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
Whether the instruments were used vertically as scrapers, or
horizontally as planes, the term “scrapers” seems almost equally |300|
applicable to them; and there appears no valid reason why, for the sake
of convenience, the same term should not be extended to their ancient
analogues, especially as their edges, as will subsequently be seen, are
in many cases worn away in a manner indicative of their having been
used for scraping.
* * * * *
The names of “thumb-flints” and “finger-flints” which have sometimes
been applied to the shorter and longer varieties of these instruments,
though colloquially convenient, appear to me not sufficiently definite
in meaning to be worthy of being retained.
Scrapers may be classified and described—firstly, in accordance with
the character of the flakes from which they have been made; and,
secondly, in accordance with the outline of the portion of the margin
which has been chipped into form, and the general contour of the
implement.
[Illustration: Fig. 204.—Weaverthorpe.]
Their outline is in some cases horseshoe-shaped or kite-shaped, in
others it is discoidal or nearly circular, and in others again it may
be compared with that of a duck’s bill or of an oyster-shell. To these
may be added side-scrapers, or such as are broader than they are long,
and the hollow scrapers with a rounded notch in them instead of a
semicircular end.
When the flakes have been chipped into the scraper form at both ends
they may be termed double-ended scrapers—to which class circular
scrapers also belong; where a sort of handle has been worked they may
be termed spoon-shaped, and where the butt has been chipped to a sharp
chisel-edge, at right angles to the flat face, they have been called
tanged scrapers.
In speaking of the sides as right or left, I do it with reference to
the flat face of the scraper, as shown in the first of the three views
of Fig. 204.
It will be well to pass some of the forms in review before entering
into any more general considerations.
The figures are all of full size, Fig. 204, from Weaverthorpe, on the
Yorkshire Wolds, is a good example of a symmetrical horseshoe-shaped
scraper. It is made from a broad flat flake, of rather pink |301|
flint, with the point chipped to a neat semicircular bevelled edge,
and one of the sides trimmed so as to correspond with the other. The
bulb of percussion visible on the flat face and side views has been
slightly splintered by the blow. It gives a graceful ogee curve to the
face longitudinally, which brings forward the scraping or cutting edge
at the end. In the centre this is slightly rounded and worn away by use.
I have other specimens almost identical in form from other parts of
the Yorkshire Wolds, from Suffolk, Sussex, and Dorsetshire. They are
abundantly found of smaller dimensions, and occasionally of larger,
sometimes as much as 2 1∕2 inches in diameter.
[Illustration: Fig. 205.—Sussex Downs.]
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