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
In some copper mines at Llandudno,[852] near the great Orme’s Head,
Carnarvonshire, an old working was broken into about sixty years ago,
and in it were found a broken stag’s horn, and parts of what were
regarded as of two mining implements or picks of bronze, one about 3
inches and the other about 1 inch in length. In 1850, another ancient
working was found, and on the floor a number of these stone mauls,
described as weighing from about 2 lbs. to 40 lbs. each. They had been
formed from water-worn boulders, probably selected from |234| the
beach at Pen-maen-mawr. One of the mauls in the Warrington Museum[853]
is 6 5∕8 inches long, and weighs 3 lbs. 14 ozs. One of basalt,
measuring nearly a foot in length, was found in ancient workings at
Amlwch Parys Mine,[854] in Anglesea. Others have been discovered
in old workings in Llangynfelin Mine,[855] Cardiganshire, and at
Llanidan,[856] Anglesea.
A ponderous ball of stone, about 5 inches in diameter, probably used
in crushing and pounding the ore, a portion of stag’s horn, fashioned
so as to be suited for the handle of some implement, and an _iron_
pick-axe, were found in some old workings in the Snow Brook Lead Mines,
Plinlimmon, Montgomeryshire.[857]
Two of these hammer-stones, 4 1∕2 and 5 inches in length, were obtained
by the late Hon. W. O. Stanley, within hut circles, possibly the
remains of the habitations of copper miners in ancient times, at Ty
Mawr, in the Island of Holyhead. Some of these mauls are figured in the
_Archæological Journal_,[858] and are of much the same form as Fig.
159, the original of which probably served another purpose. Others of
the same character, formed of quartzite, were found at Pen-y-Bonc,[859]
Holyhead, and Old Geir,[860] Anglesea. They have also been found at
Alderley Edge,[861] Cheshire.
A boulder, like those from Llandudno, but found at Long Low, near
Wetton, Staffordshire, is in the Bateman Collection.[862] One from
Wigtownshire[863] has been regarded as a weight.
They are of not uncommon occurrence in the south of Ireland,[864]
especially in the neighbourhood of Killarney, where, as also in Cork,
many of them have been found in ancient mines. They have, in Ireland,
been denominated miners’ hammers. One of them is engraved in “Flint
Chips.”[865] I have seen an example from Shetland.
They have also been found in ancient copper mines in the province of
Cordova,[866] at Cerro Muriano, Villanueva del Rey,[867] and Milagro,
in Spain; in those of Ruy Gomes,[868] in Alemtejo, Portugal; and at the
salt mines of Hallstatt,[869] in the Salzkammergut of Austria, and at
Mitterberg,[870] near Bischofshofen.
A large hammer of the same class, but with a deeper groove all round,
has been recorded from Savoy.[871]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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