butt, so as to facilitate insertion in a handle, were found in the sepulchral cave of St. Jean d'Alcas,[1] in the Aveyron. Another, worked on both faces, about 7 inches long and 114 inches broad, notched in two or three places on each side at the base, was found in one of the dolmens of the Lozère.[2] A third, shorter and broader, but also notched at the base, was in the dolmen[3] of Grailhe (Gard).
A finely-worked, somewhat lozenge-shaped, blade of flint, 10 inches in length, was found at Spiennes,[4] near Mons, in Belgium.
A lance-head (634 inches) from the Government of Vladimir,[5] Russia, has been figured.
A lance-head of flint, 9 inches long and 218 broad, tanged at the butt, and with a notch on each side of the tang, has been figured by Gastaldi[6] from a specimen in the Museum at Naples, found at Telese.
In Egypt, associated with other objects betokening a considerable civilization, have been found several thin blades of flint, of much the same character as the highly-finished European specimens. A magnificent lance-head (1412 inches) has been presented to the Ashmolean Museum by Prof. Flinders Petrie[7]. It is delicately serrated along the edges for most of its length. A smaller blade is more leaf-shaped and minutely serrated all round. Another appears to have been hafted as a dagger. In my own collection is a leaf-shaped blade 7 inches long, most delicately made and serrated. Others are, however, thick at the back, and provided with a tang like a metallic knife. Two of these in the Berlin Museum,[8] are 714 inches and 634 inches long respectively, and 214 inches and 2 inches wide; I have one 518 inches in length. There are other specimens in the Egyptian Museums at Leyden and Turin, and in the National Museum[9] at Edinburgh. A larger blade, and even more closely resembling some of the Scandinavian lunate instruments in form, being leaf-shaped, but more curved on one edge than the other, is also in the Berlin Museum.[10] It is 9 inches long and 212 inches wide. A curved scimitar-like knife from Egypt[11] is figured, as is one with a notch on each side of the butt.[12] Another blade, of ovate form, and without tang, 234 inches long and 1 inch wide, is preserved in the Mayer Collection in the Museum[13] at Liverpool.
Some other Egyptian blades will be subsequently mentioned.
A dagger-blade of flint, still mounted in its original handle, is in the British Museum,[14] and has already been described.
Some of the dagger-blades in use in Mexico in ancient times were of- ↑ Cazalis de Fondouce, "La Gr. sép. de St. J. d'Alcas," 1867, pl. i.
- ↑ Matériaux, vol. v. p. 321; viii. p. 39.
- ↑ Matériaux, vol. v. p. 538.
- ↑ Cong. Préh. Bruxelles, 1872, pl. 67, 3. Van Overloop, "Les Ages de la Pierre," pl. viii.
- ↑ Cong. Préh. Moscou, 1892, ii. p. 241.
- ↑ Mem. R. Acc. delle Sc. di Torino, xxvi. Tav. viii. 24. See also Bull. di Pal. Ital., 1881, pl. vii.
- ↑ Arch. Journ. vol, liii. p. 46, See also Mat., vol. ix. p. 24, and De Morgan, "Rech. sur les Or. de l'Égypte," 1896, p. 121.
- ↑ Zeitschr. für Ægypt. Sprache, &c., July, 1870. Wilkinson, "Anc. Egyptians," vol. iii. p. 262.
- ↑ P. S. A. S., vol. xxvi. p. 399.
- ↑ Zeitschr. für Æg. Sp., ibid.
- ↑ Journ. Anth. Inst., vol. xi, pl. xxxiii. See also vol. xiv. p. 56; Proc. Soc. Ant., 2nd S., vol. vi., p. 21; and Petrie's "Hawara," 1889, pl. xxviii.
- ↑ Zeitsch. f. Ethn., vol. xxii., 1890, p. (516).
- ↑ Journ. Anth. Inst., vol. i. p. xcvi. pl. i. 3.
- ↑ See Fig. 1 p. 8.