382 ARCn^OLQGY 



were found numerous pieces of granite and quartzite, which have 

 received the form of trianguUirly cut Laminje of silex. 



Twelve stone discs, from thirteen lines to two inches in diame- 

 ter, and from two to eight lines in thickness, have a funnel-shaped 

 hollow on each side or face ; the incomplete hollows on two of 

 them enabled us to perceive the workman's mode of procedure. He 

 commenced by cutting away the stone by gentle strokes of an angular 

 instrument, working first on one side of the desc or plate, and then 

 on the other, and when the two hollows met he finished the boring 

 by turning a punch — of silex, no doubt — rapidly round and round, 

 until he had smoothed away all the inequalities left b}' the first ope- 

 ration. The use of these plates or discs, of various kinds of rock, 

 is doubtful as yet; they may have served as spindle whirls or as 

 weights for a net. A small pebble, oval in form, and pierced on 

 both^sides so as to be suspended from a string, would seem rather to 

 indicate the latter as their use. 



It is probable that the hammer which served for cutting stone was 

 a piece of flint from the shore, and that when it got broken its an- 

 gular parts performed the part of the gimlets or awls. The last 

 operation was performed with the aid of grindstones of soft freestone. 

 Of these a great number have been discovered. Thirty of them 

 have been put aside for the museum; all are worn in such a manner 

 as to indicate the use that has been made of them, and many are 

 sufficiently small to have been held in the hand, as our peasants use 

 sharpening stones on their scythes. On one there is a concave and 

 rounded groove, of two or three lines in width, reminding one of the 

 grindstones in the north, on which they sharpen gouges. 



Three heavy stones, with concave surface, have served as mill- 

 stones, between which grain was ground. Though as yet only a very 

 small number of seeds of wheat have been found at Concise, we know 

 that it was cultivated in Switzerland in the stone age, and that in 

 some parts quite abundant stores of it have been found. Raspberry 

 seeds, wild plums, and especially nuts, are by no means rare among 

 the specimens of Concise. Some seeds still remain to be decided 

 upon. 



The articles o^ pottery are, in general, very much damaged. Accord- 

 ing to the fragments that have been collected, the predominant form 

 was that of the cylinder; though the forms of the urn, the saucer, 

 and the bowl have also been discovered. Some specimens have promi- 

 nences on the upper edge to enable the vessel to be held; in other 

 cases there are holes through which a cord could be passed to serve 

 as a handle. The coarse clay was kneaded with silicious flints, and 

 shaped with the hand; the thickness of the sides is frequently from 

 four to five lines. Some slender fragments of a much finer gray- 

 ish clay, or covered with a black glazing, and ornamented with 

 grooves or zig-zag lines, show that it is not always easy to distinguish 

 between the pottery of the first age and that of later periods. The 

 vases which were used for other domestic purposes served also for 

 cooking, as is evidenced by the carbonized coating which still ad- 

 heres to the inside of some of them. 



