178 SIK JOHN" EVANS — THE STONE AGE 



found in graves, together with, blocks of pyrites, also showing signs 

 of wear. 



Turning from these homely implements to weapons of war or of 

 the chase, I will now refer to the small flint weapons, varying 

 in size and also considerably in shape, known as arrow-heads. 

 The variation in size probably arises from some of them having 

 tipped spears to be held in the hand for close encounters, and 

 others having been attached to lighter shafts to form javelins for 

 throwing at objects at a distance ; but most of the smaller kinds 

 were undoubtedly the heads of arrows discharged from bows. 

 Lance-heads are usually more or less lozenge-shaped, wliile arrow- 

 heads, though sometimes of that form or more nearly leaf-shaped, 

 with or without a decided stem like the petiole of a leaf, are often 

 of more complicated form, being stemmed and barbed. These are 

 of most common occurrence, but one leaf-shaped form appears to 

 be almost peculiar to a certain class of long barrows, though the 

 stemmed and barbed, lozenge and leaf- shaped forms have been 

 found together in the soil of the same grave-mound. 



I have this morning received by post three arrow-heads which 

 have been found in the neighbourhood of Hitchin by Mr. Frank 

 Latchford. I have also arrow-heads found near Ware, and others 

 from Pirton and Tring. The irregularly-barbed arrow-head repre- 

 sented in Plate X, fig. 1, was found by myself in 1866 on the 

 surface of a field at the foot of the Chalk escarpment between 

 Eddlesborough and Tring. One of the surfaces is very rough, and 

 the outline is far from symmetrical, though it can hardly be re- 

 garded as unfinished, but rather as showing how rude were some 

 of the appliances of our savage predecessors in Hertfordshire, even 

 in the Neolithic Age. Some tanged and barbed flint arrow-heads 

 of nearly the same form, but apparently a little more symmetrical, 

 were found about 1763 at Tring Grove when the Grand Junction 

 Canal was being made. The remains of a warrior were then found, 

 and between the legs of the extended skeleton were several of these 

 arrow-heads, at the feet being some perforated plates of greenish 

 stone used as bracers or arm-guards, and similar in character to 

 those still worn by archers to prevent the string of the bow from 

 hitting the arm. A bracer from Scotland is represented in Fig. 7, 

 and some more arrow-heads are shown in Plate X, figs. 2, 3, 4, 

 and 5. A specimen from Ash well, Baldock, in the collection of 

 Mr. A. E. Gibbs, is shown in Plate XII, fig. 1. It is a debatable 

 question whether the majority of the flint arrow-heads do not 

 belong to the Bronze Period rather than to the Stone Period. 



Flint arrow-heads are not so difiicult to make as they appear to 



