938 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1897. 



arrow, but the baiuUe is short enough for a knife; wliether the shaft 

 was broken before being phieed in its grave can not be known. 



Fig. 190 (b) represents another specimen of the same class, from a 

 neolithic grave at Montiguy TEngrain (Aisne) France. It is inserted 

 in a horn handle and shows this particular specimen to have served as 

 a knife, possibly for trepanation, and not as an arrow. 



Similar specimens have been found throughout western Europe. 

 A cache of some thousand was opened and is now displayed in the 

 museum at Copenhagen. Another was described by M. Edmond Vielle.' 



There is an implement peculiar to Scandinavia of the same form as the 

 tranchant transversal. They have been called in French " tranchet." 

 From their resemblance to the tranchant transversal they are sup- 

 posed to have been the same implement and intended for the same use, 

 but this conclusion has not been accepted. The principal difterence 

 between those of Scandinavia and of other countries is their respective 

 sizes. Those of Scandinavia are larger, so much so as to interdict all 

 possible use as arrowpoints or spearheads. Many of them are large 

 enough to have required to be held in the hand for use. It is the 

 accepted belief that they served rather as hatchets, and that their 

 cutting was done by strokes as in cliopping. It is also charged that 



they belonged to au earlier epoch than their 



f smaller partners, this having been deter- 

 mined by the conditions and stratum of their 

 \-2-j-".'--^/ deposit and the objects with which they 

 ^^^^1 were found associated. No opinion is ex- 

 ^^^ pressed as to the correctness of this belief 

 ^"""""^ of the use of the tranchet. As much as can 

 be said at the present is a warning that an 

 « j,,.^ ^jjg objection made to the large tranchet in 

 PECULIAR FORMtoF ARROWPOINTS, Scaudluavia shall not necessarily defeat the 

 BROADEST AT CUTTING END— Idcas of tlic siuiilar use for the smaller ones 

 TRANCHANT TRANSVERSAL. jj^ Fraucc aud othcr parts of Europe. 



Aisne, France. Whatever may be said in opposition to the 



Division IV, Class F. n ^i, n j. i i. j. i 



use of the small tranchant transversal as an 

 arrowpoint or spearhead, it must be admitted that they have been found 

 in such numbers in numerous and widely separated localities, and 

 extending over such an area of Europe as to make it difficult to deter- 

 mine for what purpose they were intended, if not for that. 



The greatest contention as to its possible use grows out of its shaft 

 or handle and the mode of attachment, by which it is sought to be 

 determined whether it was used as an arrowpoint or spearhead, or as a 

 knife; but all this di.scussiou is of slight value viewed from the stand- 

 I)oint of this paper, for it must be admitted that these implements 

 were prehistoric and intended for a use involving cutting, scraping, or 

 piercing. The piercing use would decide it to be an arrowpoint or 

 spearhead, which would naturally require an attachment to an arrow 

 or spear shaft. But suppose that they would be found attached to a 



1 Bulletins de la Soci^t6 d'Antbropologie, 1890, p. 959. 



