Chapter 12
Part 12
The rougher kinds are usually clumsy in their proportions, as if strength were an object, and they not unfrequently show a certain amount of abrasion at each end. An instrument of this coarser description is shown in Fig. 347. It is worn away and rounded, not only at the point, but for a considerable distance along the sides, the abraded surface having a somewhat bruised appearance. It is remarkable that many of the Danish flint knife-daggers, especially those which have been so long in use that their blades have been much diminished in size by having been frequently re-chipped, present at the |414| end and sides of the handles precisely the same kind of worn surface. At one time I thought it possible that constant contact with hard hands, not free from sand and dirt, might have produced this rounding of the angles; but closer examination proves that this cannot have been the only cause of the wear, as it is sometimes the case that at a certain distance from the end of the hilt, the abraded character disappears entirely, and, with the exception of a slight polish, the angles are as fresh as on the day when the daggers were first manufactured. This feature is most observable in the poignards with the beautifully-decorated handles. I possess one of this kind—like Worsaae, No. 52—with the sides near the blade exquisitely ornamented with a delicate wavy edging, and with a line of similar ornament running along the centre of one face of the handle, the butt-end having also been edged in a similar manner; but for an inch and a half from the end the whole of this ornamentation is completely worn away, and the sides are battered and rounded. To such an extent has this part of the handle been used, that one of the projecting points of the original fishtail-like end has entirely disappeared, and the other is completely rounded. The blade is probably now not more than one-third of its original size, so that we may infer that it must have been long in use for its legitimate purposes. But during all this time the hilt must have been made to serve some other and less appropriate purpose than that of a handle, and as a result its original beauty of ornamentation has been entirely destroyed. I think that this purpose must have been the chipping, or rather the re-working, of the edges of other flint instruments.
Whether this was effected by pressure or by slight blows it is hard to say; but it appears probable that the ancient possessor of two such daggers used the hilt of the one for re-chipping the blade of the other, and it may be for re-chipping other implements. An indirect inference deducible from this disfigurement of the beautifully wrought handles, is that they were not originally made by the owners who thus misused them—though they also must have been fairly accomplished workers in flint—but that the daggers were procured by barter of some kind from the cutlers of the period, whose special trade it was to work in flint. For we can hardly conceive that those who had bestowed so much time and skill in the ornamentation of these hilts, should afterwards wantonly disfigure their own artistic productions. In Britain, where the larger forms of finely-wrought instruments are scarcer, it seems most likely that these flakers were principally used in the making of arrow-heads, though probably hard bone or stag’s horn was also employed, as already suggested.
Against regarding the ends of these tools as having been worn away in the manufacture of other instruments of flint, it may be urged that the butt-ends of some chisels present a similar appearance, and therefore that the wear may be the result of hammering with some kind of hard mallet. It must, however, be remembered that no hammering at the ends would produce the wearing away apparent on the sides of the tools, and that the chisels which present the worn ends are in form and size much the same as the “flaking tools,” and may, like the Danish daggers, have served a double purpose. It is also worthy of notice that these “flaking tools” are most abundant in districts where flint arrow-heads occur in the greatest numbers, as, for instance, on |415| the Yorkshire Wolds. In parts of Suffolk where arrow-heads are common they too are abundantly present. I have also found them in the camp at Maiden Bower, near Dunstable, in company with arrow-heads.
In the case of the straight implements, like Fig. 347, it is by no means impossible that they were used with a mallet as punches or sets, to strike off flakes in the manufacture of arrow-heads and similar articles. As already mentioned, some of the American tribes use a bone punch for this purpose.
[Illustration: Fig. 348.—Sawdon. 1∕1]
[Illustration: Fig. 349.—Acklam Wold. 1∕1]
In Figs. 348 and 349 I have engraved two Yorkshire instruments, the one from Sawdon, and the other from Acklam Wold; both from the rich Greenwell Collection. At first sight they seem chisel-like in character, but the edge in both is semicircular, and not ground, but merely chipped. Fig. 348 is worked on both faces, though more convex on one than on the other. Fig. 349 is merely a flake with its edges chipped towards its outer face, so that it resembles a long narrow scraper. The butt-end in that from Sawdon is much worn and rounded, its sides are also worn away for about 3∕4 inch at that end; the butt of that from Acklam Wold is also rounded, but principally towards the flat face. The edges of both are sharp and uninjured. It therefore appears probable that these tools were also made with a view to being used at the blunt, and not at the sharp end; and it is possible that the semicircular sharp ends may have been for insertion in some form of wooden handle, in which the instruments were tightly bound, and their projecting ends then used, it may be, for flaking other flints. A flaking-tool from Unstan Cairn,[1972] Orkney, is of the same character as Fig. 349, but longer. What seems to have been a “fabricator” was found at Torre Abbey Sands,[1973] Torbay. On referring to page 38, will be seen some Eskimo arrow-flakers of reindeer horn |416| attached to wooden handles; and the instrument from Acklam Wold seems well adapted for similar attachment, with its flat side towards the wood.
Some bone instruments which have been found in barrows may possibly have served as arrow-flakers. One from Green Low,[1974] Derbyshire, has been figured. An implement of deer’s horn, with a small piece of hard bone inserted in the small end, was found in the Broch[1975] of Lingrow, Scapa, Orkney, but seems to belong to the Iron Period. No flint arrow-heads are recorded from the Broch.
I must confess that the suggestions I have offered with regard to the use of these tools are by no means conclusive. I can only hope that future discoveries may throw more light upon the subject.
Canon Greenwell, who has figured a specimen—like Fig. 346—in the _Archæological Journal_,[1976] was inclined to think that the other form of instrument, like Figs. 348 and 349, was “used in dressing hides, the sharp end for removing the loose parts of the skin, the smooth end for rubbing down the seams when the leather was made up into a garment.” I do not think that this can really have been their purpose, as for smoothing down the seams a natural pebble would probably be preferable, and for cutting or removing the loose parts a flint flake would answer better. Still, I have seen a somewhat pointed concretionary nodule of stone, the end and point of which were polished from use by a glovemaker, in recent times, in smoothing down the seams of coarse leather gloves. The late Mr. C. Monkman,[1977] like myself, regarded these instruments as punches or fabricators, used for chipping arrows and delicate flint weapons into shape. This is also Canon Greenwell’s present opinion. He has figured an example in “British Barrows.”[1978] In Yorkshire they are known as “finger-flints.”
The worn appearance of the pointed end of some flakes is not improbably due, as has already been observed, to their having been employed in “picking” into shape implements—such as hatchets or axes—formed of greenstone and other rocks of a somewhat softer nature than flint. The ends of the flaking tools, punches, or fabricators are, however, usually far too blunt for them to have been applied to such a purpose.
Another of the causes of the blunted and worn-away appearance of the ends, and even sides, of originally sharp flint flakes and instruments, I have already described when treating of scrapers—namely, the striking off by their means particles from a block of pyrites, with a view of procuring fire.
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CHAPTER XVIII.
SLING-STONES AND BALLS.
Passing on from flint arrow-heads and the tools which were probably used in the process of their manufacture, we come to another form of missile weapon—the sling-stone—which also appears to have been in use in Britain. It is needless here to enter into details as to the early use of the sling among the more civilized nations of antiquity, especially as comprehensive articles on the subject have already been published in this country by Mr. Walter Hawkins[1979] and Mr. Syer Cuming.[1980]
A stone thrown by hand doubtless constituted the first missile weapon, and some form of sling must probably have been among the earliest inventions of mankind. What appears to be the simplest kind, and one which, like Nilsson[1981] and Strutt,[1982] I frequently used as a boy, consists of a stick split for a short distance down one end, so as to form a cleft, in which a stone is placed; the elasticity of the two halves of the stick, which are kept asunder by the stone, retaining it there until the proper moment for its discharge. Nilsson cites Lepsius as engraving in his great work on Egypt a representation of a man armed with such a sling, which he appears to use very actively in fight. At his feet there is a heap of small stones in readiness for use. Nilsson[1983] also suggests that it was with such a sling that David was armed when he encountered Goliath, who addresses him: “Am I a dog that thou comest to me with staves?”[1984] that is, with the shepherd’s staff and the sling handle. The most ancient form, however, recorded by classical writers is that of the ribbon sling, with a central receptacle for the stone, and with strings on either side. The neatly plaited or knitted cup or strap of a sling, with a portion of its cord, both formed of flax, was among the objects discovered in the |418| Lake-settlement of Cortaillod,[1985] which was remarkably rich in bronze objects. This probably is the most ancient sling now in existence.
The staff-sling reappears in Roman times in a somewhat modified form, with a receptacle for the stone attached to the end of a staff. To this weapon the name of _fustibalus_ was given.
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The earliest sling-stones were, no doubt, like those used by David against Goliath, the “smooth stones out of the brook;” but in after-times, among the Greeks and the Romans, sling-bullets of an almond or acorn-like form were cast in lead, and flattened ovoid missiles were formed in terra cotta; both kinds, from their uniformity in size, ensuring greater precision of aim than could be secured with stones, however carefully selected, and the former also offering the advantages of less resistance from the air, as well as greater concentration of force when striking the object. Some polished sling-bullets of loadstone or hæmatite are mentioned by Schliemann[1986] as having been found on the presumed site of Troy. The advantages of uniformity of size and form are recognized among some savage tribes, who make use of the sling at the present day; the sling-stones, for instance, of the New Caledonians being carefully shaped out of steatite, and, what is worthy of remark, approximating closely in form to the Roman _glandes_, being fusiform or pointed ovoids. The same form on a larger scale, about 3 inches in diameter and 4 inches long, has been adopted by the natives of Savage Island for missiles thrown by the hand. These are wrought from calc-spar almost as truly as if turned in a lathe.
Nilsson[1987] has engraved a sling-stone of this same form, found in Sweden, where, however, they are by no means common, as he cites but five specimens in the museums at Lund and Stockholm.
Artificially-fashioned sling-stones are not, however, confined to this fusiform shape; those that were in use among the Charruas of Southern America having been of a lenticular form, though slightly flattened at the centre of each face. One in my collection is about 3 inches in diameter and 1 3∕8 inches thick in the middle. It has been ground over the whole of both faces, and has the edge at its periphery slightly rounded.
The objects so frequently found in the Swiss Lake-dwellings, and to which the name of sling-stones has been commonly given, were, as Keller[1988] has pointed out, probably intended for some very different purpose. Many of the forms described by Sir William Wilde,[1989] under the name of sling-stones, may also, I think, be more properly placed in some other category. The carefully polished lenticular disc of flint (Wilde, Fig. 9) seems better adapted for a cutting tool; and the flat oval stones, usually with “a slight indentation, such as might be effected by rubbing with a metal tool,” were, as I have already observed, more probably used for obtaining fire, like those of the same class belonging to the early Iron Age of Denmark,[1990] which they much resemble in character. |419|
The objects to which in this country the name of sling-stone has been generally applied are more or less roughly-chipped, and approximately lenticular blocks of flint, varying considerably in proportionate thickness, and usually from about 1 1∕2 to 3 inches in diameter. An average specimen from the Yorkshire Wolds is shown in Fig. 350. The contour is frequently more truly circular or oval, and the faces somewhat more carefully chipped. They are found in considerable numbers on the Yorkshire Wolds, in Suffolk, Sussex, and other counties where chalk flints are common. Occasionally also they occur in Scotland.[1991] Similar forms are also abundant in the Danish kjökken-möddings and “coast-finds.” In this latter case it appears quite as probable that they may have served for net-sinkers as for sling-stones; although, as Sir John Lubbock[1992] has remarked, “that some have really served as sling-stones seems to be indicated by their presence in the peat-mosses, which it is difficult to account for in any other way.”
[Illustration: Fig. 350.—Yorkshire Wolds. 1∕2]
Prof. Nilsson[1993] objects that they are so irregular and sharp-cornered, “that they would soon wear out the sling, even if it were made of leather.” He presumes “that these sharp-cornered stone balls were the first hand-missile weapons of the earliest and rudest savages, and used by them to throw at wild animals or enemies.” This objection to regard them as sling-stones seems hardly well founded; especially if we consider them to have been in use with a stick-sling, in which case their angularity would have been of some service in retaining them in the cleft, while their lenticular form adapts them well for this kind of sling. A more valid objection raised by Prof. Nilsson is that no one “would give himself all this trouble to fashion sling-stones which were to be thrown away the next moment, when he could find many natural pebbles quite as suitable.” But to this it may be replied, that at the present day we do find the New Caledonians, the Tahitians, and other tribes, carefully fashioning their sling-stones; and also that this flat lenticular form is better adapted for the stick-sling than a natural pebble of the usual oval form. As a fact, however, I think it will be found that these flint discs, to which the name of sling-stones is applied, are most abundant in those districts where natural rolled pebbles happen to be scarce. If the case be really so, we can readily understand why the cores, from which flakes had been struck for conversion into arrow-heads and other instruments, should have been themselves utilized as sling-stones. If these missiles were necessary, it would be a question of which would involve the least trouble, whether to chip into the required form a certain number of flints which came readily to hand, at the same time making use of the resulting chips; or to select and bring together, possibly from a distant sea-coast, a bed of a stream, or some uncovered patch of gravel, a number of pebbles of the right size and form for slinging. In the camp at Hod Hill, near Blandford, |420| which, however, probably belongs to the Early Iron Period, the latter course seems to have been adopted, as several heaps of rounded flint-pebbles, either derived from the sea-coast or from some bed of Lower Tertiary Age, have been found there, and in all probability constituted the munition of the slingers of the camp.
The late Mr. C. Monkman[1994] remarked that in Yorkshire he always found the small globular sling-stones most plentiful at a short distance (50 to 200 yards away) from old entrenchments, and he was inclined to class under the head of sling-stones, nodules chipped over their whole surface, varying from an almost globular form to all degrees of flatness, and in size from 1∕2 inch to 3 inches in diameter. This is perhaps too wide a definition, as most of the larger globular forms appear to have been destined for hammer-stones; and pebbles but half an inch in diameter would be almost too light for missiles. It is, however, impossible to say with certainty that any given specimen was undoubtedly a sling-stone, as the flatter forms, which were more probably missiles, merge in the form of a roughly-chipped oval celt like Fig. 17 at one end of the series, and in that of a discoidal scraper with a broken edge at the other. Many may be merely cores, from both faces of which flakes have been struck, so that the term “sling-stones,” if employed for these roughly-chipped discs, must always be used in a somewhat doubtful sense, and for convenience rather than precision.
In Polynesia,[1995] besides rounded pebbles, sharp, angular, and rugged stones were used for slinging. These were called _Ofai ara_, faced or edged stones.
* * * * *
Another class of objects in stone which may possibly have served for the purposes of the chase or of war, consists of balls with their surface divided into a number of more or less projecting circles, with channels between them. They seem, so far as is known, to be confined to Scotland and Ireland.
[Illustration: Fig. 351.—Dumfriesshire. 1∕2]
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That shown in Fig. 351 was found in Dumfriesshire,[1996] and has been engraved by Sir Daniel Wilson. It presents six circular faces. Others, almost identical in form, have been found at Biggar,[1997] Lanarkshire; Dudwick,[1998] Chapel of Garioch[1999] and Migvie,[2000] Tarland, Aberdeenshire; Kilmarnock,[2001] Ayrshire; and Montblairy,[2002] Banffshire. Another, about 3 inches in diameter, with three faces only, was found on the Tullo of Garvoch,[2003] Kincardineshire; and one, with four faces, in a cairn at East Braikie, Forfarshire. This |421| latter is in the Montrose Museum.[2004] One of greenstone, 2 1∕2 inches in diameter, found at Ballater,[2005] Aberdeenshire, has six plain circular discs, with the interspaces partially cut into small knobs or studs, the ornaments being possibly in course of formation. Stone balls,[2006] about 2 1∕2 and 3 inches in diameter, covered over the surface with small rounded projections, like enormous petrified mulberries, have been found in the Isle of Skye, in Orkney, and at Garvoch Hill, Kincardineshire. I presume the latter to be a different specimen from that with three faces, previously described. Others are in the Perth Museum.[2007] A series of such balls, some highly ornamented, has been described by Dr. John Alexander Smith.[2008] One formed of hornblende schist, with six strongly projecting circular faces, was found near Ballymena,[2009] co. Antrim, in 1850, and is now in the British Museum.
[Illustration: Fig. 352.—Towie.]
Probably the most remarkable of all these balls is that shown in Fig. 352, from a cut kindly lent me by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. It was found at Towie,[2010] Aberdeenshire, and is about 2 1∕2 inches in diameter, with four rounded projections, three of which are ornamented with different incised patterns, while the fourth is smooth and undecorated. From the character of the patterns, this object would seem to belong to the Bronze Period rather than to that of Stone, if not, indeed, to still later times. In connection with the pattern upon it, attention may, however, be called to the remarkable carved cylinders of chalk found by Canon Greenwell in a barrow on Folkton Wold,[2011] Yorkshire, and now in the British Museum, which are certainly not of later date than the Bronze Age. The ornament on a clay vessel found in Devonshire[2012] may be compared with that of the sides of the cylinders. |422|
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These balls appear to me to differ most essentially from the ordinary “sink-stones” found in Denmark and Ireland,[2013] with which they have been compared. It is, however, by no means easy to suggest the purpose for which they were intended. The only suggestions that I have met with are, that they were used in some game or amusement; for defence when slung in a long thong or line[2014]; as mace heads[2015] attached to a handle; or else for purposes of divination.[2016] I must confess that I hardly see in what manner the last purpose can have been served, especially as in most instances all the faces of the ball are alike. Nor do I see in what manner they can have been used in games, though of course it is possible that they were so employed. It seems more probable that they were intended for use in the chase or war, when attached to a thong, which the recesses between the circles seem well adapted to receive. Among savage nations of the present day we find the use of the _bolas_, or stones attached to the ends of thongs, over a great part of the southern continent of America;[2017] while the principle is known to the Eskimos, whose strings of sinew, weighted with bunches of ivory knobs, are arranged to wind themselves round the bird at which they are thrown, in just the same way as the much stouter cords weighted at the ends with two or three heavy stone balls which form the _bolas_,[2018] twist round, and hamper the movements of larger game.
The _bolas_ proper, as in use on the Pampas, consist of three balls of stone, nearly the size of the fist, and covered with leather, which are attached to the ends of three thongs, all branching from a common centre. Leaden balls have now almost superseded those of stone. The hunter gives to the _bolas_ a rotary motion, and can then throw them to a great distance, in such a manner that the thongs entwine round the legs, neck, and body of his prey and thus render it helpless, so that it can then be easily despatched. A _bola_ of small size, but of lead or copper, with a single thong about 3 feet long, is also used, and forms both the sling and its stone. It likewise serves as a weapon for striking in close encounter. Among the Patagonians[2019] the same two |423| varieties are used, but those for hunting have usually only two stones, and not three. They sometimes throw the single _bola_ at the adversary, rope and all, but generally they prefer to strike at his head with it.
Assuming a difficulty in securing a ball of stone in a leather case, and that therefore it would be necessary to fasten it by means of a thong, some channelling of the surface would become a necessity; and the natural tendency of savages to decorate their weapons might lead to regular circular discs being left between the channels on the ball, and even to these discs being engraved in patterns, that next the cord being, as in Fig. 352, left undecorated. In the Christy Collection is a _bola_ formed of a polished red spherical stone, mounted in such a manner as to show a considerable portion of its surface, which has evidently been regarded as too handsome to be entirely concealed by the leather. Mr. C. H. Read suggests that these ornamented balls were entirely covered with raw hide, which was allowed to dry, the ends or edges being tightly tied. When dry the circles over the knots were cut out so as to display the ornament and leave a solid binding round the stone to which a thong might be attached.
These _bola_ stones are sometimes wrought so as to present a number of rounded protuberances. Of this kind there are specimens in the Christy Collection[2020] and in that of the late Mr. J. Bernhard Smith. Even if the use of the _bolas_ or the single _bola_ were unknown, there is a form of military flail or “morning star,” a sort of modification of the staff-sling, though the stone never quits the cord by which it is attached to the staff, for which such balls as these might serve. A mediæval weapon[2021] of this kind, in the Meyrick Collection, consists of a staff, to which is attached by a chain a ball of wood with numerous projecting iron spikes. The citizens of London will be familiar with the same weapon in the hands of the giant Gog or Magog at Guildhall. The Calmucks, Mongols, and Chinese,[2022] still use a flail of this sort, with an iron perforated ball about two pounds in weight attached to the end of the thong. Substituting one of these stone balls for the spiked morning-star, and a leather thong carefully adjusted in the channels of the stone for the chain, a most effective form of weapon for close encounters would result. Among the North American tribes a somewhat |424| similar weapon was lately in use, and is thus described by Lewis and Clarke, as quoted by Squier and Davies:[2023]—“The Shoshonee Indians use an instrument which was formerly employed among the Chippeways, and called by them _pogamoggon_.[2024] It consists of a handle 22 inches long, made of wood covered with leather, about the size of a whip-handle. At one end is a thong 2 inches in length, which is tied to a stone weighing two pounds, enclosed in a cover of leather; at the other end is a loop of the same material, which is passed around the wrist to secure the implement, with which they strike a powerful blow.” Another form of club in use among the Algonquins consisted of a round boulder sewn in a piece of fresh skin and attached to the end of a long handle, to which, by the drying of the skin, it becomes firmly attached. Examples of both of these kinds are in the British Museum. An engraving of a drumstick-like club of this character is given by Schoolcraft.[2025] Unfortunately, however, the existence of such a weapon in early times is not susceptible of proof. Whatever the purpose of these British balls of stone, they seem to belong to a recent period as compared with that to which many other stone antiquities may be assigned.
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CHAPTER XIX.
BRACERS, AND ARTICLES OF BONE.
Another object in stone, not unfrequently found in graves, and of which the use is now comparatively certain, is a rectangular plate usually round on one face, and hollow on the other, with perforations at either end. These plates are commonly formed of a close-grained green chlorite slate, are very neatly finished, and vary considerably in length and proportions.
[Illustration: Fig. 353.—Isle of Skye. 1∕2]
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The specimen shown in Fig. 353 is in the National Museum at Edinburgh, and has already been engraved by Sir D. Wilson,[2026] and roughly figured in the _Wiltshire Archæological Magazine_. It was found alongside of a human skeleton, in a rudely-vaulted chamber in a large tumulus on the shore of Broadford Bay, Isle of Skye. It is formed of pale-green stone polished, and has at one end an ornamented border of slightly indented ovals. In the same Museum[2027] is another of longer proportions, being 4 1∕2 inches by 1 1∕4 inches, formed of fine-grained greenish-coloured stone, and having at each corner a small perforation. It was found, together with an urn and the remains of a skeleton, in a short cist on the farm of Fyrish, Evantown, Ross-shire. It is shown in Fig. 354. There is also, in the same Museum, a fragment of a flatter specimen formed of indurated clay-slate of a lightish green colour, perforated at one end with three small holes. It was found in a stone circle called “The Standing Stones of Rayne.”[2028] Another example was found in a grave at Dalmore,[2029] Ross-shire. It is, however, imperfect. In the Arbuthnot Museum, Peterhead, is another object of this class, 4 1∕4 inches long, with a hole at each corner, and slightly rounded on one face and hollow on the other. It was found at Cruden,[2030] Aberdeenshire, |426| in a cist surmounted by a small tumulus. In the cist, were the skeletons of an adult and a youth, as well as portions of that of a dog. They were accompanied by two rude urns, several flint arrow-heads, and two flint knives.
The earliest recorded discovery of these objects in England is that which has already been mentioned as having taken place at Tring Grove, Herts, about 1763.[2031] In this case, a skeleton was found in sinking a ditch in level ground; between the legs were some flint arrow-heads, and at the feet “some small slender stones, polished, and of a greenish cast; convex on one side, and concave on the other; the larger were four inches long and one broad; the smaller not quite four inches long nor one inch broad, somewhat narrower in the middle, with two holes at both ends.” The interment was accompanied by two urns, and a ring of jet, perforated for suspension at the edge. To judge from the plate and description, the longer of the “slender stones” had not been bored with holes at either end.
[Illustration: Fig. 354.—Evantown. 1∕2]
[Illustration: Fig. 355.—Devizes. 1∕2]
An oblong piece of chlorite slate, 5 3∕8 inches long, 1 3∕4 inches broad, and 1∕4 inch thick, rounded on one face and hollowed on the other, was found in a gravel-pit at Aldington, Worcestershire.[2032] It has four holes through it, one at each corner, just large enough on the rounded face to allow a fine ligament to pass through, and countersunk on the other face. The plate of chlorite slate shown in Fig. 355 is flat, instead of hollowed, and the holes at the corners are countersunk on both faces. It was found in a barrow on Roundway Hill,[2033] near Devizes, in front of the breast of a skeleton, between the bones of the left forearm, and had, when found, a small fragment of bronze, possibly the tang of a knife, much corroded, adhering to it. In the same barrow was a |427| stemmed and barbed flint arrow-head like Fig. 327, and a tanged bronze dagger. This bracer has been kindly lent to me by Mr. Cunnington, of Devizes, who discovered it. Another flat wrist-guard from a barrow at Aldbourne,[2034] Wilts, has only two out of the four holes finished. A third is incomplete. Dr. Thurnam[2035] regards those flat examples as breast-plates or gorgets. One, found with an interment at Calne, Wilts, is in the British Museum. It resembles Fig. 354.
A bracer, formed of a green-coloured stone, was found in a gravel-pit at Lindridge, Worcestershire.[2036] It is about 4 3∕4 inches by 1 inch, and 1∕4 inch thick; but it has been perforated at one end only, with a countersunk hole in each of the two corners, a third hole between them being only partly drilled. The other end is somewhat sharper and undrilled.
In the Christy Collection, is a plate of pale-green stone 4 1∕2 inches long, with both faces somewhat rounded, one of them polished, and the other, which is rather flatter, in places striated transversely by coarse grinding. At each end are three small countersunk perforations in a line with each other. It was found with two small ornamented urns near Brandon, Suffolk. This bracer has been figured[2037] in illustration of some remarks by Sir A. Wollaston Franks.
In a barrow near Sutton,[2038] Sir R. Colt Hoare found, under the right hand and close to the breast of a contracted skeleton, a plate of blue slate, 4 1∕2 inches long and 2 3∕4 inches wide, with three small countersunk holes arranged in a triangle at either end. Near it were two boar’s tusks and a drinking-cup. It has been thought to be too wide for a wrist-guard. A narrower specimen with six holes at each end is also in the Stourhead Collection.[2039]
Another variety has but one hole at each end, and is flat and broadest in the middle. In a cist in a barrow on Mere Down, Wiltshire,[2040] were two skeletons, near the left side of the larger of which was a small bronze dagger, with a tang for insertion in the hilt, and a piece of grey slaty stone about 4 inches long, and 1 1∕8 inches broad in the middle, perforated at the ends. There were also present a drinking-cup, and an instrument of bone, as well as two circular ornaments of gold. A similar thin stone, with a hole at either end, was found with part of a bronze spear and other objects, associated with burnt human remains in a barrow at Bulford, Wilts.[2041] One of grey slaty stone with a countersunk hole at each end accompanied an interment at Sittingbourne,[2042] Kent, and is now in the British Museum. Another was found at Lancaster.[2043] I have another from Sandy, Beds, but cannot say whether it accompanied any interment. Another, 3 1∕2 inches long, nearly an inch broad in the middle, and only the fifth part of an inch in thickness, was found near the tumulus at Broadford Bay, Isle of Skye,[2044] already mentioned, and is shown in |428| Fig. 356. One (3 1∕4 inches) was found in Mull,[2045] two (3 3∕8 and 3 inches) came from Fyvie and Ballogie,[2046] Aberdeenshire, and one (2 1∕4 inches) from Glenluce.[2047] Another (3 1∕2 inches) in the Museum at Edinburgh came from the North of Ireland.[2048]
[Illustration: Fig. 356.—Isle of Skye. 1∕2]
A few specimens of the same character as Figs. 353 and 356 have been found in Ireland. In that country, also, the same slaty material was used, sometimes green, and sometimes red in colour.
The curious plate of fine soft sandstone, 4 inches long and perforated at each end, found in the Genista Cave, at Gibraltar,[2049] may possibly belong to this class, but it is by no means certain. Some objects of the same kind, with a hole at each end, have been found in the Côtes du Nord.[2050] France. Some early Spanish[2051] whetstones have one and even two perforations at each end.
* * * * *
The material of which this class of objects is formed is not exclusively stone. A plate of bone, now in the Devizes Museum, about 3 1∕4 inches by 3∕4 inch, bored through at each end from the sides and back, so as not to interfere with the face, was found with a small bronze celt mounted as a chisel in stag’s horn, and with bone pins and two whetstones, in a barrow near Everley.[2052] A fragment of another bracer made of bone was found at Scratchbury Camp, Wilts. It is doubtful whether the richly-ornamented flat plate of gold, with a hole at each corner, found with a bronze dagger in a barrow[2053] at Upton Lovel, was destined for the same purpose. It led Sir R. C. Hoare, however, to regard the slate plate from the barrow near Sutton as a mere ornament, “an humble imitation of the golden plate found at Upton Lovel.” Others have regarded these stone plates as amulets or charms;[2054] as destined to be affixed to the middle of a bow;[2055] or as personal decorations.[2056] Wilson has called attention to their similarity to the perforated plates of stone, of which such numerous varieties are found in North America.[2057] The holes in these, however, are very rarely more than two in number, and sometimes only one, and these almost always near the middle of the stone; their purpose possibly being to serve as draw-holes for equalizing the size of cords, in the same manner as twine is |429| polished and rendered uniform in size, by being drawn through a circular hole by European manufacturers at the present day. They may, however, have served as ornaments, or even in some cases as wrist-guards. One engraved by Squier[2058] is much like Fig. 356, but thinner, and with the holes rather farther from the ends. Schoolcraft,[2059] suggests their employment to hold the strands or plies apart, in the process of twine or rope making.
The Rev. Canon Ingram, F.G.S.,[2060] was the first to suggest that these British plates were bracers or guards, to protect the arm of the wearer against the blow of the string in shooting with the bow, like those in use by archers at the present day. In corroboration of this view, he cites the position of the plate in the Roundway barrow, between the bones of the left forearm, and the fact of so many of them being hollowed in such a manner as to fit the arm; while he argues that the similarity in the character and position of the perforations, in the hollowed and flat varieties, affords presumptive evidence that the use of both kinds of tablets was the same. I am inclined to adopt Canon Ingram’s view, though, unless there was some error in observation, plates of this kind have been occasionally found on the right arm. In a barrow at Kelleythorpe, near Driffield,[2061] examined by the late Lord Londesborough in 1851, was a chamber containing a contracted skeleton, the bones of the right arm of which “were laid in a very singular and beautiful armlet, made of some large animal’s bone” (actually of stone),[2062] “about 6 inches long, and the extremities, which were a little broader than the middle, neatly squared; in this were two perforations about half an inch from each end, through which were bronze pins or rivets, with gold heads, most probably to attach it to a piece of leather which had passed round the arm and been fastened by a small bronze buckle, which was found underneath the bones.” These objects are now in the British Museum. In the cist was also a bronze dagger, with a wooden sheath and handle, some large amber beads, a drinking-cup, and the upper part of the skull of a hawk. Possibly this ancient warrior was left-handed, like the seven hundred chosen men of Benjamin,[2063] every one of whom could yet “sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss.” |430|
It may be observed that left-handedness is thought to have been very prevalent in early times, both in the Old World[2064] and the New.[2065] Certainly this plate strapped upon the arm is curiously similar in character to the bracer in use in England in later times, which, though sometimes of other materials, consisted, according to Paulus Jovius,[2066] of a bone tablet. A bracer of carved ivory, of the sixteenth century, is in the Meyrick Collection,[2067] and Mr. C. J. Longman has a collection of them, many artistically engraved, dating from the 16th and 17th centuries. Among the archers of ancient Egypt,[2068] we find that similar guards were in use for the left arm. These were not only fastened round the wrist, but secured by a thong tied above the elbow. The material of which they were formed appears to be unknown. On a Roman monument[2069] found in the North of England, a soldier is represented with a bow in his hand, and a bracer on his left arm. The Eskimos[2070] of the present day also make use of a guard to save the wrist from the recoil of the bow-string. It is usually composed of three pieces of bone, about 4 inches in length, but sometimes of one only, and is fastened to the wrist by a bone button and loop. An ivory guard, attached by a strap and buckle to the arm, is still worn in India. Whatever was the purpose of those in stone they seem to belong to the latter part of the Stone Period, and to have continued in use in that of Bronze.
These bracers have occasionally been found in Denmark. One of red stone, 4 inches long, and with four holes, was found in a dolmen near Assens. It is ornamented with parallel lines along the ends, and part of the way along the sides. Another, 3 inches long, from a dolmen in Langeland, is of bone, with but two holes, and is ornamented with cross bands of zigzag lines. Both are engraved in the “Guide illustré du Musée des Antiquités du Nord.”[2071] What appears to be one of bone, found in a barrow in Denmark,[2072] with two skeletons, but with no other objects, has also been engraved. A second was found under similar circumstances. |431|
One of fine-grained sandstone (4 1∕2 inches) with four holes was found near Prenzlow[2073] in North Germany, and another of chocolate-coloured material, probably slaty stone, accompanied an interment at Ochsenfurt,[2074] Lower Franconia.
Although, possibly, not strictly within the scope of the present work, it may be well here to make a few observations relating to the various articles formed of bone which are occasionally found in association with those of stone.
* * * * *
More than three dozen bone instruments were found in the Upton Lovel Barrow,[2075] already frequently mentioned. Most of them were pointed, varying in length from about 3 to 9 inches, and formed apparently from the leg-bones of different mammals. They, for the most part, show a portion of the articular surface at the end which has not been sharpened, at which also they are perforated. Mr. Cunnington, their discoverer, was of opinion that they had been used as arrow-or lance-heads; and possibly some of the larger specimens served as javelin-points, even if the smaller were merely pins to aid in fastening the dress, to which they were secured by a string passed through the hole, so as to prevent their being lost. Numerous other bone instruments from barrows are described and figured by Dr. Thurnam[2076] and Canon Greenwell. I have two that are decidedly lance-heads, about 6 inches long, made from leg-bones, probably of roe-deer, which have been pointed by cutting the bone obliquely through, so as to show a long elliptical section, while the articular end has been excavated into the cavity of the bone, so as to form a socket for the shaft, which was secured in its place by a pin, passing through two small holes drilled through the bone. One was found in Swaffham Fen, and the other at Girton, near Cambridge. Other spear-heads of much the same character, from the same district, from Lincolnshire,[2077] and from the River Thames, are in the British Museum, and some of them have been described and figured by Sir Wollaston Franks.
I have also a bone dagger with the blade about 4 inches long, with a rivet hole through the broad tang. It was found in the Thames near Windsor, and was given to me by Mr. F. Tress Barry, M.P., in 1895. I have also bones worked to a dagger-like form, but without any tang, from the Cambridge Fens.
A pin or awl of bone,[2078] 4 1∕2 inches long, made from the _fibula_ of some small animal, probably a roe-deer, split, and then rubbed to a point, was among the objects found by the Canon Greenwell, at Grimes’s Graves, Norfolk, as well as the rounded piece of bone already mentioned at p. 34.
Bone pins or skewers, closely resembling those from British barrows, are of frequent occurrence on the sites of Roman occupation. In the name of _fibula_, as applied to the small bone of the leg, we have an |432| acknowledgment of its adaptability for making such pins; in the same way as its concomitant _tibia_ was the bone best adapted for making into flutes.
Bone pins, perforated at one end, were found in several of the barrows explored by the late Mr. Bateman,[2079] both with burnt and unburnt bodies. Canon Greenwell has also found them in the Yorkshire tumuli: in three instances with burnt bodies. I found one also in a disturbed barrow at Sutton Cheney, Leicestershire, which I opened in 1851. Others without the hole, some of which are termed spear-heads by Mr. Bateman, were found in Derbyshire and Staffordshire barrows,[2080] with burnt and unburnt bodies, associated with instruments and arrow-heads of flint. Another was found with burnt bones in a barrow at Hacpen Hill,[2081] Wilts; and part of one in the Long Barrow at West Kennet.[2082]
It seems probable that many of these pointed instruments may have been used as awls, for making holes in leather and soft materials. Others, as Mr. Bateman and Canon Greenwell suggest, may, with the unburnt bodies, have fastened some kind of shroud; and with the burnt, have served to pin a cloth in which the ashes were placed, after being collected from the funeral pile.
In the Heathery Burn Cave, where so many interesting bronze relics were found, there also occurred a large number of bone pins or awls, a cylindrical bone bead 7∕10 inch long, a bone tube 1 1∕2 inches long with a small perforation at the side, a pierced disc of bone 1 5∕8 inches in diameter and 1∕4 inch thick, and a flat bone blade, somewhat resembling in form a modern paper-cutter, 7 3∕4 inches long and 1 1∕4 inches broad. This same flat form of instrument, about 6 1∕2 inches long and 3∕4 inch broad, occurred in the Green Low Barrow,[2083] Derbyshire, but then, in company with a fine flint dagger and stemmed and barbed arrow-heads, and with a bone pin. Mr. Bateman[2084] thought that these instruments might have served as modelling tools for making pottery, or as mesh rules for netting. One, 12 inches long, with a drinking-cup and various instruments of flint, accompanied a contracted interment in a rock-grave on Smerrill Moor,[2085] Derbyshire. With a similar interment in a barrow on Haddon Field[2086] was one 6 1∕4 inches long, cut from the horn of a red-deer, a flint arrow-head, and a small bronze awl. Two others, cut from the ribs of a large animal, and two barbed flint arrow-heads, were found inside a “drinking-cup” at the head of a contracted skeleton in Mouse Low;[2087] and others, again, with barbed flint arrow-heads, occurred with calcined bones at Ribden Low.[2088] They have also been found in Dorsetshire, perforated.[2089] Whether these instruments really served the purposes suggested by Mr. Bateman it is impossible to determine; but they seem well adapted either for finishing off the surface of clay vessels, or for netting, an art with which the Swiss Lake-dwellers of Robenhausen[2090] |433| were acquainted, though in that settlement but slight traces of a knowledge of metal are exhibited.
Although needles of bone, carefully smoothed all over, and having a neatly-drilled eye, have been found in the cave-deposits both of Britain and France, but few such implements have, as yet, been discovered in these countries associated with objects of the Neolithic and Bronze Periods.
A bodkin or needle of wood, 6 inches long, and of the ordinary form, was, however, found in company with a small bronze dagger-blade, in an urn containing burnt bones near Tomen-y-mur,[2091] Carnarvonshire.
Needles of bone, both with the central hole (like some of those of the Bronze Age) and with the eye at the end (like those of the present day), have also been found in the Swiss Lakes.[2092] One of the latter class was discovered in the Genista Cave at Gibraltar.[2093] It is hard to say to what period it belongs. Needles of both forms have been found with arrow-heads and other articles of flint, in Danish grave-chambers.[2094]
The pins or awls, already described, are so rude and clumsy, and so large at the perforated end, that they could never have been intended for use as needles; and when we consider that the principal material to be sewn must have been the skins of animals, and that, even at the present day, needles are hardly ever employed for sewing leather, but bristles are attached to the end of the thread, and passed through holes prepared by an awl, it seems possible that needles, if ever they were used for this particular purpose, may have been superseded at a very remote period. The small bronze awl, so frequently found in barrows, is singularly like the “cobbler’s awl” of the present day, though straight and not curved.
Among the Danish[2095] antiquities of bronze, we find a remarkable form of needle or bodkin, about 2 1∕2 or 3 inches long, bluntly pointed at each end, and provided with an oval eye in the centre, so that it could be passed through a hole in either direction. This, with a bronze awl for boring the holes, and a pair of tweezers to assist in drawing the needle through, appears to have constituted the sewing apparatus of that day. I mention this form of needle because in Ribden Low,[2096] Staffordshire, together with a burnt interment, and some barbed arrow-heads of flint, were bone implements “pointed at each end” and “perforated through the middle,” which may possibly have served such a purpose. No dimensions are given by Mr. Bateman, but a bodkin of the same kind from a barrow at Stourpaine, Dorset, is 4 inches long. It is in the Durden collection in the British Museum. In a barrow, at Bailey Hill,[2097] some calcined bones were accompanied by a pair of bone tweezers, neatly made and perforated for suspension.
Some of the needles of horn or bone in use among the Indians of North America[2098] were in shape much like miniature elephants’ tusks.
Another bone implement appears to have been a chisel, of which a good specimen was found by the Rev. W. C. Lukis, F.S.A., in a |434| chambered barrow at Temple Bottom,[2099] Wilts. It is formed of a portion split from a leg-bone of some mammal, about 3 1∕4 inches long, and 5∕8 inch wide, sharpened from both faces to a segmental edge at one end. A broader instrument of the same character was found with some long bone pins or awls near Cawdor Castle;[2100] and “a celt-shaped instrument, 5 inches long, with a cutting edge, made from part of the lower jaw of a large quadruped, rubbed down,” was found with calcined bones in a barrow near Monsal Dale.[2101]
As has already been mentioned, bone instruments in the shape of a chisel occur in considerable numbers in the Swiss Lake-dwellings and elsewhere, and have been regarded as tools used in making and ornamenting earthen vessels.[2102] That bone chisels are, however, susceptible of more extensive use, is proved by the practice of the Klah-o-quat Indians of Nootka Sound,[2103] who, without the aid of fire, cut down the large cedars for their “dug-out” canoes with chisels formed from the horn of the Wapiti, struck by mallets of stone hafted in withes, or like dumb-bells in shape.
* * * * *
The only other forms of implement I need mention are those of a hammer and a hoe, formed of the lower end of a stag’s horn, cut off and perforated. A hammer, or possibly a celt-socket, was found with a skeleton in Cop Head Hill barrow,[2104] near Warminster, together with fragments of flint “polished by use;” another in a barrow at Collingbourn,[2105] Wilts, and a third in a barrow near Biggin,[2106] with a contracted interment, and in company with flint celts, arrow-heads, and knives. Canon Greenwell has likewise found one in a barrow at Cowlam, Yorkshire, with an unburnt body, and together with a stone axe-hammer among burnt bones in a barrow at Lambourn,[2107] Berks. They have also been found in some numbers in the Thames, near Kew.
I have already spoken of the use of stag’s horn for pick-axes, and for sockets for stone-hatchets; occasionally, also, the horn itself was sharpened and used as an axe or hoe.[2108] One from the Thames[2109] near Wandsworth, with its wooden handle still preserved, has been recorded by Mr. G. F. Lawrence. Stag’s-horn axes occur in various countries on the Continent. They are by no means rare in Scandinavia, except in the case of those having ring and other ornaments engraved upon them.[2110] On an adze of |435| this kind, in the Stockholm Museum, is engraved the spirited representation of a deer. In one instance,[2111] an axe has been made from the _ulna_ of a whale. Lindenschmit[2112] has engraved several of stag’s horn, principally from Hanover. They occur also in France.[2113] Beads and buttons of bone[2114] have been found with early interments; but the curious bone objects discovered in a pit at Leicester,[2115] and in the caves at Settle, Yorkshire,[2116] belong apparently to too recent a period to be here discussed. A kind of bone chisel has remained in use until recent times for the purpose of removing the bark from oak-trees for the supply of tanners. Some beads and ornaments formed of bone will be mentioned in a subsequent chapter.
|436|
CHAPTER XX.
SPINDLE-WHORLS, DISCS, SLICKSTONES, WEIGHTS, AND CUPS.
Besides the weapons and implements used in warfare and the chase, as well as for various constructive purposes, there were in ancient times, as at present, numerous implements and utensils of stone devoted to more purely domestic uses. Some of these, such as corn-crushers, mealing-stones, querns, pestles, and mortars, have been treated of elsewhere in this work, when, from the connection of these instruments with other forms adapted for somewhat different purposes, it appeared appropriate to describe them. There are, however, other classes, connected principally with domestic occupations, such, for instance, as spinning and weaving, about which it will be necessary to say a few words.
At how early a period the introduction of the spinning-wheel superseded to some extent the use of the distaff and spindle, it is difficult to say. It is by no means improbable that it was known in classical times, as Stosch thinks that he has recognized it on antique gems. The distaff and spindle remained, however, in use in many parts of this country until quite recently, and are still commonly employed in some remote parts of Britain, as well as over a great part of Europe. To how early a date this simple method of spinning goes back, we have also no means of judging. We know that it was in use in the earliest times among the Egyptians and Greeks; and we find, moreover, in the lake-habitations of Switzerland[2117]—even in those which apparently belong to a purely stone age—evidence of an acquaintance with the arts both of spinning and weaving, not only in the presence of some of the mechanical appliances for those purposes, but also in the thread and manufactured cloth. The principal fibrous materials in use in the lake-dwellings were bast from the bark of trees (chiefly the lime) and flax. No hemp has as yet been found in |437| any lake-dwelling. It seems probable that the raw materials employed in neolithic times in Britain must have been of the same character; but we have here no such means of judging of the relative antiquity of the textile art, as those at the command of the Swiss antiquaries. Woven tissues have, however, been found with ancient interments, apparently of the Bronze Age, by Canon Greenwell,[2118] and Messrs. Mortimer, but made of wool, and not of vegetable fibre. An article on prehistoric spinning and weaving written by Dr. G. Buschan[2119] is worth consulting, as well as one by Dr. Joseph Anderson,[2120] on these processes in connexion with brochs. Sir Arthur Mitchell[2121] has also written on the subject of the spindle and whorl.
* * * * *
In spinning with the distaff and spindle, the rotatory motion of the latter is maintained by a small fly-wheel or “spindle-whorl,” very generally formed of stone, but sometimes of other materials, with a perforation in the centre, in which the wooden or bone spindle was fastened, the part below the whorl tapering to a point so as to be readily twirled between the finger and thumb, and the part above, being also pointed, but longer, so as to admit of the thread when spun being wound round it, the yarn in the act of being spun being attached to the upper point. These spindle-whorls are, as might be anticipated, frequently found in various parts of the country; and though, from the lengthened period during which this mode of spinning was practised, it is impossible under ordinary circumstances to determine the antiquity of any specimen, yet they appear to have been sufficiently long out of use for local superstitions to have attached to them, as in Cornwall they are commonly known by the name of “Pisky grinding-stones,”[2122] or “Pixy’s grindstones.” In North Britain,[2123] they are also familiarly called Pixy-wheels, and in Ireland[2124] “Fairy mill-stones.” In Harris, and Lewis,[2125] the distaff and spindle are still in common use, and were so until quite recently on the mainland of Scotland.[2126] For twisting hair-lines or “imps” for fishing, stone, lead, or earthenware whorls with a hook in them are used. They are known by the name of “imp-stones.”[2127] Notwithstanding this recent use, the original intention of the stone spindle-whorls, which occur in Scotland, as elsewhere, appears often to be unknown. They are called _clach-nathrach_, adder-stones or snake-stones, and have an origin assigned them much like that of the _ovum anguinum_ of Pliny. “When cattle are bitten by snakes, the snake-stone is put into water, with which the affected part is washed, and it is cured forthwith.” Glass beads[2128] with spirals on them seem to have been regarded as even more efficacious. |438|
Spindle-whorls vary considerably in size and weight, being usually from an inch to an inch and a half in diameter, but occasionally as much as from two to three inches. They are sometimes flat at the edge or cylindrical, but more frequently rounded. They differ much in the degree of finish, some appearing to have been turned in a lathe, while others are very rough and not truly circular.
[Illustration: Fig. 357.—Scampston. 1∕2]
[Illustration: Fig. 358.—Holyhead. 1∕1]
[Illustration: Fig. 359.—Holyhead. 1∕1]
[Illustration: Fig. 360.—Holyhead. 1∕1]
The specimen I have selected for engraving as Fig. 357 is one of the more highly finished class, and rather flatter than usual. It was found in draining, at Scampston, Yorkshire, and is formed of a hard slaty stone. It has been turned in a lathe on one face, and at the edge; the other face is irregular, and seems to have been polished by hand. What was evidently the upper face, is ornamented with two parallel incised circles, and there are two more round the edge. The hole seems to have been drilled, and is quite parallel. One of the cheese-like spindle-whorls, of red sandstone, and another, rounded at the rim, found in hut-circles in Holyhead and Anglesea,[2129] are shown in Figs. 358 and 359. Another, of sandstone, was found in Thor’s Cave,[2130] Derbyshire, with various objects, some of them of iron. One of lead, 1 1∕8 inches in diameter, convex on one face, was found in the same place. One found at Ty Mawr, Holyhead,[2131] by the late Hon. W. O. Stanley, F.S.A., who kindly lent me this and the preceding blocks, is shown in Fig. 360. Numerous other specimens were discovered in the same place. They are sometimes decorated with incised radial lines and shallow cavities more or less rudely executed. One such, found near Carno, Montgomeryshire,[2132] has been figured. Several others are |439| recorded as having been found in the Principality.[2133] In Cornwall,[2134] they seem to be especially numerous, occasionally occurring in subterranean chambers. They have also been found in considerable numbers in Scotland.[2135] The half of a clay spindle-whorl was found by Canon Greenwell in the material of a barrow at Weaverthorpe.[2136]
Sir Wollaston Franks[2137] has suggested that some of these perforated discs may have been used as dress-fasteners or buttons, and mentions that very similar objects have been found in Mexico, which there is every reason to believe have been used as buttons. He also instances a specimen from South Wales, which has evidently had a cord passed through it, as the edges of the hole in the centre are much worn by friction. Such a view carries much probability with it, so far as it relates to the thin discs of stone with small central holes not parallel, but tapering from both faces; especially if they are in any way ornamented. Some of the rougher kind, however, may have served some such purpose as that of plummets or net-sinkers, as has been suggested by Professor Nilsson.[2138] Perforated[2139] pebbles of much the same form have served as net weights in Scotland, and are still occasionally in use. In Samoa, flat circular discs of stones, about two inches in diameter, with central holes, are used to prevent rats from reaching provisions, which are suspended in baskets by a cord. One of these discs strung on the cord suffices for the purpose. A specimen is in the Christy Collection. Their use is analogous to that of the flat stones on the staddles on which corn-stacks are built in this country, though in that case, the stones are to prevent the ascent and not the descent of the rats.
Judging, however, from all analogy, there can be little doubt that in most cases where the holes are parallel, the perforated discs found in Britain were spindle-whorls. As has been already observed, they are frequently formed of other materials than stone; and both the spindles of wood and the whorls of bone have been found with Roman remains.[2140] They are also frequently formed of lead and earthenware. Spindles of ivory sometimes occur both with Roman and Saxon relics. I have several such, found with whorls of slaty stone in Cambridgeshire. The Saxon whorls are of the same materials and character as those of Roman age. Spindles of wood have been found in the lake-settlements of Savoy.[2141] An interesting and profusely illustrated chapter on spindle-whorls will be found in Hume’s “Ancient Meols.”[2142] Earthenware whorls, variously decorated, have been found in large numbers on the site of Troy, and with Mycenæan remains.
Allied to the whorls, but evidently destined for some other purpose, is a flat disc of shelly limestone, now in my collection, found at Barrow, near Bury St. Edmund’s. It is 5 1∕2 inches in diameter, 3∕4 inch thick, ground from both faces to an edge all round, and perforated in the centre with a hole 5∕8 inch in diameter, counter-sunk on each face, so as to leave only a narrow edge in the middle of the hole, which is much polished by friction. The edge of the periphery is also worn |440| smooth. I am at a loss to assign a use to this object. In the Greenwell Collection a similar disc from the North Riding of Yorkshire shows polish on one face. A somewhat similar disc with the hole a little larger, so that it rather resembles a quoit, is in the Norwich Museum. It may be a plaything of no great antiquity. An instrument of similar form, engraved by Lindenschmit,[2143] has a parallel shaft-hole. Among the North American Indians,[2144] perforated discs, but with broad and not sharp peripheries, appear to have been used as a kind of quoits.
Some flat imperforate discs of stone, from two to nine inches in diameter, roughly chipped round the edges, and in one instance oval, were associated with bronze tweezers and articles of iron, in a Pict’s house at Kettleburn, Caithness.[2145] Two polished stone discs were found in a crannog near Maybole,[2146] Ayrshire, and a nearly square piece of stone that had been polished on both sides in a crannog at Dowalton,[2147] Sorbie, Wigtownshire. Others of large size occurred in another Pict’s house in Orkney,[2148] and were regarded as plates. Six black stone dishes, all about 2 1∕2 inches thick, and varying from 1 foot 8 inches to 10 inches long, were found with numerous other objects, among them a copper needle, in a circular building in South Uist.[2149] Other similar dishes have been found near Sand Lodge, in Shetland,[2150] and elsewhere. Possibly such stones may have been used in cooking oatmeal cakes or bannocks—like the stones on which formerly “pikelets” or crumpets were cooked in Leicestershire and other Midland counties, where their modern iron substitutes are still called “pikelet-stones.” Ornamented stones for toasting oatmeal cakes in front of a peat fire are or were until lately in use in Scotland.[2151] Cooking slabs of thin stone are used by the natives of Guiana,[2152] for baking cassava bread.
Dr. Joseph Anderson[2153] has suggested that some of the small discs, with the surface highly polished, such as have been found in Scottish brochs of the Iron Age, may have served as mirrors.
* * * * *
Another purpose to which stone implements seem to have been applied, in connection with weaving and the preparation of leather, is that of burnishing or smoothing, somewhat in the same manner as is now effected by the flat-iron. An oval pebble (4 inches) rubbed all along one side was found by General Pitt Rivers in one of the pits at Mount Caburn,[2154] Lewes. Sir W. Wilde, speaking of a quite recent period, observes that “it is well known that weavers in the north of Ireland used a smooth celt, whenever they could find one, for rubbing on the cloth, bit by bit, as they worked it, to close the threads and give a gloss to the surface.”[2155] Canon |441| Greenwell had a celt from Yorkshire, which was used by a shoemaker for smoothing down the seams he made in leather. The old English name for the smooth stones used for such purposes is “slickstone.” In the “Promptorium Parvulorum,”[2156] written in the fifteenth century, a SLEKYSTŌN or SLEKENSTONE is translated, _linitorium_, _lucibriunculum_, _licinitorium_—terms unknown to classical Latinity. Mr. Albert Way, in a note on the word, after giving its various forms as slyke-stone, sleght-stone, sleeke-stone, &c., remarks, “In former times, polished stones, implements in form of a muller, were used to smooth linen,[2157] paper, and the like, and likewise for the operation termed calendering. Gautier de Bibelesworth says,—
“Et priez la dame qe ta koyfe luche (slike) De sa luchiere (slikingston) sur la huche.”
In directions for making buckram, &c., and for starching cloth, (Sloane MS., 3548, f. 102), the finishing process is as follows: ‘_Cum lapide slycstone levifica_.’” “She that hath no glasse to dresse her head will use a bowle of water, she that wanteth a sleeke stone to smooth her linnen will take a pebble.”[2158]
“Slickstones occur in the Tables of Custom-House Rates on Imports, 2 James I., and about that period large stones inscribed with texts of Scripture were occasionally thus used. (See Whitaker, ‘Hist. of Craven,’[2159] p. 401, _n._) There was a specimen in the Leverian Museum. Bishop Kennett, in his ‘Glossarial Collections,’ _s.v._ ‘Slade,’ alludes to the use of such an appliance ‘to sleek clothes with a sleekstone.’” Cotgrave, in his French Dictionary, translates _calendrine_ or _pierre calendrine_, as a sleekstone; and under the word “lisse” makes mention of “a rowler of massive glasse wherewith curriers do sleeke and gloss their leather.” This, probably, was a substitute for a more ancient instrument of stone. Sir Thomas Browne mentions slickstones among electric bodies, and implies that in his time they were of glass. “Glass attracts but weakly though clear; some slickstones and thick glasses indifferently.”[2160]
I have two or three specimens of glass slickstones, which in form resemble mushrooms. The lenticular part is usually about 5 inches in diameter, and its rounded surface was used for |442| polishing the linen. The handle or stalk is ribbed and about 4 1∕2 inches long. They are of both clear and of bottle-green glass. A small slickstone of black glass without a handle was found in a Viking grave of a woman in Islay.[2161] The same form was recently in use in Scotland. A large one is in the Kirkcudbright[2162] Museum. Another[2163] provided with a long smooth handle has likewise been figured.
[Illustration: Fig. 361.—Holyhead.]
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A four-sided implement of stone, fashioned with considerable care, the sides flat and smooth, and with an edge at one end, was found by the late Hon. W. O. Stanley, F.S.A., at Pen-y-Bonc,[2164] and is shown in Fig. 361, kindly lent to me by him. It has been regarded as a burnisher or polishing stone. A similar specimen is in the Blackmore Museum.
Mr. Syer Cuming[2165] mentions the discovery, at Alchester, Oxfordshire, of a flat pyriform piece of red sandstone, 3 1∕2 inches long, 3 1∕4 inches wide, and 1 inch thick in the middle, with the edges rounded, and the whole surface, with the exception of the obtuse end, polished; and he inclines to the belief that it was employed in smoothing hides and rendering them pliant for clothing. Another “slickstone for tawing or softening hides by friction,” formed of quartz, 6 1∕8 inches broad by 2 1∕2 inches in height, with a depression on either side to admit the finger and thumb, and having the surface rounded and polished by use, was found at a depth of three feet in the ground at Culter, Lanarkshire.[2166] In the Shrewsbury Museum[2167] is a perforated stone in shape like a broad hoe, but with rounded edges; it is thought to be a currier’s tool. Three flint pebbles found with late Celtic enamelled bronze horse-trappings at Westhall, Suffolk,[2168] and having one or both |443| of their sides much rubbed down, may possibly belong to this class of objects. Sir R. Colt Hoare[2169] speaks of “the hard flat stones of the pebble kind, such as we frequently find both in the towns as well as in the tumuli of the Britons,” but does not suggest a purpose for them. Polished pebbles have not unfrequently been found in tumuli with stone weapons and implements. One tapering toward the ends, which are rubbed flat, was found by Mr. Bateman.[2170] Another was found in a barrow near Ashford-in-the-Water.[2171] It is possible they may, as subsequently suggested, have been ornaments or amulets; but some pebbles, polished on part of their surface, as if by use, have been found in tumuli by Canon Greenwell.
A “smoothing-stone” of hard grey stone, with a short tang apparently for fixing it in a handle, has been engraved by the Rev. Dr. Hume.[2172] He does not, however, state where it was found. A somewhat similar implement is engraved by Schoolcraft,[2173] which he thinks may have been designed for smoothing down seams of buckskin. As stated at page 416, I have seen a stone which had been used for this purpose in England.
Granite and other pebbles are used as ironing-stones in Orkney[2174] and in Scotland. Several have been described by Professor Duns.[2175]
Dr. Keller[2176] has shown that, in connection with what was probably the earliest form of loom, weights were employed to stretch the warp. These, however, in Switzerland, seem to have been for the most part formed of burnt clay, though possibly some of the stones which have been regarded as sink-stones or plummets, were used for this purpose. Some of these have already been described.
Loom weights of burnt clay have been found in Scotland[2177] and of chalk[2178] in Sussex. I have one of burnt clay from Cambridge.
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Another domestic use to which stones were applied was as weights for the balance or scales; though we have no evidence at present that in this country, at all events, any weighing apparatus was known so early as the Stone or even the Bronze Period. Among the Jews the same word אֶבֶן (_Eben_) denoted both a stone and a weight; and we have a somewhat similar instance of customs being recorded in language in the case of our own “stone” of eight or fourteen pounds. Discoidal weights formed of stone are not unfrequently found on the sites of Roman occupation.
The moulds in which bronze weapons and tools were cast, were often made of stone, but for any account of them I refer the reader to my book on “Bronze Implements.”
Another class of domestic utensils, frequently found in Scotland |444| and the adjacent islands, consists of cup-like vessels formed of stone, of various degrees of hardness, and usually provided with a small projecting handle.
[Illustration: Fig. 362.—Scotland.]
[Illustration: Fig. 363.—Sutherlandshire.]
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Fig. 362, borrowed from the _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_,[2179] will serve to show their general character. Of the two cups here engraved, one was found near a megalithic circle at Crookmore, Tullynessle, Aberdeenshire, and the other in another part of Scotland. The material is described as a soft calcareous stone. One of steatite or “pot-stone,” with a large unpierced handle, was found in a cairn at Drumkesk,[2180] near Aboyne, Aberdeenshire; and two others, one with the handle projecting from the side, and the other with a long straight handle, at Strathdon[2181] in the same county. Two others, one of them of micaceous sandstone, ornamented with a band of rudely-cut projecting knobs, and the other with incised lines in zigzag herring-bone patterns, were dug out of a large cairn on Knockargity,[2182] and others at Cromar,[2183] also in Aberdeenshire. One ornamented in a similar manner was found at Needless,[2184] Perth. Others have been found in cairns in Banffshire,[2185] Morayshire,[2186] and Sutherlandshire,[2187] the engraving of the last of which is here reproduced as Fig. 363. It is 6 1∕2 inches in diameter. They have also been found in brochs, in Caithness,[2188] Shetland,[2189] and in a “fort” in Forfarshire.[2190] They have likewise been discovered under various circumstances in Aberdeenshire,[2191] at Balmoral,[2192] and in Forfarshire,[2193] Perthshire,[2194] and the Isle of Skye,[2195] as well as in the Isle of Man.[2196] |445| They occur, though rarely, in Ireland.[2197] I have one from Trillick, Tyrone.
In former times these cups were regarded as “Druidical _pateræ_;” but Sir Daniel Wilson[2198] has pointed out that in the Faroe Islands, a similar kind of vessel is still in use as a lamp or as a chafing-dish for carrying live embers. He has engraved one of them in the cut here reproduced. The same kind of rude lamp or cresset is in use in Ceylon.[2199] These Scottish vessels probably belong to no very remote antiquity.
[Illustration: Fig. 364.—Faroe Islands.]
A shallow one-handled saucer or stand of Kimmeridge shale was found at Povington, Dorset,[2200] but was probably intended for some other purpose than the Scottish cup. It has been suggested that it was for holding the flakes of flint supposed to have been used for turning the armlets and other objects of Kimmeridge coal, many fragments of which, as well as numerous pieces of flint, were found with it; but it seems more probable that the turning tools were of metal. It may be an unfinished lamp-stand, or possibly a lamp.
* * * * *
[Illustration: Fig. 365.—Broad Down or Honiton.]
Cups, however, formed of shale, and most skilfully made, have occasionally been found in barrows. The most remarkable is that which was discovered in a tumulus at Broad Down,[2201] near Honiton, by the Rev. Richard Kirwan, to whom I am indebted for the loan of the full-sized figure (Fig. 365) on the next page. The woodcut gives so perfect a representation of its form that any detailed description is needless. Its height is 3 5∕8 inches, and its greatest diameter, which is at the mouth, 3 inches. Its capacity is about a gill. The material of which it is formed appears in all probability to be Kimmeridge[2202] shale, though it is difficult to pronounce on this point with certainty. In another barrow, also on Broad Down,[2203] Mr. Kirwan came upon a bronze spear-head, or rather dagger, which had been attached to its haft by rivets, lying on a deposit of burnt bones; and at a distance from it of about 3 feet he discovered a drinking-cup of shale, of almost similar form and size to that previously found. It is about 3 1∕4 inches high, and 3 inches in diameter at the mouth, and is now preserved in the Albert Museum at Exeter. One very remarkable feature about these |446| cups is that they have been turned in the lathe, and not made by hand; and it has been suggested that by the use of the pole-lathe, the great apparent difficulty of leaving the projection for |447| the handle would be entirely removed. I had already arrived at this conclusion before seeing, in Mr. Kirwan’s paper, the views of a “skilful practical turner” on this point; but it may be well to describe the simple instrument known as a pole-lathe, with which most of the constituent parts of a Windsor chair are turned at the present day.[2204]
* * * * *
On the bed of the lathe, which usually consists of two pieces of squared wood nailed to two standards fixed in the ground, are two wooden “heads,” both furnished with pointed screws passing through them, to form the centres on which the piece of wood to be turned revolves. This, after having been chopped into an approximately cylindrical form, is placed between the two centres, and above the lathe is fixed a long elastic pole of wood, to the end of which a cord is attached, connecting it to the end of a treadle below the lathe. The cord is hitched round the wood, and adjusted to such a length as to keep the treadle well off the ground when the pole is at rest. When the treadle is pressed down with the foot, it draws down the pole, and the cord in its passage causes the piece of wood to revolve. When the pressure is relieved, the elasticity of the pole draws it back in the opposite direction, so that the workman by treading causes an alternate rotary motion of the wood. He turns this in the ordinary manner, except that his tool can cut only intermittently, that is, at the time when the revolution is towards, and not from him. If now, a projecting stop were attached to the object in the lathe, so as to prevent its making a complete revolution, it is evident that a portion like that forming the handle of the cup might be left unturned. Still, in the case of these cups, something more than the ordinary pole-lathe with two “dead” centres must have been used, as with such a lathe, it would be almost impossible to bore out the hollow of the cup. It appears probable, therefore, that a mandrel-head with a “live” centre, like that of our ordinary lathes, must have been used; though probably the motion was communicated by a pole and treadle, and not, as with modern foot-lathes, by a large pulley on a cranked axle.
We shall subsequently see that the waste pieces of Kimmeridge shale, to which the unwarrantable name of “coal-money” has been applied, testify to the use of such a lathe. Whatever may be the date to which the manufacture of this shale into bracelets and other objects was carried down, it seems probable that, assuming this cup to have been of home manufacture and not imported, the use of the lathe was known in this country in pre-Roman times. In the Broad Down barrow no other object accompanied the burnt bones, and in the trunk-interment in the King Barrow, Stowborough,[2205] near Wareham, cited by Mr. Kirwan, where a somewhat similar cup appears to have |448| been found, there was no weapon nor trace of metal, unless it were what was imagined to be some gold lace. The ornamentation of this cup is different from that of the Devonshire specimen, and the workmanship appears to be ruder. It was described at the time as of wood, but was probably of shale, as has been suggested by Dr. Wake Smart.[2206] Some fragments of cups of shale with flat handles were found in the Romano-British village at Woodcuts.[2207]
[Illustration: Fig. 366.—Rillaton, height 3 1∕4 inches.]