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[[underline]] Chapter VIII.  [[underline]]  145.

barians, who like the Chinese peasantry themselves seem to have passed through no Bronze Age proper but to have remained in most respects at an essentially Late Stone Age level of culture until iron became both plentiful and cheap.  It is possible moreover that the stone ax may have been placed in the grave as an act of ritual conservatism, even after implements of metal had already come into use among the living. [[superscript]] (146) [[/superscript]]
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[[superscript]] (146) [[/superscript]] Thus stone axes seem to have formed part of the grave-furniture in parts of Europe even down to the late Middle Ages; see [[underline]] Art. Asiae [[underline]], 1928/1929, nos. 2/3: Carl Hentze, "Les jades archaĭques en Chine", page 101.
  I have myself seen a small polished "jade" ax found in a stone sarcophagus almost certainly of Han date ([[underline]] i.e. [[underline]], around the beginning of the Christian Era), in the province of Szechuan.
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  The find at K'ang Chuang, though certainly worth noting, seemed unlikely to lead to anything of importance.  In any case, the agitation and threat of trouble which the discovery had caused among the local population made it unwise to try to follow it up, for fear of provoking disorder which might prejudice our case with the Cabinet.  Hence we returned to Peking forthwith.
  Meanwhile no word had reached us of any adverse governmental action.  We resolved therefore, after talking the matter over with our friend Mr. Ch'iu of the Historical Museum, to try to put into effect our long-cherished plan of excavating the Han tomb found a few months before in the vicinity of Hsin-yang Hsien, in southern Honan (see [[strikethrough]] page 77, also [[/strikethrough]] map, fig. [[strikethrough]] 22). [[/strikethrough]] ^[[38).]] For quite apart from the intrinsic importance of the work [[underline]] per se [[/underline]], we hoped that our joint prosecution of such a task might form a valuable precedent for that friendly coöperation between Chinese and foreign scientific bodies which we were trying to establish.
  Before definitely deciding on the undertaking, however, early in May Mr. Wenley and Mr. Tung and I went to Tientsin.  There, by appointment, we met Dr. V. K. Ting, [[superscript]] (147) [[/superscript]] and proceded together to the residence