Abstract
A SHORT paper by Prof. C. van Riet Lowe of Johannesburg (S. African J. Sci., 41, 345; 1945) deserves to be noted by prehistorians elsewhere. It describes remarkable instances of artefacts transferred to surprisingly deep deposits by torrential river action; flaked pebbles from Carboniferous glacial gravels, betrayed by glacial striations; neolithic celts dispersed by a Norwegian settler in the last century; a soda-water bottle under 20 ft. of river-gravel; a wagon-wheel 23 ft. below a river bed, associated with a rolled palæolith; faked glass beads of German fabric, like those from Zimbabwe, reflecting a temporary fashion in amulets about 1908, and widely distributed in Transkei; a stone Chinese Buddha in undisturbed soil along the route of the Voortrekkers of 1837; and more Roman coins to add to those already known from various parts of South Africa and Rhodesia. The writer ends with an appeal to settlers, travellers, and field-workers not to discard any worked objects in situations where their presence may mislead.
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Pitfalls in Prehistory. Nature 156, 777 (1945). https://doi.org/10.1038/156777b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/156777b0