Page:The Ancient Stone Implements (1897).djvu/157

Another of these implements, with a cutting edge at either end, is shown in Fig. 79.

Fig. 80.—Near Cottenham. 1/2

As will be observed, it is curved longitudinally, so that if attached to a handle, it must have been after the manner of an adze and not of an axe. The sides curve slightly inwards, which would render any attachment to a handle more secure.

The material of which it is formed is a dark green porphyry. It was found in a cairn at Daviot,^[1] near Inverness, in company with a celt of oval section, and pointed at the butt (91/2 inches); and also with a greenstone pestle (?) (101/4 inches), rounded at each end. This latter was probably formed from a long pebble. They are all preserved in the National Museum at Edinburgh. A curved celt of this character but pointed at the butt-end (14 inches), formed of indurated clay-stone, was found in Shetland.^[2] A straighter celt of felstone (13 inches), blunt at the butt-end, was found at Kirklauchline,^[3] Wigtownshire.

The next peculiarity which I have to notice, is that of the tapering sides of the celt being curved inwards, as if for the purpose of being more securely fixed either to a handle or in a socket. In the last implement described, the reduction in width

Fig. 81 .—Near Malton. 1/2

towards the middle of the blade would appear to have been intended to assist in fastening it at the end of a handle, as an adze cutting at each end. In Fig. 80 the reduction in width is more abrupt, and the blade would appear to have been mounted as an axe. It is formed of a compact light grey metamorphic rock, and was formerly in the collection of the Rev. S. Banks, of Cottenham, Cambridgeshire. I have a greenstone celt found at Carnac, Brittany, with shoulders of the same character about the middle of the blade. A form of celt expanding into a kind of knob at the butt-end is peculiar to the Lower Loire.^[4] It is known as the "hâche à bouton," or "hâche à tête."

The original of Fig. 81 was found in a gravel-pit near Malton, Yorkshire. It was at first supposed to have been found in undisturbed

1. Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., vol. vi. p. 179.
2. Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., vol. xvii. p. 14.
3. Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., vol. xii. p. 119; xxiii, p. 201.
4. Mat. vol. xiii. p. 135; xv. p. 462. "Mus. préh.," No. 463.