96 



§n ^omt Mm of J[Iint |mfltniente. 



By S. B. Dixon, Esq., F.G.S. 



IfSVEUYONE who has a collection of stone implements has, 



jl^^ more or less frequently, been met with the question, " What 

 can be the use of such things as these ?^' He has first had the 

 difficulty of assuring his visitors that the flints really bear traces of 

 human fabrication, and then has come the equally difficult task of 

 explaining their use. The only mode of giving a satisfactory reply 

 to this question is by a comparison of these stone implements with 

 some now in use at the present day. Stone implements have been 

 divided into two well-marked periods, the Archseolithic and the 

 Neolithic. 



The former comprises the implements formed by the simple process 

 of flaking and chipping, and which have been found in such abun- 

 dance in the Valley of the Somme (especially at Abbeville and 

 Amiens) ; in this county, near Salisbury ; and in many other parte 

 of England. 



To this period too belong the numerous implements (both of stone 

 and bone) found in the French caves (especially those of Dordogne) 

 and at Gibraltar. The implements of this period are to a great 

 extent of one type, and it is difficult to frame a comparison with them 

 and any in use at the present day. 



The implements found in this neighbourhood — though of many 

 varieties of form and size — are all assigned to the Neolithic period, 

 and it is to the implements of that period that attention will be 

 directed. 



We are accustomed to hear of a Stone Age, a Bronze Age, 

 and an Iron Age, referring to the material of which the implements 

 in use during each period were composed, and in many countries it 

 is possible to trace the occurrence of each of these periods. Each, 

 however, overlapped the preceding one, and implements of two 



