Pa. 4.-Another but smaller, flat on both surfaces, and of the nearly uniform thickness of 0.55, even at the edges which are quite flat, the whole plate being covered with hammermarks. It measures 5" 15 x 4" 15 x 0.55; and weighs 2 lbs. 9 oz. Bithur. The town of Bithur is situated about 12 miles north-west of Cawnpur, on the banks of the Ganges; but nothing appears to be known of its early history. The following remarkable copper, barbed spear-head or harpoon was found near this place, and was presented to the Asiatic Society of Bengal by Captain Presgrave, 14th July 1821.1 Br. 1.-It measures 12" 30 in length, and now weighs about 1 lb. 3 oz. It consists of three portions, a terminal tapering blade 630 long with a maximum breadth of 2"-15 at its commencement, a cylindrical barbed portion, and the tang. The blade is traversed longitudinally by a strongly pronounced midrib increasing in thickness from the tip to the base. Each side of the blade, at its beginning, has a backwardly curved process, or barb. The cylindrical barbed portion consists of two outwardly projecting rod-like barbs, on each side, separated from each other and from the barbs of the blade, by intervals of 0.75. Each barb is about 0-60 in length, and 0.30 in thickness. Besides these there is also a small rod-like outwardly projecting process on each side before the beginning of the tang, one being perforated at its base by a hole or eye having a diameter of 019, doubtless for the passage of a cord used for tying the harpoon on to its shaft. This portion 1 As. Res., Vol. XIV, 1822, App. III, p. 3. of the weapon is 3" long and nearly 1 in diameter. The tang is slightly tapered towards its proximal end, and is almost 3" in length. For Professor Warden's analysis see Appendix C. 2 A weapon presenting the foregoing characters was figured by the late Dr. John Alexander Smith,1 and Sir Walter Elliot states that another, apparently similar to it, was described and figured, so long ago as 1838, in "Det Kongelige Nordiske Oldskrift-Selskabs, Aarsberetning," but I have not had access to this work. The history of the weapon described and figured by the late Dr. Smith has not been satisfactorily ascertained, but there is little or no doubt that it was of Indian origin, whilst the spear-head, figured in the Reports of the General Anniversary Meetings of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries, at Copenhagen, was sent to that Society by the Asiatic Society of Bengal, during the Secretaryship of James Prinsep. In his letter forwarding the spear-head to Copenhagen, Prinsep stated that weapons of this form had frequently been dug up in the neighbourhood of the Hindu towns of Mathura and Bindrāban, and that the natives considered them to be of the same kind as those used in the Mahābhārata war, but that he doubted this because only weapons of steel are mentioned in the Mahabharata poem. The weapon now in Copenhagen was said to have been "found at a landship near the village of Nioräi, in the province of Etawah, between the rivers Ganges and Jumna, in the interior of Hindustan. " In Prinsep's letter it appears to have been mentioned as a copper weapon, and it was found by Professor Forchhammer by chemical analysis "to be very good and pure copper, with nearly nothing, or 1 Proc. Soc. Ant. of Scotland, 10th Jany. 1870, p. 293. 2 Op. cit., 13th Apl. 1874, p. 692. very little, of an admixture of tin, or probably of some other substance found therein." It does not appear however to have been submitted to a quantitative analysis. The other and similar weapon described by Dr. Smith was made the subject of a quantitative analysis by Dr. Stevenson Macadam1 and with the following result: A weapon similar to the two foregoing was obtained many years ago by Sir Walter Elliot from the Curators of the Museum of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and this weapon has been presented by him to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. It has been analysed by Dr. S. Macadam and has been ascertained to have the following composition: The Bithur weapon, which is probably one of the weapons seen in the Asiatic Society's Museum by Sir W. Elliot, in 1841, and which I made over for analysis to Dr. T. Oldham, in 1873, has been recently analysed by Professor Warden. (See Appendix C.) All the foregoing spear-heads conform to a type which is essentially Indian, and, as they were probably all obtained from the North-West Provinces, it seems rather remarkable that two of them should have a comparatively large percentage of tin, 1 Proc. Ant. Scot., 1870, p. 300. whilst in two others only a trace of that metal has been found. Gorakhpur District. Mr. H. F. Blanford, in 1864,1 while exhibiting to the Asiatic Society of Bengal some flint implements of the early stone period found at St. Acheul, near Abbeville, took occasion to call attention to some portions of a semi-fossil human skull found by him, unlabelled, and without any note of locality in the Society's Museum. The following is Mr. Blanford's description of these specimens. The skull "consisted of the occipital and parietal bones and a portion of the frontal, with portions of upper and lower jaws, and was filled with a mass of shells of the genus Unio, also semifossilized, and loosely connected together by calcareous infiltrations, in a sandy matrix. The Unio was of a living species, but that fact would afford no indication of age, as the fresh-water shells which accompany the bones of extinct mammalia in the Nerbudda alluvium are all of living species. Mr. W. Theobald had found this specimen some years ago in the Museum, shortly after his return from the Nerbudda Valley, and then stated that the matrix of the specimen resembled that of certain of the Nerbudda bone deposits. The specimen had been laid by, and had only been refound lately after much search. Mr. Blanford now exhibited it to the Meeting, in the hope that some of the older Members of the Society might be enabled to throw some light on its history. The skull, so far as could be judged from the fragments preserved, was well-formed, and not unlike that of some of the recent native skulls in the Society's Museum. Until something was known of its history, no inference could be drawn as to its antiquity." 1 Journ. As. Soc., Beng., Vol. XXXIII, p. 575. Some time after I had taken charge of the Asiatic Society's Museum for Government, in March 1865, I found the foregoing fragments, and, in the same Cabinet, other fragments evidently belonging to the same 'find.' These consisted of a portion of the left temporal with the attached mastoid process of the occipital, a right ilium, with the body of a sacral vertebra displaced on to its inner concavity, but fixed to it by the matrix, and the fragment of the shaft of a right human femur. But besides these there are some fragments of limb bones of a large ox, part of a rib, and four pieces of the horn of a large deer. On carefully examining the surroundings of these specimens, it was observed that they were wrapped in printed matter published in the Gorakhpur district, which seemed to render it probable that they had been sent to the Society from that district. Unfortunately no record was kept at the time of the details connected with this printed matter, and now, after an interval of 17 years, it is difficult to recall them. I, however, distinctly remember that there was a printed date, and that this date, along with the name of a Gorakhpur locality, led me to associate this 'find' with one recorded in 1847 as having been made in the Gorakhpur district, and which has been recorded as follows in the Asiatic Society's Journal.1 It is first stated that "The subjoined letter from Mr. Carre Tucker should have appeared in the Proceedings of last month (February). The box of shells and bones to which it refers was exhibited at the January meeting." On referring to the Proceedings of January 1847, no mention, however, is made of the donation. Mr. Tucker's letter referred to is as follows: "I did myself the pleasure of sending you a few days ago, a box of bones, found at a place called Umhut, on the Koâna Nuddee, which flows 1 Op. cit., Vol. XVI, pt. 1, p. 376. |