Abstract
THE September–October number of Man contains a letter which is of distinct importance to those who concern themselves with the problems of Stone Age Africa. It would seem certain that Archdeacon Owen has discovered in a rock–shelter in Kenya an early Smithfield industry, and that Prof, van Riet Lowe has agreed with his interpretation. Smith–field industries occur over large parts of South Africa, especially in the Free State, the material used for their manufacture being usually the local indurated shale which chips well. Scrapers, awls, beads, and occasionally a little pottery have been found. The range in time of the culture extends backwards from modern days to an unknown, but probably fairly remote, period as the later Smithfield industries show differences when compared with the earlier ones. Thus the plano–convex knife is an early tool type and does not recur in the more recent finds, while pottery seems to be absent from the earlier ones. In South Africa, too, there are regional differences in the industries which add to their complexity. But the main great problem has always been as to whether the Smithfield culture as a whole was an autochthonous growth in South Africa itself, engendered perhaps by culture–contacts; or whether it was not rather introduced into the subcontinent by migrations from the rprth. Archdeacon Owen's new discovery of Early Smith–field material—considered in fact to be even somewhat older than the Early Smithfield of South Africa—in Kenya would suggest that the latter hypothesis is the correct one.
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Discovery of Smithfield Industries in Kenya. Nature 148, 748 (1941). https://doi.org/10.1038/148748b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/148748b0