858 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1897. 



coinniaudiug positions, raany of which, never liaving been cultivated, 

 were unchanged from the times of antiijuity, and so furnish excellent 

 evidence of their prehistoric occupation. 



It wns the opinion of Baron de Tjoi' and M. de Munck that the flint 

 implements made in the workshops of the neighborhood had been the 

 foundation of an extensive commerce, by which they had been distrib- 

 uted over southern Belgium and northeastern France. M. de Munck 

 had found l."> Neolithic stations, extending over 45 communes, all in 

 direct relation with Spiennes, creating a network of roads which had 

 remained in use until modern times. 



(rvand Prrsfiii/uy. — Grand Pressigny, in the department of Indre-et- 

 Loire, France, a few hours' ride southwest of Tours, is the center of a 



district rich in flint, 

 wliicli was much util- 

 ized during the Neo- 

 lithic period. 



There was no mine 

 proper, but an exten- 

 sive workshop for the 

 manufacture of flint 

 implements (Plate 7). 

 The debris still en- 

 cumbers the ground 

 for miles around to 

 such exeut as to im- 

 pede cultivation, and 

 furnishes flint for the reparation of the road and for buihling puri)oses. 

 Many of the neighbcn-ing houses have been built either with founda- 

 tions or first stories of the flint nodules. The parapet of the bridge, 

 on which Ave pass over the stream into the town, is of flint. The cores 

 are most plentiful and are called, from tlieir color and shape, "livres 

 du beurre," pounds of butter (Plate 7, fig. 3). They have been so 

 wrought as to enable the workmen to strike off, sometimes one, some- 

 times three, flakes of remarkable length, 12 to 10 inches (Plate 7, fig. 4). 

 These flakes may have been used as knives, but the}' were many times 

 worked into spear or lance heads. Here also was a division of labor, 

 for in certain workshops these flakes alone would be found; in others, 

 notably the hamlet of Epargne (Philippe Salmon), the peculiar saws 

 or scraiters notche<l in the end were to l>e procured (fig. r>3). But the 

 remarkable thing about it all was the great demand in prehistoric 

 times for these spearheads and knives and the extensive commerce they 

 commanded. Because of its peculiar yellow or waxen color, the flint 

 of Grand Pressigny is easily recognizable, and so can be traced in its 

 migrations through 27 departments in northern, western, and central 

 France, and even into some of the lake dwellings of Switzerland. 

 Specimens of it have been found iii the dolmens, associated with some 



Fig. 53. 



FLINT IMPLEMENT; THE PECULIAB PRODUCT OF A PREHISTORIC WORK- 

 SHOP. 



Grand Prea.sigiiy (In<lre-ot-Loir<') Franco. 



