On the Palaeolithic Deposits of Sawmills, Rhodesia

THE country between Bulawayo and the Zambesi River is particularly rich in stone implements, and the tributary rivers of the Gwai and Umguza have furnished quantities. These are for the most part hand-axes, strikingly similar to those of Chellean and Acheulian age in Europe, with which are associated other forms of rarer occurrence. Mr. A. M. McGregor, of the Gedological Survey of Rhodesia, has called attention to them in a paper read before the South African Association for the Advancement, of Science, and has figured some characteristic forms.' His list of localities does not,, of course, pretend to be exhaustive, and fresh discoveries are constantly being made. The implements occur generally in beds of coarse gravel deposited by these rivers at a time when they contained much more water than they do to-day. Many of them were doubtless of considerable size, but they are now reduced to mere gullies,. dry through the greater portion of the year, and flowing only during the heavy rains, when they quickly fill and as quickly dry up. The storm waters, coming down with great force, lay bare the gravel and wash away the soil, and quantities of implements may often be collected in favourable spots. So far as I am aware, these implements may all be referred to the older palkeolithic, and, as some of them have been found in association with mammalian remains, it is by no means unlikely that human remains may also ultimately be discovered. The Umguza River abounds in these implements, which may be recovered from its bed over a course of many miles. South of Bulawayo these large implements become increasingly rare until British Bechluanaland is reached, when similar types in equal abundance are found. The, later palkeolithic is represented in Rhodesia by implements found in the caves of the Matopo Hills and in superficial deposits in various places. In view of the similarity of the implements from both these sources it has hitherto been convenient to regard them as having been made by the Bushman, who was undoubtedly the maker of the Cave implements. They are all flake-implements of Aurignacian facies. Apart from these two definitely demarcated periods of human habitation, no satisfying evidence has yet been forthcoming of any previous or intermediate one. The well-known palkeoliths of the Victoria Falls are, it is generally accepted, of very great antiquity, since they appear to have been deposited in river gravels laid down prior to the excavation of the deep gorge which begins at the Falls and continues

Ancient history · Archaeology · Geography · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · History · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology · Geology