Weapon Parts Research Articles

Selecting Small: Microlithic Musings for the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic of Western Europe

Very small lithic elements of various shapes and shaped by different techniques occur in widely ranging absolute and relative frequencies in artifact assemblages dating to all the major culture‐stratigraphic subdivisions of the Upper Paleolithic, as well as in the Mesolithic of Europe. Their presence implies the existence of hafting systems and, in many cases, projectile function. Microliths (ranging from Dufour and backed bladelets to geometries) were probably often set in series on antler or wooden shafts as the replaceable parts of composite weapons. Tiny, light tip and/or barb elements no doubt served to increase prey bleeding. However, throughout the period between circa 40 and 6 k.y.a., microlith‐sagaie combination projectiles alternated in “popularity” with large, unitary stone points (e.g., Gravette, Font‐Robert, Solutrean, Teyjat). While we are far from understanding the possible specific functional differences among these various “killing options,” it is probable that much of the variation was not so much functionally distinctive as random or “stylistic” in nature. The lightening of stone artifacts in the period after the Middle Paleolithic is clearly a hallmark of what the Abbé Breuil rightly called the “Leptolithic.”

Profit Potentials in Atomic Energy

T HIS ARTICLE will present the various aspects of and the relative profit potentials of each. It starts with a brief section on the market action of the stocks of various companies with known interests in energy. This is followed by a discussion of the Atomic Energy Act of 1946 and the manner in which free enterprise is prevented from functioning in many of the most important phases of nuclear energy. The main body of the article deals with the profit potentials of each step in the production of energy, starting with the prospecting for and mining of uranium and thorium; then the refining of the ore, the feed materials plants; the separation of U235; the production of plutonium; the preparation of reactor fuels and weapon parts; and the many uses of fissionable materials. This section will be followed by a discussion of a number of manufacturing and construction operations, including instrumentation, which are indirectly related to but which have profit potentialities that are of immediate, as well as long-term, interest. It must be remembered that atomic energy is considered to be a magic phrase which has been responsible, is responsible, and will be responsible for many stocks soaring to price levels that cannot be justified on any sound statistical basis. This article is not concerned with the type of market action. Although it is written for the purpose of pointing out sound and fundamental profit potentialities based on increased sales, earnings, and dividends, due to the development of various segments of the atomicenergy program, it is recognized that the glamour of atomic energy will cause some of the soundest of situations to sell, at least temporarily, at prices that are out of line with current reality.

Research Items

MEGALITHIC MONUMENTS IN THE MARIANAS.—In the Scientific Monthly for November, Lieut.-Com mander P. J. Searles describes the remarkable Lat'te or monuments composed of upright monoliths surmounted by hemispherical capitals, usually in two parallel rows of four to six stones in a row and running parallel to the seashore or a river bed. The stones are of remarkable size. Two of the largest monuments are in Tinian. Their stones are eighteen feet in circumference at the base, and twelve feet high, the capitals being five feet high and six feet in diameter. Each monolith weighs 30 tons. In an unpublished manuscript of a Spanish Governor of the middle of the last century, it is stated that human bones were for md in a hollow on the top of a monolith forming part of the ‘House of Taga’, a chieftain who, according to tradii tion, buried his daughter on top of one of the monoliths. Recent investigations indicate that the Latte were not dwelling-houses as has been thought, but monumental religious structures marking sites of ceremonies, cannibal feasts, and burials. The mutilated condition of skeletons found in or near them points to cannibalism. In Guam the Latte are connected with three areas, of which the first is the burial place; in which all the bodies are carefully orientated with feet to the water and head inland; next, an area devoted to warriors or the victims of cannibal feasts, as indicated by broken skulls, broken limbs, or weapons or parts of weapons embedded in the skeletons; thirdly, an area in which are found remains of ornaments, pottery, weapons, stone implements, etc. How the Latte were built is unknown, but in size and in the skill and industry required to build them they are comparable to Stonehenge.