69. Rock Paintings in Central TanganyikaAuthor(s): A. T. CulwickSource: Man, Vol. 31 (Apr., 1931), pp. 69-70Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and IrelandStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2791076 .

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April, 1931.] MAN. [Nos. 66-69.

control data for the prosecution of investigations of the problems of race and culture, and for the study of the interrelation of these.

MELVILLE J. HERSKOVITS.

Paciflc. Hogbin. Spirits of the Dead at Ongtong.Java. Summary of a communication 7

presented by H. Ian Hogbin, 10th February, 1931. UI Ongtong-Java is a coral atoll lying to the north-east of the Solomon

Islands. The social organization is based on a system of patrilineal joint families. The natives believe that every individual has a spirit, kipua. This spirit is the

only part which survives the grave. Once a man is dead his spirit is freed and is thought to be able to punish the survivors with sickness and death if they fail to observe the social rules relating to conduct within the joint family. As soon as a person is taken ill a medium is summoned. He allows the spirits to possess him, and if the person has in fact broken one of these social rules it is almost certaint that the spirits will say that they are punishing him.

It has often been said that natives live in constant dread of supernatural forces, and that it is for this reason that they do not break certain social rules. Such statements are untrue, for natives think no more of supernatural vengeance than we do of criminal procedure. Certain individuals may at times be prevented from committing anti-social acts because they fear the spirits, but the majority rarely think of doinig so. Nevertheless, the belief in supernatural punishment is important, but chiefly as a factor in education. Children are taught by their parents that certain acts are wrong, and if they commit them that they will be punished by the spirits. As time goes oIn this teaching imposes habits of good conduct, largely because it is backed up by tales of what has occurred to offenders in the past. The belief is, indeed, so firmly implanted that if a person does break one of the rules he usually expiates his action by dying soon afterwards. H. IAN HOGBIN.

Lesbos. Lamb. Excavations at Thermi in Lesbos. Summary of a communication eQ

presented by Mis8 Winifred Lamb, 24th February, 1931. UU Lesbos was colonized some time before 3000 B.c. by people of Anatolian stock.

The site of Thermi shows that these people were already acquainted with the use of copper; that they made both black and red wares; that they established trade with the Cyclades as well as maintaining it with the country of their origin. Their first two towns are contemporary roughly with Troy I; their third townflourished during the period when Troy I was abandoned and Troy II not yet built; their fourth and fifth settlements coincide with Ila, and the expansion of the Troadic culture into Macedonia. They appear to have abandoned the site before Troy IIb, which is associated with the appearance of the megaron and the invention of the potter's wheel.

The site is beautifully stratified; the periods being marked off not only by the superposed towns but by the development of the pottery. The sequence thus obtained is particularly useful, since it throws light on problems that at Troy remained obscure, such as the first appearance of certain types of battle axe, of stone and terracotta figurines, and of copper tools and ornaments. WINIFRED LAMB.

Tanganyika. Culwick. Rock Paintings in Central Tanganyika. Summary of a communication en presented by A. T. Culwicck, 10th March, 1931.

There are in the Singida District, Tanganyika Territory, several sites where red rock paintings of animals and other objects are to be found. At one site three

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Nos. 69-70.] MAN. [April, 1931.

styles exist together, being, in chronological order, outline drawings, darkly-outlined figures filled in with pigment and uniformly filled-in figures with no dark outline. At another site the technique of rock-cutting has been employed in addition to the application of pigment.

The figures depicted include giraffe, elephant, leopard, eland, hyena, a tree, etc. In conjunction with these paintings and at other sites which bore unmistakable

signs of human occupation many pieces of granite of peculiar shape were found, the most frequently occurring being lozenge-shaped slabs of various sizes. These objects were only found within the shelters, and their constant recurrence there together with other evidence of human occupation leaves little doubt that they were placed at the various sites by man, but the evidence is insufficient to show whether they are artefacts or merely a collection of natural objects. A. T. CULWICK.

Egypt. Hornblower. Kings and Temples of ancient Egypt. Summary of a communication 7f

presented by G. D. Hornblower, 24th March, 1931. IU In Egyptian religion the word " temple " represents two different things; (1) the

"house of the god " (per neter), a shrine like the Latin aedes or Greek naos; (2) a large building for religious ceremonies containing several shrines, of which the principal one was devoted to the patron-deity of the place. The shrines formed but a little part of the whole; the greater part consisted of chambers in which rites were carried out, mainly for upholding the king's divine power in its many manifestations. The earliest known built temple, that of King Zoser at Saqqareh, was primarily a sacred place for the king's consecration, or re-consecration, sed-heb, at which the national gods assisted, each in his own chapel.

The royal rites were represented on the temple walls to ensure permanence by the same magic means employed by pal2eolithic man when he painted the walls of his sacred caves with beasts of the chase. A parallel case is that of the tombs on the walls of which offerings for the dead were painted and carved, thereby maintaining for their occupants a permanent supply of the things needed to keep them in good condition and able, accordingly, to protect and assist the living.

The similarity of rites for the dead and for living gods-including the king- shows how large a part in the Egyptian scheme of things was held by the dead: but whereas the well-being of the dead man affected only his family, that of the king affected the whole country, for he was the source of its life and prosperity, a living god, acclaimed as such in every royal inscription. It was therefore important that all rites concerning his kingship, that is to say his godship, such as his divine birth, coronation and re-consecration (sed-heb), should be properly carried out and their efficacy rendered permanent by pictures on the temple walls. The figure of the king dominates most parts of the temples; he sprawls enormous on the walls, smiting his foes, and sometimes hunting, for it was an essential duty of kings to protect their people from the enemy, and in the earlier times a chief had everywhere to be a skilful leader in the chase. His statues, at the doorways, tower colossal over the entrant and his name is multiplied endlessly on pillar and wall. Hymns to his glory occupy vast spaces of the outer walls; when he is represented, as he needs must be, making offerings to other gods, he is shown as their equal- sometimes he has a shrine exactly like theirs-but when he is placed beside ordinary mortals, he is a huge giant with his head often in the very skies.

The gods are like him, and like the dead, in that they need constant offerings to maintain their well-being and keep them useful for the community; hence the services devoted to them are also carved on the walls of the shrines but take up little space in comparison with that devoted to kings.

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