Sessional_Paper_1938 — Page 20

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Dr. Callenfels dealt with the Toalian flaked implement culture in South Celebes; Dr. van der Hoop with the Bronze Age culture of the N.E.I.; and Dr. Willems with an urn burial site, also in Celebes. Dr. von Koenigswald, however, gave the Con- gress its most important paper by far; a description of two newly discovered skulls of Pithecanthropus erectus, one from the Trinil beds (middle Pleistocene) of Java, and one from the lower Pleistocene, dealing with their relation to Sinanthropus, and proving the falsity of recent views as to the non-humanity of the former genus of Hominid. The older skull is that of a child, and presents features relating it closely to the main stem of human descent, whereas the skulls of adults show comparatively marked specialization.

The French delegates dealt with Quaternary geology and read papers chiefly dealing with ethnographical subjects; one on types of reaping knives, with explana- tions of their singular forms, which threw considerable light on two stone objects from Shek Pek; and another on modern evidences of an ancient solar cult.

The Philippines delegation presented two papers, one on the progress made during the last three years in Philippine prehistory, and one on the prospects of a new museum in Manila. In the former, the questions of immigration by land bridges during the Ice Age and of the various industries of the Iron Age were discussed.

The Australian delegates both read important papers; one on the present state of prehistoric research there, describing the leading types of implement found. The author took the view that so far as actual age goes, man in Australia is of moderate antiquity only, and that there is no evidence of Pleistocene man there.

He also put forward the theory that Tasmanians arrived direct by sea from the New Caledonia region. In the discussion that followed, much was said of the existence of land bridges all over the Archipelago, across Torres Straits, and Bass Straits, during the Ice Age, which were flooded by the melting of the ice, and would have allowed early man to travel extensively, and such jungle tribes as the Negritos to reach Luzon and Mindanao. The other paper dealt with the close typological relations between certain Australian implements and those of the Far East, notably the flaked palaeoliths of Tongking; the "sumatra type first described from Sumatra; and the protoneoliths", flaked tools with polished edge, of Tongking and the Archipelago. The conclusion reached was that a diffusion of culture, but not of race, had taken place from Cape York and the N.W. Australian coast respectively into the interior.

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The Straits delegates' contribution was small but important: a description was given of an excavation at a site where a stratum with flexed burials and implements of Sumatra type was found underlying another stratum with secondary burials and tools of Hoabinh (Tongking mesolithic) type, thus fixing the succession of races and cultures in Perak, where the site lies. The pottery found was also dealt with.

The Hong Kong delegates dealt with the results of the Shek Pek excavation, exhibiting plans and sections of the site and photos of the objects and burials found; also with the relation between the bronze culture of classical China and the stone cultures of the "barbarians "

This last subject was also dealt with by the Chinese delegate, whose contribu- tion showed that a culture closely related to that of Hong Kong extended northwards through the interior of Fukien and Chekiang as far as the neighbourhood of Hangchow, with hard and soft pottery, and stone tools; this immense extension of the Hong Kong culture province I regard as the most important feature of this Congress so far as our local studies are concerned. Neither in this nor in Father Maglioni's almost equally important paper on the Swabue prehistoric finds was any site of stratigraphic importance described, such as exist in Hong Kong. Father Maglioni's communication dealt with the sites of the Swabue culture, the succession of culture-phases so far as he can make them out, and the meaning of the signs found on what is called the “soft pottery, which he interpreted as a rule as signs for magic protection of the vessel or its owner, or as good wish emblems, such as are common on modern Chinese articles of all sorts.