“STONE AGE” PEOPLE

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 February 1929, Page 9

“STONE AGE” PEOPLE

DISCOVERIES IN MONGOLIA. “Has the ‘cradle of* the human race’ actually been discovered?” This question was eagerly put, dur- < ing a meeting recently at the new 1 Oxford and Cambridge Club, London, I to Dr. Roy Chapman Andrews, world ’ famous as the leader of the American J Natural History Museum’s post-war explorations in Mongolia, who was on his way back to New York after* two years’ absence in China. “We have discovered evidence.” he replied, “which reveals the whole life i history of a Stone Age people, who j lived in what is. now the Gobi Desert, between 20,000 and 25,000 years ago. ( There were millions of them. , “It looks as if these are the originals j of people who spread to France and , Spain to the west and to America j eastwards. Until we have carefully examined the evidence, however, it is j unwise to say more.” j “The expeditions have now stretched over eight years,” Dr. Andrews ex- . plained, “and this ypar we were able . to cover an immense amount of ground < because we used motor transport over a gravel desert in addition to camels. PEOPLE NUMBERED MILLIONS % “We have found no human remains whatever so far. We have nevertheless, discovered traces of a Stone Age culture which astonished us. They

proved the existence of a people who numbered millions. Hitherto we have thought of primitive men as little groups of families .living in caves and rock shelters. We have discovered, however, three or four hundred points or ‘dunes,’ where large communities lived. “We have also evidence of a reliable kind which tells us exactly how they Jived down the ages, and can trace tneir culture over a period of 20,000 years. The stone implements number thousands. These people did not live in. natural shelters, but probably used stretched skins of animals to provide shelter. “They were great hunters, clever and courageous. They hunted the wild ass and the antelope. As time went on they made bows and arrows. They also trapped and netted birds. They aie frogs. Their implement-making factories suggest some ways of making flint implements scarcely realised by those who have studied the subject. Tn some extraordinary way they were able to push flakes off cores of stone instead of striking them off Their jasper arrowheads are marvellous. “Moro important than these, however, are evidence of the arts and crafts "f the later peoples. I do not suggest that they knew anything of agriculture or of the potter’s wheel, but we have found articles which seem to have been used for grinding seeds, and as receptacles. "We have got bits of pottery which seem to have been baked, and have certainly been decorated by little incisions.” When Dr. Andrews was asked to explain the absence of human remains he replied: — “The conditions are not good for the preservation of bones. We have net, however, made a really thorough

search. There is a valley which we know of that will have to be carefully combed by a future expedition. It simply teems with remains.”