454 Thomas Thomsen 



The rarity of this article is doubtless partly due to the difficulty 

 of cutting out the teeth with stone implements; an entirely parallel 

 instance is afforded by the earlier stone age in Denmark, from which, 

 up to the present, only eight specimens, and these from but three 

 different localities, have been found. In Danish antique combs we 

 find, as in many of those from Greenland, marked furrows running 

 up from the intervals between the teeth, either perpendicularly or 

 obliquely, as also, on the one side, transverse turrows at the upper 

 end of the teeth. When the surface of the comb has been polished, 

 they appear as marks of wear, and have given rise to conjectures 

 regarding the use of the article for combing bast fibres or other ma- 

 terial for thread-making.^ In the case of the present specimen, the 

 surface of which is only slightly polished, we notice, on the side 

 turned upwards in the figure, marked perpendicular furrows running 

 up from three of the spaces, and two others running downward on 

 either side of the middle hole. There is also a network of fine 

 scratches running crosswise. On the opposite face, the marked long- 

 itudinal furrows are not apparent, but there are numerous fine scrat- 

 ches running lengthwise, and especially across, over the entire sur- 

 face, from the back to the extreme point of the teeth. 



These grooves and scratches may doubtless all be explained 

 as due to the process of making. The marked perpendicular furrows 

 are presumably caused by the slipping of the knife on leaving the 

 groove between the teeth ; the fine scratches by the treatment of the 

 surface. The thinning down of the material would have been done 

 mainly from one side, the reverse of that shown, which explains the 

 disappearance here of the longitudinal furrows proceeding from the 

 intervals between the teeth ; the scratches still remaining on this side 

 represent the bottom of the deep cross-cuts made in the original 

 surface to facilitate the work of scraping away. I am inclined to 

 think that this explanation may in all essentials also be applied to 

 the Danish stone age combs. 



Besides the above mentioned marks, the comb from Renskæret 

 shows at the back four short cuts on either surface, each of those 

 on one face closely corresponding to one of the four on the other. 

 These cuts were possibly made as guides to ensure accuracy in the 

 boring of the holes, which was done from both sides. 



The comb is one of those articles in which the individual taste 

 makes itself most markedly apparent; the comb from Dunholm is 



1 Japetus Steenstrup: Stenalderens Tvedeling, p. 366 note. Sophus Müller: Ord- 

 ning af Danmarks Oldsager, Stenalderen No. 44; C. Neergaard in , Affaldsdynger 

 fra Stenalderen i Danmark'', p. 66 f. 



