclusions rest. He had at his

disposal 105; but it is quite possible that the skulls labelled Hottentot

or Bush were not classified with sufficient accuracy. From the time

his paper was published—end of 1907—-I procured him sixty-two

additional skulls, with the héstory of nearly all. Those will form the

subject of an important paper, which I had hoped would have been

published at the same time as the present one.

This new material corroborates more and more Shrubsall’s first

conclusions. He writes as follows: ‘‘I am quite unable to dis-

tinguish between Hottentots and Bushmen. . . . The Bushmen are

dolichocephalic. The Strandloopers are mesaticephalic, and nearer

to the brachycephalic, but under eighty in index. Hottentots are

more dolichocephalic. .. .

“The skulls of the George, Kynsna and Humansdorp caves

can be distinguished at sight.” ... And on my questions respect-

ing the possibility or improbability of a connection between the

Strandlooper and the race of Grimaldi (Monaco), negroid cum

australoid, and others he answers: ‘‘The brow ridges are more

marked in the Strandloopers than in the Negro, and in this feature

they are nearer palzolithic man.”

All this evidence of physical characters seems thus to corroborate

the conclusion I had arrived at on purely cultural evidence—that the

Strand Loopers were ethnically older in South Africa than either the

so-called Bush or the Hottentot.

In addition to the evidence derived from craniology or osteological

measurements, there are other physical characters which, although

not indicated by the skeleton, are, however, of very great importance.

I have already stated that I have given up distinguishing, now,

between a so-called Bushman or a so-called Hottentot. Nor am I so

sure that the early Colonists did discriminate between the two from a

differentiation in physical appearance only. Those who had herds.

of cattle, and were not too small, were Hottentots; the others, who

lived mostly by the chase or kept no cattle or sheep, and were small,

were Boschiesmen.

Fortunately Sir John Barrow, anxious to see who these so-called

Bushmen were in reality, and in all likelihood commissioned by Lord

198 Annals of the South African Museum.

Macartney, then Governor of the Cape, to obtain de vist information

as to this race, the depredations of which against the Colonists and

their flocks were a constant subject of complaint, did at last succeed,

in 1797, in coming across a clan of these people, and this is what he

writes about certain of their physical characters :—

‘Their bellies are uncommonly protuberant and their backs

hollow, but their limbs seem to be in general well turned and pro-

portioned. Their activity is incredibly great. . . . And as the means

of increasing their speed in the chase, or when pursued by an enemy,

the men have adopted a custom which was sufficiently remarkable—

of pushing the testicles to the upper part of the root of the penis,

where they seemed to remain as firmly fixed and as conveniently

placed as if nature had stationed them there. It is highly pro-

bable that such an operation, in order to be effectual, must be

performed at an early period of life. Some were said to have

one up and one down, which may have given rise to the Hotten-

tots being characterised, in the Systema Nature of Linneus, as

Monorchides.”’

“Curious as this custom seemed to be, it was less a subject of

remark than an extraordinary character that distinguished the other

sex from the women of most nations. The well-known story of the

Hottentot women possessing an unusual appendage to those parts

that are seldom exposed to view, which belonged not to the sex in

general, ridiculous as it may appear, is perfectly true with regard to

the Bosjemans. The horde we met with possessed it in every subject,

whether young or old; and, without the least offence to modesty,

there was no difficulty in satisfying our curiosity on this point. It

appeared on examination to be an elongation, or more correctly

speaking a protrusion of the nymphe or interior labia, which were

more or less extended according to the age or habit of the person.

That there is in this race of human beings a predisposition to this

anomalous formation of the parts was obvious from its evident

appearance in infants and from its length being in general propor-

tionate to the age of the female. The longest that was measured

somewhat exceeded five inches, and this was a subject of middle

age. Many were said to have them much longer. These protruded

nymphe, collapsed and pendent, leave the spectator in doubt as to

what sex they belong to. Their colour is that of livid blue, inclining

to a reddish tint, not unlike the excrescence on the beak of a turkey,

which indeed may serve to convey a tolerably good idea of the whole

appearance both as to colour, shape, and size... .

“The great curvature of the spine inwards and the remarkably

The Stone Ages of South Africa. gg

extended posteriors are characteristic of the whole Hottentot race ;

but in some of the small Bosjemans they are carried to such an

extravagant degree as to excite laughter. If the letter S be con-

sidered as one expression of the line of beauty to which degrees of

approximation are admissible, some of the women of this nation are

entitled to the first rank in point of form. A section of the body

from the breast to the knee forms really the shape of the above

letter. The projection of the posterior part in one subject measures

five inches and a half from the line touching the spine. This pro-

tuberance consisted entirely of fat, and when the women walked it

exhibited the most ridiculous appearance imaginable, every step

being accompanied with a quivering and tremulous motion, as if two

masses of jelly had been attached behind her.”

I refer the reader to Pl. XXVIII. The four Figs. on this Plate

reproduce absolutely, even in measurements, the description of

Barrow. These models, which are casts taken on the living sub-

ject and therefore true in every detail, form part of a collection

of nineteen which I have reasons to believe are relatively pure

bred.*

This steatopygia is a physical character of great importance. It

is not only encountered in the clay statuettes of prehistoric Egypt,

but all the aurignacian or pre-solutrean figures of women discovered

hitherto, whether carved out of ivory, stone, or horn, show it also

in a very strongly developed form. Nor is it in archaic time only

that this style of figuration, evidently reproduced from nature, pre-

vailed. Statuettes exhibiting this development, but from sites which

are accepted as neolithic, are known from the grottoes or caves of

France and of Egypt; they have been met with in Malta, in Poland,

in Roumania, Greece, Crete, &&. Even now, along the shores of

the Mediterranean, the esthetic merit of Venws callipyge is very

much appreciated.

Impossible as it is to decide if the present steatopygia of the

Bush-Hottentot woman is or not a case of survival, she possesses

* Indignant, indeed, was the woman (Figs. 208, 209), whose steatopygia is not

of extreme type, when it was suggested to her that she might be a Hottentot. No!

she was a pure-bred Bush; and I have no doubt that she believed herself to be so.

A brother of hers, however, who was of the same parentage—and a bad character

who did not seem to rocognise the difference between mewm and twum—was shot

dead by another native, to whose goats he was helping himself. The body was

secured, but the indices of the skull do not differ from those of the Hottentot. Yet

the man was known as, or looked upon by his Hottentot congeners as well as by the

Colonists, as a Bushman, a name in which his sister, as well as the other woman

who forms the subject of Fig. 211, gloried.

200 Annals of the South African Museum.

another physical character, known under the term ‘“ longinymph,”’

and of which I can find no indication in the representations of the

aurignacian figurines of Brassempouy or Grimaldi, in the ‘ Vénus

impudique’”’ of Laugerie Basse, or others. (See Fig. 211 of

Pl, XOSVilI:)* |

But it cannot be said that this enormous, although variable

elongation of the ‘‘labia minora” is restricted altogether to the

Bush-Hottentot race; and the stories one hears of the ‘ tablier-

égyptien’”’ seem to point to the great similarity of the latter to the

‘‘tablier hottentot.”’

Kolben, in his account of this peculiarity of the Hottentot woman,

quotes Thévenot to prove that it is found also among the Negro and

Egyptian women.

Fréderick Cuvier, in his ‘‘ Histoire des Mammifeéres,’”’ expresses

himself as follows in his account of the once-famous ‘ Vénus

hottentote’’: ‘It is known that the development of the nymphe is

very variable, and that Negro and Abyssinian women are so much

incommodated by it that it is found necessary to remove these

excrescences by the use of the knife or by cauterisation. All the

young girls have to undergo the operation. The Portuguese Jesuits

who, in the sixteenth century, converted to Catholicism the King of

Abyssinia and part of his subjects, deemed themselves compelled to

proscribe the practice, which they considered to be a survival of the

former paganism of the nation. The result was that Catholic

maidens could find no lovers or husbands.

“The Propaganda College sent a surgeon to verify the allegations

of the missionaries, and on his report and advice the return to

ancient custom was authorised by Papal decision.”

It is very difficult to obtain reliable information as to the presence

or absence of these appendages among the Xosa, Basuto, Zulu, or

other tribes of Kaffirs; but I am assured in the most explicit manner

that in the Transvaal, among the Ba-Klangwe—-one of the various

Thonga clans living on the East Coast—not only are the women

longinymph, but that an intombz, or maid, not possessing these

appendages would be repudiated as wife, and the lobola or purchase-

money returned. At the time of the initiation rites the maidens,

* I am now satisfied that this growth is not artificial, but develops gradually with

age. Nor is the steatopygia developed during or after pregnancy. The appendages

of Fig. 211 are those of a woman who never bore children, and the steatopygia is

much more developed in her than in Fig. 208. The longinymph character seems,

however, to be sometimes lacking, even where steatopygia prevails. . . . Among the

Masarwa women who are also longinymph (we have two casts in the collection)

the steatopygia is greatly reduced, if even much noticeable.

The Stone Ages of South Afraca.. 201

standing together, proclaim loudly to the boys the amplitude of their

secret charm.*

That the “tablier hottentot’’ is not confined to the South African

relics of the San only is thereby proved; but one is inclined to come

to the conclusion that, when found to occur in another race, this

character has been transmitted by a San race having come in contact

with another, or others, Hamitic or Negro, or perhaps both.

Another physical peculiarity of the Bush-Hottentot—but of man

this time, and one which is comparatively very little known—is that

the penis is normally carried horizontally and, in some young subjects,

in a semi-vertical or even vertical position. This fact was known to

the old Colonists who were acquainted with the Bush people. In

fact, according to some who gave me the information some thirty

years ago, the purity of the race was denoted by the angle at which

the penis stood normally. Prison warders have assured me that

such is the case, and this is corroborated by the photographs which

we took of eight men, probably as pure bred as any now left.

Singular as these peculiarities are, the Aborigines of the Hottentot-

Bush races have recorded them in the artistic productions they have

left behind in the shape of rock-graving and paintings, productions

which we know to be associated with the Stone Age or Ages of South

Africa.

In scenes graved on rocks, when the human form is represented

the technique is so primitive that, were it not for the phallus, always

out of proportion to the size of the image, it would be impossible to

recognise the sex. The phallus is, in all the cases known to me,t

carried in a semi-vertical position or at a high angle. In paintings

it is the same; man’s genitalia are never hanging when Bush people

are delineated.

In these painted scenes the artist is satisfied to denote the female

sex by granting the subject an abundance of steatopygia; but in

one scene, of which we have a tracing (a dance), the woman’s

longinymphal state is very plainly shown.

These gravings and paintings are now, it is feared, a lost art. But

those who executed them have left behind the records of physical

characters which were once essentially typical of, if not restricted to,

their race.

* It has, however, been impossible to find out if this elongation of the labia is in

this instance artificial or natural; but I have been assured lately that among the

natives of North-Western Rhodesia its shape greatly differs from that of Fig. 211.

+ These scenes are rare. I know of four only, and only men are represented.

CHAPTER XXII.

A Note on CRANIOLOGY.

By F. C. SHrussauu.

The physical characters of the human remains from the caves and

middens scattered along the South African coast are predominantly

negroid, presenting the closest resemblance to those of the recent

Bushmen. A study of the skulls has been more easily conducted

BUSHMAN. KAFFIR.

Gale

than of the other bones owing to a greater wealth of material for

comparison. The results so far obtained from the material pre-

served in the South African and Albany Museums are briefly sum-

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 203

marised in the following paragraphs.* Both Bushmen and Strand-

loopers crania viewed from above present a marked prominence of

the parietal eminences, the outline described by Sergi as byrsoides.

This prominence is not noteworthy in Kaffir or Zulu crania, though

seen to a lesser degree among the Bantu-speaking tribes on the

west coast to the north of the Congo.

As seen in profile the resemblances between the Cavemen, Bush-

men, and Hottentots are very close, but the former are somewhat

larger and present fuller foreheads. In all the upper face is

flattened, but there is some projection of the jaw, sub-nasal prog-

nathism, the alveolar margin sloping obliquely forwards. This is

least marked in the older cave remains, and most in the skulls from

the Kalahari and in those of the Nama Hottentots. Prognathism is

a negroid character.

The crania show the bending of the basi-cranial axis, described by

Huxley and Rolleston, to which further attention has been drawn

by Keith, who has shown that it leads to the cerebral hemispheres

projecting beyond the morphological anterior extremity to a marked

degree, and causes the prominent forehead of the negro type. A

further result of this flexion is a certain crushing of the forehead

into the face. These features are somewhat less marked in certain

specimens, notably those from the Blaawberg district, which seem

to be of greater antiquity. Any divergence from the negroid type

in early specimens is of considerable importance, and so far as the

present evidence goes the earlier specimens are more divergent and

present more primitive features. One skull—Fig. 3—has a more

prominent nose and face with a greater lengthening out of the

occiput, in some respects recalling the ‘“river-bed”’ type of early

European skulls.

All the cave and midden skulls present the character of shortness

in the basi-bregmatic height, measured from the front of the foramen

magnum to the junction of the frontal with the two parietal bones.

It may be noted that this character more than any other serves to

distinguish Hottentot from Bushmen. crania, and that the Strand-

loopers are thus still more remote from the Hottentots and Kaffirs.

They are thus also removed from any resemblance to the negroid

type described by Verneau from the Grimaldi caves at Monaco.

Verneau compared the negroid Grimaldi skulls to Australians, while

Keith has shown their resemblance to specimens from Fiji. The

* A first report appeared in Vol. V., and a further report will be presented as

soon as possible.

204 Annals of the South African Museum.

STRANDLOOPER.

BUSHMAN.

HOTTENTOT.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 205

affinities of this early European type seem to be with the Oceanic

rather than the African branch of the negro family.

In facial characters the Strandloopers and Bushmen are noted by

broad rectangular orbits and short, broad chamzeprosopic faces.

The Hottentots have much higher more rounded orbits, approxi-

mating to those of the Bantu-speaking negroes.

The nasal orifice is somewhat larger in the older cave and midden

skulls than in the later Bushmen. The lower margin of the nasal

orifice is sharply cut and clearly defined in the former group; in the

Bushmen it begins to be rounded off, while in the Hottentots and

negroes it is rounded, and may even present the so-called simian

grooves in which the floor of the nose runs out on to the anterior

STRANDLOOPER, BLAAWBERG.

Hie. 3)

surface of the maxilla with no defined margin at all. In this

respect it is possible that the Strandloopers present a more primitive

feature. These features of the nose and the degree of sub-nasal

prognathism may be of importance in relation to the question of the

affinities of the Hottentots. If the Strandloopers represent the

earliest of the Bushman race, and present a sharp-cut nose and

orthognathous face, while the Hamitic peoples, so far as we know

them from the Egyptian relics, present the same features, it is not

entirely easy to describe the Hottentots, who are sub-nasally

prognathous with rounded nasal margins, in terms of a cross-breed.,

Some other element seems required. The influence of environment

as a competent factor is, to say the most, unproven. These features

206 Annals of the South African Museum.

seem to confirm the evidence of comparative measurements that the

Hottentots possess some strain of negro blood.

The cranial capacity of the Strandloopers is distinctly greater than

that of either Bushmen or Hottentots, and it is interesting to note

BUSHMAN. STRANDLOOPER.

WEST COAST BANTU. STRANDLOOPER.

Wires 24:

that the skulls which have the greatest presumptive antiquity are

the largest. ‘Some exceed 1,600 ec., while a female of the Bush race

from the Kalahari only just reaches to 950 ce., being thus one of the

least capacious on record. If the Bushmen are the unmixed.

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 207

descendants of the cave-dwellers there bas been a distinct

degeneration in the size of the brain.

AVERAGE CRANIAL CAPACITY IN CC.

Males.

Strandloopers............... 1,500 Cape Bushmen ............. 1,260

Kalahari Bushmen ...... 1,300 Hottentots........... peers 1,380

Ba BUMATE oes cace sates kak dees . 1,420 Eastern Bantu ..... eee. . 1,520

Western Bantu ........... . 1,420 Grimaldi Negroid..... fake) oO BO

Females.

Strandloopers...)...,---:-. » Lod), Cape Bushmen: ......425./, 1,200

Kalahari Bushmen ...... IOOMS Hottentotsvccs. ccc tee kee 1 280

Grimaldi Negroid .......... 1,375

The general table of dimensions shows a gradation from Strand-

looper-Bush-Hottentot-Bantu, but it will be noted that the Hottentot

and Kalahari Bush females closely resemble one another. Some

AVERAGE DIMENSIONS IN MILLIMETRES.

wa. eentiiie Cel

og ml | St. : rh i) Cis Po

aol = | a3 |425| ea | as | 22 |.sa

Casta Bae % 6s | gom| ge | as | ab | age

ge | 2 S$ | 22 |228| 28 | 22198 lass

4 3 = m ) NA am a Q é A aH

ee =

Males. |

Strandloopers...... 1813 138 0 1244 | 1235 60°4 428 95:1 942 92°4

Bushmen (Cape) | 1790 1344 125°2 | 1219 60:9 425 26'0 953 94:5

Bush, 8S. Kalahari | 1798 132-2 1250 | 1270 62:7 452 275 | 983 | 1010

Hottentots ......... 183°6 133-9 132'0 126:0 65'5 456 266 | 990 | 1002

Eastern Bantu ... | 1866 1332 | 1362 | 1317 69:0 476 27:4 | 103'1 | 1038

Western Bantu ... | 1791 1358 | 1337 | 1286 66:4 475 268 | 1009 | 1039

Grimaldi Negroid, | | |

adolescent male | 1920 | 1330 137°0 1300 | — 46:0 250 99 0 _

Females. | | | |

Strandloopers...... 1716 1358 | 1219 | 118 4 565 416 23'8 90:0 88:1

Bush (Cape)......... 1716 | 1324 | 1206 | 1143 573 417 23°5 89°5 879

Bush, S. Kalahari | 1721 | 1288 1246 1182 | 609 | 429 25'8 95:0 94:0

Hottentots ......... 1756 133-4 | 1240 | 1204 609 44-0 26:0 949 94:0

INC ETOCS) -2.-cstscecwces 1752 129°9 129°5 — — 44-4 25°7 96:9 98°4

Grimaldi Negroid,

old female......... | 1921 | 131-0 129°0 12290 | — | 440 28:0 | 101-0 —

| |

doubt exists as to the latter specimens being those of pure-blooded

individuals, in view of the confusion between Bushmen and Hotten-

tots in recent times and the certainty that Bush women were

incorporated in Hottentot families.

208 Annals of the South African Musewm.

The teeth are much worn in both the cave-dwellers and recent

Bushmen, but the former show no signs of the crowding of the jaw

or of the dental irregularities, which are a marked feature of the

specimens from the Kalahari. This may be evidence of some degree

of impurity in the latter stock, the larger teeth of the negro appearing

without a proportionate enlargement of the jaw; but against this

should be set. the reduced cranial capacity of many individuals and

the predominant Bush features. The stature of the Kalahari speci-

mens shows a wide range of variation, 4 ft. 10 in. to 5 ft. 6 in.

The cave-dwellers varied from 4 ft. 9 in. to 5 ft. 2 in., being thus a

little taller than the majority of the up-country Cape Bushmen ;

though, excepting for the possibly legendary Kattea, the northern

colonial Bushman was always described as taller than the coastal

tribes.

The evidence points to the Strandloopers being the most primitive

race of South Africa, and, as the earliest specimens are the least

negroid, it is possible that further researches may show adequate

distinctions from the Bushmen.

There are no definite resemblances between the Strandloopers and

the negroid type described by Verneau from the Grimaldi caves, the

crania of which are longer, narrower, higher, with wider zygomatic

arches and a quite different outline.

A few Egyptian crania in outline somewhat resemble Bushmen,

and in dimensions, as previously shown in Vol. V., resemble Hotten-

tots, but there is no sufficient evidence as yet to establish a connec-

tion. More data are needed as to the cranial form and dimensions

of the early Hamites before the theory of origin of the Hottentots

can be adequately tested, and the materials as yet are lacking. Much

is to be hoped for from the search for the early Cavemen now going

on, provided the stratigraphical and geological evidence of antiquity

can be established.

( 209 )

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE COLDSTREAM CAVE.

In Chapter XVI. I have embodied Mr. T. §8. Henkel’s account of

his visit to a cave, or rather rock-shelter, discovered by Mr. C. J.

Whitcher, senior, in the Humansdorp District of the Cape Colony.

I have also described and figured some of the objects discovered by

Mr. Whitcher.

By his kind permission and generous help, for which I express

here my warmest thanks, we were enabled to continue the excava-

tions of the cave on a preconcerted plan. Mr. J. Drury, of this

Museum, was deputed to investigate the contents under well-defined

instructions—a work which he has most satisfactorily executed, until

circumstances beyond his control bade us cease work temporarily.

A full account of the result of this research will appear shortly.

I may, however, summarise it by explaining here that we were

rewarded by finds of importance. Among bone tools of different

size, were some of a shape differing from those I have figured in this

paper, especially an oblong ivory-bead, 35 mm. long by 28 mm. thick,

perforated in the usual !kwé fashion, &c. Funeral stones, of the

shape of Fig. 199 in Plate XXVII., were discovered, and among

them one bearing three polychrome, wonderfully well-preserved

pictures of Bushmen, far better executed than anything I have as

yet seen. The face is painted white, and the crescent-shaped process

noticeable in Fig. 199—which I took at first to be possibly the mark

of a clan—stands for the hair and is black. The delineation of the

eye is still noticeable, and one of the faces bears streaks of red,

plainly intended to represent the embellishments in use among the

members of the clan. This stone was found resting on the shoulders

of a hunched-up skeleton lying on its side. There is now no doubt

that the Figs. 199, 200, and 201 in Plate XX VII. were also used for

the same purpose in the burial ceremonies of some of the Strand

Loopers.

210 Annals of the South African Museum.

I was hoping, as this rock-shelter had been but little disturbed,

that we might obtain there evidence that would go to show whether

or not the former inhabitants there inhumed had manufactured

implements of palzeolithic style, in contradistinction to the neolithic

ones obtained in the sand-dunes, the littoral middens, or the rock-

shelters of the inland districts. Nor was I mistaken.

Interspersed in all the layers, as deep as we went, was found a

great quantity of moderately large, uncouth chips, most of them with

at least one cutting edge, but which had flaked in a manner some-

what different from that with which I am acquainted. This I have

found to be due to the quartzitic condition of the rownded pebbles

used. Among these were found three which are, undoubtedly, of the

palolithic boucher type.

The first is an axe-like cleaving implement, plane on one side,

having evidently been detached from the matrix at one blow; the

reverse is pluri-faceted, the lower part being produced in a broad,

slanting, bevelled edge resembling that of a carpenter’s chisel, and

bearing traces of use. It resembles Fig. 57 of Plate VIII. The

quartzite used breaks readily into this shape. The implement is

126 mm. long, 85 mm. at its widest part, and 25 mm. in thickness.

The second is a boucher of oblong-ovate form, not unlike that of

Fig. 24 in Plate III. One side is the natural surface of a very flat,

almost plane, water-worn pebble of the kind used for placing over

the bodies: the other side has been obtained by repeated flaking,

which has produced many short facets resembling greatly secondary

chipping; this style of flaking was seemingly necessitated by the

composition of the matrix. The implement is 170 mm. in length,

110 mm. in width, and 31 mm. thick. The third example is a large,

lanciform scraper-flake of the same shape as those represented in

Plate XIII., Fig. 4.

The presence of these three examples may not be thought a priore

to be sufficient evidence that the two styles of stone industry are the

handiwork of the Strand Looper aboriginals inhumed in this Cold-

stream shelter. But the size and shape of the flakes interspersed in

the layers, which were removed to a depth of nearly 16 feet, plainly

indicate that they are not of the small type of South African neolithic,

although some of the latter were also found with them; they are the

by-product of moderately large bouchers, in spite of the scarcity of

the latter in the cave.

There is also no doubt whatever that together with these flakes,

large and small, and on the same levels, were found mullers or

pounders of the type of, or similar to, those figured in Plate XXIIL,

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 211

Figs. 168 and 170. Several large ones, plainly used as hammers,

are broken by the force of impact; the ends of others are strongly

abraded, &. !Kwés were met with on or near the surface, but a

broken one was found at some depth and close to a rimming stone.

On the other hand, these implements show no sign of old age, nor

could they, owing to the position in which they were found. Manu-

factured on the spot, as shown by the flakes, finished or partly finished

in siti, they would be covered rapidly by, or lost in, the debris. Their

scarcity is, however, not easily explained.

Along the littoral, and especially at the St. Blaize rock-shelter

below the lighthouse, there have been found, not in the shelter but

in the open, long flakes similar in texture and execution to some

which I had occasion to examine lately, and also bouchers not unlike

in technique, and especially in ‘‘modern”’ appearance, those from

Coldstream ; an appearance, and also a certain similarity, equally

shared by some of the implements found at Fishhook and Cradock

(see Chapter VI.).

Does it follow, however, that these implements of palzolithic type

are comparatively modern? The Coldstream shelter has, in all

probability, been occupied many times over. On the surface of the

floor have been found objects truly modern, such as parts of a tinder-

box. Our search near the parietal part has yielded pieces of copper

of what was presumably a ship’s compass. But at a depth of from

8 to 14 feet the skeletons found are no longer of the dwarfish stature

of the Strand Loopers. We have a much longer-limbed, more robust

race—which is at present under investigation—the presence of which

is not easily accounted for. No complete skull has as yet been found.

Whatever be the race, however, the implements of South African

neolithic type, as well as of the paleeolithic, are found in the same

strata in which the skeletons of the small race and of the latter race

occur, and there are no means so far of identifying the antiquity of

either.

But, in spite of the reservations I made regarding drawing

conclusions from the appearance or workmanship of knife- or

scraper-flakes, when dealing with the geological evidence I have

mentioned on page 80, the raised beach in which a knife-scraper

flake was found by Dr. A. W. Rogers: ‘‘a piece of quartzite which

appears to have been shaped by man—in limestone which must have

been formed at a time when the land stood at least 15 feet lower

than now.”

This flake-knife is of the same texture and style of manufacture as

others found in caves or shelters of that part of the littoral, and also

212 Annals of the South African Museum.

in the Coldstream cave (see Figs. 114 on Plate XIII.). And the

statement of Mr. G. Robertson’s that ‘‘ pounders,” &c., have also

been found in the limestone is the more strengthened by the fact

that in one of the few caves or rock-shelters of the littoral which have

remained undisturbed, palolithic and neolithic types have now been

proved to have been coeval.

We have no means of ascertaining the duration of time neces-

sitated by the rise of the end of a continent to a height of 15 feet,

and the consequent regression of shore to an extent of two miles, if

not more.

But on lithic evidence it must now be taken as granted that the

industry of the Strand Looper is of very ancient origin.

Did it evolve with them, was it imitated by them, was it a case of

survival of methods with the inhumed inhabitants of the Coldstream

rock-shelter? It is impossible to pronounce on these questions at

present.

But I am inclined to believe, from the examination of all the finds

from there, that the lithic industry was on the wane; bone tools are

in the ascendant; stone is used only for such purposes where bone

could not be employed as a substitute.

Yet, to draw the conclusion that all the implements of palsolithic

type are not more ancient than those of the Coldstream cave, or those

found in the littoral, would be erroneous.

The same antiquity can be claimed for the paleoliths of Stellen-

bosch, Griqualand, and Rhodesia as is claimed for those from the

Pyrennees, from Madrid, from Madras. A practised eye sees what

is often undescribable. It is possible that the lithological tenets

obtaining now in Europe may have to be greatly rejuvenated,

involving thereby a lesser antiquity for our own, markedly ancient,

bouchers; but there will still remain that inexplicable difference

between what is indeed ancient and the comparatively modern.

But in South Africa the two methods, palzolithic and neolithic,

have survived in a coeval manner to a period of comparatively recent,

or even very recent, date.

( 213 )

CHAPTER XXIV.

CoNCLUSIONS.

Were conclusions to be drawn from the documentary evidence

they would be summed up as follows :—

All over South Africa are scattered numberless paloliths that find

an absolute counterpart in those occurring in the rest of Africa,

India, Arabia, Europe, &c., but not in Australia.

If my theory is correct, e.g., that the rolled boulder, pebble, or

nodule lends itself more naturally than any other stone to the pro-

duction of the implements of Chellean-Mousterian type, and has on

that account been the more readily utilised, then the occurrence of

this type in places far remote, or even sundered, is explained.

The facies of these paleeoliths, South African or African, is also

such that it is not unreasonable to formulate the opinion that this

probably accidental discovery—the stone implement—originated in

Africa, and was transmitted or transported thence to Asia and

Europe, it may be by the Neanderthal or River-Drift man, the doli-

chocephaly of which is so characteristically African.

If a close comparison is made between European and South

African paleoliths, other than scrapers and like objects, we dis-

cover, however, certain discrepancies. Thus, the South African

bouchers of Chellean-Acheulean-Mousterian types are found side by

side, and in such a position, or in such “ factory sites,” that we are

compelled to look upon them as having been made by the same

people and at the same time. Therefore the amygdaloidal.Chellean

or Acheulean form is not here an advance on the less finished, some-

what spall-like Mousterian, whereas in Europe the latter is con-

sidered by many, if not most, antiquarians to be of posterior date.

Another characteristic of the South African palolithic series is

the huge size of many of the tools and the proportionate dimensions

of the nuclei, |

214 Annals of the South African Museum.

It has been shown also that the purport of the bouchers is better

explained here than that of similar implements found elsewhere,

especially those made of the same material. They are plainly

digging or cleaving tools, purposely trimmed.

Here, as in Europe, we find paleoliths in alluvium, on terraces,

on plateaux. But the situation of these finds cannot be said to be

as convincing regarding their relative age as, for example, those of

the Thames or Somme valleys. Yet it is impossible to deny to

some of our local finds an antiquity comparable with that of the

River-Drift period of Europe.

On the other hand, we meet in certain situations or sites with

paloliths of archaic form together with coarse chips, flakes, nuclei

of the Bush type which I term South African neolithic (Fishhook),

or so perilously near a ‘factory site’’ of similar implements

(Cradock) that the question may well be asked, Are not the palzo-

liths and neoliths coeval? Have they not kept pace, the one with

the other, without the first merging into the second, differing in this

manner from the Aurignacian following the Mousterian, but sup-

planting it?

After the discovery in the Coldstream cave of implements asso-

ciated in the sepultures with bone implements, pounders, mullers,

braders, and also with polychrome and monochrome paintings on

stones, this question must be answered in the affirmative; and we

have here no hiatus in the chronology of implements such as exists

still in Hurope.

Truly these implements have not the patina of those found on the

surface or exposed in cuttings, or talus, nor that indescribable some-

thing which, to the practised eye, tells of great antiquity. The

“altogether,” however, is that of the bouchers and scrapers of

Fishhook, and also of those of the neighbourhood of the St. Blaize

rock-shelter, and of the scraper found in the raised beach of Braak

River. It is therefore impossible now to doubt that the Strand

Looper aboriginal manufactured these paleoliths, and moreover,

that some of them are of great antiquity. Whether all the paleo-

lithic type artefacts are to be ascribed to him remains an open

question.

But that the race is a very old one would seem also to receive

corroboration from the physical peculiarities which are essentially

his own,

The occupier of the Knysna-Humansdorp caves is less dolicho-

cephalic than the other two South African groups of the San—he is

mesaticephalic but wnder 80 in index. He was artistically gifted,

The Stone Ages of South Africa. 215

like the race which occupied and decorated the Altamira, Marsoulas,

and other caves of Spain and France. He painted; he possibly

carved on rocks; he used bone tools; he made pottery; he per-

forated stones for either heading clubs or to be used as make-weight

for digging tools; his ornaments consisted of sea-shells; and the

ostrich egg-shell discs which he made may be said to be a typical

product of his industry. And this culture is retained in South

Africa by a kindred race, but more dolichocephalic—the Bushmen-

Hottentots.

The traces which he has left of his culture are now traced in

Africa from Cape Agulhas in the south, to Cape Bon in the north.

Even in neolithic sepultures of Spain his typical egg-shell discs are

found. Analogous are most of his tools and his expression of

culture to those of Aurignacian man.

But in spite of this great resemblance, or perhaps similarity, it is

risky, to say the least, to uphold the Strand Looper as the linear

descendant or living representative of the man of Solutré or

Aurignac. Of the physique of the latter we know nothing beyond

the steatopygia of his women, which he has reproduced in his

figurines, and perhaps exaggerated ; and we can judge of him only

by the relics of his culture, which does, however, strikingly resemble

in some respects that of the Strand Looper branch of the San.

( 216 )

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION .. a8 ae We a8 2% os

I.—_THE PALAOLITHIC.

CHAPTER I.

Situation and Composition of the Paleolithic and Neolithic South African

Implements ..

CHAPTER II.

Divisions of the Palwolithic Series—KHoliths—Paleoliths of large size

other than Scraper-knives—The different Hee of South African

Paleolithic Implements : AD : ae 30

CHAPTER III.

The Manner in which the Bouchers were Manufactured, and the Tools

used for Manufacturing them

CHAPTER IV.

What were the Bouchers used for ?

CHAPTER V.

Were Tools other than Bouchers Manufactured by the Makers of

Paleoliths?.. Se 4 56 36 56 we 5¢

CHAPTER VI.

An Account of the ‘‘ Stations ”’

CHAPTER VII.

Paleontological and Geological Evidence

PAGES

1-4

10-22

23-28

29-34

35-46

47-73

74-81

—_—

The Stone Ages of South Africa.

II._THE NEOLITHIC.

CHAPTER VIII.

PAGES

Aurignacian, Solutrian, Magdalenian Types.. ae a6 5S a 82-92

CHAPTER IX.

Tardenosian Type sé ae te a sa ne oe ar 93-96

CHAPTER X.

Bone Tools and Stone-sharpeners, Knives, Awls and Arrow-points,

Whetstones .. sks es Xs ae wa 23 na .. 97-102

CHAPTER XI.

Ornaments es ar a a ae a3 = Be .. 104-106

CHAPTER XII.

The ! Kweée, or Perforated Stone be ae BA ae Re .. 107-117

CHAPTER XIII.

Brayers, Mullers, and Mortars.. ae Se ae Be ae .. 118-120

CHAPTER XIV.

Pottery .. xe SiG a6 a AP +6 be ca .. 121-134

CHAPTER XV.

The Shell-mounds or Middens of the Littoral a ; an oe db —14m

CHAPTER XVI.

Caves and Rock-shelters ae ze Ss 83 ia ve .. 143-169

CHAPTER XVII.

The Sepultures .. ee ae sc ies as 8 =e .« L70-174

CHAPTER XVIII.

Implements of European Neolithic Type .. ap a wi .» LV5-177

218 Annals of the South African Museum.

CHAPTER XIX.

Notes on Sources of Rock for the Manufacture of Stone Implements

CHAPTER XxX.

Stone and Iron Ages Combined

CHAPTER XxXI.

The Origin of the Bushman or Hottentot

CHAPTER XXII.

A Note on Craniology. By F. C. SHrupsann

CHAPTER XXIII.

The Coldstream Cave

CHAPTER XXIV.

Conclusions ..

PAGES

178-179

180-188

189-201

202-208

209-212

213-215

Ann.S. Afr Mus. Vol. VIII a

2 2a

23, x 95x56 1 7

U5 x65 x 27m.m

123 x 70x 24 m.m

163 x 82 x €2 m.m

177 « 112 x 73 mm. \ 185x761 mm

West, Newman collo.

mi | 271x 125 x 75mm

213 x 83 x §6 m.m.

258 x 107x 18 m.m

10a

183.x80x 48 mm,

164 x 85 x 28 m.m.

2F0x 985 x 57 mm.

Ann.S. Afr. Mus.Vol VIII.

99% 62 x 81 mm.

176 x 85x §0 mm.

L190 x 102 x 85 mm.

200 x 95x 31.m.m.

20b

830x158 x 101.m.m.

M4x S9 x23 mm.

VOX GT GAT. 20

; £/0 x 124.m.m.

24.

144 x 100x 40mm™

276 «115 x 8E mm. | West, Newman collo.

Ann.S.Afr Mus. Vol. VIII.

139x722 x 45 mm.

L387 x x 44 mm.

192 x 119 x 68 mm.

oe”

ISL «61x 62 mm.

200 x I7 mm.

194x 122 x 65.mm.

187x103 x $m.m.

227x106 mm.

West, Newman col]

H))

| ® Ann.S. Afr Mus.Vol.VIII

I33 x 66 «28 mm

38a

174x 93x nn.

138 gGx24am.

39a

163% 94x 42 m.m

WN) x 75 * 26 m.m

RIEVE

37a

West, Newman collo

oa — 7 ‘ 7

f :

si Om a _ ns ;

, 2 2

; ; ’

= 5

iS 7 4 . -

cae ay a

- 7?

¥ - . =

—_ - :

{ = ; ' |

7 7F im : - y

_ 1 - ' ; ;

2 M :

Ann-S. Afr Mus. Vol. VII.

Ala,

220 x 122 x 81 mm.

172x110 «89mm.

Leiba gi

£40 x 100x 60 m.m.

186 x 73x 42 m.m.

West, Newman collo.

Annz.S. Afr. Mus. Vol. VII. : . te

47 47a 48 a

187 x 86 x 53 mm ee

49 49a

120x 75x 29mm. EV sis Lap,

it Sla

167 UEXES mm, gi

—

West,Newman co

Ann.S. Afr Mus. Vol. VIII.

x117x 42mm.

19x 83x 33 mm.

PIPVLL,

93x 54% 29mm.

West,Newman collo.

& 1

= ¥ , *

2 eer Th ee rar Tc. 6S

Bec Ate Mus Vol. VILL moe

128 x 59x 32 mm

155 x 82x 55mm

149 x 88x 84mm

60 61

147x 73 x31mm 144x 69x 384mm

West, Newman collo.

‘ ve

po .

‘

—

Ann.5.Afr Mus.Vol. VIL.

veelad@.

74 x 3

West, Newman collo.

Ann.S. Afr Mus.Vol. VIL.

76 nat size

77 nat size.

144

FISHHOEK

cAPE

ce =

85 nat size.

358 x 125 x 67™-

90 xf

West, Newman collo.

: 1194.

DA. KANNENEYER”

_SNITHFIELD.. OR

Pil Te

fewmen callo.

Ann.S.Afr Mus.Vol. VII.

N2ix 36)0um: 105x24"™™-

O36 "2m:

107

106

ole UNE

109

West, Newman collo,

Ann.S. Afr Mus. Vol. VU.

Pixie

3 4

HS wnat.size.

2 3 4

117 rat size.

West, Newmar collo.

x 3h,

Ann.S. Afr Mus. Vol. VIIL.

OO ——

West, Newman collo.

a SMS EN ec

WPOUV HQ

Ann.S. Afr Mus.Vol. VUI.

127 nat. size.

West, Newnan collo.

4 size.

125 na

126 nat. size.

(Ze.

vu S

129

ie ir ba)

a is <

Sir i aan irs 8

- “s * s 7 -

Ann.S. Afr Mus.Vol. VII.

mC 4s

133

137 nat. size.

PIEXVIE

136 x ho

West, Newman collo.

= - : : a i 7

n = ®

Ann.5. Afr. Mus.Vol.V

PI. XVIIL.

COOP CORE eD DOR

NTIY RYTNYY ee6

West, Newmar collo.

Ann.5.Afr.Mus.Vol VII.

Ce aie

) iis

BORD resin

Sia aise

Ig 20

30 31 oe 33

144 x 4/5

147 nat size.

149

Approx. nat. size.

hdGe ade Poddodolede...

eceqgd eC O COC COCO CGO OO oEOceegoeec €fo0 fo

COICO eoGCo CVC eEeecoaoo0e00o0rvr00gn 3

eeogdro~eQg@ocoo0retaoo00axaovogqg0oo0:’

CHOOBCECOoto0ECONOO0QG0K GOGO

Cp Agee

Coec0oOeoeoReC Cones oaooeoeegeac aco

Lie

eee

2009OSC7OOG00QO000GQQ000006

eoGOoodooegoogoov00aggoaodgscago

eodod0occsco C°c0eCOeOnRODOO 90860006

OFGASGOCOLECHOHGV0OFLICAaGD

3006 Daeksavgescusssenndg

SGEOASbGHhseacenas &

seo

; NR

/ hs

t *.

‘ac

Pll lg

{

152

Approx. Ya

50% /5

I5| neat srze.

West, Newman colle

Ann.S. Afr Mus. Vol. VIIL

155

Pl Oe

West, Newman col/o, it

Ann.S. Afr Mus.Vol. VIII.

162 West, Newman colo.

Ann.S. Afr. Mus.Vol. VIL.

Piao

166 167

Approx “5

West, Newman collo.

Ann .S. Afr. Mus.Vol. VIII.

Zale ee

178

igo x/s

Pe.

West, Newman co//o.

Ann.S.Afr.Mus.Vol. VIL

184 sat. size.

186 nat. size.

190 nat. size.

92 xe

Nest Newmen collo.

ee ey

Ure AG

vs Py

ay ee

Sper

a 7 ‘a? 4 ‘yer ~< i

* . 5 -

; a

: 7 aT. ,] “aN

" e

Z 7 A ; ‘ = *

: ° oa =

; ‘ : :

oe 4 7

: ag = —_ oa) .

; F cha ;

7 es.) 3: .

we ene

- ’

’ a

7 ¥

7 i

red

’

7 md -

7 2 i > ay oe

o 7 od f | |

=> : : |

@ i mB % . : : | |

. : i :

- > . |

anh a

Po ae 9 > te S _ ‘ # ay ied :

* = |

4)? cs 7 by | 7 .

‘a ¥

* . | 7 :

. ; '

a rg ‘ F

’

‘@ :

1. -_ ;

| e: a : ia

‘

7 | |

| 7 | i

= y . |

: : | | |

q an i : | | |

ry =

a ¥

¥ ~ 4 . .

. Var

we, | | |

ar |

=> . | |

- :

= : , |

1 bd : |

: =

i ay i 7

- t i |

ate

Ann.S. Afr Mus. Vol. VII.

193 x

196 xo

s/zeé.

194 nat.

TR RRR Aree RP RE leas aa

West, Newman collo

198 x

202 x's

ee @ All|.

189 x¥

as)

‘N

207 nat

(Zé.

203 na

size

206 nat

size

204 nat

West, Newman collo.

"Oo

vp)

bs : , ] CAS aS; ) gy .

“ob ee de SiiY a se ? ti ues

ANNALS

OF THE

‘SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM.

VOLUME VI.

1.— The Stowe Ages of South Africa as represented in-the Collection

of the South African Museum. By li. Psrineuny, D.Se.,

Dorector. (With Plates XXVIII. and 26 text-figures.}

A Chapter on the Sources of Rock for the Manufacture of Sione

Implements. By A. L. Du Tort, of the Cape Geological Survay.

A Chapter on Bushmiim Craniclogy. By FC. SHRUBSALL. (With

9 text-figures.}

ISSUED JULY Sth, 1911. PRICE. 40s.

PRINTED FOR THE

TRUSTRES OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

By West, Newman & Co,, Lowpon.

PARTS Cf THE ANNALS PREVIOUSLY ISSUED:

Voi. l.—Part 1, 7/6: Part 2.10/—; Part 3, 5/-; complete £1 2s. 6d.

Vol. 1Y,—Part 1, 2/6; Part 2, 5/5: Part: 8.) 1/43

Part 4, 2/63 Part Sy 1/+3 Part 6, 2/6;

Dare 7, L/+» Patt 8; 2/6} Parh 9," 1=/;

Part 10,6/-; Part 11, 2/6; Index, &e.,1/—; complete £1 8s, 6d.

Vol. Iil,—Part 1, 2/-; Part 2,1/-; Part 8, 5/—;

Part 4, 2/6; Part 6,.5/-; Part 6, °6/—;

Part. 7, f=; Part 8, 2/65 Part 9; 1/-;

Listen, Drtla, Ken Lin ig i j . complete £1 Gs. oe

Vol. £V. (containing Paleontological papers published

in conjunction weth the Geological Survey).—

Part 1, 10/-; Part 2, 6/-; Part 3, 4/-;

Part 4, 4/--; Part 5, 2/-;) Part 6, 4/-;

Part'7, 12/6; Part 8; F/-- ; ¢ - consplete £2 9s 6a.

Vol. V.—-Part 1, 4/+; Part 2, 7/6; Part 8, Q)--;

Part 4, 1/-; Part 4,'1/6; Part 6, 4/6; i

Pari 7%, 2/6; Part 8, 4/--; Part 9, 4/-.

Vol, VL —-Part J, 12/-; Part 2,.4/-; Part 8, 3/-;

Part 4,:27/-.

Vol. VIE. (containing Paleontological papers published

iu conjunction with the Geologica] Survey).-—

Parti: (AIG: 2099 Vio Part 8, 4/63

art 4, T/+.

Vol. VithaBact dope,

Co ih eee :

Vol. X.-—Part dy 2/6,

Vol. XL-—Part 1, 3/-. ;

The Annals of the South African Museum will be issued at

irregular intervals, as matter for publication is available,

Copies may be obtained from~—

Mussrs. WEST, NEWMAN & Co.,

54, Harron Garpen, Lonnon.

Mussrs. WILGIAM WESLEY & SON,

28, Essex Street, Stranp, Lonpon.

Musers. hive de & Co., Cann Serasce, Bran,

Ur,

THE LIBRARIAN, Sours Arzican Muszum, Capr ‘llown.

OCC ee

NARANARAR AS AAr

ae.

Ane

WA ogee ake : af

AA ARAR A. ae

PPS a,

OAARBA

AANA

Anny

alaata) aia

AAAAN RY

AAARAAAAA

ANRAAAIAN

anaean

fad

“WAan

APR AA

ARAA :

AANA a annanaarranarry

Rn ya [NE Na\e /

Nin

AAA

Az A

RAAR

;

~wAL

$6202 05Ae Rahana.an oe Al LAADAAS

Ya aa AARON,

‘:

5 ex

Ag ot

MEG

ORE MERC,

Ce COR Ee

me € CC COSCO f

6 CO CLECune C &

NA aN ea, a: oe ~ 2% aft .

. ARM AAR - fim S| [x : FAS J f YA tN ry

OR NAAAN NAA: Yala WARAAAAAAS

CEC OO CE &

(Ge q ® 4

CC +S CO HOMME Ke

COC CO & Oil, Ot

Cc MO OGL: Ge

eos