m M M M ill JUi - til M M ' JUI ' III ' 111 M 'M M 'M 'M 'M 'M 'l\ 'M 'U. % Ex LiBRIS RAINERZIETZ LIMITED LONDON 'y'v irV iiV ^^ IrV ^^ ftV WMMLW. i\V. W. iW i^ iiV iW I'lVJV jVjV ^^ ^ ^^LiU- ^ 00^ /k a ^^t AXCIEIS^T STONE BirLEMEXTS ETC., OF GEEAT BEITAIN. — ) THE ANCIENT STONE IMPLEMENTS, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS, OF GREAT BRITAIN JOHN EVAKS, F.R.S., F.S.A., HONORARY SECRETARY OF THE GEOLOGICAL AND NUMISMATIC SOCIETIES OF LONDON, ETC., ETC., ETC. LONDON : LONGMANS, GREEN, READER, AND DYER. 1872. {All rit/hts reserved.) LONDON FEINTED BT VIRTUE AND CO., CITY ROAD. THE GF.Tr^ RF.Gr-AiiCH INCTIT'JTE LIC.^ARY PEEFACE. In presenting this work to the public I need say but little by way of preface. It is the result of the occupation of what leisure hours I could spare, during the last few years, from various and important business, and my object in undertaking it is ex- plained in the Introduction. What now remains for me to do, is to express my thanks to those numerous friends who have so kindly aided me during the progress of my work, both by placing specimens in their col- lections at my disposal, and by examination of my proofs. Fore- most among these must be ranked the Rev. William Greenwell, F.S.A., from whose unrivalled collection of British antiquities I have largely drawn, and from whose experience and knowledge I have received much assistance in other ways. To Mr. A. W. Franks, F.S.A. ; Mr. J. W. Flower, F.G.S. ; Mr. W. Pengclly, F.R.S. ; Colonel A. Lane Fox, F.S.A. ; Mr. E. T. Stevens, of Salisbury ; Messrs Mortimer, of Fimber ; Mr. Joseph Anderson, the Curator of the Antiquarian Museum at Edinburgh ; and to numerous others Avhose names are mentioned in the fol- lowing pages, my thanks must also be expressed. The work itself will, I believe, be found to contain most of the information at present available with regard to the class of antiquities of which it treats. The subject is one which does not readily lend itself to lively description, and an accimuilation of facts, such as is here presented, is of necessity dull. 1 have, however, relegated to smalk-r typc^ the bulk of the descriptive VI PREFACE. details of little interest to tlio ordinary reader, wlio will probably find more than enougb of dry matter to content him, if he confines himself to the larger tj'pe, and an examination of the illustrations. Whatever may be the merits or defects of the book, there are two points on which I feel that some credit may be claimed. The one is that the woodcuts — the great majority of which have been specially engraved for this work by Mr. Swain, of Bouverie Street — give accurate representations of the objects; the other is, that all the references have been carefully checked. The Index is divided into two parts ; the first showing the subjects discussed in the work, the second the localities where the various antiquities have been found. Now that so much more attention than formerly is being bestowed on this class of antiquities, there will, no doubt, be numerous discoveries made, not only of forms with which we are at present unacquainted, but also of circumstances calculated to throw light on the uses to which stone implements and weapons were apj)licd, and the degree of antiquity to be assigned to the various forms. I will only add that I shall gladly receive any communications relative to such discoveries. JOHN EVANS. Xash Mills, Ilemel Hcnqjstcd, May^ 1872. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. TAG* The Iron, Bronze, and Stone Ages — Bronze in use before Iron — Persistence of Keligious Kites — Use of IStono in Keligious Ceremonies — Stone Antiquities not all of the same Age 1 CILVPTER II. ON THE MANUFACTURE OF STONE IMPLEMENTS IN PREHISTORIC TIMES. Pyrites and Flint used for striking Fire — The Gun-flint ^lanufacture — Gun- flint Production — ^lode of producing Flakes — Australian lilcthod of Making Flakes — Pressigny Kuclci — Rough-hewing iStone Hatclicts — Ancient Mining for Flint — ^lode of Chiijping out Scrapers — Flaking Arrow-heads — Arrow-flakcrs — Grinding Stone Implements — Method of Sawing Stone — Methods of Boring Stone — Progress in the Ai-t of Working Stone 13 IMPLEMENTS OF THE NEOLITHIC PERIOD. CHAPTER III. CELTS. Regarded as Thunderbolts — Belief in their Meteoric Origin — Celt with Gnostic Inscription — Origin and Virtues of Celts — Their Materials and Forms . 50 CHAPTER IV. CHIPPED OR ROUGH-HEWN CELTS. "With the Edge formed by Two Facets — Numerous in many Districts — Some carefully Chipped — Some expanding at the Ends — The Common Forms — Discoveries at Cissbury — Many of the same Age as the Polished Celts — Their probable ^Vgc CO CHAPTER V. CELTS GROUND AT THE EDGE ONLY. One made from a Natural Prism of Flint — The long narrow Form — Expanding at the End — Some intended for use as Adzes — Formed of other l^Iaterials than Flint 78 CHAPTER VI. POLISHED CELTS. A Type common in the Eastfm Counties — Some show n Facet at the Edge — Of other Materials than Flint — The thin and highly linished TN^^^e — Those VIU CONTENTS. with Flat Sides — With the Edge ohlique — ^\\''ith a narrow Butt— Not of Flint — So large as to be taken for Clubs — Of reetangular Section — Of oval Section — And with conical Butt — Of a Form found in Greece and India — - Eoughened at the Butt — Sharp at both Ends — Of abnormal Forms — Used in the Hand without hafting — With Depressions on the Faces — Earely found with Objects of Bronze — Their Discovery with Objects of later Date — Their range in Time — Celts accompanying Interments — Manner in which Hafted — Found in their original Handles — Compared with Axes of IModern Savages — Mounted in Stag's-horn Sockets — In Wooden Hafts — -Compared with Adzes of Modern Wavages — Modern Methods of hafdng Ajces — Probable Uses of Celts 89 CHAPTER VII. PICKS, CHISELS, GOUGES, ETC. Pointed Picks — Small Hand Chisels — Gouges rare in Britain — Bastard Gouges . 1-54 CHAPTER VIII. PERFORATED AXES. Those shai^) at both Ends — Expanding at one End — Adze-like in character — Hoe-like in character — Cutting at one End only — Used as Battle-axes — Large and heavy — A large Form common in the North — Some for domestic use — Hummer-like at one End — Boring the last Process — Axe-hammers hollowed on the Faces — Ornamented on the Sides — Constantly found in Barrows — Perforated Axes but little used by Modern Savages . . . 163 CHAPTER IX. PERFORATED AND GROOVED HAMMERS. Perforated Hammers, how hafted — Some of them Weapons, not Tools— Some made from broken Celts — Or fi'om Pebbles with natural holes — Of an orna- mental charactex- — Made from Quartzite Pebbles — Those found in Ii-eland and other Countries — Grooved Hammers used for IMiuing Purposes — Hard to distinguish from Net-sinkers ......... 194 CHAPTER X. HAMMER-STONES, ETC. With Depressions on the Faces — Made from broken Celts — Some probaldj' used for pounding Food — Ridged at the End — Made of Flint — Saddle-querns — Pestles and Mortiirs — Shetland and Orkney Forms — Various Forms of Mortars — Hand-mills, or Querns 213 CHAPTER XL GRINDING-STONES AND WHETSTONES. L^sed for sliarpeniug Celts — Found in Barrows — Used for pointed Tools . . 235 CHAPTER XII. FLINT FLAKKS, CORES, ETC. Bulb of Percussion — Occasionally very small — Numerous in Ancient Settle- ments — Localities where abundant — Not confined to tlie Stone Period — The Roman Tribulum — Flakes, &c., in other parts of the World — Their Uses— Ground at the Edge — Made into Saws — Danish seiTated Instru- ments 245 CONTENTS. IX CHAPTER XIII. SCRAPERS. PAGE Used in dressing Hides — Horseshoe-shaped — Kite-shaped — Like Oyster-shells in Form — Spoon-shaped — Evidences upon them of wear — Found with Pyrites — The Modern Forms of Strike-a-light — Scrapers used with Pj-rites for producing Fire — The Flat and Hollowed Forms 2G8 CHAPTER XIV. BORERS, AWLS, OR DRILLS. Found in different Countries — Some of doubtful determination .... 288 CHAPTER XV. TRIMMED FLAKES, KMVES, ETC. Trimmed Flakes in different Countries — Some probably Knives — Others possibly I^ance-heads — Wrought on both Faces — With one Edge ground blunt — Sharpened by grinding — Some probably Skinning-knives — Of other Materials than Flint — The so-called Picts' Knives — Daggers or Lance-heads — Blunted towards the Butt — Notched at the Sides — Curved Knives — Probably Sickles 292 CHAPTER XVI. JAVELIN AND ARROW-HEADS. When first described in Britain — Superstitions attaching to them — The Virtues ascribed to them — Their various Forms — JaveUn-heads — Leaf-shaped Arrow-heads — Pointed at both Ends: — Lozenge-shaped — Stemmed — Stemmed and Barbed — Found in Scotland — Localities where found — Triangular Arrow-heads — Single-barbed — The Chisel-edged Type — Found in Barrows — Irish and French Types — Swiss and Italian Types — Scandi- navian and Asiatic Tj'pes — Americau Types — How attached to their Shafts 321 CHAPTER XVII. FABRICATORS, FLAKING TOOLS, ETC. Used for working in Flint — Their probable Uses 367 CHAPTER XVIII. SLING-STONES AND BALLS. The early use of Slings — Reasons for fashioning Sling-stones -—The use of "Bolas" — Clubs with Stone Balls attached ...... 372 CHAPTER XIX. BRACERS AND ARTICLES OF BONE. Bracers of Stone — The use of Arm-guards — Bone Lance-heads and Pins — Needles of Bone — Hammers and Axes of Stag'a-horn . . ... 380 CHAPTER XX. SPINDLE-WHORLS, DISCS, SLICKSTONES, WEIGHTS, AND CUPS. Superstitions attaching to Whorls — Use of Perforated Discs — Use of Slick- stones — Stone Cups — Cups turned in a Lalhe — The Pole-lathe — Gold and Amber Cups — Vessels of Stone ......... 390 X CONTENTS, CHAPTER XXT. PERSONAL ORNAMENTS, AMULETS, ETC. PAGE Buttons — Jet Buttons and Studs — Necklaces — Beads, Pendants, and Bracelets — - Rinas — Pebbles — Amulets — Conclusions as to the Neolithic Period . . 406 IMPLEMENTS OF THE PALEOLITHIC PERIOD. CHAPTER XXII. CAVE IMPLEBIENTS. Compared with those from the River Drift — Formation of Caverns — Deposition of Stalagmite — Difierent Ages of Caverns — Their Chronological Sequence — Age of LeMoustier^OfLaugerie Haute — Of Cro-Magnon — Of LaMadelainc — Fauna of British Caves — JDean Buckland's Researches — Kent's Cavern, Torquay — Ovate Implements — Alteration in Structure of Flmt — Trimmed Flakes — Scrapers — Flakes — Hammers^ — Bone Harpoons — Pins and Needles — Fauna of Kent's Cavern — Brixham Cave, Torquay — The Wookey Hyaena Den — The Gower Caves — King Arthur's Cave, Whitchurch . . . 425 CHAPTER XXIII. IMPLEMENTS OF THE RIVER-DRIFT PERIOD. The Valley of the Ouse— Bedford— The Valley of the Cam— Of the Lark— Bury St. Edmunds and Ickiingham — High Lodge, IMildenhall — Valley of the Little Ouse — Thetford — Santon Downham — Bromehill, AVeeting — JBrandon - — Shrub Hill, Feltwell — Hoxne, Suffolk — Gray's Inn Lane, London — Hacknej'- Down — Highbury — Acton and Ealing — Valley of the Gnde — Peasemarsh, Godalming — Valley of the Stort — Valley of the Cray — Dart- ford — Valley of the Medway — Reculver — Studhill — Thanington — Canter- bury — Southampton — Hill Head — Isle of Wight — Lake, near Salisbury — Bemerton — Highfield, Fishcrton, Milford Hill, Salisburj' — Fordingbridge — Wimborne — Bournemouth — Barton — Valley of the Axe — Colyton, Devon . 477 CHAPTER XXIV. FORMS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF IMPLEMENTS FROM THE RIVER DRIFT. Flakes — Trimmed Flakes — Pointed Implements— Sharp-rimmed Implements — Differ from those of Neolithic Age — Their Occurrence in other Countries — The Civilization they betoken — Characteristics of Authenticity . . . 560 CHAPTER XXV. ANTIQUITY OF THE RIVER DRIFT, Hypothetical Case of River-action — Origin of River-systems — Effects of Floods — Amount of Solid Matter in turbid Water — Nature of Flood-deposits — Transporting Power of Water — Effects of Ground-ice and Shore-ice — Action of Rivers near their Mouths — Solvent Power of Carbonic Acid — Effect of deepening Valleys — Actual Phenomena compared with the Hypo- thetical—The Basin of the Ouse — Of the Little Ouse — Of the Waveney — The Valley of the Thames — Of the Test and Itchen — Origin of the Solent Sf a — Ancient Condition of the South Coast — The Ancient River Solent— The Evidence as to Climate — Evidence of the Faima — The Presence of the Mammoth— Difiiculties of the Question — Estimate of Time fiom Denuda- tion — From subsequent Changes in the Coast-line — Conclusion . . . 578 Description oi- the Plates 623 AVOODCUT ILLUSTRATIONS. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. FIO. PAGE 1. Egyptian Dagger or Knife . . 8 CHAPTEE II. FIO. i'AGE 25. Forest of Bere, near Ilorndean 69 26. Cissbury, Sussex 73 27. „ „ 73 28. „ „ 74 29. „ „ 74 CHAPTER V. MANUFACTURE OF STONE IMPLE- MENTS. CELTS GROUND AT THE EDGE ONLY. 2. Flint Core with Flakes replacec 30. Downs, near Eastbourne . . 79 upon it 18 31. Culford, Suffolk .... 79 3. Xucleus, Pressigny . . . . 26 32. Near Mildenhall, Suffolk . 79 4. )) J) . . . . 27 33. Sawdon, N.R., Yorkshire . 80 6. i> . . . . 27 34. Weston, Norfolk .... 81 6. Flake 28 35. Mildenhall, Suffolk . . . 82 7. ,, ., . . . . 28 36. Burwell Fen, Cambs. 83 8. Esquimaux Ai-row-flaker . . 34 37. Thetford, Suffolk .... 84 9. 51 )1 35 38. Undley Common, Lakenheath L 85 10. ?) 5> • 35 39. Ganton, Yorkshire . . 86 40. Swaffham Fen, Cambridge 86 41. Grindale, Bridlington . . 87 CHAPTER III. 42. North Burton, Yorkshii-e . 87 CELTS. CHAPTER VI. 11. Celt with Gnostic Inscription 55 POLISHED CELTS. CHAPTEE IV. 43. Santon Downham, Suffolk 90 44. Coton, Cambridge . . . 92 KOUGH-HEWN CELTS. 45. Reach Fen, Cambridge . . 93 46. Great Bedwin, Wilts . . 93 12. Near Mildenliall, Suffolk . 61 47. Burradon, Northumberland 94 13. )> »' >} 61 48. Coton, Cambridge . . 95 14. Ntar Thetlord „ 62 49. Ponteland, Northumberland 96 15. Oving, near Chichester . . 63 50. Fridaythorpe, Yorkshire . 96 16. Near Newhaven, Sussex 64 51. Oulston ,, 97 17. Near Dunstable, Beds . . 65 52. Burwell Fen, Cambs. . . 98 18. Burwell Fen, Carabs. . . . 65 53. Botesdale, Suffolk . . . 100 19. Mildenhall, Suffolk . . . . 66 54. Lack ford ,, .... 101 20. Bottisham Fen, Canibs. . . 66 65. Dalmeny, Linlithgow . . 102 21. Near Bournemouth, Hants . 67 66. Sprouston, near Kelso . . 103 22. Thetford, Suffolk .... . 67 57. Nunnington, Yorkshire . . 104 23. Reach Fen, Cambridge . . 68 68 Burradon, Northumberland 105 24. Scamridge, Yorkshire . . 69 , 59 Livermere, Suffolk . . . 105 Xll ^VOODCUT ILLUSTRATIONS. FIG. PAGE 60. Ilderton, Northumberland . . lUo 61. Near Pendle, Lancashire . . lOG 62. Ness, N.K., Yorkshii-e . . .108 63. Gilling „ „ ... 109 64. Swinton, near Malton . . .110 65. iscamridge Dykes, Yorkshire . Ill 66. AVhitwell „ .111 67. Thames, London 112 68. Near Bridlington, Yorkshire . 113 69. Lakenheath, Suflblk . . . .114 70. Seamer, Yorkshire . . . .115 71. Guernsey 115 72. Wareham, Dorsetshire . . .116 73. Forfarshire 117 74. Bridlington, Yorkshii-e . . .117 75. Caithness 118 76. Gilmerton, East Lothian . .119 77. ytirlingshire 120 78. Harome, N.R., Yorkshir-e . . 121 79. Daviot, near Inverness . . .122 80. Near Cottenham, Cambs. . . 123 81. Near Malton, Yorkshire . . 123 82. Mennithorpe „ . .124 83. Middleton Moor, Derbyshire . 124 84. Near Truro, Cornwall . . .125 85. Near Lerwick, iShetland . .125 86. Weston, Norfolk 126 87. Acklam AYold, Yorkshire . .126 88. Fimber „ . . 127 89. Duggleby, E.E. „ . . -127 90. Guernsey 128 91. Hafted Celt, Solway Moss . . 138 92. „ „ Cumberland . .139 93. „ „ Monaghan . . .140 94. Axe from the Rio Frio . . .140 95. War-axe, Gaveoe Indians, Brazil 141 96. Axe of Montezuma II. . . .142 97. „ Nootka Sound .... 142 98. „ in Stag's-horn Socket, Concise 143 99. Axe, itobenhausen . . . .143 100. „ „ .... 145 101. Celt Handle, Schraplau . . .146 102. Adze, New Caledonia . . . 147 103. „ Clalam Indians . . . 148 104. South Sea Island Adzes . . 149 105. Axe, Northern Australia . . 150 106. Hatchet, Western Australia . 152 CHAPTER YII. PICKS, CHISELS, GOUGES, ETC. 107. Great Easton, Essex .... 154 108. Bury St. Edmunds . . . .155 lO:). Bui'well, Cambs 156 110. Near Bridliugton, Yorkshire . 156 111. Dalton „ . 157 112. Helperthorpe „ . 157 113. New Zealand Chisel .... 158 114. Burwell, Cambs 159 FIG. PAGE 115. Eastbourne, Sussex .... 160 116. Willerby Wold, Yorkshire .161 117. Bridlington 162 CHAPTER VIII. 118. 119. 120, 121. 122. 123. 124, 125. 126. 127, 128, 129. 130. 131, 132, 133. 134, 135. 136. 137. 138. 139. 140. 141. 142. 143. PEKFOEATED AXES. Hunmanby, Yorkshire . Hove, Sussex Llanmadock, Gower . Guernsey Fireburn Mill, Coldstream . Burwell Fen, Cambs. . . Stourton, Wilts .... Bardwell, Sufiblk .... Potter Brompton Wold, Yksh Rudstone, York.shire ... Borrowash, Derbyshire . . Crichie, Aberdeenshire . . Walsgrave-upon-Sowe,WckBh Wigton, Cumberland Wollaton Park, Notts . . Buckthorjie, Yorkshire . Aldro', Malton „ . . Cowlam ,, Seghill, near Newcastle . . Kirklington, Yorkshire . . Winterbourn Steepleton, Dor setshii-e Skelton Moors, Yorkshire . Selwood Barrow, Wilts . . Upton Lovel „ . . Thames, London .... Pelj-nt, Cornwall .... 164 165 167 168 169 171 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 180 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 189 190 190 191 CHAPTER IX. PERFORATED AND GROOVED HAMMERS. 144. Balmaclellan, New Galloway . 196 145. Thames, London 196 146. Scarborough 197 147. Shetland 197 148. Caithness 198 149. Leeds 198 150. Rockland, Norfolk .... 199 151. Heslert on AYold, Yorkshire . 200 152. Birdoswald, Cumberland . . 201 153. Maesmore, Corwen, Wales . 202 164. Normanton, Wilts .... 203 155. Redgrave Park, Suffolk . . .204 156. Redmore Fen, Cambs. . . 204 157. Stifford, Essex 205 158. Sutton, Suffolk 206 159. Siukstone, Ambleside, West- moreland 211 CHAPTER X. HAMMER-STONES, ETC. 160. Helmaley, Yorkshire. . . .'214 WOODCUT ILLUSTRATIONS. TTITI no. ' PAGE 161. Winterbourn Bassett, Wilts . 215 162. St. Botolph's Priory, Pem- brokeshire 215 163. Bridlington, Yorkshire . . .217 164. „ „ . . . 218 165. „ „ . . . 218 166. Scamridge „ ... 221 167. Yorkshire Wolds 223 168. „ , 223 169. Bridlington, Yorkshire . . .224 170. Holvhead 225 171. TyMawr, Holyhead. . . .227 172. Holyhead 228 173. Pulborough, Sussex . . . .228 174. Shetland 229 175. „ 230 176. „ 230 177. „ 230 178. „ 230 179. „ 230 180. Balmaclellan, Xew Galloway . 234 CHAPTER XI. GRINDING-STOXES AND WHETSTONES. 181. Dorchester, Oxfordshire . . . 239 182. Rudstone, Yorkshire .... 239 183. Fimber, Yorkshire Wolds . . 240 184. Cowlam, Yorkshire .... 241 185. Amesburj-, Wilts 241 186. Hove, Sussex 242 187. Ty Mawr, Holyhead .... 243 CHAPTER XII. FLINT FLAKES, COKES, ETC. 188. 189. 190. 191. 192. 193. 194. 195. 196. 197. 198. 199. 200. 201. 202. Artificial Cone of Flint . Weaverthorpe, Yorkshire Newhaven, Sussex Redhill, Reigate, Surrey Icklingham, Suffolk . . Seaford, Sussex Tribulum from Aleppo . Xew Caledonia Charleston, E.R., Yorkshire Xussdorf, Switzerland Australian Knife 247 249 251 251 251 251 257 260 262 263 264 Saw, Willerby Wold, Yorksh. 265 ,, Yorkshire Wolds . . . 265 Scamridge, Yorkshire . 266 West Cranmore, Somerset 266 CHAPTER XIII. SCRAPERS. 203. Esquimaux Scraper . . 204. Weaverthorpe, Yorkshire 205. Sussex Downs .... . 268 . 270 . 271 FIO- PAGE 206. Yorkshire 271 207. Helperthorpe, Yorkshire . . 272 208. Weaverthorpe „ ... 272 209. Sussex Downs 272 210. Yorkshire 273 211. Yorkshire Wolds 273 212. „ „ 273 213. Sussex Downs 274 214. Yorkshire Wolds 274 215. Sussex Downs 274 216. „ „ 275 217. „ „ 275 218. Yorkshire 276 219. Bridlington, Yorkshii-e . . . 276 220. Yorkshire Wolds 277 221. „ „ 277 222. French "Strike-a-light" . .283 223. Rudstone, Yorkshire . . . .284 224. Method of using Pyrites and Scraper 285 225. Yorkshire Wolds 286 226. „ „ 287 CHAPTER XIV. BORERS, AWLS, OR DRILLS. 227. Yorkshire Wolds 289 228., Bridlington, Yorkshire . . . 289 229. Yorkshire Wolds 290 230. Bridlington, Yorkshire . . . 290 231. Yorkshire Wolds 291 232. „ „ 291 CHAPTER XV. TRIIIJIED FLAKES, KNIVES, ETC. 233. Cambridge (?) 292 234. Yorkshire W^olds 294 235. Yorkshire 291 236. Bridlington, Yorkshire . . . 294 237. Yorkshire 295 238. Bridlington, Yorkshire . . . 295 239. Castle Carrock, Cumberland . 295 240. Ford, Xorthumberland . . . 296 241. Weaverthorpe, Yorkshire . . 296 242. Wykeham Sloor ,, . . 297 243. Potter Brompton Wold, Yksh. 297 244. Snainton Moor, Yorkshire . . 298 245. Ford, Xorthumberland . . . 298 246. Bridlington, Yorkshire . . . 299 247. Cambridge Fens 299 248. Scamridge, Yorkshire . . . 300 249. Burwell Fen, Cambs. . . . 301 250. Saffron Walden, Essex . . .301 251. Fimber, Yorkshire .... 302 252. Aberdeenshire 303 253. Urquhart, Elgin 303 254. Bridlington, Yorkshire . . . 303 255. Overton, Wilts 304 256. Kempston, Bedford .... 305 XIV WOODCUT ILLUSTRATIONS. FIG. 257. 258. 259. 260. 261. 262. 263. 264. 265. 266. 267. 268. 269. 270. Kintore, Aberdeenshire . Newhaven, Derbyshire . Harome, Yorkshire . . Crambe, N.E., Yorkshire Walls, Shetland . . . Lamborne Down, Berkshire Thames Burnt Fen, Cambridge . Arbor Low, Derbyshire . Fimber, Yorkshire . . Yarmouth, Norfolk . . Eastbourne, Sussex . 271. 272. 273. 274. 275. 276. 277. 278. 279. 280. 281. 282. 283. 284. 285. 286. 287. 288. 289. 290. 291. 292. 293. 294. 295. 296. 297. 298. 299. 300. 301. 302. 303. 304. 305. 306. 307. 308. 309. 310. 311. 212. 313. CHAPTER XVI. JAVELIN AND AKEOW-HEADS. Elf-shot moiinted in silver . . Egyptian Arrow-head . Winterbourn Stoke, Wilts )) ?j . . Calais Wold Barrow, Yorkshire >> )j Icklingham, Suffolk .... Gunthorpe, Lincolnshire . . Yorkshire Wolds Little Solsbury Hill, iSath . . 334 Yorkshire Wolds 334 Bridlington, Yorkshire . . .334 Yorkshire Wolds 335 335 Lakenheath, Suffolk .... 335 Yorkshire Wolds 335 335 336 „ 336 336 Fyfield, Wilts 337 Bridlington, Yorkshire . . . 337 Newton Ketton, Durham . . 337 Yorkshire Wolds 338 338 338 Amotherby, Yorkshire . . .338 Iwerne Minster, Dorsetshire . 339 Yorkshire Wolds 339 339 Overton, Wilts 340 Sherburn Wold, Yorkshire . 340 Yorksliiro Wolds 341 „ 341 341 341 „ 341 341 341 PAGE FIG. 306 314. 306 315. 307 316. 307 317. 309 318. 309 319. 310 320. 312 321. 313 322. 314 323. 315 324. 317 325. 318 326. 318 327. 328. 329. 330. 331. 33'?, 325 333. 329 334. 331 335. 331 336. 331 337. 332 338. 332 339. 332 340. 332 341 ■333 34^. 333 343. 333 344. 334 345. PAGE Yorkshire Wolds 341 Eddlesborough, Bucks . . .342 Beach Fen, Cambridgeshire . 342 Isleham „ . 342 Rudstone, Yorkshire .... 343 Lamborne Down, Berks . . 343 Fovant, South Wilts .... 343 Yorkshire Moors 344 Yorkshire Wolds 344 344 Isle of Skye 345 Urquhart, Elgin 345 Aberdeenshire 345 Glenlivet, Banff 345 Icklingham, Suffolk .... 348 Langdale End, N.R., York- shire 348 Amotherby, Yorkshire . . . 348 Weaverthorpe „ ... 349 Lakenheath, Suffolk . . . .349 Yorkshii-e Wolds 349 349 349 Bridlington, Yorkshire . . . o50 „ ... 350 Fimber ,, ... 351 Hungry Bentley, Derbyshire . 351 Caithness 351 Lakenheath, Suffolk . . . .352 Urquhart, Elgin 352 Switzerland 364 Fiiuen, Denmark 365 Modern Stone Arrow-head . 365 CHAPTER XVII. FABEICATOBS, FLAKING TOOLS, ETC. 346. Yorkshii-e Wolds 367 347. Bridlington, Yorkshire . . .368 348. Sawdon „ ... 370 319. Acklam Wold „ ... 370 CHAPTER XVIII. SLING-STONES AND BALLS. 350. Yorkshire Wolds 374 351. Dumfriesshire 376 352. Towie, Aberdeenshire . . . 376 CHAPTER XIX. BEACEKS AND ARTICLES OP BONE. 353. Isle of Skye 380 354. Evantown, Ross-shire . . .381 355. Devizes, Wilts 381 356. Isle of Skye 382 WOODCUT ILLUSTRATIONS. XV CHAPTER XX. SPINDLE-WHORLS, DISCS, SLICK- STONES, WEIGHTS, AND CUPS. FIG. PAGE 357. Scampston, Yorkshire . . . 392 358. Holyhead 392 359. „ 392 360. Ty Mawr, Holyhead .... 392 361. Holyhead 396 362. Scotland 397 363. Sutherlandshire 398 364. Faroe Islands 398 365. Broad Down, near Honiton . 399 366. Gold Cup, Rillaton, Cornwall . 402 367. Hove, near Brighton .... 403 368. Ty Mawr, Holyhead .... 404 CHAPTER XXI. PERSONAL ORNAMENTS, AMULETS, ETC. 369. Butterwick, Yorkshire . . .407 370. „ „ ... 407 371. Rudstone „ ... 408 372. „ „ ... 408 373. Crawfurd Moor, Lanarkshire . 408 374. Calais Wold Barrow, Yorkshire 409 375. Assynt, Ross-shire . . . .411 376. Pen-y-Bonc, Holj-head . . .412 377. Jet Necklace, Pen-y-Bonc, Holyhead 413 378. Fimber, Yorkshire .... 415 379. Egton Bridge, Whitby, York- shire 416 380. Yorkshire 416 381. Hungry Bentley, Derbyshire . 417 382. Jet Bracelet, Guernsey . . .417 383. Bronze „ „ ... 417 384. Kent's Cavern, Devon . . . 419 385. Ty Mawr, Holyhead . . .419 CHAPTER XXII. CAVE IMPLEMENTS. 386. Kent's 387. 388. 389. 390. 391. 392. 393. 394. 395. 396. 397. 398. Cavern, Torquay . 447 . 447 . 448 . 449 . 450 . 451 . 452 . 453 . 453 . 454 . 454 . 455 . 456 PAGE , 456 , 457 . . 457 . . 457 Bone Instrument, Kent's Cavern 459 460 460 460 461 461 468 469 470 470 set. 473 399. Kent's Cavern, Torquay 400. „ „ 401. 402. 403. 404. 405. 406. 407. 408. 409. Brixham Cave, Torquay 410. „ „ 411. 412. 413. WookeyHytenaDen, Somer CHAPTER XXIII. IMPLEMENTS OF THE KIVER-DRIFT PERIOD. 414. 415. 416. 417. 418. 419. 420. 421. 422. 423. 424. 425. 426. 427. 428. 429. 430. 431. 432. 433. 434. 435. 436. 437. 438. 439. 440. 441. 442. 443. 444. 445. 446. 447. 448. 449. 450. 451. Biddenham, Bedford . . Maynewater Lane, Bury St. Edmunds .... Rampart Hill, Icklingham Icklingham, Suffolk . . High Lodge, Mildenhall Redhill, Thetford Whitehill Santon Downham Bromehill, Brandon Gravel Hill Valley of the Lark or of the Little Ouse Shrub HiU, FeltweU, Norfolk Hoxne, Suffolk j> M Gray's Inn Lane, London . . 481 482 483 483 484 487 489 490 490 491 492 493 493 496 497 498 499 499 500 502 503 503 504 505 506 508 509 509 510 511 512 514 514 515 515 519 520 522 XVI WOODCUT ILLUSTRATIONS. FIG. PAGE FIG. PAGE 452. Hackney Down, Middlesex . 523 465. Southampton .... . 544 453. Highbury New Park ,, . 525 466. Hill Head, Southampton Wa- 454. Ealing Dean ,, . 527 ter . 546 455. Peasemarsh, Godalmin^ . 529 467. Foreland, Isle of Wight . 548 456. Dartford Heath, Kent . . 532 468. Lake, near Salisbury . 549 457. Reculver ,, . 534 469. Bemcrton ,, . 550 458. Near Reculver „ . 536 470. Highfield . 551 459. > . 537 471. Fisherton ,, . 551 460. . 538 472. Milford Hill „ . 554 461. . 538 473. Fordingbridge, Hants . . 555 462. Studhill ',! . 539 474. Boscombe, Bournemouth . 556 463. Thanington, near Cantei bury . 541 475. )> jj . 557 464. Canterbury .... . 542 476. Bournemouth .... . 558 CHArTER I. INTRODUCTORY. IN the followin<^ pages I purpose to give an account of the various forms of stone implements, weapons, and ornaments of remote antiquity discoyercd in Great Britain, their probable uses and method of manufacture, and also, in some instances, the cir- cumstances of their discovery. While reducing the whole series into some sort of classification, as has been done for the stone antiquities of Denmark by Professor Worsaae, and for those of Ireland by Sir William Wilde, I hoi)e to add something to our knowledge of this branch of Archaeology by instituting compari- sons, where possible, between the antiquities of England and Scot- land and those of the other countries of Western Europe. Nor, in considering the uses of the various forms and their method of manufacture, must I neglect to avail myself of the illustrations afforded by the practice of modern savages, of which Sir John Lubbock and others have already made such profitable use. But before commencing any examination of special forms, there are some few general considerations on which it seems advisable to enter, if only in a cursory manner ; and this is the more neces- sary, since notwithstanding the attention which has of late years been devoted to Prehistoric Antiquities, and the numerous treatises which have appeared upon the subject, there is seemingly still much misapprehension abroad as to the nature and value of the conclusions based upon recent archaeological and geological investi- gations. At the risk therefore of being tedious, I shall have to notice once more many things already well known to archaeologists, but which, it would appear from the misconceptions so often evinced, even by those who speak and write on such matters, can hardly be too often repeated. 2 INTRODUCTORY. [cHAP. I. Not the least misunderstood of these sulDJects is the classification of the antiquities of Western Europe, first practically adopted by the Danish antiquaries, under periods known as the Iron, Bronze, and Stone Ages ; the Iron Age, so far as Denmark is concerned, being supposed to go back to about the Christian era, the Bronze Age to embrace a period of one or two thousand years previous to that date, and the Stone Age all previous time of man's occu- pation of that part of the world. These diiFerent periods have been, and in some cases may be, safely subdivided ; but into this question I need not now enter, as it does not affect the general sequence. The idea of the succession is this : — 1. That there was a period in each given part of Western Europe, say, for example, Denmark, when the use of metals for cutting instruments of any kind was unknown, and man had to depend on stone, bone, wood, and other readily accessible natural products, for his implements and weapons of the chase or war. 2. That this period was succeeded by one in which the use of copper, or of copper alloyed with tin — bronze — became known, and gradually superseded the use of stone for certain purposes, though it remained in use for others ; and 3. That a time arrived when bronze, in its turn, gave way to iron or steel, as being a superior metal for all cutting purposes ; and which, as such, has remained in use up to the present day. Such a classification into diiFerent ages in no way implies any exact chronology, far less one that would be applicable to all the countries of Western Europe alike, but is rather to be regarded as significant only of a succession of different stages of civilization ; for it is evident that at the time when, for instance, in a countiy such as Italy, the Iron Age may have commenced, some of the more northern countries of Europe may possibly have been in their Bronze Age, and others again still in their Stone Age. Neither does this classification imply that in the Bronze Age of any country stone implements had entirely ceased to be in use, nor even that in the Iron Ago both bronze and stone had been completely superseded for all cutting purposes. Like the three principal colours of the rainbow, these three stages of civilization overlap, intermingle, and shade off the one into the other ; and yet their succession, so far as Western Europe is concerned, appears to be equally well defined with that of the prismatic colours, though the proportions of the spectrum may vary in different countries. THE IllOX, BRONZE, AND STONE AGES. 3 T have spoken of this division into Periods as having been first practically adopted by the Danish school of antiquaries, but in fact this classification is by no means so recent as has been commonly supposed. Take, for instance, the following passage from Bishop Lyttelton's " Observations on Stone Hatchets," * written in 1766 : — " There is not the least doubt of these stone instruments havins; been fabricated in the earliest times, and by barbarous people, before the use of iron or other metals was known, and from the same cause spears and arrows were headed with flint and other hard stones." A century earlier, Sir William Dugdale, in his " History of Warwickshire," t also speaks of stone celts as weapons used by the Britons before the art of making arms of brass or iron was known. We find, in fact, that the same views were entertained not only by various writers J within the last two centuries, but also by many of the early poets and historians. There are even biblical grounds for argument in favour of such a view of a gradual development of material civilization. For all, including those who invest Adam with high moral attributes, must confess that whatever may have been his mental condition, his personal equipment in the way of tools or weapons could have been but inefficient if no artificer was instructed in brass and iron until the days of Tubal Cain, the sixth in descent from Adam's outcast son, and that too at a time when a generation was reckoned at a hundred years, instead of at thirty, as now. Turning, however, to Greek and Roman authors, we find Hesiod, § about k.c. 850, mentioning a time when bronze had not been superseded by iron : — ToTc S' i]v xaXicEnt i^ttv riv\tn, ^aA/cjoi 0« r« oikoi XoXki^ 5' tipyaZovTO, fikXag b' ovk iffj^e aiSijoog. Lucretius II is even more distinct in his views as to the successive Periods : — " Ai-ma antiqua manua, ungues, dentesque fuerunt Et lapides, et item sylvarum fragmina rami, — Posterius ferri vis est feiisque reperta ; Sed prior seris erat quam feiri cognitus usus. — ^re solum terras tractabant, a^reque belli jMiscebant fluctus et vulnera vasta ferebant." So early as the days of Augustus it would appear that bronze arms were regarded as antiquities, and that emperor seems to have * ArrJireoloffia, ii. 118. t P- 778. j I would especially refer to an excellent article by the Rev. John Hodgson in vol. i. of the ^rchreologia JEliana (a. P. 1816), entitled "An Inquiry into the .Era when Brass was used in purposes to which Iron is now applied." § Op. et Di., i. 150. || De Eeriun Nat., v. 1282. B 2 4 INTRODUCTORY. [f'HAr. I. commenced tlie first arcliaeological and g-eological collection on record, having adorned one of his country residences " rebus vetustate ac raritate notabilibus, qualia sunt Capreis immanium belluarum ferarumque membra pra^grandia, qua) dicuntur gigan- tum ossa et arma heroum."* We learn from Pausaniasf what these arms of the heroes were, for he explains how in the heroic times all weapons were of bronze, and quotes Homer's description of the axe of Pisander and the arrow of Meriones. He also cites the spear of Achilles in the Temple of Minerva, at Phaselis, the point and ferrule of which only were of bronze ; and the sword of Memnon in the Temple of ^sculapius, at Nicomedia, which was wholly of bronze. In the same manner Plutarch J relates that when Cimon disinterred the remains of Theseus in Scyros he found with them a bronze spear- head and sword. There is, indeed, in Homer constant mention of arms, axes, and adzes of bronze, and though iron is also named, it is of far less frequent occurrence. According to the Arundelian marbles, § it was discovered only 188 years before the Trojan war, though of course such a date must be purely conjectural. Even Yirgil pre- serves the unities, and often gives to the heroes of the ^neid bronze arms, as well as to some of the people of Italy — "^rataeque micant peltse, micat asreus ensis." || The fact that in the Greek 5[ language the words ;)^o\Kei)? and ^oX/cfijeu' remained in use as significant of working in iron affords a very strong, if not an irrefragable argument as to bronze having been the earlier metal known to that people. In the same way the continuance in use of bronze cutting implements in certain religious rites — as was also the case with some stone implements which I shall subsequently mention — affords evidence of their comparative antiquity. The Tuscans** at the foundation of a city ploughed the pomoerium with a bronze ploughshare, the priests of the Sabines cut their hair with bronze knives, and the Chief Priest of Jupiter at Pome used shears of the same metal for that purpose. In the same manner Medea has attributed to her, both by Sophocles andOvid,tf a bronze sickle when gathering her magic * Suetonius, Vit. Aug., cap. Ixxii. f Laconica, cap. 3. + Op., ed. 1624, vol. i. p. 17. § Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt, iii. 241. II ^n., 1. vii. 743. H XoXkiiiuv Si Kai rb fficripeviiv iXiyov, Kn'i x'^'^'^^'^C tovq t'ov (yivripcv ipya'Co- n'ivovQ. — Jul. Pollux, Onomastioon, lib. vii. cap. 24. ** Macrohius, Saturnal., v. 19. Ilhodiginus, Antiq., Lect. xix. c. 10. tt Met., lib. vii. 228. BRONZE IN rSE BEFORE IRON. herbs, and Elissa is represented by Virgil as using a similar instru- ment for the same purpose. Altogether, if history is to count for anything, there can be no doubt that in Greece and Italy, the earliest civilized countries of Europe, the use of bronze preceded that of iron, and therefore that there was in each case a Bronze Age of greater or less duration preceding the Iron Age. It seems probable that the first iron used was meteoric, and such may have been that "self-fused" mass which formed one of the prizes at the funeral games of Patroclus,* and was so large that it would suffice its possessor for all purposes during five years. Even the Greek word for iron (fft'Siypos) may not improbably be connected with the meteoric origin of the first known form of the metal. Its affinity with aaTi]p, often used for a shooting star or meteor, with the Latin sidera and our own "star," is evident. Professor Lauth,f moreover, interprets the Coptic word for iron, Hertine, as "the stone of heaven " (Stein des Himmels), which implies that in Egypt also its meteoric origin was acknow- ledged. Some, however, are of opinion that during the time that bronze was employed for cutting instruments iron was also in use for other purposes. J At the first introduction of iron this was, no doubt, the case, but we can hardly suppose the two metals to have been introduced simultaneously ; and if they had been, the questions arise, from whence did they come ? and how are we to account for the one not having sooner superseded the other for cutting purposes ? Another argument that has been employed in favour of iron having been the first metal used is that bronze is a mixed metal requiring a knowledge of the art of smelting both copper and tin, the latter being only produced in few districts, and generally having to be brought from far, while certain of the ores of iron are of easy access and readily reducible, § and meteoric iron is also found in the metallic state and adapted for immediate use. The answer to this is, first, that all historical evidence is against the use of iron previous to that of bronze ; and, secondly, that even in Eastern Africa, where, above all other places, the conditions for the development of the manufacture of iron seem most favourable, we have no evidence of the knowledge of that metal having pre- * Homer, II., xxiii. 82G. t Zeitsch. f. -Egypt. Sprache, &c., 1870, p. 114. X See De Rougemout, " L'Age du Brunze," p. 159. ^ See Percy's " Metallurgy," vol. i. p. 873. 6 INTRODVCTORY. [cHAP. I. ceded that of bronze ; but, on the contrary, we find in Egypt, a country often brought in contact with these iron-producing dis- tricts, no trace of iron before the twelfth dynasty,* and of its use even then the evidence is onl}^ pictorial, whereas the copper mines at Maghara are said to date back to the second dynasty, some eight hundred years earlier, Agatharchides,f moreover, relates that in his time, ciira B.C. 100, there were found buried in the ancient gold mines of Egypt the bronze chisels (Aaro/AtSes -xaXKai) of the old miners, and he accounts for their being of that metal by the fact that at the period when the mines were originally worked the use of iron was entirely unknown. To use the words of my lamented friend, the late Mr. Crawfurd,J who by no means agreed that such a sequence was almost universal, "Ancient Egypt seems to offer a case in which a Bronze Age clearly preceded an Iron one ; or, at least, in which cutting instruments of bronze preceded those of iron." To return, however, to Greece and Italy, there can, as I have already said, be little question but that even on historical grounds we must accept the fact that in those countries, at all events, the use of bronze preceded that of iron. We may therefore infer theoretically that the same sequence held good with the neighbour- ing and more barbarous nations of lYestern Euroije. Even in the time of Pausanias§ (after a.d. 174) the Sarmatians are mentioned as being unacquainted with the use of iron ; and practically we have good corroborative archncological evidence of such a sequence in other countries, for in more than one instance extensive discoveries have been made of antiquities belonging to the transitional period, when the use of iron or steel was gradually superseding that of bronze for tools or weapons, and when the forms given to the new metal were copied from those of the old. The most notable relics of this transitional period are those of the ancient cemetery at Ilallstatt, in the Salzkammergut, Austria, where upwards of a thousand graves have been opened by Herr Ramsauer, of the con- tents of which a detailed account has been given by the Baron von >Sacken.|| The evidence afforded by the discoveries in the Swiss lakes is almost equally satisfactory ; but I need not now enter further into the question of the existence and succession of the Bronze and Iron Ages, which has already been so fully discussed by Sir John * De Rouf^emont, op. ciL, p. 158. t Photii Bibliothoca, ed. 1653, col. 1343. J I'raris. Ktlniiil. ,Sor., vol. iv. p. 5. § Lib. i. C. 21, II " Das Grabl'old voii Ilallstatt und dessen Alterthumer." Vienna, 1868. PERSISTENCE OF RELIGIOUS RITES. 7 Lubbock and others, I am at present concerned with the Stone Age, and if, as all agree, there was a time when the use of iron or of bronze, or of both together, first became known to the barbarous nations of the West of Eurojje, then it is evident that before that time they were unacquainted with the use of those metals, and were therefore in that stage of civilization which has been charac- terized as the Stone Age. It is not, of course, to be expected that Ave should discover direct contemporary historical testimony amongst any people of their being in this condition, for in no case do we find a know- ledge of writing developed in this stage of culture ; and yet, apart from the material relics of this phase of progress which are found from time to time in the soil, there is to be obtained in most civilized countries indirect circumstantial evidence of the former use of stone implements, even where those of metal had been employed for cen- turies before authentic history commences. It is in religious cus- toms and ceremonies — in rites which have been handed down from generation to generation, and in which the minute and careful repetition of ancient observances is indeed often the essential religious element — that such evidence is to be sought. As has already been observed by others, the transition from ancient to venerable, from venerable to holy, is as natural as it is universal ; and in the same manner as some of the festivals and customs of Christian countries are directly traceable to heathen times, so no doubt many of the religious observances of ancient times were relics of what was even then a dim past. Whatever we may think of the etymology of the word as given by Cicero,* Lactantius,t or Lucretius, J there is much to be said in favour of Mr. E. B. Tyler's § view of superstition being " the standing over of old habits into the midst of a new and changed state of things — of the retention of ancient practices for cere- monial purposes long after they had been superseded for the commonplace uses of ordinary life." Such a standing over of old customs we seem to discover among most of the civilized peoples of antiquity. Turning to Egypt and Western Asia, the eaidy home of European civilization, we find from Herodotus || and from Diodorus Siculus ^ that in the rite of * Tie Nat. Deor., 1. ii. c. 28. f Lib. iv. c. 28. X Lib. i. V. 66. § '-Earl}' Hibtory of Mauliiud," p. 218, q.i\; 2ud edit. p. 22L II Lib. ii. 86. ^ Lib. i. 9L INTRODUCTOKY. [CIIAP. I. nJ embalming, though the brain was removed by a crooked iron, yet the body was cut open with a sharp Ethiopian stone. In several European museums are preserved thin, flat, leaf-shaped knives of dark cherty flint found in Egypt. In character of work- manship their correspondence to the flint knives or daggers of Scandinavia is most striking. They are, however, usually pro- vided with a tang at one end at the back of the blade, and in this respect resemble metallic blades intended to be mounted by means of a tang; driven into the haft. In the British Museum is an Egyptian dagger-like instrument of flint, from the Hay collection, still mounted in its original wooden handle, apparently by a central tang, and with remains of its skin sheath. It is shown on the scale of one- fourth in Fig. 1. There is also a polished stone knife broken at the handle, which bears upon it, in hieroglyphical characters, the name of ptahmes, an officer. Curiously enough, the bodies of the chiefs or Menceys of the Guanches in Tenerifie* were also cut open with knives made of sharp pieces of obsidian, by particular persons set apart for the office. The rite of circumcision was among those prac- tised by the Egyptians, but whether it was per- formed with a stone knife, as was the case with the Jews when they came out of Egypt, is not certain. Among the latter people, not to lay stress on the case of Zipporah,f it is recorded of JoshuaJ that in circumcising the children of Israel he made use of knives of stone. It is true that in our ver- sion the words C^l^^i n'in"in are translated sharp knives, which by analogy with a passage in Psalm Ixxxix. 44 (43 E. V.) is not other- wise than correct ; but the Syriac, Arabic, Vulgate, and Septuagint translations all give knives of stone ; § and the latter version, in the account of the burial of Joshua, adds that they laid with him the stone knives (tos fxaxaipas ras irerpiva^) with which he circum- cised the children of Israel — " and there they are unto this day." Gesenius (s. r. IT^) observes upon the passage, " This is a cir- cumstance worthy of remark ; and goes to show at least, that knives of stone were found in tlie sepulchres of Palestine, as well as in r-' (.' Egypt.— Fig. 1. * TrcDin. Ethn. Soc, N. S., vii. 112. t Josh. V. 2. t Exod. iv. 25. ^S lb., xxiv. 30. USE OF STONE IN RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES. V tLose of nortli-westeru Europe." * Under certain circumstances modern Jews make use of a fragment of flint or glass for this rite. The occurrence of flint knives in ancient Jewish sejjulchres may, however, be connected with a far earlier occupation of Palestine than that of the Jews. It was a constant custom with them to bury in caves, and recent discoveries have shown that, like the caves of Western Europe, many of these were at a remote period occupied by those unacquainted with the use of metals, and whose stone implements are found mixed up with the bones of the animals which had served them for food.f Of analogous uses of stone Ave hud some few traces among classical writers. Ovid, speaking of Atys, makes the instrument with which he maimed himself to be a sharp stone. " Ille etiam saxo corpus laniavit acuto." The solemn treaties amoug the Romans were ratified by the FetialisiJ: sacrificing a pig with a flint stone, which, however, does not appear to have been sharpened. " Ubi dixit, porcum saxo silice percussit." The " religiosa silex " § of Claudian seems rather to have been a block of stone like that under the form of which Jupiter, Cybele, Diana, and even Venus were worshipped. Pausanias informs us that it was the custom among the Greeks to bestow divine honours on certain unshaped stones, and ZEYS KASIOS is thus represented on coins of Seleucia in Syria, Avhile the Paphian Venus appears in the form of a conical stone on coins struck in Cyprus. The traces, however, of the Stone Age in the religious rites of Greece and E-ome are extremely slight, and this is by no means remarkable when we consider how long the use of bronze, and even of iron, had been known in those parts of Europe at the time when authentic history commences. We shall subsequently see at how early a period different implements of stone had a mys- terious if not a superstitious virtue assigned to them. I need only mention as an instance that in a beautiful gold necklace || of Greek or Etruscan workmanship, and now in the British Museum, the central pendant consists of a delicate flint arrow- head, elegantly set in gold, and probably worn as a charm. * See also Tylor's "Early History of Mankind," 2nd edit., p. 217. The entire chapter on the Stone Age, Past and Present, is well worthy of careful perusal, and enters more fully into the whole question of the Stone Age throughout the woild than comes within my province. t Cuinptes Jioid/is, 1871, Ixxiii. 540. ; Livy, lib. i. c. 2-1. § Rapt. Proserp., i. 201. II " Hone Ferales," p. 136. Arc/i. Juitni., vol. xi. p. 169. 10 INTRODUCTORY, [cHAP. I. Nor is the religious use of stone confiued to Europe.* In Western Africa, when the god Gimawong makes his annual visit to his temple at Labode, his worshij}pers kill the ox which they offer with a stone. To come nearer home, it is not to be expected that in this country, the earliest written history of which (if we except the slight account derived from merchants trading hither) comes from the pen of foreign conquerors, we should have any records of the Stone Age. In Caesar's time the tribes with which he came in contact were already acquainted with the use of iron, and M^ere, indeed, for the most part immigrants from Gaul, a country whose inhabitants had, by war and commerce, been long brought in contact with the more civilized inhabitants of Italy and Greece, I have elsewhere shown f that the degree of civilization which must be conceded to those maritime tribes far exceeds what is accorded by popular belief. The older occupants of Britain, who had retreated before the Belgic invaders, and occupied the western and northern parts of the island, were no doubt in a far more bar- barous condition ; but in no case in which they came in contact with their Roman invaders do they seem to have been unacquainted with the use of iron. Even the Caledonians,^ in the time of Severus, who tattooed themselves with the figures of animals, and went nearly naked, carried a shield, a spear, and a sword, and wore iron collars and girdles, though they deemed these latter ornamental and an evidence of wealth, in the same way as other barbarians esteemed gold. But though at the commencement of the Christian era the knowledge of the use of iron may have been general throughout Britain, and though probably an acquaintance with bronze, at all events in the southern part of the island, may probably date many centuries further back, it by no means follows, as I cannot too often repeat, that the use of stone for various purposes to which it had previously been applied should suddenly have ceased on a superior material, in the shape of metal, becoming known. On the contrary, we know that the use of certain stone weapons was con- temporary with the use of bronze daggers, and the probability is that in the poorer and more inaccessible parts of the country stone continued in use for many ordinarj'^ purposes long after bronze, * Arch, fih- ^4nf/iropol., iii. IG. t "Coins of the Aucient Britons," pp. 42, 263, et alin. X Herodiuu, lib. iii. c. 14. STONE ANTIQUITIES NOT ALL OF THE SAME AGE. 11 and possibly even iron, was known in the richer and more civilized districts. Sir William "Wilde informs us that in Ireland * "stone hammers, and not unfrequently stone anvils, have been employed by countrj^ smiths and tinkers in some of the remote couiitr}^ districts until a comparatively recent period." The same use of stone hammers and anvils for forging prevails among the Kaffirs f of the present day. In Iceland,:}: also, perforated stone hammers are still in use for pounding dried fish, driving in stakes, for forging and other purposes ; and I have seen fruit-hawkers in the streets of London cracking Brazil nuts between two stones. With some excej)tions it is, therefore, nearl}^ imjDossible to say whether an ancient object made of stone can be assigned with absolute certainty to t*he Stone Period or no. Much will depend upon the circumstances of the discovery, and in some instances the form may be a guide. The remarks I have just made apply more particularly to the weapons, tools, and implements belonging to the period more immediately antecedent to the Bronze Age, and extending back- wards in time through an imknown number of centuries. For besides the objects belonging to what was originally known by the Danish antiquaries as the Stone Period, which are usually found upon or near the surface of the soil, in encampments, on the sites of ancient habitations, and in tumuli, there are others which occur in caverns beneath thick layers of stalagmite, and in ancient alluvia, in both cases usually associated with the remains of animals either locally or entirely extinct. In no case do we find any trace of metallic tools or weapons in true association with the stone implements of the old ossiferous caverns, or with those of the beds of gravel, sand, and cla}' deposited by the ancient rivers ; and, unlike the implements found upon the surface and in graves, which in many instances are ground or polished, those from the caves, and from what are termed by geologists the Quaternary gravels, are, so far as at present known, invari- ably chipped only, and not ground, besides as a rule differino- in form. This difference § in the character of the implements of the two * Cat. of Stone Ant. in E. I. A. Mus., p. 81. t Wood's Nat. Hist, of Man, i. 97. X Klemm, " Allgemeine Culturwissenschaft," part i. p. 86. § P/iil. Trans., 1860, p. 311. Anh(€olo(jlii, vol. xxxviii. p. 293. 12 INTRODUCTORY, [CHAP. 1. periods, and the vast interval of time between the two, I pointed out in 1859, at the time when the discoveries of M. Boucher de Perthes in the Valley of the Somme first attracted the attention of English geologists and antiquaries. Since then, the necessity of subdividing what had until then been regarded as the Stone Age into two distinct stages, an earlier and a later, has been universally recognised ; and Sir John Lubbock * has proposed to call them the Archaeolithic, or Palaeolithic, and the Neolithic Periods respectively, terms which have met with almost general acceptance, and of which I shall avail myself in the course of this work. In speaking of the polished and other implements belonging to the time when the general surface of the country had received its present configuration, I may, however, also occasionally make use of the synonymous term Surface Period for the Neolithic, and shall also find it convenient to treat of the Palaeolithic Period under two subdivisions — those of the Piver- gravels and of the Caves, the fauna and implements of which are not in all cases identical. In passing the different kinds of implements, weapons, and ornaments formed of stone under review, I propose to commence with an examination of the antiquities of the Neolithic Period, then to proceed to the stone implements of human manufacture discovered embedded with ancient mammalian remains in Caverns, and to conclude with an account of the discoveries of flint implements in the Drift or Piver- gravels in various parts of England. But before describing their forms and characters, it will be well to consider the method of manufacture by which the various forms were produced. * "Prehistoric Times" (1865), p. 60. CHAPTER II. ox THE MANUFACTURE OF STONE IMPLEMENTS IN TREHISTORIC TIMES.* In seeking to ascertain the metliod by whicli the stone imple- ments and weapons of antiquity were fabricated, we cannot, in all probability, follow a better guide than that which is afforded us by the manner in which instruments of similar character are produced at the present day. As, in accounting for the vast geological changes which we find to have taken place in the crust of the earth, the safest method of argument is by referring to ascertained chemical laws, and to the existing operations of nature, so, in order to elucidate the manufacture of stone imple- ments by the ancient inhabitants of this and other countries, we may refer to the methods employed by existing savages in what we must judge to be a somewhat similar state of culture, and to the recognised characteristics of the materials employed. "We may even go further, and call in aid the experience of some of our own countrymen, who still work upon similar materials, although for the purpose of producing different objects from those which were in use in ancient times. So far as relates to the method of production of implements formed of silicious materials, there can be no doubt that the manufacture of gun-flints, which, notwithstanding the introduction of percussion-caps, is still carried on to some extent both in this and in neighbouring countries, is that best calculated to afford instruction. The principal places in England where the gun- flint manufacture is now carried on are Icklingham in Suffolk, and Brandon, on the borders of Norfolk and Suffolk, at both which places I have witnessed the process. They are also * This chapter, with the exception of a few passages, was -nTitten in 1868, and communicated to the International Congress of Prehistoric Archaeology held at Norwich in that year. See Treats. Freli. Coiij., 1868, p. 191, where a short abstract is given. 14 MANUFACTURE OF STONE IMPLEMENTS. [tllAP. II. manufactured on a less extensive scale at Nonvich. At Brandon, in 1868, I was informed that upwards of twenty workmen were employed, who were capable of producing among them from 200,000 to 250,000 gun-flints per week. These are destined almost entirely for exportation, principally to Africa. In proof of the antiquity of the use of flint as a means of pro- ducing fire, I need hardly quote the ingenious derivation of the word Silox as given by Vincent of Beauvais : — " Silex est lapis durus, sic dictus eo quod ex eo ignis exiliat." * But before iron was known as a metal, it would appear that flint was in use as a fire-producing agent in combination with blocks of iron pyrites (sulphuret of iron) instead of steel. Nodules of this substance have been found in both French and Belgian bone-caves belonging to an extremely remote period ; while, as belonging to Neolithic times, to say nothing of discoveries in this country which will subsequently be mentioned, part of a nodule of pyrites may be cited which had apparently been thus used, and was found in the Lake-dwelling of Robenhausen.f In our own days, this method of obtaining fire has been observed among savages in Ticrra del Fuego, and among the Esquimaux of Smith's Sound. J The Pueo-ian tinder, like the modern German and ancient Roman, consisted of dried fungus, which when lighted is wrapped in a ball of dried grass and whirled round the head till it bursts into flames. Achates, as will shortly be seen, is described by Virgil as following the same method. The name of pyrites (from nvp) is itself sufficient evidence of the purpose to which this mineral was applied in early times, and the same stone was used as the fire- giving agent in the guns with the form of lock known as the wheel-lock. Pliny § speaks of a certain sort of pyrites, " plurimum habens ignis, quos vivos appel- lamus, et ponderosissimi sunt." These, as his translator, Holland, says, " bee most necessary for the espiaUs belonging unto a campe, * Spec. Natm-fo, lib. ix. srct. 13. t Morlot in licr. Arch., vol. v. (1862), p. 216. Geologist, vol. v. p. 192. En.c-cl- hardt found several similar pieces of pyrites at Thorsbjerg, with iron and other antiquities of about the fourth century of our era. He says that steels for striking fire are not at present known as belonging to the Early Iron Age of Denmark. This late use of pyrites affords strong evidence of iron and steel having been unknown to the makers of flint imjilements, for had they made use of ii'on hammers, the superior fire-giving properties of flint and iron would at once have been evident, and pyrites would probablv soon have been superseded, at all events in countries whei-e flint abounded.— Engclhardt, "Thorsbjerg ]\Iosefund," p. 60; p. 65 in the English edit. I Weddell, "Voyage towards South Pole," p. 167; Tylor, "Early History of Mankind," 2nd edit., p. 249. Wood's Nat. Hist, of Man, vol. ii. p. 522. § Hist. Nat., lib. xxxvi. cap. 19. PYRITES AXD FLIXT USED FOR STRIKING FIRE. 15 for if they strike tlicra eitliei' with an yi"on spike or another stone they will cast forth sparks of fire, which lighting upon matches dipt in brimstone (sulphiiratis) drie puffs {fungis) or leaves, will cause them to catch fire sooner than a man can say the word." The same author * informs us that it was Pyrodes, the son of Cilix, who first devised the way to strike fire out of flint — a myth which seems to point to the use of silex and pyrites rather than of steel. How soon jDyrites was, to a great extent, superseded by steel or iron, there seems to be no good evidence to prove ; it is probable, however, that the use of flint and steel was well known to the Homans of the Augustan age, and that Virgil f pictured the Trojan voyager as using steel, when — " silici scintillam excudit Achates, Suscepitqiie ignem foliis atqiie arida circum Nutrimenta dedit, rapuitque in fomite fiammam." And again, where — "quferit pars semina flammse Abstrusa in venis silicis." j In Claudian § we find the distinct mention of flint and steel — "Flagrat anhela siJex et amicam saucia sentit Materiem, placidosque chalybs agnoscit amores." At Unter Uhldingen |] a Swiss lake station where Roman pottery was present, was found what appears to be a steel for striking a light. However the case may have been as to the means of procuring fire, it was not until some centuries after the invention of gunpowder that flints were applied to the purpose of discharging fire-arms. Beckmann,^ in his " History of Inven- tions," mentions that it was not until the year 1687 that the soldiers of Brvmswick obtained guns with flint-locks, instead of match-locks, though, no doubt, the \ise of the wheel-lock with pyrites had in some other places been superseded before that time. I am not aware of there being any record of flints, such as were in use for tinder-boxes,** having been in ancient times an article of commerce ; this, however, must have been the case, as there are so many districts in which flint does not naturally occur, and into which, therefore, it woidd have by some means to be introduced. * Lib. vii. cap. 56. t ^neid, i. v. 174 X ^neid, vi. v. 6. See also Georg. i. 135 — "Ut silicis venis abslxusum excuderet ignem." On this passage Fosbroke remarks {^Enc. Ant., i. 307), "A stone with a vein was chosen as now." § Eidvllia, v. 42. || Keller, "Lake-dwellings," p. 119. H Vol. ii. p. 536. Bohn's edit., 1846. ** An interesting paper on tinder-boxes will be found in The Rdiquari/, vii. 65. 16 MANUFACTIRE OF STONE IMPLEMENTS. [cHAP. II. Even at the j)resent day, when so many lucifers and other chemical matches are in use, flints are still to be purchased at the shops in country places in the United Kingdom ; and artificially prepared flints continue to be common articles of sale both in France and Germany, and are in constant use, in conjunction with German tinder or prepared cotton, by tobacco-smokers. At Brandon * a certain number of " strike-a-light " flints are still manufactured for exportation, principally to the East and to Brazil — they are usually circular discs, about two inches in diameter. These flints are wrought into shape in precisely the same manner as gun-flints, and it seems possible that the trade of chipping flint into forms adapted to be used ^vith steel for striking a light may be of con- siderable antiquity, and that the manufacture of gun-flints ought consequently to be regarded as only a modification and extension of a pre-existing art, closely allied with the facing and squaring of flints for architectural purposes, which reached great perfection at an early period. However this may be, it would seem that when gun-flints were an indispensable munition of war, a great mystery was made as to the manner in which they were prepared. Bcck- mann f says that, considering the great use made of them, it will hardly be believed how much trouble he had to obtain information on the subject. It would be ludicrous to rej)eat the various answers he obtained to his inquiries. Many thought that the stones were cut down by grinding them ; some conceived that they were formed by means of red-hot pincers ; and many asserted that they were made in mills. The best account of the manufac- ture with which he was acquainted was that collected by his brother, and published in the Hanoverian Magazine for the year 1772. At a later date the well-known mineralogist DolomieuJ gave an account of the process in the 3Ieinoires de Vliufifut National des Sciences, and M. Hacquet,§ of Leopol, in Galicia, published a pamphlet on the same subject. The accounts given by these latter authors correspond most closely with each other, and also with the practice of the present day. The flints best adapted for the purpose of the manufacture are those from the chalk. They must, however, be of fair size, free from flaws and included organisms, and very homogeneous in structure. They are usually * Stevens's " Flint Chips," p. 588. f Op. cif., ii. p. .537. J " Classe Mathenmtiqne et Physiqno," t. 3, an. ix. An abstract of this account is given in R(!cs' Encyclop., s.r. Gun-fiint. ^ " Physischo und terhnische Bcschreibunp; der Fh'ntcnsteine," &c., von Hacquet. Wien, 1792, 8vo. A nearly similar account is given in Winckell's " Handhuch fiir .Jiiger," &c., 1822, Theil iii' p. 546. THE' GUN-FLINT MANUFACTURE. 17 procured by sinking small shafts into the ground until a band of flints of the right quality is reached, along which low horizontal galleries, or "burrows," as they are called, are worked. For success in the manufacture a great deal is said to depend upon the condition of the flint as regards the moisture it contains, those which have been too long exposed upon the surface becoming intractable, and there being also a difficulty in working those that are too moist. A few blows with the hammer enable a practised flint-knapper to judge whether the material on which he is at work is in the proper condition or no. Some of the Brandon workmen, however, maintain that though a flint which has been some time exposed to the air is harder than one recently dug, yet that it works equally well, and they say further, that the object in keeping the flints moist is to preserve the black colour from fading, black gun-flints being most saleable. The tools required in the process are few and simple : — 1. A square-faced blocking or quartering hammer, from one to two pounds in weight, made either of iron or of iron faced with steel. 2. A well-hardened steel flaking hammer, bluntly pointed at each end, and weighing about a pound or more. 3. A light oval hammer, known as an " English " hammer, the pointed flaking hammer having been introduced from France. 4. A square-edged trimming or knapping hammer, which may either be in the form of a disc, or oblong and flat at the end, and is made of steel not hardened. In England this hammer is usually made from a portion of an old flat file drawn out at each end into a thin blade, about yV of an inch in thick- ness, and perforated to receive the helve, the total length being about 7 or 8 inches. 5. A chisel about 2 inches wide, not sharp, but flat at either end, and set vertically in a block of wood, which at the same time forms a bench for the workman. In England, the upper surface of this chisel, or stake, is about J inch thick, and inclined at an angle to the bench. The method * of manufacture is as follows : — A block of flint is broken by means of the quartering hammer in such a manner as to detach masses, the newly fractured surfaces of which are as nearly as possible plane and even. One of these blocks is then * Since this was written, an account of the process of making gun-flints, written hy INIr. James Wyatt, F.G.S., has been published in Stevens's " Flint Chips," p. 578. A set of gim-flint makers' tools is in the Mnsee de St. Germain, and the process of manufacture has been described by M. G. de Mortillet ("Promenades," p. G9). C 18 MANUFACTURE OF STONE IMPLEMENTS, [cTIAP. II. held in the left hand, so that the edge rests on a leathern pad tied on the thigh of the seated workman, the surface to be struck inclining at an angle of about 45°. A splinter is then detached from the margin by means of the flaking, or the English, hammer. If the flint is of good quality, this splinter may be 3 or 4 inches in length, the line of fracture being approximately parallel to the exterior of the flint. There is, of course, the usual bulb of percussion, or rounded protuberance at the end,* where the blow is given, and a corresponding depression is left in the mass of flint. Another splinter is next detached, by a blow given at a distance of about an inch on one side of the spot where the first blow fell, and then others at similar distances, until some portion of the block assumes a more or less regular polygonal outline. As the splinters which are first detached usually show a portion of the natural crust of the flint upon them, they are commonly thrown away as useless. The second and succeeding rows of flakes are those adaj)ted for gun-flints. To obtain these, the blows of tlie flaking hammer are administered midway between two of the projecting angles of the polygon, and almost immediately behind the spots where the blows dislodging the previous row of flakes or splinters were administered, though a little to one side. They fall at such a distance from the outer surface as is necessary for the thickness of a gun-flint. By this means a succession of flakes is produced, the section of which is that of an obtuse isosceles Fig. 2. — Flint-core with Hakes lojiluct'd uiJon it. j triangle with the apex removed, inasmuch as for gun-flints flakes are required with the face and back parallel, and not with a projecting ridge running along the back. * See posfea, p. 247. GUN-FLINT PRODUCTION. 19 Fig. 2, representing a block from which a number offtakes adapted for gun-flints have been detached and subsequently returned to their original positions around the central core or nucleus, will give a good idea of the manner in which flake after flake is struck off. To com- plete the manufacture, each flake is taken in the left hand, and cut ofi" into lengths of the width required for a gun-flint, by means of the knapping hammer and the chisel fixed in the bench. The flake is placed over the chisel at the spot where it is to be cut, and, by a few light blows of the hammer, a slight notch is pro- duced, where the flint breaks in a straight line across on receiving a harder blow ; or a skilful workman will cut the flake in two, at a single stroke. The sections of flakes thus produced have a cutting edge at each end ; but the finished gun-flint is formed by chipping ofi" the edge at the butt-end and slightly rounding it by means of the fixed chisel and knapping hammer, the blows from which are made to fall just within the chisel, so that the two together cut much in the same manner as a pair of shears. Considerable skill is required in the manufacture, more especially in the forma- tion of the flakes ; but Hacquet * says that a fortnight's practice is sufficient to enable an ordinary workman to fashion from five hundred to eight himdred gun-flints in a day. According to him, an experienced workman will produce from a thousand to fifteen hundred. Dolomieu, however, estimates three days as the time required by a calUoiiteur to produce a thousand gun-flints ; but as the highest price quoted by Hacquet for French gun-flints is only six francs the thousand, it seems probable that his calculation as to the time required for their manufacture is not far wrong. Some of the Brandon flint-knappers are, however, said to be capable of producing sixteen thousand to eighteen thousand gun- flints in a week. Taking the lowest estimate, it appears that a practised hand is capable of making at least three hundred flint implements of a given definite form, and of some degree of finish, in the course of a single day. If our primitive forefathers could produce their worked flints with equal ease, the wonder is, not that so many of them are found, but that they do not occur in far greater numbers. The ancient flint-workers had not, however, the advantages of steel and iron tools and other modern appliances at their command ; and, at first sight, it would appear that the production of flakes of flint, without having a pointed metallic hammer for the purpose, * P. 52. c 2 20 MANUFACTURE OF STONE IMPLEMENTS. [cHAP. II. was a matter of great difficult3\ I have, however, made some experiments upon the subject, and have also employed a Suffolk flint-knapper to do so, and I find that bloAvs from a rounded pebble, judiciously administered, are capable of producing well- formed flakes, such as in shape cannot be distinguished from those made with a metallic hammer. The main difiiculties consist, first, in making the blow fall exactly in the proper place ; and, secondly, in so proportioning its intensity that it shall simply dislodge a flake, without shattering it. The pebble employed as a hammer need not be attached to a shaft, but can be used, without any preparation, in the hand. Professor Nilsson tried the same experiment long ago, and has left on record an interesting account of his experience.* In the neighbourhood of the Pfahl-bauten of Moosseedorf, in Switzerland, have been found numerous spots where flint has been worked up into implements, and vast numbers of flakes and splinters left as refuse. Dr. Keller t says that "the tools used for making these flint implements do not seem to have been of the same material, but of gabbro, a bluish-green and very hard and tough kind of stone. Several of these implements have been met with ; their form is very simple, and varies between a cube and an oval. The oval specimens were ground down in one or two places, and the most pointed part was used for hammering." There were nearly similar workshops at Wauwyl | and Bodmann, not to mention places where flint was dug for the purposes of manu- facture. Closely analogous sites of ancient flint-workshops have been discovered both in France § and Germany, || as well as in Great Britain ; such, for instance, as that at the confluence ^ of the Leochel and the Don, in Aberdeenshire, where, moreover, flint is not native in the neigbbourhood ; but proper attention has not, in all cases, been paid to the hammer-stones, which, in all pro- bability, occur with the chippings of flint. The blow from the hammer coidd not, of course, be alwaj^s administered at the right spot ; and I have noticed on some ancient flakes a groove at the butt-end, the bottom of which is crushed, as if by blows from a round pebble, which, from having * "Stone Age," p. 6. f "Lake-dwellings," p. 36. I I. c. pp. 86 and 97. § Com]}tcs Scndus, 1867, vol. Ixv. p. 640. II 'JVoyon, " Mon. de I'Antiquite," p. 52. if rroc. Soc. Ant. ISvot., vol. iv. p. 38o. MODE OF PRODUCING FLAKES. 21 fallen too near tlie eJgc of the block, had at first merely bruised the flint, instead of detaching the flake. There are, moreover, a certain nmnber of small cores, or nuclei, both English and foreign, from which such minute and regular flakes have been detached, that it is difficult to believe that a mere stone hammer could have been directed with sufficient skill and precision to produce such extreme regularity of form. I may cite as instances some of the small nuclei which are found on the Yorkshire wolds, and some of those from the banks of the Mahanuddy,* in India, which, but for the slight dissimilarity in the material (the latter being usually chalcedony and the former flint), coidd hardly be distinguished from each other. There are also some large nuclei, such as those from the neighbourhood of the Indus, t in Upper Scinde, and one which I possess from Ghlin, in Belgium, which are suggestive of the same difficulty. In form they much resemble the obsidian cores of Mexico, and it seems not improbable that they are the result of some similar process of making flakes or knives to that which was in use among the Aztecs. Torquemada+ thus describes the process he found in use: — " One of these Indian workmen sits down upon the ground, and takes a piece of this black stone " (obsidian) " about eight inches long or rather more, and as thick as one's leg or rather less, and cylindrical ; they have a stick as large as the shaft of a lance, and three cubits or rather more in length ; and at the end of it they fasten firmly another piece of wood, eight inches long, to give more weight to this part ; then, pressing their naked feet together, they hold the stone as with a pair of pincers or the vice of a carpenter's bench. They take the stick (which is cut off" smooth at the end) with both hands, and set it well home against the edge of the front of the stone {y ponen lo aresar con el canto cle la /rente de la pied ra), which also is cut smooth in that part ; and then they press it against their breast, and with the force of the pressure there flies off" a knife, with its point, and edge on each side, as neatly as if one were to make them of a turnip w^ith a sharp knife, or of iron in the fire." Hernandez § gives a similar account of the * Proc. Soc. Ant., 2nd Series, vol. iii. p. 38. t Geol. Ma;/., vol. iii. (1866), p. 433. X "Monarquia Indiana," lib. xvii. cap. 1, Seville, IGlo, translated by E. B. Tyler, " Anahnac," p. 331. See a correction of Mr. Tylor's translation in the Comptes Hendiis, Ixvii. p. 1296. § Tylor's " Anahuac," p. 332. 22 MANUFACTURE OF STOXE IMPLEMENTS. [cHAP. IT. • process, but conij)ares the wooden instrument used to a cross-bow, so that it would appear to have had a crutch-shaped end to rest against the breast. So skilful were the Mexicans in the manu- facture of obsidian knives, that, according to Clavigero, a single workman could produce a hundred per hour. The short piece of wood at the end of the staff was probably cut from some of the very hard trees of tropical growth. I much doubt whether any of our indigenous trees produce wood sufficiently hard to be used for sjDlintering obsidian ; and flint is, I believe, tougher and still more difficult of fracture. We have, however, in this Mexican case, an instance of the manufacture of flakes by sudden pressure, and of the employment of a flaking tool, which could be carefully adjusted into position before the pressure or blow was given to produce the flake. There appears, moreover, to have been another, but closely analogous process in use in Central America, for Mr. Tylor* heard on good authority that somewhere in Peru the Indians still have a way of working obsidian b}' laying a bone wedge on the surface of a piece, and tapping it till the stone cracks. Catlinf also describes the method of making flint arrow-heads among the Apachees in Mexico as of the same character. After breaking a boulder of flint by means of a hammer formed of a rounded pebble of hornstone set in a handle made of a twisted withe, flakes are struck off", and these are wrought into shape, while held on the palm of the left hand, by means of a punch made of the tooth of the sperm whale, held in the right hand, and struck with a hard wooden mallet by an assistant. Both holder and striker sing, and the strokes of the mallet are given in time with the music, the blow being sharp and rebounding, in which the Indians say is the great medicine or principal knack of the operation. Such a process as this may well have been adopted in this country in the manufacture of flint flakes ; either bone or stags' - horn sets or punches, or else small and hard pebbles, may have been applied at the proper spots upon the surface of the flints, and then been struck by a stone or wooden mallet. I have tried some experiments with sucli stone sets, and have succeeded in producing flakes in this manner, having been first led to suppose that some such system, was in use by discovering, in the year 1864, some * Tylor's "Analmac," p. 99. t " Last Riimbles amongst the Indians," 1868, p. 188. The whole passage is re- printed in "l''lint Chips," p. 82. ArSTRALIAX METHOD OF MAKING FLAKES. 23 small quartz pebbles battered at the ends, and associated witb flint flakes and cores in an ancient encampment at Little Solsbury Hill, near Bath, of whicb I have already given an account elsewhere.* I am, however, inclined to think that the use of such a punch or set was in any case the exception rather than the rule ; for with practice, and by making the blows only from the elbow kept fixed against the body, and not with the whole arm, it is extraordinary what precision of blow may be attained with merely a pebble held in the hand as a hammer. The flakes of chert, from which the Esquimaux manufacture their arrow-heads, are produced, according to Sir Edward Belcher,t who saw the process, by slight taps with a hammer formed of a very stubborn kind of jade or nephrite. He has kindly shown me one of these hammers, which is oval in section, about 3 inches long and 2 inches broad, and secured by a cord of sinew to a bone handle, against which it abuts. The ends are nearly flat. Among the natives of North Australia a totally difierent method appears to have been adopted, the flakes being struck oS the stone which is used as a hammer, and not ofi" the block which is struck. In the exploring expedition, under Mr. A. Gr. Gregory, in 1855-6, the party came on an open space between the cliffs along one of the tributary streams of the Victoria River, where the ground was thickly strewn with fragments of various stones and imperfectly- formed weapons. The method of formation of the weapons, accord- ing to Mr. Baines, J was this : — ^" The native having chosen a pebble of agate, flint, or other suitable stone, perhaps as large as an ostrich egg, sits down before a larger block, on which he strikes it so as to detach from the end a piece, leaving a flattened base for his subse- quent operations. Then, holding the pebble with its base dowai- w^ards, he again strikes so as to split ofl' a piece as thin and broad as possible, tapering upward in an oval or leaf- like form, and sharp and thin at the edges. His next object is to strike ofl" another piece nearly similar, so close as to leave a projecting angle on the stone, as sharp, straight, and perpendicular as possible. Then, again taking the pebble carefully in his hand, he aims the decisive blow, which, if he is successful, splits ofl" another piece with the angle running straight up its centre as a midrib, and the two edges sharp, clear, and equal, spreading slightly from the base, and * Tranmctions of the Ethnological Societi/, vol. iv. N. S., p. 242. t lb., N. S., vol. i. p. 138. 1 Anthrop. Bev., vol. iv. p. civ. JMr. Baineshns also communicated an interesting letter on this subject, with illustrations, to Mackie's " Geol. Repertory," vol. i. p. 2.3b. 24 MANUFACTURE OF STONE IMPLEMENTS. [ciIAP. II. again narrowing till tlicy meet tlie midrib in a keen and taper point. If lie lias done this well, he possesses a perfect weapon, but at least three chips must have been formed in making it, and it seemed highly probable, from the number of imperfect heads that lay about, that the failures far outnumbered the successful results. In the making of tomahawks or axes, in which a darker green stone is generally used, great numbers of failures must ensue ; and in these another operation seemed necessary, for we saw upon the rocks several places where they had been ground, with a great expen- diture of labour, to a smooth round edge." In the manufacture of flint flakes, whether they were to serve as knives or lance-heads without any more preparation, or whether they were to be subjected to further manipulation, so as eventually to become arrow-heads, scrapers, or any other of the more finished implements, the form of the nucleus from which they were struck was usually a matter of no great importance, the chips or flakes being the object of the operator, and not the resulting core, which was in most cases thrown aw^ay as worthless. But where very long flakes were desired, it became a matter of importance to produce nuclei of a particular form, specially adapted for the purpose. I have never met with any such nuclei in England, but the well- known Uvres de heurre, chiefly found in the neighbourhood of Pres- signy-le-Grand (Indre et Loire), France, are typical instances of the kind. I have precisely similar specimens, though on a rather smaller scale, and of a somewhat different kind of flint, from Spiennes, near Mens, in Belgium ; and a few nuclei of the same form have also been found in Denmark. The occurrence of flints wrought into the same shape, at places so far ajjart, might at first appear to countenance the view of this peculiar form being that of an implement intended for some special purpose, and not merely a refuse block. This, however, is not the case. I have treated of this question elsewhere,* but it will be well here to repeat a portion at least of what I have before written on this point. These large nuclei or lirres-dc-beurre are blocks of flint, usually 10 to 12 inches long and 3 to 5 inches wide in the broadest part, the thickness being in most cases less than the width. In general outline they may be described as boat-shaped, being square at one end and brought to a point — more or less finished — at the other. The outline has been given by striking a succession of flakes from * Arehwohyia, vol. xl. p. 381. See also Prof. Stccnstrup and Sir John Lubbock in the Trans. Ethnol. Hoc, N. S., vol. v. p. 221. PRESSIGNY NUCLEI. 25 the sides of a mass of flint, until the boat-like contour has been obtained, with the sides slightly converging towards the keel, and then the ujiper surface corresponding to the deck of the boat has been chipped into form by a succession of blows administered at right angles to the first, and in such a manner that the deck, as originally formed, was convex instead of flat. After this convex surface was formed, one, two, or even more long flakes were dislodged along its whole length, or nearly so, by blows administered at the part represented by the stern of the boat, thus leaving one or more channels along what corresponds to the deck. In rare instances these long flakes have not been removed ; in others of more frequent occurrence, one of the flakes has broken ofi" short before attaining^ its full leng'th. Strange as this boat-shaped form may at the outset appear, yet on a little consideration it will be seen that the chipping into such a form is in fact one of the necessities of the case for the production of long blades of flint. Where flakes only 3 or 4 inches long are required, the operator may readily, with his hammer, strike off from the outside of his block of flint a succession of chips, so as to give it a polygonal outline, the projections of which will serve for the central ridges or back-bones of the first series of regular flakes that he strikes ofi". The removal of this first series of flakes leaves a number of projecting ridges, which serve as guides for the forma- tion of a second series of flakes, and so on until the block is used up. But where a flake 10 or 12 inches in length is required, a different process becomes necessary. For it is nearly impossible with a rough mass of flint to produce by single blows plane sur- faces 10 or 12 inches in length, and arranged at such an angle as to produce a straight ridge, such as would serve to form the back- bone, as it were, of a long flake ; and without such a back-bone the production of a long flake is impossible. It is indeed this ridge (which need not, of course, be angular, but may be more or less rounded or polygonal) that regulates the course of the fissure by which the flake is dislodged from the matrix or parent flint ; there being a slight degree of elasticity in the stone, which enables a fissure once properly commenced in a homogeneous flint to proceed at right angles to the line of least resistance in the dis- lodged flake, while at the same time exerting a nearly uniform strain, so that the inner surface of the flake becomes nearly parallel to the outer ridge. It was to obtain this outer ridge that 2« MANUFACTURE OF STONE IMPLEMENTS. [chap. II. Section. Fig. 3.- Nucleus -Preasigny. the Pres.sig'uy cores were cliippsd into the form in which we find them ; and it appears as if the workmen who formed them adopted the readiest means of obtaining the desired result of producing along the block of flint a central ridge whenever it became necessary, until the block was so much reduced in size as to be no longer serviceable. For, the process of chipping the block into the required form could be repeated each time that a set of flakes had been removed. The blocks are found in various stages, rarely with the central ridge still left on, as Fig. 3, but more com- monly with one or more long A flakes removed from them, like Figs. 4 and 5. The sections of each block are shown beneath them. Two of the flakes are re- presented in Figs. 6 and 7. All the figures are on the scale of one-half linear measure. The causes why the nuclei were rejected as useless are still susceptible of being traced. In some cases they had become so thin that they would not bear re-shaping ; in others a want of uniformity in the texture of the flint, probably caused by some included organism, had made its appearance, and caused the flakes to break ofi" short of their proper length, or had even made it useless to attemj^t to strike them ofi". In some rare instances, when the strikin"' ofi" long- flakes PRESSIGNY NUCLEI. 27 liad proved unsuccessful on tlie one face, the attempt has been made to procure them from the other. The abundance of large Nuclei— Piessigny. masses of flint in the covmtry — some as much as two or three feet over — has, however, rendered the workmen rather prodigal 28 MANUFACTURE OF STONE IMPLEMENTS. [cHAP. II. of their materials. The skill which has been brought to bear in the manufacture of these long flakes is marvellous, as the utmost precision is required in giving the blow by which they are produced. Generally speaking, the projecting ridge left at the butt-end of the nucleus between the depressions, whence two of the short flakes have been struck off" in chipping it square, has been selected as the point of impact. They appear to me to have been struck ofi" by a free blow, and not b}^ the inter- Fig. 6.— Fluke— Pressigny. 7.— Fhike— Pressigny. vention of a set or punch. No doubt the face of the flint at the time of the blow being struck was supported on some elastic body. A few flints which bear marks of having been used as hammer- stones are found at Pressigny. I have hitherto been treating of the production of flint flakes for various purposes. In such cases the flakes are everything, and the resulting core, or nucleus, mere refuse. In the manufacture of celts, or hatchets, the reverse is the case : the flakes are the refuse (though, of course, they might occasionally be utilized), and the resulting block is the main object sought. To produce this, how- ever, much the same process appears to have been adopted, at all ROUGH-HEWING STONE-HATCHETS. 29 events wliere flint was the material employed. The hatchets seem to have been rough hewn by detaching a succession of flakes, chips, or splinters from a block of flint by means of a hammer- stone, and these rough-hewn implements were subsequently worked into a more finished form by detaching smaller splinters, also probably by means of a hammer, previously to their being ground or polished, if they were destined to be finished in such a manner. In most cases one face of the hatchet was first roughed out, and then by a series of blows, given at proper intervals, along the margin of that face, the general shape was given, and the other face chipped out. This is proved by the fact that in most of the roughly chipped hatchets found in Britain the depressions of the bulbs of percussion of the flakes struck off occur in a perfect state only on one face, having been partly removed on the other face by the subsequent chipping. There are, however, exceptions to this rule, and more especially among the implements found in our ancient river-gravels. In some cases (see poatea, Fig. 12) the cutting edge has been formed by the intersection of two convex lines of fracture giving a curved and sharp outline, and the body of the hatchet has been subsequently made to suit the edge. The same is the case with the hatchets from the Danish kjokken-moddings and coast-finds, though the intersecting facets are flatter, and the resulting edge straighter, than in the specimens to which I allude. The edge is also, like that of a mortising chisel, at the extremity of a flat face, and not in the centre of the blade. The cutting edge has, however, in most of the so-called celts of the ordinary form, been fashioned by chipping subsequently to the roughing out of the hatchet ; and even in the case of polished hatchets, the edge, when damaged, was frequently re-chipped into form before being ground afresh. There hardly appears to be sufficient cause for believing that any of the stone hatchets found in this country were chipped out by any other means than by direct blows of a hammer ; but in the case of the Danish axes with square sides, and with their corners as neatly crimped or puckered as if they had been made of pieces of leather sewn together, it is probable that this neat finish was produced by the use of some kind of punch or set. The hammer-stones used iw the manufacture of flint hatchets appear to have been usually quartzite jiebbles, where such are readily to be obtained, but also frequently to have been themselves mere blocks of flint. In the very interesting pits 30 MANUFACTURE OF STONE IMPLEMENTS. [cHAP. II. explored by Colonel A. Lane Fox, F.S.A.,* at Cissbuiy, near Worthing, where there ajDpears to have been a regular manufac- tory of rough-hewn flint implements, many such hammer-stones of flint were found. I have found similar hammer- stones on the Sussex Downs, near Eastbourne, where also flint implements of various kinds appear to have been manufactured in quan- tities. Not improbably these hammers were made of flints which had been for some time exposed on the surface, and which were in consequence liarder than the flints recently dug from the pits. We have already seen that the gun-flint knappers of the present day are said to work most successfully on blocks of flint recently extracted, and those, too, from a particular layer in the chalk ; and it seems probable that the ancient flint- workers were also acquainted with the advantages of using the flints fresh from the chalk, and worked them into shape at the pits from which they were dug, not only on account of the saving in transport of the partly manufactured articles, but on account of the greater facility of working the freshly extracted flints. That they were in some cases at great pains to procure flint of the proper quality for being chipped into form, and were not content with blocks and nodules, such as might be found on the surface, is proved by the interesting explorations at Grime's Graves, near Brandon, carried on by the Rev. W. GreenweU, F.S.A.f In a wood at this spot the whole surface of the ground is studded with shallow bowl-shaped depressions from 20 to GO feet in diameter, sometimes running into each other so as to form irregularly shaped hollows. They are over 250 in number, and one selected for exploration was about 28 feet in diameter at the mouth, gradually narrowing to 12 feet at the bottom, which proved to be 39 feet below the surface. Through the first 13 feet it had been cut through sand, below which the chalk was reached, and after passing through one layer of flint of inferior quality, which was not quarried beyond the limits of the shaft, the layer known as the " floor-stone," from which gun-flints are manufactured at the present day, was met with at the bottom of the shaft. To procure this, various horizontal galleries about 3| feet in height were driven into the chalk. The excavations had been made by means of picks formed from the antlers of the red- * Arch., vol. xlii. p. 68. f Juurn. Elhnol. ^oc, N. S., vol. ii. p. 419. AXCIENT MINING FOR FLINT. -31 deer, of which about eighty were found. The points are worn by use, and the thick bases of the horns battered by having been used as hammers for breaking off portions of the chalk, and also of the nodules of flint. "Where they had been grasped by the hand the surface is worn smooth, and on some there was a coating of chalky matter adhering, on which was still distinctly visible the impression of the cuticle of the old flint- workers. The marks of the picks and hammers were as fresh on the walls of the galleries as if made but yesterday. It is to be observed that such picks as these formed of stags' horn have been found in various other places, but have not had proper attention called to their character. I have seen one from the neighbourhood of Ipswich,* Suflblk. Mr. Greenwell mentions somewhat similar discoveries having been made at Eaton and Buckenham, Norfolk. One was also found by him in a grave under a barrow he examined at Rudstone, near Bridlington, f and others occurred near Weaverthorpe and Sherburn. A hatchet of basalt had also been used at Grime's Graves as one of the tools for excavation, and the marks of its cutting edge were plentiful in the gallery in which it was discovered. There were also found some rudely made cups of chalk, apparently intended for lamps ; a bone pin or awl ; and, what is very remark- able, a rounded piece of bone 4^ inches long and 1 inch in circum- ference, rubbed smooth, and showing signs of use at the ends, which, as Mr. Greenwell suggests, may have been a punch or instrument for taking ofl^ the lesser flakes of flint in making arrow- heads and other small articles. It somewhat resembles the pin of reindeer horn in the Esquimaux arrow-flaker, shortly to be men- tioned. The shaft had been filled in with rubble, aj)parently from neighbouring pits, and in it were numerous chippings and cores of flint, and several quartzite and other pebbles battered at the ends by having been used as hammers for chipping the flints. Some large rounded cores of flint exhibited similar signs of use. On the surface of the fields around, numerous chippings of flint, and more or less perfect implements, such as celts, scrapers, and borers, were found. At Spiennes (near Mons, in Belgium), where a very similar manufacture, but on a larger scale than that of Cissbury or even of Grime's Graves, appears to have been carried on, flints seem to * Jottrn. Anthrop. Inst., vol. i. p. 73. t Pennant describes a flint axe as having been found stuck in a vein of coal exposed to the day in Craig y Pare, Monmouthslure. 32 MANUFACTURE OF STONE IMPLEMENTS. [cHAP. II. have been dug in the same manner. Since I visited the spot some years ago, a railway cutting has traversed a portion of the district where the manufacture existed, and exposed a series of excavations evidently intended for the extraction of flint. Mens. A. Houzeau de Lehaie, of Hyon, near Mons, has most obligingly furnished me with some particulars of these subterranean works, an account of which has also been recently published.* From these accounts it appears that shafts from 3 feet to 3 feet 6 inches in diameter were sunk through the loam and sand above the chalk, to a depth of 30 or even 40 feet ; and from the bottom of the shafts lateral galleries were worked, from 5 to 6 feet in height and about the same in width. Stags' horns, which had been used as hammers, were found in the galleries, but it is doubtful whether they had been used as pickaxes like those in Grime's Graves. Among the rubble in the galleries, as well as on the surface of the ground above, were found roughly chipped flints and splinters, and more or less rudely shaped hatchets by thousands. There is one peculiar feature among these hatchets which I have not noticed to the same extent elsewhere, viz., that many of them are made from the nuclei or cores which, in the first instance, had subserved to the manufacture of long flint flakes, the furrows left by which appear on one of the faces of the hatchets. Sometimes, though rarely, the Pressigny nuclei have been utilized in a similar manner. In all these instances, at Cissbury and Grime's Graves in England, and at Pressigny and Spiennes on the Continent, and, indeed, at other places also,t there appears to have been an organized manufactory of flint instruments by settled occupants of the different spots ; and it seems probable that the products were bartered away to those who were less favoured in their supply of the raw material, flint. The chijiping out of celts and some other tools formed, not of flint, but of other hard rocks, must have been efi'ected in the same manner. The stone employed is almost always of a more or less silicious nature, and such as breaks with a conchoidal fracture. To return, however, to the manufacture of the flint implements of this country, and more especially to those which are merely * " Rapport sur Ics Dccouvortcs Geologiqnes ct Areheologiqucs faites a Spiennes en 18f)7." I'ar A. Briart, F. Cornet, et A. Houzeau de Lehaie. Mons, 18ti8. See also Malaise, Hull, de I' Ac. Roij. de Heir/., 2^ S., vols. x.xi. and x.xv., and Geol. Mag., vol. iii. p. 310. t Cochet, "Seine Inf.," pp. IC, 528. Archivio per VAnlrojml., &c., vol. i. p. 489. :mode of chipping out scrapeiis. 83 flakes submitted to a secondary process of chipping-. We have seen that in the g-un-flint manufacture the flakes are finally shaped by means of a knapping or trimming hammer and a fixed chisel, which act one against the other, somewhat like the two blades of a pair of shears, and the process adopted by the ancient flint- workers for many purposes must have been to some extent analogous, though it can hardly have been precisely similar. One of the most common forms of flint implements is that to which the name of " scraper " or " thumb-flint " has been given, and which is found in abundance on the Yorkshire Wolds and on the Downs of Sussex. The normal form is that of a broad flake chipped to a semicircular edge, usually at the end farthest from the bulb of percussion, the edge being bevelled away from the flat face of the flake, like that of a round-nosed turning-chisel. The name of "scraper," or f/raffoi)-, has been given to these worked flints, from their simi- larity to an instrument in use among the Esquimaux* for scraping the insides of hides in the course of their preparation ; but I need not here enter upon the question of the purpose for which these ancient instruments were used, as we are at present concerned only with the method of their manufacture. I am not aware of any evidence existing as to the method pursued by* the Esquimaux in the chipping out of their instruments ; but I think that if, at the present time, we are able to produ^ce flint tools precisely similar to the ancient " scrapers " by the most simple means possible, and without the aid of any metallic appliances, there is every proba- bility that identically the same means were employed of old. Now% I have found by experiment that, taking a flake of flint (made, I may remark, with a stone hammer, consisting of a flint or quartzite pebble held in the hand), and placing it, with the flat face upwards, on a smooth block of stone, I can, by successive blows of the pebble, chip the end of the flake without any difficulty into the desired form. The face of the stone hammer is brought to bear a slight distance only within the margin of the flake, and, however sharjj the blow administered, the smooth block of stone on which the flake is placed, and which of course projects beyond it, acts as a stop to prevent the hammer being carried forward so as to injure the form, and brings it up sharply directly it has done its work of striking off a splinter from the end of the flake. The upper face of the flake remains quite uninjured, and, strange as it may appear, there is no difficulty in producing the evenly * Lartet and Christy's "Eel. xVquit.," p. 13. D 34 MAM FACTURE OF STONE IMPEEMEKTS. [ciiAr. II. circular edge of the scraper by siiccessive blows of the convex pebble. Some of the other ancient tools and weapons, having one flat face, seem to have been fashioned in much the same manner. In the case of arrow-heads and lance-heads, however, another process would appear to have been adopted. It is true that we know not exactly how " tlie ancient arrow-maker Made his arrow-heads of sandstone, Arrow-heads of chalcedony, Arrow-hejids of flint and jasper, Smooth and sharpened at the edges, Hai'd and polished, keen and costly." And yet the process of making such arrow-heads is carried on at the present day by various half- civilized peoples, and has been witnessed by many Europeans, though but few have accurately recorded their observations. Sir Edw^ard Belcher,* who has seen obsidian arrow-heads made by the Indians of California, and those of chert or flint hj the Esquimaux of Cape Lisburne, states that the mode pursued in each case was exactly similar. The instrument employed among the Esquimaux, which may be termed an " arrpw-flaker," usually consists of a handle formed of fossil ivory, curved at one end for the purpose of being firmly held, and having at the other end a slit, like that for the lead in our pencils, in which is placed a slip of the point of the horn of a rein- deer, which is found to be harder and more stubborn than ivory. This is secured in its place by a strong thong of leather or plaited sinew, put on wet, which on drying becomes very rigid. A Fig. 8.— Esquimaux Arro-n'-flakiT. representation of one of these instruments, in the Blackmore Museum at Salisbury, is given in Fig. 8. Another in the p. 341 Trans. Ethnol. Soc, N. >S., vol. i. p. 139. Sec also Rev. Arch., vol. iii. (18C1) FLAKING ARROW-IIKADS. 35 Christ}' Collection* is shown in Fig. 9. Another form of instru- ment of this kind, but in which the piece of horn is mounted in a rig. 9. — Esquimaux Arrow-flaker. j wooden handle, is shown in Fig. 10, from an original in the same Fig. 10.— Esquimaux Arrow-flaker. J collection from Kotzebue Gulf. The bench on which the arrow- heads are made is said to consist of a log of wood, in which a spoon-shaped cavity is cut ; over this the flake of chert is placed, and then, b}^ pressing the " arrow-flaker " gently along the margin vertically, first on one side and then on the other, as one would set a saw, alternate fragments are splintered ofi", until the object thus properly outlined presents the spear- or arrow-head form, with two cutting serrated sides. Sir Edward Belcher has kindly explained the process to me, and showed me both the implements used, and the objects he saw manufactured. It appears that the flake from which the arrow-head is to be made is sometimes fixed by means of a cord in a split piece of wood so as to hold it firmly, and that all the large surface flaking is produced either by blows direct * Rel. Aquit.. p. 18. For the loan of this cut I am indchted to the executors of the late Henry Christy. The same specimen has been engraved by the Rev. J. G. Wood, "Nat. Hist, of Man," vol. ii. p. 717. 36 MANUFACTURE OF STONE IMPLEMENTS. [cHAP. II. Irom the liammer, or tlirougli an intermediate punch or set formed of reindeer horn. The arrow- or harpoon-head thus roughly chipped out is afterwards finished by means of the " arrow-flaker." The process in use at the present day among the Indians of J^Iexico in making their arrows is described in a somewhat different manner by Signer Craveri, who lived sixteen years in Mexico, and who gave the account to Mr. C. H. Chambers.* He relates that when the Indians " wish to make an arrow or other instrument of a splinter of obsidian, they take the piece in the left hand, and hold grasped in the other a small goat's horn ; they set the piece of stone upon the horn, and dexterously pressing it against the point of it, while they give the horn a gentle movement from right to left, and up and down, they disengage from it frequent chips, and in this way obtain the desired form." M. F. de Pourtalesf speaks of a small notch in the end of the bone into which the edge of the flake is inserted, and a chip broken off from it by a sideways blow. Mr. T. R. Peale X describes the manufacture of arrow-heads among the Shasta and North California Indians as being effected by means of a notched horn, as a glazier chips glass. The late Mr. Christy,^ in a paper on the Cave-dwellers of Southern France, gave an account, furnished to him by Sir Charles Lyell (to whom it had been communicated by Mr. Cabot), of the process of making stone arrow-heads by the Shasta Indians of California, who still commonly use them, which slightly differs from that of Mr. Peale. This account runs as follows : — " The Indian seated himself upon the floor, and, laying the stone anvil upon his knee, with one blow of his agate chisel he separated the obsidian pebble into two parts ; then giving a blow to the fractured side, he split off a slab a quarter of an inch in thickness. Holding the piece against his anvil with the thumb and finger of his left hand, he commenced a series of continuous blows, every one of which chipped off fragments of the brittle substance. It gradually seemed to acquire shape. After finishing the base of the arrow- head (the whole being little over an inch in length), he began •striking gentle blows, every one of which I expected would break it in pieces. Yet such was his adroit application, his skill, and dexterity, that in little over an hour he produced a perfect obsidian * Gastaldi's " Lake Habitations of Northern and Central Italy," translated and edited by C. II. Chambers, ]\I.A. (Antli. See., 1865), p. 106. t Mortillet, "Mat. pour I'llist. do rHommo," vol. ii. p. 517. + "Flint Chips," ]). 7S. § Trans. Ethnol. Sue, N. S., vol. iii. p. 365. Eel. Aquit., p. 17. ARROW-FLAKERS. 37 arrow-head. . . . No sculptor ever handled a chisel with greater pre- cision, or more carefully measured the weight and effect of every blow than did this ingenious Indian ; for even among them arrow- making is a distinct profession, in which few attain excellence." Mr. Wyeth states that the Indians on the Snake River form their arrow-heads of obsidian by laying one edge of the flake on a hard stone, and striking the other edge with another hard stone ; and that many are broken when nearly finished, and are thrown away.* Captain John Smith,! writing in 1606 of the Indians of Virginia, says, " His arrow-head he maketh quickly with a little bone, which he ever weareth at his bracert,]; of any splint of stone or glasse in the form of a heart, and these they glew to the end of their arrowes. With the sinewes of deer and the tops of deer's horns boiled to a jelly, they make a glue which will not dissolve in cold water." Beyond the pin of bone already mentioned as having been found in one of the pits at Grime's Graves, I am not aware of any bone or horn implements of precisely this character having been as yet discovered in Europe ; but hammers of stags' horn and detached tines have frequently been found in connection with worked flints, and may have served in their manufacture. I have, moreover, remarked among the worked flints discovered in this comitry, and especially in Yorkshire, a number of small tools, the ends of which present a blunted, worn, and rounded appear- ance, as if from attrition against a hard substance. These tools are usually from 2 to 4 inches long, and made from large thick flakes, with the cutting edges removed by chipping ; but occa- sionally they are carefully finished implements of a pointed oval or of a subtriangular section, and sometimes slightly curved longi- tudinally. Of these illustrations will be given at a subsequent page. They are usually well adapted for being held in the hand, and I cannot but think that we have in them some of the tools which were used in the preparation of flint arrow-heads and other small instruments. I have tried the experiment with a large flake of flint used as the arrow-flaker, both unmounted and mounted in a wooden handle, and have succeeded in producing with it very passable imitations of ancient arrow-heads, both leaf- * Schoolcraft, " Ind. Tribes," vol. i. p. 212. t Sixth voyage, "Pinkerton's Travels," vol. xiii. p. 36, quoted also in '= Flint Chips," p. 79. J Bracer, a sirdle or baudac-e. 38 MANUFACTURE OF STONE IMPLEMENTS. [cHAP. II. shaped and barbed. The flake of flint on wliich I have operated has been placed against a stop on a flat piece of wood, and when necessary to raise its edge I have j)laced a small blocking piece, also of wood, underneath it, and then by pressure of the arrow- flaker upon the edge of the flake, have detached successive splin- ters until I have reduced it into the required form. If the tool consists of a rather square-ended flake, one corner may rest upon the table of wood, and the pressure be given by a rocking action, bringing the other corner down upon the flake. In cutting the notches in barbed arrow-heads, this was probably the plan adopted, as I was surprised to find how easily this seemingly difficult part of the process was efiected. Serration of the edges may be produced by the same means. The edges of the arrow-heads made entirely with these flint arrow-flakers are, however, more obtuse and rounded than those of ancient specimens, so that probably these flint tools were used rather for removing slight irregularities in the form than for the main chipping out. This latter process, I find experimentally, can be best performed by means of a piece of stags' horn, used much in the same way as practised by the Esquimaux. By supporting the flake of flint which is to be converted into an arrow-head against a wooden stop, and pressing the horn against the edge of the flake, the flint enters slightly into the body of the horn ; then bringing the pressure to bear sideways, minute splinters can be detached, and the arrow-head formed by degrees in this manner without much risk of breaking. Not only can the leaf-shaped forms be produced, but the barbed arrow-heads, both with and without the central stem. The leaf- shaped arrow-heads are, how- ever, the most easy to manufacture, and this simple form was probably that earliest in use. Among many tribes* of America, arrow-maldng is said to have been a trade confined to a certain class, who possessed the traditional knowledge of the process of manufacture ; and it can hardly be expected that a mere novice like myself should be able at once to attain the art. I may, therefore, at once confess that though by the use of stags' horn the ordinary surface-chipping characteristic of ancient implements may be obtained, yet the method of producing the even fluting, like ripple-marks, by detaching parallel splinters uniform in size, and extending almost across the surface of a lance- or arrow-head, is at prc- * Schoolcraft, " Indian Tribes," vol. iii. p. 81 ; see also p. 4G7. GKINDIXG STOXE IMPLEMENTS. 39 sent a mystery to me, as is also the method by wliicli the delicate ornamentation on the handles of Danish flint daggers was produced. It seems, however, possible that by pressing the flint to be ojDerated \\])OTi on some close-fitting, elastic body at the time of removing the minute flakes, the line of fracture may be carried along a con- siderable distance over the surface of the flint, before coming to an end by reason of the dislodged flake breaking ofl" or terminating. It is also possible that the minute and elegant ornaments maj^ have been produced by the use of a pointed tooth of some animal as a punch. With regard to the process of grinding or polishing flint and other stone implements not much need be said. I may, however, refer the reader to Wilde's Catalogue* of the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy for an account of the different processes. In all cases the grindstone on which they were polished was fixed and not rotatory, and in nearly all cases the striae running along the stone hatchets are longitudinal, thus proving that they were rubbed lengthways and not crossways on the grinding-bed. This is a criterion of some service in detecting modern forgeries. The grin ding- stones met with in Denmark and Scandinavia are gene- rally of compact sandstone or quartzite, and are usually of two forms — flat slabs, often worn hollow by use, and j)olygonal prisms smallest in the middle, these latter ha\ing frequently hollow facets in which gouges or the more convex-faced hatchets might be ground, and sometimes rounded ridges such as would grind the hollow part of gouges. From the coarse striation on the body of most flint hatchets, especially the large ones, it would appear that they were not ground immediately on such fine-grained stones, but that some coarse and hard grit must have been used to assist the action of the grindstone. M. Morlot f thought that some mechanical pressure was also used to aid in the operation, and that the hatchet to be ground was weighted in some manner, possibly by means of a lever. In grinding and polishing the hollowed faces of diflferent forms of stone axes, it would appear that certain rubbers formed of stone were used, probably in conjunction with sand. These will be more particularly described in a subsequent page. Closely allied to the process of grinding is that of sawing stone. It is, however, rarely, if ever, that in this country any of the stone implements show signs of having been reduced into shape by this process. Among the small hatchets in fibrolite, so common * p. 4G. t ^roitilk't, " :\ratonaux," vol. ii. p. 3.53. 40 MANUFACTURE OF STONE IMPLEMENTS. [cHAP. II. ill tlie Auvergne and in the South of France, and among the greenstone, and especially the nephrite celts found in the Swiss Pfahl-bauten,* many show evident traces of having been partially fashioned by means of sawing. I have also remarked it on a specimen from Portugal, t Dr. Keller has noticed the process, and suggests that the incisions on the flat surface of the stone chosen for the purpose of being converted into a celt were made some- times on one side, and sometimes on both, by means of a sharp saw-like tool. He has lately J gone more deeply into the question, and has suggested that the stone to be sawn was placed on the ground near a tree, and then sawn by means of a sjDlinter of flint flxed in the end of a stafi*, which at its other end was forked, and as it were hinged under one of the boughs of the tree suflicienth" flexible, "when a weight was suspended from it, to give pressure to the flint. The stafi" was, he supposed, to have been grasped in the hand, and moved backwards and forwards, while water was applied to the flint to facilitate the sawing. The objection to this suggestion is, that in case of the flint being brought to the edge of the stone it would be liable to go beyond it, and be driven into the ground by the weighted bough, and this would constantly hinder the operation : still, some such mechanical aids in sawing may have been in use. M. Troyon§ considered that the blade of flint was used in connection with sand as well as water. This latter view appears, at first sight, far more probable, as the sa"s\'ing instrument has in some instances cut nearly three-quarters of an inch into the stone, which, it would seem, could hardly have been accomplished with a simple flint saw ; and the sides of the saw-kerf or notch show, moreover, parallel strice, as if resulting from the use of sand. The objection that at first occurred to my mind against regarding the sawing instru- ment as having been of flint was of a negative character only, and arose from my not having seen in any of the Swiss collections any flint flakes that had indisputably been used for sawing by means of sand. At one time I fancied, from the character of the bottom and sides of the notches, that a string stretched like that of a bow might have been used with sand in the manner in which, according to Oviedo,|| the American Indians sawed in two their iron fetters, * «' Pfahl-hautcn," Iter Boricht, p. 71. " Luke-dwellings," pp. 18, 125. See also T/indenschmit, " Ilohonz. Samnil.," Taf. xxvii. f Froc. Ethnol. 8oc., N. S., vol. vii. p. 47. X "Anzeigcr fiir Scliweiz. AltiTth.," 1870, p. 123. § Habit. Uu-Aiai., p. 19. II See Conipics Reiuhtx, vol. Ixvii. p. 1292, where a sug-gestion is made of some stone implements from Java having been sawn in this manner. METHODS OF SAWING STONE. 41 and I succeeded in cutting oflF the end of an ancient Swiss hatcliet of hard steatite by this means. I found, however, that the bottom of the kerf thus formed was convex longitudinally, whereas in the ancient examples it was slightly concave. It is therefore evident that "whatever was used as the saw must have been of a compara- tively unyielding nature, and probably shorter than the pebble or block of stone it was used to saw, for even the iron blades used in conjunction with sand and water by modern masons become con- cave b}^ wear, and therefore the bottom of the kerf they produce is convex longitudinally. I accordingly made some further expe- riments, and this time upon a fragment of a greenstone celt of such hardness that it would readily scratch window-glass. I found, however, that with a flint flake I was able to work a groove along it, and that whether I used sand or no, my progress was equally certain, though it must be confessed very slow. I am indeed doubtful whether the flint did not produce most effect without the sand, as the latter, to become effective, requires a softer body in which it may become embedded ; while by working Avith the points and projections in the slightly notched edge of the flake, its scratching action soon discoloured the water in the notch. What was most remarkable, and served in a great measure to discredit the negative evidence to which I before referred, was that the edges of the flake, when not used with sand, showed but slight traces of wear or polish. On the whole, I am inclined to think that both the Swiss anti- quaries are in the right, and that the blocks of stone were sawn both with and without sand, by means of flint flakes, and possibly also of strips of hard wood and bone used in conjunction with sand. Most of the jade implements from New Zealand have been partially shaped by sawing, and in the British Museum is a large block of jade from that country deeply grooved by sawing, and almost ready to be split, so as to be of the right thickness for a merai. It would be of interest to ascertain the details of the process, as there till lately in use. There is another peculiarity to be seen in some of the green- stone hatchets and perforated axes, and of which the most characteristic examples occur in Switzerland, though the same may occasionally be observed in British specimens. It is that the blocks of stone have been reduced into form, not only by chipping with a hammer, as is the case with flint hatchets, but by working upon the surface with some sort of pick or chisel, which was not 42 MANUFACTITRE OF STONE IMPLEMENTS. [cTIAP. II. improbably formed of flint. In some instances, wbere the hatchets ^yere intended for insertion into sockets of stags' horn or other materials, their butt-end was j^urposely roughened by means of a pick after the whole surface had been polished. Instances of this roughening are common in Switzerland, rare in France, and rarer still in England. The curious greenstone hatchet found in a gravel-pit near Malton* (Fig. 123) has its butt-end roughened in this manner. The shaft-holes in some few perforated axes appear to have been worked out by means of such picks or chisels, the hole having been bored from oj^posite sides of the axe, and gene- rally with a gradually decreasing diameter. In some rare instances the perforation is oval. The cup- or funnel-shaped depressions in some hammer-stones seem to have been made in a similar manner ; in others, they have been at all events finished, if not made, by grinding with some conical or partially spherical grinding tool. The inner surface of the shaft-holes in perforated axes is also frequently ground, and occasionally polished. This has in most cases been effected by turning a cylindrical grinder within the hole, though in some few instances the grinding instrument has been rubbed backwards and forwards in the hole after the manner of a file. M. Franck de Truguet,f of Treytel, in Switzerland, thinks he has found in a lake-dwelling of the Stone Age an instrument used for finishing and enlarging the holes. It is a fragment of sandstone about 2 J inches long, and 1 inch wide at the base, and about ^ inch thick, and rounded on one fixce, which is worn by friction. But, besides the mode of chipj^ing out the shaft-hole in perforated implements, several other methods were employed, especially in the days when the use of bronze was known, to which period most of the highly finished perforated axes found in this coimtry are to be referred. In some cases it would appear that, after chipping out a recess so as to form a guide for the boring tool, the perforation was eflfected by giving a rotatory motion, either con- stant or intermittent, to the tool. I have, indeed, seen some specimens in which, from the marks visible in the hole, I am inclined to think a metallic drill was used. But whether, where metal was not employed, and no central core, as subsequently mentioned, was left in the hole, the boring tool was of flint, and acted like a drill, or whether it was a roitnd stone used in con- * The Jieliquary, vol. viii. p. 184. t " Mati'iiaux pour I'Hist. de 1' Homme/' vol. iv. p. 2D3. METHODS OF BORING STONE. 43 juuction with sand, as suggested by Professor Daniel Wilson* and Sir W. Wilde, t so that the hole was actually ground away, it is impossible to say. I have never seen any flint tools that could unhesitatingly be referred to this use ; but Ilerr Grewingk, in his "Steinalter der Ostseeprovinzen,"+ mentions several imple- ments in the form of truncated cones, which he regards as borins: tools [Bohrstenipel), used for perforating stone axes and hammers. As, however, none of these borers are more than two inches and a quarter in length, and some have the larger end flat and polished, so that they could not Avell have been attached to a handle of any kind, it is difl[icult to see in what manner they were used. Ilerr Grewingk suggests the employment of a drill-bow to make them revolve, and thinks that, in som,e cases, the boring tool was fixed, and the axe itself caused to revolve. Not having seen the specimens, I cannot pronounce upon them ; but the fact that several of these conical pieces show signs of fracture at the base, and that they are all of the same kinds of stone (diorite, augite, porphyry, and syenite) as those of which the stone axes of the district are made, is suggestive of their being merely the cores resulting from boring with a tube in the manner about to be described, in some cases from each face of the axe, and in others, where the base of the cone is smooth, from one face only. One of these central cores found in Lithuania is figured by Mortillet,v^ and is regarded by him as being probably the result of boring by means of a metal tube ; others, from Switzerland, presumably of the Stone Age, are cited by Keller. || Professor Worsaae^ has suggested that in early times the boring may have been effected with a pointed stick and sand and water ; and, indeed, if any grinding process was used, it is a question whether some softer substance, such as wood, in which the sand or abrasive material could become embedded, would not be more effective than flint. By way of experiment I bored a hole through the Swiss hatchet of steatite before mentioned, and I found that in that case a flint flake could be used as a sort of drill ; but that for grinding, a stick of elder was superior to both flint and bone, inasmuch as it formed a better bed for the sand. Professor E,au, of New York, has made some interesting experi- * Prehist. Ann. of Scotland, 2nd edit., vol. i. p. 19.3. t Cat. Stone Ant. Mus. R. I. A., p. 78. + P. 26. § " Materiaux," vol. i. p. 463; vol. iii. p. 307. II Anz. f. Schweiz. Alt., 1870, pi. xii. 18—20. ^ "Primeval Ants, of Denmark," p. 16. 44 MANUFACTURE OF STONE IMPLEMENTS. [cHAP. II. meiits in boring stone by means of a drilling-stock and sand, wbich are described in the " Annual Report of tlie Smithsonian Institute for 1868.* He operated on a piece of hard diorite an inch and three- eighths in thickness, and employed as a drilling agent a wooden wand of ash, or, at times, of pine, in conjunction with sharp quartz sand. Attached to the wand was a heavy disc, to act as a fly-wheel, and an alternating rotatory motion was obtained by means of a bow and cord attached at its centre to the apex of the drilling-stock, and giving motion to it after the manner of a "■ jDump-drill," such as is used by the Dacotahs f and Iroquois]; for producing fire by friction, or what is sometimes called the Chinese drill. So slow was the process, that two hours of constant drilling added, on an average, not more than the thickness of an ordinary lead-pencil line to the depth of the hole. The use of a drill of some form or other, to which rotatory motion in alternate directions was communicated by means of a cord, is of great antiquity. "We find it practised with the ordinary bow by the ancient Egyptians ; § and Ulysses is described by Homer || as drilling out the eye of the Cyclops by means of a stake with a thong of leather wound round it, which he pulled alternately at each end, " like a shipwright boring timber." The " fire-drill," for producing fire by friction, and which is precisely analogous to the ordinary drill, is, or was, in use in most parts of the world. Among the Aleutian islanders the thong-drill, and among the New Zealanders a modification of it, is used for boring holes in stone. Those who wish to see more on the subject must consult Tyler's " Early History of Mankind." ^ Professor Carl Yogt** has suggested that the small roundels of stone (like Worsaae, Afh., No. 86) too large to have been used as spindle-wheels, which are occasionally found in Denmark, may have been the fly-wheels of vertical pump-drills, used for boring stone tools. They may, however, be heads of war-maces. In the case of some of the unfinished and broken axes found in the Swiss lakes, and even in some of the objects made of stags' - * P. 392. Archil' fur Aiithrop., vol. iii. p. 187. t Schoolcraft, " Iiid. Tribes," vol. iii. pp. 228, 4GG. I Tylor, "Early Hist, of Mankind," p. 218. ij Wilkinson, "Anc. Egv2)tians," vol. ii. pp. 180, 181 ; vol. iii. pp. 141, 172. II Odyss., ix. 384. IF 2nd edit., pp. 241 ct seqq.; sec also " Flint Chip.s," p. 96. ** " Guide ill. du Mus. des Ant. du Nord," 2nd edit., p. 8. METHODS OF IJOlllNG STONE. 45 horn,* there is a projecting coref at the bottom of the unfinished hole, indicating, as Dr. Keller has shown, the emploj^ment of some kind of tube as a boring tool, as indeed had been pointed out by Gutsmuths+ so long ago as 1832, who, in his paper " Wie durchbohrte der alte Germane seine Streitaxt ? " suggested that a copjjer or bronze tube was used in conjunction with powdered quartz, or sand and water. In the Klemm collection, formerly at Dresden, is a bronze tube, five inches long and three-quarters of an inch in diameter, found near Camenz, in Saxony, which its late owner regarded § as one of the boring tools used in the manufacture of stone axes. This is now in the British Museum, and does not appear to me to have been employed for any such purpose. The Danish antiquaries || seem to have arrived at the same conclusion. Yon Estorfi"^ goes so far as to say that the shaft-holes are in some cases so regular and straight, and their inner surface so smooth, that they can only have been bored by means of a metallic cylinder and emery. Lindenschmit ** considers the boring to have been efiiected either by means of a hard stone, or a plug of hard wood with sand and water, or else, in some cases, by means of a metallic tube, as described by Gutsniuths. He engraves some specimens, in which the commencement of the hole, instead of being a mere depression, is a sunk ring. Similar specimens are mentioned by Lisch.ff Dr. Keller's translator, Mr. Lee, cites a friend as suggesting the employment of a hollow stick, such as a piece of elder, for the boring tool. My experience confirms this ; but I found that the coarse sand was liable to clog and accumulate in the hollow part of the stick, and thus grind away the top of the core. If I had used finer sand this probably would not have been the case. Mr. Hose ij: J has suggested the use of a hollow bone ; but, as already observed, I found bone less efiective than wood, in conse- quence of its not being so good a medium for carrying the sand. Most of the holes drilled in the stone instruments and pipes of * " Anzeigcr f. SchweiT:. Alt.," 1870, pi. xii. 24. t Keller's " Lake-dwellings," p. 22. iter Bericlit, p. 74. See also " Anzeiger fur Schweiz. Alterth.," 1870, p. 139. X^Morf/enhlatt, No. 2-53. § " Allgemeine Culturwissenschaft," i. p. 80. See also Preusker, " Blioke in die Vaterlandische Yorzeit," vol. i. p. 173. II Mem. de la Soc. dcs Ant. du Nord, 18C3, p. 149. U •' Heidnische Alterthlimer," p. 66. ** " AltertMmer, u. h. V.," vol. i., Heft viii. Taf. i. tt " Frederico-Francisceum," p. 111. XX Journal of the Anthrop. Soc, vol. vi. p. xlii. 46 MANUFACTURE OF STONE IMP]>EMENrs. [ciIAP. II. Xortli America appear to liave been produced by hollow drills, whicli Professor Rau* suggests may have been formed of a hard and tough cane, the Arundmaria macrospenna, which grows abun- dantly in the southern parts of the United States. He finds reason for supposing that the India*!! w^orkmen were acquainted with the ordinary form of drill driven by a pulley and bow. The tubes of steatite, one foot in length, found in some of the minor mounds of the Ohio Valley,t must probabl}^ have been bored with metal. Dr. Keller, after making some experiments with a hollow bone and quartz-sand, tried a portion of ox-horn, Avhich he found surprisingly more efiective, the sand becoming embedded in the horn and acting like a file. He comments on the absence of any bronze tubes that could have been used for boring in this manner, and on the impossibility of making flint tools for the purpose. The perishable nature of ox-horn accounts for its absence in the Lake settlements. + On the whole, this suggestion appears to me the most reasonable. M. Troyon§ considered that these holes were not bored by means of a hollow cylinder, inasmuch as this would not produce so conical an opening, and he thought that the axe was made to revolve in some sort of lathe, while the boring was efiected by means of a bronze tool used in conjunction with sand and water. He mentions some stone axes found in Bohemia, and in the col- lection of the Baron de Neuberg, at Prague, which have so little space left between the body of the axe and the central cores, that in his opinion they must have been bored by means of a metal point, and not of a hollow cylinder. Mortillet|| thinks that some of the Swiss axes were bored in a similar manner. The small holes for suspension, drilled through some of the Danish celts, he thinks were drilled with a pointed stone. ^ Not having seen the specimens cited by M. Troyon, I am unable to offer any opinion upon them ; but it appears to me doubtful whether anything approaching in character to a lathe was known at the early period to which most of the perforated axes belong, or we should otherwise probably find it applied to the manufacture of pottery in the shape of the potter's wheel, whereas the contemporary pottery is all hand-made. M. * Lib. cit., p. 399. t Schoolcraft, "Indian Tribes," vol. i. p. 9o. ; "Anzeigor f. Schwciz. Alt.," 1870, p. 143. ^ "Habitations Lacustres," p. 66. Eev. Arch., 1860, vol. i. p. 39. II "Materiaux," vol. iii. p. 264. H Ibid., vol. iii. p, 294. METHODS OF IJORIXG STOXK. 4/ Desor,* thoug-li admitting tliat a liollow metallic tube would have afforded tlie best means of drilling tliese holes, is inclined to refer the axes to a period when the use of metals was unknown. He suggests that thin flakes of flint may have been fastened round a stick, and thus used to bore the hole, leaving a solid core in the middle. I do not, however, think that such a method is practicable. In some of the Swiss f specimens in which the boring is incom- plete there is a small hole in advance of the larger, so that the section is like that of a trifoliated Gothic arch. In this case the borer would appear to have somewhat resembled a centre-bit or pin-drill. In others J the holes are oval, and must have been much modified after they were first bored. Kirchner,§ the ingenious but perverse author of " Tlior's Don- nerkeil," considers that steel boring tools must have been used ; and even Nilsson,|| who comments on the rarity of the axes with the central core in the holes, is inclined to refer them to the Iron Age. He^ considers it an im]3ossibility to bore "such holes " with a wooden pin and wet sand, and is no doubt right, if he means that a wooden pin would not leave a core standing in the centre of the hole. The drilling the holes through the handles of the New Zealand** merais is stated to be a very slow process, but efiected by means of a wetted stick dipped in emery powder. I have seen one in which the hole was unfinished, and only represented by a conical depression on each face. In some stones, however, such holes can be bored with wood and sand ; and in all cases where the stone to be worked upon can be scratched by sand, the boring by means of wood is possible, given sufiicient time, and the patience of a savage. To what a degree this extends may be estimated b}^ what Lafitau ft says of the North American Indians sometimes spending their whole life in making a stone tomahawk without entirely finishing it ; and by the years spent by members of tribes on the Rio Negro + J in perforating cylinders of rock crystal, by twirling a * " Les Palafittes." p. 19. f Keller, "Lake-dwellings," xxv. 1, 7, p. 91. I Op. cit., xxvii. 11, 24, p. 110. § "Thor's Donnerkeil," p. 13. II "Stone Ago," p. 79. The hollow boring tool is, in the English edition, called a centre-bit. ir "Stone Age," p. 80. ** Wood, " Nat. Hist, of Man," vol. ii. p. 157. tt " Moeurs des Sauv. Amer.," 1724, vol. ii. p. 110. " Flint Chips," p. 52.5. It Tylor, "Early Hist, of Mankind," 2nd edit., p. 191. Wallace, "Travels on Amazon and Eio Negro," p. 278. 48 MANUFACTURE OF STONE IMFLEMENTS. [cHAP. II. flexible leaf-shoot of wild plantain between the hands, and thus grinding the hole with the aid of sand and water. On the whole, we may conclude that the holes were bored in various manners, of which the principal were — 1. By chiselling, or picking with a sharp stone. 2. By grinding with a solid grinder, probably of wood. 3. By grinding with a tubular grinder, probably of ox-horn. 4. By drilling with a stone drill. 5. By drilling with a metallic drill. Holes produced by any of these means could, of course, receive their final polish by grinding. With regard to the external shaping of the perforated stone axes but little can be said. They appear to have been in some cases wrought into shape by means of a pick or chisel, and sub- sequently ground ; in other cases to have been fashioned almost exclusively by grinding. In some of the axe-hammers made of compact quartzite, the form of the pebble from which they have been mode has evidently given the general contour, in the same manner as has been observed on some fibrolite hatchets, which have been made by sawing a flat pebble in two longitudinally, and then sharpening the end, or ends, the rest of the surface being left unaltered in form ; as is also the case with some stone hatchets, to form which a suitable pebble has been selected, and one end ground to an edge. 8uch is a general review of the more usual processes adopted in the manufacture of stone implements in prehistoric times, which I have thought it best should precede the account of the implements themselves. I can hardly quit the subject without just mention- ing that here, as elsewhere, we find traces of improvement and progress, both in adapting forms to the ends they had to subserve, and in the manner of treating the stubborn materials of which these implements were made. Such progress may not have been, and probably was not, uniform, even in any one country ; and, indeed, there are breaks in the chronology of stone imple- ments which it is hard to fill up ; but any one comparing, for instance, the exquisitely made axe-hammers and delicately chipped flint arrow-heads of the Bronze Age with the rude implements of the Pala)olithic Period — neatly chipped as some of these latter are — cannot but perceive the advances that had been made in skill, and in adaptation of means to ends. If, for the sake of illustration, we divide the lapse of PJlO(iRESS IN THE ART OF WORKING STONE. 40 time embraced between these two extremes into four Periods, it appears — 1. That in the Palscolithic, River- gravel, or Drift Period, imple- ments were fashioned by chipping only, and not ground or polished. The material used in Europe was, moreover, as far as at present knoAvn, almost exclusively flint. 2. That in the Reindeer or Cavern Period of Central France, though grinding was not practised, except for bone instruments, yet greater skill in flaking flint and in working up flakes into serviceable tools was exhibited. In some places, as at Laugerie- haute, surface-chipping is found on the flint arrow-heads. Cup- shaped recesses have been worked in other hard stones than flint, though no other stones have been used for cutting purposes. 3. That in the Neolithic or Surface Stone Period of Western Europe other materials besides flint were largely used for the manufacture of hatchets ; grinding at the edge and on the surface was generally practised ; and the art of working flint by pressure from the edge was probably known. The stone axes, at least in Britain, were rarely perforated. 4. That in the Bronze Period such stone implements, with the exception of mere flakes and scrapers, as remained in use, were, as a rule, highly finished, many of the axes being perforated and of graceful form, and some of the flint arrow-heads evincing the highest degree of manual skill. Having said thus much on the methods by which the stone implements of antiquity were manufactured, I pass on to the con- sideration of their different forms, commencing with those of the Neolithic Age, and with the form which is perhaps the best known in all countries — the celt. IMPLEMENTS OF THE NEOLITHIC PEEIOI). CHAPTER IIL CELTS. The name of Celt, wliicli has long been given to hatchets, adzes, or chisels of stone, is so well known and has been so universally employed, that though its use has at times led to considerable misapprehension, I have thought it best to retain it. It has been fancied by some that the name bore reference to the Celtic people, by whom the implements were supposed to have been made ; and among those who have thought fit to adopt the modern fashion of calling the Celts " Kelts " there have been not a few who have given the instruments the novel name of "kelts" also. In the same manner, many French antiquaries have given the plural form of the word as Celfce. Notwithstanding this misappre- hension, there can be no doubt as to the derivation of the word, it being no other than the English form of the Latin celds or ce/fes, a chisel. This word, however, is curiously enough an aTra^ Xeyoixevov in this sense, being only found in the Yulgate translation of Job,* though it is repeated in a forged inscription recorded by Gruter and Aldus, t The usual derivation given is d ccelando, and it is regarded as the equivalent of ccp/um. The first use of the term that I have met with, as applied to antiquities, is in Beger's " Thesaurus Brandenburgicus," + 1696, where a bronze celt, adapted for insertion in its haft, is described under the name of Cclfes. It has been suggested that there may originally have been some connection between the Latin celtis and the British or Welsh ceili, a flint ; but this seems rather an instance of fortuitous resemblance than of affinity. § A Welsh triad says there are three hard things in the world — nmen cellt (a flint stone), steel, and a miser's heart. * Cap. xix. V. 24. It also occurs in a quotation of the passage by St. Jerome, in his Epist. ad Pammachium. See Athenmum, June 11, 1870. t P. 329, 1. 23. + Vol. iii. p. 418. § Barnes, "Notes on Ancient Britain," 1853, p. 15. CELTS REGARDED AS THUNDERBOLTS. 51 The general form of stone celts is well known, being usually that of more or less flat blades, approaching an oval in section, with the sides more or less straight, and one end broader and also sharper than the other. In length they vary from about two inches to as much as sixteen inches. I do not, however, propose entering at once into any description of the varieties in their form and character, but to pass in review some of the opinions that have been held concerning their nature and origin. One of the most universal of these is a belief, which may almost be described as having been held "semper, ubique et ab omnibus," in their having been thunderbolts. " The country folks* of the West of England still hold that the ' thunder-axes ' they find, once fell from the sky." In Cornwall f they still have medical "sdrtues assigned to them ; the water in which " a thunderbolt," or celt, has been boiled being a specific for rheumatism. In the North of England, and in parts of Scotland, they are kno^^^l as thunderbolts, + and, like flint arrow- heads, are supposed to have preservative virtues, especially against diseases of cattle. In Ireland the same superstition prevails, and I have myself kno'wai an instance where a stone celt was lent among neighbours to place in the troughs from which cattle drank, on account of its healing powers. In most parts of France, § and in the Channel Islands, the stone celt is known by no other name than Coin de foudre, or Pierre de tonnerre ; and Mr. F. C. Lukisll gives an instance of a flint celt having been found near the spot where a signal-stafi" had been struck by lightning, and which was proved to have been the bolt, by its peculiar smell when broken. In Brittany^ the stone celt is frequently throwm into the well for purifying the water, or for securing a continued supply ; and in Savoy it is not rare to find one of these instruments rolled up in the wool of the sheep, or the hair of the goat, for good luck, or the prevention of the rot or putrid decay. In Sweden** they are preserved as a protection against light- * Tylor, " Early Hist, of Man.," 2nd edit. p. 226, which also see for many of the facts here quoted. See also Tylor's '• Prim. Culture," ii. p. 237, &c. t HalliweU, " Rambles in West. ComwaU," 1861, p. 20-5. Rev. Celt, 1870, p. 6. X Sibbald mentions two perforated ceraunicc found in Scotland. Prod. Nat. Hist. Scot., ii. lib. iv. p. 49. § Comptes Eendus, 1864, lix. p. 713. Cochet, " Seine Inf.," 15. B. de Perthes, " Ant. Celt, et Anted.," i. p. 522, &c. II F. C. Lukis, F.S.A., in ReUquary, \\\\. p. 208. H Ibid. ** Xilsson, "Stone Age," pp. 199 — 201. E 2 52 CELTS. [chap. III. ning, being regarded as the stone-bolts tbat liave fallen during thunder-storms. In Norway they are known as Tonderkiler, and in Denmark the old name for a celt was Torden-steen.* The test of their being really thunderbolts was to tie a thread round them, and place them on hot coals, when, if genuine, the thread was not burnt, but rather rendered moist. In Grermany f both celts and perforated stone axes are regarded as thunderbolts (DonnerJcei/c, or ThorsJceik) ; and, on account of their valuable properties, are sometimes preserved in families for hundreds of years. I possess a specimen from North Germany, on which is inscribed the date 1571, being probably the year in which it was discovered. The curious perforated axe or hammer found early in the last century, now preserved in the Museum of Antiquities at Upsala,+ seems to have been a family treasure of the same kind. It bears upon it, in early Runes, an inscription thus interpreted by Professor Stephens — " Owns Oltha this Axe." Another, with four§ Runic characters uj)on it, was found in Den- mark, and it has been suggested that the letters upon it represent the names of Loki, Thor, Odin, and Belgthor. || The appearance of the American inscribed axe from Pemberton,1[ New Jersey, described by my namesake. Dr. J. C. Evans, and published by Dr. Daniel Wilson, is not calculated to inspire confidence in its authenticity. The German belief is much the same as the Irish. Stone celts are held to preserve from lightning the house in which they are kept. They perspire when a storm is approaching ; they are good for diseases of man and beast ; they increase the milk of cows ; they assist the birth of children; and powder scraped from them may be taken with advantage for various childish disorders. It is usually nine days after their fall before they are found on the surface. In Holland,* * in like manner, they are known as donder-heitels, or thunder-chisels. Among the Portuguese ft and in Brazil ++ the name for a stone axe-blade is corisco, or lightning. * Mks. TFoi-ininnum, p. 74. t Preusker, " Blicke in die Vateriilndische Vorzeit," i. p. 170. j "Old Northern Runic Monuments," p. 205. Ant. Tid.sskr., 1852-54, p. 258. Sjoborg, " .Siimlingar for Nordens Fornalskara," iii. p. 163. ^ Ant. Tidsskr., 1852-54, p. 8. Mem. de la Soc. dcs Aut. du Nnrd, 1850-60, p. 28. II Arch. Joiirn., xxv. ]). 117. H Preh. Man, ii. p. 185. * * Notes and Queries, 2nd S., viii. p. 92. tt Tylor, "Early Hist, of ]Man," p. 227. XI Ann. for Nord. Oldk., 1838, p. 159. Klemm, " C. G.," i. 268. Prinz Neuwied, ii. 35. BELIEF IN THEIR METEORIC ORIGIN. 53 In Italy* a similar belief in these stone implements being thunderbolts prevails ; and in Greecef the stone celts are known as Astropelelda, and have long been held in veneration. About the year 1081 we find the Byzantine emperor, Alexius Comnenus,+ sending, among other presents, to the Emperor Henry III. of Germany, aa-TpoiriXeKw SeSeiximv ixcTo. xpy