PREHISTORIC ART. 



427 



BRANDON CORE. 



Fig. 70 represents a core of tiiiit from Braudon, England. The 

 flakes (fig. 80) have been struck oft', one after the other, going around 

 tlie outer edge, gauging tlie proper thickness for the tttike, the inside 

 of one forming the outside of the next. With patience one can rear- 

 range the flakes one by one against the core in tlie inverse order in 

 which they have been struck oft" until the nodule is reconstructed. The 

 core shows the conchoidal fracture made by each blow, and with the 

 aid of this peculiarity the flakes can be fitted one to the other, as 

 shown in tig. 80. Tlie same operation is performed in making the cores 

 and flakes of obsid- 

 ian, to be shown fur- 

 ther on (Plate liO). 



Conchoidal frac- 

 ture. — T he c o u - 

 choidal fracture is 

 the evidence of a 

 blow. Every blow 

 which produces a 

 fracture in the flint 

 leaves such a con- 

 choidal figure. By 

 it the early discov- 

 eries of the exist- 

 ence of prehistoric 

 man were made, 

 and human inter- 

 vention in manufactured objects rendered certain. Fig. 81 represents 

 one of these Brandon flint cores with its flakes all in place, showing- 

 how they were struck off, one after the other. 



Most of the works on prehistoric archa'ology relating to the making 

 of arrowheads refer to such stone chipping among modern savages, and 

 many of them contain descriptions by travelers and visitors of the 

 different tools and methods by which flint chipping was done. ' As we 

 are dealing with prehistoric fine art rather than prehistoric archa'ology 

 or primitive industry, we need not further pursue the subject of how 

 to chij) flint. 



BONE FLAKERS. 



While stone hammers similar to fig. 78 were, as already mentioned, 

 the principal tool with which flint chipping was done, yet other imple- 

 ments were used. The Eskimo has points of bone or horn called 

 flakers, with which, it is said, he pushes or presses off" the smaller flakes. 



■ Sir John Evans, Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain ; "Wilde's Cata- 

 logue of Antiqiiitit^s of the Royal Irish Academy; Do Mortillet's La Prehistorique; 

 Stephens's Flint Chips. 



Fig. 81. 



CORE OF BLACK FLINT, WITH ITS BLADES AS STRUCK OFF ARRANGED IN 

 PLACE. 



Evans, Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain, fig. 2. 



