The Stone Age in Rhodesia

Abstract

MR. NEVILLE JONES has earned our thanks for having brought together the evidence of various stone age cultures as derived from Rhodesia, together with some of the dnta culled from a wider South African area. He has produced a very readable book which contains some valuable information. The whole problem of the South African stone age cultures is every day becoming more interesting and suggestive; and now that search for relics is being conducted upon more scientific lines, we can see the opening of an archaeological chapter of high importance. The author's own researches at Sawmills (South Rhodesia) and at Tiger Kloof and Taungs (Cape Province) are valuable as evidencing culture-levels of lowerand mid-Palsoolithic facies, which can be clearly distinguished and placed in sequence order. He very rightly urges the paramount necessity of attacking the archaeological problems from the viewpoint of geological evidence. The numberless stone implements which may be picked up on the surface can teach us little unless we can identify the geological horizons to which they originally belonged. The spade alone can provide a clear idea as to the several cultures which may be distinguished, and their relative positions in the time-sequence. Mr. Jones has worked conscientiously and thoughtfully, and his results help to advance the subject.

The Stone Age in Rhodesia.

By Neville Jones. Pp. xiv + 120 + 22 plates. (London: Oxford University Press, 1926.) 12s. 6d. net.