ARROWPOINTS, SPEARHEADS, xVNU KNIVES. 



827 



used among savages, and that those be- 

 longing to the preceding epoch couhl not 

 have been thus used, establishes a fair pre- 

 sumption in that behalf. This fact being 

 admitted, these represent the earliest 

 spearheads made by man. If these imple- 

 ments were rare, the argument would be 

 correspondingly feeble, but they havebeen 

 found in great numbers over a large por- 

 tion of western Europe, and the epoch to 

 which they belonged is believed by M. de 

 Mortillet to have been of greater duration 

 than any other in the Paleolithic period. 



In the continuation of the Cavern period 

 to what M. de Mortillet calls the Solutrt-en 

 epoch, where the inventive genius and the 

 mechanical ability of man became higher, 

 implements are found which establish be- 

 yond dispute their use as spears or jave- 

 lins. True, they have been used as har- 

 poons, but what is a harpoon but a barbed 

 spear or lance? Many of them were of 

 bone or horn. Figs. 5, G, 7, 8, and 9 are 

 here introduced as typical representations 

 of thousands which have been found in 

 southern France, belonging to this epoch of 

 the Paleolithic period. Those here shown 

 are of reindeer horn and are about natural 

 size. Observe the straight, smooth, taper- 

 ing i^oints. In one of them (fig. 5) the base 

 is bifurcated to receive the end of a shaftj 

 another has the base brought to a i^oint 

 for insertion into the shaft, and, after the 

 fashion of the Eskimo and other fisher peo- 

 ple, it has a hole apparently for the attach- 

 ment to its shaft bj^ string (fig. 6). The 

 others, larger ones, have at their base an 

 enlargement or swelling, over which the 

 hollow shaft can be forced for a given dis- 

 tance, which, lashed tightly with a thong, 

 wiU keep it firm, or, inserted but slightly, 

 will allow it to pull out and remain in a 

 wound while the shaft is released (figs. 

 7-10). 



These objects, having belonged to the 

 Paleolithic i)eriod entirely disassociated 



fMm%0i0ffm 



Fig. 11. 



SOLUTRfcEN POINT Of CIIIPPEIJ FLINT. 



Solutri!, France. 

 igny-sur-Arroux { Saoue-et- Loire ). rj iiHtural size. 



