ANCIENT BOOMERANGS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19512, 16 December 1926, Page 13

ANCIENT BOOMERANGS.

USED BY TUTANKHAMEN. ORIGIN IN EARLY EGYPT. LONDON. Dec. 2. The discovery of a boomerang in the tomb of Tutankhamen doe:» not surprise; | scientists, said Professor Grafton Elliot Smith, himself au Australian. " The boomerang was uot : invented* irr Australia, as is popularly supposed, though the particular shape which causes it to return was probably developed in Australia, a result, possibly, of an accidental discovery. Boomerangs and throwing sticks were used iin ancient .Egypt, where the earliest types were employod to ■ bring down birds, firstly for food, and afterwards for sport, brig before the reign of Tutankhamen. •" The Egyptians, in the second millennium, made boomerangs oat of pottery, and put them in tombs to enable kings to , continue sport posthumously.. '* Recently Sir Alfred Mdnd's brother, Robert,, who for a long period excavated tn Egypt, showed me portion of a boomerang bought in a dealer's shop ih Cairo. It bore the namo of Akhenaton, Tutankhamen's father-in-law, and was obviously made during Tutankhamen's; reign.' Tito boomerang attained a ceremonial .value about that period as a symbol of kingly sport. "The available evidence liuggestsj; that the boomerang originated in Egypt and travelled south to India, the Malay Archipelago, the Solomon Isknda and North Australia, following the route of the ancient Eyptian pearl Jjshors, who earned other phases of Egyptian civilisation to the Pacific. Thus the Australian aboriginals are-the oldest sport >rnetj in world." | Good specimens of boomerangs of tha non*relur»iiig variety are Reserved in tho Museum of the 'Rajah of rudakota, in the south of India. The Dravidian peoples of South India have apparently used the boomerang from very early timeg -ag a hunting weapon.