# The Zoologist/4th series, vol 6 (1902)/Issue 735/Prehistoric Man in Burma

Published in: The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6, issues 735 (September, 1902), p. 321–336
Rolled fragments of bone from the Burmese ferruginous conglomerate. −Center figure, tooth of Rhinoceros showing worn facets.
THE ZOOLOGIST
No. 735.— September, 1902.
PREHISTORIC MAN IN BURMA.
By Rodway C.J. Swinhoe.
(Plate I.)
In the year 1894, Dr. Fritz Noetling, F.G.S., Palæontologist, Geological Survey of India, published in the 'Records' of that Department an article on certain flints, believed to be artificially chipped, which were stated to have been found in a stratum of ferruginous conglomerate which encircles the dome or anticline at the oil-fields of Yenangyoung, in Upper Burma.
Dr. Noetling was, when the discovery was made, studying the geology of the ​oil-fields with a view to reporting on their economic value, and was incidentally attracted by the Tertiary remains that occur at this locality. The ferruginous conglomerate, which proved to be very useful in determining the geological features of the oil-fields, was stated to contain numerous remains of Hippotherium antelopinum and Aceratherium perimense, and was therefore held to be either of Pliocene or Upper Miocene age. The learned Doctor found these chipped flints on a shelf of ferruginous conglomerate on the eastern slope of a ravine high above its bottom, but below the edge, in such a way that he could not conceive how they could have been brought there by any foreign agency, and he says that, to the best of his knowledge, he really found them in situ.
While Dr. Noetling was still occupied at Yenangyoung, Mr. Oldham paid a visit to that place, and they made a search together for more flints in the place where the first had been found, but without success; and in his paper on "The Alleged Miocene Man in Burma" ('Natural Science,' vii. 1895, p. 201), Mr. Oldham stated that the flints are not confined to the outcrop of the ferruginous conglomerate, but are scattered over the surface of the plateau above. He further considers the flints to be natural products.
In answer to this, Dr. Noetling published, in 'Natural Science,' x. 1897, p. 233, a further article "On the Discovery of Chipped Flint Flakes in the Pliocene of Burma," objecting that, when the implements occur on the plateau, as near Minlin-toung, at the southern extremity of the dome, they were strictly confined to the outcrop of the ferruginous conglomerate; and in this article he introduced the facetted femur of Hippopotamus irravadicus, which he found in a small streak of the conglomerate not far from the flints, and which, as he believes can only have been facetted by human agency. This he puts forward in support of the Pliocene or Miocene flint implements as further proof of the existence of the human species in Burma in Tertiary times.
Since the publication of these discoveries many writers have referred to them, and in most instances have accepted them as proof of the vast antiquity of man in Burma, and no doubt, besides the few references given here, many more could be found by anyone with access to a good library. In Mandalay, however, ​books on such subjects are not numerous; but it is, in fact, surprising that nearly every book in which the antiquity of man is discussed at all, and that has come under the writer's notice, makes a special allusion to these Yenangyoung flints, and the lessons that they teach.
In 'The Wonderful Century,' edition 1901, Mr. A.R. Wallace says, on p. 131, referring to the great antiquity of man:—"But evidence has been steadily accumulating of his existence at the time of the glacial epoch, and even before it; while two discoveries of recent date seem to carry back his age far into preglacial times. These are, first, the human cranium, bones, and works of art which have been found more than a hundred feet deep in the gold-bearing gravels of California..... The other case is that of rude stone implements discovered, by a geologist of the Indian Survey in Burma, in deposits which are admitted to be of at least Pliocene age." In the sixth edition (1900) of 'Prehistoric Times,' p. 402, Lord Avebury, after referring to the Java skull, says:—"Dr. Noetling, of the Geological Survey of India, has also recorded unquestionable flint flakes found in Burma with remains of Rhinoceros perimensis and Hippotherium (Hipparion) antelopinum in strata considered to belong to the Pliocene period." In 'The Races of Man,' by J. Deniker (1900), reference is also made to these flints and the polished bone; and in his popular little book on the 'Story of Primitive Man,' Mr. Edward Clodd also mentions them. No doubt, also, many learned societies, both in England and Germany, have published papers on the subject.
There has thus sprung up round these flints a more or less considerable literature, and, taking them together with the polished bone, the tendency has been to accept them as evidences of the existence of man at a time when the ferruginous conglomerate at Yenangyoung was being deposited, and when the beasts whose remains (chiefly teeth) are found in that deposit were walking the earth. Already we seem to be on a bowing acquaintance with our rude ancestors of pre-glacial times. They chipped flints into flakes, breaking down the angle at the base, no doubt to fix into a handle; while some flakes, that were not so well fitted for arrow-heads, they doubtless used in the hand as scrapers. After a good meal off a thigh of Hippopotamus ​irravadicus (whether cooked or not cannot be told) they amused themselves rubbing down the substance of the bone, and making a rude ornamentation by facetting it in this way. Knowing this much about life in these extremely remote times, one naturally wants to know more, especially seeing the great importance of such discoveries in the study of that science which seeks to view Man in his true perspective in the evolution of life on the earth.
As an amateur enquirer into these matters, and finding myself within comparatively easy reach of Yenangyoung, it seemed to me a pity not to make further search, and try to discover further evidences which would place the matter beyond doubt; and this paper is a brief record of two visits made by Lieut.-Col. Nichols, R.A.M.C, and myself, in December, 1900, and December, 1901, with this object. I am bound to confess, however, that our results not only do not corroborate Dr. Noetling in his discovery of Tertiary Man, but cannot, I think, fail to cast a doubt on the age of the flint flakes and chips picked up by him. And, lest it should be considered to be mere rashness in an amateur to venture to discuss technical subjects with a professor of palaeontology, I may say that I shall endeavour to record only facts, leaving discussions to others; and that, after all, an amateur can pick up stones almost as well as a professor, while a small amount of geological knowledge will suffice to determine whether, at any particular part of the plateau at Yenangyoung, so conspicuous a band as the ferruginous conglomerate comes out on the surface, or is buried one hundred feet or so below it.
If I cannot resist at times venturing to draw conclusions from facts, such conclusions are no doubt of no value whatever, and may be disregarded.
Our first visit to Yenangyoung, in the Christmas holidays of 1900, may be called a failure, so far as the flints are concerned. We were not aware beforehand of the extremely confusing nature of the ground, intersected as it is in all directions by a network of ravines, and we were disappointed at not finding at Yenangyoung a copy of Dr. Noetling's Geological Map, in which he had marked the spot where he found the flints with No. 49. The Township Officer kindly searched in his office, but the map was not forthcoming, and all idea of locating the flints had to be abandoned, ​and instead we occupied ourselves in collecting Tertiary mammalian remains from the neighbourhood. Among these, however, we obtained an upper premolar of a small species of Rhinoceros, which will be mentioned hereafter in connection with the worn femur of Hippopotamus found by Dr. Noetling. At Christmas, 1901, Col. Nichols and I made a second visit to Yenangyoung for the purpose of searching for the flints, but since our first visit we had, through the kindness of Mr. T. D. LaTouche, of the Geological Survey of India, and in the absence on leave of Dr. Noetling in Europe, obtained a tracing of a portion of the latter's original map of the Yenangyoung oil-field, showing No. 49. We had also, during the year 1901, made a collection of Tertiary mammalian remains from a long strip of sandstone almost opposite Mandalay, the locality having been accidentally discovered by means of a stray bone which I picked up on the river-bank at Mandalay Shore, and which we were able to trace as having been brought across the river, together with some large stones used for strengthening the Bund. The sandstone in which these remains were found appears to be a derived bed, and to contain remains of animals ranging from Pliocene, or earlier, to Post-Tertiary times. Out of several hundred specimens, some merely fragmentary, and others distinct and well preserved, which we have carefully examined, not one bears any trace of having been manipulated by man, and though this is only negative evidence, which may be upset any day by the discovery of a specimen exhibiting cuts or deliberate scratchings, it is entitled to some weight, especially having regard to the fact that the flint chips at Yenangyoung, as will be seen hereafter, are to be found in considerable numbers. If these are but the survivors of the changes and chances of this world since Pliocene times in this one locality, they would indicate a large population in Burma at this period overrunning the country, and living on the flesh of wild animals.
We spent four days at Yenangyoung, and so difficult and confusing is the country, that even with our previous knowledge ​of the locality, and the help of map and compass, we had great difficulty in placing ourselves on the spot indicated on the map as No. 49. The whole country is so closely furrowed with ravines, into and out of which it is necessary to scramble constantly in order to make any progress, that it is almost impossible at times to maintain a fixed direction, and very difficult to identify quickly any of the minor features in the map with the locality.
The great feature, however, which there is no mistaking, and which was of chief importance to us, is the dull red band of ferruginous conglomerate that surrounds the oil-field, and in which Dr. Noetling found his flint chips. This bed is called by Dr. Noetling the zone of Hippotherium antelopinum, and is thus described by him on p. 87 of the 'Memoirs,' vol. xxvii. part 2:—"This zone forms a well-marked horizon in the sequence of the strata, and crops out in the shape of an elongated ellipse, the long axis of which measures two and quarter miles, while the short (transverse) axis amounts to slightly over a mile only."
In fact, the beds here, including this zone, have been raised from their original horizontal position by pressure on all sides into a long turtle-back dome, and then the crown of the dome has been shaved off, leaving their edges exposed all around the area of it.
The theory of Dr. Noetling is that the chipped flints belong to the zone of Hippotherium antelopinum, and to nowhere else, and that in this zone they are "not rare." The remains found in this zone indicating a Pliocene, and perhaps even a Miocene age, it follows, if the above theory is correct, either that a considerable Pliocene population existed who made the chips, or else that these are natural pieces, and not the work of man. This alternative has probably induced many to reject the former as improbable, and, against their better judgment, to hold that the chips are natural.
But what becomes of the theory if they can be picked up, as Mr. Oldham says, on the plateau anywhere, quite apart from the zone of Hippotherium antelopinum? And what if, when picked up by scores, as they can be, some two hundred feet above the said zone, they can in some instances be fitted together again, ​and, in the majority of cases, can be with fair certainty grouped into families belonging each to a separate original store, thus proving that they are chips belonging to flints which were broken up at the spot where they are now found undisturbed? If the chips have no connection with the Pliocene stratum, the difficulty occasioned by their numbers and fitting together is got over, and there is no necessity to do violence to one's feelings by supposing that in some way or other the original flints must have got chipped up spontaneously.
On the first day we went from Thittabwe to Minlin Hill, round the northern and eastern sides of which the ferruginous conglomerate crops out, and began by examining the bed there, as it is clear that, if chipped flints are a feature of this bed, they may be found scattered throughout it, and not only at one definite spot. Finding nothing, we searched Taung-ni-gale (the small red hill), to the east of Minlin, where the conglomerate outcrops on the surface, and where Dr. Noetling had previously found some poor specimens; but we were again unsuccessful. We then proceeded in a northerly direction, towards No. 49, crossed the Ye-dwin-aing Yo (a "Yo" is described in Stevenson's Dictionary as a blind watercourse), and kept on till we calculated we were somewhere near No. 49. As it subsequently turned out, we were still a little to the south of it, when we stopped and examined the conglomerate (which here runs in a general north and south direction some fifty feet below the edge of a ravine), and picked up a few rolled fragments of bone, and (in a small yo) a few specimens of Batissa crawfurdi, which had apparently rolled down the steep bank. As the day's work, we had examined the conglomerate carefully from Minlin Hill almost up to No. 49.
On the second day we crossed the oil-field from west to east by the cart-track that leads by the gas-well, and continued on till we came to where the conglomerate crosses the road at right angles on the east side, and spent the day searching the conglomerate both north and south of this place, but chiefly to the north, where it looked more promising. It continues to run here some way below the edge of a ravine, and can be searched without much difficulty. All this part was obviously in the vicinity of No. 49, and, so long as we stuck to the conglomerate, it did not seem to matter whether we were on the identical ​spot or not. Beyond some rolled fragments of bone we found nothing.
On the third day (Christmas Day) we started on the same route, but stopped short at the conglomerate on the western side, and examined it for a considerable distance in both a northerly and southerly direction, especially where it outcrops by the side of the road leading north into Bene village. Again we found no signs of flints. Some rolled fragments of bone were all that had up to now rewarded our efforts, though we had examined a considerable portion of the bed in different localities. We found the nature of the conglomerate to differ in different places, as noted by Dr. Noetling at p. 59 of the 'Memoirs,' vol. xxvii. part 2, where he says:—"At some places it is a rather incoherent agglomerate of irregularly shaped concretions of a ferruginous clay, at others it contains numerous quartz pebbles cemented by a hard conglomerate sandstone, at others again it is an earthy iron ore of a bright red colour." But, whatever the nature of the conglomerate, it was apparent that had any foreign substance, such as flint chips, been exposed on its surface, or lying out on the numerous slopes where the detritus of the bed was spread out, as if on purpose, we must have found them, at any rate, as easily as we found the numerous fragments of bone.
On the fourth and last day of our visit we determined to make an effort to locate No. 49 precisely, in case there might be some quite local feature which did not exist elsewhere, and we therefore crossed the oil-field, as on the second day, and, on coming to the eastern side, sent the cart up on to the plateau beyond, with instructions to turn southwards, following the course of the ravine, and stop at about the place where we calculated that it would be opposite No. 49; while we also went southwards, but kept down in the ravine, searching the conglomerate, and the slopes below it. By breakfast-time we had joined up our first and second days' searches, and had found nothing beyond the usual rolled fragments and a few pieces of a tooth, apparently Aceratherium perimense. Above the conglomerate, however, we found a bed composed of innumerable shells of Batissa crawfurdi, such as is mentioned by Dr. Noetling as occurring near where he found the flints. We both agreed, judging from our present position and distance from Minlin Hill, ​as well as from our first day's work, when we had approached from the opposite direction, that we were as near No. 49 as we could ever hope to be, and that the locality answered with sufficient accuracy to the description and drawing given by Dr. Noetling. It was, of course, impossible to be wrong except in a north and south direction, as the ferruginous conglomerate is unmistakable, and occurs only once on the eastern side, and, as we had estimated the distance with the map both from Minlin Hill and from the cart-road to the north, we could feel fairly certain of the exact spot. We breakfasted on the plateau, about one hundred and fifty yards back from the edge, and afterwards, while I was endeavouring to fit together the fragments of tooth I had found, Col. Nichols walked a little farther to the east over the plateau to survey the direction of the "yos," and returned with a handful of flint chips which he had picked up on the plateau not thirty yards off. They were very irregular pieces, and not at all promising, but they were at any rate flint chips, and we instituted a search on the spot, assisted by our Burman servant and the cart-man. Within a radius of about fifty yards we found a considerable number of pieces of different sizes and shapes, from large rough lumps almost as big as the fist down to little shavings; and, as they were easily seen lying on the brown earth among the short dry grass, we managed to collect, within half an hour or so, a cartridge-wallet full. Unfortunately, it seemed to us at the time so unlikely that these pieces should really be identical with those considered by Dr. Noetling to be Tertiary flints, that we did not notice many details as to how they were lying which might have been useful. We noticed, however, that the pieces were most numerous in the centre of the area, and quickly grew less common at the outside, and after a little ceased altogether. The larger pieces were all, I believe, found somewhere near the centre of the area. The impression we got at the time was that some lumps of flint had been either found or brought there, and had been broken up on the spot for some purpose, and that what we had found were the remains of that operation. We did not examine them very carefully at once, but detected one or two cores, and one or two pieces that might have been rough implements.
Having collected all we could without a very prolonged search ​in that one area, we proceeded towards the edge of the ravine, some one hundred and fifty yards off to the west. For some distance after the flints had ceased there were no stones or other objects to be found on the ground, but when getting towards the edge we found a few quartz pebbles, which became more numerous, and which we discovered came out of a band of very dark conglomerate which outcrops and forms the edge of the ravine just there, having withstood the action of the weather better than the soft sandstone. This conglomerate was about fifty feet above the ferruginous band, and appeared to be quite local. All the strata there dip to the east at a very considerable angle, and the dark conglomerate would therefore be a long way below the surface at the place where the flints were found, one hundred and fifty yards away; while, at the same place, we calculated that the bed of ferruginous conglomerate would be at least two hundred feet below the surface.
There is thus no possible connection between the conglomerates (least of all the ferruginous conglomerate) and the flints which we found; and, though it might be suggested that they came out of some higher band which had worn down, leaving them on the surface, the circumstances under which they were lying grouped together—evidently the chips from stones broken up on the spot—point to a different conclusion.
There can be no doubt of the identity of these chips with those described and figured by Dr. Noetling. Mr. LaTouche, who has examined both, tells me that they are exactly alike in appearance, and he cannot detect any difference. They have the same porcelain glaze, are in the same condition, and they were found (though not in the ferruginous conglomerate) in the immediate vicinity of the spot where Dr. Noetling found his. Two or three of our specimens are, Mr. LaTouche says, better than any of those found by Dr. Noetling, and more clearly intended for some purpose such as arrow-heads.
An examination of them shows that they may be roughly divided into irregular lumps and thin flakes. The stone itself is chert, or impure flint, and I do not know for certain from where it was brought. There were no other stones at the place where the pieces were found. There is one obvious core, and there are at least three specimens which seem to be more or less finished ​arrow-heads. One specimen in particular has been skilfully chipped into a very symmetrical arrow-head without any unnecessary work—and, indeed, with a minimum of labour—showing that considerable skill had been acquired and utilized in producing such an object. The great similarity between this and at least two other specimens would seem to show an evident design, and that the chipping was done with the object of producing instruments shaped like this. No doubt the more perfect or finished specimens were carried off; but those that are left, together with the miscellaneous chips and the lumps of original flint, are sufficient to show what was the purpose in hand. Each specimen has one flat surface, with a bulb of percussion, showing that it was deliberately struck off a larger piece; on its other surface is the angle usual in flint flakes, and this angle has—in two specimens, at least—been broken down at one end as if to fit into a handle. There is a good point, and the whole object would form a very serviceable arrow-head. I cannot help thinking that specimen No. 1 at least is a finished one, and that it represents a fair type of the work of the men who made it, and was accidentally left behind. It does not require any more finishing—secondary chipping at the edge would be superfluous—and the only improvement would be further trimming at the base.
Many people have thought, from Dr. Noetling's specimens, that these are natural chips, but I think that is chiefly because they have felt constrained to believe that they were embedded in a Tertiary stratum, and that when it is shown that there is no connection between the two, and that they may be the work of ordinary Palæolithic man, common sense will show that these stones cannot have chipped themselves up in this manner, still less have fashioned themselves into symmetrical shapes with bulbs of percussion and angles complete.
It is clear that these chips do not come from the ferruginous conglomerate, and I cannot see what difficulty there is in believing that some dropped over the edge of the ravine on to the ledge where Dr. Noetling found his. Certainly none of those from the particular area which we found could have so dropped; but if, as Mr. Oldham says, they occur anywhere on the plateau, there are doubtless many other areas of them, and ​Dr. Noetling might easily have picked his up just underneath one of these. The edge of the ravine, though sometimes nearly perpendicular, does not overhang, and, with a ledge of conglomerate such as Dr. Noetling figures, it is certain that stones, dropping over as the edge wears away, might be caught on it. We were unable to look about on the plateau for further groups of chips, as we had to leave Yenangyoung the next day, and thought it only right to spend the rest of our fourth day in a further careful examination of the ferruginous conglomerate in the vicinity—but, as usual, without result.
Besides dividing the flints into irregular lumps and flakes, they can be grouped according to the original stones from which they came. In some instances this can be done with certainty, as, for instance, one stone was a peculiar flint brecchia, of which we found three pieces; while in very many instances the likeness in colour between several pieces, even down to small peculiarities—such as pink spots or white streaks in the stone—is such that no reasonable doubt can be felt that they come, not only from the same stone, but from the same part of it. In two instances I have been able to fit pieces together, proving definitely that they were broken in situ, and in many other instances it is doubtful whether pieces do not fit. These facts seem to me to be against such extreme antiquity as is claimed for these flints by Dr. Noetling, and especially against the theory that they were once embedded in a stratum of rock or earth, and have been left lying on the surface by the wearing away of the stratum. To believe this one would have to believe that they were originally chipped up in Pliocene times, were subsequently covered up by sand to a great depth, the beds were then raised into a dome by pressure, and finally the pieces of stone were again exposed on the surface by denudation without any disturbance of their original relative positions!
But if the flints are not associated with the conglomerate, what are they? I would prefer that this question should be answered by those more competent to give an opinion, but Mr. LaTouche thinks they must be of considerable age, owing to the glaze on them, and suggests that they are palæolithic. On breaking two pieces, they were found to be light-coloured throughout, and not of the dull black colour characteristic of true flint; ​but, following the outline of the pieces, there is a distinct "skin," or line of weathering, about one-sixteenth of an inch in depth, of a lighter colour, showing considerable lapse of time since the original stones were broken up.
In his 'Prehistoric Times,' Lord Avebury points out, on p. 329, with regard to flint flakes, that "those which have lain in siliceous or chalky sands are more or less polished, and have a beautiful glassiness of surface, very unlike that of a newly broken flint. In ochreous sand, especially if argillaceous, they are stained yellow, whilst in ferruginous sands and clays they assume a brown colour, and in some beds they become white and porcellanous." Now, these pieces are nearly all either almost white or light cream-colour, though some are about the colour of honey; whereas, had they lain in the red band of conglomerate since it was deposited, they would surely have been much darker. As a matter of fact, in nearly every instance in which a piece of the exterior of the original stones is found, on a flake, it is seen to be yellow or orange, sometimes brown, and this might give a clue as to where they came from.
There is a plateau gravel at Yenangyoung which contains large rounded stones, but we could not give much time to searching in it for pieces of flint; and, though I picked up a piece by the side of a cart-track, I did not at the time connect it with flint chips, and threw it away, and was unable to find it again. There is apparently no reason why the lumps of chert found on the plateau should be brought from any distance over a mile or two to the spot where they were broken up, and a further search in the neighbourhood would no doubt disclose the source of them. Mr. LaTouche has taken a few of the pieces for microscopic examination as to their composition.
As I have already mentioned, Mr. Oldham and others regard the pieces found by Dr. Noetling, which are now in the Geological Museum in Calcutta, as natural; but, as an answer to this, in the year 1897, Dr. Noetling published, in the 'Records of the Geological Survey of India,' vol. xxx. part 4, p. 242, an article entitled "Note on a worn Femur of Hippopotamus irravadicus, Caut. & Falc, from the Lower Pliocene of Burma," in which he figured and described a very fine unbroken femur, exhibiting at both ends "traces of a peculiar kind of grinding." He says he ​found it in a small streak of the conglomerate, about fifty feet above the ferruginous conglomerate (zone of Hippotherium antelopinum), and about a quarter of a mile north of where he found the flints. He says that it was no doubt in situ when found, and that it took some time to free it from its resting place in the bed. This find was made while he was mapping the petroleum field at Yenangyoung, and was mentioned by him for the first time in 1895, in his paper on the Tertiary system of Burma, when he described the facets on the bone as a natural result; and said, "That side on which the bone rested was considerably rubbed, thus indicating the result of friction on the underlying sand produced by the gentle rocking of the bone by the waves while lying on the beach." Subsequently, in 1896, he saw a figure of a scapula of Equus which had been similarly rubbed down, and which Prof. Dames considered to have been rubbed by human agency, and, in his article in 'Natural Science,' in 1897—referred to early in this article—he first suggested that the bone he had found was probably an additional witness for the Tertiary origin of the chipped flint flakes, but he gives the layer in which he found it as being "fifteen to twenty feet, perhaps a little more," above the zone of H. antelopinum, instead of fifty feet, as stated in his article in 1897 in the 'Records.'
Whichever may be the correct distance above the bed, it is clear that, as the bone was pulled out of the layer in which it had up till then been undisturbed, there is no necessary connection between it and the flint chips which, as we now see, are to be found lying out on the plateau far above the conglomerate. In fact, if, as seems to me, the flints could not have come from this bed, the bone cannot possibly explain their origin.
Dr. Noetling says, in favour of this bone, that at any rate there is no similar wearing away of substance to be observed in any of the hundreds of specimens which he collected at Yenangyoung, nor in the collection of Siwalik remains in the Museum of the Geological Survey; so that "it is therefore beyond doubt that, whatever the verdict may be as to the origin of these curious facets, the specimen here described is at present unique."
I have already mentioned earlier in this article that on our first visit to Yenangyoung we found, among other remains, an ​upper premolar of a small species of Rhinoceros. This specimen, which is being sent to the Natural History Museum at South Kensington, together with the collection made by Col. Nichols and myself at Yenangyoung and Mandalay, was brought to us at Twingon village by a Burman oil-well owner. Oil is the only industry there, and certain tracts are reserved for native owners to work by their primitive methods. They are not allowed to drill by machinery, but they dig wells and get oil at about three hundred feet. On asking whether they do not sometimes come across fossils, one man produced the above tooth, saying that he had found it at about one hundred and fifty cubits down, and he had never found anything else. The specimen is black, and beautifully polished from lying in the oil-sands, and on one side it had been rubbed down on some level surface, producing facets on three separate prominences. There is, however, no question in this case, as the man said he had rubbed it down himself to find out of what it was made. He apparently did not know it was a tooth, but kept it as a curiosity. I do not, of course, suggest that the femur was rubbed down in this way, but it is no longer unique; and, if Dr. Noetling is by any chance in error in supposing that it had not been previously disturbed when he found it, there is always the chance that it came by its peculiarities in this way.
Now as to this, surely the most remarkable thing about the bone is that it should have remained intact—that is, unbroken—in a stratum in which, so far as I know, all other bones are reduced to rolled fragments. The femur of a Hippopotamus is not a small bone by any means, and if such animals as Rhinoceros perimensis and Hippotherium antelopinum are represented in the conglomerate only by isolated teeth and fragments of bone, how comes it that this bone alone exists unbroken? And the difficulty is not made less by the consideration that this very specimen, thus curiously preserved, is found to be one on which Tertiary man has been exercising his ingenuity. I am aware that Dr. Noetling found it in a subordinate patch, either fifteen or fifty feet above the zone of H. antelopinum, and not in that zone itself, but he himself describes such patches as made up of "small pieces of drift-wood fossilized into hydroxide of iron, small pebbles of white quartz, or of a ferruginous claystone, and rolled ​fragments of bones"; so that, if this description is correct, a complete Hippopotamus femur would seem rather out of place.
The numerous rolled fragments of bone found by us in and around the red conglomerate vary in size from the size of a finger-tip to half the palm of the hand, and throughout our search we found nothing like a complete bone. Before commencing this article, however, I wrote to Dr. Noetling, mentioning this difficulty, and asking what was his explanation of it; but, having received no answer, I can only conjecture that no very satisfactory one is forthcoming. It would appear to be not difficult to determine whether the rubbing down took place before the bone was fossilized or after, but Dr. Noetling does not mention that this test has been applied. Mr. LaTouche searched for the specimen in the Geological Museum, as Dr. Noetling was absent in Europe, but could not find it in the place where it should have been, and, as the latter gentleman, at the time of writing, is in Cashmir, there must be some further delay in finding it.
However, the bone at best is only useful in support of the flints, and if these have a different origin it cannot support them, but must remain as a solitary and inconclusive specimen.
That some sort of man existed in Burma—or, at any rate, in the Malay Peninsula—in Tertiary times is not only possible, but probable; but that the chipped flints and facetted bone are the work of his hands is, I think, a conclusion that is not warranted by the facts. The place where the flints were found would appear to be a palæolithic workshop, and as such is of great interest; but the vast difference between such a find and a discovery of specimens of the work of pre-glacial man is too obvious to require mention.
The photograph for this article has been kindly taken for me by the Rev. Charles Hodder, Town Chaplain, Mandalay.
Since writing this article, I have heard that some of the flint chips that were taken to England by Col. Nichols have, through the kindness of Col. Bingham, been submitted to Dr. Blanford, Prof. Bonney, and other expert authorities, and that they are pronounced to be of undoubted human origin.—R.C.J.S.
* ↑ "On the Occurrence of Chipped (?) Flints in the Upper Miocene of Burma," by Dr. Fritz Noetling, F.G.S. ('Records of the Geological Survey of India,' vol. xxvii. 1894, part 3.)
* ↑ The map published in the 'Memoirs' of the Geological Survey of India, vol. xxvii. part 2, on "The Occurrence of Petroleum in Burma, and its Technical Exploitation (Noetling)," is reduced from the original, and No. 42 is not marked on it.
* ↑ 'Records,' vol. xxvii. 1894, part 3, p. 20.
* ↑ 'Records of Geological Survey of India,' 1895, vol. xxviii. p. 77.
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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