STONE IMPLEMENTS, ETC., IN THE DORSET MUSEUM. 21 



slightly curved edge, like that of a steel gouge. Picks and chisels, 

 too, differ little in general form from celts, but are of longer shape. 

 Of these there are some Museum specimens from Dorset, which 

 agree pretty closely with Evans' figures. 



iii. Evans next treats of perforated axes, and then of 

 hammers. I may take them together, as our number of Dorset 

 specimens in the Museum is hardly enough to make up two 

 classes. We have, however, a few very good ones. For 

 instance, there is a perforated axe from Winterborne Steeple- 

 ton, and belonging to the Warne Collection, which has been 

 figured not only by the late Mr. Warne, but in the books of 

 other antiquaries, including Evans. It is one of the many stone 

 axes which seem certainly to have been meant solely for use in 

 war. This little basalt one of ours would break a man's skull most 

 effectually, but it has not the least approach to a wood-cutting edge. 

 The same may be said of the very fine axe or maul (PI. II., fig. 2) 

 found at Alderholt, near Cranborne, and given by Dr. Smart. 

 But on the other hand this axe is of such weight, 4Jlb., that it 

 must have been a strong warrior who could find it handy in use. 

 It shows, however, little or no sign of having been used for any 

 such purpose as hammering stone or metal, or as a mattock. I 

 next draw your attention to a very remarkable hammer-head in 

 the Cunnington Collection, and found in a barrow on Kidgway. 

 It seems originally to have been of disc form, but to have been 

 battered by long use to a roughly octagonal shape. This battering 

 looks to my eye to have been caused by hammering, not flints, but 

 the bone punch which is conjectured to have been the tool used in 

 some of the very fine flaking of the edges of arrow-heads and 

 scrapers. Then, also in the Cunnington Collection, there is a 

 specimen of the rare class of hammers in which the ingenious Celts 

 took advantage of natural holes in flints or other stones. In the 

 hammer in question the hole seems to me to have naturally 

 penetrated about half way through the pebble. This encouraged 

 some clever man to try to bore it deeper, which he did, but not 

 quite through. It may, just possibly, have, been hafted as it 



