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.
Fig. 168a.—Culbin Sands. 12
A large number of discoidal stones, formed from flattish quartzite pebbles, have been found on the Culbin Sands,[1] Elginshire. By the kindness of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, one of them is shown in Fig. 168a. They maybe hammer-stones, but show no traces of use.
Fig. 169.—Bridlington. 12
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.[2]
Others were found in a tumulus at Seaford,[3] and at Mount Caburn,[4] Sussex.
Numerous rude hammer-stones have been found at Carnac,[5] Brittany.
One of chert, 3 inches in diameter, was found in the Isle of Portland,[6] and several have been found in Dorsetshire[7] which were supposed to have been used in fashioning flint implements; and balls of chert, 212 inches and 214 inches in diameter, found at West Coker, Somersetshire,[8] and another from Comb-Pyne, Devonshire,[9] 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."
- ↑ P. S. A. S., vol. xxv. p. 496.
- ↑ Vol. xxvii. pl. xi. 2, 3.
- ↑ Suss. Arch. Coll., vol. xxxii. p. 174.
- ↑ Arch., vol. xlvi. p. 492, pl. xxiv. 26.
- ↑ Miln's "Excav. at Carnac," 1881, pl. xv.
- ↑ Arch. Journ., vol. xxv. p. 47.
- ↑ Proc. Soc. Ant., 2nd S., vol. ii. p. 265.
- ↑ Arch. Assoc. Journ., vol. xviii. p. 393.
- ↑ Ibid., vol. xxiii. p. 391.