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of sand can be deduced from finds of more recent dating such as pottery and ornaments of Chinese peasants, but, given the proximity of the sites to the sea and the number of storms and typhoons which must have affected them, it is not likely that the sand has accumulated at a constant rate. The date of the settlements can only be inferred from a comparison of the objects found in them.
The objects are of three categories: stone, pottery and metal. These three categories are found so constantly together at the same level that they must have been used simultaneously by the same people.
Stone was used for tools and for ornaments. Of the stone tools there are two kinds: unpolished and polished. The former are rude hammers, bevels and knives of the neolithic type. They often bear traces of use. These might have been picked up and chosen for their sharpness or solidity or convenience and thrown away when a better was found, and they are the crudest tools that man could use. It is true, however, that they are not found in very large numbers compared with the other implements.
The polished stone tools, on the other hand, show a high stage of workmanship. The most remarkable are the adzes, a tool which at first sight looks like a large chisel with a slightly rounded cutting edge. The opposite end has a "shoulder" or socket which it is believed was fastened into a cleft piece of wood and bound firmly with hemp or reed. This piece of wood was affixed to a handle at right angles and the tool was used, as we would a hoe, to cut downward and inward.
The adzes are of all sizes. The author, in excavating the site on Lantau Island, has found seventeen. One is only two centimetres long; four others less than five centimetres; they look like miniature tools and it is not possible to guess what they were for. The majority are from 6 to 12 centimetres long, some of them made of stone probably chosen for its beauty. There are two of 19 centimetres length, solid tools with which it would be possible to hew planks or even, with much labour, to cut down a small tree.
The adzes are of granite or basaltic rock. Other types of stone implement are made of shale, a kind of soft slate. The polished stone weapons are all of this material. They are blades and arrow heads, very sharp and pointed, without thickness and grooved in the centre of the blade. Most of them were probably made for
HONG KONG BEFORE THE BRITISH
141
of sand can be deduced from finds of more recent dating such as pottery and ornaments of Chinese peasants, but, given the proxi- mity of the sites to the sea and the number of storms and typhoons which must have affected them, it is not likely that the sand has accumulated at a constant rate. The date of the settlements can only be inferred from a comparison of the objects found in them.
The objects are of three categories: stone, pottery and metal. These three categories are found so constantly together at the same level that they must have been used simultaneously by the same people.
Stone was used for tools and for ornaments. Of the stone tools there are two kinds; unpolished and polished. The former are rude hammers, bevels and knives of the neolithic type. They often bear traces of use. These might have been picked up and chosen for their sharpness or solidity or convenience and thrown away when a better was found, and they are the crudest tools that man could use. It is true, however, that they are not found in very large numbers compared with the other implements.
The polished stone tools on the other hand show a high stage of workmanship. The most remarkable are the adzes, a tool which at first sight looks like a large chisel with a slightly rounded cutting edge. The opposite end has a "shoulder" or socket which it is believed was fastened into a cleft piece of wood and bound firmly with hemp or reed. This piece of wood was affixed to a handle at right angles and the tool was used, as we would a hoe, to cut downward and inward.
The adzes are of all sizes. The author in excavating the site on Lantau Island has found seventeen. One is only two centimetres long, four others less than five centimetres; they look like minia- ture tools and it is not possible to guess what they were for. The majority are from 6 to 12 centimetres long, some of them made of stone probably chosen for its beauty. There are two of 19 centimetres length, solid tools with which it would be possible to hew planks or even with much labour to cut down a small tree.
The adzes are of granite or basaltic rock. Other types of stone implement are made of shale a kind of soft slate. The polished stone weapons are all of this material. They are blades and arrow heads very sharp and pointed without thickness and grooved in the centre of the blade. Most of them were probably made for
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