ARROWPOINTS, SPEARHEADS, AND KNIVES. 



939 



shorter shaft or liaiidle, then they might serve as knives and as such 

 wouhl he entitled to consideration here. This sa[)poseil difference iu 

 the shaft or handle applies equally to otlier implements whicli have 

 passed throushout all time as arrowpoints or spearheads. For, as has 

 been sliown in its appiopriate phice, the particular use of the ordinary 

 arrowpoint or spearhead is to be determined by the kind of shaft or 

 handle to which it was attached. The size of the implement made no 

 difference; if it was attached to a long and stout shaft it was a spear, 

 if to a shorter one, it was a javelin, if still shorter and smaller, an arrow, 

 while a still shorter one became a handle and 

 determined the implement to be a knife. 



As the tranchant transversal must have had 

 some one of these kinds of handles or shafts, 

 the shaft or handle, and not the head, deter- 

 mined its use. It is therefore repeated that, 

 in an 3^ event and without deciding the varions 

 contentions whether the tranchant transversal 

 was nsed as an arrow|)oint, a spearhead, or a 

 knife, it is still ap])ropriate to be noticed in this 

 paper. It may have been a combination imple- 

 ment and served in many capacities. One sug- 

 gested by the author as extremely j^robable is 

 that of a surgical instrument and specially 

 used in trepanation, of which we liave seen so 

 many instances in the prehistoric epoch to 

 which these implements belong. 



The U. S. j^ational Museum possesses (Wil- 

 son collection) a series of these imijlements 

 from the station of Teil (Loir et-Cher, France), 

 collected by M. A. C. Bonnet, of Paris. He 

 has a large collection, having excavate<l the 

 station and secured its entire contents. He 

 says the station at Teil was evidently inhabi- 

 ted by i)rehistoric man for a long time. It 

 was on the side of a hill looking toward the 

 south, with a stream of water at the foot, and 

 had everything to recommend it as a pUice of habitation. There are 

 many localities in western Europe wherein these imphiuients have been 

 found, but they do not require notice or description. 



A vertebra, from a grotto near Courjeonnet, in the valley of the Petit 

 Morin (Marne), France, was pierced by a dint arrowpoint of the type 

 tranchant transversal. Tiie grotto in which it was found was sepul- 

 chral. All the bones were human, regularly disposed, and their ana- 

 tomical relations respectively preserved. There would seem to be no 

 doubt that this was used as a projectile. Dr. Hamy, describing the 

 excavations at Les Kyzies in his " Palcontologie Humaine," says: 



There are very small arrowpoints, triangular or flattened, filed at their extremitios, 

 which form a sharp edge. In figs. 63, 64 one of these points is shown still inserted 

 in the lumbar vertebra of a young reindeer. 



Fig-. 100. 



PECDLIAK FORMS OF ARROWPOINTS — 

 TRANCHANT TRANSVERSAL. 



{a) Found iu jieat inos.s. Funan, 

 Denmark, in shaft anil tied with 

 bast fiber. 



Evans, And.-nt Stone Imijicments, el.-., p. Ma, 

 Hg. »44. 



(b) From neolithic grave, (Aisne) 

 France, in horn handle. 



Hi. tiniinaire des Sciences Anthropologtqnes, 

 p. 1065, fig. «7S. 



