DESCRIPTIONS OF THE PLATES STONE IMPLEMENTS. 59 



A. STONE IMPLEMENTS. 



A. PLATE XIII. 



The two specimens here figured are examples of the hollowed pebbles of granite 

 found in the Cave at Les Eyzies, and referred to in Lartet and Christy's Memoir 

 on the Caves of Perigord in the ' Revue Archeologique,' April 1864. 



These rounded water-worn blocks, or pebbles, bearing a shallow pit ground 

 out on one of their flatter sides, have been found in considerable numbers at 

 La Madelaine and Les Eyzies. They are mostly of granite ; but a few (three or 

 four) of quartzite have occurred ; and one or two of sandstone. One very small 

 quartzite specimen was met with at the Gorge d'Enfer, and one of larger size at 

 Laugerie Basse. These pebbles vary considerably in size (from less than two to 

 eight inches in breadth), and, the larger specimens especially, besides being 

 flattish, are more or less oval*. Sometimes the excavation is very slight, little 

 more than a mere flattening of the middle portion of one of the broad faces; 

 and sometimes it is deep enough to serve as a kind of Mortar. It appears to 

 have been made by a continued or repeated grinding with other hard substances ; 

 and its surface is not polished, but rough, according to the crystalline and 

 granular texture of the granitic rock. 



The use or uses to which these hollowed stones f could have been applied are 

 rather doubtful. Some are large enough to have been used in the beating or 



* The specimens of different sizes may be easily arranged as a pyramid of rough globes, one on another, 

 the largest at the bottom, and the hollowed face of one receiving the naturally rounded base of the next 

 above. It is improbable, however, that the fancy of the Aborigines would have led them to make such 

 an ornament or plaything ; and the occurrence of one specimen on another is not authenticated. Nor does 

 it seem to have been the intention to give a mere flatness to the stone, so as to make it lie steady when used 

 as an anvil, chopping-block, or such like ; for the ground surface is always hollowed to a greater or less 

 extent ; and there are no marks of blows on the opposite and convex face, still in its natural condition. 



t In the ' Revue Archeologique ' for April 1864, we quoted Dr. Eoulin's suggestion that they may have 

 served the Aborigines in the production of fire by friction, in the way followed by some American Indians 

 (Oviedo, ' Hystoria general de las Indias,' Lib. vi. Cap. 5), namely by twirling the end of a dry stick rapidly 

 in the rough hollow of such a stone. A stone, however, does not appear to have formed a part of the 

 apparatus. For descriptions and illustrations of such methods of fire-making, see Mr. E. B. Tylor's 

 ' Early History of Mankind,' pp. 236-259. Sir John Lubbock also makes several interesting allusions to 

 this subject in his ' Prehistoric Times,' pp. 353, 380, 400, 421, 453, &c. 



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