ARCHEOLOGY. 



in bronze than to forge it in iron ; and the early 

 untempered sword of iron was actually an inferior 

 weapon to the sword of bronze. 



The characteristic implements of the Stone 

 Age were the celt or imperforate axe of stone (fig. 

 2), the spear or arrow-points of flint (fig. i), the 

 scraper, and the knife. In the Bronze Age, per- 

 forated axes of stone (fig. 3), and flint arrow- 

 points with some of the finer varieties of flint 

 weapons, continued in use ; but its characteristic 



Fig. 6. Knife-daggers : 

 a, Flint, 8J inches ; b, Bronze, ?J inches long. 



forms were the small, thin knife-dagger, the celt of 

 bronze (fig. 7), a simple wedge of metal (moulded 

 in the first instance obviously on the model of a 

 celt of stone), the palstave or flanged celt, the 



Fig. 7. Celts of Bronze : 

 a, Flat ; b, Flanged ; c, Socketed. 



socketed celt, socketed spearheads, always un- 

 barbed (fig. 18), and leaf-shaped bronze swords 

 (fig. 4). In the early Iron Age, swords, spears, 

 and battle-axes of bronze, and certain varieties of 

 implements of stone, were still used. The transi- 

 tion from bronze to iron is not only marked, as in 

 the great cemetery at Hallstadt, by finding bronze 

 and iron swords in graves, which are shewn by 

 their accompanying remains to be of the same 

 age ; but still more clearly by the occurrence of 

 iron swords which are exact copies of the older 

 form in bronze, and swords with iron blades, but 

 similarly handled in bronze to the ancient blades 

 of that metal. The transition occurs in different 

 countries at different periods. Greece had already 

 entered on its Iron Period in the heroic ages, 

 though the Homeric swords and spears were still 

 of bronze. In Central Germany and France, the 

 transitional swords appear with objects dating from 

 the 5th to the 3d century before the Christian era. 

 In Scandinavia, the Iron Age is reckoned as com- 

 mencing about the beginning of the Christian 

 era; and in Britain, it had commenced when 

 Julius Caesar landed his legions on our shores. 



ANCIENT FLINT WORKING. 



When men made use of stone as the material 

 for their implements and weapons, their forms 

 were of necessity few and simple. Flint was used 

 by preference, on account of the facility with which 

 it could be flaked and chipped to almost any desired 

 form. As flint weapons are found everywhere, while 

 flint itself only occurs naturally in chalk districts, 

 it seems that there must have been in the earliest 

 times a large dispersion either of the raw material 

 or of the manufactured articles from the centres of 

 production. In several localities in chalk districts, 

 as at Brandon in Suffolk, the shafts and galleries 

 of ancient flint mines have been discovered. They 

 have been worked at a depth of 40 feet below the 

 surface, and this at a time when the miners' tools 

 were picks made of deer's horns and wedges of 

 stone. In many districts, also, the sites of ancient 

 ' flint factories,' or places where the surface-flints 

 have been gathered and chipped into implements, 

 are still recognisable by accumulations of chips 

 and flakes, mingled with implements that have 

 been broken or spoiled in the process of manu- 

 facture. 



The ancient flint -workers of Europe must have 

 employed some, and probably used all, of the pro- 

 cesses still practised by modern savages in the 

 fabrication of their stone implements. Catlin and 

 Schoolcraft describe the methods in use among 

 the North American Indians. They both agree 

 in stating that the making of arrows was a work 

 of skill, the employment of particular adepts, 

 chiefly old men, who were past hunting. The 

 arrow-maker, seating himself upon the ground, 

 with a stone on his knee for an anvil, placed 

 against it a flake of obsidian, and with a series of 

 rapid and continuous blows of an agate pebble, 

 held between the thumb and fingers of his right 

 hand, he gradually worked it into shape, occupy- 

 ing about an hour in the process. The Apaches 

 have a different method, which requires two work- 

 men. One places the flake to be worked on the 

 open palm of his left hand, holding it firmly down 

 with two fingers, while with the other hand he 

 places a small punch, made of the tooth of the 

 sperm whale, against the part to be flaked. An 

 assistant strikes the punch a smart rebounding 

 blow with a mallet, driving a small chip off the 

 under side of the flake, which is then turned and 

 chipped from the opposite side, and so on till the 

 desired form is obtained. The Indians of South 

 California do the rougher flaking with a round- 

 faced stone, and then notch the edges with a piece 

 of horn, having a small narrow notch, as a glazier 

 chips glass with a key. The Esquimaux use a 

 tool consisting of a deer-horn point, inserted into 

 a handle of fossil ivory, with which they apply 

 strong pressure to the edges of the flake, which is 

 laid across a small spoon-shaped cavity in a block 

 of wood, thus producing arrow-heads with serrated 

 edges. 



CLASSIFICATION OF STONE IMPLEMENTS. 



Stone implements and weapons, whether of 

 ancient or modern times, may be classified in two 

 great groups, according to the style of their manu- 

 facture, namely : (i) Those that are merely chipped 

 into shape; (2) Those that, after the chipping 

 process, have been either ground to a sharp 



