The Ancient Stone Implements, Weapons, and Ornaments of Great Britain/Chapter 8

by John Evans (1823-1908)

 

CHAPTER VIII.

PERFORATED AXES.

I now come to a very important class of antiquities, the stone axes and axe-hammers with a hole for the insertion of a shaft, like the ordinary axes and hammers of the present day. As to the method by which these shaft-holes were bored, I have already spoken in a previous chapter. I have also mentioned that many of them appear to belong to a time when bronze was already in use, at all events for knife-like daggers, and that they have in many countries shared with the more simply-formed celts the attribution of a heavenly origin as thunderbolts, together with the superstitious reverence due to their supernatural descent. I have, therefore, but little here to add beyond a classification and description of the various forms; but I may mention that the name by which such implements were "popularly known in Scotland almost till the close of last century was that of the Purgatory Hammer," buried with its owner that he might have the wherewithal "to thunder at the gates of Purgatory till the heavenly janitor appeared."^[1]

They are for the most part made from metamorphic or volcanic rocks, and occasionally from quartzite, but I have never seen a British perforated axe made from ordinary flint, though hammers of this material are known. Stukeley,^[2] indeed, mentions that in cleansing the moat at Tabley, near Knutsford, "they found an old British axe, or some such thing, made of large flint, neatly ground into an edge, with a hole in the middle to fasten into a handle; it would serve for a battle-axe." Stukeley was probably mistaken as to the material; but there are in the Museum at Copenhagen one or two flint axes ground to an edge, the shaft-holes in which are natural, and no doubt led to the stones being selected for the purpose to which they were applied. An artificially-perforated French specimen will subsequently be mentioned. Flints both naturally and artificially perforated, have also been occasionally converted into hammers and maces.

In Scandinavia and Northern Germany, perforated axes and axe-hammers are frequently known as Thor's hammers, as already mentioned,^[3] and some authors have maintained that they were in use for warlike purposes so late as eight or ten centuries after our era. Kruse,^[4] however, has urged that though found in the neighbourhood of graves of the Iron Age in Livonia and Courland, they are never found in the graves themselves, and that their use is not mentioned in any ancient histories.

The principal forms may be classified as follows:—

1. Double-edged axes, or those with a cutting, or but slightly blunted edge at either end.

2. Adzes, or implements with the edge at right angles to the shaft-hole.

3. Axes with the edge at one end only, the hole being near the other end, which is rounded. These shade off into—

4. Axe-hammers sharp at one end, and more or less hammer- like at the other, the shaft-hole being usually near the centre.

To the weapons of the first of these classes the name of Amazon Axe has been applied by Professor Nilsson;^[5] but the Scandinavian axes expanding considerably at the cutting ends, resemble the Amazonia securis of classical sculpture more than do the English specimens.

Fig. 118 represents a beautifully formed axe of the first class, in my own collection. It is of greenstone, and was found near Hunmanby, Yorkshire. The two sides are concave longitudinally, so that it expands towards the edges. They are also slightly concave transversely. The angles are rounded, and the edges are blunt, especially that at the shorter end. The shaft-hole is oval, and tapers slightly from each end towards the middle. It would appear to have been worked out with some sort of chisel, and to have been afterwards made smoother by grinding.

A broader weapon of granite, expanding more at the ends (51/2 inches) was found in the Tay,^[6] near Newburgh, Fife. A flatter specimen of porphyritic stone (4 inches) was found on the shore of Cobbinshaw Loch,^[7] West Calder, Midlothian, in 1885.

A specimen of nearly the same type, found near Uelzen, Hanover, is engraved by von Estorff;^[8] another from Sweden, by Sjöborg.^[9]

In the Museum at Geneva is a very similar axe of greenstone (51/4 inches), found in the neighbourhood of that town. One of serpentine, much longer in its proportions (91/4 inches), and with an oval shaft-hole, is in the Museum at Lausanne. It was found at Agiez, Canton de Vaud.

Fig. 118.—Hunmanby. 1/2

In the Collections^[10] published by the Sussex Archæological Society is a figure, obligingly lent to me, of a beautiful axe-head of this class (Fig. 119) found with the remains of a skeleton, an amber cup (Fig. 307), a whetstone (Fig. 186), and a small bronze dagger with two rivet holes, in an oaken coffin in a barrow at Hove, near Brighton. The axe-head is said to be formed of some kind of ironstone, and is 5 inches long. The hole is described as neatly drilled. A weapon of the same kind (31/2 inches) blunter at the ends and described as a hammer, was found with a deer's-horn hammer, and a bronze knife in a barrow at Lambourn, Berks.^[11] A small black stone axe-head of nearly similar form was found near the head of a contracted skeleton at a depth of 12 feet in a barrow in Rolston Field, Wilts.^[12] A somewhat similar specimen, with the sides faceted and blunt at one end, has been engraved as having been found in Yorkshire.^[13] It is, however, doubtful whether, like many other objects in the same plate, it is not foreign. The original is now in the Christy Collection.

A double-edged axe-head of basalt, injured by fire, and 41/2 inches long, was found by the late Mr. Bateman, in a large urn with calcined bones, bone pins, a tubular bone laterally perforated, a flint "spear-head," and a bronze awl, in a barrow near Throwley, Derbyshire.^[14] This was the only instance in which he found a perforated stone axe accompanying an interment by cremation.

An axe-head of basalt, with a double edge to cut either way, was also dug up in the neighbourhood of Tideswell, Derbyshire.^[15]

Fig. 119.—Hove. 1/2

A specimen of this kind (5 inches), edged at both ends, but "the one end rather blunted and lessened a little by use," was found near Grimley, Worcestershire, and is figured by Allies.^[16]

I have a specimen (51/8 inches), much weathered, which is said to have come from Bewdley in that county, but which maybe that from Grimley.

An example, 5 inches long, engraved in the Salisbury volume^[17] of the Archæological Institute, from a barrow on Windmill Hill, Abury, Wilts, is described as double-edged.^[18]

The Danish and German axe-heads of this form have usually, but not always, one edge much more blunted than the other. Occasionally there is a ridge on each side at the blunt end, which shows that this thickening was intentional. A fine double-edged axe-head of this form from Brandenburg is engraved in the "Horæ Ferales."^[19] The double-edged form is found also in Finland.^[20]

The form likewise occurs in France, but the faces are usually flatter. I have one from the Seine at Paris (51/2 inches). Another from the department of the Charente is engraved by de Rochebrune;^[21] and a third from the department of Seine et Oise is in the Musée de St. Germain.^[22] A fine example of the same form is in the Museum at Tours, and another in that of Blois. In the collection of M. Reboux^[23] was a curious implement from the Seine, formed of flint, pointed at each end, and perforated in the middle. Another, in flint, from Mesnil en Arronaise^[24] (Somme) (81/2 inches), has been figured. The perforations may be natural, though improved by art. In my own collection is one of the finest specimens that I have ever seen. It is also from the Seine at Paris. It is 93/4 inches long, and slightly curved in the direction of its length; on either side there is a long sunk lozenge, in the centre of which is the cylindrical shaft-hole, and the ends expand into flat semicircular blades about 21/4 inches across. The material is a hard basaltic rock, and the preservation perfect. It was found in 1876.

A stone axe in the Museum of the Royal Institution at Swansea, and found at Llanmadock, in Gower, has been kindly lent me for engraving, and is shown in Fig. 120. It expands at the sharper end much more suddenly and to a much greater extent than does that from Hunmanby. The edge at that end, which is almost semicircular in outline, has suffered from ill-usage since it was discovered; the material of which it is made being felspathic ash, the surface of which has become soft by decomposition. The other and narrower end is flattened to about half an inch in width. The implement has already been engraved on a smaller scale.^[25]

In Bartlett's "History and Antiquities of Manceter, Warwickshire,"^[26] is engraved an axe of the same character as this, but expanding at the blunter end almost as much as it does at the edge, which is described as being very sharp. It is said to have been formed of the hard blue stone of the country, but "from age or the soil in which it has lain" to be "now coloured with an elegant olive-coloured patina." It was found on Hartshill Common, in 1770, where a small tumulus had been cut through, "the bottom of which was paved with brick, which by the heat of the fire had been nearly vitrified." There is probably some mistake as to the bricks.

Another axe-head like Fig. 120, 8 inches in length, and more distinctly hammer-like at the narrow end, was found in the parish of Abernethy, Perthshire, and has been engraved by Wilson.^[27]

In character these axes with expanded ends more nearly resemble some of the Scandinavian and North German types than do most of the other British forms. Broken stone axes expanding at the edge have been found on the site of Troy.

In the Museum of the Leeds Philosophical Society is a double-edged axe-head of a larger and coarser kind, which is said to have been found near Whitby. Its authenticity was strongly vouched for by the late Mr. Denny, but I fear that it is a modern fabrication.

An implement of the same form, from Gerdauen, East Prussia, is preserved in the Berlin Museum; and another of greenstone was found at Hallstatt.^[28] A singular variety from the same spot has the edge at one end at right angles to that at the other.

A small sketch of a very remarkable curved blade, pointed at one end and with an axe-like edge at the other, is given in the Journal of the Archæological Association.^[29] It is of greenstone, 11 inches long and 21/2 inches across, and was found in Guernsey. By the kindness of the late Rev. W. C. Lukis, F.S.A., of Wath, I am enabled to give an engraving of the type in Fig. 121. A number of specimens have been found in the Channel Islands, to which the form seems peculiar.

Fig. 120.—Llanmadock 1/2

The second class into which I proposed to divide these implements consists of adzes, or blades having the edge at right angles to the shaft-hole. Apart from a short notice by Mr. Monkman, I believe that attention was for the first time called in the former edition of this book, to the occurrence of this form in Britain.

The specimen I have selected for engraving, as Fig. 122, gives a good idea of the typical character. It is of greenstone, with the shaft-hole tapering inwards from both faces, one of which is less convex than the other. It was found at Fireburn Mill, near Coldstream, Berwickshire, and is in the Greenwell Collection. In the same collection is another of similar character, but having the butt-end broken off and the edge more circular, found at Willerby Carr, in the East Riding of Yorkshire.

Fig. 121.—Guernsey. 1/2

I have a smaller specimen (43/4 inches), of a hard micaceous grit, found at Allerston, in the North Riding; as also a remarkably fine and perfect adze of porphyritic greenstone (63/8 inches), ground to a rounded edge at the butt, instead of being truncated like Fig. 122. The shaft-hole, like that of all the others, tapers inwards from both faces, in this instance from 13/8 inch to 7/8 inch. This specimen was found at South Dalton, near Beverley. An adze or hoe of the same kind, found at Wellbury,^[30] near Offley, Herts, is in the collection of Mr. W. Ransom, F.S.A.

Fig. 122.—Fireburn Mill, Coldstream. 1/2

Another implement of the same class (9 inches), flat on one face, and much like Fig. 122, is in the National Museum at Edinburgh. It is of greenstone, much decomposed, and was found at Ormiston Abdie, Fife. A shorter specimen (33/4 inches) sharpened at each end, found at Sandwick, Shetland, is in the fine collection of Mr. J. W. Cursiter, at Kirkwall.

Another, in outline more like the celt Fig. 57, though sharp at the sides, is also in the Greenwell Collection. It is formed of red micaceous sandstone (63/4 inches), and was found at Scackleton, in the North Riding of Yorkshire. A rough sketch of it has been published by Mr. Monkman.^[31] In the same collection is another, rather narrower in its proportions, being 71/2 inches long and 3 inches broad, found at Pilmoor, as well as one 6 inches long and 23/8 inches broad, found at Nunnington.

Another, 51/2 inches long, square at both ends, found near Whitby, is in the Museum at Leeds.

The form is known in Denmark, but is rare. A more celt-shaped specimen is engraved by Worsaae.^[32] He terms it a hoe (hakke), and it is, of course, possible that these instruments may have been used for digging purposes.

Two short, broad hoes (hacken), of Taunus slate, found near Mainz, are given by Lindenschmit.^[33] Another is in the Museum at Brunswick.

Some hoe-like, perforated stone implements from Mexico, are in the Ethnological Museum at Copenhagen. The so-called stone hoes of North America^[34] are not perforated, though sometimes notched at the sides. Dr. Keller^[35] has suggested that a circular perforated disc from one of the Swiss Lake-settlements may have been a hoe.

Fig. 123.—Burwell Fen. 1/2

In the Museum of the Deutsche Gesellschaft at Leipzig, is a green-stone implement resembling these adzes or hoes at its broader end, but at the other, instead of being square or rounded, presenting an axe-like edge.

A narrow, thick adze of this character, flat on one face, rounded on the other, 41/2 inches long, found at Scudnitz, near Schweinitz, Prussian Saxony, is in the Berlin Museum. A rather similar form has been found in Bohemia.^[36]

An intermediate form between a hammer and an adze will be subsequently described at p. 231.

A small perforated adze in the Museum of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, Fig. 123, is more truly celt-like in character, and appears, indeed, to have been made from an ordinary celt by boring a shaft-hole through it. It is formed of a hard, green, slaty rock, and was found in Burwell Fen. I believe that another, but larger, specimen of the same type, was found in the same district in Swaffham Fen.

The late Mr. G. W. Ormerod, F.G.S., brought under my notice another specimen found, in 1865, at North Bovey, Devon. It is of greenstone, about 33/4 inches long. The sides taper towards the butt-end, which is rounded, and the hole in the middle appears to be only about 1/2 inch in diameter, but bell-mouthed at each face. It is now in the Museum at Exeter. Another (37/8 inches) was found at Ugborough, Devon.^[37]

The implement shown in Fig. 124 seems to be an unfinished specimen belonging to this class. It is formed of greenstone, portions of the natural joints of which are still visible on its surface. It seems to have been worked into shape by picking rather than by grinding; but the hole appears, from the character of the surface, to have been ground. Had it been continued through the stone, it would probably have been considerably enlarged in diameter, and if so, the implement

Fig. 124.—Stourton. 1/2

would have been much weakened around the hole. It seems possible that it was on this account that it was left unfinished. It was found near Stourton, on the borders of Somerset and Wilts.

The third of the classes into which, for the sake of convenience, I have divided these instruments, consists of axe-heads with a cutting edge at one end only, the shaft-hole being near the other end, which is rounded.

Fig. 125 represents an elegant specimen of this class, found at Bardwell, in Suffolk, and formerly in the collection of Mr. Joseph Warren, of Ixworth, but now in my own. The material appears to be felstone. The edge is slightly rounded, the shaft-hole carefully finished, and the two faces ground hollow, probably in the manner suggested at p. 43.

I have another made from a quartzite pebble (45/8 inches) with the sides hollowed transversely, but rounded longitudinally, found with an urn on Wilton Heath, near Brandon, in 1873. The blunt end is bruised and flattened by wear. I have a second, also of quartzite (53/8 inches), rounded in all directions, found near Ipswich, in 1865. It retains much of the form of the original pebble.

Fig. 125.—Bardwell. 1/2

In the Museum at Newcastle is preserved a specimen very similar to Fig. 125, of mottled greenstone, beautifully finished; the sides are, however, flat and not hollowed. It is 61/2 inches long, the faces are rounded, and the hole, which is about 7/8 inch in diameter, tapers slightly towards the middle. It was found in the River Wear at Sunderland. Another of the same character, formed from a beautifully veined stone, accompanied a bronze dagger in a barrow near East Kennet, Wilts.^[38]

I have another axe of the same kind, with both sides flat, 61/8 inches long, formed of porphyritic greenstone, and found near Colchester. Another, formed of basalt, 61/4 inches long, the sides slightly hollowed, from Chesterford, Cambridge,^[39] was in the possession of the late Mr. Joshua Clarke, of Saffron Walden.

Another, 5 inches long, was found in the Thames off Parliament Stairs, and passed with the Roach Smith Collection into the British Museum. One, 53/4 inches long, from Cumberland, is in the Christy Collection.

One of sandstone (41/2 inches) was discovered at Northenden,^[40] Cheshire, in 1883.

In the Greenwell Collection is one of greenstone, 63/4 inches long, found at Millfield, near Sunderland. The hole is somewhat oval, and tapers inwards from each side. There is also one of basalt, 41/4 inches long, with an oval hole and slightly convex sides, from Holystone, Northumberland. The edge, as usual, is blunt.

An axe-head of this kind, from a chambered tumulus or dolmen at Craigengelt, near Stirling, Scotland, is engraved by Bonstetten.^[41]

Fig. 126.—Potter Brompton Wold. 1/2

One with flat sides (61/4 inches) was found in the Tay, near Mugdrum Island, Perth,^[42] and another (7 inches) at Sorbie, Wigtownshire.^[43]

Implements or weapons of this character occasionally occur in Ireland,^[44] but the sides are usually flat.

The exact form is rare in Denmark and North Germany. Lindenschmit^[45] engraves a thin specimen from Lüneburg. It occurs also in Styria. A specimen from Lithuania, more square at the butt, is engraved by Mortillet.^[46] I do not remember to have met with it in France.

In one of the barrows on Potter Brompton Wold,^[47] Yorkshire, explored by Canon Greenwell, accompanying an interment by cremation, he found a beautifully-formed axe-head of serpentine (?) the surface of which was in places scaling off from decomposition, arising from its having been partly calcined. A single view of it is given in Fig. 126. The hole is about 11/4 inches in diameter on each side, but rather smaller in the middle. The cutting edge has been rounded as well as the angles round the sides, but this process has been carried to a greater extent on one than the other; possibly this was the outer side.

A somewhat similar, but rather broader, axe-head of basalt, 51/4 inches long, was found by the late Mr. T. Bateman in a barrow called Carder Low,^[48] near Hartington, in company with a small bronze dagger, and near the elbow of a contracted skeleton.

Another, expanding rather more at the edge, from a barrow in Devonshire,^[49] was in the Meyrick Collection.

A somewhat similar axe-head, more rounded at the butt and rather more expanded at the cutting edge, was found in Annandale in 1870, and was described to me by the late Mr. Joseph Clarke, F.S.A.

One of granite, much like Fig. 126, came to light in a cairn at Breckigoe,^[50] Caithness.

In the same barrow at Rudstone,^[51] near Bridlington, as that in which the block of pyrites and flint scraper, subsequently to be described (Fig. 223), were found, but with a different interment, Canon Greenwell discovered the beautifully formed axe-hammer shown in Fig. 127. It is of very close-grained, slightly micaceous grit, and presents the peculiarity of having the rounded faces slightly chamfered all round the flat sides. The edge is carefully rounded, and

Fig. 127.—Rudstone. 1/2

broad end somewhat flattened. It lay behind the shoulders of the skeleton of an old man lying on his left side, with his right hand on his head, and his left to his face. Before the face, was a bronze knife 4 inches long, with a single rivet to fasten it to its handle, and close to the axe-hammer lay a pointed flint flake re-chipped on both faces. In a barrow at Sledmere^[52] with burnt bones lay a weapon of this kind battered at the blunt end.

An axe-head (61/4 inches), with convex faces, rounded at the butt, and with an oval shaft-hole, was dredged from the Thames at London,^[53] and is now in the British Museum.

It seems almost indisputable that these elegantly formed axe-heads belong to the period when bronze was in use, and from their occurrence in the graves they appear to have formed part of the equipment of warriors.

The careful manner in which their edges are blunted shows that they cannot have been intended for cutting tools, but that they must have been weapons of war. A blow from a battle-axe with a blunted edge would be just as fatal as if the edge had been sharp and trenchant, while the risk of accidental injury to the scantily-clothed warrior who carried the axe was next to none when the edge of the weapon was thus blunted. The practice of removing the edge by grinding was, no doubt, introduced in consequence of some painful experience.

Fig. 128.—Borrowash. 1/2

Fig. 128 is of still more ornamental character, having a beaded moulding towards each edge of the faces and following the curvature of the sides. The drawing is taken from a cast in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries, presented by Sir W. Tite, M.P.^[54] The original is said to have been found near Whitby. A fine axe-head "of red granite, ornamented with raised mouldings," was, however, found with human bones near Borrowash, Derbyshire, in 1841,^[55] and is in the Bateman Collection, now at Sheffield. To judge from the woodcut in the Catalogue, the cast must have been taken from this specimen.

"A very elegant axe-head, 5 inches long, of reddish basalt, beautifully wrought, with a slight moulding round the angles, and a perforation for the shaft," is described by Mr. Bateman^[56] as having been found on a barrow eleven miles E. of Pickering, Yorkshire.

Mouldings of various kinds occur on Danish and German axe-hammers of the Bronze Age,^[57] but this form of small axe with a rounded butt is of rare occurrence. The longitudinal line in relief which occurs on the sides of some German battle-axes^[58] has been regarded as an imitation of the mark left on bronze axes by the junction of the two halves of the mould. The small axe-heads from Germany^[59] are wider at the butt, and more like Figs. 118 and 120 in outline.

Fig. 129.—Crichie, Aberdeenshire.

The beautiful battle-axe, formed of fine-grained mica schist, found placed on burnt bones in a "Druidical" circle at Crichie, near Inverurie, Aberdeenshire,^[60] and presented by the Earl of Kintore to the National Museum at Edinburgh, has deeply-incised lines round the margins of the hollow sides at the mouth of the shaft-hole. This weapon is 4 inches in length, and is considerably sharper at the broader end than at the other, though the edge is well rounded. For the loan of Fig. 129 I am indebted to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. In general character this specimen approximates to a somewhat rare Irish form, shortly to be mentioned, of which I possess a specimen. The battle-axe from the barrow at Selwood, Fig. 140, is also slightly ornamented by lines on the sides, and that from Skelton Moors, Fig. 139, is fluted.

Two axe-hammers of granite and greenstone (41/2 and 5 inches) of much the same type as Fig. 129, but more elongated, so as in form to resemble Fig. 136, were found near Ardrossan,^[61] Ayrshire.

An unfinished axe-head of the same kind was found at Middleton,^[62] Stevenston, Ayrshire.

An axe-head of porphyritic greenstone (73/4 inches long), from Stainton Dale, near Scarborough,^[63] is said to resemble in form an Irish axe-head engraved in the Ulster Journal of Archæology^[64]. If so, the sides through which the hole is bored were hollow, as in Fig. 129, and there was also a moulding round them. This Irish axe-head is formed of a kind of pale green hone-stone, and is now in the British Museum. Instead of incised lines there are raised flanges on each face, bordering the concave side in which is the shaft-hole. The length is 51/4 inches, and the butt-end is half an oval, just flattened at the end. It was found in the river Bann.

Axe-heads of a much more clumsy character than any of those last described are of more frequent occurrence in this country. The one I have selected for illustration as Fig. 130, is rather small of its kind. It is made of greenstone, the surface of which has considerably suffered from weathering, and was found in draining at Walsgrave-upon-Sowe, near Coventry. It was presented to my collection by the late Mr. J. S. Whittem, F.G.S. The shaft-hole, as usual, tapers inwards from both sides; its surface is more polished than that of the exterior of the implement. A small portion of the end of the butt is flat, but this appears due to accident rather than design. I have a rather longer axe-head, of porphyritic greenstone, which was washed out of the ground by a brook at Ayside, near Newby Bridge, Windermere, and was given to me by Mr. Harrison, of Manchester. It is considerably rounded in both directions at the butt, the edge is narrow, and one side, probably the outer, much more rounded than the other. The edge is carefully ground, but farther up the face, the surface shows that it has been picked into form. The shaft-hole is much like that of Fig. 130.

I have another specimen from Plumpton, near Penrith (91/2 inches), rounded at the butt, but unsymmetrical, owing to a natural plane of cleavage interfering with the shape, and, as it were, taking off a slice of the stone. The shaft-hole is oval, the longer diameter being lengthwise of the blade, and the edge is oblique. The sides are flatter than those of Fig. 130. In my collection are others from Mawbray and Inglewood Forest, Cumberland (71/2 and 8 inches), and one (7 inches) from Cader Idris, Merionethshire. Another (10 inches) was found at Llanfairfechan,^[65] Carnarvonshire, another at Llanidloes,^[66] Montgomeryshire, and a third in Anglesey.^[67] The late Mr. Llewellynn Jewitt, F.S.A., had a flatter and longer specimen of this form (10 inches), found at Winster, Derbyshire. Implements of this character, but often approximating in shape to Fig. 131, have been found in considerable numbers, though as isolated specimens, in the North. One found in Aberdeenshire (81/2 inches long), of this class, but with the butt-end slightly hollowed, and having a well-marked shoulder on each face, as if by continual reduction by sharpening at the edge, is engraved in the

Fig. 130.—Walsgrave-upon-Sowe. 1/2

Archæological Journal.^[68] One from Scotland^[69] (101/4 inches) was exhibited by the Marquis of Breadalbane at Edinburgh, in 1856, and one (12 inches) from Alnwick.^[70] Others have been found at Tillicoultry Bridge,^[71] Clackmannan; Kelton,^[72] Kircudbrightshire; in Wigtownshire^[73]; Silvermine,^[74] Torphichen, Linlithgow; and Laurie Street,^[75] Leith; another from the coast of Scotland is engraved in Skelton's "Meyrick's Armour,"^[76] but is there regarded as having been brought over by Danish invaders. Other Scottish^[77] specimens are numerous. There are thirteen in the Grierson Museum, Thornhill, Dumfriesshire. One of the same form as the figure (93/8 inches) was found at Dean,^[78] near Bolton, Lancashire, and others at Hopwood and Saddleworth in the same county. One of grit (71/2 inches) was found at Siddington,^[79] near Macclesfield. Another (8 inches), found at Kirkoswald, Cumberland, is in the museum at Newcastle, together with a similar specimen from Haydon Bridge; and others have been found at Thirstone, Shilbottle, Barrasford,^[80] and Hipsburn,^[81] Northumberland; and in Yorkshire.^[82] One (101/2 inches) was found at Ehenside Tarn,^[83] Cumberland. Others at Rusland, North Lonsdale, and Troutbeck. A long list of stone-hammers, &c., found in Cumberland and Westmorland, has been given by Chancellor R. S. Ferguson, F.S.A.,^[84] and a similar list has been compiled for Lancashire and Cheshire.^[85] They occur also in more southern districts. I have seen one (8 inches) from the neighbourhood of Glastonbury. Another of the same length was found on Dartmoor, near Burnt Tor. Others (81/2 and 9 inches) from Ashbury and Holsworthy,^[86] Devon, are in the Museum of the Plymouth Institute. One was found at Withycombe Raleigh,^[87] Devon. A fine specimen (8 inches long), with the sides somewhat hollowed, was found at Tasburgh, Norfolk. Another of greenstone (51/2 inches), and rather curved longitudinally, was found in the same parish. Other specimens from Norfolk are mentioned in the Norwich volume of the Archæological Institute. I have one of serpentine from Chatteris Fen, which has been broken diagonally, and had a fresh edge ground quite away from the middle. The Rev. S. Banks had one of hard sandstone (73/4 inches), found in Cottenham Fen. Its faces are more parallel, so that the edge is more obtuse. I have seen one, found near Stourton (91/2 inches), Somersetshire, straighter at the sides, and having the angles rounded. They occur in Leicestershire.^[88] One (7 inches) from the Cemetery at Leicester, and one (91/2 inches) from Barrow-on-Soar, are recorded. An axe of the same kind, but smaller, found near Imola, has been engraved by Gastaldi.^[89]

Perhaps the more common variety, in Cumberland, is that which is somewhat flattened at the butt, like Fig. 131, and which is, more properly speaking, an axe-hammer. This specimen was found near Red Dial, Wigton, Cumberland, and is in my own collection. The two sides are nearly flat and parallel, and the edge appears to have been re-sharpened since the axe-head was first formed, as it is ground away to a shoulder a little below where it is perforated. It is formed

Fig. 131.—Wigton. 1/2

of an igneous rock. A very symmetrical example, 81/2 inches long, with the sides nearly flat, from Aikbrae, Culter, Lanarkshire, is engraved in the Journal of the Archæological Association.^[90]

A very similar specimen, 11 inches long, found in a turf moss near Haversham, Westmorland, is engraved in the Archæologia,^[91] as is another from Furness.^[92] Another, with the sides more parallel, and rounder at the end, 8 inches in length, was found near Carlisle upwards of a century ago, and forms the subject of an interesting paper by Bishop Lyttelton.^[93] Two also were found at Scalby,^[94] near Scarborough. In the Greenwell Collection are several implements of this character, obtained in the North of England. They are 8 to 9 inches long, and 4 to 5 inches broad. One (10 inches) is from Helton, in the parish of Chalton, Northumberland; and another, of nearly the same size and form as Fig. 131, from Castle Douglas, Kircudbrightshire; another of greenstone (6 inches) from Brompton Carr, Yorkshire; and others, varying in form, from Ousby Moor, Cumberland, and Heslerton Wold, Yorkshire. A fine example (8 inches), truncated at the butt, from Dunse Castle,^[95] Berwickshire, has been figured.

In the British Museum are several axe-heads of this form. One, 9 inches long, of a porphyritic rock, is said to have been found in a barrow on Salisbury Plain. One, 12 inches long, is from Stone, Staffordshire, as well as another in which the boring is incomplete, there being only a conical depression on each side. A third, thinner (8 inches), was found near Hull. A fourth, of compact felspathic material, 81/4 inches long, is from the parish of Balmerino, Fife. A fifth, of similar material, 8 inches long, is from Llanbrynmair, Montgomeryshire.^[96] It is worked to a flat oval at the butt-end, but with the angles rounded. The hole, as usual, tapers inwards from each side, but is not at right angles to the central line of the axe. I have a fine implement of this class, but larger and narrower than the figure, and concave on the sides, so that the edge is wider than the butt. It is of basalt, much eroded on the surface, and was found at Hardwick, near Bishop's Castle, Shropshire. It is 101/2 inches long, about 41/4 inches wide at the butt, where it is 3 inches thick. The shaft-hole is nearly 2 inches in diameter, and almost parallel; the weight, 81/2 lbs.

One (91/2 inches) was found at Grimley,^[97] Worcestershire. Another, of porphyry, nearly triangular in outline (7 inches), from Necton, Norfolk, is in the Norwich Museum. The shaft-hole, in this case, is parallel, but in most, it tapers both ways, contracting from about 13/4 or 2 inches on each face to about l1/4 inches in diameter in the middle. One of greenstone (6 inches), found near Ely, has an oval hole.

The late Mr. Llewellynn Jewitt, F.S.A., had an axe-hammer of this class (71/2 inches), but still more flattened at one end, found in Cambridgeshire. At the edge the faces form an angle of 45° to each other, and there is little doubt that the implement has lost much of its original length through continual sharpening. He also kindly lent me for engraving the curious axe-hammer shown in Fig. 132, and has made use of my wood-cut in his "Grave Mounds and their Contents."^[98] It is formed of a very fine-grained, hard, and slightly micaceous grit, and its weight exceeds 73/4 lbs. It is somewhat rounded at the hammer-end, which appears to have lost some splinters by use, though the broken surface has since been partially re-ground. The blade is slightly curved longitudinally, and both the outer and inner sides have been hollowed from the point, as far as the perforation. The faces have each four parallel grooves worked in them, so that they are, as it were, corrugated into five ribs, extending from

Fig. 132.—Wollaton Park. 1/2

near the edge to opposite the centre of the hole. The hollows on the sides also show two slight ribs parallel with the faces of the blade, the angles of which are rounded. The shaft-hole tapers slightly in both directions towards the centre, where it is about 13/8 inch in diameter. The grooves seem to have been produced by picking, but have subsequently been made smoother by grinding. It was found at a spot known as the Sand Hills, in Lord Middleton's Park,^[99] near Wollaton, Kotts. The Rev. W. C. Lukis, F.S.A., had a closely similar specimen (10 inches), found at Jervaux, near Bedale, Yorkshire. It is not, however, fluted on the faces.

Some of these instruments are so heavy that they can hardly have been wielded in the ordinary manner as axes, though they may have served for splitting wood, either by direct blows or by being used as

Fig. 133.—Buckthorpe. 1/2

wedges. Bishop Lyttelton thought they might have been battle-axes, but Pegge^[100] pointed out that they were too heavy for such a purpose or for use as missiles, and came to the conclusion "that these perforated stones were not originally applied to any warlike purpose, but rather to some domestic service, either as a hammer or beetle for common use." Professor Nilsson,^[101] at a later date, has arrived at the same conclusion, and considers them most suitable for being held in the left hand by a short handle, and driven into wood by blows from a club held in the right hand. He has suggested for them the name of "handled wedges." In some parts of France I have seen extremely heavy iron axes, much resembling these stone implements in form, used for splitting wood. It seems possible that in old times these heavy stone implements may also have been employed in agriculture.

Axes of this character, usually formed of greenstone, are very common in Denmark and Northern Germany. They are much rarer in France, partly, no doubt, in consequence of the less abundance of suitable material. They also occur in Russia^[102] and in Italy.^[103]

A small specimen of the same form but rather more square at the butt than Fig. 131, made of dark serpentine, and only 35/8 inches long, was found at Tanagra, in Bœotia, and was formerly in the collection of Dr. G. Finlay,^[104] of Athens.

Some of the forms last described, having square butt-ends, might, perhaps, with greater propriety, have been included in the fourth class into which I have proposed to divide these instruments, viz., axe-hammers, sharpened at one end and more or less hammer-like at the other, and with the shaft-hole usually about the centre.

Fig. 134.—Aldro'. 1/2

One of the simplest, and at the same time the rarest varieties of this class, is where an implement of the form of an ordinary celt, like Fig. 69, has been bored through in the same direction as the edge. Fig. 133 represents such a specimen, in the collection of Messrs. Mortimer, of Driffield. It was found at Buckthorpe, Yorkshire, and is formed of close-grained greenstone. The butt-end is circular and flat, and the shaft-hole, which is oval, tapers considerably both ways.

An axe-hammer of diorite, of nearly similar form, found at Groningen, in the Netherlands, is in the museum at Leyden.

Another simple form is that exhibited in Fig. 134, taken from a specimen in greenstone found at Aldro', near Malton, Yorkshire, and in the possession of Mr. Hartley, of Malton. Its principal interest consists in its having been left in the unfinished state, previous to its perforation. We thus learn that the same practice of working the axe-heads into shape before proceeding to bore the shaft-hole, prevailed here as in Denmark. In that country numerous specimens have been found, finished in all respects except the boring, and in many instances this has been commenced though not completed. It would appear from this circumstance that the process of boring was one which required a considerable amount of time, but that it was most satisfactorily performed after the instrument had been brought into shape; the position of the hole being adjusted to the form of the implement, and not the latter to the hole. In the extensive Greenwell Collection is the cutting end of an axe which has been broken half-way across the hole, which, though commenced on both faces, was never finished. The conical, cup-shaped depressions produced by the boring instrument, extend to some depth in the stone, but are still 1/4 inch from meeting. The fragment is 31/8 inches long, and was found at Sprouston, near Kelso.

Fig. 135.—Cowlam. 1/2

In the same collection is a small unfinished axe -head of greenstone, 4 inches long, in which the hole has not been commenced. It was found at Coxwold, in the North Riding of Yorkshire.

An unpierced axe-head of greenstone, 4 inches long, in form much like Fig. 136, but with the hollowed face shorter, was found in a grave in Stronsay, one of the Orkney islands, and is now in the National Museum at Edinburgh. There are slight recesses on each face, showing the spots at which the perforation was to have been commenced.

A perforated axe of serpentine, of the same character as Fig. 134, but wider at the butt, was found in the Thames, and is now in the British Museum. It is 4 inches long and has the peculiarity of being much thicker at the cutting end than at the butt; the two sides tapering from 11/2 inch at the edge to 3/4 inch at the butt.

A similar feature is to be observed in another axe of hornblende schist (53/4 inches), and of rather more elongated form than Fig. 134, found at Cawton, in the North Riding of Yorkshire, and in the Greenwell Collection.

A partially-finished axe-head, with one side and about two-thirds of the width of the faces worked into form, is engraved in the "Horæ Ferales."^[105] It is not a British specimen, but its place of finding is unknown. Perforated hammers, in form much like Fig. 134 and 135, occurred among the early remains at Troy.^[106]

A rather more elaborate form, having the two sides curved longitudinally inwards, and the edge broader than the hammer-end, is shown in Fig. 135. The cutting edge is carefully removed, so that it was probably a battle-axe. The original, which is of porphyritic greenstone, was discovered by Canon Greenwell, in a barrow at Cowlam,^[107] near Weaverthorpe, Yorkshire. It lay in front of the face of a contracted skeleton, the edge towards the face, and the remains of the wooden handle still grasped by the right hand. Connected with this grave was that of a woman with two bronze ear-rings at her head.

Fig. 136.—Seghill. 1/2

Another of much the same form, but of coarser work and heavier, was found near Pickering, and is preserved in the Museum at Scarborough.

I have seen a small axe of similar type, but with the edge almost semicircular, and the hole nearer the butt, found at Felixstowe, Suffolk. It is of quartzite, 41/2 inches long. The hole, though 13/4 inch in diameter at the sides, diminislies to 1/2 an inch, in the centre. In this respect it resembles some of the hammer-stones shortly to be described.

Fig. 136 presents a rather more elaborate form, which is, however, partly due to that of the flat oval quartzite pebble from which this axe-hammer was made. The hammer-end seems to preserve the form of the pebble almost intact; it is, however, slightly flattened at the extremity. The original is preserved in the Greenwell Collection, and was found in a cist at Seghill,^[108] near Newcastle, in 1866. The bones, by which it was no doubt originally accompanied, had entirely gone to decay. A Scotch example, made of basalt, the sides of which are much more concave, is shown in Fig. 136a, kindly lent by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. It was found at Wick,^[109] Caithness.

Fig. 136a.—Wick, Caithness. 1/2

It was an axe-head somewhat of the character of Fig. 136, but sharper at the hammer-end, that was found in an urn, near Broughton in Craven, in 1675, and with it a small bronze dagger (with a tang and single rivet hole) and a hone. It is described and figured by Thoresby.^[110] Hearne^[111] regarded it as Danish. It is described as of speckled marble polished, 6 inches long and 31/2 inches broad, with the edge at one end blunted by use. A nearly similar form (41/2 inches) has occurred in Shetland.^[112] What appears to be an unbored axe of this kind is in the Powysland Museum.^[113]

A still greater elaboration of form is exhibited in Fig. 137, from an implement found at Kirklington, Yorkshire, and in the Greenwell Collection. It is of basalt, worked to a flat oval at the hammer-end, and to a curved cutting edge at the other. The two sides are

Fig. 137.—Kirklington. 1/2

ground concave, and the shaft-hole is nearly parallel. This axe-hammer is of larger size than usual when of this form, being 8 inches in length.

Nearly similar weapons have been frequently found in barrows. One such, of greenstone, about 4 inches long, was found by the late Mr. Charles Warne, F.S.A., in a barrow at Winterbourn Steepleton, near Dorchester, associated with burnt bones. He has given a figure^[114] of it, which, by his kindness, I here reproduce, as Fig. 138. Another (4 inches) was found in a barrow at Trevelgue,^[115] Cornwall, in 1872.

An extremely similar specimen, found near Claughton Hall, Garstang, Lancashire, has been figured.^[116] It is said to have been found, in cutting through a tumulus in 1822, in a wooden case, together with an iron axe, spear-head, sword, and hammer. There must, however, be an error in this account; and as an urn, containing burnt bones, was found in the same tumulus with the Saxon or Danish interment, it seems probable that the objects belonging to different burials, primary and secondary in the barrow, became mixed during the twenty-seven years that elapsed between their discovery and the communication to the Archæological Institute. Another weapon of much the same shape, but 43/4 inches long, and formed of dark greenstone, is in the British Museum. It was found in the Thames, at London. The process by which these hollow sides appear to have been ground will be described at page 266.

Fig. 138.—Winterbourn Steepleton. 1/2

Sir R. Colt Hoare has engraved two axe-hammers of this form, but slightly varying in size and details, from barrows in the Ashton Valley.^[117] In both cases they accompanied interments of burnt bones, in one instance placed beneath an inverted urn; in the other there was no urn, but an arrow-head of bone lay with the axe.

An axe (51/4 inches), of nearly the same form, but having a small oval projection on each face opposite the shaft-hole, was found in the bed of the Severn, at Ribbesford, Worcestershire, and is now in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries. It has been somewhat incorrectly figured by Allies,^[118] and rather better by Wright.^[119]

An axe-head (54/10 inches), of the same character as Fig. 138, but in outline more nearly resembling Fig. 137, found near Stanwick, Yorkshire, is in the British Museum.^[120] The cutting end of such a weapon was dredged with gravel from the Trent, at Beeston, near Nottingham, in 1862.

Fig. 139.—Skelton Moors. 1/2

Another axe-hammer of greenstone, with projections on the faces opposite the centre of the hole, and with a hollow fluting near each margin, that is carried round on the sides below the holes, is shown in Fig. 139. The original was found by the Rev. J. C. Atkinson, who kindly lent it me for engraving. It lay in an urn about 17 inches high, containing burnt bones and some fragments of burnt flint, in a large barrow on the Skelton Moors, Yorkshire. In the same barrow were found eight other urns, all containing secondary interments. In another barrow, on Westerdale Moors, Mr. Atkinson found a second axe-hammer of nearly the same size and form, but more hammer-like at the end. This also has the channels on the faces. It is of fine-grained granite, and lay in an urn with burnt bones, a small "incense-cup," and a sort of long bone bead, having a spiral pattern upon it and a transverse orifice into the perforation, about the centre. In this case, also, the interment was not that over which the barrow was originally raised. In another barrow, on Danby North Moors, also opened by Mr. Atkinson, a rather larger axe-hammer of much the same outline, lay with the hole in a vertical position, about 15 inches above a deposit of burnt bones. It is of basalt much decayed. An axe-hammer from Inveraray,^[121] Argyllshire (53/4 inches), in outline rather like Fig. 143, has small projections on each face opposite to the centre of the shaft-hole.

Fig. 140.—Selwood Barrow. 1/2

A longer and more slender form has also occasionally been found in tumuli. Sir R. Colt Hoare has given an engraving of a beautiful specimen from the Selwood Barrow,^[122] near Stourton, which is here reproduced as Fig. 140. The axe is of syenite, 51/2 inches long, and lay in a cist, in company with burnt bones and a small bronze dagger, which in the description is erroneously termed a lance-head. Parallel with each side, there appears to be a small groove worked on the face of the weapon. A very pretty example of the same form accompanied an interment in a barrow at Snowshill,^[123] Gloucestershire. With it were associated two bronze daggers and a bronze pin.

In the Christy Collection is a similar but larger specimen, 7 inches long, formed of dark greenstone. It also has the grooves along the margin of the faces, and has an oval flat face about 1 inch by 7/8 inch at the hammer-end. The hole, which is 11/8 inch full in diameter at one side, contracts rather suddenly to 1 inch at the other. This weapon was formerly in the Leverian Museum, and is said to have been found in a barrow near Stonehenge, which, from its similarity to Sir R. C. Hoare's specimen, there seems no reason to doubt.

Fig. 140a.—Longniddry 1/2

An axe-hammer of clay-stone porphyry, 43/4 inches long, and in form the same as those last described—except that there appears to be more of a shoulder at the hammer-end—was found in a barrow at Winwick,^[124] near Warrington, Lancashire. It was broken clean across the hole, and had been buried in an urn with burnt bones. With them was also a bronze dagger with a tang, and one rivet hole to secure it in the handle.

An axe-hammer of much the same proportions, but more square at the hammer-end, was discovered in a dolmen near Carnac,^[125] in Brittany. A beautiful axe of the same character with ornamental grooves and mouldings is in the Museum at Edinburgh, and is here, by favour of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, shown as Fig. 140a. The original is of diorite, and was dug up in 1800 at Longniddry,^[126] East Lothian.

Fig. 141.—Upton Lovel. 1/2

Another variety of form is shown in Fig. 141, reduced from Sir R. Colt Hoare's great work.^[127] In this case the hammer-end would appear to be lozenge-shaped, as there is a central ridge shown on the face. It was found in the Upton Lovel barrow, on the breast of the larger skeleton, near the feet of which the flint celts, polished and unpolished, and various other objects in bone and stone, were found, as previously mentioned.^[128] The engraving of this weapon in the Archæologia differs considerably from that given by Sir R. C. Hoare.

In Fig. 142 is shown another form, in which the hammer-end, though flat in one direction, forms a semicircular sweep, answering in form to the cutting edge at the other end. The two faces are ornamented with a slight groove, extending across them parallel to the centre of the shaft-hole. The material of which this axe-hammer is made appears to be serpentine. It was found in the Thames, at London, and is in the British Museum. A "hammer" from a barrow at Wilsford,^[129] Wilts, which was associated with a flat bronze celt and other articles of bronze, was of the same type as Fig. 142, but without the grooves.

The very neatly formed instrument represented in Fig. 143, seems to occupy an intermediate place between a battle-axe and a mace or fighting hammer. It is rounded in both directions at the butt-end,

Fig. 142.—Thames, London. 1/2

but instead of having a sharp edge at the other end it is brought to a somewhat rounded point. The inner side is concave, though hardly to the extent shown by the dotted line in the cut. The shaft-hole is nearly parallel, though somewhat expanding at each end. The material is greenstone. This weapon was found in the middle of a barrow, or rather cairn, formed of stones, in the parish of Pelynt, Cornwall.^[130] It lay among a considerable quantity of black ashes, which had evidently been burnt on the natural surface of the ground at the spot. There was no urn, nor any other work of art in company with it. In another barrow, in the same field, was a bronze dagger with two rivets. I have never seen any other stone hammer of this form found in Britain, nor can I call to mind any such in continental museums. The nearest approach to it is to be observed in some of the Scandinavian weapons, in which the outer side is much more

Fig. 143.—Pelynt, Cornwall 1/2

rounded than the inner, but in these there is usually an axe-like edge, though very narrow. A shuttle-shaped weapon of porphyritic stone, found in Upper Egypt,^[131] is not unlike it, but is equally pointed at both ends. The perforation narrows from 3/4 inch to 1/4. The concave side of the Pelynt weapon is so much like that of some of the battle-axes, such as Fig. 137, as to suggest the idea that originally it may have been of this form, but having in some manner been damaged, it has been re-worked into its present exceptional shape.

It will have been observed that instruments, such as most of those engraved, have accompanied interments both by cremation and inhumation, and have, in some cases, been found in association with small daggers, celts, and pins or awls of bronze. Other instances may be adduced from the writings of the late Mr. T. Bateman, though sometimes the exact form of the weapons is not recorded. In the Parcelly Hay Barrow,^[132] near Hartington, an axe-head of granite, with a hole for the shaft, and a bronze dagger, with three rivets for fastening the handle, had been buried with a contracted body, above the covering stones of the primary interment.^[133] Another, of basalt, apparently like Fig. 126, broken in the middle, is said to have lain between two skeletons at full length, placed side by side in a barrow at Kens Low Farm.^[134] On the breast of one lay a circular brooch of copper or bronze. With the axe was a polished porphyry-slate pebble, the ends of which were ground flat.

Looking at the whole series, it seems probable that they were intended to serve more than one purpose, and that while the adze- like instruments may have been tools either for agriculture or for carpentry, and the large heavy axe-hammers also served some analogous purposes, the smaller class of instruments, whether sharpened at both ends or at one only, may with some degree of certainty be regarded as weapons. That the perforated form of axe was of later invention than the solid stone hatchet is almost self- evident; and that many of the battle-axe class belong to a period when bronze was coming into use is well established. That all instruments of this form belong to so late a period there is no evidence to prove; but in other countries where perforated axes are common, as in Scandinavia and Switzerland, those who have most carefully studied the antiquities, find reason for assigning a considerable number to a period when the use of bronze was unknown. On the other hand, it is possible that in some instances the large heavy axe-hammer may have remained in use even in the days when bronze and iron were well known. Sir W. Wilde mentions one in the museum of the Royal Irish Academy, 103/4 inches long, which is said to have been recently in use. Canon Greenwell had another which was used for felling pigs in Yorkshire. Such, however, may be but instances of adapting ancient implements, accidentally met with, to modern uses.

I have already, in the description of the various figures, mentioned when analogous forms were found in other parts of Western Europe, so that it is needless again to cite instances of discoveries on the Continent. I may, however, notice a curious series from Northern Russia and Finland.^[135] They are for the most part pointed at one end, the other being sometimes carved to represent the head of an animal. Some are pointed at each end. In several there is a projection on both sides of the shaft-hole, designed to add strength to a weak part, but at the same time made ornamental. The animal's head occurs also on bronze axes.

Out of Europe this class of perforated instruments is almost unknown.

Turning to modern savages, the comparative absence of perforated axes is striking. In North America, it is true that some specimens occur, but the material is usually too soft for cutting purposes, and the haft-holes are so small that the handles would be liable to break. It has therefore been inferred that they were probably used as weapons of parade. They are, however, occasionally formed of quartz.^[136] Schoolcraft,^[137] moreover, regards the semilunar perforated maces as actual weapons of war. One of them, pointed at each end, he describes as being 8 inches long, and weighing half a pound. The more hatchet-like forms he considers to be tomahawks. In some instances^[138] the hole does not extend through the blade.

In Central America, Southern Africa, and New Zealand, where the art of drilling holes through stone is, or was, well known, perforated axes appear to be absent. I have, however, heard of an instrument of the kind having been discovered in New Zealand, but have not seen either the original or a sketch. Some perforated hoe-like implements have been found in Mexico.

The nearest approach to such instruments is perhaps afforded by the sharp-rimmed perforated discs of stone, mounted on shafts so as to present an edge all round, which are in use, apparently as weapons, in the Southern part of New Guinea, and Torres Straits. Some perforated sharp-rimmed discs of flint and serpentine, have been found in France.^[139] They are probably heads of war-maces. In New Caledonia,^[140] flat discs of jade, ground to a sharp edge all round, are mounted as axes, being let into a notch at the end of the haft and secured by a lashing that passes through two small holes in the edge of the blade.

The cause of this scarcity of perforated weapons appears to be, that though it might involve rather more trouble and skill to attach a solid hatchet to its shaft, yet this was more than compensated by the smaller amount of labour involved in making that kind of blade, than in fashioning and boring the perforated kind. These latter, moreover, would be more liable to break in use. Looking at our own stone axes from this point of view, it seems that with the very large implements the shaft-hole became almost a necessity; while with those used for warlike purposes, where the contingencies of wear and breakage were but small, it seems probable that the possession of a weapon, on the production of which a more than ordinary amount of labour had been bestowed, was regarded as a mark of distinction, as is the case among some savages of the present day.

1. Wilson, "Preh. Ann. of Scot.," vol. i. p. 191; Arch. Scot., vol. i. p. 291.
2. "Itin. Curios.," 2nd ed., vol. i. p. 57.
3. P. 58.
4. "Necrolivonica," Beil. C., p. 23; and Nachtrag, p. 20.
5. "Stone Age," p. 71.
6. Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., vol. xviii. p. 310.
7. P. S. A. S., vol. xxiv. p. 277.
8. "Heidnische Alterthümer," 1846, pl. vi. 16.
9. Vol. ii. fig. 144.
10. Vol. ix. p. 120. See Arch. Journ., vol. xiii. p. 184, and vol. xv. p. 90.
11. Greenwell, in Arch., vol. lii. p. 60.
12. Hoare's "South Wilts," p. 174.
13. Arch. Assoc. Journ., vol. xx. pl. vii. 1.
14. "Ten Years' Diggings," p. 155.
15. "Vest. of Ants. of Derbyshire," p. 7.
16. "Ants. of Worcestershire," pl. iv. 8 and 9.
17. P. 108, No. 4.
18. Arch. Journ., vol. vii. p. 399.
19. Pl. iii. 9.
20. Aspelin, "Ant. du Nord Finno-Ougrien," No. 78.
21. "Mém. sur les Restes d'Indust.," &c., 1866, pl. x. 12.
22. Mortillet, "Promenades," p. 146.
23. Cong. préh. Bologne, 1871, p. 101. Do. Buda-Pest, 1876, p. 87. "Mus. Préh.," No. 500.
24. Rev. Arch., 3rd S., vol. vii. p. 66.
25. Arch. Journ., vol. iii. p. 67.
26. P. 17, pl. ii. 3.
27. "Preh. Ann. of Scot.," vol. i. p. 193.
28. Simony, "Alt. von Hallstatt," p. 9; Taf. vi. 3.
29. Vol. iii. p. 128.
30. Trans. Herts. Nat. Hist. Soc., vol. viii., 1896, p. 176.
31. Journ. Ethnol. Soc., vol. ii. pl. xvi. 14.
32. "Nordiske Oldsager," No. 50.
33. "Alterthümer," vol. i. Heft ii. Taf. i. 10 and 12.
34. Smithsonian Report, 1863, p. 379.
35. Anz. f. Schw. Alt., 1870, p. 141.
36. Mitth. Anth. Ges. in Wein, vol. xxv. (1895) p. 39.
37. Tr. Dev. Assoc., vol. xxii, p. 44.
38. Proc. Soc. Ant., 2nd. S., vol. iv. p. 339. Arch., vol. xliii. p. 410. A. C. Smith's "Ant. of North Wilts.," p. 168. "Salisbury Vol. Arch. Inst.," 1849, p. 110; Arch. Journ., vol. xxiv. p. 29.
39. Arch. Assoc. Journ., vol. xxv. p. 272.
40. Pr. Lanc. and Ch. Arch. Soc., vol. xi. p.172.
41. "Essai sur les Dolmens," pl. iv. 1.
42. P. S. A. S., vol. viii. p. 264.
43. P. S. A. S., vol. xxiii. p. 208.
44. Wilde, "Cat. Mus. R. I. A.," p. 79.
45. "Alt. u. H. V.," vol. i. Heft i. Taf. i. 18.
46. Matériaux, vol. i. p. 462.
47. "Brit. Barrows," p. 158.
48. "Vest. Ant. Derb.," p. 63. Cat., p 6, No. 49
49. Skelton's "Meyrick's Armour," pl. xlvi. 3.
50. Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., vol. xxix p. 6.
51. "Brit. Barrows," p. 266.
52. Trans. E. R. Ant. Soc., vol. ii. 1894, p. 21.
53. "Horæ Ferales," pl. iii. 4.
54. Proc. Soc. Ant., 2nd S., vol. ii. p. 295.
55. "Vestiges of Ants. of Derbyshire," p. 7; Cat., No. 36; Brigg's "History of Melbourne," p. 15; Wright's "Celt, Roman, and Saxon," p. 69.
56. "Ten Years' Diggings," p. 227. Cat., p. 25, No. 256.
57. Worsaae, "Nord. Olds.," No. 109; Lindenschmit, "Alt. u. H. V.," vol. i. Heft iv. Taf. i. 5, 6.
58. Zeitseh. f. Ethn., vol. xxiv., 1892, p. (178).
59. Lindenschmit, op. cit., vol. i. Heft i. Taf. i. 8, 9, and 10.
60. Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., vol. ii. p. 306; xviii. p. 319; "Cat. Arch. Inst. Mus. Ed.," p. 19; "Horæ Ferales," pl. iii. 20; "Sculpt. Stones of Scot.," vol. i. p. xx.; Wilson, "Preh. Ann. of Scot.," vol. i. pl. iii.
61. P. S. A. S., vol. ix. p. 383, pl. xxii.
62. P. S. A. S., vol. xxi. p. 264.
63. Arch. Journ., vol, xii. p. 277.
64. Vol. iii. p. 234.
65. Arch. Camb., 5th S., vol. v. p. 170.
66. Montg. Coll., vol. xiv. p. 271.
67. Arch. Journ., vol. xxxi. p. 302.
68. Vol. viii. p. 421.
69. "Cat. Arch. Inst., Mus., Ed." p. 6.
70. Ibid., p. 45.
71. Arch. Scot., vol, iii., App., p. 121.
72. Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., vol. vii. p. 478.
73. Ibid., vol. iv. p. 55
74. Ibid., vol. vi. p. 86.
75. Ibid., vol. iv. p. 379.
76. Pl. xlvii. 1.
77. See P. S. A. S., vol. xii. p. 568; xiv. p. 126; xv. p. 266; xvi. p. 76; xxiii. p. 205, 210; and Smith's "Preh. Man in Ayrshire," 1895, p. 39.
78. Arch. Assoc. Journ., vol. xv., p. 232.
79. Geologist, vol. vii. p. 56.
80. Arch. Ael., vol. xii. p. 118.
81. "Cat. Arch. Inst. Mus., Ed.," p. 38.
82. Arch. Journ., vol. x. p. 65.
83. Arch., vol. xliv. p. 284.
84. Proc. Soc. Ant., 2nd S., vol. viii. p. 489.
85. Tr. Lanc. and Chesh. Ant. Soc., vol. v. p. 327. See also xi. p. 171.
86. Tr. Dev. Assoc., vol. xxvi. p. 51.
87. Tr. Dev. Assoc., vol. xxii. p. 208.
88. Rep. Leic. Lit. and Phil. Soc., 1887–8, pl. iii.
89. Mem. Real. Acc. delle Scienze, &c., di Torino, Ser. II., vol. xxvi. Ta. i. 1. See also for Italy, Bull. di Pal. Ital., 1882, p. 1.
90. Vol. xvii. p. 20.
91. Vol. ii. p. 125.
92. Vol. xxxi. p. 452.
93. Arch., vol. ii. p. 118.
94. Arch., vol. XXX. p. 459.
95. P. S. A. S., vol. xiii. p. 334; xxii. p. 384.
96. "Horæ Ferales," pl. iii. 3.
97. Allies' "Ants. of Worc.," p. 150, pl. iv. 10.
98. P. 111.
99. Proc. Soc. Ant., 2nd S., vol. iv. p. 319.
100. Arch., vol. ii. p. 127.
101. "Stone Age," p. 73.
102. L'Anth., vol. vi., 1895, p. 10.
103. "Abitaz. lac. di Fimon," 1876, p. 150, pl. xiv.
104. "Cat. of Objects found in Greece,' fig. 3.
105. Pl. iii. 24.
106. Schliemann's "Troy," 1875, p. 94. Atlas, pl. xxii. 610.
107. Proc. Soc. Ant., 2nd S., vol. iv. p. 61. "Brit. Barrows," p. 222.
108. Proc. Soc. Ant., 2nd S., vol. iv. p. 60. "Brit. Barrows," p. 224.
109. Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., vol. xxix., 1895, p. 66.
110. Thoresby's Cat. in Whitaker's ed. of "Ducatus Leod.," p. 114.
111. Leland's "Coll.," vol. iv. vi.
112. P. S. A. S., vol. xxvii., 1893, p. 56.
113. Montg. Coll., vol. xiv. p. 276.
114. "Celtic Tumuli of Dorset," p. 63.
115. Arch., vol. xliv. p. 427.
116. Arch. Journ., vol. vi. p. 74.
117. "South Wilts," Tumuli, pl. viii. "Cat. Devizes Mus.," Nos. 15, 17.
118. "Ants. of Worcestershire," pl. iv. 5, p. 146.
119. "Celt, Roman, and Saxon," p. 70.
120. "Horæ Ferales," pl. iii. 15.
121. P.S.A.S., vol. xxiii.p.8.
122. "South Wilts," Tumuli, pl. i. "Cat. Devizes Mus.," No. 283.
123. Arch., vol. lii. p. 70.
124. Archæol. Journ., vol. xviii. p. 158. Arch. Assoc. Journ., vol. xvi. p. 295, pl. xxv. 8; Trans. Hist. Soc. Lanc. and Chesh., vol. xii. p. 189.
125. "Guide des Touristes, &c., dans le Morbihan," 1854, p. 43.
126. P. S. A. S., vol. xxviii. p. 241.
127. "South Wilts," Tumuli, pl. v.; "Cat. Devizes Mus.," No. 8; Arch., vol. xv. pl. v. 1.
128. Supra, p. 83.
129. Hoare's "South Wilts," p. 209; Arch., vol. xliii. p. 411; A. C. Smith's "Ants. of North Wilts," p. 19.
130. 27th Report Roy. Inst. of Cornw., 1846, p. 35. I am indebted to the Secretaries of this Institution for permission to engrave the specimen. It is also figured in Borlase's "Nænia Cornubiæ," p. 191.
131. Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., vol. xiii. p. 347; xxvi. p. 398.
132. "Ten Years' Diggings," p. 24.
133. "Crania Brit.," vol. ii. xviii. pl. 2.
134. "Vest. Ant. Derb.," p. 29. Smith, "Coll. Ant.," vol. i. pl. xx. 3.
135. Mém. Soc. R. des Ant. du Nord, 1872-77, p. 107. Aarbög. for Oldk., 1872, d. 309-342. Cong. préh. Stockholm, 1874, p. 290. Aspelin, "Ant. du Nord. Finno-Ougrien," No. 71-76.
136. "Indian Tribes," vol. iv. p. 174.
137. Op. cit., vol. i. p. 92; vol. ii. pl. 48.
138. Op. cit., vol. iv. p. 167.
139. "Mus. préh.," No. 449. Mat., vol. xvii. p. 284.
140. Ratzel, "Völkerk.," vol. ii. p. 247. Mitth. d. Anth. Ges. in Wien, vol. ix. (1880) pl. ii.