posted on 2023-11-22, 09:58authored byFritz Noetling
Before we compare the Tasmanian tronatta with the similar implements from Europe, it will be useful to fix the main features of the Tasmanian civilisation, because it represents the purest type of archaeolithic civilisation. We may deplore the fact that the Tasmanians died out within a few years since they came in contact with the Europeans; yet even this had its advantages. There was no time for the inception of ideas foreign to the Tasmanian mind; the primitive state of civilisation could not be adulterated by other notions. This preservation of the archaeolithic stage in all its pureness would have been impossible if the Tasmanians had become more or less acquainted with foreign ideas. We would always have to consider the probable influence of extraneous notions had this been the case. The Aborigines had already made at least one important invention, based on a certain amount of logical reasoning. Instead of using any pebble or rock in its natural state, they had learned that certain siliceous rocks could be split, and that the flakes, by means of their sharp edges, were more suitable implements than those provided by nature—for instance, sharp-edged pieces of columnar diabas. The tronattas were tools only, and they were never used as weapons. The Tasmanian civilisation had not made the invention to provide the spears with stone heads or to fix a handle to some of the large tronattas.
History
Publication title
Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania
Pagination
265-282
ISSN
0080-4703
Rights statement
In 1843 the Horticultural and Botanical Society of Van Diemen's Land was founded and became the Royal Society of Van Diemen's Land for Horticulture, Botany, and the Advancement of Science in 1844. In 1855 its name changed to Royal Society of Tasmania for Horticulture, Botany, and the Advancement of Science. In 1911 the name was shortened to Royal Society of Tasmania..