Page:The Ancient Stone Implements (1897).djvu/360

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338
TRIMMED FLAKES, KNIVES, ETC.
[CHAP. XV.

where that process has been used, it has been for the purpose of removing, not of sharpening the edge. In the case of the next examples which I am about to describe, one or both edges, and in some the whole of both faces, have been ground.

I have already mentioned instances of untrimmed flakes of flint having been ground on the edge, but knives of a similar character made from carefully chipped blades also occur, though so far as I have at present observed, principally in Scotland.

Fig. 252.—Argyllshire. 1/1 Fig. 253.—Glen Urquhart. 1
One of these, carefully worked on both faces, and with one edge sharpened by grinding, was found at Strachur,[1] Argyllshire, and is shown full size in Fig. 252. Another, 21/2 inches long and 7/8 inch broad, with less grinding on the surface, was found at Cromar, Aberdeenshire. A third, of almost the same size, with the edge nearly straight and the back curved, and with neatly chipped faces but little ground, was found in a chambered cairn at Camster,[2] Caithness. A nodule of iron ore was found with it, but whether this was for fire-producing purposes is not apparent. A fragment of another knife of the same kind was found, in 1865, by Messrs. Anderson and Shearer in a cairn at Ormiegill Ulbster, Caithness; and among the numerous articles of flint found at Urquhart,[3] Elgin, is a very perfect knife of this kind, which is shown in Fig. 253. All five specimens are in the National Museum at
  1. P. S. A. S., vol. ix. p. 239.
  2. Mem. Anthrop. Soc., vol. ii. p. 248. P. S. A. S., vol. vi. p. 450.
  3. P. S. A. S., vol. ix. p. 239.