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D. J. FINN, S.J.
We have however from HSY a different type of whorl which strangely resembles specimens from Troy (Hissarlik) (97) p. 353 in decoration, figure Q-and our S sites have given us many specimens of this type in corroboration; it has also been found at Ba-Xa in Indo China (98) Plate XIV: so that the actual use of these "beads" as whorls must be held an open question-they might be loom weights as we can argue from the pottery imprints that textiles were known here: this later use (or whorl-use) might explain the peculiarly fractured under-sides of our two specimens.
3. cms.
Q.
Q. A spindle-whorl from HSY. With the section, a spindle has been drawn in section to suggest use. This specimen had a decoration of four tree-like branches as found on European Bronze Age whorls. The use of such whorls in Early Chinese Culture is shown by the upper wheel part of the character
with the idea of spinning as well as by the reference in the Book of Poetry to the "pottery" (sc, a pottery- whorl) given to baby girls as a play-
baby-girls thing and a a presage of their future occupation.
P.
a d
P. A loom-weight or spindle-whorl of pot- tery. Decoration of shallow holes in belts. Lower part broken.
A stone disc with projecting rims to the central hole (Tai Wan) may be still another type of whorl, Plate 11, X].
The actual find of importance to which all this is a prelude was figure K. It is undoubtedly a worked stone in a
a worked stone in a palaeolithic tradition. The material seems to be a rhyolite with perhaps three different patinations, the most recent of which must be very old: it has produced a pale greenish to cream tone: it is clearest at the flaked tip and the flaked edge to the left of figure. An older patina with a little more of a light yellow-red covers the other flaked (or cleavage faces) as on the rest of figure, except for projecting surfaces which preserve the third or oldest patina on the
The Hong Kong Naturalist.