ANNALS

CALIFORNIA

OF THE

SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM.

(VOL. VIII.)

1.-The Stone Ages of South Africa as represented in the Collection of the South African Museum.-By L. PÉRINGUEY, D.Sc., Director.

INTRODUCTION.

I MUST explain, a priori, that although for the purpose of illustration 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 contemporaneously 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, consist 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 palæontological 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

they that it is difficult to believe they could have evolved independently, 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 incalculable time a large part of Africa has been uncovered by the sea. This is, however, a hazardous plea, because the existence of Tertiary 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 "boucher' for this type, which I should have otherwise dubbed " palæolith," 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 palæoliths, 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 à talon" of the French, the "beil " of the German, the "hachas" of the Spaniard, &c., &c. Of the

authors of these bouchers of palæolithic 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 sitú 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 permissible, 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, undoubtedly polished by usage and not intentionally; we have the "kwè," 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 occasionally 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.-Lastly, 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 retrograde, 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.

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 illustrations 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 represented 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 Lithic Ages would have been greatly impaired, and the results more incomplete. 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 PALEOLITHIC.

CHAPTER I.

SITUATION AND COMPOSITION OF THE PALEOLITHIC 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 diamonddiggings"; later on in Natal, the Transvaal, Southern and Northern Rhodesia, Swaziland, Bechuanaland, the Kalahari region, Mossamedes, &c., &c.

In fact, these relics of primitive civilisation, be they diggingstones 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