IMPLEMENTS BEAEING SIGNIFICANT MARKS. 



201 



where the left-hand row of thirteen pits (fig. 76) curves across the end of the 

 middle row ; and another group (of four in one line, and two in other) intrudes 

 between the left-hand row and the edge : the pits of the middle row are more 

 closely set than the others ; and this row has certainly been interrupted by the 

 fracture of the implement ; and so probably has the right-hand row also. Again, 

 the pitting may be regarded as having been arranged in irregular transverse rows 

 of threes and twos, with occasional single pits. On the surface, however, of the 

 bone longitudinal interrupted lines appear to have been drawn to indicate the 

 lineal position of some at least of the pits (see fig. 7c, and the Description of 

 B. Plate XXV.). 



How far the position of these serial pits on the Dart -head, in one patch only, 

 may influence our readers in regarding them as inscriptive (the Owner's Mark, 

 or his Hunting-score) we cannot say ; and whether we ought to regard them as 

 the aimless tooling of an idle time, as holes for the lodgment of poison, or as the 

 intentional ornament or unfinished decoration of the weapon, which the maker 

 or owner thought to spot all over, just as some such stems are scored all over*, 

 we do not pretend to decide until further evidence offers itself. , 



4. We may also draw the reader's attention to the systematic pitting on the 

 subpentagonal Game-stone, figured and described in the ' Catalogue of the Anti- 

 quities in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy,' 1857, p. 125, fig. 99. 



Conclusion. Having thus described and commented on the peculiar knife-like 

 ivory plate, from the Gorge d'Enfer, marked with regular pits, marginal notches, 

 and groups of lateral scorings, and having taken into consideration numerous 

 ancient and modern implements, mostly of savage make, which show, one or the 

 other, similar shape, systematic pittings, crenulated edge, and scorings, either 

 simple or compound, and known in some instances to be Tally-marks, in others 

 Owner-marks, and in some to be indicative of Gambling, we may be assured that 

 some at least of the Cave Implements served for like purposes in ancient times. 



Poison-grooves, capricious and useless cutting and dotting, and unfinished 

 carving may probably enough account for some of the specimens referred to, 

 and many analogous examples. The number and great variety, however, of the 

 systematic markings lead to the conclusion that in the majority of cases they 

 were not the result of accident or chance, but of intentional workmanship, the 

 uses of which certainly furnish food for conjecture, and must indicate the habits 

 and propensities of the long-past Cave-folk. 



* See for instance fig. 4, B. Plate III. & IV., and fig. 11, B. Plate XXIII. 



