THE USE OF FLINT BLADES TO WORK PINE WOOD. 
(EPOCH OF THE ANCIENT SHELL HEAPS.) 
By"'G. V2 SMITH. 
In the discussions which have been going on for more than thirty 
years concerning the division of the Stone age in Denmark into two 
periods, that of the shell heaps, and that of the megalithic monuments, 
one of the principal objections made to the theory of Worsaae has 
always been that the blades simply chipped could not be employed 
as axes, and ought, upon the whole, to be taken out of the list of cut- 
ting instruments.t 
These implements have however when they are in good condition, 
a sharp border, analogous to an edge, which has always been produced 
by the same process, that is to say, by striking off a single chip from 
ach side of a flint dise so as to form an edge by the line of intersee- 
tion of the two faces, whose angle of inclination is not ordinarily 
larger than the corresponding angle of the cutting part of the polished 
axes. But objection has been made that this sharp border is not suit- 
abie for an edge, consequently the implement could not be employed 
as al ax. 
If we examine with care the great series of chipped blades which 
are found in such abundance in the National Museum of Copenhagen, 
as well as in other Danish collections, we find out however that in all 
the examples in good condition, the cutting part is precisely like an 
edge, whether we regard the form or the idea of a cutting tool, also 
from this point of view it does not seem rational that this kind of edge 
would have been merely accessory in the chipped blades and that 
they did not have any importance in the eyes of those who made 
use of these implements. It is then difficult to understand why 
there is any hesitation in considering them to have been cutting im- 
plements, especially when it is possible to show the successive devel- 
opment of the forms, from the largest blades to the most complete 
*From Aarboger fer nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie, 1891, 2 ser., v1, fase. 4, 
pp. 383-396, and rendered into French by E. Beauvois, in Mem, d. l. Soc. Roy. d. 
Antig. du Nord. Copenhagen, n. s. 1891, pp. 99-110. 
t Mem. d. l. Soe. d. Antiq. du Nord, 1884-89, 371. 
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