The Ancient Stone Implements, Weapons and Ornaments, of Great Britain: Second Edition, RevisedEvans, John
History
The Ancient Stone Implements, Weapons and Ornaments, of Great Britain: Second Edition, Revised
Evans, John
Great Britain -- Antiquities; Stone age -- Great Britain
The specimen shown in Fig. 145 was found in the Thames, at London,
and is now in the British Museum. In form it is curiously like |220|
a metallic hammer, swelling out around the shaft-hole, and tapering
down to a round flat face at each extremity. So far as I know, it is
unique of its kind in this country. It is more probably the head of a
war mace than that of an ordinary hammer. A somewhat similar hammer, of
porphyry, is in the museum of the Deutsche Gesellschaft at Leipzig. It
is, however, shorter in its proportions.
[Illustration: Fig. 145A.—Kirkinner. 1∕2]
A stone hammer found at Claycrop, Kirkinner,[779] Wigtownshire, is, by
the courtesy of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, shown in Fig.
145A. In form, it is very like Fig. 136A from Wick, but blunter at the
edge.
The instrument shown in Fig. 146 is perhaps more like a blunted
axe-hammer than a simple hammer. It has at one end a much-rounded
point, and at the other is nearly straight across, though rounded in
the other direction. It would appear to be a weapon |221| rather than
a tool. It is formed of greenstone, and was found near Scarborough,
being now in the museum at the Leeds Philosophical Hall. A similar form
has been found in Italy.[780]
[Illustration: Fig. 146.—Scarborough. 1∕2]
[Illustration: Fig. 147.—Shetland. 1∕2]
A beautifully finished hammer-head, cross-paned at both ends, and with
a parallel polished shaft-hole, is shown in Fig. 147. It is of pale
mottled green gneissose rock, with veins of transparent pale green,
like jade, and was found in a barrow in Shetland. It is preserved
in the National Museum at Edinburgh, where is also another of the
same form, but broader and much more weathered, which was found at
Scarpiegarth,[781] also in Shetland. Mr. J. W. Cursiter has another
of these ruder examples (3 1∕2 inches) from Firth. He has also a very
highly polished specimen made of serpentine (4 inches) subquadrate
in section, and with hemispherical ends, from Lingrow, Orkney. The
perforation is conical, being 1 inch in diameter on one face and only
1∕2 inch on the other. A remarkably elegant instrument of this kind,
formed of a quartzose metamorphic rock, striped green and white, and
evidently selected for its beauty, is in the well-known Greenwell
Collection. It was found in Caithness. It is polished all over, and
4 1∕4 inches long, of oval section, with the ends slightly rounded.
The shaft-hole is parallel, 1∕2 inch in diameter, and about 3∕4
inch nearer to one end than to the other. In the same collection is
another specimen, rather more elongated in form, and of more ordinary
material, found near Harome, in Yorkshire, in a district where a
number of stone implements of rare types have been discovered. It is
of clay-slate, 5 1∕4 inches long, and of oval section. The shaft-hole
tapers from 1 inch at the faces to 9∕16 inch in the centre. A shorter
hammer, of gneiss, 3 3∕4 inches long, and of similar section, |222|
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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