"apparently from knocking like a hammer against hard bodies." The blunting in those which I have seen, does not, however, appear to me to be the result of hammering, but rather of minute splinters breaking off during some scraping process.
Implements much resembling in form these from Kent's Cavern have been found in the Cave of Le Moustier, Dordogne; but these latter are for the most part thicker in proportion to their size, especially towards the base, which is usually rather truncated, instead of being brought to an edge. It is possible that they may have been mounted in some sort of handle for use, but on the whole it appears more probable that they were used unmounted in the hand, as a sort of knives or scraping tools.
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| Fig. 389.—Kent's Cavern. (1,515) 12 | Fig. 390.—Kent's Cavern. (3,922) 12 |
A smaller form (No. 1,515) of pointed instrument from the cave-earth, is shown in Fig. 389. Both its faces are equally convex, and are chipped over their whole surface in the same manner as those of larger sizes. In shape, it seems adapted to have formed the point of a lance, but the edges and base are in many parts worn away, as if it had been a sort of scraping tool. It much resembles some of the instruments found in the Wookey Hyæna Den, by Prof. Boyd Dawkins.
Among the wrought flakes which next demand our attention, the most striking are some finely-pointed lanceolate blades of which one (No. 3,922) is represented in Fig. 390. It has a somewhat rounded point at each end, and has been made from a long flake, the outer face of which has been fashioned by secondary chipping. A part of the inner face at one end has also been re-worked. The edges seem to be slightly worn away, and show, along the greater part of their extent, the minute chipping probably produced by scraping some