rAL.EOLlTHIC DEXTERITY. 129 



primitive flint workers. The opiuioii adopted by Mr. Cushiug-, after repeated observation 

 and tentative experiment, is that primitive man was, as a rule, right-handed. The 

 evidence adduced is insufhcient for an absohxte determination of the question ; but any 

 strongly-marked examples of the left-handed w^orkman's art thus far observed among 

 pala?olithic Hint implements appear to be exceptional. No higher authority than Dr. 

 John Evans can be appealed to in reference to the manipulations of the primitive flint- 

 worker, and, in wniting to me on the subject, he remarks : " I think that there is some 

 evidence of the Jlint-workers of old having been right-handed ; the particular twist, both 

 in some palœolithic implements, as in one in ray own possession from Iloxne, and in 

 some American rifled arrow^ -heads, being due to the manner of chipping, and being most in 

 accordance with their being held in the left hand and chipped with the right." In the 

 detailed description, given in his " Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain," of the 

 example from Hoxne, above referred to, Dr. John Evans remarks : " It presents the pecu- 

 liarity, which is by no means uncommon in ovate implements, of having the side edges 

 not in one plane, but forming a sort of ogee curve. In this instance the blade is twisted 

 to such an extent, that a line drawn through the two edges near the point is at an 

 angle of at least 45" to a line through the edges at the broadest part of the implement. 

 I think," he adds, "that this twisting of the edges was not in this case intended to 

 serve any particular purpose, but was rather the accidental result of the method pursued 

 in chipping the flint into its present form." ' A similar curvature is seen in a long- 

 pointed implement from Reculver, in the collection of Mr. .T. Brent, F.S.A., and again in 

 another large example of this class, from Hoxne iu Suffolk, presented to the Society of 

 Antiquaries of London upwards of eighty years ago. This, as Dr. Evans notes, exhibits 

 the same peculiarity of the twisting of the edges so markedly, and indeed so closely 

 resembles the specimen in his own collection, that they might have been made by the 

 same hand. Of another example, from Santon Downham, near Hetford, Suffolk, almond- 

 shaped, and with dendritic markings in evidence of its palœolithic date. Dr. Evans 

 remarks : " It is fairly symmetrical in contour, with an edge all round, which is some- 

 what blunted at the base. This edge, however, is not iu one plane, but considerably 

 curved, so that when seen sideways it forms an ogee curve ; " and he adds : " I have other 

 implements of the same, and of more pointed forms, with similarly curved edges, both 

 from France, and other parts of England, but whether this curvature was intentional it is 

 impossible to say. In some cases it is so marked that it can hardly be the result of acci- 

 dent ; and the curve is, so far as I have observed, almost without exception S, and not S. 

 If not intentional, the form may be the result of all the 'blows by which the implement 

 was finally chipped out having been given on the one face on one side, and on the oppo- 

 site on the other." " In other words, the implement-maker worked throughout with the 

 flaker in the same hand ; and that hand, with very rare exceptions, appears to have been 

 the right hand. The evidence thus far adduced manifestly points to the predominance of 

 right-handed men among the palaeolithic flint-workers. For if the flint-arrow maker, 

 W'orking apart, and with no motive, therefore, suggested by the necessity of accommodat- 

 ing himself to a neighbouring workman, has habitually used the right hand from remote 

 palaeolithic times, it only remains to determine the origin of a practice too nearly invari- 



' Ancient Stone Implements, p. .520. - Ancient Stone Implements, p. 'M. 



Sec. II., 1885. 17. 



