On the Downs of Sussex, in the pits of Cissbury, in Yorkshire, Suffolk, Dorsetshire, and other counties, hammer-stones of flint, apparently used for chipping other flints, have been found, but from their rudeness it seems hardly worth while to engrave any specimens. At Grime’s Graves the hammer-stones consisted principally of quartzite pebbles, though some were of flint. In many instances the hammers made of flint seem to be cores from which flakes have been struck, but which, proving to be of refractory stone, have been found more serviceable as hammers. Some of the cores found at Spiennes, near Mons, have been thus used, as well as fragments of celts. Some of the hammer-stones from the French caves consist also of such cores. Stone mullers are in common use in most countries at the present day, for grinding paint and similar purposes. They occur at the Cape of Good Hope,[964] but were there, no doubt, originally intended for other uses. The general character of the chipped flint hammer-stones will be gathered from Figs. 167 and 168, both from the Yorkshire Wolds. |249| Neither of them shows any trace of the original surface or crust of the flint from which it has been fashioned. The larger one has been chipped with numerous facets somewhat into the shape of a broad bivalve shell, and is much battered round the margin. Fig. 168 is much smaller than usual, and is more disc-like in character. [Illustration: Fig. 168A.—Culbin Sands. 1∕2] A large number of discoidal stones, formed from flattish quartzite pebbles, have been found on the Culbin Sands,[965] Elginshire. By the kindness of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, one of them is shown in Fig. 168A. They may be hammer-stones, but show no traces of use. [Illustration: Fig. 169—Bridlington. 1∕2] More commonly, perhaps, the form is approximately spherical. Fig. 169 is, however, a more symmetrical specimen than usual. It was found by Mr. E. Tindall at Grindale, near Bridlington, and its surface is battered all over by continual pounding. I have others of similar character from Icklingham, Suffolk; Jordan Hill, Weymouth; and elsewhere. Two from Old Geir, Anglesea, are engraved in the _Archæological Journal_.[966] Others were found in a tumulus at Seaford,[967] and at Mount Caburn,[968] Sussex. Numerous rude hammer-stones have been found at Carnac,[969] Brittany. One of chert, 3 inches in diameter, was found in the Isle of Portland,[970] and several have been found in Dorsetshire[971] which were supposed to have been used in fashioning flint implements; and balls of chert, 2 1∕2 inches and 2 1∕4 inches in diameter, found at West Coker, Somersetshire,[972] and another from Comb-Pyne, Devonshire,[973] have been thought to have been “intended for the sling, or else to be tied up in a leather thong attached to a staff, and employed as a sort of mace.” |250|