STONE AGE STATUETTE

Evening Star, Issue 21822, 11 September 1934, Page 12

STONE AGE STATUETTE

REMARKABLE FINDHI SCOTLAND Ludovio Mann; _ president of the Glasgow Archaeological Society, writes in the London ‘ Daily Telegraph ’: — A female torso, well-proportioned, and skilfully cut out of a_ large, hard,-reddish-brown pebble of igneous rock; has just been unearthed lin Scotland; , It comes from a deep-seated, ancient gravel-bed in the Kelvin Valley, seven miles east Of Glasgow. It is thought to be a, representation -v of some goddess, perhaps the Mother, 't Divinity of Fertility., The arms,hands, and even fingers are accurately, portrayed, and are laid across the chest, while the waist recalls that if the Venus of Milo. It is one of the most remarkable relics of the Older Stone Age, and is more elegantly fashioned than the female figurine found in the Paleolithic rock-shelters on the Continent. It can scarcely be younger than some 30,000 years. The valley gravels referred to have, been the scene of research work during the last five years by a body pt , Scots prehistorians. They have been richly rewarded, _as the beds have yielded many ancient relics, all water- ; worn, and often ice-scratched, such as fragments of . mammoth tusks and rhinoceros bones and teeth. The thigh-bone of a young rhino has been recovered skilfully carved into shape for use as a smoothing tool. It strengthens the evidence of the joint presence at a remote period - of man and the great mammalia in North Britain. „ „ , , Moreover, scores of finely-outlined* symmetrically-fashioned stone .implements have also been found in th« same deposit. They are made of native Scottish rock: material; and none 'is of flint, which is so rare in 'Scotland.

former theory disproved. All the relics belong to the Older Stone Age, and some.,date from the pre-Palseolithic stage. _ They seem, to disprove the conventional dictum of the archwological text books, that Scotland knew nothing of Palseolithio man because he was excluded from the territory by a smothering ice-sheet. . ' Many students, however, now believe that northern areas, such a* Scotland and Scandinavia, were inhabited by Paleolithic man in n<j scanty numbers during numerous interglacial epochs which intervened between the glacial periods. It is also believed that he used within these areas the native rocks and pebbles (excluding flint) for the fashioning of tools and weapons, of which he had an extensive kit. In Scotland some fifty different types of implement have been noted. . . I have found this year in nonglaciated areas in _ southern _ Europe weapons and tools identical with those from Scotland and made from nativa rocks. I have brought to London some 500 specimens from Italy, tha Balearic Islands, and Morocco. Both the Scottish and Italian artifacts conform precisely to the newlv elucidated scale of linear measures, of which many gauges have been found recently in _ both territories. _ This most revolutionary discovery is well brought out by the exhibition, as tha objects are laid out in rows according to the length of the long axis of tha relic.