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
Professor Flinders Petrie, in addition to the flint implements of the
“New Race,” which he discovered near Abydos, found a number of stone
implements at Kahun, and Mr. F. C. J. Spurrell has contributed to
his[141] book an interesting chapter on their character and the method
of their manufacture.
Most of the jade implements from New Zealand and N.W. America have
been partially shaped by sawing, and in the British Museum is a large
block of jade from the former country deeply grooved by sawing, and
almost ready to be split, so as to be of the |46| right thickness for a
_mere_. The natives[142] use stone hammers for chipping, flakes of trap
or of some other hard rock for sawing, and blocks of sandstone and a
micaceous rock for grinding and polishing. Obsidian is said to be used
for boring jade. I have a flat piece of jade, apparently part of a thin
hatchet, on one face of which two notches have been sawn converging at
an angle of 135° and marking out what when detached and ground would
have formed a curved ear-ring. It was given me by the late Mr. H. N.
Moseley, who brought it from New Zealand.
There is another peculiarity to be seen in some of the greenstone
hatchets and perforated axes, of which perhaps 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 improbably formed of flint.
In some instances, where the hatchets were intended for insertion
into sockets of stag’s horn or other materials, their butt-end was
purposely 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 greenstone hatchet found
in a gravel-pit near Malton[143] (Fig. 81) 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 opposite sides of the axe, and generally 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. 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,[144] of Treytel, in
Switzerland, thinks he has found in a lake-dwelling an instrument used
for finishing and enlarging the holes. It is a fragment of sandstone
about 2 1∕2 inches long, and rounded on one face, which is worn by
friction.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account