Rodway Charles John Swinhoe

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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." [3] 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”