428 



THOMAS THOMSEN 



the Christiania Museum l and four more finely worked knives, of better 

 shape, brought home by the NATHORST Expedition, all of which have 

 been figured by O. SOLBERG. 2 



It has been mentioned above that some of the slate knives have 

 a thin handle portion which requires an outer reinforcement. A rein- 

 forcement of this class (Mus. No. L. 3444) from Renskseret, house 131, 

 is shown in Fig. 25 b. The outer side of the spec- 

 imen, that seen in the figure, is rounded; at the 

 fore end are notches for lashing the blade, and 

 at the butt end the unilateral knob as found in 

 slate knives cut from the solid. The inner side is 

 flat, the anterior portion has, however, been thin- 

 ned out, indicating that the length of the tang of the 

 knife, intended to be lashed on has been about 3 cm.; 

 owing to the bad preservation of the haft this can- 

 not, however, be stated with full certainty. The 

 length is 15'9 cm., the breadth 1-7 1'9 cm. except 

 at the knob on the butt end, where it is as much 

 as 2*6 cm. broad; the thickness varies from 5 mm. 

 (at the fore end and at the rear end in front of 

 the knob) to 1 cm. (about 5 cm. from the fore end). 

 Fig. 25 a (Mus. No. L. 3575), found in the same 

 settlement as the preceding, house 134, is a frag- 

 ment of a similar reinforcement for handle, or 

 possibly a fragment of a handle itself. While the 

 previous specimen is rounded on the one face and 

 flat on the other, the present one is similarly flat- 

 tened on both faces, and the two hollows at the posterior knob have 

 two corresponding hollows on the reverse side, not, however, con- 

 necting so as to form holes. Present length 8'9 cm.; it is broadest 

 at the fragmentary fore end (2 cm.) and at the knob (1*9 cm.) and nar- 

 rowest in front of the latter (1-6 cm.); the thickness is fairly uniform, 

 about 9 mm. 



SOLBERG 3 rightly draws attention to the fact that the slate knives 

 are derived from prototypes in European culture; as regards the 

 more well-marked forms the resemblance is so obvious that there is 

 hardly room for doubt, especially when, in addition, the handle is 

 furnished with a wooden reinforcement, a feature which is charac- 

 teristic of the European iron knives with long broad tangs, for ex- 



1 No. 10280, figured by O. SOLBERG, PI. 9, 3, length 17-6 cm., found in a grave at 

 about 74 20' N. lat. SOLBERG is of opinion that this locality is Clavering Island. 



2 SOLBERG, PL 9, 37. 3 p. 59. 



