EARLY MAN 



prevent the roof from standing firm. It was a most impressive sight 

 and one never to be forgotten, to look after a lapse it may be of 3,000 

 years upon a piece of work unfinished, with the tools of the workmen 

 still lying where they had been placed so many centuries ago. Between 

 the picks was the skull of a bird but none of the other bones. These 

 two picks, as was the case with many of those found elsewhere, had 

 upon them an incrustation of chalk, the surface of which bore the 

 impression of the workman's fingers, the print of the skin being most 

 apparent. This had been caused by the chalk with which the work- 

 men's hands became coated being transferred to the handle of the pick.' ^ 

 This pick is now in the British Museum.^ 



In order to carry on mining of this kind it was necessary of course 

 that Neolithic man should be provided with some kind of artificial light, 

 and among the remains found in the pit were several rudely formed cup- 

 shaped vessels of chalk which had apparently been used as lamps. In 

 the pit one of these primitive lamps was found, and three others were 

 found in the galleries. In one case the lamp was placed upon a ledge of 

 chalk in just such a position as to throw light upon the place being 

 worked. These lamps had all been shaped by means of flint flakes. 



In the course of the investigations under Canon Greenwell's direc- 

 tion no less than seventy-nine picks formed of antlers were found. Upon 

 examination the antlers so employed were found to consist mainly of 

 those antlers which had been shed naturally by the animals rather than 

 those belonging to animals that had been slain. There were in fact 

 only eleven antlers of the latter kind. This leads to the conclusion that 

 deer were abundant during the Neolithic age, and that the capture of the 

 animal with the rude weapons then at man's disposal was a task of 

 some difficulty. 



In addition to the picks formed of antlers, two implements of bone 

 were discovered in the shaft. The first was a bone pin 4! inches long, 

 which had been split and then rubbed to a point. The second was a 

 rounded piece of bone i inch in circumference and 4I inches in length. 

 This had been rubbed smooth with care, and its two ends showed signs 

 of having been used for some purpose. Both Canon Greenwell and Sir 

 John Evans agree in the opinion that it was used as an implement for 

 shaping arrowheads and other small objects by delicate flaking. 



Besides the basalt hatchet already mentioned two rude adze-shaped 

 tools of flint were discovered. These were also probably used for ex- 

 cavating purposes. Tools of this kind, as well as the basalt hatchet, 

 were doubtless fixed in some kind of handle formed of wood, bone or 

 antler, and so used as implements for cutting the chalk with the purpose 

 of procuring flint. 



The large numbers of water-rolled quartzite and other pebbles and 

 flakes and waste fragments of flint point to the fact that implement- 

 making was carried on close by the pits whence the raw material was 



1 J ounial of Ethnological Society of London (new series), ii. p. 427. 



^ The Reliquary and Illustrated Jrchaokgist (1896), ii. p. 168. 



261 



