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[[underline]] Chapter IX. [[/underline]] 176. the large numbers in which they occurred showed clearly that they had played an important part in the economy of the time. We encountered none of them below the 14-foot level; but as we s^[[h]]all see in a moment, the depths at which we found objects in^[[|]]the Lei Ku T'ai seemed to vary inversely with their age. Far less numerous than these "points" were the polished stone celts that we unearthed. These occurred very sparingly, in widely separated localities and at quite different levels. One we found in our northeastern trench, 3 feet below the surface. This was a small adze or chisel---perhaps a ceremonial object or an amulet---of white jade with green areas, black specks, and brown spots. It was beautifully polished. Beveled along one side of the edge only, it was 29 [[underline]] mm. [[/underline]] long, 13 [[underline]] mm. [[/underline]] thick at the poll or butt, and 18 [[underline]] mm. [[/underline]] wide just back of the cutting-edge. In cross-section it was rectangular. In the same trench , at a depth of 5 feet we came on another celt, slightly larger and thicker than the preceding and likewise rectangular in cross-section. An excellent illustration of the inverse significance attaching to the depths at which objects occurred in the Lei Ku T'ai is the fact that about 10 feet almost directly [[underline]] beneath [[/underline]] the last-mentioned celt we found the badly rusted remains of an [[underline]] iron [[/underline]] axehead. This, unlike the stone celts, was perforated for hafting, and had the lower portion of its cutting-edge prolonged considerably downward---well below the proximal end of the helve-hole, in fact. [[superscript]] (169) [[/superscript]] ------------------------ [[superscript]] (169) [[/superscript]] This type of iron (or steel) axe (fig. [[strikethrough]] 28 [[/strikethrough]] ^[[42]] [[strikethrough]] ^[[?]] [[/strikethrough]]) has survived in the Far East little changed (save perhaps in the quality of its metal) down to modern times. Its affinities, so far as I can learn, appear to be more especially with central and northern Europe than with the Near East as we ordinarily apply that term. ------------------------- [[strikethrough]] I [[/strikethrough]] It was not until we had reached a depth of 16 feet that we found,
